Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #10: The Stranger in the Woods

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #10: The Stranger in the Woods:   

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 8:Thor VS. Hulk

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 8:Thor VS. Hulk: 

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #7: Little House on the Prairie

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #7: Little House on the Prairie:   

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #6: Moby Dick

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #6: Moby Dick: 

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #5: The Great Gatsby

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #5: The Great Gatsby:

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #4: Whose Body? (Plus Next 10)

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #4: Whose Body?:   

This was not only my 4th book of Summer Reading but my 30th book of the year. This puts me on pace to read 67.17 by year's end.  My last 5 books read were Bury The Lead by David Rosenfelt and the first 4 books of my summer reading lists including this one.

Next Ten

Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

Knowing God - J.I. Packer

Between Heaven & Hell - Peter Kreeft

Little House on The Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Immanuel: Reflections on the Life of Christ - Michael Card

 

Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Devin Brown

Writing Poetry from the Inside Out - Sanford Lynne

What to do on Thursday - Jay Adams

The Collected Short Stories of Louis Lamour - Vol I

 

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #3 Where the Sidewalk Ends

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #3 Where the Sidewalk Ends: 

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 2: Ten-Second Rainshowers

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 2: Ten-Second Rainshowers:  

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 1: God's Forgetful Pilgrims

I started a new blog today.  I promised myself I was done starting blogs.  However, like any good addict I've become an expert at explaining my actions.  The Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog is actually an extension of this blog. This past Sunday I started my 100 days of Summer Reading Program.  Yesterday I finished my first book during the program.  My plan is to write a post at the Summer Reading Blog after each book I finish and then publish a link to that post here.  

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 1: God's Forgetful Pilgrims:  

 At the end of the Summer I will add a page to this blog with a link to all the books I finished this Summer.

Last 5 Next 10: Summer Reading Preview Edition

 

I like to apportion 100 days of each year for summer reading.  These 100 days generally fall between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends.  This year the 100 days start on Sunday May 29th, the day before Memorial Day and end on Labor Day on September 5, 2022. As I mentioned in Moby Dick: My White Whale my only real goal for these 100 days is to finish listening to Moby Dick.  I always read at least 10 books during the Summer and expect I'll get at least that many again.

LAST FIVE

First Degree - David Rosenfelt

Listened to on Hoopla

4/28/2022

Until Tuesday - Luis Carlos Montalvan

Borrowed from Library - Read

5/1/2022

The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis

Listened to Via Hoopla

5/1/22

An American Marriage - Tayari Jones

Borrowed from library. Read

5/5/22

Neal Cotts: The Lefty Who Would Not Quit - Jim Pransky

Own - Gift from boss - Read

5/20/22

NEXT TEN

 

Moby Dick - Herman Melville

God's Forgetful Pilgrims - Michael Griffiths

The Case For Easter - Lee Strobel

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

Immanuel: Reflections on the Life of Christ- Michael Card

Between Heaven & Hell - Peter Kreeft

Bury The Lead - David Rosenfelt 

Little House on the Prairie  - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Devin Brown

The Collected Short Stories of Louis Lamour - Vol I

I finished book #20 on 4/18 and finished book #25 on May 20th.  5 books in 32 days is not great but it is a pace to finish 57 books in a year.  Based on my rate since January 1st I am on pace to read 65 books this year.  I imagine with a strong effort this summer those projections will increase.  

Moby Dick: My White Whale

 White Whale - Something that someone pursues obsessively with little chance of success.

In 1993, when I was teaching English Literature while living in Russia I taught the first chapter of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.  I had never read Moby Dick before and was only provided multiple copies of the first chapter.  The chapter contains probably the best first paragraph of a novel I have ever read.  The first sentence, Call me Ishamael is highly regarded as one of the best opening sentences ever written.  It is not, however, my favorite opening sentence.  That distinction belongs to the first sentence of C.S. Lewis's voyage of the Dawn Treader, "There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.".

I have asked Dave from Dave out Loud to come in from out of  the loud and read the first paragraph for us.

I hope you can see how amazing of a first paragraph this really is.  The entire first chapter made me want to read the entire book.  This is when the troubles began.

