Bout of Books Day 6

I just barely finished my audio book!  The book is pretty good..probably 3.5 out of 5 stars by the time I get to doing a review--probably next week sometime when Bout of Books is over.  I'm just proud that I got it done.  That's actually why this post is so late--too late for Bout of Books--is because I just barely finished.  So to make sure that this post ends up on today, that's probably all I'm going to say. I'm going to probably pick a new audio book to start listening to and go keep cleaning.  I have gotten a lot of the kitchen done with the need to declutter!

Bout of Books Day 5

I have about 45 minutes or so left of my audio book, The Wish List.  Too bad I'm falling asleep while I am writing because I would probably try to finish it tonight. Oh well--probably tomorrow. Today's challenge is your book in pictures.  So let's see what we can find:

http://www.catholic.com/blog/michelle-arnold/the-debate-at-the-pearly-gates

http://chevsy.deviantart.com/art/devil-born-from-flame-105039846

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Insane_old_man.jpg

Bout of Books Day 4

I am continuing to keep working on reading The Wish List by Eoin Colfer.  I should finish this week if I just keep going at it. I thought it would be a good book to do today's synopsis challenge on from Lulo FanGirl. I need to write a summary in 3-5 sentences.  Here goes:

Meg is a teenager girl that has gotten into the wrong crowd that do a lot of criminal activity.  This activity causes an older man to be injured and her death. For Meg's life, it is not clear if she should go to heaven or hell, and she gets a chance to correct it by helping the injured older man fix the things that he has regretted over his lifetime--his wish list.

Tired tonight...so it is going to be short today.

Bout of Books Day 3

Day 3 :)

So here we are on day 3...just got done with an awesome Twitter chat! In terms of my progress yesterday--I did not get very far, probably about a half an hour of reading on the drive.  I need to really close this computer, turn off the noise and loose myself in a book! I should probably grade a bit too--or clean--or something.  My idea of getting going on the first full week of the New Year with all of these new habits is NOT going well! Okay self-ranting moment over.

From Goodreads

From Goodreads

Today's challenge is a character coupling hosted by Writing My Own Fairy Tale.  The idea is to hook up characters from two different books.  Sounds like fun, though it took me a bit to think of who to connect.  I would totally hook up Harry Potter with Alyss Heart, because of what they have in common but also how different their lives are.  They both use magic, have both lost their parents of were killed by their arch nemesis and have to fight the arch nemesis for control over their domain.  They also both know what it is like to live in a non-magic world.  However, there are differences in how their magic works, and I think they would both benefit from having someone that understood their past experiences and support the sacrifices they have to make.

Bout of Books Day 2

At least this is the only thing that isn't really falling off the New Year's Resolutions idea...I have been wanting to read more and work less into the evening so my house can be a bit cleaner--but no such luck yet.  Maybe one day.

Courtesy of Goodreads

I did get a bit more of Wish List read yesterday. Now that I'm finally in to it more, it is actually getting a bit easier to follow the audio book and plot.  I was a little worried it was going to be a book that I wouldn't be a big fan of.

The challenge for today is pretty cool--Top 10 Recommendations in a Bookstore from Tree of Reverie.  First of all I have to say that it really depends on what department that I'm in and who I am recommending to. Since I am a teacher I am often recommending books to students.  Right now they are working on a 40 book challenge which also has them do a variety of genres.  So I organized my list by genre.

Realistic Fiction:
1. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
I chose this book because I love the story--it really keeps you guessing.  It also starts off a quartet, and now apparently there is a fifth book so I should stop saying that but then you have a lot more books to read!
2. Angels Watching Over Me by Lurlene McDaniel
I chose this book because it is a story of perseverance and not giving up.
3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
I chose this book because it is an issue that we really need to do need to talk about and I think this book gives you a perspective that you don't get everyday.

Traditional Literature:
4. The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
It is a short book!  You probably already know the story--but that you can get through another book.
5. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Anne is a great character that has a lot of trouble growing up--so figure out how she survived and what she had to go through!
6. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
There are four girls that all go through different experiences.

Science Fiction
7. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The boy who is chosen out of nowhere to become the next space warrior against the Buggers!

Historical Fiction:
8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This is a great book about the Holocaust from a different perspective--look at the relationship between the characters and you will learn a lot and have an awesome book at the same time.

Fantasy:
9. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
This is a great book about the fairy world and other animals that live all around us--what are you missing on a regular basis?

Biography/Autobiography:
10. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
This is a girl who was about your age--who had to go through the Holocaust inside a very small space as she hid from the Nazis--how did she do it?

Each question that the challenge asked too:

• Why did you choose these books?--I wrote this underneath each book
• What would you say about each of these books when recommending them to a customer or library patron?--Honestly I would say exactly why I picked it and probably a bit of a summary so that they know what it is about.
• What would be close favourites for book recommendations that didn’t make it onto your list? The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery is my absolute favorite book. I was thinking about poetry books because these are the books that I need to make sure they read--Casey at Bat came to mind too.
• Is there anything else that you’d like to mention about the books you’ve chosen to include on this list? Bottom line--pick a book and if you don't like it then pick something else!

Bout of Books Day 1

So as the first day of Bout of Books, this is typically when I plan what I'm going to read and set goals.  This time around Bout of Books felt that they didn't want to set goals.  So I'm not going to set goals specifically as a to-read list for this week.

