Opposites and Authors
I had the opportunity to chat with Danielle Bean and Lisa Hendey on the most recent Faith & Family Podcast. We chatted about whether or not opposites attract in our own marriages as well as divulged what we’ve been reading and what books we plan to crack open during Lent. Join the conversation here. (Be sure to share your favorite books and/or what you’ll be reading during Lent over at Faith & Family. As I say on the podcast, I could talk books all day, and I’m always eager to hear others’ recommendations.)
Speaking of Lent, I missed including this great Lenten calendar countdown over at Catholic Icing over at my Lenten Resources post.
Also, I encourage everyone to read this beautiful post on why keeping Lent simple is the way to go. Sara writes, “As I was clicking around for ideas online, I became quickly overwhelmed by the number of links and posts of Lenten ideas. I realized that a woman can get herself into quite a tizzy trying to observe a season meant to slow us down. Doesn’t that seem a bit ironic?
I’m actually a little hesitant to share what we’re doing because I really don’t want to contribute to that feeling of there’s-so-much-to-do-how-will-we-ever-get-to-it-all that seems so contradictory to the purpose of Lent. I also hate to think that anything I post would make someone else feel like she isn’t doing enough. I feel that way sometimes when I’m reading blogs.”
I heartily agree with her sentiments. So pick and choose a few ideas here and there to celebrate this season, but let’s not turn this in to 40 weeks of noise and doing when we’re supposed to still ourselves and find Christ in the silence and the starkness.
Have a wonderful weekend!
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Quick Takes: I’m So Lazy I’m Just Going to Use Others’ Words Edition
I can’t even remember the last time I popped in to participate in Jen’s Quick Takes, but this seemed like a good way to kick off the first Friday of 2011. Since we are engaged in full Christmas detox and working to get our children back on track after several weeks of sweet binges, late bedtimes, and an out of whack routine, I’m coming up short on words, so I’ve decided to share a few quotes that have recently given me pause (or made me laugh). Enjoy!
*UPDATE: Please keep Jen in your prayers. From her friend, Hallie: “Jen’s been having regular pain in her legs for a while now. Since her clotting disorder puts her at an increased risk for DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) [a, her doctor thought it would be best for her to head to the hospital for an emergency ultrasound of her legs this evening." In case you were unaware, Jen is pregnant, and pregnancy increases her risk for blood clots. You can read more about her clotting disorder here, and Jen, as she's able, will be providing updates on Twitter.
~1~
"The word ‘epiphany’ means ‘to show forth.’ Epiphanies, both large and small, tend to be private events – yet events with great significance for the public. Trying to share the details with another of an epiphany is fraught with complications. The words are never quite right, and even the most sympathetic listener cannot fully bridge the gap between description and what is was like being there. Most of us keep our personal experiences of the Holy to ourselves. Who would believe it? And who would really understand?
The irony is that epiphanies are made for sharing, [emphasis mine] even as they are impossible to communicate fully.…
Unlike the poor shepherds, the Magi had to travel a long road; they had to face adversity to reach their goal. It was anything but a romantic, sentimental pilgrimage that we often see in our manger scenes! The experience of the magi reminds us that all who make the tedious journey to the truth will finally encounter it and be changed in the process. They can never go back to a ‘business as usual’ way of life. When we meet Christ and see who he really is, we will never be the same – and only then can we hope to begin to share in his mission.…”
-Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
, 2010 Solemnity of the Epiphany
(HT: Appleseeds)
This made me feel better about sharing my own rambling epiphany recently, which came across as a tad corny when I re-read it but which was true and from the heart. (That sounds corny, too, but, again, it’s true.)
~2~
“Authenticity, as the concept was presented [in a self-help book], ended up looking a whole lot like navel-gazing selfishness. But at the time, as viewed through this woman’s lens, it seemed I’d given up far too much of myself for my family. The premise of this woman’s argument was that the key to self-fulfillment–and a low body fat percentage–was my being more me-oriented. Of course, in order for me to be me-oriented, everyone else had to be oriented towards me, as well–an idea which if I thought it could work out I might still be entertaining.
