Classics Challenge: The Chosen

The Chosen has been on my shelf for several years. And not just my goodreads shelf of books I want to eventually get to. No, I had a physical copy looking at me and I still just couldn't pick it up. But I finally did and it was so good. I'm not sure what I expected this to be about. I guess more of a general boy's coming of age story. There was some of that but it was so much more.

 You get such a sense of the communities these two boys had, the history of the time and changes in the world of Judiasm of the 40s. It's a historical novel done well. Because its has a very interesting history and cultural lesson to teach but beyond that, just a good book about relationships and people and the human spirit that you can relate to. I really care about the boys and their relationships with each other and their fathers. My heart broke with theirs when those relationships undergo trial. It was a great book to start the year. I always love reading a classic, especially one you might find being assigned to kids in high school, and just really enjoying it. It shouldn't be surprising to me at this point but sometimes, it is! I haven't heard as much about the sequel but I'll be trying to track it down. 

The Chosen was first published in 1966 and is my Back to the Classics Challenge 20th century classic.

Classics Challenge: The Little Prince

I picked The Little Prince as my children's novel for the Back to the Classics Challenge. I'm sticking with that because I do think it is marketing as a children's novel and I know its read by a lot of children, especially in France. Also, it's Kid's Club eligible according to Barnes and Noble :-)

But I feel like its really a pseudo-children's book. Like The Giving Tree and I'll Love You Forever. And at the risk of ranting over a subject I might have ranted over before, I really don't like those two. I'll Love You Forever isn't quite as bad as The Giving Tree but neither is a favorite. The Giving Tree should be thankful Rainbow Fish is around to take my WORST CHILDRENS BOOK EVER award. I despise the Rainbow Fish with every fiber of my children's book loving soul. Okay, moving on. 

The Little Prince is similar to both of those in that people seem to really love it OR really hate it. I thought it was - okay. It wasn't a "heart book" for me, but I can easily see how it would capture someone's imagination and be that to them, especially if read at the right time for whatever reason. I didn't hate it either. I thought it was interesting. And I mean actually interesting, not "interesting" as a euphemism for weird/quirky/I don't know what to do with this but I need an adjective. It just has some interesting ideas presented in a unique way. And very quotable. But I also didn't really feel very connected to the characters or what was happening. I know I was supposed to care about what happened to the little prince, but I didn't really. And maybe I would have if I had been a kid. But then I don't think I would have actually thought it was interesting as a kid. Maybe a tween would straddle that gulf and care about ideas and characters. It does seem like a lot of people who loved it, first read it as a child but didn't get it so when they re-read it, they have both nostalgia and understanding and maybe its that combination that makes them really adore it. As someone whose felt that way about Narnia, I'm not going to argue with that as a valid experience. I don't know. What's your opinion, if you've read it, would you consider it a children's book? 

One month down, 11 to go!

In attempt to get myself back in the habit of blogging and to record some of our experiences here, I'm trying to write a month in review post. Considering how often I used to update this, that shouldn't be so hard, right? 

Overall, its been a bit of rough month. England is still in pretty tight lockdown state. I haven't actually been in my car since before Christmas. 6 weeks without driving anywhere is probably a first for me. I do have plans to go somewhere next Tuesday though and its a kind of lame paperwork appointment (note: moving overseas means endless paperwork!) but I don't even care, I'm excited! So, the lockdown has clearly brought about some mental health challenges for me and the kids but we're muddling through. 

Some good things about this month. 

School - We started our next term. The kids aren't on the same term of the year (Jonah's on Year 2 Term 3, Lucy's Year 5 Term 2) which is fine but bothers me what I want to say "We started our second term" or "our last term" and can't. Either way, the term has been started. And its really going amazingly well. Last term we were so worn down that without even doing much in the way of riches or foreign languages and even some of the standard weekly things, we were barely making it through. This term is so different! We're easily getting the AO readings done in 4.5 days (Friday is a short day) plus everything I had planned for our together time and still have extra time. Its all just going so smoothly! I'd like to credit it with my amazing scheduling skills but I think we just needed those few weeks off and a fresh start. 

My reading life - I started 2020 reading strong but boy, by the end of the year, my reading stack was bad. But everyone's reading lists and challenge ideas on social media got my inspired. I read 15 books in January - and mostly good ones! I have three classics challenge books to review but my favorite reads of the month were What is a Family by Edith Shaeffer (So SO GOOD!), Range, and Pachinko (with caveats. You have to know what your getting with Pachinko and most of the criticism I've seen of it are not wrong but I also found it enjoyable and thought provoking.)

Family time - Hopefully Craig will be back full time in his office soon but for now, he's still rotating weeks in the office and home. And I want to appreciate the time he's had home lately. Its very nice to be able to keep working on a math problem with an older kid even when the toddler suddenly needs to go potty! But also just to have him around for meals and join us for tea time and singing and the fun stuff we do as a group. 

Our Anniversary - We did a bad job of spreading out the gift stuff in our marriage. My birthday and our anniversary are sandwiched right between Christmas and Valentine's day! But we still managed to have a fun anniversary date night at home. Sugary desserts the kids aren't allowed to have were involved, as was Exit: The Game. We did the Pharoah's tomb and it was challenging (took two nights for us to finish but that's because Jude could sense we had plans and had a rough bedtime and I turn into a pumpkin at 10pm). I'm pretty sure we'll be doing another of these in the future. 

I'm not really a big party planning person. Well, that's not totally true, I used to love that stuff. But I just haven't had it in me lately to do big parties or themed things for kids at this stage of my life. It's a feeling of being perpetually behind what I'd need to be . But its been really helpful to have things to look forward to here whether that is a family New Year's Eve Party or at home dates. Just something on the calendar (preferable even more fun that driving to a military base for a paperwork appointment :-)  I just got a package from a friend that reminded me Valentine's Day is coming up so I'm off to try and plan something for us all for that. I probably should have started a week ago but were there is a will, there is a way! Onward to fun!