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April Titles // 2017

The gorgeous Wild + Free nature journal by Kristin Rogers! 

This was another lackluster reading month for me, and I fear May is going to be even worse! I was stuck between three books, one I had to read for a deadline, one for book club (still going strong, but it's loooong) that I didn't finish, and another that I was at the head of the line for, and promptly took me two days to finish. I also finished book five in our Chronicles of Narnia series, and have two more to finish before school's technically over. Although I finish school early June, out here the kids finish late June. Can you even imagine?! Horrid. I hope, at least, to finish The Last Battle by the end of June. 

Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott - I love my Aunt Anne. I mean, she's not really my aunt, but she's been a part of my spiritual formation over the last 10+ years and therefore I see her as family. I read everything she writes and put my name in the request slot at the library the second I find out she has a new book coming out. Hallelujah is about mercy and it's just like the last few books she's written: funny, tidy, solid, and quotable. It's not my favorite of the series (Help, Thanks, Wow; Stitches; Small Victories) but it's a solid 3.5 stars. If you like Anne, then yes.

At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider - This memoir is written about the 10 months that the Oxenreider family took to travel around the world, and their reflections of home, wanderlust, and spiritual longing. I was on the launch team for this book, which was fun, but I forgot how dreary it is to read a book on the computer. Once I figured out how to transfer a PDF onto my kindle app, it was much better going! The book's chapters follow every country, which I appreciated a fresh new start and a clean ending, but I felt this book was more, "this is what we did in this country" and "this is what I love to eat here", rather than a travel memoir. I think I may have liked it better written in a coffee table format, with tons of photos and travel memorabilia (think train tickets, maps, etc). I just didn't love this as a memoir. It's a good book, but perhaps my expectations were too high. I'd give it a 3. 

Read Alouds with Kids

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis - This is the story of a young boy, Shasta, a young girl, Avaris, two talking horses, Bree and Hwin, and their journey into the heart of Narnia to warn off impending battle and doom. The two main characters are runaways, and are desperate to get away from their previous lives. The talking horses provide a bit of comic relief, and the pressure is on! This is the first book in the series, since we've been reading them chronologically, that I found didn't fit in with my original plan of reading by year. This really should have been read right after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, how Lewis wanted it. 

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