Where did all this self-absorbed navel-gazing leave my husband, Dan? Well, that wasn’t my concern, really. I had a void to fill and a dress to fit into. But as I demanded that things change he (already hugely selfless) was left to pick up the slack. The author in question’s prescription of focusing a laser beam on my own desires (and let’s not kid ourselves–that’s what they were: desires) was crowding out even my husband’s most basic needs. (And if that didn’t make him want to run for the hills, I assure you my many soliloquies about a return to authenticity did.)”
Where did all this self-absorbed navel-gazing leave my husband, Dan? Well, that wasn’t my concern, really. I had a void to fill and a dress to fit into. But as I demanded that things change he (already hugely selfless) was left to pick up the slack. The author in question’s prescription of focusing a laser beam on my own desires (and let’s not kid ourselves–that’s what they were: desires) was crowding out even my husband’s most basic needs. (And if that didn’t make him want to run for the hills, I assure you my many soliloquies about a return to authenticity did.)”
This an excerpt from a must-read post over at Betty Beguiles.
~3~
My newly turned 6-year-old, Madeline: It’s not a real elf, you know. [Said to a friend who is telling her about her Elf on the Shelf
.]
.]Friend: Yes, he is. He does magic.
Madeline: When?
Friend: When I’m sleeping.
Madeline: How do you know he does it if you’re asleep?
Friend: Because.
Madeline: Where did you get this elf?
Friend: From the store.
Madeline: Do you really think a real elf can be bought in a store?
Poor friend does not reply.
Madeline: Here’s what you need to do to see if he’s really real. Look at his ears. See if the skin on his ear matches his face. When I sat on Santa’s lap this year, I knew her elf wasn’t real because her ear skin didn’t match her face skin.
That’s my girl – crushing the dreams of little children everywhere. I mean, honestly, I thought she had one more year until the age of reason.
~4~
“I’ll charge it up when it’s done.”“You don’t have to. It’s a book, jackass.”
-From It’s a Book
Bibliophile that I am, I’m somewhat surprisingly and very well-pleased with my new Kindle
, but I’ll always be loyal to good, old-fashioned books. I thoroughly enjoyed this clever and hilarious picture book our retired librarian neighbor gave us for Christmas. In the story, a donkey (the jackass)
is fascinated by his friend’s book and asks questions like, “Can you blog with it?” “Does it need a password?” “How do you scroll down?” It’s a Book is a delightful reminder that there’s nothing quite like the real thing and that despite its dearth of whistles and bells, a good book has the power to allure, to enlighten, to engage, and to entertain – batteries not included or necessary!
, but I’ll always be loyal to good, old-fashioned books. I thoroughly enjoyed this clever and hilarious picture book our retired librarian neighbor gave us for Christmas. In the story, a donkey (the jackass) is fascinated by his friend’s book and asks questions like, “Can you blog with it?” “Does it need a password?” “How do you scroll down?” It’s a Book is a delightful reminder that there’s nothing quite like the real thing and that despite its dearth of whistles and bells, a good book has the power to allure, to enlighten, to engage, and to entertain – batteries not included or necessary!~5~
“Enjoy that beautiful creature that is your child. Appreciate their wonder and awe, delight with them in their achievements, and be amazed at their thirst for knowing the world. Watch a movie together, push them on a swing, and savor the time that they are young. And when you tuck them in at night (maybe in their own bed!) tell them you love them.”
~6~
“Personally, I predict I will spend the year falling down and getting up, with (I hope) a bit of progress due entirely to the grace of God. By year’s end 2011, I expect to be still disappointing most people, including myself.
My New Year’s wish is that my readers have a living and lasting encounter with Jesus Christ that leaves them forever changed.”
-An excerpt from Mark Shea’s conversational and honest predictions and wishes for 2011.
~7~
“I loved the way books looked, loved the way books smelled, loved that books made me forget. My favorites were The Diary of Anne Frank, The Yearling, Uncle Tom’s Cabin: tales of grotesque cruelty and unbearable loss. That was precisely why I liked them. Even back then I understood the real purpose of literature. I didn’t want to hear that people lived happily ever after. I wanted to know that other people suffered, too.”
