May and June were easier for me to get books completed, because we were so close to the end of the school year (and still had so much to do!) but I also read quite a few short books on my own. Each of these books below were under 250 pages, except MAUS but that was a novel set in comic book form, so I read it in a day (and it was completely absorbing- a true story!).
There are another couple of books in this photo above that got abandoned due to time (darn that new Julie Bogart book! I want to read it and so does everyone else!) or lack of interest. I'm much better about not finishing books I don't really want to read. Years ago I would have pushed through and now I am just more realistic. Time moves too fast to read books you don't love.
There are another couple of books in this photo above that got abandoned due to time (darn that new Julie Bogart book! I want to read it and so does everyone else!) or lack of interest. I'm much better about not finishing books I don't really want to read. Years ago I would have pushed through and now I am just more realistic. Time moves too fast to read books you don't love.
May Titles
*Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman - Gorman was the National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and penned a poem for President Biden's inauguration. She had yet to publish a complete work of poetry until Call Us What We Carry and it was excellent. If you liked her poem, The Hill We Climb, during the inauguration, you'll enjoy the book.
*Aggressively Happy by Joy Marie Clarkson - To be frank, Joy Clarkson is one of my favorite creators on the internet. I pay for a membership to her patreon and I knew I'd love her book. She has a doctorate degree in Theology and the Arts from St. Andrews University, and she's often doing book clubs, podcasts, etc, about so many of the topics I love to read about. Her book is a guide for living one's life intentionally and with purpose towards truth, flourishing, and infusions of beauty and goodness along the way.
*Canadian Geographic (May/June) - This issue was all about Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee and this little American learned a LOT about the history of the Crown as it pertains to Canadian history. Again-I read these cover to cover and always learn a lot. Sadly, I think my local library has discontinued this tangible magazine and I'll have to buck up and buy myself a subscription!
*Aggressively Happy by Joy Marie Clarkson - To be frank, Joy Clarkson is one of my favorite creators on the internet. I pay for a membership to her patreon and I knew I'd love her book. She has a doctorate degree in Theology and the Arts from St. Andrews University, and she's often doing book clubs, podcasts, etc, about so many of the topics I love to read about. Her book is a guide for living one's life intentionally and with purpose towards truth, flourishing, and infusions of beauty and goodness along the way.
*Canadian Geographic (May/June) - This issue was all about Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee and this little American learned a LOT about the history of the Crown as it pertains to Canadian history. Again-I read these cover to cover and always learn a lot. Sadly, I think my local library has discontinued this tangible magazine and I'll have to buck up and buy myself a subscription!
Read Alouds
*Morning Star of the Reformation by Andy Thomson - This book is historical fiction based on John Wycliffe's time at college and his beginnings of translating the Latin bible into English for the laity. Though there were some typos and grammatical errors throughout (self published?), the story itself was very interesting and my kids and I both learned a lot about this time period, and again, about the Peasants' Revolt, and the life of a young man going through clerical training during the Middle Ages.
*The Usborne Illustrated Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - High praise here! Even though this is a very abridged version, Usborne did a great job keeping up the story (and also adding a biography and context) between the characters, and the humor that the Tales are known for. We laughed out loud at SO many of them, and this might have been my kids' favorite of the entire year.
I showed them my university text from Medieval Literature and the Old English translations. They found the phonetic spelling to be intriguing, but glad we didn't read it that way!
June Titles
*Dorothy & Jack by Gina Dalfonzo - This was a nonfiction book about CS Lewis and Dorothy Day and their friendship -- mostly through letter writing -- and what they learned from each other; theology and friendship. I heard Dalfonzo on The Habit podcast and really liked the sound of her book. I wish I would have gone into reading this knowing a bit more about Dorothy Day so I would have had better context, but I still enjoyed it and learned more about C.S. Lewis and how his views on women changed over time.
*Morning Star of the Reformation by Andy Thomson - This book is historical fiction based on John Wycliffe's time at college and his beginnings of translating the Latin bible into English for the laity. Though there were some typos and grammatical errors throughout (self published?), the story itself was very interesting and my kids and I both learned a lot about this time period, and again, about the Peasants' Revolt, and the life of a young man going through clerical training during the Middle Ages.
