2022 Books...and that's a wrap!

I actually did three reading challenges this year, The Back to the Classics Challenge, The Schole Sisters 5x5 and the Literary Life Podcast 22 Challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed each one. 

I wasn't sure if I'd actually finish the Literary Life Podcast in time but I managed to wrap up Julius Caesar two days ago (finished the last 2 acts without the kids. It was fine but I'm still happy with my decision to let it go for them and start afresh next term with A Winter's Tale)

My standouts from the Literary Life were...

Both Biographies. For "Someone Dead" I did 24 days of Queen Victoria as an audio and really enjoyed it. I'd like to read a few more of her to get a more complete picture but it was a good start to complement what I know from history books and BBC shows. My "Someone Living" was really hard to choose but I also did that as an audio, The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, which I really liked. I didn't really know much about either Howard other than Ron was on Andy Griffith and directed now. It was just really interesting and the way they talked about their parents and owned up to their own decisions and experiences was quite refreshing. I want to read more biographies this year as well.

 

Also the essays. Essays and short stories are not my normal thing and I don't think they ever will be but I really enjoyed a couple of EB White's a lot. I might continue to put my toe in the world of Essays water so feel free to offer ideas for essays to read. 

I also really liked the Favorite Author of a Favorite Author catagory. Not because either of my picks will be etched in my heart forever but both were books I had wanted to read for a while and needed a push for. Lilith I already blogged about was the first and for the second I picked Romance of the Forest - it was not great. Sorta ridiculous but really does give a great sense of what a Gothic novel was like so you can truly appreciate Northanger Abbey all the more! Which is why I picked it and I don't regret it. 

For the Schole Sister 5x5 challenge, you get to pick your own catagories. I chose

Theology

Classic Re-reads

Inklings (by or about)

Parenting/Education

Literary Life Podcast

Pre-reads

Now, you might notice that's 6 categories. I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish all of them so I added the pre-reads but I ended up reading at least 6 in each category. So technically I did a 6x6 challenge!

Of coures all my re-reads were great or I wouldn't have re-read them and you can't go wrong with the inklings. Beyond finishing the Fellowship of the Rings, re-reading Lewis' Space Trilogy and several Chronicles of Narnia (along with Lucy in her House of Humane Letters class), I also read a A Hobbit, A Wardrobe and a Great War which was good but maybe not quite what I expected or wanted. I do hope to get my hands on The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis this year. 

For parenting/education, I really liked Habits of the Household by Justin Earley although I'd recommend The Common Rule by the same author first as I think they build on each other. I read both this year and probably will re-read at least The Common Rule this year but honestly probably both! His children are still a bit on the younger side so I really hope he updates this book in 10-15 years! (For future generations of course, in 15 years, I won't have anybody under 18 in my house anymore unless something changes...keep moving before I start to cry!)

Now Theology was just my standout category. Everything was just so good. I put The Common Rule which I talked about above in this category. The Way of the Pilgrim was really different than anything I've read before but really good. As was The Jesus Prayer. Continuing my mini Orthodox reading kick I went with Hank Hanegraaff's Truth Matters, Life Matters More which I really enjoyed. 

Now Simply Trinity, this was hard to rate. I only gave this 3 stars but that was really the average of parts of the book which were 5 stars and incredible and other parts that not. A lot of calling out of people who he insisted were way off base with their theology and posing a huge danger to the Christian community but I have never heard of and didn't really care to hear rants about. That part got old pretty fast. But the first part where he lays out what he DOES believe about he Trinity was really good. 

But probably my top book for Theology this year was Radiant Midnight: Depression, Grace and the Gifts of a Dark Place...so so good! If you struggle with your mental health at all, you should read this. It presents such a solid biblical understanding of struggle and darkness and who we are and who God and his role in getting us through hard times. The World does such a horrible job at understanding suffering which is to be expected but and sadly a lot of Christian resources make different but equally damaging mistakes as well.  Even if you don't struggle with mental health (yay for you!). you should still read this. I really need to get a hard copy so I can sufficiently mark it up next time I read it. 

Of coures, I read a lot of books that weren't in a challenge of any kind. In fact, I'm finishing up the year with 142 reads (several titles were left off my privacy, mostly my children's) which is my best year in a decade. So I thought I'd just list a few more of my favorites from this year. Now these top lists aren't in order or super planned out. I literally just went chronologically through my Goodreads list and when my first response to seeing a title was "Oh, that was a good one!" and I hadn't already mentioned it, then I wrote it down here. 