-From Heather King’s Parched
Perhaps this helps to explain my recent obsession with memoirs such as Parched. Reading here’s-my-raw-and-bleeding-hemorrhaging-heart-books like this makes my life seem mighty peachy.
Have a good weekend! Jen, thanks for hosting!
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Books Read in 2010
Happy New Year!
I’m still working on ferret out the perfect word to embrace in 2011. I’ve particularly enjoyed these words/posts from others this year: mindful, enough, harmony, and Eucharisteo. Everybody seems to have their act together more than I do. Ah, but I’m not supposed to be comparing.
No word yet, but I do have a saint for 2011, thanks to Jen’s nifty saint name generator. My spiritual mentor for 2011 is none other than Saint Teresa Avila. I know assigning me her was based on some random code, but it seemed fitting. I used one of her prayers to end my book, which, yes, will finally be published sometime in 2011 – probably in the fall. Likewise, when I followed the link from the saint’s name generator to further info about St. Teresa, a lot of what was said about her resonated with me, and I plan on reading more about the Doctor of the Church to help me come up with a word for 2011. Stay tuned.
As I was reading about Saint Teresa, it struck me how cool it is about to have all of these saints to turn to when we’re trying to come up with the right word for the year, a deeper prayer life, or the sense that we’re not the only ones who sometimes need to be hit across the head with a 2×4 to get what God is saying to us. Saints aren’t untouchables or mysterious. They’re often ordinary people we can relate to on some level, and reading about them is so much more satisfying than reading a promissory, prognostic horoscope. I might nod my head to both, thinking, “Wow! This is so true and just what I needed,” but the saints were real people. Their stories aren’t the product of some witty writer who has a knack for writing what seems specific but is really a bunch of vague hooey that fools the reader into feeling like the words were written just for her. But the saints, well, they are just for us.
Speaking of words and the real point of this post, I’ve a read a fair amount of them this year, although my reading habits have definitely been curbed in recent years as a mom, especially as a homeschooling mom. But I still squeeze in a little bit of book reading almost every day.
I asked for a breadmaker
for Christmas from my husband, but apparently he’s starting to feel like a big cliche even though I’m the one asking for appliances and refuses to gift me with anymore domestic gadgets. (When he bought me my Kitchen Aid Standing Mixer
a few years ago, I was swooning. What a guy.) So this Christmas he gave me a Kindle instead. No complaints here; however, I was very surprised by the gift, not only because I didn’t get a Mr. Breadman, but because my husband and I had had multiple discussions about how we just weren’t sure if a Kindle would do it for us. We’re both avid readers and love the whole experience a book offers – not just how you immerse yourself in the words and sometimes a whole different world – but we love the way a book feels in our hands, the crisp, clean smell of a new book that reminds us of new beginnings, the musky smell of an old book that’s been in one of our families and read by those who came before us and is evidence that words – especially good, wise ones – are not ephemeral, the soft glow of a reading lamp over the pages (no glaring white screen or eye strain), and the satisfaction of closing a book you’ve finished and slipping it back onto the shelf.
My mom has had a Kindle since her back surgery in the summer of 2009. She was always raving about it (and still is) and said she didn’t miss old-fashioned books at all. During my book writing process, I did find the search function on my mom’s Kindle very helpful. There was a quote I loved from Mere Christianity
, but I couldn’t find it in my hard copy. It took my mom all of five seconds to track down the words I wanted to use and reference in my book. I remained skeptical though. I’m never the first to jump on the technology bandwagon (I leave that to my husband), and remember scoffing at my new iPhone last spring. That little gadget has quickly become one of my favorite things. I love that I can easily check in email, carry my grocery list with me on it, teach phonics to my daughters, and carry my calendar everywhere. So I guess I’m an easy sell once I take the plunge.
