Reading List 2010 and 2011

Unfortunately I did not read as much as I would have liked to read this year. I am sure there are books that I read that I am not listing, but these are at least the ones that I could remember, so they are at least worthy of a mention. I'll comment on a couple of them. Late last year I read "Little House on the Prairie" to HC. I so enjoyed it, and could not remember what happened after they had to leave their little house, that I went on to read the rest of the series. It was such a joy to read those books again. I was amazed to remember what amazing people Laura and Almanzo were. I had totally forgotten that in the middle of the "Long Winter" when the town was starving because of their lack of provisions, Almanzo volunteered to ride out 20 miles to try to find a farm that was rumored to have a huge store of wheat. HE volunteered because he was single at the time, and knew that if he was caught in a blizzard (which he almost was) and died he would not be leaving a family uncared for. Amazing. If I was not married to Dave I think I would want to be married to Almanzo.

I LOVED "The Help". That was probably my favorite read of the year. It is an amazing story of courage and friendship that takes place in the 60's in Jackson, Mississippi. I could not put the book down, and after I finished it I realized how little I know about that time in our history. Since I am now a Southern girl, I need to read more history about the South.

I am about 20 pages away from finishing Anne Rice's second book in her trilogy "Christ the Lord". Wow. It is very interesting and thought provoking. I think it is so hard to understand that Christ really was fully human and fully divine, and how in the world does that work. I am thankful that I picked up that book (special thanks to Elaine for the recommendation).

I also just finished reading "Parenting in the Pews" which brought up some interesting points about the differences between going to church and going to worship. And then the necessity of us parents to train our children how to worship. Dave and I have had some interesting discussions regarding that...more laster, I am sure. =)

My two fav books that I read with HC were "Trumpet of the Swan" and "Wind in the Willows". I loved Louis...he was awesome, and HC was totally into him. And Badger and Ratty and Mole and Toady are such great characters that it was hard to put the book down. My parents gave HC "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" for Christmas and she is chomping at the bit to get started on that one...but we have another couple weeks of "The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle" before we can move on.

My Antonia (Cather)
A Death in Vienna (Silva)
On the Banks of Plum Creek (Wilder)

By the Shores of Silver Lake (Wilder)

The Long Winter (Wilder)

Little Town on the Prairie (Wilder)

These Happy Golden Years (Wilder)

The FIrst Four Years (Wilder)
On the Way Home (Wilder)

The Hidden Art of Homemaking (Schaeffer)
The Help (Stockett)

Praying the Scriptures for Your Children (Berndt)
War of Words (Tripp)
The Unfolding Mystery (Clowney)
My Life in France (Child)
Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt (Rice)
Christ the Lord, Road to Cana (Rice)
Twenties Girl (Kinsella)
Can You Keep A Secret? (Kinsella)
Parenting in the Pew (Castleman)
Land of My Heart (Petersen)

Read with HC

The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle (Lofting)

Trumpet of the Swan (White)
Stuart Little (White)
Charlotte's Web (White)

Wind in the Willows (Grahame)

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (MacDonald)
Uncle Wiggly (Garis)
Dr. Doolittle (Lofting)
Just So Stories (Kipling)

Little House in the Big Woods (Wilder)
Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

Here is my reading list for this year, so far...I have divided it up, novels, theology and parenting. Several of the books are about education which seems appropriate since HC will be in kindergarten in the fall (insane, I know). I am ready to get started and see how far I get. Special thanks to Margaret for her book recommendations, it seems we have many similar interests. I am starting off the year reading "The Good News about Injustice" because my book club meets in a week to discuss that book (and so I better get cracking). And then I also will be reading "When Children Love to Learn" because we are currently applying to send HC to a school that requires us to read it.

2011

Theology Books (or books about God)

Counterfeit Gods (Keller)
Generous Justice (Keller)
The Good News about Injustice
What is Faith? (Machen)

According to Plan (Goldsworthy)

The Good News We Almost Forgot (DeYoung)

Parenting Books
Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends (Mally)

The Hurried Child (Elkind)

For the Children's Sake (McAulay)

Home Grown Kids (Moore)

Teaching Redemptively (Donovan)

Back to the Blackboard (Adams)

When Children Love to Learn (Cooper)

Novels
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Kinsolver)
Better Off (Brende)
The Ten Green Bottles (Kaplan)
Escape from the Deep (Kershaw)
While Still We live (McInnes)

Gilead (Robinson)