Hi

Kami, take Peter and the Starcatchers off the list.  It was so lame-o that I didn't finish.  I almost never put down a book before I finish.  It catered to what is traditionally considered "boy humor" and was low on plot development and the writing was overblown.

Kelly, that is such a hard question!!  In my family I'm considered the prude, but whenever I say I won't watch this or that, or read this or that, my family always points out that Dirty Dancing is one of my 3 favorite movies, and that I keep The Road Home--a book about the Vietnam war that is loaded with swearing and alcohol abuse.  And the kicker is that I plan on encouraging all of my kids to read it--when they are in 11th grade or so.  There is just no magic way to decide if the worth of something outweighs the drawbacks of it sometimes.  Then again, sometimes it is obvious that something has no worth (Twilight) but sometimes it isn't that easy.  And also, sometimes we have our pet things that we like to read about, watch movies about, and if a movie deals with that subject matter we tend to overlook other problems (Dirty Dancing--it has dancing, yes, but it also deals with class conflict, one of my favorite movie and book themes).

The opposite is also true--there are things I can't handle (violence) so even if a movie has a really, really fantastic theme if it is violent I can't watch it.  That's why I haven't read Hunger Games.  I'm not saying people shouldn't read it, I'm just saying I have a hard time with violence so I haven't read it.  Maybe it is great--like the Vietnam book I love--and the good/thoughtful parts make it worth reading.

Since, clearly, I have nothing of significance to tell you, I'll stop talking now.  Just wanted to let you know that I hear you--not easy.

Welcome Back Everyone!

I haven't checked this post in awhile...it's fun to see that we might actually be back...until the next round of babies comes, of course!

I second Valerie's recommendation, Do Hard Things!  LOVE IT and would love to discuss it with intelligent people.  :-)

And, off topic a bit but it goes along with Kelly's book recommendation.  Have any of you seen Temple Grandin?!?!  FABULOUS movie that I HIGHLY recommend for the watching.  I'll read Kelly's recommendation.

I like the list as is, Kami.  Thanks!

Happy Reading!

LOL
JULIA

Do Hard Things

I just read Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris. I LOVED IT! It's targeted at teens (and I have 2 1/2 of those) but it is a good read for all of us. I'm going to read it aloud to my children during Art time and hope some of it sticks. I wish I had a book like this when I was a teen. It talks about becoming more than a teenager, raising self expectations, choosing to do hard things and fighting complacency. I took the advice to do something out of my comfort zone, and I made a wreath for my front door (waay out of my comfort zone!). It felt good to feel stretched.

In a similar vein, I am partway through TJed for Teens. We're hosting a teen book club on that book this month. Both are exhilarating and motivating reads.

Out of My Mind

While the post title is a fitting description of my life right now, it's also the title of a book that I just finished.  Kami, you might want to add it to your list for your daughter.  The author, Sharon Draper, has written an interesting novel from the perspective of an 11-year old with cerebral palsy.  She can't walk, she can't talk, but she has a lot of things going on in her head.  I read it (finished with a few tears), and have passed it on to my daughters to read (ages 14 & 12).  I might even see if my 9 year old son will read it.
If nothing else, it is a great way to introduce the idea that people who look or act different on the outside are still PEOPLE with feelings and thoughts that MATTER.  

A second book that I read was called "The Safe-Keeper's Daughter", by Sharon Shinn.  I liked it.  I think there are more, which I'm going to read.  My 12 year old daughter read it first.  I told her to tell me if there was anything bad.  She didn't say anything.  Then I read it.  There wasn't anything bad per se - like no bad words or sex scenes, but there were a couple of illegitimate children running around and no one seemed to think that was unusual.  So that's my caveat in terms of recommending it to children.  Oh.  And there was a girl that the secret keep finds out is pregnant by her father - and her mother does nothing to protect her.  Although it was a very minor side-story, it is kind of heavy subject matter.  I'm going to have to chat with my daughter about that book I guess.  Sigh.

Which leads me to a question I'd like to talk about.  How do you determine how much is too much and at what age?  I have sat in Relief Society book-clubs and been utterly shocked at some of the reading material that some women will read and recommend for the RS sisters to read.  So obviously people have different ideas of what's appropriate and tolerable.  On the other hand, I think that being exposed to moderate amounts of evil in literature is what helps you define and make judgments without having to be personally exposed.  The scriptures have a lot of bad things happening in them - it's just not all spelled out.  Then, too, there's always the question of language - when do you let kids read books with swear words and how much swearing is too much?  I just feel like those guidelines are so fluid and I never know if I'm being way over-protective or too lenient, or just right!

Thoughts?

Finished

So, I just finished On the Wings of Heroes and Uprising.  I'll post more when I've had time to process a little bit.  But On the Wings of Heroes is a solid choice for this group.  Good night!

Okay-dokey then

I made the executive decision then and set On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck as our first official book to read in almost two years!!  Private Peaceful looked good too, but I'm in a no depressing anything mood.  Seriously, this pregnancy I can't handle anything sad.  And I rearranged our booklist--I didn't add any books, I just rearranged them to be somewhat less intimidating.  Let me know what you think.

