What I'm Reading

It has been a while since I have updated my "reading" posts. I have read a few books, but the most interesting has been The Boy in the Alamo by Margaret Cousins. I had intended to read it before I visited the Alamo, but didn't get around to it. I did read it right after we got home and enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. It was great to have a picture in my head of all the structures and history that they talked about in the book. While this book is classified as fiction, it is heavy on actual history and great learning tool. I know all you Texans out there are familiar with this time period, but for a Mississippi girl like me, this was a great chance to learn some wonderful history about the Republic of Texas!
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Monday feature: What I'm Reading

Since my last post, I have read/listened to quite a few books. I was painting some rooms for one of my friends who is trying to sell her house. Being alone in a house painting gave me lots of free time. Plus, I am slow, methodical painter! The first book I listened to was Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. Since I did not know anything about Theodore Roosevelt before this time I learned a lot: he loved to hunt (the story of the teddy bear comes from him), he designated lots of national parks and monuments, he was urged to run for a third term as president (which he declined, though reluctantly), and he was a pretty good peace keeper.

The second book I listed too was Empire by Orson Scott Card. It is a fictionalized look at how a second civil war could happen in America. It dealt mainly with the polarization of red/blue politics and control of military might. I enjoyed it, but then again, I like almost anything that Orson Scott Card writes.

How can I even begin to describe this book? Terry Pratchett once again weaves so many plot lines together that it just seems natural in Witches Abroad. It involves magic mirrors, fairy godmothers and lots and lots of fairy tales becoming reality.

I am almost finished with Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. While I knew a little bit more about Franklin than Roosevelt, I still didn't know much. And I have never read his autobiography (which is quoted throughout). He seems like a very interesting character who loved learning, science, politics, and most of all, talking. While he always had a gift with words, he appeared to combine humility and wisdom later in life to bring about some of the most important documents in all of American history.

I am currently reading "fluff" as my husband calls it. I will update you again next week. Happy Reading!

Monday feature: What I'm Reading

I am finally getting it together on this Monday. I have decided what color to paint the kitchen, taken out all the nails in the wall, spackled the holes and even did some cleaning. I am even ready to share about the most precious book I have read in a long time.

Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis is a wonderful children's book about, well, the title explains it all. It is almost a picture book- there is only one line on each page. Here is the summary from the author:

When a young girl asks her parents about the first night of her life, she wants to know every detail. Was she tiny and perfect? How did her parents feel during their first night together? Why had her mommy and daddy decided to adopt her? Funny, tender, and altogether exuberant, here is one family’s celebration of their first cherished moments together.

I have so many favorite lines: Tell me again how you held hands all the way to the hospital and when you got there you both got very quiet and felt very small. . . Tell me again about the first time you held me in your arms and called me your baby sweet. Tell me again how you cried happy tears. . . Tell me again how you carried me like a china doll all the way home and how you glared at anyone who sneezed [they were in an airport]. . .Tell me again about the first night you were my mommy and you sang the lullaby your mommy sang to you.

With our first home study visit over and our second one on the way, I have been reading lots of adoption books. Kids books, adult books, fiction, nonfiction. This is my favorite so far. And Kirst- I know you will love this book!

What I'm Reading

Here I am back to the blogging world after a week of vacation. I had the opportunity to finish listening to a very funny book. The Well of Lost Plots (A Thursday Next Series) by Jasper Fforde is the third in a series featuring Thursday Next. She is a literary detective who solves literary crimes. For instance, she changes the ending to Jane Eyre and gets to the bottom of the Shakespeare impersonation scheme. In this book she actually goes into Wuthering Heights for their anger management session. Did I mention that her mentor is Miss Havisham from Great Expectations?

This book is actually to complicated to spell out the plot, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I must warn you that I would give this a PG rating for language and situations.

What I'm Reading

I just finished a great book: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. It was the 2008 Caldecott Medal winner. It is so hard to describe or summarize. Amazing and wonderful, it goes by so fast you don't even notice that it is 533 pages.

Monday feature: What I'm Reading

I read a fun little book this weekend. It's title is Eric. It is part of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I have read/listened to a few of the Discworld books and thought I would try out this one. Death makes an appearance (he is a bee keeper on top of everything else) and Rincewind and the Luggage are back! I love the Luggage. Here is what is on the back of the book:

Discworld's only demonology hacker, Eric, is about to make life very difficult for the rest of Ankh-Morpork's denizens. This would-be Faust is very bad...at his work, that is. All he wants is to fulfill three little wishes:to live forever, to be master of the universe, and to have a stylin' hot babe. But Eric isn't even good at getting his own way. Instead of a powerful demon, he conjures, well, Rincewind, a wizard whose incompetence is matched only by Eric's. And as if that wasn't bad enough, that lovable travel accessory the Luggage has arrived, too. Accompanied by his best friends, there's only one thing Eric wishes now -- that he'd never been born!

That was my fun, fast read this weekend. How about you?