the bookshelf
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fall bookshelf.
Hello fellow readers! Here in South Carolina the air has turned crisp in the mornings but still deliciously warm and sunny in the afternoons. A few of our old-house windows aren’t painted shut and they’re thrown open to the breeze. It’s the perfect weather to drag a chair outside with a cup of something hot to drink and read. Hopefully this list provides you with some inspiration for your fall and winter bookshelf. A note: With the exception of extreme cases, I’m going to stop giving disclaimers for books with objectionable content (language, sex) because unfortunately it seems that almost everything I read has some level of objectionable content. Anne…
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summer 2016 and the bookshelf.
Hello, dear readers! It’s June, the time of year when life slows down and routines become gentler and there’s more free time — right? Why do I feel like this isn’t always the case? I’ve been shocked at how quickly our summer has threatened to become as full of activities as the school year. There are so many fun things to do! Invitations and play dates and cook-outs. Even before we returned from vacation in Florida last week, I started to feel overwhelmed and sad. What about long, lazy days, staying in pj’s most of the morning, slurping homemade Popsicles out in the pavilion, baking cookies together? What about riding…
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our newfound love of audiobooks.
I fully credit the Read Aloud Revival podcast with our new audiobook obsession, or perhaps I should say my kids’ new obsession. I’m such a visual learner that I’ve never much enjoyed listening to audiobooks, which is unfortunate when it comes to long road trips. I find that if I can’t see the words on the page, my mind wanders. But as you’ll see, I’m now training myself to listen to audiobooks and enjoy them. The kids and I tried a couple of audiobooks together about a year ago, but they weren’t fans, and since I truly love to read aloud, we abandoned the idea. Enter into our family two…
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the harry potter era.
I was a sophomore in high school when this book first came out, in 1997. My mom read it soon after with my brother Danny, who was 11 — Harry Potter’s age in this first book. Yes, Danny was in that magical group of kids who literally grew up alongside Harry Potter. My mom told me to read it, and eventually I tried the book, but was unimpressed (I was kind of a literary snob back then). I didn’t pick the Harry Potter series up again until years later, when I was out of college and married. I wish I could remember what made me want to give the books…
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what i’m reading: march 2015.
This has been a wonderful year for reading so far! The discovery of many gems that I never even knew existed both thrills and terrifies me — how many more such books exist in the world? And how will I ever find them!? I recently decided to start documenting my reading progress on Goodreads. I made an account a long time ago and then let it slide. When I logged back in I realized that I probably didn’t keep up with it because I made myself write reviews of all the books I read. Now I just give them a star rating, assign them to a bookshelf, and call it…
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what we’re reading.
Thank you so much, friends, for your kind words after Sunday’s post. I still have moments of panic when I remember that I published something so personal on the Internet, but I don’t regret sharing this part of my story with you. On a lighter note, thanks also to those who email and text and tell me that they’re working their way through my Bookshelf recommendations! I love it! And as always, I love hearing your recommendations! Now, on to the fun stuff. What are we reading in the Gentino house these days? Julie: Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens. After my one classic in 2015, I determined to start this…
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winter 2016 bookshelf.
Happy weekend, friends! We enjoyed the lightest dusting of snow here in Columbia today, and envy our Pennsylvania family who are out sledding as I write this. Sorry this bookshelf post has been awhile in coming. I’m currently enjoying rereading Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns, for book club next week. Although I haven’t been reading a whole lot because I’m busy making our family’s 2015 Shutterfly yearbook. This may just be my favorite one yet, and I bet you can guess why! Judah has blazed through all of the Magic Treehouse and Encyclopedia Brown books. The Chronicles of Narnia is still a bit challenging for him to read…
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2015 book list wrap-up.
Hello fellow readers! It’s my afternoon out, and after a couple of errands, I’m sitting in a new Columbia coffee shop, The Wired Goat, sipping a lavendar vanilla latte and nibbling on a gluten-free cranberry cookie. Life is good. And I’m ready for the first Bookshelf post of the year. Actually I’ll confess that I’m exactly the sort of nerd who has been looking forward to writing this post all week. But before giving a list of recommendations for your cozy winter reading, I’ve been doing a little consulting of my 2015 Reading List. This was the first year ever that I kept a running list of all the books…
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adoption bookshelf.
When we turned in our adoption application with Bethany Christian Services last year, we were giving a reading list. Back then if I could’ve moved our process forward with sheer will power and frenetic busyness, I would have, as if by turning in a sheath of signed forms ahead of schedule or speed-reading books on adoptive parenting I could bring a child home faster. These books were helpful in the way that books on marriage are helpful before you actually get married — as abstract bits of advice that you have to strain to make fit your real world. Because the truth is, in your real world you haven’t adopted…
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fall 2015 bookshelf.
Friends!!! I owe you a bookshelf post big time! I’ve been mulling it over, trying to decide which books to include. I’m doing a good bit of adoption reading these days, but maybe I’ll put those titles in a separate post. David has been after me for years to keep a reading log, and in 2015 I finally organized myself enough to do it. All my January entries are complete with a nice little synopsis of each book and a note about how I discovered it, but from February on I’ve been lucky just to remember to jot down the title of what I read. I’ve read 45 books so…