The countdown to the end of the school year continues. This morning my son is graduating from kindergarten, and as of 12:25 PST tomorrow, both kids will be out of school.
I already mentioned that I will be setting aside some time to read aloud to the kids, and I will be encouraging them to read on their own, too. I read somewhere on the Sonlight Forums about someone’s rule that the kids spend two hours reading or playing outside to earn one hour on the Wii or computer. I like that rule, and I will be adopting it for our house.
But I also want to set a good example for my kids. In my opinion, there’s no better way to encourage reading than to let your kids see you enjoying a good book. And I’m a voracious reader, so that won’t be a problem.
That said, though, I’ve been so focused on getting ready for homeschooling next year, I haven’t even considered what I want to read this summer. I came across the book The Backyard Homestead at Barnes & Noble yesterday, and it looked interesting. I’m going to see if my library carries it. But I need more ideas.
So today’s question is: What is on your reading list this summer? Or, if you have a book recommendation, what do you suggest I read this summer? I’m looking forward to your responses!
Photo by Zevotron.
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Your kids are out of school? Seems early! Our kids aren’t done until June 23 or so.
As for my summer reading, I will be looking into books on gardening and self improvement. This will include some re-reads.
DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad.com’s last blog post..Best Asset to Own?
The books I’m hoping to finish this summer are Atlas Shrugged, Charles Whedbee’s series of tales from the Outer Banks, and finally finish the Dark Tower series.
The book I always recommend to people looking for a good book to read is Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
My book recommendations are (if you have not already read them):
The Long Walk-a book you will not want to put down as you endure every step that this man walks as he escapes from a Siberian labor camp and starts walking to India
The Secret Life of Bees
Sarah’s Key
90 Minutes in Heaven
The Friday Night Knitting Club
Comfort Food
The Glass Castle
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
A Prisoner of Birth
My husband read _The Backyard Homestead_ and thought it was useful. It’s on my summer reading list. I’m going to finish up the first volume of William Bennett’s _America: The Last, Best Hope_. I’m really enjoying Bennett’s balanced approach to American history: he paints a realistic picture of America’s successes and failures. It doesn’t present a rosy-eyed, romantic view of America, but neither does it make America out to be the Great Satan. Besides those two I have decided.
If you like British literature and want a fun read, I highly recommend _To Say Nothing of the Dog_ by Connie Willis. It’ll have you in stitches! The Recorded Books audio book is *excellent*! A fun kid’s book is _The Teacher’s Funeral_ by Richard Peck. Hilarious!
Come visit my book blog for five years of (mostly) good reads. I don’t often read from the bestsellers list and I tend to enjoy mysteries a lot and juvenile fiction is lots of fun, too.
trek’s last blog post..Signs of summer?
I am an avid reader of adult, young adult and children’s literature. My summer reading list currently consists of:
Adult reading:
“A Venetian Affair,” “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” “The End of the Affair”
Young adult / children’s literature is “The Calder Mystery” and “Ink Death.” Cornelia Funke, who wrote the “Ink Heart” triology, is an amazing writer. I would highly recommend anything by her.
I just finished “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls. It’s a story of her life growing up in extreme poverty with parents who were (in my opinion) neglectful and dangerous. I heard her speak at a convention. Her story is funny, shocking and horrifying all at the same time. It made me really grateful for everything that I have.
I enjoy some old favorites and some new books also.
Great Lion of God and Dear and Glorious Physician, both by Taylor Caldwell
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Watchers, and Strangers (two books) by Dean Koontz
Hawaii
Space (both by James Michener)
The Tightwad Gazette
10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget
Swan, by Robert McCammon
among others
Angelsong’s last blog post..Finances are looking up
I have just finished reading Under God by Toby Mac and Michael Tait. An awsome book!!! I have been raving about this book to everyone!!! A must read!!
For a journey into simpler times, with a Christian perspective, try any of the Amish themed books by Wanda Brunstetter. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the ones I have read so far. If you read her “Brides of Lancaster” series, or the “Sisters” series, make sure to read them in order.
Another author I enjoyed with Christian themed books is Karen Kingsbury – several series and best to read each series in order. Very thought provoking and real modern world decisions.
