WWRW: June Bundle of Books

It's been real busy in these parts. You know. May and all that comes with it, plus four birthdays at my house. I did manage to read a few books though.

Yes, I do bring books to my kid's baseball games. He's not always up to bat.

Speaking of Edmund, we both enjoyed Gerald Morris's The Squire's Tale. Our young protagonist, Terence, cares for a hermit with the gift of prophecy. When a wanna-be knight crosses his path, the hermit foretells both of their futures. Terence leaves with the future Sir Gawain as his squire.

Off they ride, to meet King Arthur and go on a quest. Like other Arthurian tales, some of the adventures are somewhat bizarre, but all come with a lesson to take away. Morris gives these ancient characters new life with flaws and personalities all their own. Terence is a kind-hearted boy and Gawain is a likable knight struggling to be noble.

This is not a new series. Just new to us. Back in 1998 the good people at School Library Journal wrote,

"Overall, this is a good story, well told, both original and true to the legend of Gawain, counteracting his lesser position in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Readers who savor swashbuckling tales of knighthood will enjoy this adventure. Librarians will find a great choice of comic and breathtaking quests for booktalks."

I agree with those statements and with their assessed age of appropriateness as Grades 5 to 9. Edmund and I just got Book 2 of this series of 10 (hooray for series!): The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady.

The lovely Laura Pearl wrote a new novel for middle schoolers, Erin's Ring.

When Molly McCormick, new girl in Dover, New Hampshire, finds an old claddaugh ring outside the local Catholic church, she sets out on a journey of discovery about the city's history and Catholic heritage.

There are lots of heroines in this novel. We learn the lineage of the ring's owners while Molly makes a friend and works on a history project for school. Each of the women who owned the ring faced different challenges as immigrant, factory worker, single mother and widow, and star-crossed lover.

Erin's Ring is a sweet story with lots of Irish-American history and idioms. The Irish brogues are very thick and there is a glossary in the back of the book to help those unfamiliar with Irish vernacular.

I did note one anachronism is Erin's Ring.  One of the nineteenth century heroines finds herself on January 1st, bemoaning the fact that there is no Catholic church in town to celebrate the Solemnity of Mary. January 1st was the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord until 1969, when it was changed to the Solemnity of Mary. I know this because the pastor at the parish where I grew up joked that the diocese had been naming parishes after events in the life of our Lord. When our parish was built, there were only two events left: the Transfiguration and the Circumcision. But this doesn't affect the story in any way.

Erin's Ring is both shorter and more innocent than Laura's first novel Finding Grace, making it appropriate for any middle-school reader.

I'm trying to read more grown-up books this summer. I'm about a third of the way in to Jennifer Chiaverini's Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule. We are going to Galena later this month, and I have some distant familial ties to Ulysses S. Grant, so this historical novel is of particular interest to me.

As @reinventingmother commented on my Instagram photo, it is a little slow. Sometimes slow is what I need however. "Slow" allows me to take in all of the historical and political details of the time.

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule is a tale of two women, both named Julia. One is the Southern belle, Julia Dent who eventually marries the quiet Captain Grant, and the other is her slave since childhood, Jule.  Jule was given to Julia at the age of four to be her playmate.

I was unaware that the great military mind of the North was married to a slave owner from St. Louis. The family politics alone are worth the read. Julia is the lesser of two heroines, at least where I am in the novel. She is naive to the feelings of the "help" and over-confident in her role as master/beneficiary.

What I like about this book is that it's missing the sex and graphic violence that I've come to expect from best-sellers. That's not to say that there isn't any romance or tales of the horrible treatment of slaves. Chiaverini does an excellent job with both without offending my delicate sensibilities.

Now for the monthly link up for people who found time to read books and write what they thought about them.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: #housewifespicereads and Self-Help Books

Another possible title for this post is Lazy Blogger Links Up with Her Own Link-Up.

I'm a big Laura Vanderkam fan.  Like Malcolm Gladwell, her non-fiction prose is readable by my fiction-loving mind. Her book All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Wealth is a keeper. I bought it. I rarely buy books. 

Okay. That's not quite true. I only buy the best books.

All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Wealth explains how the happiest people are not the wealthiest. Far from it. The happiest people are the people who live within their means. Shoot. Now you don't need to read the book. But you should! I found it very inspiring!