Top Non-fiction

Visual Thinking by Temple Grandin...I'm the exact opposite of a Visual Thinker in the fact that I can barely visualize anything. But it was so interesting to here her point of view and her way of writing and organizing information is so attention-keeping. I felt like every chapter was almost its own book which meant it always felt fresh. 

Summa Domestic Vol 1 - I gave this whole three volume set to my (recently converted to Catholicism) brother and his wife for a wedding present without even having read it because I knew it would be good. I'm savoring it so I'm about to finish Vol 2 but its great. 

The Nocturnal Brain - Not what I expected at first, it's case studies of patience where things have gone wrong in the sleep department and the lessons we learn about the brain and sleep from them. Very interesting. I did it as an audiobook as I cleaned our old house for move out inspection so those things are oddly linked in my brain. So hours of cleaning later (did I mentioned our old house was 4000+ square feet with beautiful (read - dusty holding) moldings and trim, spindled railings and 4.5 bathrooms), I have to fight not to hold it against this book because it really is good and shouldn't be blamed for my post-cleaning backpain. 

The Art of the English Murder - I always really like Lucy Worsley, on tv or in book form. I actually had tickets for Craig and I to go see her give a lecture on Agatha Christie this fall but 2 days before then both my ear drums burst causing some other medical issues which landed me on bedrest for several days. I optimist told the babysitter to keep us penciled for about a day before I gave up and admitted defeat. I'm still bitter at my body. Perhaps I should sooth the ache by buying her book about Christie instead. 

Top Fiction

Dracula - read it with the Lit Life and loved it. 

Beauty - Short re-telling of Beauty and the Beast but my first taste of Robin McKinley. And now I know why her name shows up in my circles. 

Troubled Blood - well, the whole Strike series. I'd tried twice to get into this series but a third time is a charm. The first is not the best so plod through it if need be because they are only getting better and the last few were amazing. I actually bought this one (in HARDBACK no less!) and I rarely buy non-school books but I heard the formatting (for actually story reasons) really needed a physical copy to be appreciated and I don't even regret it taking up room on my bedroom bookcase. 

Wingfeather Series - They aren't the easiest to read-aloud (so many fun made up words which trip my up to no end!) and we read the first last year and took a break then restarted but about half way through the second book, there was no break-taking aloud. Three big kids and I all really got into it although my kids actually are big visualizers and the youtube show is causing drama because things aren't how they pictured so verdict is still out whether we will be able to finish that! (It's good quality so far so that's not to say you shouldn't try it! Just that my kids are easily offended when their book visions get messed with if they truly love the books. Watching Harry Potter with them is a lesson  in fortitude and longsuffering - for me!) 

Bess Street Aldrich books - Both a Lantarn in Her Hand and the lighter but still sweet The Cutters were top favorites of the year so I'm mentioning them again even thought I've already blogged about them. 

What's next? I plan to do most if not all of these Challenges again this year but I haven't let myself pick books until I typed this up. I've got a couple books in progress but I'm super excited about starting a new year of books. I may or may not beat this years record but I can at least try!

Back to the classics wrap-up

Another year down! This year was unusual in that I had no problems getting all the books read quite early on in the year but I didn't do a good job writing about them in a timely manner. On well, I got it done in the end. This was actually a fabulous reading year for me so I'll be back with a full end of year wrap up soon that includes my favorite reads and the other challenges I've done but here are my Back to the Classic Reads. Overall, they were top notch. It's hard to believe I've been doing this Challenge for 7 years but its such a good one! Its flexible but definitely encourages me to try books I might not otherwise get to and I love getting ideas from everyone else. 

1. A 19th century classic.  Lilith 

2. A 20th century classic. Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris

3. A classic by a woman author. Ruth

4. A classic in translation.  The Way of the Pilgrim

5. A classic by BIPOC author. To Sir, with Love

6. Mystery/Detective/Crime classic. The Franchise Affair

7. A classic short story collection.  The Wild Muir

8. Pre-1800 classic. A Mid-summer Night's Dream

9. A nonfiction classic. Six Easy Pieces

10. Classic that's been on your TBR list the longest.  The Fellowship of the Ring

11. Classic set in a place you'd like to visit. The Enchanted April

12. Wild card classic. The Cutters by Bess Streeter Aldrich

Email contant: brcbanter [AT] googlegroups.com

Classic Challenge: A Mid-summer night's dream

You can't go wrong with Shakespeare can you? Well, maybe you can. I read this at the beginning of the year but wasn't planning on having it count for this challenge because I thought I would finish Julius Caesar with the kids this fall. Well, we didn't quite get there. Once we got past Mark Antony's big speech in Act 3, we lost steam.  Turns out its not his best play and waiting for people to die isn't super exciting. 

