Enger's Peace Like a River (finished last month for book club -- but it's on the AO list too)
Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich (for this month's book club)
Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter (slooowly making my way through the first volume of the trilogy)
CM's Parents and Children (for an ongoing video book club)
The Story of Charlotte Mason (I planned to finish this over the summer but didn't have a chance)
Please Understand Me II and Gifts Differing (dipping back into some MBTI)
As a Family:
Latham's Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (started this as a read-aloud, finishing it on audio -- you can buy it for much cheaper through Peace Hill Press as an mp3 download)
Ransome's Swallowdale (our car audiobook -- I can't recommend Larkin's versions highly enough!)
Lewis' The Silver Chair (just finished and on to the next Narnia audio)
Collodi's Pinocchio (in Morning Basket)
I have three September birthday girls, and they all got books...
Gianna (newly-10):
Tolkien's Mr. Bliss and Eliot and Le Cain's Growltiger's Last Stand (she loves quirky books)
A lovely hardback Anne of Green Gables (which she read for the first time over the summer)
Estes' The Alley (as you can see, the bookmark is already in that one -- ha!)
Bridget (newly-5):
Caldecott's Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross and A Farmer Went a Trotting (I can't find a version to link since it's OOP)
Walton's So Many Bunnies: a Bedtime ABC and Counting Book
Lobel's Alison's Zinnia
Eichenburg's Ape in a Cape: An Alphabet of Animals
(can you sense a theme here? she's on an alphabet kick!)
Clara (newly-4):
Eloise Wilkin's Poems to Read to the Very Young in board book format (LOVE)
Wallner's The Farmer in the Dell and Langstaff's Frog Went A-Courtin (both of which I included in my favorite picture book folk songs!)
Wild Animal Babies (Clara adores these out-of-print cut-out books, so I'm always excited to find one)
Keats' Over in the Meadow (another for the folk song shelves)
...and she really wanted a set of Real Mother Goose miniature board books like I gave Bridget last year. Thankfully my favorite online bookseller happened to find me one because they are out of print!
Grandma gave some great book gifts to the girls also:
The Four-Story Mistake (we still don't own all four yet -- they get borrowed regularly from the library!)
two Elsa Beskow books: The Curious Fish and Princess Sylvie
Little House on the Prairie on audio (she's slowly gifting the collection)
Sunshine and Snowballs, a re-illustrated Margaret Wise Brown
Yes, my mom has fabulous taste and totally supports our homeschooling. I am blessed! :)
The Boys
Vincent (age 10) has been busy with some American history books in his free time:
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence, Forts in America (yes, he's reading reference books!), and The Signers (love the woodcut illustrations).
Xavier (age 6) has requested The Kitchen Knight every day this week and has been copying pictures from Sylvia Long's Mother Goose in the evenings.
The Baby Boys (ages 2 and 11 months) have been demanding There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and Richard Scarry's ABC Word Book.
Cate (age 7) is plugging along on Milly-Molly-Mandy with me and is already re-reading Understood Betsy after finishing it a couple days ago. She declared it her favorite book of Year 2 despite our being only a third of the way through the year. :)
In the Mail:
It has been quite a couple months for book deliveries and library finds!
The Story of One Hundred Symphonic Favorites
McGraw's Mara: Daughter of the Nile
LeMarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
Wendell Berry's Hannah Coulter (my favorite book of 2014 -- but I read a library copy)
Gombrich's The Story of Art (a hardcover in pretty good shape for 50 cents!)
Ness' Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine
Snowden's The Young Astronomer (for our reference shelf)
a tattered but still delightful copy of Poortvliet's Gnomes
In One Tidepool: Crabs, Snails, and Salty Tails
a hardcover of McCloskey's Time of Wonder to replace our worn paperback
Buehr's The Spanish Conquistadors in North America (we enjoyed his Marco Polo but haven't read this yet)
The Metropolitan Opera Guild's Lohengrin (so neat! -- I immediately bought the others in this series)
And one that a friend set aside for me to buy from her at the CMI conference: Jeanne Bendick's All Around You. I've been hunting for this one! Charming, right?
