Sharon Creech is such a great author! In Ruby Holler she really developed her characters well and I could see depth in each one. The story is about a couple of twins, Dallas and Florida, that are shifted around in foster care. It makes a soul want to save every child they can. But, instead, I made a goal to start with my own kids and try to be more patient. I also wish I could live in Ruby Holler. It sounds so beautiful! You will also love the older couple, and identify with each of them. I know I did. A great book!

Oh, Wow! This book was amazing. Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. I already knew that I would enjoy the book because he is such a great author, but I wasn't prepared for how much I would love it! I would take it with me to the gym each morning... and there are a few unspoken rules at the gym... like you should show no emotion and not make noise. Everyone has their headphones on in their own little world. The I-pod and I love being in our own little world on the island of the elliptical machine. But, while reading this book I kept laughing right out loud... and even more embarrassing, often tears were rolling down my cheeks. The book talks about Elijah who was the first free born in Buxton, Canada, a small community of free or escaped slaves. Here is a quote from the book, just to wet your appetite...

"Mr. Leroy said, 'No, Spencer, me and 'Lijah's working partners. The boy handles hisself like he's gowned so I hope you don't mind if he stay.'
If I lived to be fifty I was gonna remember this, the first time I got called growned! I waren't expecting this to happen for six or seven months yet!"

Then later: "I left the room and stayed outta sight, but I was still close enough for listening. After all, Mr. Leroy did say I handle myself like I was growned, and I know growned folks don't like nothing better than doing a little eavesdropping."

I think now that I am done with the book, I'd better do a little research on the real settlement of Buxton. I am so glad that the civil war is over and that slavery is outlawed!

So, Susan's blog of books she has read made me a little jealous with the cover and all... so I decided to copy her. To start off with I am just throwing these on... I may need to practice a little to make it more presentable.

Queste, Angie Sage is the only book I read during the month of April. Can you believe it? It is the fourth book in the series about Septimus Heap. Love them all. Number three left me uneasy but all is well now, the fourth ended happily ever after. Good ol' Septimus. These are a must read.

May 6th was the release date of Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host. It is a big fat book but I was still able to read it in three days and not ignore my children too much. It was a fantastic book but definitely science fiction. I am not sure if the crazy "Rides the Beast" story will sit well with Edward lovers... but I have long been a lover of science fiction so I am fine with bears that have sharp knife hands on one side and soft paws on the other. Anywho, that really doesn't have much to do with the story. It is full of relationships and all types of love. It is really fantastic.

Stephenie Meyer here we come! See you on Friday. : )

I am also proud to announce that I have finished The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin & Selections from His Other Writings. I have learned much about Benjamin Franklin and about the US... but I am left wanting more. I will need to read some more books about him and his roll in the establishment of the Union. It seems to me he was a good man, very determined to become better and improve things around him. He started the first library here, a fire department, a way to keep the streets clean... he helped in the establishment of the Post Office and ran a printing press. Not to mention his work with electricity. But to read about it in his own words, I think he was also humble. He had no idea how much he would bless not only his town but the entire nation... forever! We may be doing important things right this minute without even realizing their results. Better be careful, eh. Think twice and all that.


OK...I checked out Replay, Sharon Creech and as I started reading it, I realized I had already read it. But it is a great book about family dynamics. Then I read Heartbeat, Sharon Creech. It is all written as a poem, a great book about old age, new babies and running just because you love to run.

A Little Maid of Mohawk Valley, Alice Turner Curtis. This is the cutest thing. It was published in 1924 and it is from a series "A Little Maid of... (fill in the blank)." The story is about a little girl who is brave and courageous... she gets to save Mohawk Valley during the Revolutionary War. I enjoyed the good values.


Beauty Sleep, Cameron Dokey. This was a fun spin on Sleeping Beauty. It keeps you wondering what will happen in the end the entire book. Read it, you'll like it.

Book of a Thousand Days,Shannon Hale. I recommended this for book club so of course I had to re-read it. I may have even liked it better the second time. Set in a setting not unlike Mongolia a young girl struggles defying her class. She is caught so many times in between gentry (the higher class) and serving them, without misbehaving herself. I have been pondering on social classes... at first I asked myself if there is any where in the world where they still raise people to believe they are lower than another human being. I have thought of the Middle East and Africa and the role of women. Polygamy, the role of women, children and the "Lost Boys." Any abusive relationship can do that to a person, make them lose their confidence and their knowledge of their divine worth. Once again I am so grateful for my upbringing, for the gospel and for this country!

Book club is on Wednesday and I think it will be really fun. Many people have loved the book. All hail to Shannon Hale!