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: And Two Other Short Guides to Achieving More at Work and at Home also by Laura Vanderkam has some interesting insights.

For example, did you know that willpower is a muscle in your brain?

Did you know that it's easier to exercise a muscle, any muscle, including willpower, earlier in the day?

It's more difficult to exercise willpower later in the day because we get tired. That's why people blow their diets or blow off exercising or procrastinate more later in the day.

But wait!

If something is a habit, you don't use your willpower muscle to do it.

Vanderkam uses the example of brushing one's teeth.

Hopefully, teens and adults have made a habit of brushing teeth before bed. We don't have to talk ourselves into it. It takes zero willpower.

At some point, an action repeated regularly becomes a habit.

I'm not exactly certain when that transformation occurs because my three year old still must be cajoled into brushing her teeth. And wiping for that matter. And washing her hands after wiping.

TMI? My apologies.

I'm not quite through with What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: And Two Other Short Guides to Achieving More at Work and at Home buxt I'm insprired to make better use of my early morning hours. Perhaps even to *gasp* blog more!

#housewifespicepicturebooks

Because my blogging time is severely restricted what with running the insane asylum in tandem with running St. Jude's School for Kids Who Wanna Read Good, I've started using Instagram more.

Taking my cue from some other book-loving bloggers, I've started taking pictures of books and using the #housewifespicepicturebooks hashtag for kiddie lit and #housewifespicereads for everything else.

Don't run and search those hashtags this minute because you will find less than four posts. My hope is that my collection will grow over time. Someday you may find yourself in the library and wonder "What did Jessica recommend for toddlers?" Then you can search the #housewifespicepicturebooks hashtag and see lots of good book ideas.

I 'grammed a picture of Trim Healthy Mama by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett.  This book is nearly 600 pages. Jam packed with nutritional information, scientific and medical studies, and recipes, the former Christian music artist sisters promote a healthy way of living that boils down to one recommendation.

Eat healthy fats (in moderation). Eat good carbs (in moderation). But don't eat them together.

They have lots of other recommendations too such as cutting out sugar and refined wheat, waiting three hours between your fatty meals and your carby meals.

I know giving up sugar aids weight loss. I joined Whole Parenting Family's Nell for a No Sugar for 30 Days Facebook group. Not only did I start waking up on my own, but I lost four pounds without even trying.

Trim Healthy Mama has a whole chapter devoted to hormones and why birth control pills are bad for you.

I've been reading and re-reading the same chapters over and over again, because I'm having difficulty remembering what all of the acronyms stand for. However, I'm test-driving their plan and trying some recipes.

Serene and Pearl have large families, are Christians, and homeschool. I appreciate getting advice from someone who understands my lifestyle as they do. Their distinct personalities come through when you read how Serene soaks all of her nuts and grains before eating, whereas Pearl advocates the use of "Franken" foods like fat free Redi-Whip.

I'm linking this post up with the April WWRW Link Up.  It's still alive, it's still open for now. Come May 6th, I'll have a brand new sparkly link-up all ready for you.  Until then check out all the wonderful reviews of what other bloggers are reading.

WWRW: Non-Fiction I Have Loved

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming is an intense page turner.  Fleming braids three historical perspectives together in one book that I found engrossing as well as enlightening.

First, she provides an intimate look at the seven Romanovs themselves, the backgrounds of both Nicholas and Alexander, and many, many details of their lives. This is made possible by the release of primary sources, diaries, letters, etc. by the Russian government in 1991.

Secondly, she provides step-by-step explanations of Russian governments from the tsars through Stalin. This historical information provides the backdrop against which the Romanov tragedy plays out.  The reader is provided a view of the social and political conditions of early 20th century Russia that Nicholas and Alexandra either were not privy to (due to being surrounded by ministers who hid the nasty bits from them) or would not believe,which according to Fleming, happened quite a bit.

Lastly, the Romanov drama is contrasted with snippets of newspaper articles and journal entries of peasants, factory workers, and Russian soldiers from the same time period.

I would like anyone who reads this book to come over soon and dish with me over vodka drinks and caviar.

SO MUCH TO DISCUSS! How could Alexandra better fulfilled her grandmother's (Queen Victoria's) wish that she win the people's love?

What if Nicholas II had not abdicated? What if the White Army had reached Ekaterinburg before the executions/murders? Would his dynasty have been re-instated?

