July Reads

I had a great reading month. I love looking back over what I read and seeing what I liked and didn't like. Did I read all about one time period, or was my reading diverse? This month it was pretty diverse, and that always gives me a feeling of accomplishment. And, without further ado, here is my reading list for the month of July.

*She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems by Caroline Kennedy
This was a really beautiful book. Caroline Kennedy collected the poems and put them into different categories such as love, work, marriage, motherhood, etc. I appreciated the fact that she chose to include several passages of scripture like 1 Corinthians 13, Song of Songs 2 and 3, Proverbs 31, and Ruth 1:16-17. She also included a prayer by St. Theresa of Avila and The Shaker Hymn. There was a section with poetry about lovemaking that made blush, and several rather blunt poems about menopause and a young woman's coming of age.

How Do I Love Thee by Nancy Moser
This is a fictional biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her relationship and marriage to Robert Browning. It was a little slow in the beginning, but picked up once Robert started coming around. I learned some interesting things about Elizabeth. She was very sickly most of her life, and her father was a controlling tyrant who wouldn't let any of his children marry. This was an excellent follow up to She Walks in Beauty.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
In my old age, I have grown tired of beautiful people falling in love with beautiful people. There is none of that in Jane Eyre. She is plain and he is downright ugly, but she is the only truly good thing in his life, and he is dark and mysterious. They can't help but fall in love. If you've never read Jane Eyre, I would recommend you do. It's long, and you may not like it, but please give it a try. Watching a movie version is not enough. So much scripture is quoted throughout this book, and they never put that in the movies. It was also wonderful to see a heroine committed to doing what was right even though it brought her grief. I read this book in high school, and enjoyed it. I read it as an adult and adored it. I want to be Jane Eyre when I grow up.

*The Virginian by Owen Wister
This was a very different book for me. It's a romantic western set in the 1890's.  The language was a little hard to get used to, but ,overall, I enjoyed it. That Virginian was quite a man.

*Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy
This was my first Maeve Binchy book. I had been meaning to read her for a while, but had never gotten around to it. So many books.... Her books are all set in Ireland. This one was set in a small community in Dublin. I liked the book and it moved along quickly. It was about a young man who finds out he has fathered a child. The mother dies and wants him to raise the baby. The story centers around him and the people in the community who help him get his life together so he can keep the little girl. It isn't a romance. It's just a book about people and their lives, but I found it charming.

Unspoken by Francine Rivers
This was not my favorite Francine Rivers book. It is about Bathsheba and David and all that mess. A quick read, but not a great one.

Fireflies In December by Jennifer Valent
I didn't know much about this book going in, but it turned out to be a really great read. It's a coming of age story about a girl in the depression era south. She and her family take in her best friend after she is orphaned. Her best friend is black. This causes problems in their (racist) community. It was a great story, although sometimes I felt the protagonist was a little stupid, and I wanted to shake her. I cut her some slack since she was only 13. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

*Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosney
I was worried this book was going to be one of those books you have to slog through. You know the kind...heavy, depressing, and preachy. It wasn't any of those things. It centers around a journalist's investigation of the round up and deportation of  French Jews by the French government. The Jews were sent to Auschwitz. Most of them were children and most of them were killed. The journalist's discoveries change her life and the lives of the people around her. It was a very bittersweet story. I'm still thinking about it.



*This is not a Christian book. There may be some bad language and other "stuff " in it.

Wordless Wednesday: Our New Neighbors

June Reads

Here is the lowdown on my reading this month.

Dearly Loved ~ Bonnie Blythe ~ B

Cute chick-lit/romance. I got it for my Kindle for 99 cents. I think it was self published, but still a good read. A man walks back into a woman's life. They were 'friends' in high school. She was a nice girl, he was a player. Now he wants to settle down and get serious.

Last Light ~ Terri Blackstock ~ B

Good, fast paced thriller/mystery. I got this one free for my Kindle. Something causes all technology world wide to stop working. The book focuses on one family learning how to survive with no electricity, cell phones, xbox, facebook...you get the picture. There are three more in the series that I want to read eventually. I will say the writing was not all that great, and one of the characters was really annoying, but the story was fun.