What I mean by troubles is that I was in Russia almost 30 years ago and I still haven't finished the book. 

I read quite a lot while I was in Russia, but I never got the opportunity to read Moby Dick in it's entirety while there.  A few years after I returned from Russia I picked up a paperback copy of Moby Dick at this relatively new bookstore called Barnes & Noble.  I think it sat on a shelf for a few more years before I actually began to attempt to read it. 

 Moby Dick is a brilliantly written book but it seems to be a very difficult book to read.  Moby Dick is approximately 209,000 words not the worlds largest novel by any means but it won't ever be confused with short.  The Great Gatsby by comparison is approximately 47,000 words long , To Kill A Mockingbird is just in excess of 100,000,  and the aforementioned Dawn Treader is just shy of 53,000 words.  Add those 3 together and Moby Dick is almost 10,000 words longer.  

Also after the first paragraph the book became much more cumbersome for me to read.

Here is a list I pulled from Quora of 10 reasons why this is a difficult book to read:

1. The book is a long read at 822 pages. This does not make it the longest novel ever written but it's certainly a long swim.
2. The format of the novel is odd. It ranges from traditional story telling to essays on the different species of whales to philosophy.
3. Herman Melville has a big vocabularly. If your preparing for the GRE Moby Dick is good preperation for the vocabularly section of the test.
4. Melville draws from many classics of western civilization. If you have not read the Bible, Shakespeare, or Plato his ideas will go right over your head.
5. Moby Dick was written a couple hundred years ago. The reader may need to do historical research to better understand the lives of sailors in that time period.
6. Moby Dick is not only a story about whale hunting. The whole back drop of the story is whale hunting. Why did they hunt whales? They needed whale oil for their lamps and cooking. This is a story about energy and what lengths we will go to provide society with it. I think this goes over many readers heads.
7. Moby Dick is a dense book. It must be chewed on and thought about. It's meaning and themes don't explain themselves.
8. Moby Dick is about life experiences that many of us can't relate to. Most readers don't understand the terror of the ocean, the hard work of harvesting energy, and the bitter loneliness of being away from friends and family for a long time. Rest assured Moby Dick captures real human experiences.
9. The book contains lots of symbols and metaphors and they don't easily explain themselves.
10. The whole. Once you add all nine of these things together into one book many people may decide Moby Dick is not a voyage worth taking. Rest assured it is. It will grow you as a person and give a perspective on life that is hard to find anywhere else. You will be glad when you finish this whale sized book.

Just a quick note about reason 5.  Moby Dick is not a couple hundred years old.  It is 161 years old and will not be a couple hundred years old until I am 96 years old.  But I concede the point, it is an old book.  

Over the years I have made several attempts to read Moby Dick and have never gotten very far in my attempts.  A couple years ago, I changed my strategy about reading Moby Dick and borrowed an audiocopy of the book on Hoopla from my library and have been listening to it on and off since then.  I did this mostly between April 2020 and April 2021 when I was working overnights at a local grocery store and would listen to the book for 1/2 hour or so before going to bed after my shift.  

Through this method I have gotten farther through it than I ever did reading it.  I got about 40 % through it this way. At some point I stopped reading it thinking I would get back to it eventually and didn't really until this Spring.  

Every year during the summer months, specifically the100 or so day period between Memorial Day and Labor Day I embark on a personal Summer reading program.  I tend to spend more time reading during that time  and try to read at least 10 books during that period secretly hoping to read more like 20 to 25.

This year my only goal is to finish one book and that book of course is Moby Dick.  I have finished 42 chapters and am about 1/3 trough the book.  I  am sure I will read more books than just Moby Dick this summer but I'll be much more satisfied to finish this white whale than if I read 25 other ones and this one still tasked me.

Last 5 Next 10 Vol IV: Tying up Lewis ends.

I have less than a month now before I return to my substitute teaching schedule otherwise known as my day job.  I  still have 2 night jobs and plenty of things to do during my off hours but I have found  the time to get some reading in and am ready to report on my recent accomplishments in that regard.

