penguin classics

Talk about delicious AND good for you!

penguin classics hardcover books available from amazon.com

the lonesome gods

My mom read Louis L'Amour a lot when I was a kid, but I had never read anything by him until I read The Lonesome Gods in October. It was on the Thomas Jefferson Education reading list, and I loved it! Yes, it is a western, so there is a certain amount of gunfighting and horse wrangling. I loved it, and Erin loved it.

thomas jefferson education

Two of my sisters-in-law homeschool their kids, and this book outlines a large portion of their curriculum. I've looked for it at the library, but wasn't able to find it, but as luck would have it, my father-in-law had two copies, so I brought one home for myself.

I recommend reading it, and then supplementing your kids public school education by reading and then having them read the books listed.

A Thomas Jefferson Education

I don't homeschool, but I've decided to implement this at home, nonetheless. The purpose is to teach our kids to be great thinkers and leaders. A lot of the time, the things they learn at school are just facts that are memorized and then regurgitated for a test. Or, they are trained how to do a job, but not how to think and form opinions.

So, I've started reading the books suggested, and I've had the girls read them too, in addition to their regular homework. They both love to read, so I've just asked them to alternate one of these books with a book of their choice in their recreational reading. We don't have formal discussions, but we talk about the books as we are driving in the car, etc. I've also started reading some of the books for younger kids to my boys, and they love it.

i read a book

can you believe it?

and i loved it. i picked up a biography of emma smith while in nauvoo. it was amazing, and it got me interested in the stories of the early saints. it also got me thinking a lot about polygamy, and tina told me i should read this. wow.

it's the story of a fictional character, dinah kirkham, who has more trials than any of us could ever imagine. the character is mostly based on eliza r. snow (that's how i figured out she was fictional - some of the events were starting to sound a little familiar.)

it was the kind of book that stays with you. i have a feeling it has changed me. read it.

"saints" by orson scott card

My Sweet Escape

In case anyone has been wondering why I haven't posted in almost a week, here goes.

I repent for ever rolling my eyes at anybody who was obsessed with this:

I had no intention of reading it. Three years ago, when you Hollister people were drooling all over Twilight, and had told me how addictive it was, I thought, "Yeah, well I don't have 2 days to check out of my life, so maybe someday when I'm on vacation or something." And yet, I was never that interested, and never read it, and then she kept writing more and more sequels, and it seemed like too much to catch up with.

Erin read the first 3 books in the series a month or so ago, about the time the movie came out. I let her, relying on the good judgement of my CA friends, and the fact that their teenage daughters had all read them, too. Then, in conversation with one of my friends here in Ohio, I was alerted to the fact that they might not be completely appropriate for a 12 year old. Then I panicked. What had she read?

So, since I had a little plane ride to go on last Friday, I picked it up at the airport, hoping to be done before Sunday.

It was good. Really good.

I didn't read much more until the return plane trip. And then when we got home, I sat my catookus down on the couch for 3 hours and finished it Saturday night.

And then Sunday, I was counting the hours until I could go back to the bookstore and get New Moon. So, Monday morning, I bribed my kids into cleaning the house so we could go run errands, and swing by Barnes & Noble (so the girls could use their gift cards, of course!) Eric got off work early and came with us. I didn't start reading until about 4 pm, taking breaks for karate, dinner, bedtime, etc. And I went to bed at a decent hour. I finished it by 10:30 Tuesday morning.

Now what was I going to do? I needed to know more about Edward and Bella, so I made up the excuse that I needed to go to Costco to get cucumbers (which happens to be next door to B & N). I decided to quit lying to myself that I wouldn't finish Eclipse that day and come back tomorrow to get Breaking Dawn, so I just bought them both. The same clerk had helped me on Monday, and I could tell he wanted to laugh at me. Oh well.

Anyhow, by the time I got home, it was time to run off to an appointment with Calvin, so I got about 15 minutes to read in the waiting room, and then had to wait until evening. And again, I went to bed at my normal time, 10:30 or so.

On Wednesday, I sat in my pajamas and read in between getting kids on the bus, instead of running like I normally would have. I even skipped having a shower before I went to help in Calvin's class.

After lunch, I read again until about 4, then started making dinner (I had a recipe exchange to go to, so of course I made something I could just put in the oven so I could read more.)

I started Breaking Dawn while waiting for dinner to finish, and then somewhat begrudgingly went to party with my friends.

I finished it Thursday at about 2pm. Pathetic, I know.

The funny thing is, I laugh at people who read escapist literature. I think it's so silly to get caught up in an imaginary world, and let life pass you by.

Mmm, but it sure is nice.

Oh, yeah, and then I found the draft for Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer's website, and read that on Friday. So, in less than a week, I read the whole series.

And I liked it.

Here are my thoughts:

Twilight - wonderful. Exciting, riveting, very descriptive, (I feel like I REALLY know Edward and Bella) It brought back all of those exciting memories of falling in love for the first time.

New Moon - also very good. My heart broke over and over for Bella, and I missed Edward so much.

Eclipse - good, but Bella's angst started to get on my nerves. And her indecision and inability to leave Jacob alone. And the fact that she didn't want to get married to Edward. And the fact that Edward kept tolerating her lameness.

Breaking Dawn - I LOVED the first part (the honeymoon, the wedding, etc.) I really didn't like that the whole baby trauma was seen through Jacob's eyes. I felt that seeing Edward's agony first person would have been much more real. The baby - weird. I don't know why, but I don't GET the baby, and her name was a little too strange. And the ending, well, by then I was just trying to hurry and finish so I could be done. Too much Harry Potter warring wizards stuff. And I kind of don't like that Bella became a vampire, but I guess there was no other way to make it work.

And if you haven't read the draft of Midnight Sun, well, you should. Wow. Better than Twilight. It's not finished, and from what I understand, she's not planning on finishing it. But it was my favorite. And now I'm sad, because there's no more, and I have to return to my real life where people eat food, not blood, (which requires no dishes!) and can't run super fast and read my thoughts or see into my future, where I don't have a sister-in-law who is always designing new fashions for me and a brother-in-law who is making me feel calm.

It's killing my buzz.

Oh, yeah, and I don't want to see the movie. Because Edward doesn't look like that in my mind. So it would ruin it for me. Maybe someday.