i've been reading

i've been reading a little bit lately, although i haven't done as much as i would like. i finished the last book in the maisie dobbs series, elegy for eddie, and enjoyed it. i enjoyed the whole series. winspear's books are great - well written, fun mysteries that can be fun, light reading if you feel like it, but also have some deeper themes if you want to put a little thought into them. i'm a little sad to be caught up with the series because they've been a steady part of my reading diet for the past few months.

about a month ago, i came across this list of parenting books.  the latest antics of our four year old have been giving me a little run for my money and i like this woman's book recommendations on her blog in general, so i thought i'd give some of them a go. as in, i put in hold requests for about eight of them at our library. the problem is, i'm used to a slower library system and a bunch of these came to me at once. i don't do well with a stack of books waiting for me on my nightstand and especially a nonfiction stack. i get anxious and start several at once. and if i'm trying to read nonfiction at the same time (maisie dobbs), the nonfiction almost always wins out. i know this about myself and you'd think i'd do something to fix it. but i don't.

anyway, i started the parents we mean to be first and got a couple of chapters into it before i quit on it. it's actually a fine book, but it's not really light reading and the main message seemed to be, "teach your children charity" (although he never used that word). since that is already my main goal in life and i feel like the gospel gives me a framework for that, i decided to stop reading instead of forcing my way through the book.

another book that i picked up at the same time was house thinking, by winifred gallagher. this didn't end up being what i thought it would be. i thought it was going to be a guide on how to improve various rooms in your house to fit their function and match it with aesthetics, but it was more of a history of how rooms came to be what they are and if you dig deep, you could get some ideas from it, but i wanted them handed to me and it wasn't happening. the book was a little too much of a chore for me to read and i only made it half way through.

in defense of the original list, i think i'm just mostly not in the mood for any kind of heavy reading right now. both books were well written, just too dense for my mood. also, i'm currently reading another one of the books on the list and it is a little lighter and i'm really enjoying it so far. i just picked up our mutual friend, by dickens, at the library today, as well as another parenting book that showed up from my list, so hopefully i don't fall into some of the same problems i was having with these books.

the boy who harnessed the wind

i haven't talked about books that i've read on my blog in a long time, but i want to start doing it again because it's the only way i keep track of my reading at all.

i just read the boy who harnessed the wind by william kamkwamba. i knew that the book would be about an african boy who builds a windmill, but i didn't realize that it would delve into so much of his life previous to him becoming interested in wind energy. it makes sense now that i've read it because it paints a better picture of why he became interested and just how inspiring his efforts were. it was a fascinating read and a little heart-wrenching at times. i like books that put me in touch with cultures that i know little-to-nothing about and remind me of just how blessed i am to have the life that i live. it's a really inspiring story and an easy read.

a most wonderful surprise

last week, i received a package in the mail, which is always exciting, but this was a package of the best kind. an unexpected package. not a birthday in sight, christmas still a ways off, and no prior warning of the package's arrival. to top it all off, it was from one of my dearest friends.

and then i opened it.

it was a book by emily gravett. i have blogged about emily gravett before. i love her children's books. really great illustrations and simple, sweet, and clever stories. this dear friend had asked for recommendations on children's books a while ago and emily gravett is one of the authors that i recommended.

but i had never heard of this book before. 

cover

the rabbit problem.

i will try to describe the book, but words don't do it justice. it is a book that you have to handle and examine to really appreciate it.

it is a book about fibonacci's rabbit problem from the perspective of the rabbits. but as the back of the book says, this is not a book about math (although i think that it is so much more enjoyable for us math nerds).

inside cover

the book is in calendar form, due to the monthly nature of the fibonacci problem. each page spread is a calendar page (which means that you get to turn the book sideways while you read it), filled with illustrations, notes scribbled on the calendar, and three dimensional pamphlets, booklets, etc. that relate to the month. reading the book was a delightful textural experience and i spent an hour pouring over the pages last night. i imagine that i will notice new things each time that i pick up the book.

february's spread

the details are stunning and it is one of the best tactile experiences i have ever had with a book. i highly recommend it. if you're really nice, you can come over and look through mine.

thank you, liz, this was such a thoughtful and delightful surprise.

peter rabbit

as part of our date night the other night, randy and i went to the king's english up in sugar house. it is a locally owned bookstore that i have heard great things about from several people and wanted to check out myself.

we enjoyed walking around and it is a great bookstore, but we especially enjoyed the children's book selection. i still think that byu has the best selection in town, but this is the second best we've seen. we ended up buying a couple of books for the girls. for madeleine, we got "peter rabbit, " by beatrix potter. i forgot how much i love these books until i read it to madeleine that night. i love the size, the story, but especially, the artwork. fantastic watercolors.

