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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

12/4/2017

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

It's feeling Christmas-y around here! My husband got our outdoor lights up this weekend. I haven't gotten any decorating inside the house yet, but it's coming soon! Our church's Christmas concert was yesterday afternoon, which is always amazing (and exhausting, because I direct the adult handbells and sing in the church choir). Let the Christmas season begin!

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Introducing the 2018 Newbery Reading Challenge!

What I Read Last Week

North! or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson (Oh, my goodness, you need to read this series. This is the second book in the Wingfeather Saga, and it just kept getting better and better. I can't wait to read the third one!)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (Finished! It got a little dry in the middle, but overall. I really enjoyed this one.)
A Gathering of Days by Joan Blos (My last Newbery read of the year.)

What I'm Reading Now

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline (Book club book for the month. I've got to finish it by Friday, but I don't think that will be a problem!)

The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel (I've been saving this one for Advent/Christmas, and now we're here!)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

11/27/2017

2 Comments

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

I hope all who celebrated Thanksgiving here in the U.S. had a wonderful time! My family time was great, except for my sister-in-law's big black lab. Turns out my little guy was terrified of him, which is hardly surprising since they're pretty much the same size. That made Thanksgiving a little more interesting!

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2017 Newbery Reading Challenge Wrap-Up (If you participated and wrote a wrap-up post, you can link it up here!)

What I Read Last Week

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen Flynn (This was a quieter novel than I expected, but really good!)
The Scent of Sake by Joyce Lebra (This was an interesting book, but there was so much distance from the characters that it was hard to feel invested in anything or anyone.)

What I'm Reading Now

North! or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson (This is such a great book. The title alone should tell you that, right?)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (83% complete! Almost there!)

What's Coming Up Next

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline (Our December book club book)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

11/20/2017

5 Comments

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

The next holiday is almost upon us (at least, here in the United States, it is). My husband is only working two days this week, so we've got lots of family time ahead of us. And good food, of course! And once Thanksgiving is over, it's time to break out the Christmas decorations (I've already been listening to Christmas music for a week, so we might as well make the house match)!

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Classics Club Spin List

What I Read Last Week

The Secret of the Swamp King by Jonathan Rogers (I enjoyed the first book, but I loved the second one! Can't wait to get my hands on the third!)
Inferno by Dante Alighieri (Yay, I finished! Although I need to read the entire Divine Comedy for my Classics Club list, and only the first part is on Serial Reader. Now I need to be just as good at reading a bit every day when it's on paper, not my phone.)
The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde (Loved it, as expected!)
All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson (Oh, my goodness, I loved this one! We definitely need to buy a copy for the school library I volunteer at and get it into the hands of some middle schoolers!)

What I'm Reading Now

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn (Enjoying this so far. Very unusual premise.)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (69% complete!)

What's Coming Up Next

The Scent of Sake by Joyce Lebra (A book set in Japan, and then I am done with my Where Are You Reading? challenge!)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

11/13/2017

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

It is currently snowing as I type this!! I love snow, although I don't like the cold. So if it's going to be this cold outside, then it had better be snowing! That makes it the perfect weather to curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book!

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Library Book Sale Haul

What I Read Last Week

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin (This book was fascinating. I learned a lot about Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel soon to learn even more. Very inspiring!)
The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert (The perfect cozy mystery for cold fall days. I love this series!)

What I'm Reading Now

The Secret of the Swamp King by Jonathan Rogers (So far I'm liking this one even more than the first book in the series!)
Inferno by Dante Alighieri (84% complete. I should finish this one this week!)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (53% complete)

What's Coming Up Next

The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde (Continuing with my reread of all of Jasper Fforde's books!)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

11/6/2017

4 Comments

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

Happy November! We had a chance to play in the leaves this past weekend. We created a huge pile for my little guy to jump into. He loved flopping into the leaves on his belly and having handfuls of leaves thrown at him. Burying him wasn't so popular, but the rest of the time he had fun!

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This Week's Library Finds

What I Read Last Week

From Heaven Lake by Vikram Seth (This was a little bit heavy on the difficulties of travel and bureaucracy, but I really enjoyed Seth's writing and a chance to read a book about an area of the world - Xinjiang, China, and Tibet - that I don't read about very often.)
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (I remember reading and liking this book as a kid, but I can't for the life of me figure out why upon rereading it. The relationship with the captain was just plain creepy.)
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (This book was amazing!! I read this one as a buddy read with Christine from Buckling Bookshelves, which was a lot of fun. You should read this book!)