Dug Down Deep ~ Joshua Harris ~ A

Review here.

On Who is God ~ Mark Driscoll ~ A

Another Kindle Cheapie. Very good, short, easy to read explanation of  God and why we believe what we believe. There is a series of these books on different aspects of the Christian faith, and I hope tho read them all. Highly recommended.

The Great Divide ~ T. Davis Bunn ~ B-

I originally gave this book a C+, but I decided that was a little harsh. It is a political/legal thriller which aren't really my cup of tea. It is about a lawyer who takes on an unwinable case against the Chinese government and a large American corporation. There is a good twist at the end.

The Potluck Club ~ Linda evens Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson ~ B+

Kindle freebie. I liked this book. It reminded me of The Yada Yada books. A group of friends meet every month to 'pray' together. Mostly they eat and gossip. By the end of the book they begin to know what real prayer looks like, and have grown closer together. There are some yummy sounding recipes at the end of the book too. I plan to read the next 2 in the series as soon as I can get my hands on them.

Alice's Tulips ~ Sandra Dallas ~ B+

Disclaimer: This is not a Christian book. That being said I really enjoyed it. It is clean, and I don't remember any bad language. There are some adult themes, and the author gets her opinion about abortion in a couple of times.The story is set during the Civil War in Iowa. It is told in letters between Alice and her sister. Alice does a lot of growing throughout the book, which is good, because she starts out rather petty and selfish. Even though it is not a Christian book, Christianity is present and treated respectfully for the most part. I plan on trying out another book by this author at some point.

Well, it looks like the best books I read this month were theology books. I added my favorites to the side bar. If you read any of these let me know what you think.

I Bless the Rains Down in Africa

Anna and I ended the school year in Botswana, Africa. It was a lovely visit, and we didn't even have to leave our home. We used a Five in a Row style unit study from Home School Share based on Honey, Honey, Lion by Jan Brett. It was a great end to the school year. The highlight of the study was making papyrus paper and drawing "hieroglyphs" on it. Here are some pictures and a list of the books we read for our study.

Honey, Honey, Lion ~ Jan Brett

Lions ~ Gallimard Jeunesse

Lions at Lunchtime ~ Mary Pope Osborne

Botswana ~ Sara Louise Kras

The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive

The Life and Times of the Honeybee

Waterhole Waiting ~ Jane and Christopher Kurtz

The Water Hole ~ Graeme Base

Anna and I had lot of fun learning this year. It is hard to believe she will be a 4th grader. This year really reaffirmed my love of literature unit studies. I plan to continue them next year, but with chapter books. I can't wait!

Wordless Wednesday: Adam and Anna

Spring Reading Thing 2011 ~ Conclusion

Spring is over, and so is the Spring Reading Thing challenge at Callapider Days. I did pretty well this year. I had 10 books on my list, and I read most of them, gave up on a few of them, and am still reading one of them. Here is a break down of my list and how I rated each book.

Books I completed:

Sing ~ Lisa T Bergran ~ C

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ ~ John Piper ~ A

The Shadow Women ~ Angela Hunt ~ A

Thin Places ~ Mary DeMuth ~ A

The Pirate Queen ~ C-

Life in Defiance ~ Mary DeMuth ~ A

Books I gave up on:

The Moment Between ~ Nicole Baart

Paradise Valley ~ Dale Cramer

Green Rider ~ Kristin Britain

Still reading:

Jane Eyre ~ Charlotte Bronte

I had a lot of fun and read some great books. You can check out what the other participants did here.

Book Review: Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris

I recently read Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris. It is a very readable and understandable study of systematic theology. The author has an engaging writing style, and effectively uses stories from his own life to get his message across. His explanation of the basic doctrines of Christianity is easy to understand. I would recommend this book to any one who wants to know more about their faith, and why we believe what we believe. I think it would be an excellent study for youth and young adults, and I plan to have both of my teens read it.

This book was given to me free by Waterbrook Multnomah for the purpose of review.