So back to A Mid-summer Night's dream it is! I really do prefer the comedies. (Although Lucy and I really enjoyed MacBeth together last year and Hamlet is a favorite...but other than that, I'm a comedy gal). 

I've read this before but it had been a while and it felt new all over again. The kids love it and we've watched it together in stage form and read children's versions so I enjoyed reading it after having experienced it with them because I felt like I could descend to the bawdiness and lower level humor. Bottom is an ass...it's funny. 

I also really enjoyed going a bit deeper with the literary life podcast. I alwasys feel like reading something with them is the equivalent to reading it 4-5 times solo. I really hope they decide to do Much Ado about Nothing sometime. 

A Mid-summer night's dream is my pre-1800 Classic selection. 

Classics Challenge: The Wild Muir

Being involved in the Charlotte Mason and nature study world, I had heard the name John Muir quite a bit for years but I didn't really know much about him until I picked up this book to pre-read for Lucy's school year. The Wild Muir is a compilation of 22 short stories of his adventures in his own words. And he does have some adventures in nature. Short stories aren't my favorite in general and these varied, some were great and some dragged a bit but overall a good collection. I'm curious to see what Lucy thinks of it this spring. 

The Wild Muir is my Classic Short Stories category selection. This specific compilation was published in 1994 but all the stories were written by Muir himself and he died in 1914 so I'm pretty sure this still works for the Challenge. 

Classics Challenge: The Francise Affair

This is a hard category for me. Not because I don't read a lot of mysteries but because I do. I read tons of mysteries, mostly the older classic style (although I have caught up on the Strike series this year which is about as hard boiled as I can go). Which one to write about? I went with this one because I think Josephine Tey is a bit under appreciated. This first one of hers I read was Daughter of Time and you do see that about in gift shops in basically every museum that has a connection to Richard III. It's very good but our libraries didn't have anything else by her so since then I'd just been on the lookout for whatever of hers I could spot in the used bookstores I perused. 

And of course, I found one at the mystery book stop in Hay-on-Wye. Well, I found several but I had to be selective and I think I picked a good one. It's not a murder but a case of kidnapping. Or a case of accused kidnapping. 

 I think Tey has such an interesting way of making you look at multiple sides of a situation and I really enjoyed it and will be looking for more Tey books to go on my shelf...perhaps another trip to Hay-on-Wye. Well, I basically think any excuse is a good one for that sort of thing!

The Francise Affair is my Back to the Classic Mystery/Detective selection 

Classics Challenge: Six Easy Pieces

This isn't really where I thought I'd be going with the non-fiction category. I probably assumed I'd choose a biography or travel book. But I started doing a bit more pre-reading while I prep for Lucy's High School years and I read several science books and thoroughly enjoyed this one. It took me a while to figure out if it qualified because I couldn't find the original publication date. Most of the publication dates I found were after the author, Richard Feynman, had died so at least I knew they weren't quite right. But the book is based on the lectures he originally gave in 1960 and I finally found something that says they were compiled and published for the first time in 1963 which makes more sense so I'm going to go with that and say it works!

It's exactly what the title says. It's 6 lectures written down that talk about a variety of physics topics, some "easier" than others. I thought it was very interesting and I do think it would make an a great accompaniment to intro to physics because it shows how interesting and fun physics can be...if you just stick with the math for a a bit. I know some of it is out of date and some of it will be over a high schoolers head but exposure to the ideas and stating to get them thinking about what and why we care about this is important. Of course, I really like Physics overall so maybe I'm not the best judge. But I do think it will be getting added to Lucy's coursework in the near future. I'm curious to see what she thinks of it!

It also reminded me to read more science books. I clearly like the subject I just don't tend to think about science books much - probably because I read mostly based on recommendations and my literary friends don't recommend much in this genre. But I shall continue to scour the Charlotte Mason High School booklists I have access to and see what else I can find. 

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman is my Back to the Classics Non-fiction Selection. 

Classics Challenge: The Fellowship of the Ring

I have a lot of books on my to be read pile but this really does have to be one of the longest lasting ones. I first experienced The Hobbit when I was about 10 when my mom read it aloud to us and I listened to an old BBC audiobook version so many times as a tween. And then when my younger brother hit the same age, we listened to it together. It was our regular car book when we went to my dad's house when we lived separately in Korea. So why had I never read The Lord of the Rings?

I don't know. I did try to listen to the KayRay audiobook version a few years ago but didn't get past Tom Bombadil part. Kay Ray is one of our family's favorite audiobook narrators so it definitely wasn't her that was the issue nor did I hold it against the book itself. I just struggle with audiobooks  (I have since learned to listen to audiobooks at 2-2.5X speed which helps a lot. Everyone sounds like a chipmunk for a minute but then my brain adjusts and compensates and its glorious!) 

