From time to time, I am asked if I miss teaching now that I am home with the girls.  My immediate and gut reaction is always the same.  I miss teaching good stories to students and the universal divide a good story can cross.

So it probably comes as no surprise, I love to read the older two girls chapter books.  We started with Charlotte’s Web when Ella had just turned 4.  Ella was really the only one old enough to understand this one.   Then, we moved on to Stuart Little.  Sophie wanted to sit with us through this story.  For my girls, Stuart Little didn’t carry the same punch as Charlotte and her barn yarn friend. They liked sitting with me, but the story didn’t capture their attention.  I worked to try to make the story come alive, but I knew they just weren’t super duper interested.  That was ok.   I picked up the Laura Ingalls Wilder books once or twice before from the library, but they timing never seemed right to begin them with the girls.  I am so glad I decided to wait.  A few weeks ago we were at the library, and I saw the library had just purchased a complete set of the Little House books with the full color illustrations by Garth Williams.  We brought the first one home as well as a couple of the picture books from the My First Little House series.  I read those couple picture books to the girls first and we talked about how they were sisters who lived and played together.   We talked about living a long time ago.  Living far, far, far away from neighbors. Not being able to go to a grocery store when you ran out of something.   In the picture book, Laura got a new doll for Christmas.  Well, that right there, hooked Sophie.  All she really wanted for Christmas was a new baby doll.  Slowly we worked our way through the book.  They loved the pictures.  I would find them looking through the pages to try and understand what was coming next.  I found them talking about Mary and Laura when I would get them out of bed in the morning.  Those sisters loved a good story about sisters.

To be honest, I thought Sophie was just listening to my voice and enjoying snuggling with Ella and I.  I couldn’t believe how much I was mistaken.  As we were nearing the end of the book, she told me her favorite part was being like Laura and getting a new baby doll for Christmas.  Ella began describing how Ma had to knit their socks and sew their underwear because there was no store to buy those things.  She started wondering about how Laura kept food cold.   We had a talk about not having electricity and preserving food in different ways.  They devised a plan of how they might be able to make the maple candy if we got enough snow.  And,  now they know maple syrup comes from trees and not the grocery store.

I know some of the themes and plot events are beyond them still.   But, I am positive they are getting some skills that are so much more valuable.   They are liking listening to the story unfold. They are trying to use clues from the text to put together plot events. They are stopping to ask questions.  They are using the pictures to help them understand what confuses them about the words.

I placed a hold on Little House on the Prairie, and we began that book over the weekend.  They were so worried about what happened to Jack, the bulldog, as the wagon was crossing the river.  I never read this book as a little girl and I think I may be as excited as they are to see where the Ingalls family settles and sets up home on the prairie.

I am so happy to snuggle with these girls of mine and read stories.  Good stories are pretty amazing, aren’t they?

The Violets of March by Sarah Jio – I mentioned I was needing, wanting, craving a book to get lost in while snuggled under a quilt.  Well, this was it for me.  Definelty, an easy read, but one I enjoyed and read in less than a day and half.  It was a story within a story novel that brought together two very connected story lines through Emily, the protagonist, and a red diary she finds while visiting her great aunt.    It fit the bill for a story I could read, without thinking too much, while snuggled in front of the fire.  I don’t think I could have or would have made some of the decisions the characters did in the story, but nevertheless it kept me turning the pages.  Although it didn’t *satisfy* me in the way a superb book so often does; it was the perfect book to read this past chilly December weekend.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton – I picked this book up after reading The Forgotten Garden earlier this year.  I am not sure what to say about this one.  There were parts I really liked and then parts that I felt dragged on and weighed the book down.  I greatly enjoyed the plot progression and thoroughly enjoyed the well developed characters, especially the Blythe sisters.  I found them interesting and each with a depth of personality.  The narration of the story changed voices.  I much preferred the omniscient voice which told all of the 1943 part of the story to Edie’s  first person present day narration.  In my opinion, Edie was the least developed character and I found myself almost annoyed at times with self chatter.  Overall, I liked the story and am glad I read it.