On the other side of the coin, if you can get into nice vampires, the Stephenie Meyer series “Twilight, Eclipse, New Moon, and Breaking Dawn” was an I-can’t-put-the-book-down experience for me – and the last book is 700 pages, so it was a lot of reading in a short time. Read in order. The cool thing was that they are set in the Pacific NW and the first movie was filmed here also. I tend to plug Oregon or Washington into my search engine on my library page and read local stuff a lot :)
For the kids, I would suggest some local history books – The settlers of your area and some local books about the area you live in. There are some great gardening books for the 1st grade level too – do a library search.
Since I don’t watch TV, I read a LOT! And I’m going to check out some of the books listed by the readers above :) Thanks!
First and foremost I recommend The Reasonable Woman: A Guide to Intellectual Survival by Wendy McElroy. This is the absolute best introduction to honest intellectual discussion, the ideas of logic, and basic sound reasoning I have ever come across. Were I still teaching introduction to logic, or even any course requiring good arguments to be presented, I would be using this book.
Dissenting Electorate also by McElroy is well worth the read (in fact all of her books are very well researched and well written!)
On Frugality, if you have not already done so, read How to Survive without a Salary by Charles Long
Foraging: Free for the Eating Bradford Angier and of course Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons (or anything by either author)
A fun and useful read on food: Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World: Sue Shephard
Science oriented: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
and a little lighter but still fascinating: The New Alchemists: Breaking Through the Barriers of High Pressure by Robert M. Hazen. This is about the creation of man made diamonds..
I saw that someone recommended Rand, which is always good, and I’d like to add that you ought to check out Anthem, which is short but very powerful. It is available free online, which is even better.. :) http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Ayn_Rand/Anthem/ (there are other links as well.. )
And do check out GoodReads.com for other sources of inspiration. Wonderful free site for readers..
And if you like, I have begun a list of 100 must read books here: http://www.goodreads.com/revie.....read-books
Enjoy the reading!!
right now i have checked out from the library:
food matters by mark bittman
love the one you’re with by emily griffin
several horror/mysteries by douglas preston
and a friend lent me eat, pray, love
Carrie’s last blog post..Costco Trip 6/3
Hi, Lynnae, I just finished “River Rising” by Athol Dickson, for the monthly book club at our church. It’s always hard to find “clean” reads, and this was one of them. Very interesting and different fiction book that I really enjoyed. Kelsi is reading it right now and is liking it a lot, too.
Julieanne
http://www.homeschoolblogger.c.....eschooling
Julieanne’s last blog post..When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be a Chef! (e-book review)
I just finished Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center. I also recently read Happens Every Day by Isabell Gillies and The Package Deal by Izzy Rose. All excellent books!
Amy Reads Good Books’s last blog post..The Package Deal
I’m always the last of my friends to read anything, so my apologies if this was LAST summer’s book, but I am really loving Eat, Pray, Love. And of course the Tightwad Gazette is always handily nearby!
We’re teaching our first class of Dave Ramsey’s financial Peace Univ this Sept. So I recommend Financial Peace revisited. This book gets us motivated to stay on track even though the only debt we have now is our house.
I’m currently reading A Simple Life by Larry Roth. I read this several years ago but it has some great info about different ways to move towards a simpler life. One chapter is written by Amy Dacyzyn of Tightwad Gazette fame and another chapter is written by Vickie Robin of Your Money or Your life. This is a very good book
Oh! Also we have read The Richest Man in Babylon. Originally written in the 1920’s but still applies to today!!!
Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion. It’s a travel memoir and one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. It also has wonderful life lessons about what’s truly important. We just read it for book club and the author called in. A great evening and a great book.
I love reading so my list is fairly long. Plus, I’m working on my Masters of Christians Studies, which adds a few:
1. Getting Things Done by David Allen – trying to get organized :-)
2. Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck – This is my professional book right now
3. The Art of Personal Evangelism – for class
4. Missional Renaissance – also for class
5. Christian Witness in a Postmodern World by Harry Lee Poe – one more for class
6. Walking With God by John Eldredge – This one has changed my life dramatically
probably one of my favorite summer books is :
To Kill a Mockingbird.
haven’t read it in years but it was always one my my favorites.
Currently reading a book called “The age of anxiety”, which discusses at length McCarthyism and its long-term effect on political divide in the US. Rather interesting book so far.
I also enjoy reading books about the regional history of Tennessee since that is where I’m from.