But this year I actually picked up an (e)book and read it with my eyes and made it through the first one. It was good, not my typical genre and I still get confused when Lucy starts rattling off names (which one is he again?) but definitely worth reading. I might try and read the second this year and see  I can keep the streak going. Lucy has read them all and Jonah and Norah are about 50% of the way through the series so by the time I finish, they probably will have too and we can all watch the movies and complain about what's different together. 

The Fellowship of the Ring is my Classic That's Been on my TBR list the longest selection. 

Jude turns 4

Oh Jude, you are something. 110% personality Exhausting a lot of the time. Humorous just as much. Our family wouldn't laugh half so much if you weren't around. You keep me on my toes! And humble. You certainly keep me humble at times. But just when I think there is no possible way I could tame you and I might just stop trying and let you be a wild monkey, you snuggle up next to me and give me a hug. Or you want to talk to me about God and Jesus dying and how sometimes we see crosses with Jesus on them and sometimes they are empty and since they are empty, that must mean Jesus came back to life and then you melt my heart. When we were in Italy and I mentioned going somewhere from the Bible you asked "Are you talking about the real world or the bible world?" and when I told you the Bible world WAS the real world, you were amazed! "From the bible? Here? in Real Life!?" I just love seeing your brain make connections! 

You've become so sociable this year. Last year you were a preschool drop out because of separation anxiety but we took a break (from preschool and church nursery and all the leaving mom things) and now you love preschool! And "church school" (homeschool co-op, its held at a church). And if someone starts talking to you at the airport, watch out because you'll just keep chatting! You just want to be in the thick of things. Which is probably the reason you're such a monkey. It's hard being the littlest sometimes. But you are determined to keep up with everyone else - and I'm pretty sure you'll succeed at that!

What is your favorite color? All the colors

What is your favorite toy? the toy where you kick and punch it (punching bag) and monkey

What is your favorite game? pillow fight game

What is your favorite song?  cocomelon songs

What do you sleep with at night? my monkey! my favorite toy monkey

What is your favorite animal? cat and dog

What is your favorite book? angus mcangus...Henry the explorer

What is your favorite movie? Encanto (Jonah likes encanto so he calls out "Encanto too?" and Jude says "No, Encanto 1!"

What is your favorite thing to eat? Muffins (he means cupcakes) and Cake

Where is your favorite place to go? To our playground

What is your favorite outfit? My lizard shirt and my church shirts. My jeans but pants are my favorite green pants and my favorite shorts are my yellow shorts. My favorite undies are the cool ones with different stuff on it.  

What do you like to learn about? Nothing. "What about stories?" Yes! Those are the only things.

What have you learned in the last year? Nothing. 

What is hard for you? Disobeying....like not touching other people's stuff, doing what mom says. (I think he means Obeying)

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? Watch movies like When Calls the Heart!

What do you like about Mommy? You always like to take care of me. 

What do you like about Daddy? He always poops on me (Uhm, no he doesn't. No potty talk)...He always takes me to the post office and coop and playground. And drops me off at preschool....and the moon!

What do you like about Lucy?  She always has to read me a book. 

What do you like about Jonah? Jonah always lets me have his special Legos. And plays with me and drops me off at the Sun. 

What do you like about Norah? Norah always puts heavy stuff like bookshelves and books on top of me. She REALLY does be naughty and she's a person who needs to be in real jail. She makes me dead, real dead.  

 

 What do you like about yourself? I always makes a fort for myself and nobody can ever look in it. 

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be naughty. I want to be a rude-y butt. I want to be a fireman and a policeman. 

Lucy turns 12

Lucy turned 12 while we were in Majorca this year. She loves the beach so this was a fun way to celebrate with her. But then I forgot to publish her birthday answers. And then I kept waiting to publish the next kid's until I finished hers. So here we are in November with 4 kids birthday questions undone! Ahh, how did I used to blog so much? Where did I find the time? 

But on the plus side, I can write the final wrap up with a bit more perspective on what twelve year old Lucy is like! 

Dear Lucy,

I love you at twelve. You're still straddling that girl/teen line but in all the best ways. You're hardworking and helpful and mature. You love your younger siblings and are always willing to twirl Norah or help Jude draw a picture or write a word. You were a great teacher at VBS with all the 4-5 year olds. You're such an artist and always have an amazing way of viewing things. You're very creative and passioanate about your art and will work tirelessly to make your visual come to life. You don't love big groups of people but you are an amazing friend and listener. You sometimes are a bit of a puddleglum in our family - but like puddleglum, you add to our family in ways that we need and we wouldn't be the same without you. You have such a way with words. I love that you know what you like and what you don't and you aren't bothered by others opinions...and just when I think I have you figured out, you surprise me! It's such fun watching you grow and become even more of yourself. 

