A little light bedtime reading

My kids have a really hard time calming down and going to bed. The bedtime ritual has to happen or else they just can't go to sleep. And the ritual is that their papa reads to them each night. At first I read a book to Sophie and the boys got their papa but Sophie always felt like she was missing out on something so would want to hear what book or story they were getting. Then when Molly came and I was off taking care of the baby my reading to Sophie stopped and she just joined the boys for a book and story from their papa.

And he spoils them. They get a good 30-45 min each night with him reading a book and then telling them stories. He makes them up on the spot and they often tell him what characters they want and he has to weave them all together. Often Harry Potter characters meet up with Tin Tin or Indiana Jones and have some adventure. Lately they have all been battling hydras or cyclopes or perhaps even a minotaur.

I usually pick out the book for the read aloud. My husband trusts my picks and lately I have picked some really great ones.

I gave him The Chocolate Touch which is a sort of King Midas story but set in the 50's and the boy turns everything chocolate. The kids loved telling me all about what turned chocolate each morning.

Then when that was finished I gave him Archimedes and the Door of Science . This time he would come and tell me about the book. He said this was not really a story book but sort of a biography but more about the gadgets and things Archimedes created. The kids loved it and so did he so it was a winner.

The current read aloud wasn't expressly chosen to be a read aloud. I actually checked it out of the library for me and my husband to read just because it is a topic he is interested in and it was recommended somewhere in the many blogs I read. It is an adult book and not from the children's section. The book is called How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes.  He was reading aloud a section of the book to me while the kids were playing Legos one night and they enjoyed the storyline. It is told as a story. People live on an island and start trading fish which becomes their monetary system and the story continues as their economy grows and then begins to fall apart.

They are only half way through the book and my kids love it. I catch them reading it (all of them, Henry too, he likes the illustrations on many of the pages) during the day.  Tonight at dinner they kept telling me all about how the government on this island started to create fake fish and the fish kept getting smaller and smaller until you had to have lots and lots of fish to satisfy yourself when you used to only need one.  It is amazing how much economics they are picking up from this story.

The only thing with this whole read aloud set up is that I don't get to listen to the books. They are often books I haven't read either and when the kids tell me about them it makes me want to read them too.  I guess I just need to start sneaking a peek into these books so I know what they are talking about when they excitedly tell me the latest of what is happening in their night read aloud.

Deconstructing Penguins

There are so many times I go to the library to pick up my holds and I discover a book that I don't remember putting on my list. I often read blogs with my library's catalog on another tab and I will look up books that are discussed or recommended. I don't remember who talked about this book but THANK YOU! It is wonderful. I may have to buy myself a copy just so I can refresh my memory from time to time.

Deconstructing Penguins is going to come in handy when I lead my first children's book club at co-op in a few weeks. It has given me the tools and ideas to really lead a discussion about a book. Sure it is going to take some work before hand on my part but I have a clearer picture of what we should be looking at and discussing. I will also pick the books we read a little differently. Not that the ones I already picked for the next few months are bad choices. I just will have to think them through a bit more, rather than just picking books I haven't read and that I think we should read or that are on lists of good books.

This is a great, quick read that is helpful in really figuring out books and what they are trying to tell us and leading children or adults on that journey.

Redwall and Dragons

Redwall  by Brian Jacques is the latest book my kids have embraced. They beg me to let them listen to it each afternoon. And it goes into the car whenever we go out and comes back in the house just in case there is time to put it on again. It is 9 CD's long so it is taking quite some time to get through.

The story is very Midieval British and the actors who read the parts have pretty thick accents which adds to to the fun. Mathias the mouse has become a favorite around these parts. I have a feeling some of the rest of the series will be coming home with us next time we head over to the library.

I picked Redwall just last week at the library. I almost always bring home an audio book or two. We always have to have some book going in the car. My kids prefer it to music and since today was rainy they opted for a audio book while playing with legos. We are now on the 7th of nine disks. I guess they decided this one sounded more interesting than Harriet the Spy which is the other audio book I brought home.