Last 5 Books

I am using my HDOLL rating system.  Each books falls somewhere between hate and love with dislike okay and like coming between those extremes.

Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis

Why I chose this book: C.S. Lewis is by far my favorite author and The Chronicles of Narnia is by far my favorites of his books. Each year, I reread the entire series.   This year I am reading them in Narnian chronological which is why I am starting with The Magician's nephew.

Type: Book (read myself)

How Obtained: I have several copies of this book, this copy I obtained when our church decided to no longer have a church library and gave away all their books.

Rating: Loved. 

World of Wonders - Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Why I chose this book: On a trip to Barnes and Noble I saw that this book was their 2020 book of the year.  It seemed interesting, so I ordered it from our local library.  

Type: Book (sometimes read to myself, read some chapters to my wife.)

How Obtained: As stated I ordered this book  from my library. My wife went to pick up the book for me and realized that we gave a copy of that  book to our daughter for Christmas. She decided to let the library lend their copy  to the next person in line and I read my daughter's copy.

Rating: I loved this book.

Sooley - John Grisham

Why I chose this book: My wife borrowed this from the library and recommended it to me as she knows I'm a big fan of Grisham and basketball.  

Type: Book

How Obtained:  Borrowed from my local library.

Rating: Between okay and liked. I'd give a fuller review but I'm afraid to ruin the ending and Grisham has already beat me to the punch on that score.

The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis

Why I chose this book: as part of my annual reading of the chronicles of Narnia.

Type: Paperback Book

How Obtained: I own several copies

Rating:I love this book.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

Why I chose this book: I chose this book as part of my annual reading of Chronicles of Narnia.  I decided to listen to it and listened to it mostly while getting steps.

Type: Audio Book (Cloud Library)

How Obtained: borrowed from my library using Cloud Library

Rating: Love this book

Note: To anyone who thinks I goofed on the Narnian Chronologcal order, I did not.  I listened to most of this book prior to reading Horse and His Boy,  as it takes place beffew minutes of wardrobeore the very end of Lion Witch and the Wardrobe.  When Aslan leaves near the end of the book, I read Horse and His Boy and  then listened to the final few minutes of Wardrobe

2021 Book Stats as of  7/19/21

Previous estimate as of  7/06/21 31.22  books by the end of the year, 

After I finished Defenders Vol I yesterday I also finished book # 16 for the year.  This is fairly common as I am often reading multiple books at the same time.  I'll include that book in my next post but will include it in my projections for the year.  

Current estimate as of 7/19/21 After reading 20 books in 200 days I'm on pace to o read 36.5 books  by the end of the year. 

 

10 Books I'm  Reading or Planning to Read Soon

God's Forgetful Pilgrims - Micahel Griffiths 

A Gospel Worthy of Your Life - Bill Mills

Laura Ingalls Wilder , A Storybook Life - Janet & Geoff Benge

Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder

News of The World - Paulette Jiles

Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

Essential Defenders Vol II

The Answer is ... Reflections on My Life- Alex Trebek

The Big 50 Chicago Bears - Adam L Jahns

Last 5 Next 10 Vol III

 Summer is the time traditionally where I do a lot of reading. So far this Summer, I have read more than the anemic pace I set for myself at the start of the year.  I don't have that much to show for it as I am currently reading several books at a time but hopefully will be finishing a mess of those soon.  Here's what I've been up to recently.

Last 5 Books

I am using my HDOLL rating system.  Each books falls somewhere between hate and love with dislike okay and like coming between those extremes.

How To Hold Animals - Toshimitsu Matsuhashi

Why I chose this book: Our library has a section near the check out stations that I liken to the impulse buy aisle next to the check out aisles at a retail store.  I wondered why anyone would write, read or publish this book.  But my curiosity got the better of me.

Type: Book (read myself)

How Obtained: Borrowed from local library

Rating: Between okay and liked. 

In The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

Why I chose this book: As a substitute teacher I often end up reading parts of books to my classes to never encounter them again.  Being a big Jackie Robinson fan I decided to check this book out.

Type: Audio Book through my phone

How Obtained: I borrowed this book  from my library using the Hoopla app.  