1. Wish List by Eoin Colfer (Audio book)
2. Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor
3. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by 
4. Book of Mormon
5. New audio book (Because I hope to finish Wish List during the week)

There are two challenges for today that I thought I would pop on to because they are both pretty low-key and quick to do.

The Book That is talking about New Year's Resolutions with books.  One of the things that I have been thinking about is a challenge that I found out about on Prequel and Sequel Challenge Novel HeartBeat and read some series that I've been wanting to read again/finish etc.

1. Anne of Green Gables series--reread as an adult--I've done #1-3 as an adult a few times but not past that
2. Harry Potter series--I've never actually read #5-7 a second time after publishing--I've started #1-4 a few times to go through the whole series and I just have lost steam each time
3. The Face on the Milk Carton--there was a new conclusion book that I found that I want to read--and I want to go back and reread the first books again
4. Finish Fablehaven 
5. Re-read and read Dan Brown Robert Langdon series
6. Finish Looking Glass series

Caught RedHanded is a Book Scavenger Hunt....the link has the specifics of what to find. This is what I found: 

My finds--explained below

Book with the color yellow: Silver Linings Playbook

Find an author's name with the letter "S": Sarah Dessen--Just Listen

Find a book with a female protagonist: The Face on the Milk Carton

Find the longest book you own: Norton American Literature Anthology

Find a book with a map in it or on it: Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Find a book with a face on it: Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl 

Find something on your shelf that isn't a book: My bookshelves have a lot of things on top--typically shoe boxes that store mementos/scrapbook items

Excited for the upcoming week of reading!!!

What Can We Learn from President Ezra Taft Benson?

So as my regular readers will know, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will often refer to my experiences with my faith and beliefs on the blog.  Today I thought that I would start 2015 off with some of my favorite things that I learned today about President Ezra Taft Benson.

President Benson was the 13th prophet and president of the restored Church.  Members of the Church believe that a prophet is God's spokesman on the Earth here for us.  In our third hour meetings this year, we will be studying some of the topics that President Benson discussed during the time he was an apostle and prophet.  An apostle, like those of old, are special witnesses of the Savior.  I will be spending a lot of time getting to know President Benson as I teach these lessons to the sisters of our congregation.  I am especially excited for this year because I actually remember a bit about President Benson.  He is the first prophet that we have studied that I was actually alive for!

The beginning of the book always starts with a biographical sketch of the prophet and that was what our lesson was on today.There are so many stories I could share. Here are three inspiring quotes and facts about this Idaho farmer boy for today and I will share more on a different day.

• He was born 11 3/4 lbs.--that is huge! They weren't sure if he was going to live because of his size either. 



He really does look like a big baby! This was taken in 1900, he was born in August 1899.
https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-of-presidents-of-the-church-ezra-taft-benson/the-life-and-ministry-of-ezra-taft-benson?lang=eng

• His father was called away to a mission when he was 12.  As a result, young Ezra kept up with the family farm.  He later reflected, 

“I suppose some in the world might say that his acceptance of that call was proof he did not really love his family. To leave seven children and an expectant wife at home alone for two years, how could that be true love?

“But my father knew a greater vision of love. He knew that ‘all things shall work together for good to them that love God’ (Romans 8:28). He knew that the best thing he could do for his family was to obey God.

“While we missed him greatly during those years, and while his absence brought many challenges to our family, his acceptance proved to be a gift of charity. Father went on his mission, leaving Mother at home with seven children. (The eighth was born four months after he arrived in the field.) But there came into that home a spirit of missionary work that never left it. It was not without some sacrifice. Father had to sell our old dry farm in order to finance his mission. He had to move a married couple into part of our home to take care of the row crops, and he left his sons and wife the responsibility for the hay land, the pasture land, and a small herd of dairy cows.

“Father’s letters were indeed a blessing to our family. To us children, they seemed to come from halfway around the world, but they were only from Springfield, Massachusetts; and Chicago, Illinois; and Cedar Rapids and Marshalltown, Iowa. Yes, there came into our home, as a result of Father’s mission, a spirit of missionary work that never left it.

“Later the family grew to eleven children—seven sons and four daughters. All seven sons filled missions, some of them two or three missions. Later, two daughters and their husbands filled full-time missions. The two other sisters, both widows—one the mother of eight and the other the mother of ten—served as missionary companions in Birmingham, England.

“It is a legacy that still continues to bless the Benson family even into the third and fourth generations. Was not this truly a gift of love?

I just loved that quote because it really shows how one event--especially particularly trying events--can bring so many blessings and sometimes blessings we don't even know are possible until we see the after affects.

• Another story from President Benson that I loved was his account of working with the young men and with Scouts.  He commented,

“One of the joys of working with boys is the fact that you do get your pay as you go along. You have an opportunity to observe the results of your leadership daily as you work with them through the years and watch them grow into stalwart manhood, accepting eagerly its challenges and responsibilities. Such satisfaction cannot be purchased at any price; it must be earned through service and devotion. What a glorious thing it is to have even a small part in helping to build boys into men, real men.”

This is a real reason that I love work with the youth--you really feel like you can shape their lives and they are so receptive to it!  President Benson visited the ward again much later in life and asked after the 24 boys that he instructed.  22 of them had remained in the Church--he tracked down the other 2, helped them come back to the Church, and sealed them to their spouses--how cool is that!