Thursday, July 09, 2009

Visiting an old friend!

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You probably think I'm talking about an actual living breathing person, but I'm not, I'm talking about something else, something that doesn't speak to me (not in the sense of actual words), something that doesn't move, it just sits there but oh does it bring so much joy to my heart.

If you know me well you know that I am happiest when I'm with my family in my home and surrounded by books, I'm pretty sure I've given it away now........The Library!

It had been about a month or so since I'd been there and when I walked in through those doors today it took everything inside me not to let out a little whoop and dance a little jig.
I'm sure my family appreciates that, I have no doubt they would have disappeared and acted like they didn't know me if I had done it LOL

It was time to go fill up my book bag with little treasures for my Summer Reading List and while I was there, we picked up the kid's Summer Reading Program baggies, they're so excited to participate again being that it was such a hit last year.

But enough talking let me show you what I got and a lot of these have been recommended to me by other bloggers so I'm really eager to get started.

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The Forgotten Garden (This is the one I'm reading first, I am dying to read it)
In 1913, a little girl arrives in Brisbane, Australia, and is taken in by a dockmaster and his wife. She doesn’t know her name, and the only clue to her identity is a book of fairy tales tucked inside a white suitcase. When the girl, called Nell, grows up, she starts to piece together bits of her story, but just as she’s on the verge of going to England to trace the mystery to its source, her grandaughter, Cassandra, is left in her care. When Nell dies, Cassandra finds herself the owner of a cottage in Cornwall, and makes the journey to England to finally solve the puzzle of Nell’s origins. Shifting back and forth over a span of nearly 100 years, this is a sprawling, old-fashioned novel, as well-cushioned as a Victorian country house, replete with family secrets, stories-within-stories, even a maze and a Dickensian rag-and-bone shop. All the pieces don’t quite mesh, but it’s a satisfying read overall, just the thing for readers who like multigenerational sagas with a touch of mystery.


Pioneer Farm: Living on a Farm in the 1880s
Uses the story of a young girl and her family to describe life on a small farm in Minnesota in the nineteenth century.


Along the Santa Fe Trail: Marion Russell's Own Story
In 1852, seven-year-old Marion Russell, her mother and brother traveled in a train of 500 wagons along the Santa Fe Trail, from Fort Leavenworth, Kans., to California. Wadsworth, whose children's biographies include accounts of John Muir and Rachel Carson, has adapted Russell's memoirs of the tumultuous journey, which were transcribed by her daughter in the 1920s. As she explains in a foreword, Wadsworth preserved Marion's "eloquent voice" as much as possible. Her flowing first-person narrative contains lovely descriptive passages ("The vast open country that is gone from us forever rippled like a silver sea in the sunshine"), as well as such engaging particulars as Russell's frustration at not being able to reach all the buttons in the back of her dress ("Why couldn't they have been put in front where I could get at them?"). Watling's art pays similar attention to period details. Whether depicting a glorious sunset on the plains or the bustling streets of Santa Fe, his polished colored ink and colored pencil pictures are historically accurate and filled with energy.


The Oregon Trail
In 1846, a young man of privilege left his comfortable Boston home to embark on a strenuous overland journey to the untamed West. This timeless account of Parkman's travels and travails provides an expressive portrait of the rough frontiersmen, immigrants, and Native Americans he encounters, set against the splendor of the unspoiled wilderness.


The Story of Women who shaped the West
Fox chooses a few people to illustrate why women in general went west and what they found. An abrupt ending spotlights Annie Oakley. Battle covers the events and personalities of this bloody two-day Tennessee conflict and its significance in Civil War history. An additional source to more general books on that war, its focus on a single event demonstrates this series' strength.


The Thirteenth Tale
Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.

There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:

"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."

She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."

"I am a biographer, I work with facts."

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
Kalish's memoir of her Iowa childhood, set against the backdrop of the Depression, captures a vanished way of traditional living and a specific moment in American history in a story both illuminating and memorable. Kalish lived with her siblings, mother and grandparents-seven in all-both in a town home and, in warmer weather, out on a farm. The lifestyle was frugal in the extreme: "The only things my grandparents spent money on were tea, coffee, sugar, salt, white flour, cloth and kerosene." But in spite of the austere conditions, Kalish's memories are mostly happy ones: keeping the farm and home going, caring for animals, cooking elaborate multi-course meals and washing the large family's laundry once a week, by hand. Here, too, are stories of gossiping in the kitchen, digging a hole to China with the "Big Kids" and making head cheese at butchering time.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories.

Daughter of Grace The Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister
When Corrie Belle Hollister and her younger brothers and sisters unexpectedly found their father on the streets of Miracle Springs, their shocking reunion was tentative at best. It would take the full story of My Father's World for them to discover each other in their hearts and to start to become the family God wanted them to be.

Wild Grows the Heather in Devon
Bestselling novelist Michael Phillips crafts a new historical fiction series, "The Secrets of Heathersleigh Hall", set in 20th-century England. With the coming of World War I, Amanda Rutherford returns from London to Devon to become Lady Heathersleigh. But her cousin Geoffrey comes forward claiming to be the true heir. Will he foil her legacy in the old family estate?.

