When You Reach Me - A fun story with a little bit of time travel and lots of Wrinkle in Time connections. It was fun to think through how all the details work together and try to make sense of it.
Long Walk To Water - The most amazing thing to me about this book was that it was a current book. Reading it I felt like I was reading a story of 'a long time ago' but it was all based on real and very recent accounts. (A great book, but not particularly kid-friendly, by the way)
To My Friends - I've read this a little at a time over the last few months and I've loved it. I really love Elder Holland and had read most of the talks included, but enjoyed reading them all again.
Small Steps - I remembered how much I liked Holes and thought I'd love a sequel but this one was not so great. (A teenage boy/teenage rock star romance/drama...)
When Breath Becomes Air - What I loved most in this memoir was the thought of living for each day -- but not in a sort of cheesy 'seize the day' kind of way, but rather a thoughtful figuring out of what really is most important for me to be focusing on today way. Here's a great shorter article also by Paul.
Doldrums - Such a fun little adventure story. I'm excited to see what comes next for little Archer Helmsley.
Unusual Chickens for the Extraordinary Poultry Farmer - A silly story about chickens.
How Children Succeed - I liked this a lot. I liked all the research and stories. I loved the recognition of how important parents and families are, but also what a difference another nurturing person can make particularly in not-so-ideal family circumstances. And I just loved the focus on why it matters that we know how children succeed & the examples of putting into practice what researchers are learning.
The Glass Sentence - I often don't love fantasy becomes I tend to get kind of annoyed at the author's made up world. But I didn't too much with this book :) It was a fun and interesting story and had some clever ideas about how time and place and thoughts and memories and history could all blend together.
Below Stairs - A book group pick. I liked the early stories of her childhood in England, growing up in the early 1900s, and it was an interesting view into what a servant's life was like. But not a favorite or one I'd recommend.
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Another book group choice. I read the first half carefully because I was hosting and was trying to take notes for discussion. But then I forgot all about it till the day before and skimmed the rest. :) Nothing too brilliant, but I have remembered often from it the importance of 1- not criticizing or blaming (especially my children) and 2 - making others (especially my children) feel important and loved.
