Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
I love this author. She has such diversity and depth. I love how she takes a story I have known all my life and makes it fresh and fun. Happy birthday to her on Sept. 17th.

The heroine of Fairest is Aza. An abandoned child that was raised by a very kind innkeeper and his wife. What I love most about Aza is that she is not the perfect heroine. She is not beautiful and is bigger than what is considered acceptably beautiful. She does have a fabulous voice. It is very loosely based on the story of Snow White. I love it

This book is one of many books by Levine that I have read. Most are based on fairy tales but my favorite is a historical fiction called Dave at Night. This is different than her usual genre but she did it so well. I read an interview with her where she said it was the book for which she had to do the most research. It is great. I also love her picture books. Here is others that I like.

Betsy Who Cried Wolf

Ella Enchanted

The Wish

Two Princesses of Bamarre

Breaking Dawn

I finished it on Sunday. I can't for sure decide it I love this book or not. Since it has been out less than a week I am not going to discuss it in depth yet. As soon as Emily does my hair I will really go into this book. I am still trying to decide how I feel about it. I finished it and then I am reading it again slowly. I first just had to finish. Now I am seeing what I missed the first time around. I did find this really cool background for my blog though.

I pre ordered from Amazon and was so disappointed in them this time. Every other time I've ordered from them I have gotten the books on the release date. I think they did not plan for the "Breaking Dawn phenomenon"

So Saturday morning I called the post office and asked if I had a package. Nola said she would have to look around a bit. I had called her are 7:35 and she only got there. She called back before 8:00 and told me no so Richard and I went to Cedar City. I went into Wal-Mart and bought the book. Then I sat in the car and read it while Richard finished all the other shopping. Richard truly know how to show true love.

I still have not received my book from Amazon. It has been shipped so it is coming. I think I will just keep two. One to loan out and one to have. I had to loan my book to Cami already because she asked. I didn't think re reading was a good enough reason to keep it.

Stay tuned for what I really thought of the book and why in one week.

Summer of Series

I love series. It is like getting acquainted again with old friends. Some of my favorite series had new additions this summer. I've read all of these books except Queste. I am not finished with it.
The first one was Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan. It is the latest of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I really like these books because I have always loved Greek mythology. These books have funny side comments that you get if you know about Greek mythology. In fact the more mythology you know, the more you understand the books.

This next book is a part of The Keys to the Kingdom series. It ha a book for every day of the week. The other books are Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drown Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday and then this one. It is and interesting fantasy where all of our universe is affected by "the house" and Arthur must get "the house' in order to save the world. It is a fun book and I have been anxiously awaiting each book since Mr. Monday came out in 2003.

Now we have my favorite fairy tales. The sisters Grimm is a series about these two sisters that find out they are direct decedents of the brothers Grimm and they did not write or collect fairy tales. They recorded a history. They were fairy tale detectives. When the magical and creature and the real world started to be incompatible with each other the brothers Grimm brought them all to America and magically sealed them in a small town in upstate New York. As long as a Grimm still lives in the town the magical barrier will hold. Many of these creatures want there to be no more Grimms. This is the sixth book in the series.

By far my favorite fiction book of the summer. I like The Last Lecture better but it was nonfiction. This is the second book about Nicholas Flamel and his wife that are the only ones with the secret of immortality. It also has many references to mythology, not just Greek mythology either. This is a great book but you have to read the first one first.
Then there is Queste. I bought it when it first came out and I still have not read it. I got started but it doesn't hold my interest. I know I will like it because I liked all the others. I just need the right time and place to read it. Maybe when all my other books are done.

Well, there it is. My summer reading so far. I as so anxiously awaiting Breaking Dawn. That is the next book I will read. I recommend all of these books. They were great.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

In Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in the Fall of 2007, facing pancreatic cancer and the likelihood that he would only live a month or two, Randy summed up his life’s wisdom for his kids (then 1,2, and 5). He gave his lecture to several hundred in a CMU auditorium, but it has now been viewed on YouTube by millions of Americans.

The lecture was made into a book with some things added to it. It is such a great book with such good advice. Here are some of my favorite quotes.

"When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him"

"Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people."

"Tell The Truth. All The Time." (I had to put this in for Julie. This is also her mantra.)

"Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted…."

"Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out."

"When you are doing something badly and no one’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones still telling you they love you and care."

This is a fabulous book. Kailey let me borrow this book when we were camping. She said one of her teachers gave it to her when she graduated. That is a great idea. I think I will do that in the future. Thank you Kailey.

The Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras

I got caught up in a series that I really liked. It helped that all four books are already out and I did not have to wait years in between. The setting is far in the future. Our civilization had destroyed itself and a new one had taken its place. In this world everyone gets a massive operation when they are 16 that makes them beautiful. Tally Youngblood had waited her whole life to be "pretty." The society is divided into Littlies, Uglies, New Pretties, Middle Pretties, Old Pretties and finally Crumblies.
This is a fun series and I wonder what I would do. I hope I could be as tough as Tally.

