Our House in the Middle of Our Street

  Glen Valley dyke trail, early July, 6AM Watership Down (graphic novel) adapted by Richard Adams - I have never read this classic novel, but the graphic novel has stunning illustrations and I knew I'd read it this way if I had it from the library. I'm glad I read it as a graphic novel - I don't know that the premise of the story would entice me (well, it hadn't thus far anyway) to read it in its original format, but having the illustrations certainly helped me understand the storyline.  Swim Team (graphic novel) by Johnnie Christmas - Just a little piece of middle-grade, graphic novel candy for summer. The equivalent, I suppose, of most people's "beach reads"! The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbury - I followed along (late, however) with Joy Clarkson's online book club on her substack. I had bought this book at least a decade ago at a thrift store, then gave it away to someone (who?!) and then finally got it from the library and I finished i...

17! You're FINALLY 17! You can drive independently, and you have read the manual, watched professional drivers and gleaned tips from others about this test that you've been dreaming about for years. You were given a car by a friend of ours, cleaned it to perfection, fixed it up in places, and have driven your sister and friends all over for the past week in near-unbridled joy. I am so happy for you (and I'd be lying if I wasn't happy for me, too)! You are such a mature and kind-hearted young man. You have big plans and are taking the steps to proactively execute them. You are sweet to your sister even if you'd deny it in front of your friends, and your relationship with her has come full-circle back to being as close as you two were in your littlest years.  You have so many goals and you work hard to achieve them! You prioritize what's important to you, and are willing to cut the rest. Although I sometimes wonder how you will remember to get to appointments with...

  a December sunrise in Fort Langley  A final nod to the books I read in 2023! Just squeezing by on Jan 1, 2024.  For how busy the last six weeks before Christmas break were, I sure was able to read a lot! A few of these were poetry or comics, which do go faster than a memoir or novel, but the four read-alouds done for homeschool with the kids were NOT easy reads (well, aside from Little Women ), and one was incredibly long and bleak...! What Kind of Woman? by Kate Baer - This poetry collection was probably my favorite of the year. It had poems that made me go "YESSSS" by the end of it; mostly they were about motherhood and how society views women, hilarious and honest and just the right amount of description/editing.  All My Knotted - Up Life by Beth Moore - One of the best memoirs I read this year, I've been an avid fan-girl of Moore's for over a decade. I love her bible studies, her humor, and her integrity, and in this story of her life she reveals some things t...

  a gorgeous early sunrise in Fort Langley As noted earlier, this list is compact and July - Dec titles' posts are being completed (finally. Hallelujah!) over my Christmas break. Onto the Fall! The kids and I have read some excellent classics this year so far, with more on the Winter/Spring horizon.  Revenge of the Librarians: Cartoons by Tom Gauld - This was a silly little comic book that was almost like the Far Side but with Librarian/book people humor. Read it in one sitting, laughed a lot. LOTS of book references; for the literati that's enticing.  Hidden Systems by Dan Nott - Ok. Another comic book (non-fiction) that was SO fascinating I actually made Ani read it for part of her Science work. This book describes in words AND helpful drawn pictures how the internet, electricity, and water systems are all around us and yet I knew next to NONE of this information. When any of these systems don't work, our lives basically come to a standstill, so I'd guess that most pe...

                                                   a little pond near our house in early light                   Again, I don't remember what order these were in, so here it goes!  The Open-Air Life by Linda Aekson Mcgurk - I really enjoyed Mcgurk's " There's No Such Thing As Good Weather " and although I enjoyed this one, I already knew quite a bit of the practical suggestions because I'm an avid nature person already. I think the suggestions in this book for year-round nature immersion are good ones if one doesn't know where to start! And long-live the cold dips! Canadian Geographic (Mar-April) - I read and enjoy this bi-monthly magazine and am reminded of some of the stories about changing land formations by water erosion, and also learning about the ...

  Whistler snow peaks I am so woefully behind in my Titles posts that I will (mostly) just be getting right to it. This past school year was an intense literary one, and while I read aloud some amazing novels, most of them classics or Canadian historical novels, I didn't have much time for things like documenting and writing about found authors, etc. Thankfully, I kept my Pinterest board alive and documented everything completed in my Leuchtturm notebook that I keep religiously for a few years before its completely done.  That, and finally, my third check - my two libraries' borrowing history section! Reading Black Books by Claude Atcho - Not to start off with a bang, but this I knew when I completed this book it'd easily be one of my top 10 of the year. I found this book via a webinar by the Trinity Forum with the author and had the library purchase it. It is one of the best literary criticism anthologies I've ever read, and not only that, the writing itself is aca...