What is your favorite color? Light Teal, light blue and navy

What is your favorite toy? Puzzles and Art Supplies

What is your favorite game? Carcasonne and Clue

What is your favorite song? Peter Hollen's Hobbit and Lord of the Ring inspired songs

What is your favorite animal? Wolves, Foxes, All big cats. 

What is your favorite book? Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Mysterious Benedict Society series, and Enola Holmes series. 

What do you like to snuggle with at night? Live Lizzie. 

What is your favorite movie? The Harry Potters

What is your favorite thing to eat? Gyros and Creamy Potato Soup

Where is your favorite place to go?  Greece

What is your favorite outfit? Jeans and t-shirts. 

What do you like to learn about? What I like to learn about that is not a school subject is the language of flowers. My favorite school subject is greek language. 

What have you learned in the last year? Greek 

What is hard for you? Latin

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? Travel

What do you like about Mom? That you travel with me and spend one on one time with me like in Belgium.  

What do you like about Dad? That he drives us places like Tae Kwon Do and is involved in our activities. 

What do you like about Jonah?  That he let's me play with "his" legos. 

What do you like about Norah? Because she is hilarious and she always wants me to play with her. 

What do you like about Jude? He is even more hilarious than Norah is. 

What do you like about yourself? That I am "like okay" at art. 

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Author and Artist

Classics Challenge - Lilith

Lilith is one of those books that shows me how much I've grown as a reader in the past few years. It's been on my to read list for a while but I'm glad I didn't get to it until now because I really don't think I would have made it through it even 5 years ago and would have dismissed it as weird. 

And yes, it is a odd, no doubt about that. Lilith is an otherworld fantasy novel about a man who magically stumbles into this old world of Adam/Eve/Lilith (the supposed first, and ultimately unfitting wife of Adam). Their are parallel stories where man slowly wakes up and learns who he is while Lilith learns about redemption. Just much much weirder with more imagery and symbolism than what I just said. And I  didn't quite know what was going on for a fair portion of it. But having really pushed myself (and gotten some good guidance from the Literary Life podcast and sitting in with Lucy's Good Books class), I am able to read it as a fairy tale and to see past some of the superficial weirdness a bit more to the symbols and that's pretty encouraging.  I still probably only got a fraction of what was in this book but I'm okay with that. Even that fraction gave me plenty to think about on the topics of repentance and forgiveness. 

Lilith is my Back to the Classics 19th Century Selection. 

Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris

This was so cute! I actually had The Picture of Dorian Gray in this category before I realized it was actually written in 1890 so ten years too soon! And I already have that category done. So I read it for nothing.  Just kidding. But it was such a rookie mistake - and I've been doing this challenge for years so I really have no excuse. Although I must say that while Dorian Gray a perfectly fine book, I do think this one will be more fun to blog about anyway so all is well. 

So as I said, this was adorable. I actually read this before I even knew they were making a new movie version. I've heard good things about the movie version but I have such vivid pictures in my head of all the people that I'm a bit afraid to mess that up by watching it.  Mrs 'Arris is a lovely little down to earth cleaning lady who suddenly decides she wants a Dior dress. So she starts to scrimp and save. And with a bit of "movie magic" type situations, she get it and off she goes to Paris. I love Mrs. 'Arris. I love the way she interacts with everyone she meets and the relationships she forms on her journey. As someone who first visited Paris this summer myself, and who, despite all my traveling, still feels that bit of fish out of water, what am I doing here stuff, I just thought this couldn't be more delightful. 

As soon as I finished it, I checked out Mrs. 'Arris goes to New York which is even more far fetched and therefore not quite as charming but definitely still a decent pick for when you need something safe and cozy but still worth reading. 

Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris is my Back to the Classics 20th century selection. 

Classics Challenge - To Sir, With Love

To Sir, With Love is a book about a teacher in England but this is not Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Braitwaite is not teaching in a classic boarding school but in East London where things are a bit rougher. One of my local friends is from East London and I've enjoyed hearing about her experiences growing up and raising children there so I found this especially interesting. And of course, books that ponder what education is are always interesting. There are a few things that are a bit dated (like his descriptions of some of his female students) and I'm curious as to how much of this autobiographal novel is autobiography and how much is novel because he does wrap things up nicely in just a year - but overall I found it enjoyable and thought provoking.  

