We have been visiting the ADK Balloon Festival in Glens Falls for SEVEN years now! It's a great tradition for our family. This year, we went to the evening balloon lift instead of the early morning one.
Our family has 6 members: Teacher Daddy, Dr. Mama, Big B, Little L, Super J & Sister CC.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Sunday, October 7, 2018
2018 Reading List, Quarter 3 (July-Sept)
I finished Quarter 1 with 14 and Quarter 2 with 37, just before CC's birth. Here's Quarter 3, which encompassed my maternity leave and lots of reading while nursing in the wee hours of the morning!
Actual Books:
38. Educated, a memoir; Tara Westover. Pretty good, gritty recounting of her childhood growing up with Doomsday-er parents who didn't trust modern medicine.
39. Rules of civility; Amor Towles. This one was all right, but I enjoyed the next one better.
40. A gentleman in Moscow; Amor Towles. This one was very good and I would read it again.
41. A world of cake: 150 recipes for sweet traditions from cultures near and far; Krystina Castella. Yes, I read a cookbook. And made several cakes from this book, with varying success. Most of them I looked at the recipe and said "TWELVE EGGS?!? You've got to be kidding me!" and then flipped the page. I have a couple recipes saved for the future, though.
42. It Can't Happen Here; Sinclair Lewis. Recommended read for someone who realizes that yes, indeed it CAN happen here. The rise of a dictatorship in the USA, Depression-era. Yikes.
43. The girl with seven names: A North Korean defector's story; Hyeonseo Lee. This was also a good read and, coming on the heels of the Sinclair Lewis fiction it was eerily similar in recounting how the Kim family came to power in North Korea
44. Relish: my life in the kitchen; Lucy Knisley. My first graphic novel. Not too bad, although I do prefer actual text. Still, that was an easy read while balancing a nursling on my arm.
45. The senator's wife; Sue Miller. Meh.
46. Miriam's kitchen; Elizabeth Erlich. A memoir of a woman getting to know her MIL through recipes handed down through generations of Jewish cooking.
47-51: The Belgariad series; David Eddings. For the 12th time. It never gets old.
Audio Books: My goal for the audiobooks is to get through the PBS Great Reads list.
52. The Call of the Wild, Jack London. I think this is for young adults or children? It was pretty interesting to listen to, but I think I would have been bored if I'd read it.
53. The Shack, William P. Young. OMG-- worst book ever. I should have given up and sent it back to the library after day 2 or 3 of listening. Just, ugh. DISLIKE.
54. 1984, George Orwell-- so I haven't technically finished this one just yet, because my loan ran out before I could get through the last 2 hours or so. Still-- this one was MUCH BETTER than The Shack and I'm interested to find out how it ends!
Books read to the boys:
55. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; JK Rowling. We've started reading this series now that we're done with Percy Jackson, and watching the movies once we've finished reading a book. This, more than a lot of other milestones, has made me feel that I'm really a "parent" now. I can't believe my boys are reading the HP series-- I remember the parties and long lines when a new book was released nearly every year, and how I binge-read the book once I wrestled it away from David's hands... now my children are learning about this universe too.
E-Books:
56. The Bird and the Stone, Amy Harmon; fantasy where people have certain magical powers which are outlawed, including one woman who can speak things into creation, her lover who turns into a falcon... it was weird
57. The Book of Pearl, Timothee de Fombelle; a fairy-tale person leaves his enchanted home and makes his way to pre-WW II Paris. His fairy lover pursues
58. Above the Waterfall, Ron Rash; West Virginia-setting mystery
59. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll; I thought I'd like this more than I did... I'm sure there's lots of allegory and symbolism, but I just didn't like Alice.
In 2017, my Quarter 3 reading list had me up to 35 books and in 2016, I was up to 28 books (although the last one I have listed is Alexander Hamilton by Chernow which was a BEAR to get through, as I recall!). Reading to the boys at bed and adding audiobooks to my total each quarter definitely helps get that number higher, but I really think the kicker this quarter was the sheer amount of time I spent sitting/lying down reading while nursing. Such is the season of my life, I suppose.
Actual Books:
38. Educated, a memoir; Tara Westover. Pretty good, gritty recounting of her childhood growing up with Doomsday-er parents who didn't trust modern medicine.
39. Rules of civility; Amor Towles. This one was all right, but I enjoyed the next one better.
40. A gentleman in Moscow; Amor Towles. This one was very good and I would read it again.
41. A world of cake: 150 recipes for sweet traditions from cultures near and far; Krystina Castella. Yes, I read a cookbook. And made several cakes from this book, with varying success. Most of them I looked at the recipe and said "TWELVE EGGS?!? You've got to be kidding me!" and then flipped the page. I have a couple recipes saved for the future, though.
42. It Can't Happen Here; Sinclair Lewis. Recommended read for someone who realizes that yes, indeed it CAN happen here. The rise of a dictatorship in the USA, Depression-era. Yikes.
43. The girl with seven names: A North Korean defector's story; Hyeonseo Lee. This was also a good read and, coming on the heels of the Sinclair Lewis fiction it was eerily similar in recounting how the Kim family came to power in North Korea
44. Relish: my life in the kitchen; Lucy Knisley. My first graphic novel. Not too bad, although I do prefer actual text. Still, that was an easy read while balancing a nursling on my arm.
45. The senator's wife; Sue Miller. Meh.
46. Miriam's kitchen; Elizabeth Erlich. A memoir of a woman getting to know her MIL through recipes handed down through generations of Jewish cooking.
47-51: The Belgariad series; David Eddings. For the 12th time. It never gets old.
Audio Books: My goal for the audiobooks is to get through the PBS Great Reads list.
52. The Call of the Wild, Jack London. I think this is for young adults or children? It was pretty interesting to listen to, but I think I would have been bored if I'd read it.
53. The Shack, William P. Young. OMG-- worst book ever. I should have given up and sent it back to the library after day 2 or 3 of listening. Just, ugh. DISLIKE.
54. 1984, George Orwell-- so I haven't technically finished this one just yet, because my loan ran out before I could get through the last 2 hours or so. Still-- this one was MUCH BETTER than The Shack and I'm interested to find out how it ends!
Books read to the boys:
55. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; JK Rowling. We've started reading this series now that we're done with Percy Jackson, and watching the movies once we've finished reading a book. This, more than a lot of other milestones, has made me feel that I'm really a "parent" now. I can't believe my boys are reading the HP series-- I remember the parties and long lines when a new book was released nearly every year, and how I binge-read the book once I wrestled it away from David's hands... now my children are learning about this universe too.
E-Books:
56. The Bird and the Stone, Amy Harmon; fantasy where people have certain magical powers which are outlawed, including one woman who can speak things into creation, her lover who turns into a falcon... it was weird
57. The Book of Pearl, Timothee de Fombelle; a fairy-tale person leaves his enchanted home and makes his way to pre-WW II Paris. His fairy lover pursues
58. Above the Waterfall, Ron Rash; West Virginia-setting mystery
59. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll; I thought I'd like this more than I did... I'm sure there's lots of allegory and symbolism, but I just didn't like Alice.
In 2017, my Quarter 3 reading list had me up to 35 books and in 2016, I was up to 28 books (although the last one I have listed is Alexander Hamilton by Chernow which was a BEAR to get through, as I recall!). Reading to the boys at bed and adding audiobooks to my total each quarter definitely helps get that number higher, but I really think the kicker this quarter was the sheer amount of time I spent sitting/lying down reading while nursing. Such is the season of my life, I suppose.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
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