Mere Christianity

Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other.  That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion.  God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing.

I'm finally reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  For some reason, I always imagined it would be a complicated book, far above my understanding. A book for smart people.

I was wrong.

The book came out of a series of radio talks that Lewis gave to the British people during the Second World War.  Asked by the BBC to explain to his fellow Britons what Christians believe, C.S. Lewis proceeded with the task as if it were the simplest thing in the world, and the most important, says Kathleen Norris in the Forward.

As usual, I'm not finished with a book and I'm recommending it.  I'm only about 50 pages in, so if you join me now, we can read it together!  I'm reading a chapter a day.  The chapters are short, each a quick read, though the reader is left with plenty to ponder.

Picture Book Authors We Love

I'm always looking for good books for the kids, good stories with creative and/or beautiful illustrations.  (I'll be sad when our shelves and library bag are no longer stuffed with picture books!)

Here's a small selection of authors we've grown to love over the last several years:

Paul Collicutt has a series about vehicles called This (insert name of vehicle). (This Train, This Car, This Rocket, etc.)  The illustrations are beautiful and the text is brief but full of information for little toddler/preschool minds.

Kevin Henkes is a prolific writer with a range of books for kids of all ages on a variety of topics from relationships to nature.  I'm never disappointed by anything I pick up from that section of the library shelf!

Leo Lionni writes sweet little stories with creative illustrations.

Byron Barton's illustrations are bold and colorful and he gets right to the heart of my little boy with lots of trucks, trains, and planes - though he does have some other stories, like the Three Little Bears.

Gail Gibbons is AMAZING!  She has written so many books about such a variety of science (and other, but lots of science) topics, all at the perfect level for early elementary students.  For almost anything we're "studying" in school we're able to find a book by Ms. Gibbons to read.  Her illustrations and text keep us all interested!

Saxton Freymann's photography of fruits and vegetables captivates the kids and amazes me.  His creativity knows no bounds!  He has some board books in addition to regular books.

Who are some of your favorites?

Book Recommendation: The Evergreen Wood

The kids and I are enjoying this wonderful book:

It is an adaptation of The Pilgrim's Progress for kids.  The story and illustrations are lovely for children and I like that I understand it better than the real Pilgrim's Progress!  Brian, at two and a half, is not really engaging with it; Elizabeth, at six, is completely captivated and always asks to read just one more chapter.  Save this one for first grade or older.

I learned about The Evergreen Wood from this book:

Sarah Clarkson's collection of book suggestions from many literary genres is invaluable!  If you do not own this book, you want to read quality literature to your kids, and you don't know where to go beyond what you enjoyed as a child, start here!  I've found Sarah's age suggestions for each book to be most helpful as I pick picture and chapter books to read with the kids.  I have yet to be disappointed by one of her recommendations!

Reading

I read a lot.

I'm a non-fiction junkie, but am being drawn back into reading classic fiction now that Elizabeth is in school and we're reading chapter books together.  (Think: Chronicles of Narnia, Winnie-the-Pooh, Secret Garden, etc.)

With the new year approaching you may be thinking about resolutions for 2011.  In my family growing up ,we had a wonderful tradition of all making some goals for the new year.  My dad has a folder of all of the resolutions we made throughout the years, chronicling our development moving from things like "not wetting the bed" to "reading a specific number of books."  I need to go back and see how many times I said I'd stop biting my nails.

I still do.  Though certainly less.

Sorry, dad.

Anyway, back to the topic of reading.  There's a lot of wonderful literature out there, folks!  A couple of years ago, I wanted to increase the amount of reading I was doing.  Many moms will attest to the fact that it's easy to let these nice past times slip away when you have small children.  My goal was to read a chapter of a book a day.

This was such an achievable goal and so beneficial!

If you've been wanting to read more, perhaps all you need to do is give yourself a challenge for this coming year.  There's no punishment or shame if you don't read each day, but it does make you stop to think before automatically turning on the tv in the evening or just putzing around online in your free time.  I try to stop in the middle of the day, rest at the beginning of the time when the kids are resting, and take 15-30 minutes to read something challenging or soul-nourishing.  We all need a break, folks!

Where to get books:

• your local library
• used book sites - I particularly like AbeBooks
• as gifts from birthday & Christmas wishlists
• your local used book store
• and, of course, regular old bookstores

Where to get good book recommendations or warnings about bad ones:

• people you trust or know have reasonable taste
• books that come up in conversation (this is why I just read Screwtape Letters)
• amazon reviews
• lists of classics like one from the BBC that a friend of mine just posted on facebook
• this book is good for recommendations for the whole family: Read for the Heart

What are you reading these days?  You can see my list to the right.

READ ON, FRIENDS!