To Sir, With Love is my Classic by a BIPOC author selection in the Back to the Classics Challenge

 

Classics Challenge - The Way of a Pilgrim

This is a very unique little book. It's written by an annonymous peasant turned hermit/pilgrim who travels around Russia in the 19th century, growing in his faith and prayer life and meeting some interesting people along the way. 

A good friend is Orthodox and in my striving to understand her world a bit more, I learned about the Jesus Prayer which I have come to adore. This story talks quite a bit about that prayer as well as the idea of praying without ceasing. I am still not sure if the author is telling his story but just remaining anonymous or if someone has written this story like a sort of Orthodox Pilgrim's Progrress (without all the allergory) as a lesson. I think the former but I would not be shocked to find out its the later either. It's can be a bit confusing but overall a very interesting read that makes one think a lot about what a life of prayer and  devotion to Christ can and should look. 

I found my copy online and can't seem to find the link anymore so I don't know what specific translation I read but since I don't speak Russian, I can be confident that I did read A translation :-) 

The Way of the Pilgrim is my Classic in Translation selection for the Back to the Classics challenge.  

Classics Challenge - Ruth

North and South is one of my very favorite books. I've read it probably 7+ time.  Wives and Daughters is delightful (and heartbreaking that it never got a full ending but I digress). And vignette style books aren't my favorite but Cranford was still worth a read (and probably a re-read). But somehow the other Ruth Gaskell books have stayed on my to-read list. I think its because I had heard they were all sad. Which is kinda silly because someone could easily make the case that North and South is sad but I don't feel that way at all. It's such a comfort read for me despite the death count. 

Ruth is similar in that if you describe the plot  - young girl becomes fallen woman, struggles, etc...yeah, it sounds pretty depressing. But it really isn't. 

As a character, Ruth does seem a bit too good to be true in the later part of her life but I understand why. And the rest of the Gaskell's characters are great. It's just so well written. Ruth won't ever be North and South and if you are new to Gaskell I definitely recommend starting there but Ruth has encouraged me to keep going and finish up all the Gaskells I can get my hands on. 

Ruth is my Classic by a Woman Author for the Back to the Classics Challenge

Classic Challenge - The Enchanted April

I read this earlier this year with the Literary Life Podcast and the timing was perfect because I was doing the preliminary planning for our trip to Italy. Now that trip is fully planned and booked and we're heading out in just a few weeks. Our will be quite a bit different from the ladies in The Enchanted April - a lot more walking and museums and less sitting amongst flowers and sunshine, but I'm still pretty excited about it!

This one was interesting for me. As a family, we love to travel so I really enjoyed the ideas about beauty and how its worth seeking. Some of the scenes (like them trying to get to the house that first day and all the nervousness involved - so familiar! so funny! How much do I understand those feelings of being out of my element and thinking "what have we done!"...they normally end well and I'm glad we made the leap. But sometimes you do just end up taking a wrong turn out of a church and have to quickly walk through  a parking because the nice Norwegian ruffians are clearly waiting with rolled up sleeves and needles ready for the (thankfully oblivious) kids to be gone before proceeding - true story! And at least one gave me a head nod saying they were waiting. Scandinavians are so polite). 

Anyway, I loved the characters at times, especially our four main ladies, and the way they interacted, especially at the beginning. And the description of Italy were delightful. But I also had a hard time connecting with it at times, especially towards the end. As the story progress, it felt more like a fairy tale (which is good otherwise I'd probably be a lot more annoyed at the husbands and the ending) but that also meant I was sorta distanced from the story. I knew it would end well and I read on because I was interested to see how the author would get us there but I wasn't really invested in any of the women or their stories anymore.  So it was well written and thought provoking but I don't think I'll ever read it again. 

The Enchanted April is my Classic Set in a Place I'd like to Visit in the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Classics Challenge - The Cutters

Goodness, I haven't written a single review for the Back to the Classics Challenge. It's not that I haven't been reading, I have! This has been one of my best reading years in a long time, both in terms of numbers and quality of books. In fact, I think I have read all but one category already (and I'm working on that last one - Ben Hur is just long!). So I've just gotten extremely behind in the writing part. So expect more of these to follow shortly! 

But I'll start with one of my favorite reads of the year - Bess Streeter Aldrich's The Cutters. Now A Lantern in Her Hand was making the homeschool mom rounds on my goodread list but I didn't have access to it as first so I grabbed this one by her. I have since read A Lantern in her hand and its delightful and arguable the better written book but I just enjoyed The Cutters so much.  

