Good Reads - February

Crazy, Sexy, Diet by Kris Carr

At the start of the month, while I was shopping at Whole Foods, this book jumped into my cart.  It may or may not have been purchased out of our grocery money, but since it is about food I think that's allowed.  My mom told me about Kris Carr's story back when my brother was diagnosed with brain cancer.  Her story is amazing.  She was told she had an incurable cancer and that there were no treatments that would prolong her life.  She decided that wasn't an option and learned everything she could about nutrition.  She changed her diet and her cancer stopped growing.  That was years ago.  She is healthier then she's even been and now sharing her knowledge in her book.  It's not a diet book but a nutrition book.  Her writing style is like talking to a funny, slightly off color friend.  And while the information is really in depth, she explains in so easy.  I learned so much and am excited to start working my knew knowledge into our food.

Sorry Andrew, more veggies headed your way.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

This was our book club pick for the March meeting.  I was super excited because it was only 187 pages so I figured it would be a quick read and I could get a few more good books in this month.  WRONG!  I had to reread the first 20 pages at least 4 times.  It is written in a different style with old english worked in.  I couldn't keep the names straight and had a hard time getting into it.  I was determined to finish it though and around page 60 I started to really like it.  I had the characters figured out and could understand the writing style.

It's a story about 4 women who answer an ad to rent a castle in Italy.  The women don't know each other before they go and are all very dissatisfied with their lives, each for different reasons.  Once at the castle, all of them start to have huge changes in their outlooks.  It was a pretty good story once I got into it. 

Sparkly Green Earrings by Melanie Shankle

Melanie Shankle is the author of the blog Big Mama.  I haven't read her blog, but will be starting now!  I love that so many bloggers are writing books.

This is a really funny and true to life look at motherhood.  After a particularly rough mothering week, this book made me feel like a normal human again.  I started it on the plane headed to my first Mother Daughter Trip with Josie and within the first 3 pages I had laughed outloud and had my eyes well up with tears.  Every few pages I'd look over at Josie and tell her how great I thought she was and how much I loved her.  Motherhood is a hard, hard job, but it's almost unbelievable how great it is at the same time.

It really deserves a better review then this, but if you are a mother and ever feel unqualified for the job, read this book.  So, so good.

I also started reading chapter books to Josie again this month.  

And since I did technically read (and enjoy) these books, I'm including them here.  If you have little people in your life, you may want to check these books out.

Clementine by Marlo Froze

Clementine is a series about a girl who is independent and spunky, just like Josie!  We both loved her character.  I couldn't find the first book of the series so we read Clementine Friend of the Week.  Clementine is picked to be the friend of the week for her class and is trying to do nice things for her classmates to get good comments in her friend booklet, but when her kitten goes missing she ends up letting everyone down.  This story was super cute and showed that sometimes the nicest things we do for others are done when we don't even know we are doing them.  

Mercy Watson To The Rescue by Katie Decamillo

A fellow homeschool mom told me about this series and it is adorable!  Mercy Watson is a pig that lives with the Watson's and gets in to all sorts of mischief.  In this book, Mr and Mrs Watson's bed is falling through the floor and they think Mercy is going to get help but she is really looking for buttered toast!  

I bought this whole series and know that we will love them all.  The chapters are SUPER short so we are reading a few a night.  We should finish a book a week at this rate.  It is great for those nights you just want to read a short story though.  The words are big and there are pictures on every page but it is still a chapter book.  And this may sound weird, but the cover and pages feel awesome.  It's a smooth paper that is pretty much my favorite.  I'm reading it to Josie, but if you have an early reader I bet they would enjoy reading this one on their own too.