I picked up the first book in the How to train your Dragon Series two weeks ago. I often have to pick out books for the kids. They tend to pick out the same books they have already read or stick with the authors they already know. I am the one that is always looking at lists and reading blogs that give good recommendations of books so I make sure we come home with some new ones all the time. I knew the kids loved the movie so I thought they should read the book. I usually try to have them read the books first before watching the movie but I honestly didn't know these were books and was just told the movie was good by a friend. Maybe they didn't know it was a book first either. But my kids loved the book and then the next week they quickly went and looked for the other books in the series. They now have books 1-5 at home and they are reading them.  Sophie reads through them rather quickly. Ian finds them easier than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which is the other book he is trying really hard to read for himself). Henry just loves to look at all the illustrations and read the captions or chapter headings. I haven't actually read through any of them but my kids seem to really be enjoying them. I am just thrilled they are reading something.

The End of Overeating

I am overweight. I struggle with excess girth. I pretty much always have. I am not morbidly obese or what even a doctor would term obese but I carry about 25 extra pounds with me everywhere I go. That is more than Molly weighs.  I look at her and think I am lugging around that much extra? and MORE?

So I need to loose her plus a little, for me to be at an ideal weight for my height. That doesn't sound that bad, but it bothers me. I don't like seeing pictures of me because I look so round. I look in the mirror and can't even suck it in anymore. (I know I have had 4 kids but that isn't a good excuse) I am not totally weight obsessed. I just want to look better in my clothes and not worry about how thick I look.

I exercise vigorously at least 4 times a week, weight train a bit, do yoga occasionally and take lots of walks and hikes with my kids. I don't live a sedentary lifestyle. Over the years I have made modifications to our diets to where now I feel like we are doing really well. We eat lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, protein from legumes rather than just meat. When we do eat meat it is lean and not usually the main focus of the meal. We also almost never eat out. I read labels and am very careful about the foods I buy. My kids even read labels and keep me to the list of items we avoid altogether. I am sure I will continue find ways to improve our diet but right now I feel like we are eating very healthfully.

So where is my problem? Why can't I get down to my ideal weight. Why are those 25 pounds so hard to loose? I really hate being plump.

Over the past year I have read a number of really good books about healthy food and healthy lifestyle.

Real Food: What to eat and Why
In Defense of Food
Eat to Live

I am sure I have read more than that but I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

But I just finished reading the best one yet. The End of Overeating.

 I think this book explained my issue. Or maybe it just did it in a way I understood. I just plain eat too much. I eat out of habit rather than actual hunger. I eat because food is available. I also fall into traps when there are yummy treats around. We don't make cookies often but when we do I eat them off and on until they are gone. I used to just get mad at myself because I don't have any will power. Now I understand that I just don't have any rules or habits that stop me from eating.

"The shift form wanting to behave differently to actually doing so requires setting rules and practicing them until they become programmed behavior".

The first part of the book talked a lot about why people get addicted to food and keep eating despite not being hungry anymore. I can't say this section did a lot for me. It was interesting but it said much of what I already knew. The food industry creates food designed to make us want more. Once we get started we can't stop. It isn't their fault completely, people just easily fall under the marketing powers of these loaded foods.  I think I am doing alright with my choices of food. We do have goodies once in awhile but the majority of our food choices are good. My issue is just that I consume too much of them.

I need to set very specific rules around my eating so I can create habits that going to help me eat less.  Rules about when I am allowed to eat and how much. So I need to be very aware of portion sizes and need to stop grazing throughout the day. I quickly loose track of how much I have eaten when I just nibble all day long.

"Rules give us an alternative to a conditioned response"

So a few rules I have come up with for now... I am sure to come up with more.
1. No eating after 8:00 p.m.
2. 7:30, 11:30, 2:30 and 6:00 are meal/ snack times.
3. Don't graze between meals.
4. Don't finish the kids unfinished meals.  I would rather it be waste then be on my waist.
5. Bake cookies/or other treats only twice a month (My kids would go crazy if we didn't have sweets once in awhile.
6. Never eat out of the bag or box. Take out a serving and put the rest away.
7.
8.
I was sure I had more until I started to write them down. So I will have to add to my list as I think of them.

"A rule makes explicit the negative consequences of giving into your impulses and the possitive consequences of not giving in"

There is a whole lot more that the book describes or outlines for "eating habits reversal". I think I need to reread that section again. A lot of the reversal requires mental changes. It is much like a drug addict trying to quit drugs.

