Inkheart

By the way, I read Inkheart - not quite on time, but I still read it. We didn't really do the book club thing obviously, but I thought I'd at least do my review of it. It was OK. Laurel told me when I was halfway through the book that she thought the writing was a little juvenile. By the end of the book, I totally agreed. The idea of the story was pretty good though.

Mothering with Spiritual Power by Debra Sansing Woods

Mothering With Spiritual Power: Book of Mormon Inspirations for Raising a Righteous Family by Debra Sansing Woods

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book. It's a quick read - read it in three days. I liked her easy writing style and the stories she told about her own mothering. She used well-known scriptures from the Book of Mormon and applied them to motherhood and how we can be happy, balanced moms who live close to the Lord. She got me excited about the idea of studying the scriptures looking for how they apply to moms. So I got a new Book of Mormon and marked the scriptures she talked about and made a note about how they applied to motherhood. I also listed her topics in the front of the Book of Mormon. Now I can start my own study. I'm pretty excited about it.


View all my reviews.

No Flying in the House by Betty Brock

A delightful little book and an easy read (139 short pages as I recall).  It's hard to say much about the story line without spoiling, but I think of it as a short story version of what could be turned into a delightful fanatasy series.  I enjoyed the story line and think kids (probably 4th-5th graders) would love it.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

You'll find this either in the kids section or the young adult section. I'd like to mention however that this book is a first in a series. It may be a trilogy, but I'm not sure the third one isn't out yet that I know of. I say since we're all not paying too much attention to this blog or at least I haven't been we have it read by Friday September 12th. That gives everyone a month to get on the blog, find the book, and then read it. For those of you in the Provorem area I own it and will let you borrow it.

I Am a Mother

I'm going to post this on three of the blogs I post on so more people see it. Sorry for those of you who read all those blogs. I just loved this book!!!

I Am a Mother by Jane Clayson Johnson

It's the story of an LDS woman who chooses to be a stay-at-home mom rather than continue in her successful, high profile career. She refutes myths the world would have women believe about motherhood being inferior somehow.

My sister, Laurel recommended this book to me - no surprise. We talked about it yesterday, and she said that she was surprised how much it touched her because it was already all what she totally believed in. I felt that way, too. Her story was encouraging and inspirational and fun to read. She had great things to say about motherhood. Reading her book is quite similar to reading Elder Ballard's conference talk from last conference in that it makes you just feel good about being a mom and takes off a bit of the ridiculous and unnecessary pressure we moms sometimes put on ourselves. Enjoy!

What Should I Read Next?

In the Reader's Digest I found mention of a website called What Should I Read Next? You can put in a book you liked, and it comes up with a short list that's somehow related. I tried it with a few books, and I had never heard of the other ones that came up. I have no idea what they base their comparison on so I don't know if any of the recommendations will be good. But I thought I'd pass on that tidbit in case anyone is interested. Let us know if you try it out and what you think.

Inkheart it is

Sorry I was so slow to do this. Partially I was waiting for more responses, and partially I was just lazy. :-) Emily, please let us know who the author is on that, by the way, and I turn it over to you to lead!

Let's get started

Great idea Emily! In an effort to make that happen may I suggest the following. Anyone with a suggestion as to what book we all should read, please post it as a comment to this post. On Sunday, 29-Jun (or as soon after that date as I remember to do so), I'll draw numbers out of a hat that correspond to the suggestions made, and will then post which book was chosen, along with a date to have it read by.

I think I will keep track of books suggested for choosing in future picks as well, so please feel free to comment away!

Just an idea.

Most of you have book clubs that you go to, but I only have this blog and it's not at all like a book club. I was thinking that if you're all amenable to the idea that we would have a monthly or every other monthly book that we all read and then post our feelings on. We could also do updates or "I'm at this part" posts. We could switch off picking the books and so forth. I don't know it's just an idea. Let me know what you think.

