January Books

When I decided to try to read 50 books this year, I was imagining reading almost a book a week to myself and I thought that was a bit ambitious.  I forgot to factor in the books I read to my boys at bedtime most nights.  Here are the books I finished in January.  I was hoping for 4, and I got 9!

My mom let us borrow 'A Season of Gifts' by Richard Peck.  It was an entertaining read with the boys for the Christmas season.

My sisters loved 'The BFG' when they were kids, mostly a song from it that went something like, "Whiz-pop, whiz-pop, feel the bubbles go down!"  It never did much for me, but the boys found it quite amusing.

The Boxcar Children.  Jennifer's favorite series as a kid.  It's a sweet series about four siblings, but I will say that Gertrude Warner is no Laura Ingalls Wilder, in my humble opinion.  Ha.

Black Beauty is probably my favorite book I've read with the boys this month, and it also happens to be the only one of the four I read as a child.  It was written in 1877 and is basically supposed to be a horse telling the story of his life, with each chapter just happening to highlight a way a horse could be mistreated and then the proper way to care for a horse instead. It's quite convincing.  Let's just say the boys and I will no longer be using check reins or blinders on our horses, we will always check for stones in their shoes, we will not be running with the hounds, will not beat them about the head if they shy, and we will never make them stand in stalls that were built on a slope.  Shew.  Our horses are breathing a sigh of relief.   

Now for the books I read to myself.  'The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder' was a Christmas present and a treat to read.  I had read "Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography: Laura Ingalls Wilder" last year, so I didn't learn anything too surprising, except that she had the entire book of Psalms memorized.  Now that's hard to imagine.  (Side note, the Pioneer Woman of cookbook fame says she has the book of Matthew memorized.  Impressive.  I'm not much of a memorizer.  Caleb memorized the 23rd Psalm for AWANA yesterday.  I thought that was impressive til I thought about these ladies.)

"The Rowan Tree."  Interesting.

"The New Rules of Running."  Jennifer says I run more stiffly after reading this book.  I doubt that was the author's intended outcome.  On a side note, Jennifer and I ran (trotted) the furthest of our lives last night.  About 3 miles.  Woo-hoo for us.

"Ahab's Wife" is about the wife of (the fictitious) Captain Ahab of Moby Dick fame.  Now this was the page-turner of the month!  I would say that it was beautifully written, lyrical, alluring and wise, but the Los Angeles Times already said that, so I will just say it again - a page-turner.

Now this is the first-hand account of an actual whaleship that was stove by a whale.  I believe Herman Melville and definitely Sena Jeter Naslund read this book to get the basis of their books.

So there you have it.  Nine books down, forty-one to go!