What have you been reading lately?

• The Girl Who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson.  Good. Good. Good.  This book is the second in a trilogy series – I wrote about the first one here.  Book two dove deep into Lisbeth’s past while making use of her excellent computer hacker skills.  I really liked how complex this crime-thriller book was, and how well developed the plot turned out to be.  I do most of my reading during nap time or while I am nursing Eva, with this book I found myself sitting and holding her long after she as done eating just to get to a good stopping place in the book and to see how Lisbeth was fairing.  For some reason, this book was my favorite of the three.  I liked knowing more about the troubled heroine, her hellish past, and rooting for her.

• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Stieg Larsson.  As soon as I finished The Girl Who Played with Fire, I immediately requested the third book in the series from the library.  The Girl Who Played with Fire ends in a cliff hanger, and you want to know what happens immediately.  This books picks up exactly where the former left off.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is definitely the culmination of the three tales.  Not only is Lisbeth’s saga solved, beautifully at that, but a much larger Swedish conspiracy, which Larsson was laying the groundwork for in the other two books, comes to be exposed through Blomkvist & the Millennium Magazine staff .  I liked the unexpected plot surprises, and the interweaving of relationships.  On the night I was no more than 75 pages until done, Joel had just finished putting the older girls to bed and asked me what I wanted to do that night.  All I wanted to do was finish the book.  (He ended up playing Fifa 11 soccer.)  I am very sad there can be no more crime thrillers from Mr. Larsson.  These books were great nap time companions.

***As an aside, the crime solved throughout these two books did not upset me like the one in The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, however, if these were movies, they would be rated R.  I wrote about the first one here.

• Anne of Ingleside by L.M.Montgomery.  I continued my reading of the Anne of Green Gables series with the sixth book in the series.  I loved the first five in the series, but I suppose all good things must begin to end at some point.  I did not care for this book nearly as much as I did the previous Anne books.  In this one, she and Gilbert are busy raising their children.  To me, this books was just more lack-luster than the others.  The trials and tribulations of the Bylthe children did not have the same allure as Anne’s woes.  Anne did not see to have the same vivaciousness and the story just didn’t seem to gel together.

What are you guys reading these days?

Here’s to a relaxing weekend and some good family time. Cheers to you.

{This post is linked to Life as Mom Bookin’ It 2011}

1.  The Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery, books 1-5.    I never read these as a little girl.  I actually didn’t even really know the story until the big snow storm of my last year of college when my roommates and I watched them snuggled on the Lighthouse couch.  For my last book club before we moved from Charlottesville, the ladies decided to revisit a classic story from childhood.  We also had kid food for that book club.  Go head and try it with your book club – great fun was had by all.  Late this summer, my 27 year old self was reading Anne of Green Gables for the first time and LOVING it.  I was charmed by the story and the flowing words.  I found myself wanting to be transported back in time to be able to relive my childhood in my very own Green Gables world with strolls down Lover’s Lane and picnics beside the Lake of Shining Waters.  Anne of Avonlea naturally followed next.

‘After all,’ Anne had said to Marilla once, ‘I believe the nicest and sweetest of days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.’  – Anne of Avonlea p. 160

As summer turned into fall, I just kept moving through the series.   I read Anne of the Island.  Anne and Gilbert had still not fallen in love so I opened Anne of Windy Poplars.  I wanted to see what their life was like in their cozy little cottage in Anne’s House of Dreams.  I am not sure I have had a favorite of them so far.  They are just all delightful in their own way.  I stumbled upon the image below, and I think it sums up Anne’s life philosophy perfectly.

