as cozy as spring

Audio

Audio books we've enjoyed this year:

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (still our favorite)

The Children of the New Forest  (I hadn't read this, but found it surprisingly beneficial to our studies of American colonial history, though in an indirect way.  Otherwise, it's a bit too boyish for my daughter and a bit too mature for my son, but still a good audiobook)

Ballet Stories (I would highly recommend these stories especially prior to taking a child to the ballet.  It's so much more enjoyable if they know the story and you can download individual titles on the Naxos website)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Librivox - We liked Chip's voice for this story.  I hadn't read it in years and was a little squirmy about a section or two, but the descriptions of autumn in New England were lovely.)

I am a bit partial to the Naxos productions.  There are so many titles available and I tend to like the readers.  There's no other reason than that.*  Now I used to be absolutely opposed to abridged anything, but I think I'm going to have to look at it one title at a time.  For example, they offer Anne of Green Gables abridged and I could never buy that.  The writing is one of the very best parts, as I've mentioned here before.  But as a way of sparking interest in a story we wouldn't otherwise read, I might be able to talk myself into it.  My daughter flat out refused to open a Little House book until we read our way through the picture books, so in certain circumstances I can see it as helpful.

My insistence on audiobooks for the car has been wholly good.  Not only are we making the most of time that would have otherwise been spent listening to Coldplay, the children's behavior is much better when they are engaged in a story.  (Meaning I'm not yelling at them to just "Be quiet already! I'm driving!")

We will listen to A Christmas Carol (unabridged) coming up in December.  I'm rather frightened of the new movie.  I can't tell you how many great books were spoiled for me because I didn't like the movie or show.  So I think some stories should remain in a child's imagination.  If you have a favorite audiobook of this story, please let me know.  I still need to look around.  We very much enjoyed reading it last winter.

*I see it has become common on blogs to specify whether the reviewer has received free materials or other compensation.  I have not. But if Naxos wants to send me a giant box of audiobooks, I will happily provide my shipping address. ;)

Anne

There's been a lot of discussion about Anne of Green Gables in my Google Reader lately.  It may be that there was always a lot of discussion on Anne of Green Gables and I just never paid attention to it because I thought (based on early exposure to the television movie) that I hated Anne of Green Gables.  My daughter read it at the beginning of the summer and insisted I read it aloud to her.  Wow.

Mostly, I've read for information, non-fiction, history texts, gardening guides, parenting books.  I didn't really read a lot of fiction as an adult until a couple of years ago.  I saw writing as a means of communicating an idea or telling a story and much less, as an art.  But this book, a great story in itself, is like poetry on every page, in every sentence.  And it is really is sort of funny that I can't seem to find a way to describe the rich and descriptive writing.  There are these passages that I found breathtaking - insisting on repeating them to my daughter and bending down the corners of the pages so I wouldn't lose them.  It is similar to the way we read Hawthorne's Wonder Book, but so much lovelier. 

My favorite so far: 

Anne was curled up Turk-fashion on the hearth-rug, gazing into that joyous glow where the sunshine of a hundred summers was being distilled from the maple cordwood.

Wow.

Dated Material

My daughter has a personal goal of reading her way through all our Childcraft books this year. Our set is from the late 70s or early 80s.  She's reading About Us right now.  She excitedly called out to me this morning, "Mama, it says, 'Some people paint flowers on their cars because it pleases them!'  I'm going to do that!!".  Also Pluto is still a planet and the environment is discussed in much more optimistic tones - just one tiny chapter on the danger that is man.

And with that, I really am off for a blogging break.  

New Picture Books

I recently ordered S Is for S'mores: A Camping Alphabet (Sleeping Bear Alphabets) for my children.  I love the layout of these books - the main text is suitable for all ages and older children can peruse the side sections for additional details.  There really is a lot of good camping advice included. I immediately liked this take on the alphabet book because it so fit with all our camping experiences.  It's beautifully illustrated as well.  A hit all around.

 I Took the Moon for a Walk - This was a gift from my sister for my son.  He has strong opinions on what constitutes a "morning book" and a "nighttime book" and when we can read either.  This is definitely a nighttime book.  It's a lovely read, very peaceful and quiet with charming illustrations. 

