We spent a good portion of our spring break vacation reading. It rained quite a bit and Russ was working part of the time. He had all of Wednesday off, but it rained all day and he and I did nothing but curl up in fuzzy blankets and enjoy our books. I think he really needed that down time.
Unfortunately, I read the perfect vacation book on our first day and then I was ruined because no other book I picked up grabbed me in the same way.
Books Finished in March
I definitely completed less variety this month, but I made progress on some of my more challenging books.
:: Wonder [I sobbed my way through this middle grade novel, tears streaming down my face. It is so beautiful and important. 4 1/2 stars.]
:: Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories [This is a nice companion book to Wonder. I especially appreciated The Julian Chapter, but it isn’t quite as magical as Wonder. 4 stars.]
:: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition) [A beautiful and true story about a boy from Malawi who builds a windmill. Great paired with The Boys in the Boat or A Long Walk to Water. 4 stars.]
:: Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
I'm trying to decide what to say about this book without making myself look bad. No, there's probably no way around it. Y'all will just have to know the real me. I stayed up until 5 am finishing this one. Yes, you read that right: 5 am.
Here's the deal: I love a good romance novel. I even love not-so-great romance novels. In fact, this has always been my favorite genre, even when I don't want it to be.
Here's the problem: I like them smouldering, but clean. Clean, but not cheesy. Oh, and well-written with great character development. And not super preachy. Ha! Do you know how hard that is to come by? Almost impossible. Vintage is nice, but not necessary. I'd say Jane Eyre comes closest in classics (even though I hate the first 10 chapters). The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter is next on the list. Other classic romances are nice (Pride and Prejudice, for example, or any of the romance novels by George MacDonald), but not quite as smouldering.
The Awakening of Miss Prim is the best modern romance I've read, probably because the setting doesn't seem modern and it's full of literature/theology/classical education references. Lighter on the smoulder, though, and maybe slightly unsatisfying at the end.
I don't remember who recommended Greensleeves to me. It was written by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (author of the middle grade novels The Golden Goblet, Mara, Daughter of the Nile, Moccasin Trail, and others) and published in 1968. It is a hefty book at 334 pages. It is the coming of age story of 18-year-old Shannon Lightley. Yeah, an 18-year-old. It is written in first person, and seems light and modern-ish in style, but I was constantly surprised by a fantastic turn of phrase, description or witty comment. And it was way more...smouldering...than I expected it to be. But still clean. The ending was a little more open-ended than I expected (Miss Prim-ish), but not unsatisfying. The book has a decent theme without being preachy. (And it is not at all a "Christian" book as there is not a single mention of God or church.)
If you think smouldering, clean, coming-of-age romance novels are cheesy and ridiculous, don't read this one. And please don't think less of me.
I don't know that I'd give this book to a younger teen. But I will out my husband and say that he started reading it before I did and finished it in a couple days. 4 stars.
:: The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden [It had been many years since I read this children’s book, but it was a favorite from my childhood. It was just as magical this time around and I enjoyed our parent-child book club discussion. 4 1/2 stars.]
:: Edenbrooke
All that stuff I said about Greensleeves? Yeah. I read this on the first day of vacation, and then I just wanted to re-read it for the rest of the week. I skimmed/re-read it the following week and then I bought my own copy (the first one was a library copy). And then I ordered Blackmoore by the same author to read this coming month. Super duper mushy clean romantic story. More romantic than Greensleeves, but maybe more cheesy. Whatever. This is the kind of book I’d read all day every day if I didn’t care about my brain and my family. 4 stars.
:: The Glass Sentence [This is a hefty 500 page YA fantasy/sci-fi novel and the first in a trilogy. I read the whole thing on vacation, but I wasn’t sucked into the story. I didn’t love it. My fantasy/sci-fi-loving husband didn’t love it either. Interesting premise and world-building, decently written, but not great. Now I have to decide whether to try the second book in the series. 3 stars.]
:: The Black Opal [Decent but somewhat forgettable. The author is a long-time mystery and romance writer, but I didn’t find this book particularly mysterious or romantic. Meh. I may try another one. 3 stars.]
In Progress
[Yes, this list is a little ridiculous.]
:: Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories [I read The Displaced Person and The Lame Shall Enter First this month.]
:: Mystery and Manners [I read a couple more essays this month.]
:: The Iliad [I’ve stalled, but I’m determined to finish… sometime this year… ]
:: Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories [I’m reading this collection and discussing with Levi and McKinnon over the next few months. We read several of the stories this past month.]
