A piece by local artist on display at the Peachland Visitor Center's gallery
Surprisingly, for the first month of school, I got quite a few excellent reads in! I was able to finish two out of three book club picks (Sept-Nov.) this month and two that I had wanted to read for awhile. The kids and I read a few really excellent books this month, as well. After the final book club pick that I still am working through (hoping to be done by the end of this week), I'll have roughly 2.5 months to read my own thing again. I can usually really pick up the speed once those are out of the way, since I have to stop everything and read them when they come in from the library. I'm looking forward to finally reading All the Light We Cannot See this winter; I've been waiting ages to get through this in the coziest time of year.
*On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior - This book is going to be niche, but if you're a fellow literature lover, you might fall into that category. Prior takes well-known classic pieces of literature and puts on her Christian worldview to break them down through an academic and spiritual posture. It made me feel like I was back at the university again, and I loved how she connected each chosen piece to a different virtue.
*Crow Lake by Mary Lawson - This was such a good read! I would say just about anyone who likes a slow, smoldering fictional family mystery would enjoy this book. It has just enough description, but not too much, and a child-like telling of a family tale, which I also enjoy. This was a book club pick that nearly everyone finished (a record!) and everyone gave either 4 or 5 stars--that has never happened before! My only criticism is that the last 50 or so pages wrapped up too quickly, whereas the rest of the book was a delight for the mind and senses.
*Holy Envy by Barbara Brown Taylor - This book is Brown Taylor's newest book, and I make a point to read everything she writes after one of my all-time favorite books, An Altar in the World, first appeared in my hands when I lived in Blaine. This part-memoir, part-spiritual-detour is about her time teaching at Piedmont University and going through the 5 largest global religions to incoming students twice a year, and the lessons she learned. I enjoyed reading it, but...sigh...not as good as her last two books.
*The Girl With No Name by Marina Chapman - This was another book club pick, about a little girl who was raised in the jungle by monkeys. Yes, you read that right. This story is so incredible, you think multiple times (in different circumstances) that her story can't possibly be true. It is written with the help of the woman's daughter, as she did not go through any formal schooling. All that to say, this book was a page-turner for me, but it's incredibly sad. So many awful things kept happening to this girl all before she was a teenager, so it's quite heavy.
Read-Alouds with Kids
* The Apple and the Arrow by Conrad and Mary Buff - This was the first novel we read together in our school year, and it is the fictionalized account of how Switzerland declared its independence--through a man named William Tell who had to shoot an apple off his son's head with an arrow. It's only about 80 pages, and has lovely illustrations, but it was the first of 3 novels we'll read about Switzerland in preparation for our trip next summer. The kids really enjoyed it! To be followed by William Tell's overture.
*Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick - This was a book we read through our first science topic this year--Simple Machines. Although only 3-4 chapters dealt with Archimedes and his use of simple machines, we were enjoying learning so much about him we just read the whole thing! The author created a fantastic story while simplifying the thoughts this man's unique and gifted mind opened to the world. I will be buying and reading her whole series (Galen, Herodotus, and Galileo) to the kids.
*Ten Boys Who Made History by Irene Howat - Every year we read two of the Light Keeper's books to kick off our school year in Bible. The format is the same--10 Girls or 10 Boys who ____ (made history, used their talents, didn't give in, etc.). Each book has 10 historical male or female biographies about faith, courage, and amazing things they were able to accomplish for others. Our kids enjoy this series,and we only have next year left before we've read the entire two series.
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