Summer Reading list, take 2

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park : great perspective book for me, would be a good one for kids to read so they can also gain some perspective and gratitude. It is 2 different accounts of a child's life in Sudan.


Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl: had never read this very, very short book. I love Roald Dahl and I just recently saw the movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is hysterical and very clever. I simply wanted to see how the movie and book matched. In this case, I liked the movie more, which is rare...


The Middle of Somewhere by J.B. Cheaney: I think this book was recommended as a summer read in the Friend. It was pretty funny and boys and girls, ages 8 and up would enjoy it. It is about a brother and sister who take a summer trip with their almost stranger grandfather through Kansas.


The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard: this book was recommended to me by my friend, Meagan Sullivan. I liked this book because I couldn't guess the outcome and that is refreshing. It is definitely an adult read. It is a mystery.


The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe: just picked them up at the library on a whim, the illustrations by Ryan Price are magnificent, and that is what attracted me to this particular rendition. I had read the raven before, but never The Tell-Tale Heart although I had heard/seen it referrenced many times before. I am AMAZED at Mr. Poe's gift, truly remarkable his poeticism (is that even a word). It prompted me to research his life and I found a very colorful and somewhat disturbed individual. Like most writers/poets/artists from the past, he did not achieve much success until after his death.


Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool: This is the 2010 Newberry Medal Winner and it is a revelatory book for me. The writing is superb, the characters are rich and have a lot of depth. I found myself both laughing and feeling emotional as well. I don't want to give much away, it is about a young girl searching her father's past and discovering both things about herself and the town where he is from and the town's people as well. It is clever and insightful. There is some writing on pg 143-144 that is magic to me. I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone 10 -100.

Forever by Maggie Stievater: The 3rd book in a trilogy, I read the 1st because Autumn bought it at the school book fair. It seems since the Twilight craze, all these trilogies and series of books involving fantasy and paranormal, witches, vampires, werewolves, fairies etc...have just taken over the young adult section of modern fiction. I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly astounded. This author is a poet. The writing is achingly beautiful, the subject interesting and surprisingly deep. I Loved it. I am a big fan of consequences even in my mythical fiction. I want characters to have conflicts and not necessarily happy endings. This book was a great ending to the series. It did not disappoint and was just as good as the other two, which is rare. Great read for YA's and adults.

Garden

I'll admit it, I was a garden pessimist....some of my most unfond childhood memories are of weeding the garden. Yes, I was a lazy kid..or just uninterested or I didn't see the point. Little did I know that like all of those things you don't appreciate when you're a kid, growing a garden became an important thing for me to do. South Texas with its tropical climate is a little different than Idaho so I had to learn when to grow and how to grow and what to grow. Basically, it is so miserably, blazing hot that not much grows in the middle of summer. You plant end of February or you wait until September. We decided to try container or box gardens (orange fencing is to keep dog out, u can see another box next to it that got planted a couple weeks after that) and planted mostly from seed, except our tomatoes and a few herbs. Well, low and behold, it seems I may have a green thumb after all! I surprised myself by growing quite abundantly: cucumbers, tomatoes, zuchinni, parlsey, oregano, basil, cantaloupe, watermelon, chives, red peppers and I mean abundantly. They grew rampant and beautifully! And they did not stop growing! We had cucumbers and zuchinni for every meal :) We decided to plant pumpkins just recently---not sure if they will grow because it is so hot, but we have an entire box garden full of pumpkin blossoms, so I'll keep you posted. What surprised me the most is how excited and motivated I was to yield something from my semi-hard work and a simple seed---there's some symbolism there, right?

update on reading list

I decided to do a little update on my summer reading list. It is now mid July and I have offiicially read 11 books on my list, only 3 to go! For some reason, I really gravitate to juvenile fiction award winners....I know, I know I am not 10 years old anymore, but all in all, the books I read from that particular section are by far the best things I read. I think this is why: there is not any graphic language or sex, the writing by and far is simple and beautiful, the subject matters (believe it or not) are deep and profound, and they are quick reads. I also like to read what my kids are reading so I spend quite a bit of time reading juvenile fiction and young adult fiction. From my list, I read 2 beautiful books that are jf: Love, Aubrey and Mockingbird. Love, Aubrey is about a girl who goes to live with her Grandmother after a family tradgedy and learns to sort through her feelings by writing letters to herself. And, Mockingbird is about a young girl who has asperger's and how she deals with her brother's death. Both are beautifully written and poignant. I would recommend either to adults and children 9+. Another on my list I enjoyed was the final book in a trilogy called The Forgotten Locket by Lisa Mangum (incidentally, this book just won an award). True to form (at least in my mind), it was not as good as the other two in the series...but only slightly. There are times it got too descriptive if that makes sense. But great YA fiction, great for mothers and daughters. Same goes for Matched---that I did not know was part of a trilogy! So, a little frustrated to get sucked in and now have to wait for the next.