{source}

2. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a simple mystery set in England in the 1950s.  The heroine is an 11 year old girl who stumbles upon, well thrusts herself really, into the solving of a crime committed at her family estate, Buckshaw.   This was a good book to have on the couch to read a little here and a little there (while I was nursing Eva) without a bunch of yuckiness tangled into the story as there so often is in modern day mysteries.  Some of the humor was very British, and thus went right over my head.  Overall, a decent read once the story was set up.

What have you been reading?  I always love a good recommendation, please.

This post is linked up at Life As Mom Booking- It.

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis -  I suppose the best question to ask about Lewis is: What is there not to love?  I read this book, over the course of several weeks, for my Wednesday morning study. Set as an allegory depicting the difference between Heaven and Hell; this story takes the narrator, and reader, through Hell and then on to Heaven.

“But Heaven is not a state of mind.  Heaven is reality itself.  All that is fully real is Heavenly.  For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakeable remains.” p. 70-71.

“But you and I must be clear.  There is but one good; that is God.  Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.”  p.106

Oh, that I could live an unshakeable life.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson –   Hmmmm.  This was a page turner and I found myself staying up late just to find out what was going to happen.  There are only a few books that can keep a pregnant momma up into the late of the night.  It is a Swedish best seller and Larsson has crafted a complex tale which interweaves three story lines into one master plot.  I was intrigued, and I love books which bring seemingly separate stories into one complex story line.  The mystery surrounding Harriot’s disappearance was well written, and I did not solve it on my own.   All of that being said, I have trouble giving this book a  full-fledged “read right away” without a caution.  Interwoven into solving Harriot’s disappearance is another story line which has a couple parts that are quite dark and upsetting.  If someone had told me what the underlying plot was I am not sure I would have read the story, however, by the time I discovered it on my own; I was hooked and had to know what happened.

What are you guys reading?

My other reading list is here.

{This post is linked up with other reading recommendations at Life as Mom.}

These past few reads have been wonderful and entirely different.  I have enjoyed them during nap time snuggled up with a blanket and my homemade mocha.  The mocha has seemed to become  a daily accompaniment.

My Life in France by Julia Child – We read this book last month for book club.  To be honest, I did not think I would like this book as much as I did.  I don’t typically gravitate toward french cooking and I never watched Julia Child growing up on TV.  So prior to reading, I felt pretty removed from the story except from what I gathered from Julie & Julia. All that being said, I was utterly charmed by Julia, her story, her determination in writing Mastering the Art of French Cooking, her descriptions of food and life in Paris, and her life-long love affair with her husband.

If you read this book for a book club, have a french dinner afterward!  We did, and it was delightful!

Emma by Jane Austen – I have mentioned this book before but in regards to the Masterpiece  mini-series which aired this season on PBS.  The mini-series makes for such a delightful Sunday afternoon.  After watching it several times, I wanted to read the book again, and I am SO GLAD I did.  I have to admit as much as I love the way Austen crafts a story but, I find her hard to get into with a cold reading.  The previous time I tried reading Emma I had a really hard time getting myself submerged he story.  Having watching the mini-series, I loved seeing all the details portrayed in the book.  This was the perfect book to have next to bed and to escape to a different world before going to bed.  There are parts of Joel that are just like Mr. Knightly especially in the way he never lets Emma get so wrapped up in herself she loses sight of other people.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett – This book was fantastic.  It is set in Jackson, Mississippi at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.  It is the story of a young woman, who in her own way, combats the cultural injustice of her small town and the lives that change in the process.  This is an exceptionally well-written and a well crafted story, I found this story to be a page-turner in the sense that I wanted to see the characters develop.  I think this is a perfect summer vacation read.  This is the book for book club this month, I will let you know if the other girls liked it!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!  This morning is shaping up to a be a great one.  Right now, I am listening to the wonderful noise of Lady and Bubba (the little boy who comes two days a week) decide how they will build the train track for Thomas.  It is amazing when three years olds play side by side with one mission.

{This post is linked up with other reading recommendations at Life as Mom.}