Green Rider and First Rider's Call by Kristen Brittain

I'm actually not sure if I've posted about these books before, but I just finished them again and wanted to talk about them.
They are adult fantasy/fiction. I've read them both several times and I just love them. I find the main characters believable and the story engaging. The main character is Karigan G'ladheon who, after running away from school because of being wrongfully suspended, finds herself thrown into an adventure that includes magic and much danger. Both books are wonderful and very well written. They are also two of only a few adult/high fantasy books I've found that don't have any questionable material or outright gross ideas.
The problems and the ideas are more adult, but the content is clean which I love for a change when I've been reading a bunch of young adult fantasy. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

This book is marvelous. It's a short, easy read - slow readers can finish it in two hours. It's one of my favorites and I'm surprised I haven't posted about it yet. I'm told this book was quite popular during my siblings growing up years (so during the 70's), and I'm not surprised. It has a great story line with a great message. I'm interested to hear people's favorite parts of this book. So perhaps those who've not yet read it shouldn't read the comments as it may contain small spoilers as people share their favorite parts.

The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery

My family read this (my sister and mom and I) for our family book club that we decided to start. We loved it! It is a fun, delightful world you get to enter when you read this book. We all three loved it.

Lately I have read a few books where I feel sad for the characters because of the hard things going on in their lives. I always think how wonderful my life is compared to the lives of the characters in books. This was the only possible exception to that. The kids in this book have it great!

There is also a sequel that Large Marge has read, but I haven't. It's called The Golden Road. She said it's great too; I think in some ways she liked it more than The Story Girl. It's going on my list.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Just curious. Who has read it yet? How do you like it?

I read it. I like it. Don't love it. I still need a little more convincing than most people to become a huge Stephenie Meyer fan. I really loved Eclipse when I finished it, but my excitement has worn off some now. Just wondered what everyone else thinks.

Leven Thumps 1-3

I've been reading the Leven Thumps(LT) series and have finished the third book. (As yet, I don't think the fourth book is out, unless you count the "Guide for Well-Mannered Sycophants" or whatever that's called.)

At first I thought this would be a Harry Potter(HP) spin off and I guess it could be argued as one, but I find it enjoyable in its own right. Hmmm, how do I analyze this series, probably book by book.

Book one is good. I don't really know what more to say about it. I liked it. It was a nice intro into the story line. It is completely different than books two and three. Completely.

Some things I should say about books two and three collectively. They are very busy. There are about 6 or 7 story lines to follow (that reduces down to about 4 or 5 in book 3). Every story has crazy stuff going on and, because we are dealing essentially with dream-land, outrageousness abounds. It's almost like being in the mind of a child who's playing make believe; it's fun, but it's too random and feels overly fake. Not that you believe fantasy-type books anyway, but it makes it harder to really feel a part of what's going on in the books.

Book two surprised me when I realized how extremely busy it was from beginning to end. Intensity becomes normality which takes away from the build-up and thrill, at least for me. It's all one big climax, but nonetheless I liked it well enough and looked forward to reading the third.

Book three is similar to book two in that it is busy, but this book won me over in the end and tied me into the story. As an aside, HP book 3 did this same thing to me. The first two HP books were self-contained stories and were enjoyable enough, but book 3 tied me into the greater story. LT book 3 also tied me in, but in a different way. LT books are anything but self-contained stories, and the way book 3 wraps up (or rather, doesn't) committed me to the rest of the series, however long it may be. I'm antsy to read book 4!

Whew, that was a bit long. I hope I was coherent through all that! =)

The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

Our book club is reading this for June. I loved this book. It was so romantic! This author also wrote A Walk To Remember and The Notebook. It's told from the perspective of a man who had been married almost 30 years and is about his relationship with his wife. Oh, and if any of you read it, let me know so we can discuss.

I'v Been Tagged in Australia

My daughter sent me a book called the "Master." I am less and half way through it but I would recommend it. It is about the Saviors life as a boy...so far.

pg 123 sentence 5 reads:
The man next to me appeared as nervous as I felt.

