This might look like a title-heavy month, but don't let looks fool you-about half of these books are either extremely short, YA books (easy to read), or I started them in a previous month so didn't read them fully in November, just finished them this month. However, I have finally felt like our Fall season has been winding down the past week or so, and for that I can celebrate with more reading! While a lot of families' obligations ramp up right before Christmas break, ours really start winding down around the first week in December, leaving us plenty of margin through the holiday season and beginning of New Year. Prepare for another (hopefully!) large reading month in December, followed by a Top 10 Favorites list. What did you finish this month that you loved?
*Adamant by Lisa Bevere - This was my small group's book choice for the Fall and although there were some great nuggets throughout, and it gave us great conversations, I didn't overly love this book. It was a solid good for me. I'm not sure what I didn't connect with, either. The first part of the first chapter started out so interesting (a history lesson about the adamant stone throughout the ancient world) but my excitement didn't follow throughout the next 10 chapters. All around good for discussion purposes, though.
*Almost Everything by Anne Lamott - I'll read anything Anne writes and I'm very sad I missed her in Bellingham (but I did get to see Bob Goff, so that's a bonus!) this month but this slim little book that just came out earlier this month was also good, but not her best. I connected with others she has written in the past 5 years more than this one, but she's still just as funny and charming and lovingly rant-y, which I enjoy.
*There are No Grownups by Pamela Druckerman - This is the author of Bringing up Bebe, a book that was about an American ex-pat bringing up children in France, and although some of the biting humor is still there, this book has an entirely different tone (as it should be-it's a totally different topic) and a few scandalous parts (!) and again was good, but not great. I chuckled quite a bit, and would give it a solid 3.5.
*The Gift of Being Yourself by David G. Benner - I loved this book. So much of it was a little too deep for me. In a busy season, when I don't have enough recharge time, I find that I can't go as deep with heavy topics as I'd like because I simply don't have the brain power to absorb the ideas. Around the middle of this one (I'm going through it with a friend) I finally could start to comprehend and understand what Benner is getting at. It's a book that is written from a Christian perspective on knowing oneself-the sin patterns we have, and essentially, where the actual wound is, not the sin 'symptoms' come from. Really worthwhile to going deeper with your relationship with God, and others.
*The Life We Never Expected by Andrew + Rachel Wilson - This was a short book that a support group I'm now attending is following throughout the school year, and it was so, so good. I've never read a book like it, especially as it has a Christian worldview. It's about a family that has two autistic children, and their life in stages: grief, waiting, worship, etc. An excellent read for someone whose situations (mostly as they relate to raising kids with learning differences) have been turned upside down and expectations are completely out the window.
*Kindest Regards by Ted Kooser - This is Kooser's most recent anthology and I bought a signed copy at the cutest little independent bookstore, Chapters, in Seward, NE, when I was visiting back in May. Although I own a few of the books that a sliver of these poems were from, I wanted a new book and this book had a ton of new poetry I had never read. It also fit my bill of buying a book when I visit a place: about the place or by a local author. I read a few poems every day and it was a lovely little early morning routine!
*The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden by Karina Yan Glaser - This is a YA sequel of a book I read earlier in the year, with 5 adorable sibling characters, and they're back in Harlem with more sweet-intended mischief. Sometimes it's just nice to read a sweet little candy book and the Vanderbeekers do it for me: cute illustrations, a sweet story about neighbors, and entertaining sibling squabbles.
*The Ministry of Ordinary Places by Shannon Martin - I'm 99% sure I first heard of this book (and saw it's beautiful cover) on the blog of Emily P Freeman. This book is about living out the gospel in your neighborhoods, whatever that looks like (but in Martin's case like a lower-income neighborhood), and loving people and their kids with the golden rule and plenty of tacos. It was very cute, and again (see a pattern this month?) a solid good.
*Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini - This was a poem-like story written about Syrian refugees crossing the water and taking the risk to live in a new place. The book looks like a children's illustrated hardcover picture book, but it's honestly written more for adults. The water colors are beautiful, the story is tender, and it's very short-it'll take a solid sit down of 10 minutes or so. Lovely, different.
*Little Author in the Big Woods by Yona Zeldis McDonough - This is another YA book, but this one is a youth nonfiction biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I bought it when my kids, mother, and I took a trip out to her homestead in De Smet, SD, and I finally picked it up. It's a really great resource for kids who want to know more about her actual life told without the narrative. It'd be a great book if your mid to upper elementary student were doing a project on her life. I learned a few things I didn't previously know about Wilder, and I'm glad I bought it for that reason alone!
Read Alouds:
*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (#7) by J.K. Rowling - We finally finished the Harry Potter series earlier this month (it might have been on the first or second day of the month!) and of course the kids LOVED the final book, especially the last half of the last book. Rowling wraps things up so beautifully, and I got what I was looking for: my kids loving the characters and story as much as I do. Success! If I tell you just about anything about this book, it's a spoiler. Go read the entire series!
*My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling - This little novel told in diary form is a narrative based on a young girls' life who lived through a Canadian residential school. She was old enough to write and young enough to have to spend most of her youth without her family. I'm glad I read this book to the kids, even though they thought it was slow-going at first-they empathized with the main character and it led to a few good discussions.
*10 Boys Who Used Their Talent by Irene Howat - This is the third year we've been reading aloud from the Lightkeepers set, which I really love. There are matching series for girls and boys, 5 books in each set, and each year we read two, one from both the girls' and the boys' sets.
*Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald - This funny little story is #2 in the Piggle-Wiggle series, and is a bit less 'dramatic cure' and quite a bit more 'magical element with parental oversight' than the first. If you've read the first book, you'll know what I mean. The kids think these books are hilarious as they poke fun at bad habits of other kids in really exaggerated ways. The chapters are a bit long, but if you're looking for a read-aloud, start with the first and then hope you can find the others!
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