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What do you think? Did I get a good variety of books or not?

I'm really excited to get started and I think after The Forgotten Garden, my next one will be the Little Heathens.

What's on your reading list for this summer? And what kind of a reader are you, fiction, non fiction, hardcore heavy reading that makes you think and what about reading 1 or 2 books at the same time, do you ever do that or do you stick to just one?

Let's chat about books, you know it's one of my favorite subjects.

16 comments:

Pom Pom said...

Hello Sandra,
I think we visited the library on the same day! I am reading Guernsey, too. I told my mom about it on Monday and when I called her today, she'd already ordered it, received it, and read it! It is VERY good! I like your book list. I put my library finds on my blog a few days ago. Enjoy! I am a book worm, too.

YayaOrchid said...

Hey, Sandra! I think my favorite would be the 'forgotten garden'. Enjoy your Summer reading!!

Wendi said...

Thanks for listing all of these wonderful books. I will be adding a few of them to my library list.

Lulu said...

ooooh Sandra, they all sound so interesting..i would love to read the first one..
happy reading.

daquirigoddess said...

I try to take my daughter at least every two weeks. I am in a book club and we just celebrated our fourth anniversary. I would love to pass on this great hobby to her. The best book we have read thus far was Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. The author was so nice and even called in to do a discussion for our group. We read the Thirteenth Tale and really enjoyed that.

Heart2Heart said...

Sandra,

I am going to have to check out the Forgotten Garden. Even before you gave me a glimpse of what is inside, the title sparked my curiousity.

I love books by Debbie Macrombie and her tales of Blossum Street is amazing. Appartently there is a series she devotes to the people that live there.

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Anonymous said...

I loved this post!

I read "The Thirteenth Tale" and really enjoyed it! I love the WAY it is written - the words chosen.

I have heard good things about the Potato Peel book -- I'm curious to hear what you think.

The one which peaked my interest the most is the one you plan to read first -- if your review of it is good, it will be added to my TBR pile!

Sherry

Susanne said...

I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It was very, very good. I wasn't too sure I would get into it because of the style it is written in but once I got going on it it was hard to put down. The characters drew me right in!

The rest of your list sounds great. I've already changed my list from the last time you asked this question. LOL. It's in my sidebar.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, I love books too!! I especially love books about Christian womanhood and non-fiction craft books, like knitting and doll-making.

You have chosen a great selection there! I read 'The Oregon Trail' in my schooldays, and I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember a lot about it now. I ought to try to get it at my library and re-read it!

Great post! :)

Lara said...

I love books as well and I've always loved going to the library. My grandmother always tells us that the first time she took my brother, my sister and I to a library, we were all under 3, it was in South Africa, and the lady at the library told her that it was not a good idea to go in there with three small children. But we all behaved very well and we lovedbeing there. We were at the library yesterday, we usually go there once a week.

Bonnie said...

Wow ... you got a great selection ! I'm going to see if I can find The Forgotten Garden. Have you started it ? Is it good ? I can't wait to hear what you have to say about each of these after you finish them.

I don't have a reading list ... too much pressure ! ha ha. I do always have a pile of books on the go. Right now I'm reading a lot of art books ... about different artists and styles of painting. I also read a lot of fiction. I love true stories too though. I read self help books too but usually only half way. Bad habit but one I've come to accept !

I am totally with you on the do a little jig after being away for the library ... I love the library too. LOVE IT !!! I think I have visited most of the libraries in our area and surrounding areas. There are quite a few !! It's my goal to visit them all !! :)

Kar said...

Sounds like you got some really good books to keep you busy. What a FAB way to keep out of the heat! I haven't read much lately with all the projects that I've been working on. Maybe when the weather cools for fall/winter, I might sit down to read.

Have a great day & weekend!

Donnetta said...

Oh.. books and the library.. another book lover here!

I wish I had more time to read than I do!! Looks like you have a fantastic pile to begin working on.

Tracy said...

You know, I adore books. I spend a lot of time with my nose in one. I NEVER go to the library. I don't because in Australia public libraries don't stock much of a range of Christian fiction.

All my books comes from my friend Rel. I've a pile to be reviewed, for her blog (Relz Reviewz). And another pile she's given me cos she wanted to be rid of them. I have enough to keep me going for months!

Michele said...

This sounds like an awesome reading list.
I have a confession... I only take one book out of the library at a time because I usually get sidetracked and can't even finish one book before the due date! The last three books I checked out, I returned a few days late. Ooops!
Maybe this is because I have two or three books going at the same time. Many of my friends don't understand how I can do this, keeping all the stories straight! LOL
Enjoy your finds!

Unknown said...

WOW! What a pile! I have a whole bunch of missionary stories that my sister borrowed me that I am reading! Say, I tried your slow cooker potatoes...they were a HUGE hit...the ones with ham, rosemary, bay leaf, & chicken broth! Hubby & BIL ate almost the whole crock pot full in one sitting! :)YUM!