Well, that's what we've been reading the past couple months. What I didn't share is the gigantic stack of vintage beauties I grabbed from our little library bookstore a few days ago after popping in there on a whim -- I'll save that for next time. :)
What books keep getting unshelved, reshelved, and then unshelved again in your home? :) What's on your nightstand? I'd love to hear!
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Eeeekkk. Eye candy. Drooling. Sniff all the old ones for me, will you?! ;) Added to my wishlist, many of these! :)
ReplyDeleteHa -- if you insist! :) I love seeing all your finds, Amy. You have such good taste and I get so many ideas from the stacks you share on Instagram!
DeleteOh and your questions! :) On Market Street by Lobel is a FAVORITE one...I need to find a hardcover. Puppy Too Small by Szekeres is my littles fav right now. The Quiltmaker's Gift by Brumbeau also. :) Those are just a few of ones pulled off the shelf a lot.
ReplyDeleteOn my nightstand, for the moment, is Three Musketeers, which I like, but is SLOW, and Emily of New Moon, and Hinds Feet :)
I read The Three Musketeers years ago and remember it being good, but yes, slow. :) Emily of New Moon is strange (for LMM) but still wonderful. I haven't checked out On Market Street in ages -- thanks for the reminder!
DeleteWe love Elsa Beskow here too. My Sylvie got that Princess Sylvie story from her Grandma for Christmas! I'd love to hear Gianna's thoughts about Mr Bliss - its been in and out of my cart a few times now.
ReplyDeleteOh, how sweet that you have a Sylvie! Gianna's review of Mr. Bliss, "It was funny and children that like humorous books would enjoy it like I did. It reminded me a bit of a mish-mash between Alice in Wonderland (because of the strange creatures) and Mary Poppins (because of the unexpected events)."
DeleteThank You Gianna - sounds like something my children would really enjoy!
DeletePosts like this are my absolute favorite!
ReplyDeleteMy boys, 8 and 11, change fairly often what they are reading. One constant lately, though, has been The Happy Hollisters series! My 8yo has read most of the series, but is now on a favorite re-read/re-skim binge. :) He will randomly pull history biographies off the shelf, and most recently read the Random House Step-Up book on Andrew Jackson. They also are perpetually interested in the Revolutionary War and WWII but I may find them perusing books on a number of different topics at any given time.
Audiobooks: In the past month, we have listened to Johnny Tremain (beware a bit of language - I was a bit taken off guard. Nothing foul but more than is said around here!), The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit, and a couple of Ramona Quimby books (I have such mixed feelings about these). We are currently listening to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the umpteenth time (I requested it this time!).
My current reading: Anne of Avonlea - Montgomery; The Nocturnal Naturalist: Exploring the Outdoors at Night - C. Johnson (a diary-style book that takes place over the course of a year); How to Share Your Faith with Anyone: A Practical Manual for Catholic Evangelization - T. Barber; Singing in the Reign: The Psalms and the Liturgy of God's Kingdom - M. Barber (reading for a class at my parish); Walking with God - Gray/Cavins (this is on hold while I read the book on the Psalms for my class, but is still in process); The Hidden Truth: Deception in Women's Health Care - Littell (fascinating read) **My reading is not as diverse as it normally is but will eventually balance out a bit better. I also usually limit myself to four books at a time, so I've gotten a bit lax there. :)
You have many favorites in your photos above...standing out are the Elsa Beskow books (love, love) and the Jeanne Bendick books. But so many other great ones up there. Best to you, Celeste!
Oh, and I forgot to add our family reading:
Delete-Cheaper by the Dozen - Gilbreth (have run into some language in the 2nd chapter, taking the Lord's name in vain while recalling a story; I hope that is all!). We read this (or whatever our lit/fun read-aloud is) nightly, then add one of the following so that we get to all of the below books around once per week.