For those of you who homeschool, you might want to check out a series called “Foxfire”, which is a series written about independent living and living off the land. Primarily about the Southern Appalachian region and its people. Shows you everything from canning, preserving meat, making musical instruments, and so on.
I’ll definitely second the FOXFIRE series… mine are from the 70’s – very very dogearred and well used :)
Elizabeth Berg’s books are great. I am going to try to read a lot more of them this summer, I have already read four of them (they read quickly).
How could I forget! You’d LUV Jane Kirkpatrick’s books. Read in order – lots of Oregon and Oregon history in them and great stories.
I’m reading Thirteen Reasons Why, The Jane Austen Book Club, & A Fortunate Age (don’t recommend that one) right now. I really want to pick up the Coffeehouse murder mysteries, the third Sophie Katz novel, The Help by Katherine Stockett, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and 10-10-10 by Suzy Welch. Here’s hoping I get to them all.
I’m doing research on a variety of topics for green and socially conscious projects…so I may only get a few books in for pure reading pleasure.
If I was to let everyone know about one book…it’s Ishmael by David Quinn – the story about givers and takers on the plant through the eyes of a Gorilla. Quite a story. Enjoy
simply stephen’s last blog post..The Benefits of Planting a Vegetable Garden
I have over 100 books that I have picked up at book sales and the local flea market the last couple of years for about $35 total. (Love those $2 for a bag sales!) Next up on the list is Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation. Then the first of the Riverworld books by Philip Jose Farmer. I haven’t decided beyond that as it will depend on my mood and whatever else I pick up – more book sales coming up soon to add to the collection!
I just finished reading “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. A great mystery set in Sweden.
The Week in Review: Money Issues #41 (side note: This ain’t yo papa’s blog!): http://tinyurl.com/o9zlaa #moneyre
too many to list, but I have a goal of reading two books a week. One for information (like on parenting, budgeting, etc) and one for pleasure.
Boudaries is one on my for info. list
This way by summer’s end I will have read 24 books. I read fast so it is doable, if I forgo the evening tv time. Which will be so much more beneficial anyway.
Rebecca Rivera’s last blog post..our homeschool shelves
oops! the Robert McCammon book is Swan Song, not Swan.
Angelsong’s last blog post..Finances are looking up
I am currently reading the “Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming” which is very interesting. I have a couple more books from the Politically Incorrect Guide series that I plan on reading this summer as well as some fun fiction. I’m also reading “Animal Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kinsolver and “White Rose” by Amy Ephron. My husband and I have a contest to see who can read more books each year. It’s a fun competition, plus it expands our knowledge and acts as cheap (or free) entertainment.
Happy Reading!
Here are my recommendations:
Strictly for fun:
“The Book of Hours” by T. Davis Bunn (Fiction) Also anything by Bunn
“The Secret Lives of Bees” (Fiction)
“Animal, Vegetable, Miracle A Year of Food Life” by Barbara Kingsolver
Educational:
“Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
“Eternity in Their Hearts The Untold Story of Christianity Among Folk Religions of Ancient People” by Don Richardson (probably not in the public libray but I have a copy you can borrow)
Heavy theology:
“Satan and the Problem of Evil” by Gregory A Boyd
Thought provoking:
“The Shack” by William Young (I recommend this book but it was not easy for me to read. It deals with the problem of evil in a allegorical way that some Christians find challenging. Though the story is fiction it is real enough to be uncomfortable. Still I recommend it.)
Lunette’s last blog post..Homemade Honey Graham Crackers
I am reading the Tightwad Gazette. It’s a classic and I recommend it.
I recently finished Designated Daughter, which I highly recommend to all daughters & even sons. Mothers should read it, too.
I’m almost finished reading Lucky Man, Michael J. Fox’s memoirs. Did you know that his middle name doesn’t actually begin with J?
Right now I’m reading Joel Rosenberg’s EpiCenter, about how the prophesies in the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible are coming true in the Middle East. I’m also reading his End Times fiction series, currently on book #2, The Last Days. My kids have added several books to my pile that they like and want me to read, and I also intend to read the Preparing Your Son/Daughter for Every Young Man’s/Woman’s Battle series. That and whatever strikes my fancy at the library!
Carolyn’s last blog post..A Week Alone