Books

You may know that I love reading. I know that a lot of you do, too, and so I’m going to recommend some of my favorites to you. Feel free to return the favor. :) If I wasn't so lazy, I'd link all the titles to Amazon or something, but too bad, you'll have to do it yourselves. :)

First, The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill. This is one of C’s school books, but we haven’t read it for school yet. I just picked it up the other week and read through it in a few hours. It’s a fantastic story about a girl in an Alaskan village in the ‘50’s. (Or the 40’s.) It reminded me a lot of my childhood, but I think that anyone would enjoy this book. It’s written in a way that would make a good read-aloud for kids ages 5-10, I think.

Second, Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen. This is an extremely fascinating look at how American History has been told in a way that twists facts and covers up the faults of the American heroes. I’m actually not quite done with this book (it’s not a quick read), but I think it is a real eye-opener that every North American should read. I will also add that it left me feeling betrayed by what I was taught in History textbooks, but gave me a determination to teach my kids how to evaluate what they are taught about history. I suggest using the words ‘maybe’ and ‘probably’ a lot when discussing history with your kids, thanks to this book. (P.S. Despite the fact that this book is written by a Loewen, it is not written from a Christian perspective.)

Third, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It’s a classic, there’s even a VeggieTales parody, and I’d never read it until a few weeks ago. The story is crude. Not the writing – the writing is that of a talented author. But in telling a story of a family of the Depression, Steinbeck hasn’t pulled any punches. He includes all the raw emotion of unpolished humanity. I enjoyed relating the story to what my grandparents went through in the Depression, even though I know (and thank God!) that their perspective on their lot in life was vastly different.

Fourth, for lightening things up a bit, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. If you are offended by English humour, leave this one alone. It’s written from the perspective of a teenaged boy with Savant Syndrome (similar to autism) and although there were a few parts that made me choke up just a little, it’s mostly just funny. I loved the plot, and I loved the idea that metaphors are lies. I didn’t laugh my head off, even though it was hilarious.