Blog Archives

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

4/30/2018

This weekly chance to add to your reading list is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.

My husband and I had a lovely little getaway this weekend. My two-year-old stayed at his grandparents' as a trial run for baby's arrival in June, and we got some time to relax, visit bookstores, and eat yummy food (we found the most delicious ice cream!). Then Saturday was Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon, which I participated in only sparingly. The toddler was rather demanding of my attention. :) But I did get almost three hours of reading in, which is more than I expected!

What I Read Last Week

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser (Five star read, for sure! And the perfect book to take on vacation.)

What I'm Reading Now

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (I'm enjoying this one so far.)
Rebound by Kwame Alexander (I started this one before our trip and haven't gotten back to it yet, but that's okay. It would be easy to zip through this one in an hour or two, but I'd rather savor it.)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 680 out of 710. I should finish it this week, and then my Classics Club list will be done!!)

What's Coming Up Next

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (This book has gotten a lot of love on the Books Between podcast, so I thought I'd give it a try.)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

4/23/2018

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This weekly chance to add to your reading list is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.

It's spring! It's finally spring! After an ice storm last weekend, the temperatures have been gradually rising. Today is 60 degrees, and our highs for the foreseeable future don't drop below 50. Finally! It's so nice to be out in the sunshine!

What I Read Last Week

Edward Trencom's Nose by Giles Milton (This one was just meh, but now that I've read it, I can pass it along to someone else who may love it in my Little Free Library!)
Sounder by William Armstrong (It may be because I read this one in a disjointed fashion over several days while I put my son down for a nap, but it didn't particularly thrill me. It seemed kind of pointless and meandering, and like it could have been so much more.)

What I'm Reading Now

The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson (This series is amazing! This book suffers a little from second-book-in-a-trilogy syndrome, even though it's actually the third book of four. But I don't even care because I love the characters and I love the setting and I love the storytelling. You should read this series!)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 656 out of 710. The end is in sight!)

What's Coming Up Next

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Other than finishing Daniel Deronda, this is the last book on my Classics Club list!! I'm going to make it!)

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My Son's Go, Dog. Go! Birthday Party

4/19/2018

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My son turned two this month, and when I sat down to figure out what his birthday party theme should be, my mind naturally traveled to books. And then it was an obvious choice. His favorite book currently is Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman. Sounded like a fun birthday party to me!

I'm really not a big party planner sort of person, so I was extremely thankful for Pinterest for providing lots of ideas. We decorated in green and orange, like the cover of the book. And I printed out pages from the book to go with some of the food.

"Big dogs and little dogs!" (Brats and hot dogs)

"It's not hot here under the house." (Lemonade)

Puppy Chow
"A blue dog on a red tree." (Blueberries & strawberries)
"A green dog on a yellow tree." (Green grapes & pineapples)

And the absolutely amazing cake made by my mother-in-law!!

Here's the whole "cake" with my son who was being goofy and wouldn't let us take a good picture. Ah, two-year-olds!

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

4/16/2018

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This weekly chance to add to your reading list is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here, which is why no posts happened last week. We had a birthday party for my son (which was book-themed, so there will be a post coming about it!). Then my husband was out of town for three days. I have to tell you that single parenting a two-year-old while being seven months pregnant is exhausting! I pretty much collapsed on the couch as soon as my little guy was in bed. I've really enjoyed this past weekend of no plans and relaxing (and having my husband home again!). I was even able to get a fair amount of reading in! :)

What I Read in the Last Two Weeks

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (The pacing was on the slow side, but I still enjoyed this one. I keep thinking about the kids that were the main characters, so I'm sure I'll be reading the sequels soon.)
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn (Almost bailed 50 pages in, but I'm glad I kept going. The second half was good enough to stick with it for.)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (I loved revisiting this one. It's a Newbery winner that I read in childhood and taught as a sixth grade teacher. It was fun to read it just to read it.)

What I'm Reading Now

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost (This is for the country of Kiribati for the Litsy Passport Challenge. It's really better than the title suggests.)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 610 out of 710. One hundred pages to go!!)

What's Coming Up Next

Edward Trencom's Nose by Giles Milton (I'm trying to balance library and owned books, so I grabbed this one off my shelf. It's on my TBR Bingo that I'm trying to finish this year and have made very little progress on. Time to do something about that!)

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2018 First Quarter Wrap-Up

4/5/2018

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The first three months of the year are over already! That means it's time to take stock of my reading thus far and my reading challenge progress. Since I have a new baby arriving in June, I've been trying to really work on my reading challenges in the first part of this year. Let's see if I'm making as much progress as I think I am!

Books read: 45
Pages read: 12,949
Fiction: 78%
Nonfiction: 22%
Male authors: 47%
Female authors: 53%
Books I own: 46%
From the library: 54%

Favorite fiction book this quarter: The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett
Favorite nonfiction book this quarter: Mail Obsession: A Journey Round Britain By Postcode by Mark Mason

Reading Challenge Progress
Mount TBR 10/36
Nonfiction 9/15
Litsy Passport 2/6 countries
Newbery 26/45 points
Picture Book 42/104 categories
Middle Grade Well. . . I've read 16 middle grade books so far this year, but I haven't assigned them to categories yet. And since each book can count towards two categories, I guess you could say I have 32 out of 104 categories complete!

Personal Reading Goals
Finish Classics Club List Just one and 1/3 books to go!
TBR Bingo 9/25 (This needs work.)
Read My Own Books 46% (Goal is 50%)

Cue the never-ending chorus - I need to read more books I own! Only 46% of the books I've read this year have been books I've owned, and I really need to keep that percentage over 50%. I haven't dug the hole too deep yet, so here's my chance to swing the balance the other way!

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

4/2/2018

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This weekly chance to add to your reading list is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, spending time with family and friends. But most importantly, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

What I Read Last Week

Where We Belong by Lynn Austin (This was a really enjoyable read.)
The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Another Newbery winner. I taught this one when I taught sixth grade, so it was interesting to revisit it just to read it.)

What I'm Reading Now

The Maiden's Bequest by George MacDonald (This is my yearly George MacDonald Holy Week read. It's a slow, savoring sort of read, so I didn't quite make it during Holy Week, but I should finish it up soon.)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 504 out of 710.)

What's Coming Up Next

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (This is one I've been hearing lots of good things about - and I just recently bought books 2 and 3 - so I finally decided to read book one!)

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