Rating: Between Liked and Loved,

The Brave and the Bold Team-Up Archives Vol I

Why I chose this book: A few weeks ago I took my niece to our local library as she was visiting us for s few days.  I grabbed a couple of comic books off the graphic novels shelf to peruse while she read her books.  

Type: Hard Cover Book

How Obtained:  Borrowed from my local libray.

Rating: Solid like.

Black Widow Vol 1: The Ties That Bind- Kelly Thompson

Why I chose this book: I saw this book on the shelves at my local library and picked it up as the Black Widow movie was opening later in the summer and I thought it might be a good read in preparation for the movie

Type: Paperback Book

How Obtained: Borrowed from local library

Rating:Solid Like

Essential Defenders Vol I

Why I chose this book: In May I visited my friend Patrick.  He has an entire room in his house  dedicated to his comic book collection.  He had  a number  of volumes of The Defenders  which was a group of mostly loner super heroes that served as the last line of defense for humanity.  He was kind enough to lend me the first two volumes.

Type: Paperback Book

How Obtained: Borrowed from friend

Rating: Closer to Like than Okay.

2021 Book Stats as of  7/6/21

Previous estimate as of  5/25/21 25.43 books by the end of the year, 

After I finished Defenders Vol I yesterday I also finished book # 16 for the year.  This is fairly common as I am often reading multiple books at the same time.  I'll include that book in my next post but will include it in my projections for the year.  After reading 16 books in 187 days I'm on pace to o read 31.22 books  by years end. 

 

10 Books I'm  Reading or Planning to Read Soon

Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Unaborted Socrates - Peter Kreeft

News of The World - Paulette Jiles

World of Wonders- Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Schulz and Peanuts - David Michaelis

Essential Defenders Vol II

150 Glimpses of The Beatles - Craig BrownTT

The Answer is ... Reflections on My Life- Alex Trebek

The Big 50 Chicago Bears - Adam L Jahns

Sooley - John Grisham

 

Starting a good book

 I have read some exceptional books during my summer reading program thus far.    I will say this; many of the books I've enjoyed most this summer have been great from the first chapter, sometimes the first page and even the first sentence.  I am only about 10 pages into a new book and I am convinced it will be a wonderful experience.  The book is Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  Let me tell you why after only 10 pages I think it will be very good.

The first few reasons I had even before I started reading. One is I am familiar with the author's work.  I just finished listening to Anne of Green Gables, which I enjoyed immensely.  I have seen many t.v. and film versions of the Anne books and saw the musical version in Prince Edward Island a few years back.  

This leads me to another reason I think I will enjoy Emily of New Moon because I've been to Prince Edward Island where the story takes place.  I found that I have enjoyed the works of LM Montgomery more since my trip to PEI because it is easier for me to picture life on this island because of my experiences there.  

The third reason I thought I'd enjoy this book before I read it, is the reason I ordered the book from my library in the first place. I had read that Lucy Maud Montgomery had based Emily on her own experiences of growing up in Prince Edward Island.  I like fictional books based on authors' actual experiences.

I like how the cover of New Moon is evocative of Green Gables but seems to be setting a different tone for the book.

The first few pages of this book also have given me reasons to think I have happened upon a real masterpiece.  The first sentence drew me in and I related to it immediately. The chapter is entitled the House in the Hollow and begins  ...

The house in the hollow was "a mile from anywhere"- so Maywood people said.  

I really liked  this turn of  phrase; a mile from anywhere. It reminded me of how I used to say that I have lived in several Chicago suburbs that few had ever heard of but they were familiar with our neighbors.  I grew up in Elk Grove Village, and people were more familiar with Des Plaines, Arlington Heights and Schaumburg.  After I married Amy we lived in an apartment in Hickory Hills where I regularly had to tell people we were next to Oak Lawn and Bridgeview.  Our first house was in Carpentersville where Algonquin, East and West Dundee, and Elgin are better known outside of the area.  Now that we have moved to Elgin, I no longer need to give sister cities. So, from the first sentence I connected my experience to that of the novel.

