Reading Log for March, 2011

I am going to digress from my personal examination for a morning, and list my reading log for this month - remember, 1-5 on the ratings, with 1s almost never showing up (I can't bring myself to waste the time finishing anything that bad) and 5 being life-changing (or really close to it!).

And here it is - March, 2011!


18. Death of a Witch – 4.25 – M.C. Beaton - more Hamish Macbeth

19. Death of a Valentine – 4.25 – M.C. Beaton – and a little more Hamish

20. Anne’s House of Dreams – 4 – LC Montgomery – Anne is married and in her first home. It picked up the last 1/3 of the book, but was pretty slow until then.

21. No Distance Too Far: Home To Blessing 2 – 3 – Lauraine Snelling – this is the third spinoff of the Red River series, not counting the Dakota Treasure series, which had a lot of similarities. Let’s put it this way – I knew how this was going to end. I even know how the next book, which has not yet been published, is going to end. After this many books there are so many characters that it is hard to keep track of. Anyway, it wasn’t great.

22. The Swiss Family Robinson – 4 – Johann David Wyss – a classic, but my gosh this was a lonnnngggg read aloud. The boys and I really didn’t get into it for about 150 pages. Some love it, some don’t. We ended up “liking it a lot”.   As a side note, we also watched the Disney movie.  I would say, definitely read the book BEFORE the movie - they are very, very different! The movie was still fun, but it would have been more fun without three people saying, "That's not how it happened in the book!" through the whole thing.

23. Death of a Chimney Sweep: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery – 4.5- M.C. Beaton – definitely one of the best – and it is the last, for now! Off to find a new obsession.


24. My Life From Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time – 4.75 – Gesine Bullock-Prado – very good – story of Gesine Bullock (Sandra’s sister). Gesine had gone to work for Sandra’s production company in Hollywood, and eventually couldn’t take it or LA anymore. She and her husband bought a storefront in a small town in Vermont and opened a pastry shop. Very entertaining read.



25. Plain Girl – 4.5 – Virginia Sorensen – a Sonlight read aloud, that I read to myself! Very moving story about a young Amish girl in the 1950s who is forced to go to public school by the authorities. It is a childrens’ chapter book, so there is a happy ending.

26. French Women Don’t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure – 4 – Mireille Guiliano – this is a re-read from a few years ago. I don’t like most of her recipes, and many of her tips are not going to fit into my life – I cannot go to a local market every day to squeeze the fruit – but it is an encouraging little book about taking all things in moderation and being realistic.

27. A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table – 3 – Molly Wizenberg – hmmmm. I liked the first half of the book, but the 2nd half was after she met her future husband. Maybe I am getting to be a prude – no, maybe the Holy Spirit is convicting me – that I do not care to read accounts of people who are fornicating and talking about it like it is no big deal, or even appropriate. It wasn’t graphic or anything, not at all. But them living together was just presented as being so wonderful, to be in love, and living together, and it just bothered me. Up to the first half, when she was talking about her family and growing up, I’d give it 4.5 – after the future husband showed up it dropped to a 3.

I would love it if you posted some of your reads for this month in the comments!