:: Listening to Your Life [I continue to enjoy this daily devotional filled with excerpts from Frederick Buechner’s writings.]
:: Ambleside Online Year O Reading List [I’m reading all the books on this list aloud to Lola this year.]
:: Plutarch’s Lives [I am attempting to slow-read this one with the boys this year. I may chicken out and read the Greenleaf Guides Famous Men of Greece and Famous Men of Rome instead. Or even Augustus Caesar’s World.]
:: Julius Caesar retold by Leon Garfield [I’m working through both story volumes with the boys this year.]
:: The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (re-read) [One of my favorites.]
:: Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (re-read) [Another favorite.]
:: Beauty for Truth’s Sake by Stratford Caldecott (re-read) [And yet another favorite.]
:: The Law by Frederic Bastiat
:: Rhetoric by Aristotle
:: The Princess Bride
:: In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton
:: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Maybe by next month I’ll have a more complete 2016 Master List with links…
The Beginning Stages of the 2016 Reading Challenge Master List
(Books marked out have been completed)
Devotional
Listening to Your Life by Frederick Buechner [in progress]
In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton [in progress]
Real-Life Schole Sisters
The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor [I loved this biography of Flannery O’Connor. It is peppered with quotes from O’Connor’s own writings (letters and essays) as well as details about her stories. I feel much more equipped to understand her fiction writing. 4 stars]
Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories [in progress]
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor [in progress]
Online Schole Sisters
Awakening Wonder: A Classical Guide to Truth, Goodness & Beauty [There are some gems in this book, but I feel as if I had to work so hard to mine them. The last chapter of the book is fantastic, though. 3 1/2 stars]
Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (re-read) [in progress]
Beauty for Truth’s Sake by Stratford Caldecott (re-read) [in progress]
[Also discussing Flannery O’Connor with this group.]
Symposium at Parnassus (Facebook Group)
Understood Betsy (re-read) [This is such a beautiful classic children’s book, but it is just as important for adults—particularly parents and educators. The author of the story, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, brought Maria Montessori’s teaching methods to the United States and was also named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the country. 4 1/2 stars]
Jack and Jill (Alcott)
Little Women
Little Men
Rose in Bloom
Climbing Parnassus
Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education [in progress from 2015]
Plutarch’s Lives [In progress]
Potato Peel Pie Society (Facebook Group)
[Ambleside Online Year O book list with Lola] [in progress]
Dragonflight [Classic fantasy, and Russ’s favorite author. Fantasy is not my genre, but this one was enjoyable. Definitely some adult situations and not for young children. 3 1/2 stars]
Julius Caesar (re-telling by Leon Garfield) [In progress]
The Taming of the Shrew (“)
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (re-read) [in progress]
The Green Ember/ Black Star Rising
Surprised by Joy
ChocLit Guild
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy [This was my first Thomas Hardy novel, and I loved it. His descriptions are vivid paintings, and I laughed out loud more times than I could count. His characters sprung to life. This is an early contender for 2016 favorites. I enjoyed the new movie version as well. 4 1/2 stars.]
The Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare by Chesterton [Loved it. Review here. 4 1/2 stars]
Wonder [I sobbed my way through this one. Excellent and important. 4 1/2 stars]
Becoming Human by Jean Vanier [This fascinating non-fiction book on the value of every human and the tension between individuality and community was a book club selection this month, paired with the middle grade novel Wonder. I’ll share some thoughts and quotes when I get my copy back. It’s making the book club rounds at the moment. 4 stars]
The Supper of the Lamb (re-read)
All the Light We Cannot See
Gone With the Wind
The Book of the Dun Cow (re-read)
The Quotidian Mysteries
Something by L.M. Montgomery
The Great Divorce (or other non-fiction by C.S. Lewis)
Still Life by Louise Penny
Book Detectives
The Family Under the Bridge (re-read) [This short children’s chapter book was a re-read for me. Our Book Detectives group had a wonderful literary analysis discussion on this one.]
Dominic (re-read) [One of my top favorites. Review and analysis here. 5 stars.]