Are the Romanovs saints? According to some Orthodox Churches they are. They were certainly pious, though according to Fleming they were anti-Semites.

Marie Antoinette and the Romanovs. Similarities and differences. Go.

I am not familiar with the Russian Orthodox Church's canonization process. How does it differ from the Roman rite?

I was not aware that in some Orthodox churches, there are different kinds of saints, or degrees of sainthood.  The author takes pains to explain some of these "levels" at the end of the book.

Rasputin. All the mystery of Rasputin. Was he a madman? Was he possessed? Was he simply a con man and Alexandra his greatest "mark?" Could he actually hypnotize people by staring deeply into their eyes? I wrote my high school senior year term paper on Rasputin.  I still find him and his hold on the Russian royal family fascinating.

Did you know THEY FOUND THE MISSING ROMANOV BODIES in 2007? Did you know that the American team of DNA scientists and the Russian team disagree on which five Romanov bodies are interred in the royal vault in the cathedral in St. Petersburg?

I can't even tell you all of the good stuff in this book.

Yes. It is a "kid's book."

Shut. Up.

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia won the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction and was a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.

The Robert F. Sibert Award is awarded "to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published during the previous year."

I haven't read all of the Sibert Award Winners and Honor Books (though I would love too), but I have read some such as:

Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon (Newbery Honor Book) by Steve Sheinkin

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Secrets Of A Civil War Submarine: Solving The Mysteries Of The H. L. Hunley by Sally M. Walker

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Newbery Honor Book) by Jim Murphy

The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler

I also read As the Waltz Was Ending by Emma Macalik Butterworth. It's not an award winner, but it was recommend by an old friend and it is a historical memoir.  It takes place during World War II which is my favorite time period.

 As the Waltz Was Ending is the memoir of a young Austrian girl in the 1930s. She is accepted into the Vienna State Opera Ballet School just as Hitler comes to power.  Her adolescence and ascendance through the ranks of the ballet academie and the spread of Nazi Germany are told in tandem.

As you may expect, Emma's story is a sad one. Sad but interesting enough.

SUPER SAD SPOILERS AHEAD!

Then I hit the last chapter where Emma and her friend get abducted by Soviets, they are raped in a farmhouse (disturbing but not detailed), from which Emma escapes but her friend is killed in the attempt.

oh. Her father kills himself too.

But, she marries an American guy, moves to the United States and lives happily ever after, then writes this memoir.

As the Waltz Was Ending is okay, but go forth and read The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia instead.

When you get your hot little hands on The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia , don't bother flipping to the index in the back of the book looking for the Prince or Princess Kuragin, recent guests of the Dowager Countess Grantham.

There is no index.

WWRW: Twitter Style.

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt. National Book Award Finalist. Might be my favorite Appelt book. Holes meets Hoot with raccoons, sugar pies, gator wrestling, and a cryptid. Gotta love a cryptid.

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin. Winner of the first #CharlotteHuck award. High-functioning autistic girl loves rules and homonyms. Loses dog in hurricane. Sad homelife with single dad who drinks. Happy ending makes it worthwhile.

Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass. very sci fi. Not my fave. Hard to get into another world, species, etc. Protagonist runs around most of the book trying to find a solution to his problem, but not finding it. Enjoyed the afterword.

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor Book and Robert F. Sibert Honor Book. Little known (to me) story of California's desegregation of Mexican American schools. Fascinating pictures with Aztec? influences? Jill thought the ears were weird.

The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge. Old favorite. Big time Goudge fan here. First few chapters are rough going. Much description. Very historical background. Stick with it because this book is a treasure. New discoveries every time I read it. Also, Jill may be Bella.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW February Link-Up

Welcome back to the What We're Reading Wednesday book review link-up party!

I post book reviews nearly every Wednesday here at Housewifespice{dot}com, and I used to have a weekly link-up. Then I had a baby. A high-need baby. Then, I fell off the blogging wagon.

I'm clawing my way back, slowly but surely, but I'm not confident enough yet to host a weekly link-up, so monthly it is. For now.

Here's what I've been reading.

Old college friends were discussing old books on the Facebook. I'm a sucker for old books. So I cracked my knuckles and opened up the World Catalog on my library's website and proceeded to track down some endangered titles with the skill of a Tatooine bounty hunter.

Hannah Fowler by Janice Holt Giles, where have you been all my life?

