These is My Words

I had a rough start with this book, but once I got past the first part it turned out to be an excellent book!! It's a story based on the life of a pioneer woman named Sarah Agnes Prine from Arizona. Keep in mind that this is not a story about a Mormon Pioneer. It's a little strange when those are the stories that you are used to and this is not one of them. She lives a hard life yet has such strength and courage. I just loved her whole attitude through out the book of when things would go wrong she would just deal with it and move on and not sit there and have PMS (which in this case is referred to the Poor Me Syndrome-so named by my dad) and just takes care of business the best she can. It's a very inspiring book and you fall in love with the character. You fight with her, cry with her, love with her and go through her life. You can identify with Sarah on so many different levels and you feel like you really know her. It's a great book to read as a mom, and even if you're not to prepare you for things, and gain a change of attitude and a change of heart about the way you look at things. I read this for May's book club discussion and all the ladies just loved it. We got talking about "simpler times" and we wondered if any of us would have survived back then. Of course, we know the conveniences that we would be missing. We then talked about how spoiled we are now. ALL of us there were not rich, in fact, several of the husbands were out of a job and there was one lady there is recently going through a divorce. We are all in the same boat financially and the struggle of every day. This book made us realize that while we don't have a lot, we have more than they did in the pioneer days. Furniture, toys, books, clothes, shoes and what not. THEY built their houses and grew all of their food and hand washed everything and MADE all of their clothes and the list goes on and on. I think you get the point. It's a very humbling book. One lady at book club made such a valid point. If we got rid of all our crap that just seems to clutter up the home we would probably be happier. If we only had the bare minimum in clothes, toys, shoes, furniture, etc. we'd be able to live in a simpler time of sorts. I feel like I already have the bare minimum in somethings, but it defintely inspired me to come home and clean out all my crap! We talked about how a lot of us hold on to things that have sentimental value. Truthfully, everything you own is attached to some memory right? But we said that if you just throw it in a box, take that box to a charity or DI and drive away, you'll probably think about it the rest of the day and then wake-up completely forgetting about it right? I'm putting myself to that challenge because I am a MAJOR pack rat! Anyway, it's a really good book and I think you will all enjoy it. If any of you have read it I'd love to hear what you thought about it. Oh, and there is a sequel to this book it's called "Sarah's Quilt" I believe. Has anyone read it?

Mr. Darcy's Diary

I loved this book so much that I finished it in one day! I stayed up until about 3 am and finished it. It's Pride and Prejudice but from Mr. Darcy's perspective. It is an easy read and by that I mean that the language is easy. It's not as wordy as Jane Austen can be sometimes.
I know that I've read Pride and Prejudice before, but I think it was back in High School and then I've seen a few different versions of the movie. So, I really didn't remember what happened. I thought about reading Pride and Prejudice first, but I just didn't have the time. I'm working on 3 other books besides this one. Anyway, it's ok if you've never read the book Pride and Prejudice because this book is just fabulous and it made me want to read Pride and Prejudice all the more. As I read this book things started coming back to me.
I love the Victorian age and so I enjoy books set in that time. I don't, however, agree with how they viewed women and how the society was set-up. You start thinking "do people really think of themselves and others in that way?" Your worth was based upon your salary, your "accomplishments" (such as your talents-like music, art, writing-basically just things that you learned and did well), who your family was and what you did for a living. I was so glad that by the end of the book Mr. Darcy had learned what was really important and proved the point that "love conquers all."
This is a really romantic story and I recommend this to anyone and everyone! What a great way to spend my day...reading this amazing book. I'm definitely going to buy it and read it over and over again. I know that Stephenie Meyer was inspired by the book Pride and Prejudice when she wrote the Twilight series and it's easy to understand why.
Anyway I give this book a gazillion stars and I want you to read it!!!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

This is a really great series. Well, Ive actually only read the first book and I'm starting the second right now...but I really loved the first book. It's a great substitute for Harry Potter. It's about a boy who is living a really hard life and finds out that his father is an Greek God. It's full of Greek Mythology which I love! He has a special power and "magical" friends. I was hooked right from the get-go. I think there are 5 or 6 books and the last one just came out. I'm really excited to read all of them. It's by Rick Riordan and you should go check it out!

