36. Aunt Dimity: Snowbound – 3 – Nancy Atherton – I’m starting to get tired of Lori Shepherd. This just was not a fun mystery at all
37. Calico Bush – 4 – Rachel Fields – I had this for a read-aloud, but I knew the boys would not like it. I think I was right – they would have hated it. But I really liked it. Didn’t end the way I wanted it to but still a good story.
38. The Duggars: 20 And Counting – 4.5 – Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar – I really enjoyed this book, much more than I expected. It really went into their history, how they met, and starting their family, what their life is like, daily routines, child-rearing and homeschooling activities, etc. I had a whole new appreciation of them when I finished.
39. Daniel Boone: Frontiersman – 3 – Geoff and Janet Benges – from the Heroes of History series. Read aloud with the older boys to tie in with our history studies. So far we are finding that we like the missionary biographies better.
40. Johnny Tremain – 5 – Esther Forbes – history read aloud. This was one of my favorite books as a child.
41. Tea Time For The Traditionally Built – 4.5 – Alexander McCall Smith – the next installment in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. One of the better ones.
42. In Praise of Stay-At-Home-Moms – 3 – Dr. Laura Schlessinger – it was interesting, but I’ve read so much of this sort of thing before that there was nothing new. It would definitely be encouraging to new moms or someone considering being a SAHM. It reminded me of a secular “Created to Be His Helpmeet” (Debi Pearl).
43. Losing Mum and Pup – 4.5 – Christopher Buckley – a memoir of the year in which his mother Patricia Buckley and father William F. Buckley both passed away. Probably only interesting if you are a Buckley enthusiast.
44. Babe The Gallant Pig – 4 – what a sweet book! The movie did not do it justice. This was a bedtime read aloud with the boys.
45. Jim and Casper Go to Church – 4 – Jim Henderson and Matt Casper – interesting premise – a retired pastor hires an atheist to spend a year with him, visiting different types of Protestant churches around the country, and getting his “outsider” viewpoint on them.
46. Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created her – 3.5 – Robin Gerber – written very matter-of-factly, could have been more exciting. Definitely no “novelization” to it, but still an interesting history, if you really care about Barbie.
47. A Comrade Lost and Found: A Bejing Story – 2 – Jan Wong – in the 1970’s Wong was an ethnic Chinese Candadian, studying in Bejing. She was an ardent Maoist, and when approached by a Chinese student wanting to emigrate to Canada, she ratted her out to the Communist Party. This is her search for her 30+ years later. Mainly it is the story of the city of Bejing. This took me over a week, and I ended up skimming the last ¼ or so. Not fascinating, hard to follow, really hard to care. I guess I was expecting more Red Scarf Girl.
48. Excellent Women - 2.5 - Barbara Pym – from the back, “A witty comedy about the complications of being a spinster (and a religious one, at that) in England in the 1950’s”. I was expecting something along the lines of a Miss Read/Thrush Green story, but it was really pretty boring.