We first meet Hannah in the wilds of unsettled Kentucky territory, in 1777.

I said SEVENTEEN seventy-seven.

Not Eighteen seventy-seven, like those Ingalls and Wilder folks. Livin' the easy life in the 19th century. Railroads and telegrams and sewing machines. Pish posh.

This book is hard core.

Hannah is tending her pa, Samuel, who is suffering from a self-inflicted ax wound. They are alone and had been on their way to Daniel Boone's fort when the accident occurred. Alone. In the middle of an unsettled land filled with unknown dangers, Indians, mountain lions, bears, wolves, tetanus. Dutifully and skillfully, Hannah hunts and forages, tends the camp, and nurses her father. She is SurvivorWoman.

Hannah is a plain woman. When her mother died, Samuel raised her "as good as a man." She can hunt, track, handle an ax, build a loom, cut fence posts, as well as cook, spin, weave, and bake. There's not much she can't do.

She is painfully shy however. And extremely humble.

She has a chance meeting with another human in the endless forest. Tice Fowler had been searching for his stolen horses when he meets Hannah. He kindly stays with Hannah and her father until they can travel. Unfortunately, Hannah's father does not survive his injury. Tice kindly helps Hannah bury her father and offers to escort her to civilization.

Hannah accompanies Tice to Ben Logan's fort and sees her safely esconced in the care of Mrs. Ben Logan. It doesn't take long for word to get around that there is a single female in the area.  Hannah is courted by every eligible bachelor and widower for miles around.

Only one man will do for Hannah. She overcomes her shyness to make Tice Fowler her partner for life.

The novel goes on to tell of their marriage, the building of a home and a family, the accumulation of stock, the passing of seasons.

I was perfectly content for the book to stay this way, happily ever after and so on and so forth. But deeeeep into the novel, 4/5 or 5/6 of the way in, danger and destruction threaten. Hannah is up to any hardship though. Nothing can stop her.

Janice Holt Giles is real fond of writing the dialogue in a countrified dialect. It's a mite burdensome at the get-go, but you'll soon be swimmin' like a duck. Giles wrote this epic in 1956, and her treatment of Native peoples is less than politically correct, historically accurate though it may be. I do not know.

Hannah Fowler is a novel about real love, romance, and contentment. It is also a novel about crazy people who went to live in the vast unknown in the middle ages with nothing but a gun, an iron kettle, a spinning wheel, and an axe head. For real. Just the axe head. Hannah makes the handle herself.

I will stop now.

Now for the part we've all been scrolling down to see...

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: One for grown-ups, one for teens.

My mother sent me a trilogy for Christmas. A trilogy I had never heard of. The first volume is Seek the Fair Land by Walter Macken.

By page twelve, I was hooked, and horrified.  This book is sad.

Very, very sad.

When I told Patrick that, he responded, "Of course it's sad.  It's IRISH!"

Yes.  One very sad, but somehow uplifting historical novel about 16th century Ireland is what I'm talking about.

Coincidentally, I saw that someone shared this article on Facebook, right when I was in the middle of the book.  The article (from CNN.com) is about the little known Irish slavery that was common in Barbados, Jamaica, and throughout the Caribbean as well as other atrocities inflicted by Cromwell and the British on the Irish.

I googled the name of the tiny town in Seek the Fair Land that gets razed, and ohmygosh, it's a real place!  Over three days in 1642, every.single.person in Drogheda was slaughtered.  History estimates that maybe 30 escaped to be sold into slavery in Barbados.

Every single person, except the four who are the main characters of this book.

Seek the Fair Land is about a young man who escapes the massacre with his two young children and an injured priest.  They spend the next several years avoiding mankind and living in the wild, eventually making their way back into civilization.  That doesn't last too long though and they find themselves on the run again.

SPOILER: This book has a happy(ish) ending.  If I had known that when I began reading it, it wouldn't have been nearly as terrifying.

WARNINGS: This book has rape, infanticide, murder, brutality, nudity, and I'm certain I'm forgetting more. None of these things is described in a glorified or particularly detailed way.

On The Other Hand, this book has great courage, great love in the face of great evil, saintliness, martyrdom, and miracles.

Seek the Fair Land is a great book, for adults, or nearly adults.  Great for Catholics, great for people of Irish descent, great for young men, or anyone who likes well-written historical fiction.