"Learn to view the pursuit of sugar, fat, and salt in a negative light, and to imbue with equal emotional significance behavior that encourages us to turn away from it"

 I can see how this works. Once I choose to get rid of all High Fructose Corn Syrup in our diet and made it a rule that we wouldn't eat or buy anything with that stuff in it. I haven't had any desire for items with it. Once I find out that HFCS is in an item it looses all appeal. 

So my goal is to set and live by some new eating rules. It would be good to keep us all to these rules. It would be easier to keep to the no grazing rule if the kids didn't raid the fridge anytime they feel like it. I already enforce the rule of no snacking after 4:30 so they will be hungry for dinner. I will just have to set up a few new rules about other snacking times. They aren't eating bad things it is just that they are eating and therefore I end up eating.

I think this book is worth a read if you are like me and just need a little more insight in my food issues.

A Few Good Things

The last few weeks have been especially difficult academically. We do school but rather haphazardly. My kids do some work and then quickly run off to do something else as soon as they can get away. I read aloud to them and after one chapter they ask if it can be done because they would rather play Legos or outside.

We have had a number of tantrums throughout the day when I ask them to do anything. I am feeling more and more like a schoolmarm and less like my kids are learning because they want to learn. So I have pulled back my expectations a bit and we read a bit and play a lot. We have even taken a little time to just go for walks and play at the park.

There are a few things that seemed to have gone well this week and hopefully will become habits.

One of the things we have been reading this week is The Children's book of Virtues.  After our scripture reading each morning I had been reading an article or two out of the Friend magazine. When we finished it I needed something else to fill in that space that would lead to some character training and discussion so I pulled the Children's book of Virtues off the shelf. The kids seem to have enjoyed the stories we have read from the book thus far. They really loved the story about the little please that lived in the boys mouth. Henry often asks me to see if I can find the please in his mouth now. The book isn't that long so I think I may jump to the actual Book of Virtues when we have finished. Of course when the April issue of the Friend comes we will read that again as well.


 Sophie is often asking me to let her make some thing. When I ask her what she has in mind it is always dessert type things. In my quest to eat more healthfully we haven't been baking cookies or cakes or any deserts really but Sophie still wants to cook something.  So we tried a new recipe for a treat that is a little more healthy but still fun to make and eat. We made Granola bars. I got the recipe off of a blog I had read (I wish I could remember where I got it and give her credit. I often just copy and print recipes without labeling them with where I got them).

Here is the Recipe as I copied it. 

Chewy Granola Bars

For Granola:

2 cups oats

3/4 cup puffed rice cereal

3/4 cup sunflower seeds, salted and roasted

1 cup crushed peanuts, salted and roasted

1/2 cup raisins

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

4 Tbsp. butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

For Chocolate Sauce:

1/4 semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. shortening

Spread oats on a baking sheet and toast in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  Be sure to stir them every few minutes to avoid burning.  Once oats are done toasting, set aside and turn off the oven.  Line a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish with wax paper and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.  

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, mix the brown sugar, honey, butter and vanilla.  Stir frequently, until butter is melted and brown sugar is dissolved. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the melted butter and sugar mixture and mix all ingredients very well.  

Spread the granola out into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Add a sheet of wax paper to the top and press down firmly to make sure your bars are well compacted.  Let cool completely (about 2 hours).

Add chocolate chips and shortening to a double boiler and stir constantly until melted. Drissle chocolate over granola.  Allow to firm up (about 20 minutes).

Carefully transfer granola onto a large cutting board and cut using a very sharp knife and pressing down firmly to make a clean cut. Store in an air-tight container.

I don't make them exactly as they are described here. I don't usually use rice cereal since I couldn't find any that didn't have HFCS in it. So instead I broke up Multigrain Cheerios instead and they seemed to work just fine. I am sure any kind of cereal would work. I also didn't like the taste of the sunflower seeds (I don't think the ones I used in the first batch were salted and roasted. That could make all the difference!) So I just put some mixed nuts in the food processor and ground them up and put them in instead.  I have also put in dried apricots or craisins in place of the raisins. My husband took some of these bars to work and got many complements on their taste. My kids eat them and they seem healthier than cookies so I am thinking they will become a staple around these parts.