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho. I am glad I read this book. I recommended it for our book club for the month of May, so I thought I'd better read it. It has lots of great advice for one and all. Most of all it made me grateful for the gospel and the Spirit. We are so lucky to already know that we need only to listen to the promptings of the Spirit to find our way. . . and the more we listen, the more we can hear.

I must also share with you the miracle of the emu feathers. Susan loaned me the book, The Alchemist as I was leaving Orderville. Isaac also came up and gifted me some emu feathers. Apparently they come in twos, like the Ponderosa Pine needles that come in threes. Isaac gave me one set of perfect feathers and another feather that was all alone, its partner feather had broken off. So, as I left, I stuck them into the book. Well, later in the week I took the book to the gym to read. As I was cruising along on the elliptical machine I noticed a feather falling out. I quickly saved it and searched for the other pair of feathers. They had already fallen out. I almost fell off the machine looking for them, of course I couldn't stop the machine altogether. The handle also almost gave me a concussion while I was searching, but to no avail. When I finished my "workout" I searched again but found nothing. What a bummer to lose the pair!

Then next day I was back at the gym and after my workout I went to get a drink. There lying on the ground, close to the drinking fountain, I found my pair of emu feathers. What a miracle! I scooped them up as quick as I could. Who knows who might be around with the intent of stealing away my feathers. So, thank you Isaac, I love the feathers.


A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray. The jury is still out on this one. It was OK dawg, a little pitchy in the middle... (In case you don't watch American Idol, that is what Randy Jackson says when the performance wasn't that great.) So, the book was a little too adult for me, doesn't take much. I can't decide whether to read the other two books. I don't love the heroine, she's OK dawg, but I don't think she's great or anything. Anyone who has read them, tell me if I should read on or not.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick. I have been waiting for months for the book fair to come to B's school so I could buy this book (BOGO... buy one get one free). So I bought it and read it. What fun! So many great pictures/drawings that help tell the story. The book is fat and a little intimidating, but most of it is pictures. Many of the pages with words don't even use half of the page... so it is really much shorter than it weighs. I read it today. It really is a work of art. The font, the black and white pages, the drawings, the fun story... loved it.

Confessions of an Unbalanced Woman, Emily Watts. A teeny tiny book that DiAnn gave me. She read it again on the plane ride out to come to Grandpa Jack's funeral. I've read it only once, but I need a repeat. It is fantastic and helped me refocus. Here is an exerpt: "I don't know how it is that I can spend hours laboring over a stack of men's socks, laying them out on the bed to make it easier to compare them with each other, holding them up to the light, even carrying them over to the window to ensure that I am matching black with black and navy blue with navy blue... but the instant my husband sits down in sacrament meeting, I can tell that he's wearing one of each. Maybe there's just something about the lighting in the chapel. maybe I should be taking his socks over to the church to sort them." It is a really fun book that helps put thing into perspective.

The Princess and the Hound, Mette Ivie Harrison. What a great book. I had to finish it today! And the author lives in Utah. We are really getting some great local authors. The book is about a Prince and a Princess, courage, self worth, coming of age and "animal magic." Very fun read.

Trespass, living at the edge of the promised land, Amy Irvine. This is not a book I would recommend to anyone. Bleh. I couldn't even finish it... I just skipped ahead to find out if this poor girl ever found any happiness or peace. But, no... she is never really happy or at peace. She only sees the very worst in everyone and everything around her. It is extremely anti-Mormon and anti-San Juan County, two things that I love. I kept wondering if she was telling the truth about people until I read her explanation of the Book of Mormon as rowdy people getting kicked out of Jerusalem and being sent away on boats. OK... she is probably just telling half truths throughout. Horrid, hateful book. It leaves one the opposite of uplifted. I feel so sorry for this sad, sad girl.

Mormon Scientist, Henry J. Eyring. Wow, I loved this book. I have always wanted to know more about the famous scientist Henry Eyring, and now I do! His ancestory, his family, his education and teaching, his scientific findings and best of all his testimony. He had no problem at all disagreeing with President Joseph Fielding Smith about the age of the earth and evolution. Henry Eyring said many times that we just don't know everything yet. However the Lord created our earth was fine with him, if the Lord didn't have a problem with science and religion than he didn't either. What a fun book!

The Wish, Gail Carson Levine. A fun Jr. High book about a girl who wishes for popularity, and gets it. Important lessons to be learned about being a good friend. I liked it.

Two Princesses of Bamarre, Gail Carson Levine. Two sisters, one is a coward and the other is an adventurer. They take care of each other, save their kingdom and fall in love. A lot of fun.

When Calls the Heart, Janette Oke. A gift from Ana (thank you!). I loved it. It is set in the old west around Calgary. It reminded me of books I used to check out from the Blanding City Library. True love, adventure, real values, good men and women. It was really fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you Ana!