It's very sad though.  So I'm taking a break before I read the next title in the trilogy.

Unfortunately, for my next book I happened to choose a young adult novel about a Jack the Ripper copycat serial killer in London, set in modern times.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson is about Rory, a young native of Louisiana who ends up attending boarding school in London's East End when she is seventeen. The day she arrives is also the first day the "new" Jack strikes.

Killing on the same dates, in the same fashion, and in nearly the same locations, this Jack the Ripper's territory is all around Rory's new school.

The book has loads of fun and fluffy stuff about Rory adjusting to  boarding school, her light romance, snogging, field hockey, classwork etc. About halfway in, we learn something very interesting about Rory.

Due to a near death experience she had on her first day of class, she can see ghosts. And talk to them. And they can see her.

Enter the Ghostbusters, or the Shades of London rather.  The Shades are a division of the police force with the ability to see and if necessary, destroy ghosts.  Their target: New Jack.  New Jack's target: Rory.

For a YA book about a serial killer, it wasn't that bad.  I'll let my high school girls read it.  If they dare...

Don't forget the big What We're Reading Wednesday Come Back Link Up Party Next Wednesday, February 4th!  I cannot wait to read all of the e-book-reports.

WWRW: Five of Our Current Favorites

I'm baaack.  Today anyway.  One day at a time.  Minute by minute.

1.  America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution Volume 2 is bringing sanity and deliciousness to our dinner table, with lots of "open, dump, walk away" recipes that I can manage in the 3.2 minutes Polly will stay in the Bumpo.

This is my copy.  I flagged every recipe that did not require prep work.

To be honest, the most prep work required is microwaving chopped onions and garlic before adding to the slow cooker.  So for normal people not holding high-need babies, it's totally do-able.

Every recipe we've tried so far has been a hit.  Welllllll, I liked the Spiced Tenderloin with Quinoa. The minions ate it, and proclaimed it "interesting." It's the first time these gringos have had anything flavored with garam masala.

Monday, we had the Chicken Pomodoro.  To. Die. For.  Definitely making a double batch of that next time.

We've also made the Chicken Adobo, the Chicken Tomatillo Chile (yum!), and Thursday, I'm making Easy Beef Stew.

November + Polar Vortex = Comfort Foods

2.

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! by Mem Fox is Jill's current favorite.

"Harriet Harris is a pesky child."

Jill snuggles up to me as I read this book daily. She looks up at me meaningfully when Harriet makes mess after mess.

She smiles knowingly when I read, "Her mother didn't like to yell, so instead she said, "Harriet, my darling child. Harriet, you'll drive me wild."

Yup. It's like a day in my life right there on the printed page.

3.

A Life of Our Lord for Children by Marigold Hunt is a family read-aloud for the RC Connecting with History course we are using here at St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want To Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too.

And it's really interesting.  Basically, Hunt re-tells the Gospels with a linear timeline, while including all the background info about Jewish and Roman life of the period.  I enjoy reading it, while Edmund enjoys listening.  I'm even picking up a few new facts. Learn something new everyday!

When we finish A Life of Our Lord for Children, we'll continue with Hunt's The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children

4.

I began Dear Mr. Knightley: A Novel by Katherine Reay, but kept "misplacing" the book, only to find my high school girls were much further along in it than I was.

So I did what any kind and generous parent would do.  I read the ending, and then handed it over.

Dear Mr. Knightley: A Novel is an ideal book for the young adult reader.  Set in modern times, with a "Daddy Long-legs" type plot, Reay's novel is sweet without being saccharine, and relevant without being raunchy.

I predicted (quite accurately) the entire plot and ending, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment in seeing the protagonist live happily ever after.

5.

I read Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy  by Rumer Godden at least fifteen years ago, and I'm re-reading it for Micaela's Stella Maris online book club.

It's like a completely different novel this time around.

Lise Fanshawe, brothel manager goes to prison for a crime passionnel.  From prison, she enters religious life.  From one enclosure to another.  She finds her freedom behind the walls of a convent.

There is so much to think about in this book.  I am avidly looking forward to discussing Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy with the others who have read it.  You've got time.  Come on! Play along!

Yeah.  I would NOT let my high schoolers read this one.  It's gritty.  She's a prostitute. But it's not graphic.

When I was telling Patrick about it (He lets me "tell" him my books, God made him just for me.), he said that this sounded like a book that I would hate.  And it does.  But like I said, gritty, not graphic.