With the lovely Spring like weather I am not surprised that doing school is getting harder. But there have been a few things accomplished and that IS A GOOD THING!

Dependent on Audio Books.

We have always listened to audio books. It is great way to listen to more stories without me having to do all the reading. My kids play or color while we listen and I am always surprised how much they remember. I have been using audio books more and more lately. I think being pregnant and then having a newborn makes it difficult to spend time reading aloud. Just when the kids want the next chapter, I would have to take care of a diaper or Molly would want to be held. Besides I read so many other books for science and history that I just don't feel like reading even more. I do at times but mostly I keep us well stocked with great audio books. Luckily our library system has tons of them to choose from.

A few weeks ago I introduced my kids to Anne of Green Gables. They loved this story and listened to each disc twice before moving onto the next. They laughed at Anne dying her hair, smashing her slate on Gilbert's head, and setting Diana drunk. I showed them the movie version after we finished listening and Sophie was so sad that they left out when Anne put liniment in the cake. I could tell they aren't ready for the sequels yet. They got a little bored as Anne got older and got into less scrapes. I am sure we will listen to this one again in a few years. I is one of my favorite series of books ever and I reread them every once in awhile and I hope Sophie grows to love them too.


One afternoon I realized we hadn't done any history for a few days so I put on The Courage of Sarah Noble. It doesn't quite take place at the time period we are studying but the kids didn't seem to mind. They enjoyed this simple little story. We talked about courage and about how helpful Sarah was to her father even at only 8 years old. The didn't want me to return it to the library yet so I have the feeling we will be listening to it again soon.

Another favorite the last few weeks has been the funny Mr. Popper's Penguins. We have already listened to this one twice and the kids run around acting like the excited penguins.
We listen to audio books in the car too. Last week we listened toAround the World in 80 Days. I didn't know if the kids would really enjoy this one. It is a bit old for them but they kept talking about Phileas Fogg and the different places he went. This week when we studied about India and did our map work, they wanted to add in the route Fogg took through India. I do admit we skipped the chapter when Fogg travels through Utah. I knew that it isn't very complementary to Mormons so we just jumped forward a bit and the kids didn't even notice.

I have a few more on the shelf waiting to be read. We have the Mysterious Benidict Society, Caddie Woodlawn and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. We will see which the kids pick next. I usually just pick a few and keep them on the shelf and they put them on themselves. They can't stand to have too much quiet so always need something going while they build with legos or draw. I don't mind hearing all these stories either. Many I have heard before but love the revisit but most of them I haven't read before so feel like I am finally getting in all the those I missed. So I may not get a lot of reading time on my own but we certainly make it through a lot of audio books.

Catching Fire!

At about 5:00 last night I sat down at the computer to check my email and such. I also went to our library website to request something. When checking my account it said I had one of my holds in. I checked to see which book had come in and I suddenly got excited. I had been number 68 when I first put this book on hold and knew I would have to wait for a long time before getting to read this book. It just came out a few weeks ago so I was surprised it came in so quickly. I guess the good people in line before me either went out and bought the book or read it quickly and then returned it so those of us further down the list could get it quickly.
Even though I had dinner in the oven I knew I needed to run over to the library and get this book. The library closes at 6:00 on Saturday night and wouldn't be open again until Tuesday. So I told my husband I was going (He would need to watch what I had in the oven and also answer Molly's cry when it came) and jumped into the car. Within 15 min I had return home again with my book.

I haven't gotten a chance yet to start it. But I am sure I will be finished before I head back to the Library for our usual visit on Thursday so the next people on the list can have it all the quicker.

***Update*** I finished it Monday morning. It took less the 12 hours even with all the distractions I get. I couldn't put it down. So when does book 3 come out. I really want to know what happens next!

My new habit.