The most recent stack Although this post might say it's March 1, 2022, I am currently sitting half-way through March while trying to get this done in the next thirty minutes that I have to myself. It never lasts long enough! Only half of this stack got finished, though I've completed a few since this photo was taken, my reading has mostly been for the kids' school book stack. That is just the reality these days as they are reading novels (or I am reading them aloud) and to keep up with all of it just takes most of my (slow) reading time. I'm a quarter of the way through my most recent Plough magazine issue, and have high hopes for reading Joy Clarkson's Aggressively Happy over the course of the next month, but even my book club reads are suffering.  January The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah - This was my book club's January pick and it was long and not my favorite Hannah book. If I never read another Dust Bowl book I'll be happy (I think this was #4...). It...

  Only half of these were completed, while the bottom two played the game Library Chicken November and especially December were probably two of my best reading months since the entire pandemic started! Why is this of note? Because I thought the lock down would mean so much more time and reading, it actually dramatically cut my attention span and I couldn't finish paragraphs, let alone books, without falling asleep or becoming distracted! I have lots of little books (under 300 pages) on this list that were certainly easier to get through than say, a 500 page tome, but every little bit helps, and I'm taking the win. I can't particularly remember which books were completed in November and which in December, so I'm plugging them in together, in no particular order.  All books with the (*) beside the author name can be found at the little bookshop I work at, Classical Education Books. It's a great way to support a local (BC) "mom and pop" shop that I love! 30...

Well, it appears that my July post wasn't even thought about until mid-August, which is why I'm combining another two months of book lists. I had a decent reading summer, an even better thrift-store book-score, and I'm hoping a relatively relaxed Fall with many hours spent with a book in my lap (edit: It's mid-September and I'm trying not to breathe into a paper bag about my Fall...). So far, our homeschool planning is busy, but only one evening a week out fully. That's good odds! Now for the book blurbs... July * Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle - This is my second read-through of one of L'Engle's first Crosswicks Journals memoirs, and I read it along with Joy Clarkson's patreon group . I love how Clarkson teased out some themes in each section, and it was fun to read it with a very vocal group who would always put their thoughts on the message board.  This book is really about L'Engle's theolgy, living at Crosswicks (their summer h...

 I can categorically say I only finished one of the top four books as of typing this-dismally late in early July!- but thankfully it was completed.  Although this subpar photo is all I have that captures my reading in May, thank goodness for my Bookshelf and Books Read visual boards via Pinterest, or I'd never remember anything.  Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harjo - Although I don't remember specifics about this book, I do remember enjoying most of it. This is why I can't write reviews months after the fact (!)-I just forget specific topics, images, or themes of a book of poetry aside from the way I felt reading it. I'm sorry I can't comment on it more than that except I did like her other book, An American Sunrise , a bit better than this one.  The After Diet by Purva Brown - This is a very short little book that is a personal story of a woman who is someone I follow online. Her story involves weightlifting and figuring out macro and micro nutrie...

  April flew by, and there were weeks that I didn't even pick up a book--or if I did, I was minutes away from my neck suddenly jerking downward indicating I could barely read a page before turning off my light and heading to bed. The pressure of the end of the school year is here, and it won't really let up for another 6 weeks. It's not that I've been lacking in diligence the rest of the year, but we're so close, yet do have lots of finish up before we can officially have more lingering days with our hobbies, more free time to catch up with friends, and ultimately, freer reading time! The titles I finished this month were: We Were the Lucky Ones  by Georgia Hunter - I first heard of this book from the What Should I Read Next? podcast with the author as the interviewee. (#157 found here ) I wanted to pick this up immediately but instead bought it for numerous friends who I thought would enjoy it (weird projection, I know). I know one of them did, and really liked it,...

  Never the greatest light in the basement suite, but a good stack of books! March was an good reading month for me. I finished a lot of books, and I started a lot of books I'm still currently enjoying. Just this week I started a 400 page book that I have to lead a book club with on Friday evening, and I couldn't believe that just doing nothing in my free time except reading , I'll easily finish it. I've missed that-the full attention, relaxed-into-a-story feeling that I haven't felt during the last year. I was so optimistic! ( groan ) From the stack above, I'm still currently reading quite a few of them, so only two will be on March's completed list, but that's okay. I'm almost finished with one, and halfway through 3 others! Dusk, Night, Dawn by Anne Lamott - This is the newest Lamott book and every single word she publishes I read. I read her books for her candor, her wit, her judgy-ness (it's a thing), and her self-depreciating humor, but mo...