Prior to Christmas, I had recently I started considering the benefits of a Kindle while traveling and the fact that I could read PDFs on it. Over the past year, I’ve had several friends ask me to read/edit their book manuscripts. One of them included a rather lengthy novel. I didn’t want to print out a gazillion pages, but reading the book on my computer screen wasn’t enjoyable to me. It felt artificial. That’s the only word I can come up with to describe reading a book on my computer (I’ve avoided really neat sounding e-books for this reason). Furthermore, I typically reading in the evening; yet, I was trying to limit the amount of time I spent on the computer at night because of how it can affect sleep. Not surprisingly, I kept putting off reading the book. I mentioned aloud to my husband that it might be nice to read e-book PDFs on a Kindle someday, but I also stressed that this seemed like a silly reason to splurge on the gadget. (It reminded me of how my dad decided an iPad might be a good gift for him because he would have a bigger screen for Angry Birds. Lucky man that he is he got his iPad. We all chipped in together to get him one – and he won one in a raffle, too. He’s in Angry Bird heaven.)
Well, Dave decided to go ahead and splurge (to the best of my knowledge, he did not see this, and I have to admit how happy I’ve been with the Kindle. I immediately downloaded Heather King’s Parched (per Betty and Melanie’s recommendation) and Son of Hamaas
(per Jen’sParched while we were on the road. It’s portable, and it’s surprised me how much it feels and even looks like a book. And I do love the fact that I can read PDFs on it. Oh, and how great it is that I can download classics like Little Women (Oxford World’s Classics)
(one book I don’t happen to have in my personal classics collection that I’ve been wanting to read to my girls) for free. A FREE (quasi) book I don’t have to return! The entire collection of G.K. Chesterton’s greatest works are one buck. One buck! I’m in book heaven. recommendation). Dave also got me a nifty cover for my Kindle that includes a book light, so the other night I was reading
But it’s not a book, of course, and we’ll still have plenty of the real thing on hand in our home. We even have a room in our new house that the previous owner set up as TV room that we call our library. It’s my favorite room in the house. It’s where I sneak way to on early mornings to read and play. It’s where the Madeline sometimes does her narrations for school. It’s where I read stories aloud to the bigger girls while Mary Elizabeth plays with wooden blocks or empties all those lovely books from the shelf. We’ve banned television or electronics (save listening to music or audio books) from the room. There are some puzzles for little hands, decks of cards stowed away in wicker boxes, hand painted saint dolls, and lots of lots of books.
Come to think of it, every single room except our formal dining room has at least a few books in it. We’ve moved several times over the past few years and during each move, I’ve purged. We have too much stuff, but we can never have too many books (that was one area I disagreed with in Simplicity Parenting
when the author suggested having only a few books on hand. Pooey to that, I say!) Truth is, no matter how worn, dog-eared, old or stained a book was, it was designated to the “keep” pile. I just couldn’t part with any of our books. We’ve put IKEA bookshelves and now beautiful, built-in bookshelves to good use over the years and have stocked them liberally with literary treasures. Even as a toddlers, our children have a sense that books are special. And since kids are tactile, there’s no way I’m going to toss our books away and rely on the Kindle for all of our reading pleasure. They need to touch and feel books. They need picture books, too. Books where the eye candy is as beautiful as the words. Funny thing is, they don’t seem too interested in my Kindle. It doesn’t seem to hold the same appeal as real books (or my iPhone) for them.
The Kindle is wonderful. It really is. I like it way, way, way more than I ever thought I would, and I’m excited about downloading some audio books from Audible onto it. But I’ll always still need to hold a real book every now and then.
Well, I had every intention of this being a brief, list-inspired post (ha! hope I do a better job at holding myself to my intentions for the New Year), but I guess got a little carried away. I haven’t been in much of a mood to write lately, which is really weird for me, but it felt good to just sling some words out there.
If you’ve actually read this far, congratulations. If not, I understand. Go read a real book or download something new on your Kindle. If you’re looking for ideas, check out my reading list for 2010. The books are listed in no particular order. I wouldn’t strongly endorse every book I read this year, but I haven’t recently read a book that I hated or would tell someone to avoid. I wish I had time to write a review for all of the books, and I’d like to get back to writing more reviews, but I also need to sleep and sleep has been winning lately, which has been a good thing for my family and me.
All in all, it was a good reading year. I also discovered an interesting trend in my reading habits when I perused my list of books (which wasn’t divided into genres as I’ve done here). I used to almost exclusively read fiction, but I seem to be reading more and more nonfiction and memoirs. Not sure what that says about me or my life right now, but it caught my attention.