I would have choosen a better one but that's it. Have a good day mate.

Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff

I am delighted by this book. There is no narrative at all! The entire book consists of pictures of "stuff": school papers, notes left on the fridge to the main character by her mother, drug store receipts and birthday cards, etc. I loved the format and I loved even more what the format revealed about the main character during her 7th grade year. This book was a delight.

Officially Tagged

"And the other two ends of the two wreathen chains thou shalt fasten in the two ouches, and put them on the shoulderpieces of the ephod before it."

Now try to guess what the heck it means and what it's from. Plus does anyone know what an ouch is?

I'm it

Here's what I found on page 123 of The Book Thief by Markus Zusack. It's actually a title page for part three of the book, so I'm just going to post what's on the page (no fifth sentence even being in existence).

PART THREE

featuring:

the way home-a broken woman-a struggler-

a juggler-the attributes of summer-

an aryan shopkeeper-a snorer-two tricksters-

and revenge in the shape of mixed candy

Book Tag

p. 123 of The Reading Group (which I actually haven't started yet. Hey, you said grab the nearest book!)

"Stop it."

Yep, that's it.

The Book Tag

pg. 123 of Specials

"She paused, then saw that two little sprayer drones were hovering protectively over his head."

I haven't gotten to this page yet. I'm on 101 I think. Matt read me the sentence so I didn't see anything else. Even 22 pages ahead is too spoiling for me. Fun tag.

A game of Tag

My friend Crys tagged me and I thought this was kind of fun. I tag anyone who reads and posts on this blog.

Simply grab the nearest book and flip to page 123. Then tell us the fifth sentence on the page.

I suppose I kind of cheated for this tag because the closest book to me was actually Quanti Colori--yet another Italian book, we're on a roll today--which only has about eight pages so I had to go further to get my book.

Here's mine:

Sempre ci pensavano, e chiedevo anche all'Emilia, ma non si poteva capire come fossero accoppiati.

That's from La luna e i falò and it means I always thought about it, and also asked Emilia, but one just couldn't understand how they got together.

I have no idea what context it is in since I haven't read the story. It's one of Andrew's Italian textbooks so it's probably some tragic romance novel, in true European fashion. Honestly, I am surprized at some of the stuff he tells me that come from his Italian textbooks...

I really liked Book of a Thousand Days

Jane Austen

Hi everyone! I know it's been a zillion years since I've posted anything on this blog. Sorry! I've been busy with a couple of big reading projects. I just finished reading Jane Austen's collected works. I love reading her works! I'm fascinated by the time period and I always enjoy her witty and sometimes sarcastic social commentary. I truly love some of her stories. My favorite is Persuasion, followed by Pride and Prejudice and then Emma. I don't love all of her books as well as those three, and I think the difference is whether or not I respect and identify with the main character. What's your favorite Austen work and why?

Also...thanks Nancy for recommending Ella Enchanted! I just finished it (as well as Fairest, also by Gail Levine Carson) and loved it. It's probably the best fairy tale remake I've ever read. Fairest was fine, but it had a lot to live up to after finishing Ella Enchanted. I still found it to be extremely creative and very well written. Has anyone else read Fairest?

My Left Foot

I found an old Reader's Digest book here in Australia with a couple of great stories. I am hoping they are still around. The first one is by Christy Brown and is a true story of his own life. He was born with cerebral palsy. He had been unable to walk, speak, feed or dress himself-until, helped by his devoted mother (a mother of 13). He ends up being a writer as well as an artist.

The other book is also a true story about M. Phyllis Lose, VMD. called "No Job 4 a Lady" She was one of the first women vets to work with horses and she was one of the best and sought out vets in the states. Wish I had read this book before we had horses.