I have gotten into a new habit recently. It is one I think I inherited from my parents. Or at least I know they do this too. I get up in the wee small hours of the morning and read. My parents tell me they do this because when you get old you just get insomnia. I have often, when at their house, woken up at 4:00 a.m., with a baby or sick child, to find my parents both out in the front room reading. My excuse the last few weeks is that I wake up for the 3rd or 4th time to use the facilities and then lay in bed for an hour or so tossing and turning because I can't seem to find a comfortable position any more. Either that or woke up from some strange dream and can't stop thinking about it. So what do I do instead? I go out in the living room, turn the reading light on, plop myself in the lazy-boy, prop my feet up, cuddle into a blanket with a light read. I then read for the 45 min to hour I used to toss and turn and then I head back to bed, fall back into dreamland quickly, and for another few hours get some good hard sleep. It has actually been wonderful. I feel more rested in the mornings. And I have been able to reread a few old favorites. 3 books in one week is doing pretty good for me.

As I said, the books I have been reading have been "light reads". Which usually means I have read the book before and know the story well. But I have also thrown in a few that are new to me as well. After watching Northanger Abby on PBS last week I decided to give that Jane Austen book a reread since it has been some years since I read it last. Then when I finished that one I pulled out Sense and Sensibility since I hadn't read that one since watching the new BBC production of it and just wanted to compare the book to the film. I was then going to pick up Pride and Prejudice or some other Jane Austen when I had finished but I saw my Elizabeth Gaskell books sitting next to my Jane Austen books and decided to reread Wives and Daughters instead. I got through a number of chapters of this book but then went to the library and picked up a book that came in that I had put on hold a few weeks ago, Shannon Hale's new book The Actor and the Housewife.
I just picked it up on Thursday's library trip and here it is Saturday morning and I just finished it. (A fun read! But it also had me crying in some places). So I will be returning to Wives and Daughters today and even through the book is thick, I think I will make it through it rather quickly too.

I don't know if I really want to say I enjoy this new habit. It would be better to just not wake up several times in the night. I guess if I am going to wake up, I might as well use that time visit some of my favorite characters.

Getting Ready for the 4th the Lazy Way.

I wanted to spend a week studying, with the kids, a little about the 4th of July and what the day is all about. Last year we spent the whole month of June studying the Revolutionary war, or at least what started it. This year I decided we should take a week to review a little of what we learned last year and revisit some of the lives of our founding fathers. I admit I took the lazy route and got a bunch of audio books for the kids to listen to.
Jean Fritz books are excellent and my kids enjoyed them. Full of information but often with a little humor to keep the kids interested. Our library has many of them accompanied with an audio CD which was so nice because when I sit down to read to the the kids, before too long I am dozing off mid sentence. So each day we listened to one of these great biography type books and learned a little more about the revolution and some of the men that helped make it happen. I have a few more, John Hancock, George Washington and Patrick Henry, that I had placed on hold but they hadn't come in yet, (maybe someone else is being lazy too and has these ones out right now!) so we are probably going to continue listening to books about the revolution into next week as well when these books come to sit on the hold shelf.


I also found another book (with a CD of course) which was also very interesting, The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence. I think we will relisten to this one again today (the 4th).

But we also learned more about George Washington this week. I actually had to read the biographies I found of Washington. I didn't get to be as lazy and let the CD's do all the reading. But we read a few different biographies of our first president and now Ian at least recognizes his picture when we see it and knows who Washington was. He was very excited that Washington was on the 1 dollar bill and also on the quarter and got very excited when we saw a poster of a painting of George Washington on the walls of the Library when we went this week. So a little is sinking in to my 5 year old.

I wish I could say we did some fun crafts or projects to go along with our reading but like I said this was all done the lazy way. I just can't seem to get motivated to do much more than this lately. Taking naps and lounging around sound so much better to me at the moment.

I hope you all have a great, relaxing, safe, and enjoyable 4th of July.

Raising Cain

A few people saw that I was reading Raising Cain and asked for my review. I am sorry it has taken sooooo long but the book wasn't really a fun one to read and I got distracted easily. I also read about 4 other quick reads while trying to make my way through this one.
I don't have a whole lot to say about the book. It was disturbing on one hand and confirming on the other. I didn't like reading about the awful things boys do to each other. Or that teachers or we as parents do to injure our boys, without even realizing it. But at the same time what I read confirmed to me the importance of teaching all my children, not just the boys, that they are Children of God and what that means. To give them a strong sense of who they are and what they are capable of so that they don't worry about what others may say to them.