Please note that some of my 2010 books would fit into several genres, but I tried to place them in the genre that seemed to make the most sense to me. I’ve also read more chapter books aloud to the kids; I realized I didn’t keep track of all of them and when I tried to conjure up more titles, I came up blank.
I have a huge stack of books to read for 2011 as well as several on my wish list that I’ll likely download on my Kindle. I’d love to hear your recommendations. I wish Anne Tyler had a new book coming out; she’s probably one of my favorite fiction authors. If you’ve read anyone who’s Anne Tyler-ish, please do share.
Happy reading!
Fiction:
I’m still working on ferret out the perfect word to embrace in 2011. I’ve particularly enjoyed these words/posts from others this year: mindful, enough, harmony, and Eucharisteo. Everybody seems to have their act together more than I do. Ah, but I’m not supposed to be comparing.
No word yet, but I do have a saint for 2011, thanks to Jen’s nifty saint name generator. My spiritual mentor for 2011 is none other than Saint Teresa Avila. I know assigning me her was based on some random code, but it seemed fitting. I used one of her prayers to end my book, which, yes, will finally be published sometime in 2011 – probably in the fall. Likewise, when I followed the link from the saint’s name generator to further info about St. Teresa, a lot of what was said about her resonated with me, and I plan on reading more about the Doctor of the Church to help me come up with a word for 2011. Stay tuned.
As I was reading about Saint Teresa, it struck me how cool it is about to have all of these saints to turn to when we’re trying to come up with the right word for the year, a deeper prayer life, or the sense that we’re not the only ones who sometimes need to be hit across the head with a 2×4 to get what God is saying to us. Saints aren’t untouchables or mysterious. They’re often ordinary people we can relate to on some level, and reading about them is so much more satisfying than reading a promissory, prognostic horoscope. I might nod my head to both, thinking, “Wow! This is so true and just what I needed,” but the saints were real people. Their stories aren’t the product of some witty writer who has a knack for writing what seems specific but is really a bunch of vague hooey that fools the reader into feeling like the words were written just for her. But the saints, well, they are just for us.
Speaking of words and the real point of this post, I’ve a read a fair amount of them this year, although my reading habits have definitely been curbed in recent years as a mom, especially as a homeschooling mom. But I still squeeze in a little bit of book reading almost every day.
I asked for a breadmaker
for Christmas from my husband, but apparently he’s starting to feel like a big cliche even though I’m the one asking for appliances and refuses to gift me with anymore domestic gadgets. (When he bought me my Kitchen Aid Standing Mixer a few years ago, I was swooning. What a guy.) So this Christmas he gave me a Kindle instead. No complaints here; however, I was very surprised by the gift, not only because I didn’t get a Mr. Breadman, but because my husband and I had had multiple discussions about how we just weren’t sure if a Kindle would do it for us. We’re both avid readers and love the whole experience a book offers – not just how you immerse yourself in the words and sometimes a whole different world – but we love the way a book feels in our hands, the crisp, clean smell of a new book that reminds us of new beginnings, the musky smell of an old book that’s been in one of our families and read by those who came before us and is evidence that words – especially good, wise ones – are not ephemeral, the soft glow of a reading lamp over the pages (no glaring white screen or eye strain), and the satisfaction of closing a book you’ve finished and slipping it back onto the shelf.My mom has had a Kindle since her back surgery in the summer of 2009. She was always raving about it (and still is) and said she didn’t miss old-fashioned books at all. During my book writing process, I did find the search function on my mom’s Kindle very helpful. There was a quote I loved from Mere Christianity
, but I couldn’t find it in my hard copy. It took my mom all of five seconds to track down the words I wanted to use and reference in my book. I remained skeptical though. I’m never the first to jump on the technology bandwagon (I leave that to my husband), and remember scoffing at my new iPhone last spring. That little gadget has quickly become one of my favorite things. I love that I can easily check in email, carry my grocery list with me on it, teach phonics to my daughters, and carry my calendar everywhere. So I guess I’m an easy sell once I take the plunge.Prior to Christmas, I had recently I started considering the benefits of a Kindle while traveling and the fact that I could read PDFs on it. Over the past year, I’ve had several friends ask me to read/edit their book manuscripts. One of them included a rather lengthy novel. I didn’t want to print out a gazillion pages, but reading the book on my computer screen wasn’t enjoyable to me. It felt artificial. That’s the only word I can come up with to describe reading a book on my computer (I’ve avoided really neat sounding e-books for this reason). Furthermore, I typically reading in the evening; yet, I was trying to limit the amount of time I spent on the computer at night because of how it can affect sleep. Not surprisingly, I kept putting off reading the book. I mentioned aloud to my husband that it might be nice to read e-book PDFs on a Kindle someday, but I also stressed that this seemed like a silly reason to splurge on the gadget. (It reminded me of how my dad decided an iPad might be a good gift for him because he would have a bigger screen for Angry Birds. Lucky man that he is he got his iPad. We all chipped in together to get him one – and he won one in a raffle, too. He’s in Angry Bird heaven.)