The Boxmaker's Son by Donald S. Smurthwaite

Read it for book club. Really liked it. LDS, not cheesy. Makes you feel like you remember the good ole days even though I wasn't even alive in the decades it illuminates. But I practically wish I was from reading this book. This book made me feel good. It was one of those people-who-do-small, seemingly insignificant-things-can-really-make-a-difference-in-the-world books. Makes you want to be a better person. I am looking forward to book club to discuss with others and hear what they have to say. Let me know if any of you read it. I want to hear what you think.

The Princess Tales--Gail Carson Levine

A good, quick read. I read about half of it out loud to Rachel and found it much more entertaining that way. It's a set of three short stories written for children ages 7-12 and I imagine that I would have enjoyed it a lot more had I been 8 or 9 when I read it. As it were, it was still a fun read. Cute mix-uped fairy tales. It's just cute. It's not a thrilling plot--just a cute story. Think eight years old.

The reason I have this, personalized autographed, copy of the book is because Gail Carson Levine spoke at BYU on Friday. I missed it. And I was sad because she wrote one of my favorite books, Ella Enchanted, another little retelling of a fairy tale. I guess I can't really say that she's one of my favorite authors because Princess Tales (volume 2--did I mention that? I haven't read the first one) is only the second book of hers that I've read. However, since she penned one of my favorites, she gets the title of favorite author.

Anyway, my mom went to listen to her speak and then bought me Princess Tales (volume 2) and got Levine's autograph for me. What a sweet mommy I have! She bought my little sister the first volume so we'll have to trade this weekend (she'll probably be sleeping over at my house, anyway).

Now that I've read this book I think I'll have to break out Ella Enchanted again. I love that story. If you've seen the movie and haven't read the book, be warned that the book is MUCH better than the movie. That said, the movie was cute enough. Although people who read the book before watching the movie weren't the biggest fans, the movie rocketed book sales...anyway...I recommend Ella Enchanted. It's written for an older audience and isn't "dumbed down" as much as Princess Tales is.

The Twilight Series

No one is saying anything here for a long time, so I'll just say that I'm back on a huge Twilight kick, or should I say "Edward kick." My sister-in-law just calls the books "Edward."

I got into Twilight early, within a few weeks of publication, then waited impatiently for each book to come out. Stephenie Meyer's greatest strength as an author is that she's compulsively readable. Her books are so hard to put down. Recently I figured out how to download audiobooks for free from my library onto my phone, so I've been listening to all three. I finished Eclipse last week, but realized that I was still in the mood for the Twilight books, so I just started over. I'm nearly done listening to Twilight again. I turn it on while I'm driving or washing dishes or folding laundry. It's great company.

So what do you like or dislike about these books? Most people I know get obsessed as easily as I did.

And have you been following the movie news? Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter will be playing Edward! They've cast Bella also, and now her friends Jessica and Eric. I actually like their choices for leads.

And I have two theories that I've already emailed to Bonnie. Tell me what you think:

1 - Do you think Edward would have fallen in love with Bella if he had been able to hear her thoughts? He was utterly bored with the pettiness and mundaneness of every thought he heard from the people in the high school. I didn't see anything to suggest that her thoughts were less petty than anyone else's. She was just given the benefit of a filter, getting to decide what came out her mouth instead of Edward instantly knowing everything she thought. I think that the combination of her irresistible scent and her unreadable thoughts made her fascinating where every other human had been boring. Because of his fascination, he took the time to get to know her, then fell in love with her. I think he would never have put himself into a position to fall in love with her if he could have read her mind. Remember the several-day period where he quizzed her about everything in her life, down to her favorite color? I think that it was a direct result of her mental privacy.

2 - In Eclipse, during the vampire battle, I really thought Edward would succeed in persuading Riley that Victoria had been lying to him, and that the Cullens' way was a better way of life. I thought that Riley was going to join the Cullens, throwing a new person into the mix and upsetting the balance. Then he died. But then, when Edward and Bella were reunited with the Cullens, there was another newborn vampire (Bree). At that point, I became really convinced that Bree would be talked into joining the Cullens, and would maybe even fall for Edward, which would have made a fascinating complication in my opinion. But then she died. As I type this, I'm realizing that these two newborns were included in the story to show Bella a worst case scenario of what awaits her when she becomes a vampire. Knowing how bad it could get (she could get) makes her decision to still be changed a more informed one.

