In no particular order...
Turning Things Around: A Kit Classic Vol 2- Cadence has Kit so we read the second of her books. I love the AG books, they're such great historical fiction.
Misty of Chincoteague- certain of the girls has a sporadic obsession with horses, and Misty is a classic. I had not read it since grade school, probably, so I could not remember much of the plot. It's always fun when an old book is new again. :)
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Farmer Boy
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
The Long Winter
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years
The First Four Years
Yep, we read Laura Ingalls again! The younger girls couldn't remember reading them so it was time. Such a great series. My favorite part is when Almonzo Wilder shows up in Desmet and at least one of the girls gasps every time. Also, I'm getting old and emotional and I sobbed through the chapter when Jack dies, and the chapter when she's getting ready to get married. :P The girls: are you crying?? Ha.
The Foundling: And Other Tales of Prydain- This is a companion to a book series I read in Middle School. I keep meaning to find and read the series again and see if I like it as well as I remember. Maybe this year. :) I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this book if I had not already read the series, because it doesn't stand alone very well.
Chicken Every Sunday: My Life with Mother's Boarders- This book was great. It came from my Mom's vast collection of old books. The author was raised in Arizona in the early 1900's. Her Dad was an entrepreneur of sorts and her Mom made ends meet by taking in boarders. Lots of good clean fun from the kids and humorous descriptions of the people who boarded with them. It's in a similar vein as 'Cheaper by the Dozen,' so if you liked that you'll probably like this.
With Malice Toward Some- Also from my Mom. This is the journal of an American columnist who spent a year in England with her Professor husband. She's very witty and very unimpressed with England and the English people. They also traveled to Scandinavia a bit, and around England so it's part travel diary and part scathing commentary. I enjoyed it.
A Traitor Among the Boys (Boy/Girl Battle, #5)
A Spy Among the Girls (Boy/Girl Battle, #6)
The Boys Return (Boy/Girl Battle, #7)
The Girls Take Over (Boy/Girl Battle, #8)
Boys in Control (Boy/Girl Battle, #9)
Girls Rule! (Boy/Girl Battle, #10)- The girls love these books. The back and forth pranking is funny, and they get themselves into some pretty crazy, unbelievable situations, but they're so much fun.
Tears and Tossings: Hope in the Waves of Life- my cousin gave us all copies of this book for Christmas. Kim has met the author and has experienced some similar things in life. It's a pretty short read, about the different struggles the author and her family have experienced and how they found hope in Christ.
The Hobbit- graphic novel edition! Ha. I got my first graphic novel... it's obviously as good as the regular book and the illustrations are great.
The Last Castle- This was a fascinating book. It's non-fiction: the story of Biltmore mansion. It starts with where the Vanderbilts came from, how they got their money, why George decided to build a massive home in North Carolina... woven in between is how he met and married Edith and all of the different things going on in the world. It's an incredible house and it's crazy to me how much money it cost and how little time they actually spent there! In the end George and Edith's son-in-law (who was divorced from their daughter) raised his kids there and they, the Cecil family still own the mansion.
The How To Book of Repairing, Rewiring and Restoring Lamps
and Lighting Fixtures- I have to confess I didn't read every part of this book since I wasn't interested in the table lamp part. :) If you need a good light fixture wiring resource though, this is it!
Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use &
Avoid- This book was more interesting than I expected. Ha. It has lots of pictures showing the correct way to use windows, doors, and trim on your house. It also had lots of pictures of bad examples and clear (and witty) explanations of why they looked so wrong. So now I know why all those mcmansions and fake farmhouses look and feel so..... off. Just enough to be dangerous... 😁😉
Captains Courageous- this is a classic Rudyard Kipling story about a rich boy who falls off a boat and is rescued by fishermen. Of course, they're out of contact with land for months at a time so his family assumes he drowned and he has to stay on the fishing boat until the voyage is over. He learns to work hard and is not the same spoiled boy he was; he's matured and turned into a man by the time he gets back home. I really enjoyed it, though when he writes in dialect it gets a little hard to understand.
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch- Ok, so I didn't realize that this was a BIOGRAPHY until I was about halfway through the book! (I thought all the Newberry books were fiction...) It's really good, and Nathaniel Bowditch's life is really interesting. He was a brilliant, self taught mathematician. He also taught himself several languages. Oh, and he came up with an easy way to calculate a ships position and re-wrote all the navigation textbooks. That they still use today. :P Definitely a good read.
Creating a New Old House: Yesterday's Character for Today's
Home- speaking of knowing just enough to be dangerous... ha. This book has lots of beautiful pictures and ideas for making a new house look and feel old. How to get the proportions, materials, and style right. I really enjoyed it, and kind of want to get my own copy. 😋
Make, Sew and Mend: Traditional Techniques to Sustainably
Maintain and Refashion Your Clothes- So I've seen some of the author's youtube videos and really enjoyed learning about different historical fashions and sewing techniques. I didn't love the book though. It was okay, but her written descriptions of mending techniques weren't always super clear and the pictures where much too small to be helpful. Also, she had several of her friends contribute essays about sewing and fashion and they are of course all woke and listed their pronouns and overall it wasn't that enjoyable. I've read better sewing books.
Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan
Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847- Ok. I know I probably spend too much time scrolling online, but every once in a great while you learn something interesting. :P One of the 'recommended' posts was a blurb about Susan Magoffin and cited her journal, which I inter-library loaned. It was fascinating. She was an 18 year old newlywed and she and her wealthy Santa Fe trader husband took a caravan from Missouri down into Mexico. In the middle of the Mexican war. She had a miscarriage on the trail, and then had another child towards the end of her trip. All while learning Spanish and following the invading US army. I can't even imagine.
Custer's Fall: The Indian Side of the Story- This was another facebook recommendation. Ha. The author was an artist who started out painting portraits of the survivors of the battle of the Little Bighorn. He learned their languages and began interviewing them in the 1930's and 40's and wrote their stories of the battle, and what they thought actually happened to Custer. I'm not really into military history, but it was super interesting. It probably helps that I used to be quite obsessed with reading about Indians and the old west. :)
The Birds of the Bible- This is a Gene Stratton Porter book and sadly probably my least favorite of hers. 😆 I'm just not into birds. She had a lot of information about all of the different types of birds that are mentioned in the Bible, and which species we probably know them as today. But yeah, it took me forever to get through it, and I finally made myself read about one bird every night so that I could finish it by the end of the year. 😜 If you like birds, you may find it more enjoyable than I did. :)
The Doll People Set Sail (Doll People, #4)- I read this one to the girls and they enjoyed it. Some of them have read the earlier books in the series and liked them. I didn't overly enjoy this particular book. It was really wordy, the plot was kind of contrived, and then the ending was really quick and everything got tied up in a neat little implausible bow. I mostly just kind of dreaded having to read a chapter of it every night... haha.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever- We read this every Christmas and it is the best. :)
Blessings.