which reminds me, i love the movie, "ms. potter." haven't seen it? you should.

hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet

i just finished the book "hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet," by jamie ford. it is a historical fiction novel centered around the seattle international district and the japanese internment during world war II. it was a fun read and interesting to learn more about how the japanese in the northwest were affected by the war. my mom read it and based on her suggestion, i decided to read it. i am glad that i did. despite the subject matter, i actually felt like it was a pretty light read, which i was in the mood for. i have a few more things that i could say about the book, but i don't really want to give it away.

reading list

i haven't really done any updates on books that i've read lately, but i have been reading. the ones that i can remember...

madeleine decided to behave as though she was two for a few weeks at 18 months, so i decided to read 1-2-3 magic, the discipline system that we had growing up. i really like the system and it was good to actually read the book on it (it is short and an easy read) to know some of the details about it that weren't readily apparent to me as a child but which are very important as the one disciplining. fortunately, it has worked well with madeleine and (most) of her tantrums have ceased.

a tree grows in brooklyn was a fun novel to read. it seems like it was pretty autobiographical at times, so it felt like a very accurate portrayal of growing up in brooklyn during the beginning of the 20th century. not in my top ten book list or anything, but i would recommend it as a good novel.

this was my favorite book that i've read in a while. barbara kingsolver (author of poisonwood bible, another favorite) spent a year with her family eating only local foods - either those grown on their own land or within about a 100 mile radius. the book documents her family's experience as locavores and touches on themes of food consumption, gardening, raising poultry, and other issues relating to their experience. she is a little preachy in the first few chapters, but once she really launches into her family's year-long experience, i really enjoyed it. her writing is humorous and insightful. i came away from the book feeling inspired (rather than overwhelmed) to be a more socially responsible eater, more self-sufficient, and to be more involved in my own family's food consumption.

i read this book for bookclub and one of my favorite parts of the whole book experience was getting together with the women in my bookclub to discuss the book. we always have refreshments, and after reading the book, the woman hosting decided to use completely local refreshments. it was a delicious meal of local vegetables, cheeses (my favorite), and other food items made and grown by women in the group or from local sources. it was a fun way to wrap up the book and a delicious meal to eat. it did help that we read the book in july/august, rather than january.

the hunger games

this was a young adult book that doesn't seem like the type of book that i would usually read but i really liked it. it was suspenseful and one of those books that i can only read so often because it usually results in some form of neglect towards madeleine. it was an interesting premise though (i don't want to give away too much) and i am excited for the sequel to come out in september.

the old man and the sea

i just finished "the old man and the sea," by hemingway. i like his writing a lot and thought this was a great short story. it only took me two days to get through. i was a little bothered by the edition that i read (not the one pictured), which gave away the whole story in the foreword. it kind of ruined the whole suspense aspect of the book.

you know you're serious about your child's music education when...

you change the words in a children's book to comply with correct principles of solfege.

background: to give madeleine a head start on her music education, we have been working on teaching her perfect pitch and solfege. yes, that's right, our children are going to be randy's musical experiments.

so... madeleine has a book called, "the wheels on the school bus," (more details on this book later...) and on one of the pages it says "the music teacher on the bus says ... do re mi, all the way to school." the other day, my sister beth was over and i was reading/singing the book to madeleine when i came to this part. as soon as i sang, "do re mi," beth commented that the solfege syllables didn't match up with the melody (okay, so i didn't notice myself... so i may be the weak part of madeleine's music education... so what?). we figured out the right syllables and i've been singing it like that to her instead.* yeah, i know, we're music nazis.

while we're talking about this book anyway, i will take the opportunity to comment on it. not only is it a little different from the song i grew up with (singing "all the way to school" instead of "all around the town" has taken some getting used to), this book has some crazy characters climbing on the bus. we've got the kids, teachers, librarian, coach, nurse, lunch ladies, music teacher, art teacher, custodian, and...

SPOILER ALERT!

in the end you find out that the principal was on the bus the whole time! the last page says:

the driver on the bus says "everybody off! everybody off! everybody off!" the driver on the bus says "here we are! welcome to my school!"

and in the picture, he's switched his hat that says "driver," for one that says "principal."

tricky.

