Larry recently finished reading
Inside The Third Reich, Memoirs written by Albert Speer, a tome of 675 pages. According to the book jacket, the author was a talented young architect when his excellent work was noticed by Hitler who put him in charge of designing state offices, stadiums and palaces. He then became the Minister of Armaments and War Production. He did not personally participate in the horrors of the War, but said that his work made those things possible. He was a close friend of Hitler but planned to assassinate him if necessary. In the Nuremberg Trial, Speer was sentenced to twenty years in prison during which time he wrote the first draft of this book. When asked at the Trial, "How all the crimes of the Nazi Regime were possible?", he replied that for the first time in history, unlimited personal power was combined with the new devices provided by modern technology.
Interesting.
Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott which I checked out of the Library was very pleasant and is suitable for the same age young lady who would enjoy her,
Little Women. Rose comes to live with her Aunts who all live in nearby houses and she holds court with her seven rambunctious boy cousins. Many old fashioned expressions are used throughout the novel as it was published in the late 1800's!
I also read
Redeemed by Heather King. The author tells her story of severe alcoholism and the degradation that ensued. She then was able to turn away from the bottle within a group that she doesn't name and chooses to convert to Catholicism. This was a very humorous book as she really lays it all out there. I am always interested in conversion stories so this was interesting.
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict written by Laurie Viera Rigler had such a compelling title and cover that I bought it for 2 dollars in the library's used book room. In it, a modern day woman named Courtney finds herself in Regency England living as another person, Jane Mansfield. In what seems like an amnesiac state and also a Time Warp, the young lady has to reconcile who she really is because she can no longer differentiate. The whole thing is very silly. There are many references to Jane Austen's six novels some of which I recognized.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, is not written about America during the Civil War but is instead about the differences in outlook in the North and South of England. A Southern lady of modest means with a genteel way of living with her family move to the Industrial city of Milton with its smoking black chimneys. She meets men who aren't independently wealthy and thus concerned with leisure, but men of business who give work to the laboring classes. She becomes much more independent as a woman, mostly because her parents come off as useless and unwilling to adjust to a new way of living. She learns a lot about poor folks as real people instead of "the masses" and persuades her acquaintance, a Mill owner to do the same. It takes a long time for the two main characters to realize that they are in love with each other!
This book was so good that I didn't get off the couch to make dinner a few evenings. Imagine how exciting it was when I finished it to find out that Netflix has this story as a four episode mini-series! The whole family watched it over two nights and we really enjoyed it.
John's most recent read is Orson Scott Card's
Pathfinder. This author also wrote
Ender's Game which is playing in movie theaters now. He is enjoying this 662 page book and will finish it in less than a week. This book will be used to complete his English assignment for the month of November. He does feel a little bit bad about his choice of books because for the December assignment, the students don't pick their own books, they have to switch with someone else! Hopefully he can find a kid who likes Science Fiction and also likes to read. This book would be overwhelming for a student who was not in that category!
For our Read-Aloud, I read to Juby
Willow Wind Farm , Betsy's Story written by Anne Pellowski. This is the fourth book in a series which has featured one extended family over generations. This book took place in the sixties and I could relate to many things as that is the time period in which I was a child. Reading one chapter per day, we enjoyed it together.
Our next two Read- Alouds were
The Good Master and its sequel,
The Singing Tree written by Kate Seredy. These stories take place on a Hungarian farm on which the father is a kind and generous rancher and the mother is a warm and welcoming homemaker. They have one son but they offer a home to their niece and in the second book, to six Russian prisoners of war who run the farm for them and six little German children taken away from the war zone to safety. These are beautiful stories of family life and are loaded with poignant scenes which are very moving. I have read both books before with older children so it was delightful to share them with Juby who loved them as well.
Natalie brought this book home,
September 11, an Oral History authored by Dean E. Murphy. Although she hasn't gotten around to reading it, her younger sister did. These are personal stories and contributed to her knowledge of this tragic event which I find young people to be especially interested in.
Juby continues to reread these Beverly Cleary books that she received in a boxed set for Christmas. She reads before bedtime but also in the car while we do errands around town. John also does this. I know of one young mother who has all of her children read a book every time they go out in the car. I would suggest that young mothers encourage this habit. While the kids are reading, they are less likely to engage in the bickering that sometimes happens when we are riding which is very distracting to me when I am driving!
