What I Love

I love books and I love hot chocolate.  Sometimes at the same time.  I like my hot chocolate extra strong made with half water half milk and then cooled down with just a little skim milk.  And I really like to dip my nine-grain toast with butter in it.  Mmmm.  (I think I'll go have some right now.  Seriously.)  But that's not really what I wanted to write about and since there's not much more to say about hot chocolate, let's just talk about books.  I think that is one of the reasons I have been lagging in my blogging, I have been finding so many good books and then I start reading them and then that leads to more books and I can't get enough!

You can read more of my reviews on my Goodreads account. (If you're not on Goodreads, you should be!  I would really love to hear what you are reading and what you thought about it.)  But lately I have gotten hooked into a couple REALLY good, life-changing type books . . .

One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide



When I finish, I will review them on Goodreads, but I already love them and highly doubt that it will go downhill from here.  So I highly recommend them.

I am hosting book club this month and we are reading a book called Moloka'i.  I'd call it historical fiction.  It is a sad, but endearing story about a girl at the turn of the century who is banished, at the age of 7, to a remote leper colony on one of the Hawaiian islands.  I haven't finished this one either, but I would say it is a "must-read" to keep us aware of these atrocities that have happened in our past.  I have had a tear or two at least every other chapter.

And onto this coming year, in one of my book clubs, we decide the books almost a year in advance.  So here's the list, tell me if you have read any of them and what you thought...

The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (yes, I will be reading it with both book clubs this year)
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
These is My Words by Nancy Turner
Decision Points by George Bush
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer
Matched by Ally Condie

Books that were cut from the list because of questionable content (as we are all good Christian women) - Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  Have you read either of those?  What did you think?  I think I may still read them to determine for myself, especially the latter as I have heard rave reviews about it.

Oh, and one other book I got from Cody's preschool teacher - Use Your Words - totally altered my parental thinking.  Even though it is written for teachers, I would highly recommend it for parents of preschoolers or toddlers.  Like did you know that you actually shouldn't tell your little ones to "say sorry"?  The best little snippet I took from it was - when giving directions to your child and they are not complying, assume that they didn't understand and go from there.  This has saved alot of frustration for both mother and child in this house, and I have come to see that often it is quite true.

I would love to hear what you're reading and any recommendations you have . . .

My husband is going on a date without me!

Don't worry, it's a man-date.  Remember this post where I was going to finish what I started years ago as Corbin and I read The Lightning Thief together?  Well, yeah, that lasted like one chapter.  It's really not my style and reading it again was something I just couldn't do.  But the good news is that Russ and Corbin started reading it together and they have both loved it!  So tomorrow, Russ and Corbin are going with Russ' friend and his son to see it at the theater.  I'm so excited and I'm not even going!  But I am so proud of both of them and I LOVE seeing Corbin get excited about something.  And Russ doesn't get to read for fun very often, so it has been good for both of them.  They have been reading some together and then some seperately.  Corbin loved calling Russ at work and telling him how far he had read and that dad was going to have to catch up with him.  Way to go boys!  Have fun!!

Read much?

Back in 2008, I posted this about the two book clubs I am a part of - what we were reading, how much I love it, etc.  And now I am looking at all my posts from 2009 and I can't believe that I didn't post ONE thing about book club or reading - both of which are a major part of my life.  Sounds a little weird, I know, but most of my close friends are a part of one or the other of my book clubs and having a set night every month ensures that with our crazy, busy lives we will see each other at least once a month.  I love my book club girlfriends!  Yes, we talk about books, but we also catch up on each other's lives, vent our frustrations about work and kids and husbands, and share lots of laughs.  (check out one of my friends' posts on "The Rules of Book Club", its a perfect description, plus you can see a picture of my cute snowman)

So it is sort of interesting that in the afore mentioned post, we were about to read The Lightning Thief,  which since it is now going to be released as a movie, Corbin and I are just starting to read it together.  I DID attempt to break away from my normal genre and read it with the group before, but I just couldn't finish it.  Hopefully reading it with Corbin will make it more interesting and give me incentive to finish. :)

Also mentioned in the first post was my Goodreads link.  If you want to check out the books I've read and what I rated them, you can check it out there.  I don't think I can list them all here.  The only thing I will mention is - loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (highly recommend it) and Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks (even though I'm not usually a fan) learned a ton from Eats, Shoots and Leaves and did not really like A Woman in Jerusalem (sorry, Megan).  If you do go to my Goodreads list, I would love to hear what you think about any of the books on my "to-read" list - like "you should definitely read this" or "don't waste your time". It's always good to hear what real people think about books, not just the NY Times critics.