Host by Stephenie Meyer

Ok. So I read the book in just two days. I got it Friday night at Costco because I forgot to pre-order it and I finished it on Sunday. It helped that I read it on Mother's Day so no one got mad at me for reading all day. (I really love that holiday.) I did not pre order this book because I was not sure I even wanted to read it. When I talked to Julie, however, she highly recommended it so I just had to get it.

Stephenie did it again. This is thumbs way up for me. I was a little freaked out at the beginning but soon I cared so much about all the character that I was really worried about how they were going to end this and have a happy ending. I even cried over that brain stealing alien.

I have to reassure DiAnn that it is not an evil book. It is really very good. It is a wholesome, uplifting, morally good, story in a body snatching, brain stealing alien sort of way.

I really liked it.

The Misadventures of Maude March by Audrey Couloumbis

I loved this book. My husband loves historical fiction so I bought this book for him. This book is set in 1869 in Iowa and Missouri. It is almost on the edge of the frontier. The heroines are a couple of orphaned young girls 11 and 15 years old. I just loved their spunky attitude and they never feel sorry for themselves. Everything in the world conspires against them yet they never give up. They just keep going. Loved this book.

Read Alouds

Right now I am reading two books aloud to my family. I am reading mostly to Isaac and Rebekah but everyone likes to listen.

The Fellowship of the Ring- I am reading it to Isaac. My older boys have read this book themselves and they all love it. I only read when Isaac has his homework done so it is slow going. I hope to finish this month. I am over half way. Every time I read these books I fall in love with Tolkien's talent for language. It is also different reading it aloud. The language is so beautiful it begs to be read aloud. I am loving this book-again.

To Rebekah I am reading Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan. I really like this book too. It hones in on every little girls love of horses and then take a turn for extreme adventure. She also write so well it is fun to read it aloud. This is again one of my favorite author's. She wrote Esperanza Rising. I think everyone should read that book. I have never looked at immigrants the same after that book.

Mormon Scientist

I just finished this book. I loved it. It was one of those book that I had to read slowly so I understood everything. I did not want to miss a thing. I had to look up the theory he came up with. I can not imagine how difficult it was to study chemistry and physics with out knowing all the things we take for granted now. That ART theory is the key to everything. Imagine doing all of that with sliderules. What could he have done with a computer. He was amazing. He was also so caring.

One of my favorite stories was about his son Hal,(Henry B. Eyring). To live at home for college, the price of room and board was a physics major. Since he lived with one of the greatest mathematicians of all times, he often asked his dad for help. When Henry realized he was helping with the same kind of problems over and over he asked him, " When you walk down the street, when you're in the shower, when you don't have to be thinking about anything else, isn't this what you think about?" That just made me laugh. Who thinks about physics that much. That reminded me so much of my dad. He thought about chemistry that way. But then I thought about what I do think about like that. I came to the realization that I think about my family like that. My children-Kaber especially right now-my husband. What they are doing? Where are they? Are they happy? Are they safe? I decided that is ok. It made me think I have my priorities in the right place. This is the guilt of a working mom talking. I don't think about school like that, so I know my real priority is my family.

Enough of that. I really loved this book. I recommend it to everyone that has the least interest in science.

I can't get my picture to post but I will do it later.

Replay by Sharon Creech

Sharon Creech is one of my favorite authors. She writes realistic fiction and her protagonists are usually young adults. This book is really funny and touching. The main character is a 12 year old boy. He is lost in his boisterous Italian family. His name is Leo but everyone calls him "fog boy" or "Sardine" because he one time said he feels like a sardine smashed between his siblings. I could really relate to the big family aspect of the story. One of my biggest fears is that my kids ever feel as lost and overlooked as this boy did. I love the ending that shows just how much his family and extended family love him.

Other books by Sharon Creech I love:
Walk Two Moons-one of my favorite books of all times
Bloomability-very cheerful, what every teenage girl wants her life to be like.
Wanderer-I love the discovery in this book.
Ruby Holler-Great look at the good part of human nature

By Way of Introduction

I love books. I feel that there are so many good books out there and I want to read them all. I do not have lots of time to read. (I teach full time and have eight children the youngest one is only three.) But, I can't imagine not reading at all. I teach third grade. It is the time that kids move from struggling to read to actually enjoying reading. One of my greatest joys is matching students with books that they love, especially for reluctant readers. I know there are books out there for every kid.

That leads me to my taste in books. I do not like most adult literature. I don't need to read about sexual situations or crude language or swearing. I like most children's literature and young adult literature. I like all genre but fantasy is my favorite. Some of my favorite books are the Lord of the Ring trilogy and the Harry Potter series. I really do love them. Lately I have fallen under the spell of vampires. I don't usually read something everyone else really likes. That is the rebel in me. However, when DiAnn and Emily recommended Twilight. I had to read it and I was hooked. I thought they were great.

Why the blog? I really like reading Julie's blog about books. I wont read as much as she does but I love to talk about what I read. I wont be posting pictures of my kids so it does not have to be private. Anyone can read about the books I read.