I am a big fan of symmetry and also enjoy foreshadowing when it isn't obtrusive. In the 4th paragraph of the book Montgomery starts one and nails the other quite elegantly: "She remembered that walk very vividly all her life ... - more likely because of what happened after she came back from it." The symmetry comes into completion with a big reveal that's blurted out quite unexpectedly in the final sentence of the chapter. 

One of the things I liked instantly about the titular character of Anne of Green Gables is how she names things. For example calling people who understand her fully, kindred spirits, and changing the names of place names to better place names (ex. the Lake of Shining Waters). Emily does the same thing immediately with something called "the flash." I also like the pacing of the story, "the flash" is alluded to 3 times in the first page and not explained until page 7 but feels just right when it is explained.  In my own writing, I often struggle with the desire to "explain" things too quickly.  

Another enjoyable aspect of the first ten pages (about a chapter and a third) is that the second chapter takes place immediately after the first ends.  In fact chapter one stops with the reveal I mentioned, and chapter 2 begins in the same conversation. That may seem like an abrupt break chronologically, but ending the chapter on the reveal is an excellent choice.

I love quotations. I even have a space on the header of this blog for quotations I really enjoy.  If you are reading this on the computer version of this blog, you can look up and see the following quote (although you don't have to, as it follows the elipses) ... Aunt Nancy had once said to her 'The first time your husband calls you "Mother" the romance of life is over'.

I love this quote for multiple reasons: a) it's an excellent quote.  b) the quote itself is the narrator quoting Emily's father quoting Emily's mother attributing the quote to Emily's Aunt Nancy.  And as clumsily as I described, the quote is as breezily as Montgomery put it. c) the quote is a story of how Emily's father wanted to name her Juliet after Emily's mother.  The fact that he heeded his wife's advice, and they named her Emily, made me think that the romance between them was never over.  d) I related the naming story to my own experience. Before I got married, I had always wanted to name a son David, as this is not only my name but my Father's as well.  Amy, who knew me when I would stay at my parent's house between school years and other situations, saw firsthand what it was like with two Davids in one house and that name was off the table before we even married.  

I know I have mentioned twice already how I connected with the text on a personal level in the first ten pages of the book.  Some might say that's more about me than the author, but I say that good writing is written in a way that the reader can make connections to it.  Making connections to it early helped me feel great about the prospect of reading the rest.

The last thing I want to share about the way this book begins is another example of the delicious way Montgomery turns a phrase. Emily's dad is telling Emily about her mom and utters one of the best sentences I have ever read:

When she fell in love with me, a poor young journalist, with nothing in the world but his pen and his ambition, there was a family earthquake.

I mean that's more of a sentence I expect to hear from John Boy Walton. the boy poet of Virginia!

I can't believe how amazing this book has started! What I really can't believe is that I stopped reading it long enough to write this post.  If you'll excuse me, I'll go remedy that situation.

Summer Reading plan 2020

Each year I try to read more during the summer. I usually define the summer as the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I like to add a few days to that so the period is exactly 100 days. This year for whatever reason I didn’t start the reading plan at Memorial Day. June  came and went and I hadn’t read a single book. I decided to start the plan on July 1st and go to October 8th for the full hundred days. Not exactly a regular Summer, but 2020 hasn't been a regular year,

My goal is usually to read at least 10 books during that period. Ideally I’d like to read more but if I read at least 10, I feel pretty  good. Today is July 25th and I am 1/4 through the period. Before I talk about my progress so far let’s talk about my method.

There are so many ways to read a book these days.  There of course is the traditional book in hand method, I still do a lot of that.  You can also listen to a book on cd, casette, play-aways or online.    For more of how I feel about the difference between reading and listening to books, you can see my post Is Listening the New Reading?

What books Ir ead during my Summer campaign isas varied  as how I read them.  I'll read books I've never read before, books I've tried to get through without  success ( Moby Dick and Three Musketeers for example), and I certainly reread books during this time as well.  Most years I'll buy at least one book specifically to read for the chalenge. For the most part, I obtain my books from my personal collection, or from local libraries.  