Anyway, that should be enough to get us all talking about books again.

Minding Mama by Marilyn Arnold

Last week I read this book and enjoyed it. It is the one our ward is doing for book club in March which is at my house. It is about a woman who needs to bring her mother from Georgia back to her home to Utah to be buried. (I promise, I am not giving anything away.) She has some fun and funny adventures and meets different people along the way. I like the things she comes to realize through the book. It has aspects of book that are related to the church but isn't a cheesy mormon book. (I hope that doesn't offend anyone; there are just some cheesy ones out there.) So if you are concerned about that, don't be. It's cute and funny and a feel-good book all at the same time.

The Peacegiver by James L. Ferrell

This book is fairly short and one of the best I've ever read. It is written by an LDS author and makes frequent references to various LDS scriptures, but largely uses Bible stories to teach profound principles of the Atonement. No book I have ever read opened the scriptures and the Atonement to my eyes more than this book did. It's an easy read, ~200 fairly-small pages, and outstandingly insightful. I think everyone should read this book. Everyone.

When I Grow Up

I've always wanted to be like Laurel. Since I was a little kid my parents have called me Laurel number two because I look and try to act like her. I just think she is awesome and a great example for me. So, in keeping with my tradition to try to be like her, I am keeping a list of all the books I read in 2008. She's been doing this for a few years, and I think it is an interesting idea. So far, 4 books. So at the end of 2008, I can add a post with the final count and my favorites like she did at the end of this last year. Yippee for reading great books!

I recommend...

Any book by Martine (Bates) Leavitt. I'll admit I haven't read all of her books yet, but I do intend to. She mostly writes fantasy and also has done some more serious, "real-er life" books.

Why do I love her? She was my Young Women's president. :)

I read her trilogy first...because she wrote it first. Definitely read it in order. It's called the Marmawell Trilogy and it is excellent. She wrote her first book...at least part of it...for a competition and won and was told that she could turn it into a novel. And it's a good novel, too!

The Dragon's Tapestry
Prism Moon
The Taker's Key

All were very good and quite symbolic. I've read them all twice. And it's funny because when I read them, the little voice in my head that says the words to me sounds like her voice.

The dollmage actually kind of reminded me of her first three books. Not that it was the same, it just seemed like it was possible for it to fit in the Marmawell world. Almost, but not quite.

I haven't read Heck, superhero, but I intend to. It's one of her more "real-life" books.

Tom Finder was good. It's about a homeless man...another "real-er life" book.

Now, I started reading Keturah and Lord Death when I was still pregnant with Rachel but my mom told me to stop reading it until after I had her. Apparently there is someone in the book who has a hard time with childbirth and my mom said that I would deal with it better after my baby was born. I haven't picked it up again yet...but I really do want to finish it. I found it gripping and didn't really want to put it down. My mom just knows how I think so I tend to take her advice. Maybe I'll ask Andrew to pick that book up for me while he's on campus today.

Anyway, all of her books are good. They have good values in there and if you look for it, a lot of "LDS" symbology. For example, my mom thinks that the tapestries in the Marmawell trilogy are like patriarchal blessings--you'll probably see why if you read the books. :)

I Feel Way Behind

It just took me too long to finish school and start this reading craze thing. You guys have all read everything. Sigh. It's OK. I get to read only the good stuff because I read all your comments. I just finished Eclipse. Old news, huh? Large Marge and I have discussed the three quite a bit, but anyone else who wants to, what do you think? Laurel asked me if I am in Club Edward or Club Jacob. Club Edward for me. Anyone else? By the way, I was just thinking it would be fun to have some more author's website's links on our blog. Obviously, I should put Stephenie Meyer's up. I'll google it. Any others that you want quick links to or that I should put up for others to discover?

