Meeting Amazing Grace

This is a MUST read for everyone. I don't think there is a person who could not improve their relationships with everyone by reading this book. It is by Gary and Joy Lundberg. They do a fantastic job of writing. Check it out!!

Carole McLaughlin

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