*The Usborne Illustrated Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - High praise here! Even though this is a very abridged version, Usborne did a great job keeping up the story (and also adding a biography and context) between the characters, and the humor that the Tales are known for. We laughed out loud at SO many of them, and this might have been my kids' favorite of the entire year.
I showed them my university text from Medieval Literature and the Old English translations. They found the phonetic spelling to be intriguing, but glad we didn't read it that way!
June Titles
*Dorothy & Jack by Gina Dalfonzo - This was a nonfiction book about CS Lewis and Dorothy Day and their friendship -- mostly through letter writing -- and what they learned from each other; theology and friendship. I heard Dalfonzo on The Habit podcast and really liked the sound of her book. I wish I would have gone into reading this knowing a bit more about Dorothy Day so I would have had better context, but I still enjoyed it and learned more about C.S. Lewis and how his views on women changed over time.
*MAUS by Art Spiegelman - This 2-part comic is actually a memoir + biography of the artist's Jewis father as a Nazi prisoner. The story is absolutely unbelievable, but it's so accessible because of the artwork that accompanies it. I remember seeing this book at Barnes & Noble when I worked there but I was never interested in comics. Recently, this book had been 'banned' by a school and I immediately put it on hold. This book is 42 years old and it had 70+ (!!) holds on it before I got to it. Lukka read it in 2 days, and I read it in one. It was completely absorbing and so so tragic - not just what his father and family endured, but also the psychological ramifications that the artist then grew up with from his father's trauma. Highly recommend, 13+ at least, though.
*Naming the Animals by Stephen Roach - I also heard an interview with this author and Jonathan Rogers from The Habit (one of my favorite podcasts about writing). This short little book is a book of mini essays on creativity throughout all facets of life and imitating the Creator. I read this in the snips of early mornings over a few days.
*He Saw That It Was Good by Sho Bakara - This book came from watching a Trinity Forum lecture with Sho Bakara, and I had our library order it. It's another book written by an artist that encourages everyone to use their creativity for the greater good-in whatever vein that might look like. Although this book felt a bit disjoined a bit here and there, there were a lot of great quotes that made me stop and reflect.
Read Alouds
*Joan of Arc by Kathleen Kudlinski - This DK biography is now out of print but was full of artwork, historical artifacts, and The Maid's story of how she defeated England's army and returned the French king to his rightful place before being burned at the stake as a martyr. It's an incredible story and piece of history that I sadly didn't know almost anything about before reading this!
*The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly - This story also won a Newbery Award in 1929 and is absolutely full of historical sights, sounds, and references of Medieval Poland and Ukraine. It tells the story of how the famous trumpet call of St. Mary's church originally happened, along with historical fiction elements about alchemy (chemistry in its budding stage), and Russian and Polish nobility at the time. I -along with the kids - would never have known any of this Eastern European history if we didn't read books like this!
*Moby Dick (Abridged version) by Herman Melville - This was Anikka's last book to read for Marine Biology, and mostly I just included it because it was a classic and about a giant Sperm whale. The story itself was AMAZING (we both thought so), and makes me want to read the original even though it's very large. It's about a very large (white-albino?) whale who continues to outsmart a whaling boat captain to the detriment of his crew and his greedy, black heart.
The historical information about how the whales were processed on the boats was grotesque but truly fascinating!
*The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly - This story also won a Newbery Award in 1929 and is absolutely full of historical sights, sounds, and references of Medieval Poland and Ukraine. It tells the story of how the famous trumpet call of St. Mary's church originally happened, along with historical fiction elements about alchemy (chemistry in its budding stage), and Russian and Polish nobility at the time. I -along with the kids - would never have known any of this Eastern European history if we didn't read books like this!
*Moby Dick (Abridged version) by Herman Melville - This was Anikka's last book to read for Marine Biology, and mostly I just included it because it was a classic and about a giant Sperm whale. The story itself was AMAZING (we both thought so), and makes me want to read the original even though it's very large. It's about a very large (white-albino?) whale who continues to outsmart a whaling boat captain to the detriment of his crew and his greedy, black heart.
The historical information about how the whales were processed on the boats was grotesque but truly fascinating!
Comments