Books I've Read Recently

Not in any particular order, and I'll likely mention if I really didn't like it. If you're looking for great books to read, here are my most recent selections.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, juvenile series.

Three Cups of Tea, non-fiction. There's a sequel I haven't yet read called Stones into Schools. Very powerful non-fiction.

The Actor and the Housewife, fiction.

The Color of Water, non-fiction.

The Blind Side, non-fiction. The first 2 chapters are straight football, and I almost didn't make it through, but it was an amazing book. We just saw the movie last night, and it was also very good--and followed the book pretty precisely. It was fun to see what was straight from the book, and what was changed and embellished in the film.

Evermore, juvenile series.

The Guinea Pig Diaries, non-fiction. Not appropriate for a Relief Society book group, but hilarious. And highly recommended, with a grain of salt. :)

Parenting with Love and Logic, non-fiction. (It's a parenting book.)

And a couple books I have on hold at our library and am anticipating picking up are The Happiness Project, non-fiction, and The Help, fiction.

Happy reading!

I always accept suggestions.

Where the Wild Things Are

The night Jeremiah wore his wolf suit, he found a blue river in the bathroom and laid it out on the floor in the living room. He dragged out a blue boat from his room, made himself a flag, and climbed in, ready to adventure down the river and to the island...where the wild things are! His brother and sister came along, in separate boats, of course, with flags of their own designs. They all sailed through the evening and into bedtime, before they fell over and ran into their beds, where they found bedtime stories and pumpkin cookies waiting for them...and they were still warm.

Since kids don't like hot food. Sorry Maurice, but it's true. They like to taste their food. Not have it burn their mouths.

Bed-Time

I think things are going to be changing around here. I get really cranky around 7:25, which makes our hopeful 8 o'clock bedtime...well, not the happiest time.

But, for some reason, our kids absolutely adore reading in their beds, which I discovered last night. So, if they can stay in their beds, they can read for a few minutes. I was originally thinking maybe for 10 minutes, at 8.

Now, though. Since they seem to like reading in their beds so much. (No other reason, of course!)

Maybe, if they wanted to read for say, half an hour, why not? They can go to their beds at 7:30, and then read for 30 minutes. I'm okay with that.

A good, solid way to encourage avid readers would be to let them stay up later with a book. Which is pretty much the same as going to bed earlier with a book, right?

I melt when I listen to little voices reading. And hearing three little voices at the same time? Priceless.

Summer Reading Program

The three kids all participated in our library's summer reading program this past summer. We loved going to the library to choose new books and get new prizes every week. I wanted them to be finished with the program prior to leaving for Yosemite and Utah, and they did it! Isaac and I read the first Harry Potter book together, which I consented counted as 5 stars, but other than that, every star he earned was for a book that he read by himself. I read aloud to Jer and Danielle, so, I didn't enter any books for myself. There was a lot of reading going on!

We also had swim lessons for the boys. They pretty much lived in their swim trunks throughout May and June. In their library prizes pictures, you have permission to notice their cute suits and swim shoes. :)

Interpretive Seuss

Per request of a certain grandmother, here are reading videos. First, Isaac. About halfway through the video, John comes home, and Isaac starts singing the book, for those who aren't incredibly interested in watching 10 minutes of interpretive Dr. Seuss. He does get very expressive in just about everything he does.





Danielle was jealous of Isaac being the center of attention, so here are a few videos of her. Reading a book, and singing "The Family is of God," the song we learned in Primary (and therefore was the most demanded song for our evening family scripture-song-and-prayer) in March. And of her and Isaac singing a song from one of our scripture movies--Isaac liked it a lot, so we had to learn it. (The following three videos are relatively short... 30 to 90 seconds, approximation. And Danielle's been dressing herself in her favorite clothes, and doesn't care what matches or coordinates.)










Jeremiah loves books. I find him reading to himself more than the other kids do. He's quite expressive. I know that a huge part of enjoying him reading is simply to listen to him keep talking, instead of just a few words as needed.




Earlier today (unrelated) Jeremiah found a can of soda and wanted me to open it for him. We don't usually have soda around, and I was pretending I didn't know what he wanted, so he used the words he knew the best he could, and ended up asking me something like "Pull... Go down... Drink soda! Yay!" with the biggest grin, so excited. If I could have gotten that on video... So sweet and pure.

Reading Together

I love to read! And so, I'm happy that that's either nature or nurture, because either way, my kids love to read, too!






I do realize that these pictures are almost identical. I couldn't decide which I liked the best. And Danielle, stealing the limelight...


(It becomes a "no glasses day" when they have taken off their glasses and lost them two days in a row...two pairs of glasses, lost over two days, equals no more glasses to wear.)

Faraway Child

I read "Faraway Child" yesterday. It's been on my to-read list for a few months now. It's a fictionalized story of a mom who has an autistic daughter (PC would be "daughter with autism"), from an LDS perspective. (The author is an LDS woman who has an autistic daughter, and bases the story off of her experiences with her daughter.) I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know what it's like to raise an autistic child: the hopes, fears, struggles, griefs, joys, peace.

My experiences with Jeremiah are much different. But so much closer to what she describes than how anyone would describe a typical child. But her feelings, inadequacies, joy and appreciation and comfort when something finally goes right...those are all the same.

John looked over at me a few times as I was reading, and saw me sobbing at least three times. He kept asking if I was certain I wanted to keep reading this book. I don't know that it was necessarily heart-wrenching, just incredibly close to home.

Eragon

I read Eragon yesterday.

Okay, so I started it yesterday afternoon and I finished it this morning. I did sleep, but only for about 6 hours (not my fault, purely circumstantial, I only stayed up to wake John up so he could grade his exams by early this morning because he had fallen asleep...). I read the last 75 pages or so this morning.

In the beginning of the book, the boy Eragon, angry about his life, converses with his dragon Saphira, "What is the worth of anything we do?" And she replies, "The worth is in the act. Your worth halts when you surrender the will to change and experience life. But options are before you; choose one and dedicate yourself to it. The deeds will give you new hope and purpose."

Even though life is transient, ever changing, hard at times and near impossible at others, the worth of what we do, who we are, is "in the act." When we choose to act out our lives instead of having our life decided for us by seemingly unseen forces, when we truly live and are dedicated to the responsibilities we have undertaken, it is then that we have true hope and purpose in our lives. And until we can truly live for ourselves, with that resolution, we can't truly live at all, but are in a state of ungrowth, like summer vacation when everything we've learned in the school year threatens to fade away into nothingness. It is when we choose to act on our environment that we can grow, that we can change the course of lives--both our individual lives and of the lives touching ours or brushing past.

"The worth is in the act."

The Goose Girl

Yesterday I read "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hales. It was so good and so fun! I loved it, just reading a good story again. And I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a "bedtime novel." I think that I'm going to start reading Isaac books during bedtime, to listen to instead of look at. This might be one of them.