Read with your Children

I love to read to my children! It's so fun to get their imaginations working and have a little bit of time to just sit and relax with them. We read all of the easy hardback picture books, but lately I've been reading the "Magic Tree House" series by Mary Pope Osborne. They are so much fun and really easy to read. They are small enough that we can usually read one in about 20-30 minutes. They are about 2 kids, Jack and Annie, who discover a tree house filled with books. When they open up a book and point at the picture and say "I wish I could be there" the tree house starts spinning faster and faster until it stops and everything is still. Absolutely still. Then they discover that they are in a new place. It's really exciting and fun to learn about new things. I take it a step further and we talk about what we learned in the book. For instance, the first book is about Dinosaurs. So we talk about different kinds of dinosaurs and what they ate and where they lived and that sort of thing. We went to the dinosaur museum and such. The next book was about Knights and Castles and so we learned about them. The third book was about Egypt and Mummies. That was a fun one to learn about because it was right during Halloween time. Anyway, I think you get the picture. I didn't think my kids were really paying attention, but Maddie has been talking about the last book we read (Pirates!) for the past two days.
I've also read Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to them. Then we watch the movies. So much fun! You can also read James and the Giant Peach. A really fun one to read with boys (and girls too) to get their interest in reading is the Peter Pan books by David Barry. I loved them!!!! They are thick books but packed with adventure and pictures. It goes into detail about how Peter became Peter and Hook became Hook and where Tinkerbell came from. I think the parents will enjoy it as much as the kids.
So, what books do you like to read with your children that we can all read?

Moonraker's Bride

Last night we had bookclub about the book Moonraker's Bride by Madeleine Brent. This was a FABULOUS book!!! Every single person loved this book and are interested in reading other books by this author. The writing is very smooth and full of adventure and romance and twists and turns that you don't expect. It ends well with all of the loose ends tied up and leaves you thirsting for more. It has a great story line and even some history.
It's set in the 1800's when the Victorian Era is at it's peak. It's about a young girl whose parents went to China to help with one of the Missions out there. They both die and leave their baby girl Lucy in the care of the Mission Mother who is from England. Well, Lucy ends up having to help run the mission because the Mother gets ill and eventually dies. It tells of the hardships and trials she has being poor in China and trying to take care of all the children. Being a "foreign devil" and a female to boot do not help the situation. She has a wonderful attitude that surprisingly is not far fetched. My favorite line and moral in the entire book is "Just do what comes next." There is a mysterious treasure that some families in England are trying to find and they enlist the help of Lucy to find it. It's about a young girl who grows up one way in a very male dominating culture and then gets thrown back into her English roots where Women are respected. She marries and is widowed all in one night and then marries again. You will not be left disappointed. The author takes so many twists and turns you are probably more likely to get a little motion sickness than be bored! This book is filled with adventure, romance, culture, a little bit of mystery and even some humor.
This book is out of print but some of the libraries do have it. A few of our readers have even found it on e-bay and amazon.com. If you get a chance to read it do it! I promise you will love it.
November's Book is Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. We will be having our meeting a week early due to Thanksgiving. We will be meeting on the 19th at Cara's house 8pm. Hope to see you there or leave a comment on the blog.

October Book Club

For those of you who are interested we are reading "Moon Raker's Bride" by Madeleine Brent for this month's book. It is out of print and hard to find so let me know if you would like to read it and I will help you get a copy of it. For those who are in the actual book club we will be meeting at Erin's house Wed. Oct. 29 @ 8pm. For those who are "virtual" book clubber's I will post some of the things we discussed and you can put in your two cents worth or you can leave comments about the book when you are finished. Enjoy!