And life just started for this morning so I must go.  But I would like it noted here that I did not cry yesterday.  My eyes did fill with tears once in the kitchen whilst hugging my husband and talking ever so briefly about our lovely little family, but I was able to pull myself together.  My sister brought us rosaries from her recent trip to Rome and I ended the night with my daughter lying on my shoulder as we progressed through our prayers.  I glanced down at her for a minute and noticed she had her new rosary beads in one hand and a Polly Pockets doll in the other.  This stuck me as completely inappropriate but also quite fitting.  She's still a little girl after all.

MacDonald Hall

I am sorting through books this morning.  Up at the very tip top of my closet, I found my stash of Bruno and Boots books.  These were some of my favorite books as a child.  Gordon Korman visited our school in the early eighties, when I was just about my daughter's age.  I remember it very clearly.  I also clearly remembering reading and rereading and just loving all the books in this series.  It will be so fun to read these to Lucy this summer.  Will the adult me laugh as much as I did as a child or will I be horrified with all the mischief and breaking of school rules?  I would bet on the former.

And I can't seem to find these available anywhere.  I hope they aren't out of print. Sigh.

On Setting

I always feel it's a bit boring to write about books here, but I enjoy reading about books on other blogs and I actually enjoy reading about what I was reading in my own archives, so boring or not here's another book post!

I finished Persuasion a week or so ago.  Eh.  I didn't love it.  I didn't feel as if there was enough background information on the original relationship between Anne and Captain Wentworth.  I also wondered why Lady Russell was given so little space in the book being that she was rather important to the plot.  She never came across as having that much influence over Anne, we are just to assume it was so.  Overall this was my least favorite Jane Austen of all.  And while I do like some of her writing, I am still a bit baffled as to the popularity of her novels.  

This got me to thinking about what really draws me to a book.  It's the setting every time.  My all-time favorite stories have a place in it I would dearly love to be.  They have gorgeously described scenery and even just one or two lines that just make me fall in love with a book.

From A Wrinkle in Time: 

They walked carefully across the twins' vegetable garden, picking their way through rows of cabbages, beets, broccoli, pumpkins.  Looming on their left were the tall stalks of corn.  Ahead of them was a small apple orchard bounded by a stone wall, and beyond this the woods through which they had walked that afternoon.

From Gone with the Wind:

Along the roadside the blackberry brambles were concealing with softest green the savage red gulches cut by the winter's rains, and the bare granite boulders pushing up thought the earth were being draped with sprangles of Cherokee roses and compassed by wild violets of the palest purple hue.  Upon the wooded hills above the rover, the dogwood blossoms lay glistening and white, as if snow still lingered among the greenery.  The flowering crab trees were bursting their buds and rioting from delicate white to deepest pink and, beneath the trees where the sunshine dappled the pine straw, the wild honeysuckle made a varicolored carpet of scarlet and orange and rose.

Maybe it's just the gardener in me, but I also loved the description of the Murry's kitchen and Meg's attic bedroom.  I could continue with my favorite passages about Orchard House and more but we all have things to do!  My point is that 1) I think I enjoyed Mansfield Park because the setting was more vividly described than in Persuasion - or because it seemed lovelier overall 2) Perhaps people who do really love Jane Austen read more for the character development and/or overall plot?  

What is the most important aspect of a book to you?  And what is the most captivating setting you've encountered?  I hope this can be discussed in the comments section but generally speaking if I actually ask for comments about a well thought out post I receive none .  But I really am interested in what you, my friendly readers, have to say.

Reading Notes

I'm starting to really love Mansfield Park.  I'm about halfway through.  You have to tell me - Does Sir Thomas remain likable throughout?  If his character changes, it will ruin the book for me.  And I loathe Mrs. Norris.  Lady Bertram just cracks me up - 

 "Yes, she does look very well," was Lady Bertram's placid reply.  "Chapman helped her dress. I sent Chapman to her." Not but that she was really pleased to have Fanny admired; but she was so much struck with her own kindness in sending Chapman to her, that she could not get it out of her head.

That is hilarious and my favorite part of the book so far.