-St. Patrick's Summer - Hunt
-String, Straightedge and Shadow - Diggins
-St. John Bosco and St. Dominic Savio - Beebe
-The Burgess Seashore Book
-The Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales - Hawthorne
-The Presidency - G. Johnson
All Quiet - probably the best WW1 story I've ever read; Mara is a favourite here - we've enjoyed all the books we've read by this author. I've just finished some books: Stalin by Marrin, The Double Helix and two books in an Aussie crime series. Still going with Augustine's Confessions and deciding which new books to start. I have a couple I want to read for the Back to the Classics Challenge so it might be one of those. Found a nice HB copy of Goudge's 'The Rosemary Tree'so look forward to reading her for the first time :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there were others by the author of Mara -- I will check that out. I saw your post about The Double Helix and it looks fascinating. And the first time for Goudge?! You are in for a treat. :)
DeleteDid you know Kara Shallenberg has recorded the Melendy books? http://kayray.org/kayray-reads/
ReplyDeleteOur 5yo is listening to Milly Molly Mandy; I just bought Ember Falls for the 8yo; my 10yo has picked one of the Mary Poppins audios tonight. 3yo is "reading" Elephant and Piggie. Lovely to see all your books :)
No, I didn't know! Thanks for telling me -- I'll check it out. :)
DeleteI need to get Elephant and Piggie for my learning-to-readers. Gianna and Vincent so enjoyed those when they were little.
Death comes for the Archbishop! Ive totally fallen in love with this book. Willa Cather is a local author to me, her hometown is about an hour away. It's such a lovely book that describes to godly priests who come to evangelize the Southwest. It was such a great counterpoint to read against Westward Ho! and it's anti-Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention Willa Cather as I just started Shadow on the Rock last night. :) How neat that you are local. We read My Antonia for our book club last year, and I read Death Comes for the Archbishop years ago. Her writing is striking and lovely.
DeleteThat hardback copy of Anne of Green Gables is dreamy! And how fun to see your daughter reading it for the first time! :) My 5-year old son loves The Kitchen Knight, too.
ReplyDeleteI've been listening to This Distant Land by Wendell Berry lately. He has a remarkable ability to say profound things with plain words!
He certainly does! Jayber Crow was a book I savored almost all of the first half of this year. I haven't decided which of his I will read next.
DeleteLove these posts! Do you think kids all have their own book shelves for their books?
ReplyDeleteNo, any books they receive get shelved with our family books. I have told them they'll share with others until they leave the house, and then they are welcome to take their books with them. :)
DeleteWe finished Mr. Bowditch. Family consensus, fascinating, but sad. (4 stars though) We are all ready to add a title that is a bit more light hearted to the read alouds. We also have Wind in the Willows as an afternoon or evening read aloud. It's in the Form 1 Rotation, but Caleb, and often my husband, were listening in too. =) So I moved it to times that they could hear, but Caroline and Charlotte still narrate. That one is just too rich to not stop and listen.
ReplyDeleteAnd I noticed Glenn O. Blough did the forward for, All Around You. We are enjoying his book about plants (studying trees) in our Nature Study Wednesday group time. I read specific portions aloud to focus us for our nature walk or right before an object lesson.
Oh, I also ordered the EW poems in boardback used. =) We have it in hardback, but I thought Cora needed the board book version. ;)
Oh yes, I remember you mentioned that tree book on IG. I'll have to give it a look!
DeleteI'm looking forward to Wind in the Willows. I have actually never read it aloud before -- Vincent and Gianna read it to themselves. So this is my first real go-through and we're all highly anticipating it!
Yup, Cora definitely needs the board book. It's too bad, but it simply must be bought. ;)
I just added "Gnomes" my husband's Christmas list for me, (I give him lists to keep from being disappointed, it works well, everybody's happy). I can't tell you how many times I checked it out of the library as a little girl! I wrote notebooks full of stories about little people...thank you for reminding me of that treasure!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm so glad, Laura, to reintroduce two long-lost friends. <3
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