Well, Dave decided to go ahead and splurge (to the best of my knowledge, he did not see this, and I have to admit how happy I’ve been with the Kindle. I immediately downloaded Heather King’s Parched
(per Betty and Melanie’s recommendation) and Son of Hamaas (per Jen’sParched while we were on the road. It’s portable, and it’s surprised me how much it feels and even looks like a book. And I do love the fact that I can read PDFs on it. Oh, and how great it is that I can download classics like Little Women (Oxford World’s Classics) (one book I don’t happen to have in my personal classics collection that I’ve been wanting to read to my girls) for free. A FREE (quasi) book I don’t have to return! The entire collection of G.K. Chesterton’s greatest works are one buck. One buck! I’m in book heaven. recommendation). Dave also got me a nifty cover for my Kindle that includes a book light, so the other night I was reading But it’s not a book, of course, and we’ll still have plenty of the real thing on hand in our home. We even have a room in our new house that the previous owner set up as TV room that we call our library. It’s my favorite room in the house. It’s where I sneak way to on early mornings to read and play. It’s where the Madeline sometimes does her narrations for school. It’s where I read stories aloud to the bigger girls while Mary Elizabeth plays with wooden blocks or empties all those lovely books from the shelf. We’ve banned television or electronics (save listening to music or audio books) from the room. There are some puzzles for little hands, decks of cards stowed away in wicker boxes, hand painted saint dolls, and lots of lots of books.
Come to think of it, every single room except our formal dining room has at least a few books in it. We’ve moved several times over the past few years and during each move, I’ve purged. We have too much stuff, but we can never have too many books (that was one area I disagreed with in Simplicity Parenting
when the author suggested having only a few books on hand. Pooey to that, I say!) Truth is, no matter how worn, dog-eared, old or stained a book was, it was designated to the “keep” pile. I just couldn’t part with any of our books. We’ve put IKEA bookshelves and now beautiful, built-in bookshelves to good use over the years and have stocked them liberally with literary treasures. Even as a toddlers, our children have a sense that books are special. And since kids are tactile, there’s no way I’m going to toss our books away and rely on the Kindle for all of our reading pleasure. They need to touch and feel books. They need picture books, too. Books where the eye candy is as beautiful as the words. Funny thing is, they don’t seem too interested in my Kindle. It doesn’t seem to hold the same appeal as real books (or my iPhone) for them.The Kindle is wonderful. It really is. I like it way, way, way more than I ever thought I would, and I’m excited about downloading some audio books from Audible onto it. But I’ll always still need to hold a real book every now and then.
Well, I had every intention of this being a brief, list-inspired post (ha! hope I do a better job at holding myself to my intentions for the New Year), but I guess got a little carried away. I haven’t been in much of a mood to write lately, which is really weird for me, but it felt good to just sling some words out there.
If you’ve actually read this far, congratulations. If not, I understand. Go read a real book or download something new on your Kindle. If you’re looking for ideas, check out my reading list for 2010. The books are listed in no particular order. I wouldn’t strongly endorse every book I read this year, but I haven’t recently read a book that I hated or would tell someone to avoid. I wish I had time to write a review for all of the books, and I’d like to get back to writing more reviews, but I also need to sleep and sleep has been winning lately, which has been a good thing for my family and me.
