Little Britches

By: Ralph MoodyI joined a book club and this was the first book I participated in. An autobiography of a boy whose family moved west to start a ranch. More of a coming-of-age story. It was a good book. Not one I would rave about, but one that I am glad I read.
It is also the first book we included in Serenitie's Thomas Jefferson Education approach. It took her awhile to get through it but once she did Matt and I sat down with her and we had a really good book discussion about it. I was impressed by the depth of some of her questions and thoughts on the book. I can honestly say that all three of us enjoyed that time together. It made me think of how family time might have been spent before television and video games entered and took over the home. The only complaint was from Michael who felt left out because he had not read the book.
One of the things I walked away with was the manner in which the father disciplined the son when needed. He rarely spoke or acted in anger, he always had the most profound things to say that made the boy think about his actions rather than coming out straight-way and telling him the ways in which the action was wrong. You could see that the boy truly respected his father and that the father's disappointment in him was often enough to get the point across without anything else being said or done. I am striving to be more mindful in this area. To make my children think rather than just yell at them and shame them into guilt. It's hard.

Pushed

A book detailing how our current society pushes women into believing that the Dr. is the professional and knows the best way to deliver a woman of her child. Thus resulting in generations of women following their OB and losing the ability to listen to their body and perform a function that they were created and designed to perform. As you would guess I loved this book. It's references were impeccable and it was thoroughly researched. This is one I will own for my own library and will read again.

The Never Ending Story

Michael Ende and Ralph Manheim
Even if you have seen the movie, the book is a must read!! the movie has always been a favorite of mine and so when our book club choose it I was very excited to read it. Little did I know that the movie does no justice whatsoever to the book. The movie covers about the first 1/4th of the book and by this time Matt and I are looking at the 350 pages that were left and wondering what they could possibly cover.
There is a lot more to the adventure, but aside from that the book is actually very deep in symbolism and analogy, things that were absent from the movie. We had so many deep, thoughtful discussions that could actually be compared to our every-day lives. It reminded me a lot of the Narnia books.
I am so glad I had the chance to experience this book with my children!

Birth

Birth: The surprising history of how we are born
Tina Cassidy
You can probably tell that my reading choices tend to go along themes. Now that I am expecting again it is no surprise to those who know me that I am once again hungry for all books regarding pregnancy and birth.
This one was incredibly interesting and took us on a tour of how women have given birth throughout time. From the victorian era when the elite women were considered to fragil to give birth without the assistance of a "professional", to our Grandmother's era where women went through "twilight birth" without having any memory of having given birth at all. To our mothers generation where "natural birth" once again came back in style with midwives, then to our generation where women are treated as lab rats (my opinion, not the books) by a professional male who has never been through birth himself and is reluctant to spend more than half an hour with you in his office at a time.
It was easy reading and very enlightening.