What I'm Reading Now

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (I've been wanting to read this one for a long time. Finally getting around to it!)
Inferno by Dante Alighieri (57% complete)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (39% complete)

What's Coming Up Next

The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert (I am reading this series all out of order. I read #3, 4, 5, 6, 1, and now this is #2. It's an incredibly enjoyable series, even if a little bit harder to piece together this way!)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

10/30/2017

5 Comments

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

Fall weather has certainly arrived in Michigan! And of course, we picked the coldest day yet to visit a corn maze on Saturday. It was fun to watch my little guy explore the maze. We let him pick which direction to go at the intersections, which meant it took us a lot of time to get through the maze. Lots of fun - until he decided he was done walking and wanted to be carried the rest of the way. Our arms were quite tired by the end!

What I Read Last Week

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (My first reread of this Fforde young adult book. It was just as fun as I remembered!)

What I'm Reading Now

From Heaven Lake by Vikram Seth (I found a book set in a place that starts with X!!)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (27% complete)
Inferno by Dante Alighieri (37% complete)

What's Coming Up Next

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Another Newbery winner!)
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (I'm doing a buddy read with Christine from Buckling Bookshelves starting Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to this one!)

5 Comments

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

10/23/2017

12 Comments

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

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon was this past Saturday! Did you participate? I had so much fun! I also spent two hours at my library book sale gathering a stash for my Little Free Library. I came home with nine bags! (The volunteers said I won the prize for the day.) There will be a forthcoming post about the many books, once I have a chance to sort through them. Such a fun day!

What I Read Last Week

The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers (I slipped this quick middle grade read into the beginning of the week. It was really good.)
The Prime of MIss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (The only book I completely finished during the readathon. It helped that it was only 127 pages.)
Edge of Extinction: Code Name Flood by Laura Martin (This one was even better than the first. SO GOOD!)

What I'm Reading Now

The Harvest Raise by Katie Schuermann (If you like Jan Karon's Mitford, you will love this series.)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (My Classics Club deadline is the end of August next year, and I still have 12 books to read. Yikes. Serial Reader will hopefully help me get most of those titles read in time. This one is currently 9% complete.)
Inferno by Dante Alighieri (Ditto above explanation. 15% complete.)

What's Coming Up Next

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (I was hoping to get to my monthly Fforde reread during the readathon, but I didn't. I've still got a week to fit it in before the month ends!)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

10/16/2017

2 Comments

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

I had the most amazing experience yesterday. This year is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Since I'm Lutheran, this anniversary is kind of a big deal for me. Yesterday, I sang in a choir of over 1,000 people at a worship service attended by over 14,000 people at the Breslin Center at Michigan State University. I have no words to describe how incredible that was. A taste of heaven!

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Some of My Favorite Middle Grade Books

What I Read Last Week

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (Ugh. There were a few profound moments I liked, but mostly ugh. And blech. I hate saying it, but don't read this book.)

What I'm Reading Now

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld (This is better than I feared. I'm a Jane Austen purist, so I don't know why I'm even reading a modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice, but I was intrigued. Some of the modern twists are pretty clever. I'm only halfway through, though, so we'll see what happens with Liz and Darcy.)
Utopia by Thomas More (I should be finishing this one up in the next day or two!)

What's Coming Up Next

The Harvest Raise by Katie Schuermann (This is the last book in the Anthems of Zion trilogy, and I am so excited to read it!!)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

10/9/2017

7 Comments

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

Saturday, I got to participate in a really fun experience. My church hosted an event called Walk, Learn, Pray on our local Rail Trail. My station was to teach about the Michigan state symbols (did you know we have a state fossil?). The weather was 80 degrees and sunny (What, Michigan?!). And when nobody was walking by my station, I got to sit and read a book. It was such a fun and peaceful afternoon!

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Third Quarter Wrap-Up

What I Read Last Week

Minders of Make Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature by Leonard S. Marcus (This was a thoroughly fascinating book.)
Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (I really enjoyed this Newbery book.)
Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin (I loved this one just as much as I expected to!)

What I'm Reading Now

The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood (This is the third book in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, and it's just as delightful as the first two so far.)
Utopia by Thomas More (Chipping away at my Classics Club list. Hooray for the Serial Reader app!)

What's Coming Up Next

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (Isn't that a great title?)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

10/2/2017

2 Comments

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

Happy October! I can't say that I really have a favorite month, but this one is close to the top. To celebrate, here's a video of an instrumental piece called "October" by my favorite living composer, Eric Whitacre.

What I Read Last Week

Frogkisser! by Garth Nix (This was a cute book. I liked it on audio.)

What I'm Reading Now

Minders of Make Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature by Leonard S. Marcus (This is a fascinating read, but certainly not a fast one. I've been working on it since Tuesday, and I'm only two thirds through. It's so interesting, though, that I'm not feeling the impatience to be finished and onto the next book like I normally would.)
Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (My next Newbery read.)