Whatev, man.

I don't care what you do!  I'm too busy to do much reading, but I am finalizing my Crazy Book Aunt Summer Reading Program that I put together every year for my nieces and nephews, and I am still picking the last few titles.  Because of that, by the 7th, I want to have read the following:

Richard Peck, On the Wings of Heroes
Michael Morpurgo, Private Peaceful
Margaret Peterson Haddix, Uprising
Jeanette Ingold, The Big Burn

If you want to read any of those, I'd love to chime in.  If not, that's okay too.  If you have already read any of those--what did you think?????

yes, please

Busy or not, I'd like to read and discuss.

Start up again?

Just wondering if anyone is still interested in starting up again?  I'm not taking any more classes right now and we've moved and everything has settled down a lot.  I know Andrea's crazy busy, but maybe she wouldn't mind if we skipped a bunch of those longer books and read some like the Scarlet Pimpernel and Onion John, or Little Britches, something simple to start off again?  Let me know what you guys think and I'll be more than happy to rearrange our list.

New Reading List

Okay, sorry the title is misleading, it's not a new reading list for us.  It's actually a new list for my daughter.  I pay her $2 for any book she reads off of it.  This is her new one for 7th-8th grade.  I thought I'd put it up for any suggestions..... suggestions are always welcome!  Just FYI, I make the list of some harder books to challenge her, and then some books just so she'll branch out and read a wide variety of genres, and some I just put on because I like them. :)  She doesn't read without being required too, and she wouldn't read most of these without the monetary reward.

• The Blue Sword -Robin McKinley
• Kira-Kira -Cynthia Kadohata
• The Hound of the Baskervilles -Arthur Conan Doyle
• Lord of the Flies -William Golding
• Dracula -Bram Stoker
• The Hobbit -J.R.R. Tolkien
• Rebecca -Daphne du Maurier
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin -Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Northanger Abbey -Jane Austin
• Wuthering Heights -Emily Bronte
• Ramona -Helen Hunt Jackson
• Mrs. Mike -Benedict Freedman and Nancy Freedman
• Kidnapped -Robert Louis Stevenson
• Adrift:Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea - Steven Callahan
• Little Women -Louisa May Alcott
• Jurassic Park -Michael Crichton
• Across Five Aprils -Irene Hunt
• The Call of the Wild -Jack London
• Anne of Green Gables -L.M. Montgomery
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm -Kate Douglas Wiggen
• The Pearl -John Steinbeck
• My Brother Sam is Dead -James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
• The Outsiders -S.E. Hinton
• The Cay -Theadore Taylor
• A Day No Pigs Would Die -Robert Newton Peck
• Night -Elie Wiesel
• H.M.S. Ulysses -Allistair Maclean
• Goodbye Mr. Chips -James Hilton
• Island of the Blue Dolphins -Scott O’Dell
• The Sea Wolf -Jack London
• Treasure Island -Robert Louis Stevenson
• On Fortune’s Wheel- Cynthia Voigt
• The Forestwife -Theresa Thomlinson
• The Bronze Bow -Elizabeth George Speare
• The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne
• I Heard the Owl Call My Name -Margaret Craven
• No Promises in the Wind -Irene Hunt
• Obasan-Joy Kogawa
• The River Between Us -Richard Peck
• The Slave Dancer -Paula Fox
• Silas Marner -George Eliot
• Who Has Seen the Wind -W.O. Mitchell
• Anthem -Ayn Rand
• The Time It Never Rained -Elmer Kelton
• All Creatures Great and Small -James Herriot
• Goodnight, Mr. Tom -Michelle Magorian
• The Robe -Lloyd C. Douglas
• Believing Christ -Stephen E. Robinson
• Our Search for Happiness -M. Russell Ballard
• A Marvelous Work and A Wonder - LeGrand Richards
• The Work and the Glory -Gerald N. Lund
• Fishers of Men -Gerald N. Lund
• By These Ten Bones -Claire B. Dunkle
• The House of Many Rooms -Rodella Hunter
• The Prisoner of Zenda -Anthony Hope
• I Capture the Castle -Dodie Smith
•   Juniper -Monica Furlong
• Rifles for Watie -Harold Keith
• Charlie’s Monument -Blaine M. Yorgason
• And Then There Were None-Agatha Christie
• Elantris- Brandon Sanderson
• The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom
• Follow the River - James Thom
• A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
• Billy Budd - Herman Melville
• The Scarlet Pimpernel - Emmuska Orczy
• Something Wicked This Way Comes- Ray Bradbury
• The Maude Reed Tale -Norah Lofts
• The Only Alien on the Planet- Kristen D. Randle
• Freckles- Gene Statton-Porter
• Soul Surfer - Bethany Hamiliton
• Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World- Jennifer Armstrong
• Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science - John Fleischman
• An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy
• Any (1 time only) Tony Hillerman
• Any longer Louis L’Amour (ask me first)