It also strengthened a few of my reasons to keep my children at home and not send them to public school. I love that I am able to taylor their education according to what they are interested in and capable of, rather then try to keep up with others standards or hold them back so that others can catch up.

There is a chapter in the book that was devoted to boys and their relationships with their mothers. This to me was the most important chapter. It talked about how mothers sort of hold back in showing affection with their boys as they get older. It was good to be reminded to make sure to give my kids the hugs and attention that they need. They need to feel loved especially during those years of change from boyhood to young man.

The book is worth reading but at the same time I can't say I learned anything I didn't already know. It was more a book of reminders and things to pay attention to. I think it was a PBS special at some point. Maybe that would be worth seeing.

I would never have picked this book up if it hadn't been chosen for this months book club discussion. So thanks Alison for picking it. I look forward to the discussion tomorrow.

I am not doing too bad!

This was a fun book meme. I thought I would participate and take the time to look at what was on the list and to see what I have read.

“The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on the list. I’ve read 44. Better than I thought.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love and will read again.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog. (This list in no way represents the top 100 books. It’s missing a whole lot of great books and some that are here, I would question.)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (I started this one but the language and immorality was just too much for me. I quit about half way through. Interesting Story but....)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens(Seen the movie though)
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (Seen the movie though)
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (Seen the movie though)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Seen the movie though)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (Seen the movie though)
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (Seen the movie though)
80 Possession - AS Byatt(Seen the movie though)
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I only struck through one. I had to read Heart of Darkness my senior year of high school and just really hated it, but to each their own. 

If you haven't yet... you should.

This morning I finished the final chapter of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It really is a book everyone should read. I learned so much about Pakistan and what is going on in that part of the world. But more importantly it gives a very different picture of Muslims and the war on terror then what we hear from the news. No I still don't understand their religion and some of their teachings. Even Greg questions some of the things that they do. I still think the Religion has a lot to do with why they have the problems that they do but I can see things a little differently after reading this book.

In the last apartment we lived in our neighbors were a Pakistani, muslim family. They had three kids who my kids would often play with. The five of them were living in a small two bedroom apartment and had very little by way of furnishings. In true muslim style the walls were bare of pictures. The youngest (Kindergarden age) slept on a thin mattress on the floor of the kids room with a sister who was 10 and brother who was 12 sharing a bunk bed. But when talking with the parents we knew that the life they lived here was leaps and bounds better then life in Pakistan. I remember one summer the kids were all excited because the family was going to spend a few months in their homeland. They still had some family there, although a lot of the uncles, aunts, and cousins were in the US and would often visit our neighbors. I think we even meet Grandma once. The youngest boy in this family hadn't ever been to Pakistan. He was born here. After a month of them being gone, the father returned because he needed to work but he told us his kids were already asking to come back to the US. They loved being with family but it is a very different life style there. I remember them not been too excited to tell us much about Pakistan when they returned. One of the things I remember this father telling us was that the kids were getting a good education here. Something they wouldn't be able to get back at home.

The book has really got me thinking and does remind me that one man really can make a big difference. I think this man's approach to promoting peace is a excellent one. By educating a people especially the girls you will change things for the better.

Please do get your hands on this book and read through it. It is inspiring.

Cranford

I finally finished Cranford!
I started it ages ago but one thing after another prevented me from getting time to read it. Mostly... every time I sat down the last two weeks I started to itch and scratch. (Poison Oak and it's effects lasts sooooo long) I have kept myself busy the last little bit cooking, cleaning and anything that kept my hands busy. I have also spent a good amount of time practicing the piano. Anything to keep my hands and brain busy. But reading books has been difficult. Even reading to the kids has been a bit hard but with three of them piled on my lap and around me I am usually able to get through a few.

Anyway.... Cranford.

I was introduced to Elizabeth Gaskell through the BBC mini series, Wives and Daughters. (If you haven't seen it then you really NEED to.) I quickly went to the library to read the novel. It was even better then the movie and filled in so much more of the back story. Then came North and South, another BBC series. I love it as well and then had to read that novel. I heard that Gaskell's novel Cranford was being filmed so this time I thought I would actually read the book first. Sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes it isn't. We will see tomorrow when I get to see the first part of the film. It shows on Masterpiece Classics Sunday night.