*beth - i told randy about it and how we sing it now and he decided that he wants to go with a moveable do, so we're actually singing sol mi do to her instead of do la fa.

west with the night

one of randy's students gave us this book and i finally got around to reading it. i really enjoyed it. it is an autobiography about the first woman (or man) to do a solo flight across the atlantic from east to west. her writing was beautiful, poetic, and so descriptive that it made me feel like i had grown up in africa and been flying an airplane all my life. she led a remarkable life and relayed her life experiences in a great autobiography.

southern books

i just finished these two books. i selected "to kill a mockingbird," as my choice for bookclub. i've read it before and absolutely love it. it's such a classic novel and speaks to me even more now than when i read it as a kid. i can't say enough about it. if you haven't read it, you must. i want to be atticus finch.

cold sassy tree was also a bookclub book that i've actually been intending to read for quite some time. i enjoyed it, but it didn't do as much for me. it was interesting to read two books in a row that were stories about southern towns told through the eyes of a child, both dealing with themes of overcoming prejudices. but in the end, harper lee just did it better. had i realized some of the similarities beforehand, i may have waited a while to read cold sassy tree so that it had more of a fighting chance. don't get me wrong, it's a well written story, it just wasn't as moving for me and i couldn't help but compare the books the whole time.

well, on to something new. and different. you know it's time to stop reading southern novels when you tell your daughter you reckon it's time we go inside.

giants: the parallel lives of frederick douglass & abraham lincoln

i just finished this book and really enjoyed it. i love history and love reading about people/events in history, but not all biographies/books on historical subjects are created equal. i liked stauffer's writing style though, and the depth of treatment that he selected for the book. he covered the politics and history without getting mired in them, which is not always easy to do.

i knew little about douglass and learned a lot about him. i thought that i knew a lot about abraham lincoln, but was surprised at how little i actually knew. it was a revealing book about lincoln without being a smear campaign against one of the most famous presidents. overall, a great book.

charley harper abcs and 123s

for christmas, randy and i got madeleine charley harper's abc's board book:
and for her birthday, she got charley harper's 123's:

i have to admit that these were somewhat selfish purchases. his artwork is so beautiful that it makes it much more enjoyable for me to read to madeleine. i think that these will become classics around our house. hopefully, someday madeleine will appreciate the artwork. if you are looking for good books to teach your children their alphabet or numbers, i highly recommend these.

the diving bell and the butterfly

i know that i blogged about this movie a while ago, but i didn't really get a chance to watch the whole thing, so i decided to read the book. it was an easy, short read, and so beautiful. the author dictated the entire book by having a woman read the french alphabet to him and blinking when she reached the correct letter. he had "locked-in" syndrome and wrote about his life both before, but mostly after, his accident. his writing was beautiful and touching and the translation from french was really well done (well, as far as i could tell). i highly recommend it. 

the poisonwood bible

i just finished reading "the poisonwood bible," by barbara kingsolver. it took me a few days longer to read this than "rules," however, it was only because it is a much longer book, not because i was not completely engrossed in the book. i was. and unlike "rules," i probably did neglect a lot more of my duties to read this one. i'm sure that madeleine will be glad to have me done with it.

i loved this book. i read it for a bookclub that i am in and i can't wait for the discussion. the writing, the themes, the characters... oh so good.

rules

i just read the book, "rules," by cynthia lord. it was a fun, quick, and easy read - i read it in one day without completely neglecting all of my responsibilities. this was a juvenile lit book that my mom recommended i read. interestingly, it had a lot of the same themes as the last juvenile lit book i read. both books have main characters that have siblings with autism and deal with the difficulties that come along with being a child with a disabled sibling.

this was a touching book and was very well written. i felt like i got a lot out of the book as an adult and it made me think, which i hadn't really planned on. i think that it's good to read juvenile literature every once in a while so that we are transported back to those feelings of reading as a kid.

in defense of food

i just read this for my book club and for the most part, really liked it. while i would not consider myself a health nut, it confirmed my general feelings about food and gave me some encouragement for what i am already doing and what i can continue to do to improve my family's eating habits.

pollan attacks the way that the food industry has taught us to think and feel about food and argues for a return to a simpler way of eating. his mantra, printed on the front of the book, says it all: eat food. not too much. mostly plants.

here's my beef with the book: he is not a scientist, but kind of professes to be one. he attacks "nutritionalism" for breaking our food down into it's nutrient parts instead of considering it as a whole, but then proceeds to do the same thing to support his argument. he actually acknowledges this later in the book, but it takes a long time for him to do so.

what i love about the book: in the third section of the book, he offers several simple and practical suggestions for how to improve your food situation. like i said, i'm not a health nut, and i actually don't think that he is extreme either, but what he says really rings true with what i've always thought about food.

a good, easy read, and if you are kind of interested at all, i suggest at least reading the third section of the book.

have i mentioned how excited i am for my garden?

al capone does my shirts

i just finished reading "al capone does my shirts," by gennifer choldenko. my mom, reader extraordinaire, is always on top of good books and recommended it. it's juvenile lit, a newberry honors book, and a really easy and fun read. it's about a kid who's dad is an electrician/guard on alcatraz, so his family lives on alcatraz with him (which is historically accurate). the book tells about the son's adventures from the first person and is well written. i highly recommend it for adults and children alike.