Monday, October 27, 2014

What We're Reading :: October

Me:
Lavin's "Lilacs" and "The Long Ago" (short stories for this month's book club selection)
Lowry's Son (the last of The Giver quartet)
Karen Glass' Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition (much anticipated--and it's living up to the hype so far!)
Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 (still--and will be all year, probably)

Vincent, age 8:
d'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths (a reread from his "quiet time" shelf)
Edward Eager's Seven-Day Magic (the last of the Half-Magic series)
Windeatt's Patron Saint of First Communicants: Blessed Imelda (a reread from our saints shelf)

Gianna, age 8:
Brian Jacques' The Sable Quean (the last of the Redwall series)
Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown (I finally scored a copy for our home library and she happily pounced on it)
Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year, volumes 1 and 2 (binge-reading this on Sundays)

Cate, age 5:
a few rhymes from Cooper Edens' The Glorious Mother Goose

To the Big Kids:
MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind and Kingsley's Water Babies (we'll be reading these two AO Y3 "free reads" slowly over the course of the whole school year)
Wilder's By the Shores of Silver Lake (just a couple chapters left)
Burnett's A Little Princess (on audio, in the car--delightful!)

To the Kindergartener:
Hutchinson and Lenski's Chimney Corner Stories: Tales for Little Children (a new find for us, and so charming)
Kindergarten Gems (just a story here and there)
Fr. Lord's The Rosary: Roses of Prayer for the Queen of Heaven (we have the miniature version and it's a favorite)

To the Littles:
Rinker and Lichtenheld's Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site (4yo Xavier's pick)
the Hurds' The Merry Little Chase (3yo Bridget's pick)
Jane Dyer's Animal Crackers (2yo Clara's pick)

And more used-book finds:
So all of these arrived at my house on the same day last week.  


I came home from an evening of book-shopping at the thrift store and coffee with a friend (who gifted me a book) to find that a box (okay, fine, two giant boxes!) had arrived on the doorstep from a favorite online seller while I was out.  Yup, that's a lot of books.  But one of my very favorite children's series in beautiful hardbacks?  And vintage encyclopedias for my non-fiction loving oldest son?  I mean, really: what's a mom to do?  

It wouldn't have been so bad except that all these had arrived just a few days prior:




Needless to say, I put together a new bookshelf on Saturday.

Any favorite finds lately, friends?  I know I'm not the only one out there book hunting! 

10 comments:

  1. Hi, I always read your blog and am fascinated by your school and books! I also buy books, not as many as you though :) May I ask you where do you buy your used books from? or where do you get them from? I usually use Abe books or Amazon for good deals! Thanks,
    Katalin

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    1. Hi Katalin -- There is a thrift store about twenty minutes from me that has a great book selection, so I get about half my books from there and half from online sellers on Instagram, yahoogroups, or Facebook. If I need a particular book (like if we're about to start a new school year and I'm missing a title), then I order on Amazon, but otherwise, I buy books as I see them and plan ahead. For example, I have almost all our school books for next year already, just by keeping an eye out and grabbing them used when I see them. (And if you want specific names of booksellers online, email me and I'll share. ;))

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    2. Thank you Celeste!

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    3. I'm using Better World Books quite a bit lately. If you get on their mailing list you also get notified of good sales. They also have free shipping on lots of their used books (those $3.99-per-book charges on Amazon add up fast, ahem). :-)

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  2. Those piles of books look yummy! LHOTP in hardback, no way you can let that opportunity slip!

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    1. Right, Helena?! I knew my fellow book-lovers would understand. :)

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  3. Oh, we well understand the joy of acquiring new books (especially the vintage ones)! We just went to the library's semi-annual book sale last week, one of our most favorite activities of the year. My big girls and I are always positively giddy with excitement as we set off on the hunt. We came home with two boxes full. Now to figure out where to shelve them! ;-) You have lots of good stuff in those stacks there! (and I'm so old I read those Golden encyclopedias as a kid) We invested in a set of hardback Little House almost twenty years ago and they're still going strong. Lovely, lovely books!

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    1. Our local library unfortunately has a very poor selection at their book sales (strange since I have had such luck at library sales in other cities), so I am glad I have this thrift store not too far. They're not the 25-cents-per-book variety like our thrift store is, but their selection is so much better that it's worth it.

      I'm glad to hear it about the hardback Little House books! I figure that I might as well invest in hardbacks now while my kids are young, because they'll no doubt be getting plenty of use over the years in our home. :)

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  4. I'm glad you share pictures like this, Celeste. Between you and Jenn Miller, I don't feel so bad about my book acquisitions! Although (alas) we haven't gotten any big boxes in a while.

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    1. Haha--glad I could make you feel better, Angela! ;) I was totally drooling over Jenn's stack too.

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