Jane Austen fans can stop hating me, for I've become one of you.  

Books!

Faith and Alicia had this up in the last couple of days.  I'm doing it because I thought my answers were funny in comparison to theirs - in a way where they look really smart and I don't. :)

1. What author do you own the most books by?  Alicia said Shakespeare, Faith said Chesterton - My answer?  Dave Barry!  Really!  

2. What book do you own the most copies of?  Probably Gone with the Wind.  

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? Actually yes.  My siblings could be downright mean when it came to prepositions.  I'm completely serious about that too.  There were tears and yelling.   

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?  I make no secret of my crush on Sirius Black.  

5. What book have you read the most times in your life? I'm a huge re-reader, so...Gone with the Wind or Little Women, but it's very common for me to read a book 15 or more times.  If I like a book, 15 would be the minimum.

6. Favorite book as a ten year old? Probably A Wrinkle in Time

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?  I don't know if I would call it bad, but  I didn't enjoy My Antonia.  Oh wait!!! The Twilight books, hands down.  Garbage.  (I know I'm in the minority, but I stand by my opinion).

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?  I dunno.  The Bible?  I think every female should read Little Women because there's so much wisdom in there.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Eh.  I don't care for movies.

11. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn.  I've been trying to finish this book for 13 years.  It's not even all that difficult, but I can't seem to finish.

12. What is your favorite book? Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  I know.  I'm pathetic.

13. What is your favorite play? Hmmm.  I tend to quote most frequently (meaning daily) from My Fair Lady, but I can't tell you why.  That's kind of weird now that I think about it. 

14. Poem? The Cloud by Shelley

15. Essay? Pope John Paul's Letter to Artists is one that most influences my life.

16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Stephanie Meyer.  

17. What is your desert island book? Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales (This is Faith's answer, but I concur)

18. And . . . what are you reading right now?  Mansfield Park and The Secret Garden.  

Speaking of - Jane Austen just doesn't seem to click with me.  The writing is beautiful but the stories seem so light and trivial.  The characters are rich and the plot mildly interesting.  They all remind me of Law and Order except with romance instead of murder - meaning the plot twists.  I'm not a big fan of fiction normally.  What's the appeal of Jane Austen for you, friendly readers?

The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary

Say hi to my Dad (and my messy kitchen!).  He's flipping through Karen's new book.  I keep trying to write a review that's something more than, "Wow, y'all, this book is fantastic!" but I can't seem to write about the rosary without it getting uncomfortably personal.  It is a great book, a perfect read for cradle Catholics like me.  I pray the rosary frequently - I developed the habit of saying it while running and now as soon as I lace up my running shoes, I'm in prayer mode - my standing appointment with God.  However, I never really bothered to investigate the history or meaning behind it.  It just was.  It existed as a part of our faith from a very early age.  After reading Karen's book, I have a better understanding of the rosary and that knowledge has provided the framework for a deeper spiritual life.  It's also a great book for new Catholics who want a practical and spiritual introduction to something that might seem odd and/or forced.  Or even non-Catholics who want a solid answer to that over-asked question concerning vain repetition.

Well, that review hardly seems adequate, but no one wants me weeping publicly about how much the rosary means to me and how I'm so very happy that Karen (of all people!) worked so hard to produce this beautiful book.

This is my favorite rosary, the one my dad made for my little girl for her First Communion last December.  Isn't he talented?  

Hello there!

I "finished" Notes from a Small Island last night.  This is not a book that would boost British tourism.  I thought I liked Bill Bryson, but upon reaching page 200 or so I had my fill of his unpardonable pessimism.  Essentially he wanders from town to town all over Britain complaining about the architecture.   And on the wikepedia page it states that this book was voted as the book which best represented England.  I'll just be off to book my flight now!

And that's about all.  Would you believe that my son has a stomach virus now?  We are in our third week of being ridiculously, consecutively ill.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  My baby, however, always sees the humorous side of things.  He opened his tired little eyes last night, giggled and said, "Mama, I puked up my nose."  

On that note, I will wish you a happy Wednesday.  I'll try to pop in later this week with something more cheerful (or less revolting at least).