The June 2014 Book Review

Here's how my reading list for June went:

Bible
The Book of Romans
- I read this aloud to James and thoroughly enjoyed the familiar passages, I plan to re-read Romans across July alongside our Bible commentaries.

Breastfeeding
Mothering Your Nursing Toddler (PB, Norma Jane Bumgarner)
- I returned this one to LLL unread but then since no one else wanted to borrow it, I brought it home again!
The Nursing Mother's Guide to Weaning (PB, Kathleen Higgins and Linda Ziedrich)
- The weaning book left me more anxious and unsure than ever with only one section mentioning that empathetic gentle weaning is best, whether gradual or abrupt. Otherwise it cited every method as either working beautifully or more lkely anxiousness, upset, grief and regression in weanlings (wonderful terminology). Unfortunately this book fed into my fears as opposed to being helpful.
Sally Weans from Night Nursing and
Nursies When the Sun Shines
- Since Hubs is keen for James to wean, I ordered "Nursies..." and "Sally..." and meant to make a definite plan with James to night wean as a second step on this path (the "don't ask, don't refuse" policy hadn't dropped any feeds). I planned that we would read these picture books everyday for a week before actually beginning to say no to night nursing but man plans and God laughs. The picture books arrived and I hated the "Sally" book and promptly arranged to return it (amateurish pictures and so "pinkified" in places, with no continuity to the poor illustrations) but "Nursies when the sun shines" is a beautiful book with gorgeous illustrations. "Nursies" features a co-sleeping family (we co-sleep for half the night usually) with a gender neutral baby/toddler and simple language with a repeating sentence structure - a real delight. We read "Nursies," although we substitued in the word 'nuckies,' on Saturday for the first and that night James got up for the toilet at half twelve and went back to bed again until quarter past eight with no night nursing. Sunday night he slept right through until six, when it was very bright in his room (despite a blackout blind) had a feed and went back over until I woke him at eight. My little boy has seemingly taken the book and run with it! Well done monkey-moo.

Christian Autobiography
Something Other Than God (HB, Jennifer Fulwiler)
- Ugh, I haven't even cracked the spine on this one as yet.

Christian Non-fiction
Five Lessons from the Carmelite Saints That Will Change Your Life (free e-book, Connie Rossini)
- I've read only lesson one thus far and it was a good lesson but backed up only by catechisms and quotes from so-called "saints" rather than stated from the Word of God and then supported by quotations from PEOPLE. I 'll continue to read this but the sad fact is that the Bible should be our first port of call for teaching, with comments by mere mortals used only as further explanation of the Scriptures not in place of them.

Dystopia
Finding Sage: The Rogue (e-book, Logan Judy)
- I'm a third of the way through this and it is proving very good thus far. I enjoy the slight fear of entering a new world or rather a possibly bleak future for this world and then exploring.

Homeschooling
Homeschooling Day By Day: A Thriving Guide for Mothers (e-book, Kirsty Howard - Editor)
- Nope didn't even look at this.

Modern Christian Novel
For Keeps: Aggie's Inheritance Series (Book 2/3, e-book, Chautona Havig)
- Haven't begun this but I'm going to set out, to read a chapter of this a day, in July.

Read-Alouds
What Katy Did at School (2/5, free e-book, Susan Coolidge) and
What Katy Did Next (3/5, free e-book, Susan Coolidge)
- James and I are still enjoying our adventures with Katy (we're currently a third of the way through "What Katy Did Next"). "At School" proved aggravating at times as I felt the injustices of the Carrs adventures but delightful as we joined them on the adventure to boarding school and the excitement of new friends. The deligtfully simple amusements the girls enjoyed with their peers and the simple lives they led, free of much responsibility (no exams for one thing and no expectations of careers or even jobs) showed a vastly different life to now. Technology has changed so much when you consider how once a week letters (if you were fortunate) were the excitement of the week whilst now we connect more in frequency and immediacy but less in terms of intimacy than we did then. As we began "Next" it mentioned an interim story in the first paragraph concerning "Johnnie" Katy's little sister so I quickly downloaded this also free e-book.
Nine Little Goslings (2-and-a-half/5, free e-book, Susan Coolidge)
- We read only the first story "Curly Locks" of this collection, to catch-up on the adventures of the family Carr before "Next" and it was rather delightful, especially as this story was entirely new to me. It concerned Johnnie's being "adopted" by an old friend of her deceased mammma and was quite a tale in old-fashioned manners (as are all the Katy books) as Johnnie would not let on to "Mamma Marian" just how miserable she was since she knew Miss Inches was being so kind, or trying to be.
- I'll review "Next" upon finishing it and will finish reading "Nine Little Goslings" with James after all the Katy books are completed.

Self-improvement
100 LB Loser (purchased e-book, Jessica Heights)
- Nope

Travel
The Valley of Heaven and Hell: Cycling in the Shadow of Marie Antoinette (free at the time e-book, Susie Kelly)
- I don't think I've read any more of this one this month

Needless to say I changed my goals somewhat as I did lots of puzzling and read at least six romances besides (of varying quality I must add).

Here's to better meeting my reading goals in July...