A few other thoughts about the books I have read thus far:


To Kill A Mockingbird---why hadn't I read this before? Of course groundbreaking and thoughtful, but also hilarious!


Animal Farm---seriously made me think I was back in High School and didn't feel like "analyzing"


The Catcher in the Rye--ugghhh! Kept waiting for this book to do ANYTHING..towards the end I got what it was supposed to be, but sorry folks, not a big fan. Enough bad language to last me a lifetime.


Witch and Wizard--fun read, quick read, kids Chelsea's age would like it and of course, it is a series


Hiding Place--about the holocaust, true story, very insightful and some great thoughts on being happy no matter what your situation


Anthem--aka the Giver, Matched, The City of Ember etc etc...of course it came first.....same genre, same good ideas and thoughts.


And, I shall let you all know how Forever turns out after I read it this weekend. Just released on 7/12 so gotta go pick it up at Sam's. I have high expectations for this one so I hope it doesn't disappoint.


That will leave me with 2 books on the list that I already verified were "in" at my library and then I will have to make a new list!

My Summer Reading List

Oh how I love to read! I cannot tell you how much I love to hold a book in my hand, to feel the pages, to smell them even. I am a traditionalist, no kindle or nook for me, I need to have the book in my hand, I like to use bookmarks. The best thing about the summer is unlimited trips to the library, occasional trips to Barnes and Noble, and uninterrupted time to lounge around on my couch, reading. That is, an attempt at uninterrupted time laying about, reading. I have been writing down titles of books that I have seen at Target or that someone has mentioned to me or that Autumn/Chelsea/Taggart are reading or that I've been waiting ever so patiently for the sequel to be released, or they are classics I just haven't ever read, on little scraps or bits of paper or sticky notes all over my house....and now as I gather them up, (I am sure I will find more) I have an official summer reading list. It is one week into my summer vacation and I have read 3....only 11 to go!

1. Witch and Wizard by James Patterson
2. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
3. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
4. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
5. The Middle of Somewhere by JB Cheaney
6. The Forgotten Locket by Lisa Mangum
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
9. Animal Farm by George Orwell
10. Your Handwriting Can Change Your Life by Yimala Rogers
11. Matched by Ally Condie
12. Love, Aubrey by Suzanee Le Fleur
13. Anthem by Ayn Rand
14. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

All We Do...

All I do is drive Autumn, Chelsea, and Taggart to any and all after school sports practices and games/meets. Our life really does revolve around these activities and most times, they are over-lapping and it takes my own internal franklin planner to organize them....who has what and when and can I be in 2 places at once? But, I can't complain because I love to see my kiddos working hard and enjoying all these sports. I like to see who they are becoming :)

Peanuts, popcorn....

We surprised our kids by taking them to the circus. I had never been to the circus and actually didn't have much desire to go, but we got some discount tickets and decided to take the whole family....and, We had a BLAST! Taggart and Chelsea rode an elephant, the animal acts and the people acts were fantastic. Check out the pics:

a little catch-up, holiday style

Check out our December activities:

*Chelsea's first band concert. She is playing flute and loving it!

*Our Ward Christmas Party. Chelsea, as a reluctant Mary. The boy playing Joseph, Angel Claudio, was also not too thrilled. When it came time for them to go to the stable, they sat as far apart as possible :)

*Taggart and our good neighbor friend, Andria were shepherds. They both won the academy awards for their performances, hamming it up the whole time....

*Hidalgo Festival of Lights. Grandma and Grandpa came for the holiday season this year and as you can tell with the jackets, it was actually a little cool (Like maybe in the 50's? haha).

*Gingerbread Houses. I love, love this tradition. It is A LOT of work, but everyone has a great time decorating homemade gingerbread houses with all sorts of delicious, sugary candies.