Book Swap

It's that time of year again. I promised I would host another book swap. So everyone get ready for the fun! We all love getting new books, and this is such a fun way to get one! You can send one book or more, it's up to you. You can pick a used book you have loved or buy a new one. Recipe books, non fiction, fiction, or even children's are all free game.



Here is the low down:
Send me an email to sign up - wadeanddebbi - at - gmail - .com
Send me your shipping address, type of books you enjoy, any other information you might find useful about yourself and if you would mind receiving children(s) books
Deadline to sign up is one week - MONDAY, OCTOBER 15
I'll send you your special swap someone on -TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16
Packages must be postmarked one week from that day - TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23

Friday - Religious

Reading is an essential part of religion to members of all different faiths. No matter what your religious preference, each one has their set of scriptures to study. Reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Huss made it possible for each of us to have Bibles in our home. They allowed us all the freedom read and study religion on our own level, on our own time and in our own space. How grateful we should be for this freedom they gave us.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "This Great Book...is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong."

For the past few months I have been reading and studying the New Testament. It has been fascinating to me. This is not the first time I have read or studied it, but each time you find and see different things as a reader. I have been reading the writings of Paul and I love the inspiration in this scripture I found just this past week:
"For God hat not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timonthy 1:7.

I am a creature of habit. I have made it a habit to read from my scriptures every day as my children fall asleep for their nap. I have to do this every day now. This gives me a nice quiet time to read and ponder. It also gives me a refueling time since our afternoons are sometimes harder than our mornings. I have to read straight through a book, so I use a chart so I can mark off what chapters I have read. My husband on the other hand is a subject scripture reader. He loves to be asked questions so he can research them and find answers through his study.

What kind of religious reader are you? Do you have habits? Do you read by subject or straight through? How has this type of reading helped you?

Thursday - Fiction

How well do you know your favorite fiction? I thought I would mix it up today and present a little quiz. Here are the first sentences of works of fiction I randomly pulled from my shelf this morning. I even made it easy and gave you choices to match them up to. Let's see if you can figure it out!

1. On the 24th of February, 1815, the watch-tower of Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the arrival of the three-mastered Pharaon, from Smyrrna, Trieste, and Naples.

2. Rain fell that night, a fine, whispering rain. Many years later, Meggie had only to close her eyes and she could still hear it, like tiny fingers tapping on the windowpane.

3. A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments, and gray, steeple- crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods and other bareheaded, was assembled in the front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.

4. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

5. I ran my fingers across the page, feeling the dents where he a had pressed the pen to the paper so hard that it had nearly broken through.

6. A cold December wind was blowing, and Theresa Osborne crossed her arms ans she stared out over the water.

7. The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few years apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.

8. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single girl in possession of her right mind must be in want of a decent man.

9. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

10. Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.
~~~~~
a. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
b. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
c. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
d. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowlings
e. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
f. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
g. Inkheart, Corelia Funke
h. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
i. Me and Mr. Darcy, Alexandra Potter
j. Message in a Bottle, Nicholas Sparks

~~~~~
What are you answers? Some are sooo easy! What is your favorite fiction to read? Please share!

Wednesday - Series

Series. A good series of books can over take your life for months, sometimes even years. In Harry Potter's case, 7 years. Harry Potter is among my very favorite series. I would rank it above Twilight. I think that Rowlings development if characters over time was impressive. In this case seven books was perfect. Some even argue that the epilogue should have been continued in a whole other book.



I loved Twilight. I think Twilight is a great love story, and argue with me if you must, but 7 books would be overkill and I think Stephenie Meyer knows that so she is ending with 4. Four books will be perfect. I know many of you can't believe that I'm a Jacob Black fan, but what would the books be without him? Every good love story has to have a twist.


If you loved Twilight, I will say it again - read A Great and Terrible Beauty. There are only two in this series now and a 3rd one coming out later this year. Libba Bray is a witty author. She says in her biography that she loves Target. You can't argue with a girl who loves Target!





Now I must admit, most of the series I love have been LDS Fiction. If you aren't LDS you would still enjoy them, don't' let that scare you off. My top LDS Fiction series would have to be Work and the Glory. This nine book series I read last year. It took me a little over nine months and these are ones I could read and reread. I loved seeing the stories come to life and I was able to visit a lot of the sites where these saints lived. Church history had always been boring to me until I read these books.


Also top on my list of LDS fiction: Dean Hughes. The Hearts of the Children and The Children of the Promise were fun series to read. Each book follows the Thomas family of Salt Lake City. The Children of the Promise is set during WWII and The Hearts of the Children follows the next generation of children through the 1960's. My favorite out of the two had to be The Hearts of the Children, the 60's were fascinating times for me.



What is your favorite series? Do you love the time it takes to read one or find you want to move on to other books and other stories? What about children book series? I loved Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew, American Girls. Did you read series as a child?

Tuesday - Nonfiction

Ahhh, nonfiction, where to begin? I think that my true love for nonfiction began when we were living in Salt Lake City during our undergrad I was a frequent patron of the Downtown Salt Lake City library. This vast library had two huge floors of nonfiction books. I could have spent days and days touring the stacks of book shelves. Anytime I had a question about any subject I would literally drive myself downtown to the library and search out the section on these two floors. By this time my baby would be fussy and I would not be allowed to leisurely browse each book, so I would just check out as many as I could grab and head home to devour my treasures.