As for the book. It is a interesting look at a close nit society of women. Spinsters and widows don't sound like a really interesting subject but it is always fun to see how woman never really change. Through this series of short little stories, Gaskell tells us about the life these ladies lived in a country village. Each character is somewhat a sterotypical woman character. You have one who gets all the gossip. Another that everyone just loves because she is so sweet and nice. And of course you have to have the high and mighty one that everyone else refers to and wants to get approval from.

Gaskell protrayed these ladies with all their foibles, and with a reality that I could recognize because they are the same thing I can see today. Through out the book she refers to the ladies "little economies" or what they choose to do to save money on certain items. But they still want to appear like they don't have to economize. Or she refers to how ill at ease they felt when caught in their everyday clothes rather then the nicer things they put on when visitors are expected. This made me think about the countless times I have quickly shoved a bunch of toys and what not into my bedroom when someone is expected because I don't want them to think we live such a cluttered home. We all want to appear at our best and let everyone think that is how we live all the time.

I am excited to revisit these characters through the film. I have read a few reviews that have said that the writers added a few characters and stories from other Gaskell works. I hope this doesn't bother me too much. And no doubt I will have to find these other stories and read them.

The Virginian

I finished The Virginian a few days ago and can't seem to pick up another book yet. I keep thinking about this one. This was actually my 2nd time through this book. I read it last summer and loved it. When it was my turn to pick a book for my Book Club to read this one came to mind.
As I read it this time I took notes, especially knowing I get to lead the discussion at book club. Most of my notes ended up being quotes from the book. There is a lot of wit and wisdom scattered through this book. Here are few from my notes:

"The letter means nothing until the spirit gives it life."

"Do you think there ought to be fifteen varieties of good people?.... there ain't fifteen, there ain't two, there's one kind. and when I meet it, I respect it... one or two people... they thought more o' me then I deserved and that made me behave better than I naturally wanted to."

"A man, any full-sized man, ought to own a big lot of temper. And like all his valuable possessions, he's ought to keep it and not loose any"

"The whole secret lies in the way you treat people. As soon as you treat men as your brothers they are ready to acknowledge you - if you deserve it - as their superior."

"When a man ain't got no ideas of his own... he'd ought to be kind o' careful who he borrows 'em from"

Taken out of context they may not have the impact they do when found in the book accompanied by the stories and incidents that they are selected from. If you have never read a western I encourage you to give this one a try. There is a reason is a classic. Great characters, teaches great morals about right and wrong, even a little romance thrown in too.

Who needs another subject.

Sophie loves the ancient Greeks. She just can't seem to get enough of the stories and adventures told about the Greek Gods and Goddesses. Last week we went through chapters of Story of the World, and I thought that was a lot. Sophie just didn't want to stop listening. We have listened to those chapters again plus 3 more this week already. I am going to have to slow this girl down. We have borrowed a number of Greek Mythology books from the library and I have read all about the trojan war and adventures of Odysseus. Plus many more. Sophie sits/stands at the table and colors in her Greek Gods and Goddesses coloring book and listens to story after story. She doesn't want to do anything else. I have gotten her to do a little bit of other things. She rushes through them so she can get to History. It is a little strange. She even did some math quickly in order to get to the Mythology stories.
If I pause in my reading to stop the boys from killing each other, or make lunch, or heaven forbid use the bathroom, Sophie gets upset and asks me to keep reading. When it was time to go to the park yesterday for our weekly park day group, Sophie didn't want to go she wanted to stay home and "do History". We went to the park anyway because we all needed an outing, especially the boys.
I am amazed at how much she loves these stories. She tried to convince Ian to let me read more of the adventures of Odysseus yesterday when he handed me a magic school bus book to read. I read the magic school bus book and then went back to Odysseus. At least the boys do sit through these stories too. Ian loves to hear about the different monsters and how the greek heros do away with them. I think today when we go to the library I am going to look for an audio book of Mythology. My voice will give out if I read aloud all day again.