I read both fiction and non-fiction ,poetry or prose, regular novels or graphic novels.  I often have a list of books or authors I'd like to read in the back of my mind, but I am so glad that the library is open again so I can peruse the shelves and find something outside of my rather eclectic mix.  I also like my list to be organic. If I am reading a book and a subject, or book or person is mentioned, I may put that onto my list.  For example, I just finished a book about Fred Rogers where I read that early in his career,  he had met Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts.   So the last time I was at the library, I picked up a couple Peanuts anthologies.  

I tend not to read one book at a time but sometimes I’m reading 4 to 5 books concurrently. There will  also be times when  I start a book and end up not finishing it right away or not at all. As of today I have finished 4 books and am currently working on 7 (I know I said 4 or 5 but sometimes I go a little crazy.) more, and have put one aside for the time being.  In order to say I'm working on a book I have to read from or listened to it in the past week.  

The 4 I have finished so far are . . 

The Song - Calvin Miller (book that I own) have read previously. 

When Sinners Say I Do - Dave Harvey  (book that I own) had not read previously.

Little House in the Big Woods- Laura Ingalls Wilder - (on line audio book borrowed on Hoopla) Had read and listened to parts of previously, had never completed.  

Kindness and Wonder: Why Mr. Rogers matters now more than ever. - Gavin Edwards  (book - borrowed from library) Had not read previously.  

Books currently reading ...

Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery (on-line audio book-borrowed on Hoopla) - Have not read previously.

The Runaway Jury - John Grisham - Book borrowed from library - Have read previously. 

Abraham Lincoln - A new birth of Freedom  - By Janet & Geoff Benge - This is a book owned by my family which I purchase when we were homeschooling our kids  - Have previously read book.

Downton Abbey Script Book Season 3 - Julian Fellowes (On-line book borrowed from Hoopla) - Had not read previously have watched the episodes on television. 

Frederick Buechner 101 by Frederick Buechner Choreographed by Ann Lamott- Book borrowed from library. Have not readpreviously.

Complete Peanuts 1971-1972 Charles M Schulz. Book borrowed from library. I own some of these volumes but my children have absconded with them.  

Peanuts Every Sunday  1966-1970 -By Charles M Schulz . Book- borrowed from library.  I have not read this volume of colorized Sunday strips before, but have read most of the strips previously.  

Books I have set aside.

A Crazy Holy Grace - Frederick Buechner I was trying to read this book on Hoopla, but soon discovered that I was having difficulty reading more than 1 book at a time electronically.  That is why I picked uo the book of Buechner essays from the library.  Once I am finished with Downton Abby, I may get back to this book.  

As of today I am on pace to finish 16 books in the 100 days.  If I were to finish just 5 of the 7  I am currently working on in the next 25 days, I would then be on pace for 18.  

 I have enjoyed each book I have finished.  Ideally, I'd love to do a short review of each book I read, but alas I find I lack the temperament for short reviews and the time for more detailed ones. .  Nonetheless, I'll try to include some reviews here in the weeks to come.  I'm going to close the book on this post now and return us all to whatever new normal we are heading towards.  

Little Town on the Prairie

Little Town on the Prairie is the 7th of the nine Little House books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It takes place in De Smet, South Dakota (then just called the Dakota Territory.) The book follows The Long Winter and precedes These Happy Golden Years.

If you have not read any of these books before you might wonder why Laura Ingalls Wilder refers to herself in the third person. This is because when she originally submitted her book as a first person narrative, it was rejected by the publisher. When she changed it to referring to herself in the third person, it was then accepted.

As I said in yesterday's post, I like to read these books aloud to the children because they go back to a long ago time, and while doing so, I can teach values that are timely even for our modern age.

In this book, we see the return of Nellie Olsen, Mary goes to college, and also the beginnings of the Almanzo Wilder/ Laura Ingalls relationship which develops more in the next book. I love Almanzo and even though he only shows up once every 50 or 60 pages, I am always glad when he does.

One of the best parts of this book is Laura's determination to study hard so she can become a teacher. What is most interesting to me is that Laura does not even want to be a teacher. She only wants to do it so she can provide money to her family so Mary can go to and stay in a special college for the blind. Especially touching in the book is Laura and Mary's last walk together before Mary and her parents take the train to Iowa to take Mary to her college.

