Our current Read-Aloud is
Miracles on Maple Hill which is a sweet story about a family whose father has returned from being a prisoner of war and finds healing in the great outdoors of a Pennsylvania maple grove. Virginia Sorensen captures the depressed feelings and irritability that Daddy suffers and how the whole family gets better when they begin to spend their weekends at the empty farmhouse where Mom's grandma lived. They help to bring in the maple sap daily from 1400 buckets in their neighbor's sugarbush and learn how to process it. Other seasonal activities and the warm country people that befriend them add so much to their life that they decide to leave the city and make their home there.
For myself, I recently read
An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott.This was a very wholesome story about a young lady who comes to visit her wealthy city cousin and finds such differences in the way that they think and act. Polly eventually comes to the city to live and supports herself by giving music lessons to children. Her day consists of walking to her appointments and preparing her plain meals. She finds joy in the simple things. She becomes a great asset to her cousins when their father's business fails and they are forced to scale way back.
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende is something that I've had on the shelf for years but have never read. It is an Oprah's Book Club Selection. This story is about an English girl growing up in Chile during the 1800's. Eventually, disguised as a young man, she follows her first love to San Francisco at the peak of the Gold Rush. This book was very exciting and describes well the state of affairs at that time when the world was hit with gold fever. Speculation, hardships and the unfortunate reality of vice were a part of the story.
Son of Charlemagne is a young adult's book that John had to read for a book report so I read it, too. It was written by Barbara Willard who has authored a lot of living history books that I have enjoyed. It focuses on the story of the famous king Charlemagne (Charles the Great) who spread Christianity (sometimes at sword-point) throughout the Roman Empire which now includes modern day Europe. It described the sacrifices he made personally to further Christianity like sending his two youngest sons to be little kings in far off territories. It definitely shows some of the bad decisions he made along the way, also. Like the previous two I just mentioned!
Now I am on a Jane Austin kick, revisiting some great books. I just finished rereading
Northanger Abbey, and have started
Persuasion (thanks, Aunt Catherine). I hope to purchase a brand new book called
Second Impressions written by a Middleburg woman who has written what she describes as a sequel to
Pride and Prejudice. I am looking forward to it.
While recovering from his surgery, Larry read these two books which he really enjoyed. He
found that
Civil War Soldiers by Reid Mitchell, blasted some myths that he had heard about the
Northern soldiers and their reasons for fighting the war.
The Battle of the Crater is another history book co-written by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. I was thrilled to find this at Christmastime for Larry because I have heard him talk about this incident many times. It is a wild true story about some Union soldiers from Pennsylvania who used their mining experience to construct a very long underground tunnel under the Confederate encampment and filled it with four tons of blackpowder. They set off the fuse (dangerous for the poor guys who had to do it) and it exploded, blasting out a HUGE crater that can still be seen today near Richmond, Virginia.
Both Jon and John have read the
Hunger Games trilogy which includes
Catching Fire and
Mockingjay written by Suzanne Collins. Once having started these books, neither of these guys could put them down! Jeff and Chelsea have read most if not all three of these on their Kindles, as has my nephew, Lucas. The family is anxiously awaiting the release of the movie, "The Hunger Games" in March. The official trailer for it looks great.
Juby is following in her sisters' footsteps by reading
The Little House on the Prairie series. These are great books for kids and not just girls. One of the main characters is Alonzo, and there is so much detail about the way that they live which includes hunting and preparing game, that our boys have listened to some of them read aloud. This boxed set was a Christmas gift to Meg in the second grade.
Little Miss Precious really seemed to be listening as John read to her one of Curious George's many wonderful adventures. Reading good books is one of life's pleasures that I enjoy tremendously and which I am always happy to see in my family members as well. As you can see, we've been going through a lot of Klondike Bars, one for each book read!