Here's the thing. It doesn't have much of a plot, it's sentimental to the point of bordering on sappy and its dated. There are a few lines that would NOT be published today and if I actually had a hard copy i would could just sharpie out, I would...BUT I loved it so much. At the beginning of the book, Nell has been married 15 years as has 4 kids. The older 3 have names but for for much of the book, the youngest is just called "the baby." And she's me. Me in a different century but me (and yes, Jude may be 4 but we are making a family effort to not call or treat him like "the baby" anymore. That sometimes feels like a losting batter but eventually it will stick, right?)...and I like the idea that mothers throughout time have the same thoughts and problems and silliness ideas I do, whatever century they are mothing in. And sappy or not, the last chapter made me cry. I've recommended it several times to other people lately. I've heard Mother Mason is similar so I need go track that one down now too. 

The Cutters is my Wildcard selection for the Back to the Classics Challenge 

Back to the Classics Sign up.

I'm once again signing up for the Back to the Classics Reading Challenge over at Karen's Books and Chocolate blog. Because let's face it, if I don't do the challenge I might forget this blog exists and I really don't want that! (Although I won't promise I'll write more this year. Too many kids, too much travel, not enough time and I'm sure I won't. I'll try to of course...but I probably won't succeed.)

Unlike past years, I'm not picking anything in advance! Wow, crazy me! But I've got two other reading challenges going and I pretty much switch all my choices around anyway so I've decided to just be spontaneous this year! 

But I will say that I think I'm most excited about the 

1)  Classic from a place you'd like to visit as we have a few countries on our hopeful list for this year's travel and I'd love to read something related before I go (anyone have any Ireland suggestions?)

and 2) Short story collection. I was recently talking to a friend about how I love golden age detective novels but often forget that the same authors have written a number of short stories with the same characters I love but I rarely read them. This is my chance! I can't moan about having no more Lord Peter or Tommy and Tuppence novels if I have some short stories left untouched now can I?

Education is the Science of Relations: A few Case Studies

As part of the Literary Life Podcast Reading Challenge this year, I'm reading/listening to several poems by the poetry W. H Auden. I hadn't yet really connected to any until I heard Thomas Banks read this one:

Roman Wall Blues

Over the heather the wet wind blows,
I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose.

The rain comes pattering out of the sky,
I'm a Wall soldier, I don't know why.

The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,
My girl's in Tungria; I sleep alone.

Aulus goes hanging around her place,
I don't like his manners, I don't like his face.

Piso's a Christian, he worships a fish;
There'd be no kissing if he had his wish.

She gave me a ring but I diced it away;
I want my girl and I want my pay.

When I'm a veteran with only one eye
I shall do nothing but look at the sky.

My mind immediately went back to last fall and our visit to Hadrian's wall. And I could picture it - especially the sky. And I do believe Auden has the privilege of having written the very first full poem that has made its way into my commonplace book!

We've also added a few new items to our school routine in the last month at the specific request of the kids: Koine Greek books and studying for the Pegasus National Mythology Exam and I'm pretty sure both are related to this (as of yet, unblogged) trip. 

I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to homeschooling and it's an area I'm trying to hand over to God and let him chisel off parts of me that need it. I've got some changes I'm planning for next year's school as a part of that refining and I don't always do change well, even when I feel life God is calling us to that. But I never want to be so caught up in my own plans that I fail to see true education taking place and the kids making their own connections. It's a balance. We aren't unschoolers. I have a philosophy of education because we (both my kids and I!) don't always know what we are interested in until we are exposed. And not only that but we don't know what true and beautiful ideas are souls are longing for. I had no idea that this Auden poem was out there in the world, waiting to be loved by me. And before our trip to Greece, one of my children was known to roll their eyes when greek stuff showed up on the schedule but is now choosing to add Greek language studies (because I bought the books for them but its a free evening choice, nothing required). But once exposed, I need to give them space to explore and pursue! That's the tricky part when there are a lot of them, only one me, and most of their interests still require something from me in the time and energy department. But I keep going, however imperfectly. 

Which takes me back to the last line of that poem, someday I'll have to time to look at the sky (but hopefully I'm still have two eyes!) but until then I don't want to be singing the blues. And I don't have to be, because I do know why I'm doing this. And that is what makes all the difference. 

Some of my favorite books of this year.

Everyone else seems to be posting about their new readings plans and I'm anxious to start making mine but I really do want to look back over this past year first. It was a banner year for my reading. I beat my Goodreads record by reading 123 books this year so I'm setting my goal this year for 100. I never want my goal too high that feel numbers driven but having an actual numerical goal really helps me pick up a book and not social media. And I want to continue to incorporate more audiobooks now that I'm learning how to make the work for me. (high speed like 1.5+,  non-fiction still narrative in style and bluetooth earbuds so the dog doesn't get tangle on our walks). 