Robin McKinley (my other favorite author)

Robin McKinley is a YA fantasy author. She was the one who got me reading fantasy in high school (before I was one of those that thought it was just for geeks and anti-social people.) Since I've read all of her works and recommend them all but one to everyone I figured I would lump them all together.

The first one I read and still my favorite is Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. It's exactly what the title says, but it's SUCH a good retelling that anyone who even remotely likes the story of Beauty and the Beast will love this. I would bet that those of you with daughters (who are old enough to appreciate books at all) would find this a good one to read with them because it's somewhat short and easy to read.
The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown are next on the "I absolutely love this..." list. I wouldn't actually call Hero a second book to Sword. I feel it's more of a companion book, because although they do go together Sword takes place long before Hero and they only compliment each other in being about the same land. I also don't think it actually matters which one you read first. The Blue Sword was written first but the events of The Hero and the Crown come first in that worlds history. Both are are about the land of Damar and both have female main characters that are warriors. Personally I like Aerin of Hero a little more than Harry (yes a girl named Harry) of Sword but both are equally lovable and realistic.
Spindle's End is a VERY different version of the classic story of Sleeping Beauty and has an interesting take on Fairies. I'm still very torn on how much I liked or didn't like the ending, but I usually like it and I've read it several times so I still recommend it.
The Outlaws of Sherwood is of course the story of Robin Hood. Again it's a very interesting take on the story. For me it makes it seem more believable. The characters more real than just names and it's mostly historically accurate when it comes to what is and is not possible for the time that legend takes place. This one however is one that I've found not everyone enjoys. My sister, who is also an avid Robin McKinley fan, thought that it moved slowly.
The last three Deerskin, Rose Daughter, and Sunshine are on a slightly different level than the others as they are classified as adult novels. Deerskin is very hard for me to recommend even though it's my second favorite of McKinley's books. The reason it's difficult to recommend is that the main character Lissar/Deerskin goes through and experiences some rather harsh things. It's not explicit in it's explanation, but at the same time it doesn't hedge around what happens to her either. Rose Daughter is a very different take on Beauty and the Beast. (I think that this story is the authors favorite.) I didn't really like the ending, but I still liked the book. Sunshine is a vampire story and definitely written for adults as it mentions sex and is a darker subject matter.
I think that covers all of her novels, but I may have missed one and since I have no computer skills I'll just tell you that I know she has a website, but I'm not sure what it is. I'm sure if you're interested enough and you google her that her website will come up.

Laurel's 2007 Reading Log

OK 2007 is officially over, so I can tally the books I read this year. The total is 95 (17 more than I read in 2005, but 37 fewer than I read in 2006, the year that included bed rest).

Here are some of my favorites from 2007:

• The Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld (author of "Uglies)

• "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini (heartbreaking but beautifully written fiction about life in Afghanistan under the Taliban)

• "The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman

• "My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok (again, I can't help it - it's literally my favorite book)

• "Marley and Me" by John Grogan (living with the world's worst dog)

• "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey

• All the Harry Potters by J.K. Rowling

• The Fairy Realm series by Emily Rodda (wonderful original fairy tales for young s)

• "Stargirl" and "Love, Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli

• The "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer

• "Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson (sophisticated fantasy adventure)

• The "Rowan" series by Emily Rodda (wonderful fantasy adventure for boys)

• The "Fablehaven" series and "The Candy Shop Wars" by Brandon Mull (excellent young fantasy adventure)

• "Complications" and "Better" by Atul Gawande (fascinating nonfiction written by a doctor, about why it's hard to be a good doctor)

• "Peter and the Starcatchers" by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (new prequel to Peter Pan - I listened to this on CD and Tyler was riveted)

• The "Uglies" series by Scott Westerfeld (I'd read the first 3 before, but book 4 just came out)

• "Book of a Thousand Days" by Shannon Hale (author of "Goose ")

Well, that's a hefty list. It should be enough recommendations to get anyone through a reading slump.