Nonfiction sounds boring to most people. Not to me. I love cook books, decorating books, parenting books, self help books, exercise books, health books, craft books, computer books, church, world and American history books, and organization books. Books that teach me how to take pictures, sell things on eBay, create an awesome blog, write well, be a patient mom, be a better wife, scrapbook, teach my kid to read.

I’ve also noticed a pattern that my nonfiction loves change over time. They are always evolving and changing to suite the needs of my life. We went on a vacation to Washington DC last summer. You can bet that I was a frequent visitor to the travel and American history section in the library. Since becoming a parent I have always loved reading new parenting books. I love reading different theories and strategies. I’ve recently started doing many at home school projects with my preschool child. I have never searched the education section of the library until the past month. Why have I lot looked there before?

For this post I have attempted to narrow it down to 5 of my current favorite nonfiction titles and a short quote from inside.

Raising Your Spirited Child
"Spirited – it feels good, sounds good, communicates the exciting potential of these children, and yet honestly captures the challenges faced by their parents. When we choose to see our children as spirited we give them and ourselves hope."
The Read Aloud/How to get your child to love reading
“Neither books nor people have Velcro sides –we don’t’ naturally attach to each other. In the beginning there must be a bonding agent – parent, relative, neighbor, teacher, or librarian – someone who attaches child to book.”
The Encyclopedia of Scrapbooking
Rise to the Divinity Within You, talks from the 2006 BYU Women’s Conference
“May we take time to build our testimonies and our faith, to love and serve, to learn something new, to build family relationships, and to find contentment and joy in who we are and our circumstances. When we spend our time well each day, the sun will shine, we will cast the gospel light into the dark places of this world, and we will make a difference.”
The Writer’s Idea Workshop
“Prompt: You’ve probably had many ideas for writing that you’ve never written down. Here’s your chance to do it. Brainstorm as many as you can recall. You might even want to write “Ideas” in a circle and create a “web” or “cluster” of thoughts around it”
~~~~~~~
So do you share my love for nonfiction or do you prefer fiction? What subjects are interesting to you? Do your interests change over time or stay the same?

Up tomorrow: Series

Monday - Children's Books

This week I thought I would feature my thoughts on different genera of books each day. I’m not an expert, and I hope each day will be something different to read. I hope you will enjoy. I chose to start the week with one of my favorites, children’s books.

We all know and I hope would agree, that reading should be an essential in any child’s life. I want to teach my children to love reading. I mean really love. I want them to grow up to be adults that know that reading completes them and makes them a round fulfilled person. Someday I want them to look back at their life and say, “My mom loved reading, and I do too!”
We all know that teaching is best set by example. I read every day in front of my children. Books, magazines, newspapers. But I also read to them. Here are a three of my favorite ideas that have helped me help them learn this love for reading.

Reading Caterpillar. I remember a similar thing like this being used like this during my school years. I started this with Gage during our preschool time each morning. We took old scrapbook paper and I cut a lot of circles. Gage helped me glue together a head and I explained the rules. For each book we read (or chapter, or part of a magazine) I would write it down on a circle and then it would help his reading caterpillar grow. He loves this and now he would rather read books so he can see his caterpillar grow than watch television. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be caterpillars. It could be trains, race cars, crowns for a princess, stars for the sky, balloons, flowers in a pot, get creative - you get the idea.

Books with themes. I got this idea from story time. Since we attend two different story times each week I thought it would be fun if I could find a way to bring the idea home. It’s easy. We read Sammy and his Robots, and then we make a robot. We read How to make an Apple Pie, and see the world, and then we make an apple pie. (We’ve been reading it all week and will be making the pie tonight for Family Home Evening!) We read Leaf Man and then collect fall leaves. I know this idea seems simple, and it is, but it works and it works with almost any book you pull off the shelf.

Chapter books. I didn’t think that my 3 year old was old enough for a chapter book. I’m not sure why, but I just didn’t think he would pay attention if we read one to him. Then I read The Read Aloud Handbook and my mind was changed. This book claims you can read chapter books to preschool age children and it will benefit their attention span and vocabulary. I decided to give it a try. We started with a very easy book, The Boxcar Children. It’s a series and it has to do with 4 orphaned children living in a train box car. This is Gage’s dream come true (not the orphaned part, but the living in a train!) We have seen Gage’s attention span lengthen in just the short time since we have started reading this book to him. We read a chapter or two each night, and then add it to his caterpillar. He curls up on our chest and listens and stares at the book as if it has pictures. He talks about it the next day; he remembers the story and loves this special time. Next on our list, Stewart Little, after which we will get a special movie night.

Books that help that I love:

The Read Aloud Handbook. This is one of most recent finds. I found so many good ideas and inspiring thoughts in this. Ideas about television, does and don’ts, lessons learned from Oprah and Harry Potter, and a surplus of books categorically listed.

How to get your child to love reading. Similar to the Read Aloud Handbook this has many helpful ideas and a treasury of books listed by subjects and reading level. This book also has great ideas for older children.

Kathy Ross Crafts Letter Sounds
Kathy Ross Crafts Letter Shapes
Both of these are fun books I found at our local library that have crafts for each letter shape or sound. I am hooked. Learning the alphabet is just one small step to this great big world of reading.

In the end we all are in different situations with different children. We try new things and we stick with the things that work. We each have different approaches to what works and what doesn’t. Since I love to share ideas – please share yours! What do children’s books mean to you?
Up tomorrow: Nonfiction