I tend to read non-fiction. I will read fiction – but it’s usually a children’s book. When my girlfriends press me, I read grown-up fiction and even like it, but those are few and far between since having Claire and now homeschooling. This page is to help me track books I’m reading. Please post any recommendations!
Personal
I got a Kindle for Christmas 2010. This could make my time management skills worse. Currently loaded is Ken Follett’s “World Without End“ – loved “Pillars of the Earth” but then again, I feel like I’m living in the middle of it sometimes – to include the smell of the animals!
Setting Limits with Your Strong Willed Child…. by Robert MacKenzie – do you need a reason?
Homeschool
Back to Well-Trained Mind. Can anyone recommend something motivational? And by motivational, I mean, with homeschooling?
Read-Aloud Book
Almost too many and too fast to keep up with here. There are the school-related books. There are the trip-related books. There is the kid’s book club book…
Trip: Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the ‘Iliad’ – surprisingly well-liked by my Greek-myth crazy 8yr old; started reading it on our Mediterranean cruise.
Book Club: So the kid’s neighborhood book club has met quarterly. Mostly we read a book then watch the movie adaptation and discuss. It’s a huge hit, but everyone is so busy and it takes a while to read some of these bigger, harder books. So we have one meeting left before people start to move…so we’re reading James Herriot’s “All Creatures Great and Small”. One of my personal all time favorites. Then we’re going to see the vet clinic in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
WANT TO READ:
The Guardian - yes, I just want to be able to regularly read the paper with a cup of coffee. It’s not going to happen for a while. And when I finally can, I’m going to be a little sad at how quiet it is and no one wants pop tarts for breakfast.
John Holt’s homeschool books;
Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and Our World Through Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn - way too long, had to table it for now….Heard him speak on the Oprah XM channel and was intrigued. I’ve been interested in the whole Buddhist mindfulness thing for a while now, so will give this a try. I have textbooks smaller than this so it may be a challenge.
1776 by David McCullough and Victory at Yorktown by Richard Ketchum - ok, I live close enough to a lot of the action….
Getting Things Done by David Allen – recommended on another blog I read. Had too much to get done to read it yet!
anything by Harold Kushner – I’m a fan
Books Still by the Bedside
A Year with God: Living out the Spiritual Disciplines by Richard Foster – a little to intense for cover to cover consumption
A Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
A Silent Sorrow: Pregnancy Loss – Guidance and Support for You and Your Family by Ingrid Kohn and Perry-Lynn Moffitt – have ordered my 3rd copy; keep giving it away and not getting it back. I’m not sure if that is good or bad.
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner - haven’t read a book with a pencil in hand for a long time. Wonderful, thought-provoking, comforting all at the same time. Highly, highly recommended!
Back to Library & Fine paid!
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - better than I thought it would be. Who hasn’t thought about running away for a bit?
The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease - I skimmed this a couple of years ago in the library and thought it was cool. Reading it now to put into practice – spending time doing read-alouds that aren’t quick bedtime stories is not my strong suit. Hope this will help me pick better books we both will like.
Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School by Rebecca Rupp - See “A Well-Trained Mind” comments! Just trying to plan for next year and see what big things I missed this year.
Core Knowledge K-8 Sequence from the Core Knowledge Foundation - The spine of the “What your -nth Grader Needs to Know”. Happy to see that, so far, I havent missed much for K.
The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit as told by Julius Lester – it was a bigger hit than I thought it might be. It took about 2 stories before she was hooked. Didnt hurt that Mom already speaks the dialect pretty well! 
The Classic Treasury of Aesop’s Fables by Don Daily - Beautiful pictures; fun to listen to Claire try to figure out the “morals”.
About What Was Lost: Twenty Writers on Miscarriage, Healing and Hope by Jessica Berger Gross - Why is it again no one really talks about this?
5,000 Miles to Freedom: Ellen and William Craft’s Flight from Slavery by Dennis Fradin and Judith Fradin – Review: Very interesting history not found in regular books
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children - I loved his books as an independent reading kid. This one is perfect for reading to my animal-freak kid. She even asks for it and doesnt want me to stop. I’m thinking his adult books will be on the list soon. Review: Wonderful! Huge hit at our house!
Various Arthur Chapter Books by Marc Brown - for summer reading program
Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams by J.H. Sweet - we hosted this book club event (#2) and had a real fairy lunch complete with lemon jellybeans and made dream catchers.
Polar Bears Past Bedtime by Mary Pope Osbourne - part of the Magic Tree House series. Scienc-y so thought it might appeal to Claire. She liked it ok, but not as much as the Fairy Chronicles.
Overcoming Life’s Disappointments by Harold Kushner - follow-up reading for “Bad Things”. Alittle harder to get through. Lots of good points, but not as much about overcoming life’s disappointments as using those disappointments to be a better person.
Thistle and the Shell of Laughter by J.H Sweet – Month 3 for “little girl” book club. Claire loves this series! She was so excited to see how many are left to read when we checked out the series selections at Barnes and Noble.
Ok…you need to bring “A Well Trained Mind” with you to Dallas…saw it here, went to amazon to look, found it…mesmerized by excerpt and will get ASAP.
T
I love WTM, don’t let it overwhelm you. I now look at it as an ideal of things that I would like to with my kids not something that I have to do. I think it is a more exciting way to look at history.
I love the page by the way. Great idea!