the pile keeps growing...

Above are the books that I am either actively reading or have entered our house in the past week or so and I plan to read soon. Much like my "to do" list, its beginning to overwhelm me.

So, here they are from the top down...


Don Quixote by Cervantes
I haven't actually started this. I bought it to read after reading The Well Educated Mind (further down in the list). She suggests that you read for a bit first thing in the morning... BEFORE checking email.... somehow I always forget and go straight for the email. Old habits are hard to break... sigh.


Terrorist by John Updike
As some of you know... Jeff and I have our own bookclub... just the two of us. Every year we each pick out 4 or 5 books and buy two copies each. We always exchange our books on Christmas Eve after the kids have gone to bed. I love to read but I have a tendency to be picky about what I read. I refuse to slog through a book that I don't enjoy (perhaps reading Don Quixote will help me with that). So, this means that I have never read all of the books from our book club yet. I even give up on my own selections! So, this book is from our 2007 book club. I read every other book plus at least 10 others last year... but I was avoiding this one. Quite frankly... I have problems reading a book called Terrorist. Couple that with the fact that when I was supposed to be reading it (when Jeff was reading it) we were flying to Disney World and a few weeks later Jeff and I were flying to Paris without the kids. I have a hard time staying sane on an airplane as it is... I didn't need to throw this book into the mix. By the time the trips were done, Jeff had moved on to the next book in our club, so I happily moved on as well.

Then a few weeks ago, when Jeff and I exchanged our books for 2008, I decided to be a big girl and finally read the book. Its okay.... its not freaking me out like I thought it might. However, I really don't like Updike's writing style. Too descriptive to me... and goofy descriptions (in my opinion). I don't need to know that this guy's tongue looks like a thick worm when he talks or another guy's mouth looked like a tight bud of flesh when he closed it. Ick. But I will get through it and I will complete all books from 2007 (even if it is 2008 now).


The Well Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer
Still working my way through this one. I'm going to attempt the Great Books list as outlined in the book.... but I'm not sure I can keep the journal like it suggests. We'll see. I have to actually start reading Don Quixote... which I appear to be having problems with.


Complete Candida Yeast Guidebook by Jeanne Marie Martin
This one I'm skimming but need to read more in depth. Clara had a huge nasty outbreak of eczema after her last round of antibiotics when she had pneumonia at Christmas. A friend suggested that I look into yeast as the cause. We did the informal spit test and she tested positive. So now we're looking into this to get her back on track. I've gotten rather big on treating the cause of things rather than the symptoms. I'm not sure what we'll use out of here if anything... but I'm reading to find out.


Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson
This one just arrived the other day and I haven't had time to really look at it yet. I love Bryan Peterson's books so I can't wait to go through it!

These two just arrived yesterday from Memory Makers...


Scraptastic by Ashley Calder


Scrap Simple by Hillary Heidelberg

This is one of the big perks of being a Memory Makers Master... getting all of these great design books. I can't wait to sit down and look through these!

And finally...

Story of the World: Activity Book 1 by Susan Wise Bauer
I'm considering following The Well Trained Mindfor homeschooling next year so I've been reading this to see if I think it's doable for us (and I think it is!).

Whew! I think that's it!