Top Fiction

Stephen Fry's Heroes and Mythos - So much fun. Alternated between audio and e-book and enjoyed it both ways. I'd love to get to his Troy and Odyssey eventually too. 

 

Anthony Horowitz's Mysteries - I read several and thoroughly enjoyed them and am just waiting for our library to get more. I do love old books but sometimes its nice to read something written in our century. Especially when it means that the author can keep writing things! (Nothing is more depressing than finding an author you love, reading everything they've written and knowing there will never be more. So sad.) Although I also read several Agatha Christie mysteries this year and I'm fairly certain I will never read every single thing she's written, at least not before forgetting who did it in earlier ones and being able to re-read those :-)

Vittoria Cottage - D.E. Stevenson is quickly becoming one of my favorite safe/cozy reads. They aren't ground breaking but they are delightful and I'm never sad to spend an evening in one of her worlds. Vittoria Cottage might be my favorite of hers so far. 

Piranesi - This one is strange and I totally get why some people do not like it. But I did. 

The Chosen - I'm trying not to repeat my Classics Challenge reviews which is making this fiction section difficult but this one deserves a repeat. I still have to read the sequel but I own it so I'll get there soon. 

Top Nonfiction

Welcome to the Orthodox Church - I'm not Orthodox so I'm hardly qualified to say if this actually a good overview or not but I enjoyed learning about the different perspectives in areas of theology and I spent a lot of time thinking about and talking this over with basically anyone who would listen. 

Freedom's Daughters - Started this last year and worked slowly on it but I'm glad I did. It's dense and can be a bit dry at times. But not an area I was well versed in before and I learned a lot. 

The Narnian - Biographies aren't my top genre but this one was good. I did this on audio and it was one of the first audiobooks I successfully finished by myself (we do lots of audiobooks in the car with kids and they do a ton but I often struggle but I only had (free) access to this as an audiobook so I made it work and I'm glad I did). I'm doing the Lit Life Podcast reading challenge this year so I need more biography recommendations, both living and dead, so share ideas please!

Range - This is the type of non-fiction I can just devour. I found it fascinating. 

Live Not By Lies - Another one that got my thinking and talking. Very relevant to our times. 

I also read a lot of non-fiction related to parenting but I won't get into details with how I found/did not find those helpful for child privacy reasons but there are a few books that I wish existed (or maybe they do and I just wish I knew what they were!). About parenting, and specifically homeschooling 2e kids and balancing family/parenting/self-care when you have special needs in your family. I think probably because the moms who are really qualified to write it are too busy living that life to write a book!  I plan to re-read Different by Sally Clarkson because that seems to be the closest I can get to the ideas I'm looking for.  I really got a lot from it a few years ago but I'm in a new stage now and might get different things from it. 

Top Middle Grade Books

 I read quite a bit of middle grade fiction this year, some pre-reading, some reading along with kids so we could discuss and some... just because I wanted to. 

The Giver Quartet. I had read the Giver as a tween/teen but this time I read the whole series. There are some issues with the series as a series and her world building isn't perfect but it is well written, sucks you in and gives you quite a bit to ponder for a middle grade series. I read this very quickly when I was sick in bed one week but I'm sure I'll re-read with the kids in the future. 

The War that Saved My Life/The War I finally Won - I had to pre-read these as I'd heard conflicting things but I enjoyed them and Lucy loved them. 

Sweet Home Alaska - Cute story. Would make a good short read-aloud. 

Top Read-alouds

Astrid the Unstoppable - Someone needs to translate more of Maria Parr's books because we have loved her. I liked Adventures with Waffles slightly more but this one was still really good. When you need a really funny, laugh out loud book, but one that still had a lot of heart and sweetness, look no farther. Both are in my mental "to read aloud AGAIN in a few years pile"

A Year of Miss Agnes - Sweet. Shorter than I expected but would go well with Sweet Home Alaska (I'd say this one is a bit deeper). The friends that lived with us this summer had been living in Alaska for a while so my kids were interested in learning more after hearing about their experiences so these two filled that need a bit). 

The Christmas Camera/Eric's Christmas Camera - I went ahead and linked to this because its probably harder to find. So good! Alta Halverson Seymour has a whole set of Christmas Around the World books I will be getting them all and rotating through them because we all really liked reading this throught out December. 

A Place to Hang the Moon - This one is technically cheating because I still have one chapter left to read to the kids but I'm confident the book is not going to go off the rails at this point. Very sweet. My kids are getting a bit tired of "war kids shipped off to the country" books at this point but they got over that quickly. I loved how much personality she gave each of the three kids.