Archive | good reads

A Book Review: Cozy Classics board book

January 17, 2014 at 5:03 pm

Last week we received a surprise package from Jess, Elliott’s sister. She’d sent several thoughtful gifts, including this gorgeous calendar for me and this wonderful book for Elliott.

But it was the kids’ gift that took the cake! It was a board book based on the story of Pride & Prejudice, but with the most unique illustrations and some fabulously-selected text. Here are a few pages:

Isn’t it amazing?! Both the artwork and the choice of words had me laughing with delight as we paged through the book. I looked up “Cozy Classics” and found the website, where I learned more about the books:

“The concept for Cozy Classics is simple: every classic in the series will be condensed to 12 child-friendly words, and each word will appear alongside a needle-felted illustration. Each word is carefully selected to relate to a child’s world… If you, as a parent, can fill in some of the original tale as part of the reading experience, so much the better!”

The authors/illustrators are twin brothers, by the way, with four kids four-and-under between them. Guess they know what they’re doing!

So far they have eight other books (and more coming out each season), including Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, Les Miserables, Jane Eyre, and even War and Peace! Do you think if I read this version of War and Peace I’d actually finish the book this year?!

Thanks so much, Jess, for these thoughtful gifts.

4 :: in good reads, wishlist

my 2013 goals in review

January 2, 2014 at 2:43 pm

Biggest and proudest accomplishment of 2013: my contribution to creating and caring for this family of mine!

OK, after a year of work… 2013 is over, and it’s time to review my goals for this past year! Sharing them publicly with all of you is definitely a way to keep me accountable, and I think it helped me stay on track a little better this year than I did in 2012.

If you’d like to, I would love to hear about how well you accomplished your goals (or resolutions), or you could link to your blog posts about them in the comments, too!

Here’s how I did with my 2013 goals:

Love Elliott and Lena and our Baby Boy.

Nothing like keeping my priorities straight! How can I measure this one? I definitely found myself frequently stretched to love my family with patience, compassion, creativity, and humility, particularly when Gil was tiny and we were adjusting to being a family of four. Through it all, though, my love for my family has become deeper than ever, and I am more in love with Elliott and more invested in my whole family than I was a year before. It is wonderful to see my heart full to bursting with love… and then realize a year later that my love has miraculously grown.

Finish War and Peace!

Fail. Total. Complete. Fail. I literally did not even open the book all year. I did move it from my bedside table (where it was mocking me) to the floor (where it continued to mock me) to the guest room (where I was grateful to finally forget about it). I’m hoping for better luck next year with me and Prince Andrei, Natasha, Pierre, Hélène, Nikolai, etc. etc. etc….

Read at least 10 classics that I haven’t read but have always wanted to read.

In the minutiae of motherhood, reading is a respite and a relief to me. (How alliterative! Now I’m on a roll.) Reading books continues my education in an academic sense even when the rest of my life is mostly preparing and cleaning up food, facilitating sleep, and providing wholesome and creativity activities for little minds. When my body is exhausted, I can rest with a book. Other than conversations with Elliott before we fall asleep — or sleep itself — I can’t think of a more restful activity for me.

I also have a deeply satisfying sense of accomplishment when I read the last page and close another book. I can’t quite describe it. It is an accomplishment that cannot be taken away from me, that cannot be undone by little fingers, that is recognized by everyone as a great achievement, and that contributes profoundly to who I am as a person.

I’ve set book reading goals for myself for two years in a row now. In 2012 I resolved to read a book a week for 52 books total, and this past year I resolved to read 40 books. At 11:33pm on December 31st, I finished my 45th book of 2013, including 10 classics. And oh, that feeling of achievement! I’m so glad I did it, and I think I’ll set the same goal again next year. These are the classics that I read in 2013:

A Passage to India by E.M. Forester
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Confessions by St. Augustine
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

(I use this Book List Challenge to help me keep track of classics I’ve read and want to read. It’s not definitive, of course, but it is fun! I’ve read 50 of these books… 50 more to go.)

If you’d like to challenge yourself to read more in 2014, I highly recommend Goodreads. It’s like Facebook for bookworms! It’s a fantastic way to learn about new books, see what your friends are reading, keep track of your own reading (because otherwise I never remember), and set reading goals. You can become my friend on Goodreads right here.

Sell 50 handmade items either through craft fairs or through my Etsy shop.