The Cricket in Times Square (re-read)
Symposium Read-Alouds (with boys)
Shakespeare Stories (Leon Garfield, both volumes -Hamlet and The Tempest) [in progress]
Heidi [I don’t know that I had ever actually read this one all the way through before. The boys LOVED it. Every day they would ask for me to read just one more chapter, and then just one more! In fact, one evening Russ sat down and listened with us and he wasn’t content with the two extra chapters, so he sat next to me after the kids went to bed and I watched a movie and he read the rest of the book, laughing out loud and reading passages to me from time to time. 4 1/2 stars]
The Princess Bride [in progress]
Tuck Everlasting
Roman Roads Western Culture Greeks with Levi
[Also discussing with online Schole Sisters]
The Iliad [in progress]
The Odyssey
CC Challenge B short stories [2015-16] (with Levi and McKinnon)
Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories
God Lives by Hans Christian Andersen
The Teapot by Hans Christian Andersen
The Bet by Anton Chekhov
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Little Girls Wiser than Men by Leo Tolstoy
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke
Araby by James Joyce
The Schoolboy’s Story by Charles Dickens
That Spot by Jack London
The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Celestial Railroad by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
A Man and the Snake by Ambrose Bierce
The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry
The Necklace by Henri Guy de Maupassant
The Hammer of God by G. K. Chesterton
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
The Bird on its Journey by Beatrice Harraden
The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde
A King in Disguise by Matteo Bandello
The Startling Painting by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Last Lesson by Alphonse Daudet
Classical Conversations Parent Practicum (“Navigating History: The Art of Argumentation”)
Rhetoric by Aristotle [in progress]
The Law by Frederic Bastiat [in progress]
The Peacemaker by Ken Sande
Family Life/Parenting
The Young Peacemaker by Ken Sande
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
Novels
Daddy-Long-Legs [Easy, short, old-fashioned, charming, funny, romantic novel. Brain candy I don’t have to feel guilty about. 4 stars]
The Martian [Gripping, fascinating, hilarious, and stressful sci-fi novel. The most interesting scientific and technical “manual” I’ve ever read, and science/technology/sci-fi are not my things. Lots of language and short, choppy journal-style writing for most of the book but it fit with the story. It is a fantastic tribute to human ingenuity and spirit, with an up-beat can-do attitude. 4 stars]
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger
Heart of Darkness [This wasn’t as hard to read as I thought it was going to be. The prose was exquisite in places. His descriptive writing reminded me of Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, though this one was not nearly so lovely. The forward movement felt slow, and the characters less appealing (though one was fascinating). 3 1/2 stars]
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank [in progress]
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie [I love a good mystery. I watched this as a play years and years ago, but it was high time I read this, one of A.G.’s most famous stories. 4 stars]
Children’s/YA Novels
The Ranger’s Apprentice
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition) [A beautiful and true story about a boy from Malawi who builds a windmill. 4 stars.]
The Glass Sentence [This is a hefty 500 page YA fantasy/sci-fi novel and the first in a trilogy. I read the whole thing on vacation, but I wasn’t sucked into the story. I didn’t love it. My fantasy/sci-fi-loving husband didn’t love it either. Interesting premise and world-building, decently written, but not great. 3 stars.]
Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories [This is a nice companion book to Wonder. I especially appreciated The Julian Chapter, but it isn’t quite as magical as Wonder. 4 stars.]
Popcorn Reads
Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw [I don't remember who recommended Greensleeves to me. It was written by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (author of the middle grade novels The Golden Goblet, Mara, Daughter of the Nile, Moccasin Trail, and others) and published in 1968. It is a hefty book at 334 pages. It is the coming of age story of 18-year-old Shannon Lightley. Yeah, an 18-year-old. It is written in first person, and seems light and modern-ish in style, but I was constantly surprised by a fantastic turn of phrase, description or witty comment. And it was way more...smouldering...than I expected it to be. But still clean. The ending was a little more open-ended than I expected (Miss Prim-ish), but not unsatisfying. The book has a decent theme without being preachy. (And it is not at all a "Christian" book as there is not a single mention of God or church.) 4 stars]
Edenbrooke [All that stuff I said about Greensleeves? Yeah. I read this on the first day of vacation, and then I just wanted to re-read it for the rest of the week. I skimmed/re-read it the following week and then I bought my own copy (the first one was a library copy). And then I ordered Blackmoore by the same author to read this coming month. Super duper mushy clean romantic story. More romantic than Greensleeves, but maybe more cheesy. Definitely a more satisfying ending. Whatever. This is the kind of book I’d read all day every day if I didn’t care about my brain and my family. 4 stars.]
The Black Opal [Decent but somewhat forgettable. The author is a long-time mystery and romance writer, but I didn’t find this book particularly mysterious or romantic. Meh. I may try another one. 3 stars.]
Blackmoore
