Good Reads - August

Well, I followed last month's record high book consumption with a measly 2 books.  Let's blame vacation, school starting, and all the other activities that have us on the go.  I did start a 3rd, but it's a 550 page doozie so that will have to go on September's list.

Parenting With Love And Logic by Foster Cline & Jim Fay

I've been seeing this one around the interwebs and decided to read it.  While I did pick up a few pointers that are great (such as letting go of the control I don't need, meaning letting them make decisions that don't really effect me), I found that the majority of it was just unrealistic for my family.  It suggested giving kids "thinking words" and letting them come up with their own solutions and letting natural consequences be the teacher.  I agree with both of those in theory, but also feel that there are a lot of times that kids need a more immediate effect to their actions.  I did love the last half where they lay out a ton of real life problems with possible solutions using the Love and Logic method.  Made me feel like my parenting troubles must be pretty universal.

Mimosa Lane by Bob Perry

This is our book club book for this month and I really liked it.  The first few chapters give the family background for the main character, Rachael, who you don't meet until a few chapters later.  The book follows the tragic childhood of Rachael who's family came from a wealthy plantation but had lost it all by the time she was born.  Her mother was young and made a lot of really bad choices that left the girl to fend for herself.  Throughout the book, Rachael has to overcome a ton of obstacles and meets some great women who influence her life along the way.  It's a real coming of age book and is written in a way that makes you cheer her on.  It follows her entire life, which I loved.  It is set in the early 1900's and gave a good perspective of what it was like when Southern slaves were freed.  The chapters are super short so it was for sure one of those books where I stayed up way too late saying, "ok, just one more chapter."  We've had some excellent book club books this year and this is one of my favorites.

Bonus: it's only $3.99 on Kindle

And with Josie, I read:

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater 

We are working our way through Sonlight's First Grade Reading List and this one was the first up.  It is a quirky story about a man that is obsessed with Antarctica.  After writing a letter to his favorite explorer who was stationed in the Antarctic, he receives a box as a thank you.  And in the box, a penguin!  The story is about how the Popper Family end up on the road with 12 penguins in a performing show.  It is really cute and we both enjoyed it.  We finished it last week and had a movie night to watch the movie with Jim Carrey as Mr. Popper.  Josie liked it, but liked the book better (that's my girl!).

Hope The Happiness Fairy by Daisy Meadows

Josie found these Rainbow Magic books at Barnes and Noble and became slightly obsessed.  Luckily, our library has quite a few in the series.  The Princess Fairy series is a cute little story about two girls that are staying at a castle for spring break.  The girls can see fairies and when the goblins steal the princess fairy's tiaras, the girls help the fairies get them back.  They are short (about 7 chapters) and easy to read.  Josie really liked the story.  And it was a good excuse to finally get around to making our fairy gardens that have been on our list all summer.