I sold 56. Thank you to all of you who bought something from me!

Study Italian

I planned to complete this Italian workbook as well as the two volumes of Pimsleur Italian audio series. I finished the audio series but not the workbook. I did made good headway into it, though, so I think I’ll finish the book as one of my 2013 goals… before we leave Italy, of course!

Learn more about and practice the manual settings on my camera.

I did do this, but I am still scratching the surface of the manual settings. I know this is the next big step for me in improving my photography (umm… duh), but I have such a comfort zone with the automatic settings on my DSLR and find it hard to imagine that my fumbling with the manual settings will really change my photographs very much. I know that’s not true. Right?

Launch my blog on a new website.

Done as of January 28th, 2013 (< also the day I announced Gil’s birth). I still don’t feel as comfortable with WordPress as I did with Blogspot, but I am grateful to own all my content and to have complete power over the look of my website.

Maybe I’ll beautify a few things around here in 2014. If you have any blog-improvement suggestions (like formatting or helpful features or whatnot), I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Publish a piece of writing (fiction or non-fiction) in a non-blog setting.

Nope. Sigh. I did read a piece of my writing at our church’s women’s Christmas event, so maybe this goal was partially accomplished. But speaking vs. writing wasn’t exactly what I was intending when I made this goal, so I think I’ll try again in 2014.

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So that was 2013! Tomorrow I’ll publish my list of goals for 2014. I’m still working on writing some of them, but other goals are underway already. Again, if you’d like to share your 2013 or 2014 goals, I’d love to hear about them!

6 :: in Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, book reviews, good reads, motherhood, thoughts

thoughts on excess :: media

June 27, 2013 at 1:57 pm

Does this sound familiar to any of you?

About three times a year, I rant around the house, screaming at our stuff: “What is all this? How did this get here? Why do we have so much junk? How am I supposed to keep up with all of this? Where did this all come from?” And then I remember:

I bought it all.

I suppose acting like someone snuck into my house while I was feeding the homeless and filled my shelves with more black shirts and a fourth set of Legos against my will is probably ignoble. To hear me fuss, you’d think I was a victim of drive-by consumerism. Guess what, doves?

I’m a part of this little game.

I see it (on you, on them, in their house, at Target, on TV). I manufacture a need for it. Then I buy it. I use it a little or not. I store it/shelve it/stack it/stuff it/get tired of it, then wage war against it one day when all my little things are strewn about as escapees from their shelves and drawers.

It’s a quote from Jen Hatmaker’s new book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. It’s a thoughtful but easy-to-read book that will challenge you to simplify your life. Jen is a writer and speaker and her husband is a pastor in Austin, Texas. They have five children, two of them recently adopted.

She’s funny and self-deprecating, making it easy for me to enjoy the blog-like style of this book. After being challenged by a lower-income child who declared her family “RICH,” Jen decided to evaluate 7 areas of her life over 7 months in order to be a better steward of the earth. Jen addressed these 7 areas in her book:

Food
Clothes
Possessions
Media
Waste
Spending
Stress

My favorite chapters were about media, waste, and spending. I started to write thoughts on these three topics and then realized… this is a really long blog post! So I’m going to spread it over a few days and make it into a mini series about cutting down on excess. If you’ve done any of these things, or if you think I’m crazy, or if you have some good ideas… chime in!

First up… media.

Jen cut out all media for her family for a month, including TV, gaming, Facebook/Twitter, iPhone apps, and radio. Texting and internet had strict limitations that basically can be boiled down to “business only.” Her takeaway will sound a little clichéd to some of you. She found that her family now had time for new and better habits that began to seep into their home life including:

Cooking together
Walks after dinner
Porch time with our friends
Endless craft projects at the table
Dinner with neighbors
Actual phone calls
Four books read, fifth in queue

“But… but…” I spluttered, “this description is what Elliott and I want always our home to look like!” We want to prioritize face-to-face conversations, meals together, family activities, working with our hands, and inviting people to share their lives in our home.

Right? Don’t we all?

I want to be the kind of person who always keeps media in check so that I don’t need a drastic cleanse one day.

Yeah. I’m already past that point, I’m afraid. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about cutting back.

I recently read a fabulous post on A Practical Wedding about unplugging from the internet every weekend. It made me consider unplugging every now and then once I get back home to Sicily. Have you ever done it?