Since I've been MIA for so long, I'm not going to host a link-up, but rather add this post to Jenna's Five Favorites party.

WWRW: A Grown-up Book!

Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel is many things:  a romance, a drama, a comedy of manners.  It's the manners part that made me very uncomfortable for the first half of the book.

Poor Major Pettigrew.  His brother has just died.  His son is an ass.  The whole village of Edgecombe St. Mary wants to marry him off to a local spinster.  Enter the humble local shopkeeper, Mrs. Ali.

Major Pettigrew instantly is attracted to her quiet manner, her exotic loveliness, her interest in poetry and Kipling.  Between backhanded snubs and outspoken rudeness, I was most miserable until Major Pettigrew started speaking up and taking his last stand. For a detailed summary of this novel, you can click here.

My friend, Sara, recommended this book to me.  I texted her in the middle of her California vacation to find out if it would ever get less depressing.  She assured me it does.  I stuck with it, and am thoroughly pleased with the result.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel is an adult book.  There is a sad reference to an abortion, and the relationships in the novel are not exactly chaste, but there is nothing graphic or gross, lascivious or salacious in the novel.  In other words, it's a fine book for adults.  I wish there were more like this.

If you know of any, please add to my reading list in the comments or in your own WWRW post which you can link up here.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: Two for the Moms

Everybody's talking about The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful.  I first heard of this book by Myquillin Smith over at Conversion Diary and since read it about it on a few WWRW links.

Can you see those coral wedges in the cover photo above?  Those are identical to Susan's coral wedges and they are from Payless Shoe Source.

Did you notice that the chair is missing a leg? It was the very last thing that caught my eye...after I finished reading the whole book.  A stack of old but attractive books is propping up the chair, and on that stack is a plastic dinosaur.

"It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful."

There are lots of good takeaway quotes in this book about home decor/organization/spiritual acceptance of one's circumstances.  Smith forces one to really examine the purpose of one's home.

Smith has a gift for thrifting and re-purposing furniture and home accessories.  From the photos, I spied several items that had been rearranged in different rooms.  And of course, I want to rearrange all my furniture and go thrifting, and paint all the things RIGHT NOW!

Smith has great ideas for the budget minded decorator, but she has no advice for the mother of a newborn who is sitting and nursing 98% of the day, and scrambling for personal hygiene and sustenance in between. Survival mode doesn't last forever though.

I should have read this book last summer.

I'm getting lots of inspiration for the future though.  Crazy ideas like tossing out the pecan wood china cabinet with the swirls carved in it (that I hate with every fiber of my being) and either replacing it with a long thin table against the wall with wall-mounted shelves above, or...wait for it...re-painting the Ethan Allen girl's desk complete with hutch (that we got free from someone in the homeschooling co-op) and using that instead.

Maybe I can take some pictures of what I'm talking about and share with you on Friday.

One last thing about The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful, my library did not own it, and the other librarys weren't allowing inter-library loan, SO I had to buy it.  Sight unseen.  Totally worth it too.

I've also been reading My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir by Collen Carroll Campbell. (Not as quickly as The Nesting Place, because there are no pretty pictures in this book.)

My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir is Campbell's autobiography interspersed with biographies of various female saints and the impact they had on her at different points in her life.

I'm not terribly into this book yet, mostly because the only story in that I'm not already familiar with is Campbell's.  Campbell has identified some good "saintly" bios that I have yet to read.  Good book recs are always appreciated here.

Campbell's writing is clear and concise and when I force myself to put down the social media, the YA books, and the homeschooling catalogs, she helps me to focus on the important things. Things more important than furniture placement.

If you wouldn't mind leaving a comment, it would be most appreciated.  Other link-ups require this.  I'm just asking nicely.  :)

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: What this family is reading

Peter is starting a lot of books but not finishing them.  I think he's giving up too quickly. Sometimes I have to force myself to read the first 100 pages of a book before I fall into it, but he's not taking any advice from me these days.

I referred him to Nick Offerman.  Nick Offerman, that manliest of men, who played Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation did an interview and had many wise things to say on many topics.  His words on books are what stuck in my mind.