The book is also very humorous and especially fun for reading out loud. From Pa's dream of getting his haircut, to the exploits of Kitty, the Ingall's cat, who is a scourge to gophers and a nemesis of local dogs, this book is every bit funny as it is poignant. I guess that's why I like these books. Modern life is sometimes stressful, funny, miserable, inspiring and heartbreaking all in the same day. It seems that life on the prairie was no different.

In researching this review, I found biographical information on Laura and her family. One thing I read said that when Laura's daughter Rose died in October 1968,and that she was the last direct descendant of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. I am not quite sure if that is true. Thanks to Laura's fine chronicles of her family, I think that the descendants of Charles and Caroline include anyone who reads and absorbs these fine Little House books.

Next Time: The Lost Art of Reading

Sunday's Cool: Dead Mice

Sunday’s Cool

A Link Up & A Look Ahead.

A Link Up: Spider Droid is our featured blogger today. A recent visit to a local prairie yielded two posts. I hope you enjoy Dead mouse on the prairie and Questions for a dead mouse.

Speaking of Spider Droid, he mowed the lawn for the first time this weekend unless you count this.

I was thinking it would still be a few more years before he would be up to the task. But he has been bugging me for days to let him try to mow. So even though he’s just 9, I’m thinking when someone wants to mow your lawn. you say yes!

A Look Ahead: This is going to be a short week school wise with Memorial Day tomorrow and me away at the home school convention on Thursday and Friday. If the weather ever gets slightly summerish we will get a pool pass and do some swimming. Blog wise, I will be putting up a post tomorrow about a fractions lesson we did last week. I hope to post it just in time to submit it to the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Memorial Day weekend also marks the start of my summer reading season. Each summer I try to read at least 10 books and review them. Besides reading for just myself, I also spend time reading to the entire family. We just finished Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder the American Frontier author (not to be confused with Laura Impala Wildebeest the African Savannah author). I will post a review in the days to come.

When I hosted the Carnival of Homeschooling earlier this month I mentioned a contest Circle of Moms was holding to pick the top 25 homeschooling blogs. The voting has been closed for some weeks now and I have decided to feature the top 25 blogs in a sidebar here. Mine are not listed in the order of votes received, (for that info click here) but rather by most recently published. 5 of the top 25 vote getter's were already appearing here, I hope you enjoy them all. Well that’s it for today’s edition. Thanks for stopping by.

Next Time: Raising the Bar on Fractions.

Summer Reading Ended Before Summer Actually Did

Summer drew to a close at 3:o9 a.m. GMT 9/23 for the year of 2010. In good old Central time that is 10:09 p.m. 9/22. Summer is over and it is now time to report how I did in my Summer Reading. The answer is I did lousy. I hoped to read 20 books and read less than 10.


This is the book that did me in.



















I have heard for many years how the book was far superior to the movie. So instead of watching the movie, I got the book from the library. I found the premise of the book very captivating. Time travelers in literature, are a generally glorified lot. The idea of time travel as genetic defect is very intriguing. From the excellent prologue on, this book shows the time traveller and his wife both with many adverse effects of his disease.


I really did enjoy the dual narration from the principal characters. I especially liked when they were both describing the same scenes from differing POV. I also liked how the story moved in and out of time but still maintained a chronal cohesiveness.


However, at times the cohesiveness would slip and I would not know when or where the characters were forcing me to go back and read again. The book is also quite lengthymhich is okay when done right. The secret of a great book is no matter how long it is, when you are finished you still want to know more. If you make the book over long you run into the possibility that the reader may stop wanting to know more even before they finish reading. Or in this case, I ended up needing to have been told more than I actually was. Unanswered questions after 500 pages are in my mind never a good thing.


I often will read several books at a time and I read Time Travellers Wife in fits and spurts. In between those spurts I started several other books but only finished one.





















I am a big David Rosenfelt especially his Andy Carpenter series. Dog Tags is not one of Rosenfelt's or Carpenter's better efforts. I don't mind if his plots go to the dogs but I'd hate to see his writing head there as well.

