Book Week - Day 5

Yes, I missed a day. Sorry! You can dock my pay if you want to.

I first started to hear about There Is No Me Without You through the various adoption blogs and websites that I frequent, especially ones that are for Ethiopia. Since I am cheap and our library didn't have it at the time, I never read it.

One day my sister-in-law Audra (who I believe had just started the adoption process for Ethopia) mentioned that she was reading a great book and told me about it. I was so happy when I realized it was this one. I borrowed it after she finished, and it lived up to my expectations.

It is a little slow in the beginning when it talks about Ethiopia's history, but getting through that part really does set up a solid context for the rest of the story that the book tells - a story of one woman who changed the lives of thousands of AIDS orphans.

It is a story that is especially close to my heart now that Levi and Audra have three beautiful Ethiopian children.

When I finished it, I wanted to change the world, and believed that I could.

Have you ever read a book that inspired you that way?

Keepin' It Real Wednesday Meets Day 3 of Book Week

Let's be real here,

Chad and I haven't always had this perfect marriage ;o)

I would even say that for the first five years of our marriage, neither of us were completely happy with our relationship.

When it all came to a head, we read this book together,

and it completely changed our marriage and our lives.

I swear I don't use the term "life-changing" very often, but this book was exactly that.

If I weren't afraid of offending people, I would buy this book for every new couple as a wedding gift.

And even if you really don't "need it," it is downright interesting.

So here comes your own chance to keep it real -

Any self help books you have read that you can give an enthusiastic thumbs up to?

And let me just add, if you think, "Getting my husband to read a marriage book would be like pulling teeth"...yeah, that is pretty much what it was like, but I think Chad is happy with the results.

Book Week! Day 2

Growing up, we got to open one gift each on Christmas Eve. Since each of the eight children gave each other something, we had gifts aplenty, but most of them were purchased at Pic 'n Save for under a dollar each. One gift always stood out under the tree - the gift from my Nana and Papa, which was almost always exactly what you asked them for. When I was in third grade, my fervent wish from them was for the complete Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Book gifts were a very deal for a little girl in a little town with a little library. I am pretty sure the library didn't even have the complete series at this point.

When my wish was granted, I couldn't sleep for excitement. Do you know that feeling - the delightful anticipation of finally having the book you have craved in your hands? I couldn't fight the feeling - I stayed up late into the night, spread out with the books on my bottom bunk, reading with aching eyes by flashlight.

These books were my first literature loves. I made bookmarks for each one. I thought about naming my first son Almanzo. I rejected the show because it wasn't faithful enough to the books.

At that ripe old age of eight, I was sad for Laura when I read the last book, The First Four Years, but felt a little disappointed. It wasn't exactly the fairy tale ending I had been hoping for (nor was Almanzo and Laura's courtship in These Happy Golden Years been dripping with modern day romance - oh, but I see the romance now!).

Reading this book as an adult, it is devastating and beautiful. It wasn't completed or published before Laura Ingalls Wilder's death (it is basically just a manuscript), and it concise and relatively emotionless, which in a way, makes it all the more poignant for me. Read it, as a mother, and it is a much different book than what an eight year old sees.

All of the books are very different to me as an adult, and I still love them.

I made the mistake this year of reading The Long Winter in succession with The Diary of Anne Frank this past February. Either of those books can have you alternately depressed and bursting with gratitude, but if you read them together in February, you won't want to leave your bed for a few days.

Do you have any poignant memories one of the "Little House" books?

What was one of your first literature loves?

*Edited to add

Christie assures me that our library had the full set. Sorry, I didn't mean exaggerate how horrible our library was (but it was!)

Book Week! Day 1

Well, I am trying to limit my computer time this week (it is the week before school starts so I am trying to spend a lot of time with the kids, and I am not allowing any TV), but I can't go a whole week without blogging, so this week will be Book Week. I am going to try and feature some books that I read again and again - books that have appealed to me at different times of my life for different reasons. Hopefully they will be books that you have read too and are willing to comment on!

Day 1

Ender's Game

by Orson Scott Card

One summer when I was hanging out with my cousin Olivia (yes, my very cool Gnome Sweet Gnome cousin), she was reading this book. I think I was probably twelve or so at the time. It definitely didn't look like a book I was would like (I was already very into Anne and such), but she said it was interesting and offered to loan it to me, so I gave it a chance. I can't really remember sending it back, so Uncle Buck, if you have been missing your copy for 16 years, sorry!

I was immediately hooked. It was definitely unlike any of the previous books I had read. Smart, interesting, yes, even violent. Kids who weren't in babysitter clubs, but training as soilders. Satisfying yet heartbreaking ending.

I have to admit that though I have loved several Orson Scott Card books, his are the only science fiction I have ever really tried. I'm not sure why that is.

So, if you have read it...

How old were you when you first read it?

Did it turn you on to science fiction?

Have you read it again as an adult and gained a different perspective?

Did you like one of the sequels more?

Any other science fiction that I HAVE to try?