"I love a series of books that perpetually fleshes out a world," Offerman said, "like Wendell Berry's Fiction (start with The Memory of Old Jack or Nathan Coulter), The Lord of The Rings, Madeline L'engle's Wrinkle In Time series, The Horatio Hornblower series, Patrick O'Brian's 21-volume Aubrey/Maturin series, The Flashman Papers, The Sharpe series, Little House On The Prairie, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Martin Amis' Dead Babies and Time's Arrow, As I Lay Dying, Michael Pollan's entire catalogue, for a start."

Now, I'm not familiar with all of these titles, but LOTR, L'Engle, Horatio, Patrick O'Brian, and Little House are all stellar picks, so I'm thinking the rest are probably good too, except Dead Babies.  Not going to recommend a book with that title, especially based on the Amazon review.   (Yes, I've read the Faulkner, but I'm not a big Faulkner fan.  Go ahead.  Revoke my English degree.  Just not into Faulkner.)

A week later and I am happy to say that Peter is just finishing The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings for the very first time.  Actually, I'm a little ashamed to say that.  Stupid movies ruining it for the bibliophiles.

Susan:  Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility

She never did read the Anne books, but she's very much into Jane.  I suppose I can deal with that.  (Click here to get the complete collection of Anne books on your Kindle or eReader for only $.99! Yes, it's an affiliate link and I will get about a tenth of a penny for every click-through.)

Lucy:  The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen

Come for the cover art, stay for the Romantic-Victorian knock-off.

Susan and Lucy have read quite a few of these Julie Klassen books.  I really need to read one myself.  "Fans of the Janes (Austen and Eyre) won't want to miss it."  High praise. Must check it out.

Edmund:  Rivals by Tim Green

Once upon a time, I heard former NFL player-attorney-best-selling author Tim Green speak about writing for children.  I bought loads of his books at that time.

Tim Green writes sports-themed mysteries and dramas for kids.  Edmund chose this book for himself, and he loves to tell me what page he is on, and what is going on.  His last update included bits about the kid who threw a bean-ball intentionally at the hero. Rather than take the base, the kid at the plate chose to finish the at-bat, which you can do apparently, according to the rules of the game in this book.

He's reading, he's reading at will, and he's enjoying it.

Jill:  All the things but especially Kevin Henkes' Lilly's Big Day (which is about being a flower girl, something that Jill is an expert at now), Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and Chrysanthemum.

NOT Kevin Henkes' Julius Baby of the World which is everything I cannot stand in a "new baby" book including the words "I hate the baby."

Polly:  Polly, Jill, and I all fit in my mama bear chair like puzzle pieces, so Polly gets to listen in on the ten to a billion books I read aloud every day.  No fears about not following the latest advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics about reading to your newborn.  Not around here, no sir!

Me:  So Big by Edna Ferber...a Grown Up Book!

Want to wow the hospital staff after your next delivery?  Pull out a Pulitzer prize winner for those long nights and early mornings.

Giant and Ice Palace  by Ferber have entertained me in the past and I recommended them to Susan and Lucy for summer reading, so I requested  So Big  from the library a weeks ago.

 So Big is the story of Selina DeJong, on the outskirts of Chicago in the early part of the 20th century.

Beautiful, young Selina was raised in Chicago and many other cities by her widowed gambling gentleman father.  When he dies suddenly of a gunshot wound, she is left alone with two diamonds and nearly $500 cash.  She decides to become a teacher in the rural town of High Prairie.

High Prairie is settled by Dutch vegetable farmers, and though Selina is struck by the back-breaking hard-work of "truck farming" she finds herself doing exactly that after a whirlwind romance.  Disaster strikes, then fortune comes calling, and Selina is able to raise her young son, Dirk, exactly as she likes giving him a college education and a bright future.

Then the novel switches focus from Selina to Dirk, and starts to read like The Great Gatsby as Dirk is entranced by the "plastic" people, the wealthy, the socialites, and starts to feel shame about his roots and the woman who sacrificed everything to get him where he is.

Dirk's education is not over til the very end.  He falls for a girl who is the total package: smart, savvy, talented, successful, and she recognizes that the man she wants must have "scars on his hands," and that probably eliminates Dirk.

Despite the abrupt ending, I thoroughly enjoyed So Big.  Ferber is an excellent writer (Pulitzer prize!) and her historical settings provide a rich backdrop to all of her novels.

I'd say her novels are appropriate for readers of any age, but probably only teens and up are going to be able to savor and appreciate the writing and the history.

Now it's your turn:

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