All in all, it was a good reading year. I also discovered an interesting trend in my reading habits when I perused my list of books (which wasn’t divided into genres as I’ve done here). I used to almost exclusively read fiction, but I seem to be reading more and more nonfiction and memoirs. Not sure what that says about me or my life right now, but it caught my attention.
Please note that some of my 2010 books would fit into several genres, but I tried to place them in the genre that seemed to make the most sense to me. I’ve also read more chapter books aloud to the kids; I realized I didn’t keep track of all of them and when I tried to conjure up more titles, I came up blank.
I have a huge stack of books to read for 2011 as well as several on my wish list that I’ll likely download on my Kindle. I’d love to hear your recommendations. I wish Anne Tyler had a new book coming out; she’s probably one of my favorite fiction authors. If you’ve read anyone who’s Anne Tyler-ish, please do share.
Happy reading!
Fiction:
House Rules
by Jodi Picoult
by Jodi PicoultPlain Truth 
by Jodi Picoult
by Jodi PicoultUnaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
by Jhumpa LahiriNoah’s Compass
by Anne Tyler
by Anne TylerParenting/Mothering/Family Life:
Mitten Strings for God 
by Katrina KenisonThe Gift of an Ordinary Day
by Katrina KenisonA Mother’s Rule of Life
by Holly PierlotGift from the Sea 
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study with the Gentle Art of Learning
by Karen Andreola
by Karen AndreolaThe Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child
The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child by Alan E. Kazdin
The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child by Alan E. Kazdin
Drawing with Children
by Mona Brookes
by Mona Brookes Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne
by Kim John PayneSpiritual:
by Donna Marie Cooper O’Boyle
by Lisa HendeyThe Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary
by Karen Edmisten
by Karen Edmisten Small Steps for Catholic Moms
by Danielle Bean and Elizabeth Foss
by Danielle Bean and Elizabeth FossThe Secret Diary of Elsabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest
by Elisabeth Leseur (in progress)
by Elisabeth Leseur (in progress)Memoir:
The Liar’s Club
by Mary Karr
by Mary KarrLit
by Mary Karr
by Mary KarrCherry 
by Mary Karr
by Mary KarrThe Middle Place 
by Kelly Corrigan
by Kelly CorriganLift
by Kelly Corrigan
by Kelly CorriganSelf-Help:
by Geneen Roth
by Thomas F. Cash
Chapter Book Read Alouds with My Kids (most of which I read as a child):
The Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O’DellSign of the Beaver
by Elizabeth George Speare
by Elizabeth George SpeareStuart Little 
by E.B. White
by E.B. White
by C.S. Lewis
by C.S. LewisThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader
by C.S. Lewis
by C.S. Lewis
by Astrid LingrenA Christmas Carol 
by Charles Dickens
by Charles DickensThe Wizard of Oz
by Frank Baum
by Frank Baum
than I’d like to think about.Books (All Old-Fashioned, Not Kindle Downloads) I Received as Christmas Gifts and Plan (Hope!) to Read Soon:
Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love
by Larry LevinInsatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess
by Gael Greene
by Gael GreeneHow Big is Your God? 
by Paul Coutinho
by Paul CoutinhoAcedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life 
by Kathleen Norris
by Kathleen Norris
(Yeah, I’m enough of a foodie that I actually like to read cookbooks; sometimes I actually read them more than I use them to cook/bake!)
What about you? Favorite books of 2010? Books on your wish list for 2011? Books you’d use for kindle (as in fire, not Amazon)?
UPDATE: Because this post really wasn’t long enough, I have a few more things to add. First, I totally forgot that I also read Rachel Balducci’s wonderful book, How to Tuck in a Superhero
I should have mentioned as well that the links to the Kindle books I mentioned are not actually the Kindle versions of the books. You’ll have to search the Kindle storefront to purchase the Kindle books.
Finally, I forgot to link to the Kindle cover
Cheers!
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