What's On Your Nightstand - July


What's on Your Nightstand

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5 Minutes for Books




"How's summer treating you? Have you been reading? Are you trying to make more time to read? Let us know what you've been reading or what you hope to get to this month."
My nightstand overfloweth this month with lots of interesting books. We've been in the midst of planning for 4th grade and I can't help ordering a few books for myself while ordering books for James. I have been reading a lot since we are on our summer break and I finally have some time for me. Plus I received quite a few review books in the past couple weeks which I'm very excited about. One I'm particularly excited about is



I discovered Karen Rose a couple years back and love her writing. So when the opportunity came up to review "I Can See You" for Hachette Books, I jumped on it. As Shanra would say "Squeeee." It will be released on August 5th so will be reading it soon and reviewing.

I'm also reading "Teaching the Trivium" by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn which is chockful of tools for homeschooling, plus it contains a text of Dorothy Sayer's Lost Tools of Learning written back in 1947. Still very apropos to today and full of wisdom.

A book I just finished and will be rereading again and underlining keybits is "1-2-3 Magic: Effective discipline for Children 2 -12. Excellent book, except for the 1st chapter which reads like an infomercial. But once you get past that has great things to say. It talks about something we have been doing which is the little adult assumption.

"Grownups who believe--or want to believe--the Little Adult assumption are going to rely heavily on words and reasons in dealing with young kids and trying to change their behavior. And words and reasons, by themselves are going to be miserable failures much of the time. Sometimes explanatoins will have absolutely no impact at all. Other times explanations will take the parent and child through what we call the Talk-Persuade-Argue-Yell-Hit symdrome."

I really liked what Dr. Phelan had to say and alot of what he said really hit home. I'll review the book after I've reread it a second time, but I do have to say it is working so far. No more yelling from me and no more long winded talks from Father that seem to go right in one ear and out the other.

I've been needing a bit of help for my writing muse lately, so reading "Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write." by Mark David Gerson. I've been in a bit of a writing slump the past few days so enjoying reading the book and trying some of his suggestions.

I received several books this month to review that I'm looking forward to reading including

A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi

Benny and Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti

The Divorce Party by Laura Dave

Water Witch by Deborah LeBlanc

Atlantis Revelation by Thomas Greanias.


I also want to finish up the Dewey Reading Challenge and have one book left to read which is "A Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs. Once I finish that will be joining J.Kaye's Book Blog Lisa Jackson Reading Challenge which runs from August 2009 through December 2010. Plenty of time to read her New Orleans Series books which I now have in my possession. :)

I'm a bit of a mood reader and there are so many books on my nightstand calling my name. I've been trying to work through the oldest first and trying not to buy too many new books. Looking at the books, it looks like I've managed to get through all the older ones, so now all the books are fair game now. OY! I was very good for a couple months and bought hardly anything at all. This month the temptation has been too hard to resist, especially when Amazon has their buy 3 and get the 4th one for free special offers.

To see what everyone else has been reading or planning to read, click on over to 5 minutes for books.

What books on your nightstand are calling your name this month?



4 comments:

  1. Outlander, The story of Ruth, and Desiring God's will (probably more;)

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  2. I've got to get reading for Deweys Challenge. Just finished The Hunger Games.

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  3. Wow, that discipline books sounds great. I like 'Boundaries with Kids' for a similar reason -- it gives tools besides words.

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  4. Have you put 1.2.3.Magic to use? If so, how is it going for you?

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