Austenland

I spent the day reading. OK... we did actually do a little school but for the most part I ignored my kids and just read my book today. I have been on the waiting list for Austenland for about 2 months at our library. I finally got to pick it up yesterday. I started reading it this morning and finished it as I was cooking dinner. I really enjoyed this Jane Austen Fan Fiction. Most of these modern day Jane Austen stories leave me not satisfied. But this one actually had me smiling at the end. I liked the characters and enjoyed the Austen references. I didn't even mind the twist on the Regency house party. It was obviously a quick read but some lovely mind candy! A fun read for any Jane Austen fan.

Freckles & A Girl of the Limberlost

I finished the book Freckles, by Gene Stratton-Porter, a little bit ago and I keep thinking about it. Not because it was a really deep book but just because I wonder why I hadn't heard of it or A girl of the Limberlost (or Laddie which I read a year or so ago). All these books are so good. They remind me of the Anne of Green Gables books for some reason. Maybe because I know I would have loved these books at about the same age as I read and reread the Anne of Green Gables books, about 10 or 12 yrs old.

Stratton-Porter wrote these great stories as a way to interest people in the natural world. She was a naturalist. I can see how much she loved the Limberlost and hated to see it destroyed. Her descriptions of the animals and insects shows that she really knew the area that she was describing and knew these creatures intimately. It made me look more closely at the area that I live in and to appreciate it more.

These are also very moral stories. The characters in these stories exhibit qualities that I would like to say I have and I would love to see in my own children. There is so much the characters overcome yet still keep their core values.

So I know I will be sharing these books with my children and discussing the values that the characters portray. Great reads! A little hard to find. Our library system only had one copy of each. They weren't in the children's section either. They are considered adult but they are a very quick and easy read.

Book Review - Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

I don't usually write book reviews but it is something that I think I should do more often so here are some of my thoughts on the book Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler.

First of all I don't consider myself an addict really, but I do love Jane Austen's work. I have read all 6 novels and many of her unfinished works, seen every movie adaptation and visit The Republic of Pemberley almost every day. I have also read a number of prequel, sequels and fan fiction that others have written about Jane Austen's characters and novels. Some are really good and some are not worthy of Jane Austen.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is one that really isn't worthy of Jane Austen. I read one review that called it frothy. I think that word is just about right. It describes this story nicely. I probably shouldn't have finished it but I was intrigued by the plot. I found it kinda fun that it was a modern girl that goes back in time to live the life of a regency woman. It was entertaining to see how unglamorous yet at the same time luxurious the life was for the wealthy. So I finished the book and I am glad that I did because the character learns a great lesson at the end that is was good for me to think about.

So yes It wasn't up to Jane Austen's quality of writing but it was an enjoyable read. I didn't like the characters like I love Elizabeth Bennett or Anne Elliot. The men certainly weren't Mr. Knightly or Mr. Darcy. They just weren't fleshed out enough perhaps. The main character isn't a person with any morals so therefore isn't someone you can respect. But by the end of the story she learns to see things a little differently which is a good thing for a modern girl to do.

If you love Jane Austen's novels there are many much better books to read if you want to read more about these characters.

I loved Darcy's Story by Janet Alymer and An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aiden. This is the first of 3 books that she wrote to cover the Pride and Prejudice story but from Mr. Darcy's perspectitve. I personally didn't enjoy the 2nd book (to me it didn't fit Mr. Darcy's personality) but loved the 1st and 3rd.

I loved Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken. This is Emma but from the perspective of Jane Fairfax. I love Jane Fairfax and see her totally differently now that I have read this backstory of her. This is one I actually own now because I love it and read it again almost as often as I read the other Austen books.

I also really enjoyed Emma Watson (no not the girl that plays Hermione in the Harry Potter films) by Joan Aiken. This is Jane Austen's unfinished novel called "The Watsons". Aiken finished it and it felt almost like a Austen novel. Not quite as polished and witty but a good story.

I also liked The Third Sisterby Julia Barrett. This is a continuation of Sense and Sensibility and focuses on Margaret the other sister. It is interesting and you get to see a little more of Elinor and Marrianne.

Anyway... there are a few of my suggestions. I am kinda neutral about recommending "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict". Unless you are a big fan, there are a lot of better things to read.