Books We Love

Just realized that I had not updated the Books We Love page in awhile, so I just finished adding several titles. There are still a lot of books that I want to add, but at least it is more up-to-date than it was. I don’t list all the books we read, but I do list the ones that we all enjoy and that I would highly recommend.

Our current audio book that we are listening to in the car is The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan - the 5th and final book in the Percy Jackson (Lightning Thief) series. I love the “voice” of the book…the humor is just perfect and has the boys cracking up (especially at the chapter titles). It has definitely drawn all of us in and so far has been a very satisfying ending to a great series.

Before that, we listened to The Protector of the Small quartet by Tamora Pierce and I absolutely fell in love. Her writing, her characters and her story have all just swept me away. So much so that I did something that I try not to do…I have read “ahead” of the boys (when reading “new to us” books, I try not to read too much ahead, but this time I just could not help myself). It was taking too long to listen on trips in the car, so I got the books out of the library and have been reading them in the evening. I have since moved on and finished Pierce’s Immortals series and The Song of the Lioness series and am just about done with the Trickster series. Luckily Pierce has written a lot, so I should be kept busy for a little while longer.

I have also started Un Lun Don by China Mieville (I read this last summer and enjoyed it) as our mostly-daily read aloud. It is slightly off the wall with a really wacky story line which seem to be very much up the boys alley.

Jason is re-listening to the Inheritance trilogy and really wants me to read Brisingr. We read the first two books (Eragon and Eldest) together, but I found that the second one seemed to slog a bit (as a read aloud at least) so I encouraged my Mom to buy the audio book of the 3rd for him. I probably will read it over this summer, because Jason seems to really want to talk about it (once I finish scratching my Tamora Pierce itch!) He especially likes that we get to see part of the book from Saphira’s (the dragon’s) point of view.

Jason and I are currently reading Sabriel by Garth Nix (which is moving a bit slow for me) in addition to The History of US by Joy Hakim which Jason has been asking me to read before he goes to bed (we are jumping around a bit…started out with the Civil War and are now doing the 20th century and segregation). Jason has a definite interest in history, something that I really enjoy sharing with him. He has also been showing a recent interest in current events, so if you have any good resources, please let me know!

Kyle and I are reading some of the Tales of the House of Bunnicula books by James Howe. These are a spin-off from the Bunnicula books that we just loved. We get to see the writing process through the eyes of Howie, the sweet, lovable, wire-haired dachshund puppy as he tries to emulate the writing success of his Uncle Harold. The results are hilarious as can be seen by titles such as Howie Monroe and the Doghouse of Doom. And we are learning about things such as the use of alliteration and the over-use of adjectives.

Kyle has become enamored with the Fly Guy books by Tedd Arnold and has been reading them on his own. Kyle is at the stage where he actually can read a decent amount, but does not think that he can read. So these books have been great for his confidence. I find it interesting that when Jason first started reading, he had no interest whatsoever with “early readers,” yet Kyle seems to get a kick out of them and finds them funny.

In addition to the Tamora Pierce novels, I am also working my way through a Mark Twain biography and a book on Queen Elizabeth I (of which I know practically nothing). And when I get a chance I need to finish The Element by Ken Robinson on how people find their passions…a topic I have been wanting to put more thought into lately.

So that is where we stand right now, as far as books go. Sorry I did not have time to find the Amazon links for all the books, but I do have many of the books linked on my Books We Love page. Now I just need to find more time to write my mini-reviews! Enjoy!