As I thought about it, I realized that it’s unrealistic for me to turn off the internet and iPhone apps in the evenings or on weekends. Those are the only times I can pull out my computer and work because I try to keep my computer closed when my children are awake.

However, my iPhone is always around to take a cute photo of Lena or Gil… and once a photo is taken, why not Instagram it or check email or browse Facebook updates? Once I’m looking at my phone, Lena wants to look at my phone, and then… whatever productive, healthy, fun thing we were doing is out the window. I heard on NPR the other day that the average iPhone user checks his or her phone 150 times a day. Terrifying as that sounds, I know I look at my iPhone at least two times more often than I should!

What if I decide not to check my email or iPhone apps every Monday through Friday morning? It could be from the time Elliott leaves for work until when Lena goes down for her nap around 1pm. I am considering it. I feel like it would help me be a more focused, present mother to my children. It might help Lena and I focus more deeply on play or projects or even just on having a conversation instead of lapsing into silence (iPhone silence for me, play-until-bored silence for her). It might also help me use my free minutes to check something off my to-do list instead of checking my email again.

What do you think? Have you ever unplugged? Would you consider limiting your media usage for the sake of your family?

9 :: in good reads

our 10 favorite board books

February 18, 2013 at 5:41 pm

In a world of smart phones and flat screens, it often seems impossible that a child will really learn to love books more than the latest Apple product. As frequent users of screens ourselves (and with two blogs to maintain between us), Elliott and I feel the pull between paper and iPad very keenly.

Here at home we combat it by reading books to Lena and reading our own books in front of her, and then when she is awake our phones are generally out of sight and our laptops are closed. Therefore, in Lena’s almost-two years of life, we have read a lot of books to her. We read several stories to her before both her naps and another several stories before bedtime; we keep books mixed in with all her toys; her great-grandmother gave her some bath books; and we keep books in our bag for her to read on the go (car seat, stroller, during church, etc.). Books books books… !

Today I polled Elliott and we came up with a list of our 10 favorite board books. These are the ones that Lena asked for over and over again, and these are also the books that we didn’t mind reading over and over ourselves. There are a few classics and a few obscure ones. Here’s our list:

Peek-A Who?— A gift from my friend Heather, this is a great first book for a baby. It’s small enough for little hands and only has about 10 pages. There’s a cute, rhyming story and lots of bright colors and animals. See Lena enjoying it at the end of this post.

Where’s Spot?— Lena has loved any lift-the-flap book since she was about 12 months old and could manipulate the flaps with her little fingers. Spot is a special favorite, but I also recommend Karen Katz’s booksand Dear Zoo.

Goodnight Moon— The lulling rhythm of this children’s classic puts Lena and her parents to sleep!

Rocky Mountain Babies!— Lena’s Aunt Eden bought this for her in Rocky Mountain National Park when we were vacationing there with Elliott’s family in July 2011 (right before I started this blog!). We’ve read this book to her hundreds of times by now and love the photos of baby animals from the American West.

The Big Red Barn— An unlikely classic, I thought, when I first read the book and looked at the pictures. It isn’t as instantly aesthetically appealing as many children’s books. Yet over time this book has become our family’s very favorite. Perhaps it’s because there is so much to see and discuss on each page. Perhaps it’s because of all the animal sounds we can make together. Perhaps it’s because the musical rhythm helps us all nod off by the end of the book. We love it.

Note: We received it as a boxed setwith Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, and I highly recommend this set as a gift.

Freight Train— Lena got this Caldecott Medal-winning board book as a party favor because the hostess knew we didn’t want Lena to have candy. Umm… best party favor ever, I think?! This conceptual classic, with its bright colors and simple story, quickly became Lena’s new favorite book.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?— We love anything by Eric Carlein this house, but Lena seems to prefer this one most of all. We love roaring like a lion and yelping like a peacock as we read the rollicking story aloud.

Hop on Pop— I find myself quoting this silly book all the time and somehow never tire of reading it. “Three fish in a tree? How can that be?” I also recommend another short board book by Dr. Seuss called Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?, and in fact Lena has loved any book we own in the Bright and Early Board Books series.

A Swim Through the Sea— This beautiful book was given to us by our friends in California, who first fell in love with it when they discovered it at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Written and gorgeously illustrated by a 16-year-old, it’s a little-known classic and an unusually beautiful ABC book.