As a whole it was a pretty good book. But there were some things on a book level and a series level that I found unsettling. On the book level, I am used to twists and turns of the legal and illegal worlds that Rosenfelt sometimes makes us privy to. However, I thought the subplot concerning the jury was either underdeveloped, poorly conceived, extremely unrealistic, or all three. on a series level, while I liked the addition of a new 2nd chair lawyer, I don't like the direction Rosenfelt seems to be heading with some of the other ensemble characters. Willie's role in this book was far too contrived. Also, I miss song talking!


So, there we have it. While I have not achieved my goal of 10 books read, I have achieved my goal of reviewing each book I did read and posting those reviews here. Sometime later this fall I hope to put up a Summer Reading 2010 page on this blog so you can have all the reviews in one more manageable place.

Next Time: Fall T.V.

A prelude to dismiss

http://www.showmyface.com/ is the home of Six Word Saturday.

My Six words: My wife doesn't read any prologues.

My wife is an avid reader. But she doesn't read forewords or prologues. I used to think this was just true about non-fiction as some forewords and prologues can be kind of dry. But I recently found out this is for fiction books as well. I on the other hand read all forewords, dedications, introductions, prefaces, prologues. I mean I usually read the Library of Congress catalog information.

I am currently reading an excellent book, The Time Traveller's Wife and she is rereading her favorite Grisham, The Last Juror. Both books start out like gangbusters. Chapter 1 of The Last Juror is ostensibly a prologue. The action of the book begins in Chapter 2. Chapter 1 just tells the history of the town newspaper. If Grisham would have called it a prologue, Amy would have missed the colorful back story. The preface of The Time Travellers wife really enticed me into the book. It did a great job of starting to flesh out the characters in present time. Present time is a rare commodity in this book, so it literally was a calm before the storm. I want Amy to read the book, but she won't even read recommended prologues.

So, if you are writing a book and want my wife to read it. You can either title the prologue chapter 1 or just say mean things about her in the prologue. She will never find out.

For more six word Saturday click here.

Next Time: Blah Blah Blogging.

Things Fortnightly

I am a few book reviews behind and have decided that these reviews will be my "things" for this edition of things fortnightly.

Review 1: Down To The Wire By David Rosenfelt

David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter books are series that my wife and I enjoy very much. Down to the Wire is Rosenfelt's second foray outside the series. The result is a much more satisfying read than his previous Carpenterless contribution: Don't tell a soul.

While I still prefer the Andy Carpenter books, Down to the Wire takes some of the more evocative elements from Don't Tell a Soul and even a secondary character and creates a vibrant, humorous page turner.

Review 2: A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova

This book is a memoir of Soviet life from the late 1950's through the 70's. Gorkhova presents a sometimes sentimental and sometime sardonic view of growing up Russian.

Having lived in Russia from 1992 to 1994 this book really struck a chord with me. While my Russian experience was in a different continent (I lived in Far East Russia and she lived in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg ) in Europe and both Gorokhova and her mother (the 2 principal characters) in the book were both residing in New Jersey by the time my Russian adventures began, Their Russia and my Russia were eerily similar.

This enchanting memoir really swept me off my feet. Her use of the English language is much more powerful than my own and it is not her native language. I would have liked to have read more about her husband and daughter. But like most good books, you are left wanting more.

Review 3: Autumn With the Moodys by Sarah Maxwell

A few years ago I picked up this book at a home school seminar. It is the second a four book series. My daughter Emma really enjoyed it, so this Summer I read it to the whole family, a chapter at a time after dinner.

It is the story of a home school family with 4 children and a 5th on the way. This particular book follows their exploits through the season of Autumn. While the book is based on the author's own family, it reads like a fiction in comparison to our own family. The children get along with each other and are generally obedient and compliant.

I was actually pretty surprised that all 3 of my kids like the book when our own life is so different than theirs. I would highly recommend this book, but be prepared if your family doesn't stack up. Another feature of a good book is that it leaves you wanting more for yourself.

Those are all the things I have for today. If you would like to share your things link them below.

Next Time: A rant about a beer commercial