Click here to see My Library Thing Catalogue
Books I’m Reading Right Now
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
A Traveller’s History of Mexico - This currently sits on the table beside the rocking chair in Chiquitita’s bedroom – I read it (or the one below) for about 20 minutes each night as I feed the little one. It’s a very easy summary of a long period of history and interesting, of course, because we are living here. Particularly pertinent because of our trips to Veracruz, Mexico City and the Yucatan.
How to Behave So Your Pre-Schooler Will Too by Sal Severe - I bought this book while on holiday in Toronto the day after Guerita had the most enormous tantrum in the middle of the underground walkway systems, a place that is full of business people with a very low tolerance level for 3 year olds (as she then was). The tantrum (because I wouldn’t buy her a particular toy) lasted for at least 40 minutes (I’m not kidding!) which was the time it took me to wrangle her into the stroller (all the while with a 2 month Chiquitita strapped in the Baby Bjorn) and walk back to the hotel. I wasn’t sure if I was going to laugh or cry, or both. She repeated the performance 2 days later in LA Airport in the line for the security checkpoint (you know, one of those rooms where 200 people are crammed into a tiny space in a snake-like queue). She wanted to be carried. I was already carrying Chiq in the sling plus lugging our carry-on luggage containing the mountains of things you think you could possible need for a flight from Toronto to Sydney via LA, travelling alone with 2 kids. Plenty of well-meaning people offered assistance, but what can you say “Yes, please, pick up my kicking and screaming 3 year old and physically drag her through the metal detectors, all the way to our gate. Oh and could you carry my bags too?” The only person I could say that to is my husband. So, to get back to the book! It has some very interesting chapters on Positive Reinforcement and Anger Management which, when you can manage it, do seem to be effective. The problem I have with books like this is they contribute to the “Parent Guilt Trap” and the enormous pressure there is on parents to be perfect all the time, so as to set the perfect example to produce perfect children. I’m thinking this is a blog post all of its own, so let’s just say the book is… interesting but doesn’t solve all my problems!
Books I’ve Recently Read
Exile by Richard North Patterson - read my review!
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl - Although it took me a while to get through this book, it was an interesting, if slow read. I found the preface very strange – I’m still not sure if its for real or not, even after finishing the book. It doesn’t seem to be very complimentary of the book, but maybe it had the desired effect of piquing my curiosity on the historical accuracy of the story. The book is detailed and certianly appears to be well-researched, which adds to the story. The characters, such as Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes are real people, so there’s a suggestion that the events are true. Not a spectacular book, but not the worst I have read.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling – There are a million reviews of this book on the internet, so I won’t bore you with my humble opinion, other than to say that I was excited about seeing how it would all turn out and to finally read the ending that J.K Rowling has had planned for so long. This book was much darker than the previous ones, and I think the series has been moving away from the children’s fantasy that it started as. Perhaps this is a natural reflection of Harry et al growing up. I’m sad that it’s all over now, maybe one day I’ll go back and read them all again from the beginning.
Books I’ll Move Onto Next
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - the follow up to The Kite Runner, which I read recently and loved.
The Pact by Jodi Picoult - I read My Sister’s Keeper a while ago – a very good book, but very heavy, as I expect this to be. I’ll have the tissues ready.
The Kathy Reichs books – I have a few on my bookshelf and I have recently got into Bones on TV, although I’m sure there’s little comparison. The books I have are not from the beginning of the series, so I am debating whether to dive in or try and get the first books and read them in order.