Blue Hat, Green Hat — Lena literally laughs out loud when we read this book to her. Somehow Sandra Boynton nabs toddler humor with her upbeat rhymes and hilarious animal illustrations. You can’t go wrong with anything by Boynton, but this one is by far our favorite.

And now it’s your turn! Did you see any of your favorites on this list? And which books do remember most fondly from your childhood? We’re always looking for good suggestions for our home library!

9 :: in book reviews, family, good reads, Lena

top 5 books I read in 2012

January 4, 2013 at 3:23 pm

I spent awhile looking back through the 54 books I read in 2012 and tried to pick the 5 that impacted me the most. You know, those 5 books that, once I read one, I just wanted to grab everyone by the collar and say, “Read this book! It will change your life!” Here they are:

I read this short, poetic little volume soon after my sister died this summer. Even though it’s only 111 pages, it took me a long, long time to read. Nicholas Wolsterstorff wrote this book after his son died in a climbing accident at the age of 26 and it is a memoir of gut-wrenching beauty and sorrow. This is powerful quote that stays with me, for it rings true in the aftermath of my sister’s death, too:

“I walked into a store. The ordinariness of what I saw repelled me: people putting onions into baskets, squeezing melons, hoisting gallons of milk, clerks ringing up sales. “How are you today?” “Have a good day now.” How could everybody be going about their ordinary business when these were no longer ordinary times? I went to my office and along the way saw the secretaries all at their desks and the students all in their seats and the teachers all at the podiums. Do you not know that he slipped and fell and that we sealed him in a box and covered it with dirt and that he can’t get out?”

A tiny little company published this book earlier this year and so no surprise if you hadn’t heard of it yet. It is the firsthand account of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, who begins her story in the days when she was a professor at Syracuse University with a full personal life as a lesbian activist. Everything changed when she published an editorial in her local paper and a pastor in her town responded. His letter was so thoughtful and so open that she couldn’t put it away, and eventually she called and accepted his invitation to have dinner in his home with his family. What grew from that was a totally unlikely friendship that, eventually, also led to a friendship with Jesus Christ. Dr. Butterfield’s journey after that is nothing short of extraordinary. Her entire life is transformed. By the end of the book she is writing as a pastor’s wife and a busy homeschooling mother of several adopted and foster children.

It’s a challenging story for anyone to read, for she is a woman of extremes no matter where you stand on many social and theological issues. I highly recommend it.

My brother Eric recommended this book to me to help me understand the 2008 fiscal crisis on Wall Street. Although it wasn’t my favorite book I read all year, it was enormously helpful in explaining the crisis in layman’s terms. The author Michael Short has written fast-paced nonfiction accounts of real events in the past–notably Liar’s Poker and Moneyball–and so he’s just the right person to lead you through the drama of Wall Street with all the intrigue and personal stories to keep you engaged. I felt like a much better-informed citizen after reading this book.

Oh what a delight! This short, sweet collection of letters can be read in an hour or two. Helen Hanff addresses her first letter in 1949 to a bookshop in London to ask for two hard-to-fine volumes. Twenty days later she receives a reply from someone at the bookshop known only as FPD, who lets her know her books are on their way. Over the next 20 years Helene and FPD (who eventually becomes Frank Doel) develop a warm and robust correspondence that grows to include letters to many members of the bookshop on Charing Cross Road as well as Christmas packages with hams and fresh eggs.

The book moved me to tears. At the end of the book Helene tells a friend visiting London, “If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much.” After reading this book, I should like to give it a kiss myself! I felt my love of literature, letter writing, and lyrical prose refreshed after reading this book.

And now my favorite book I read all year: Jon Krakauer’s gripping account of the 1996 Mt. Everest climbing disaster. I share the world’s healthy respect and awe of the mountain but, like most, I had no idea what requirements are in place to climb the mountain (the answer = money more than skill, believe it or not) or how the climb is paced and organized. I also had no idea that May of each year is a very busy time on Mt. Everest or that the people climbing in May 1996 were especially fascinating, heart-warming, and sometimes profoundly aggravating characters.

As I finished the book I literally could not move from my chair. I was sitting outside in the spring and shaking from the cold (or was it because of the book?); Elliott went and got me a blanket because I couldn’t bear to stop reading for one moment. I loved it so much that it was my November/December choice for my book club, Read the Change. And now I’ve said enough… go read it!

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