Book Your Thanksgiving Now!

Looking to do a last minute pre-Thanksgiving library run so you're stocked up for your Thanksgiving break (and prepared in case everything shuts back down after Thanksgiving due to Covid)? This is your last minute list! And it's extra last minute because you've got to believe I planned to write this yesterday but I got distracted by making empanadas. Also, while the kids and the Man say the homemade empanada dough was totally worth it for them, I'm not sure it was totally worth it for me. Just saying. Also, anything that resembles pie crust is not really my friend.

Not the point! The point is: books!

Tis the season to sit by the fire with a book.

First up, a few Thanksgiving themed reads. The kids really enjoyed both of these books about Sarah Hale (the woman who encouraged President Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday): Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson and Sarah Gives Thanks by Mike Allegra. I personally loved that though both books had the same subject matter, the authors presented it in very different ways. Both were worth reading, and (surprisingly) the kids didn't mind reading them back to back.

Because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! Other than Mersmas.

Next up was Thanks for Thanksgiving, which Bruiser absolutely loved. Also, he's totally reading now (though he kind of sounds like a robot running out of batteries), and this has been a huge win for me as a homeschool mom and as a woman who would desperately like to decrease the noise level in her home. Thanks for Thanksgiving is a good one for your littler dudes; Twinkle was also a huge fan. I'd also like to give a shout out to Eve Bunting's A Turkey for Thanksgiving (with great illustrations by Diane de Groat and a fun twist at the end) and Oge Mora's Thank You, Omu! (which was a great way to show my kids the far reaching affects of generosity and let them dip their toes in another culture).

Kid was super proud of himself.

Also making the rounds at our house are the Princess in Black books by Shannon Hale, which have been a smash hit with Bee, who more and more has her nose stuck in a book, and the Lloyd Alexander Prydain Chronicles, which were fantastic read alouds (I think I mentioned them in the last book blog--sorry if I did and there's a repeat). The best part about reading a series is that when you finish one book, you know exactly what you want to read next! And sometimes what you want to read next has international princesses and a monster who needs a bath (Princess in Black) or an enchanted princess and a hairy sidekick who needs a bath (Prydain Chronicles). Never mind, it sounds like these are pretty much the same series. Kidding! They could not be more different but are both funny and engaging and full of happiness.

Car time reading--when you know she's crossed  into really being my daughter.

On a personal front, I plowed through Save the Cat! Writes a Novel thanks to a friend telling me it would fix all my writing issues (I think she may be overly optimistic, but it has been helpful). If you're a writer and need a jumping off point or just somewhere that will help you think about basic structure and plotting, this may be worth your time. I'll let you know if I ever get published again. Ha!

Please note the beautiful RV reflected in my sunglasses. And then call me and offer to buy it off us... preferably for an obscene amount of money.

And then there are the books that are just good for your soul. I already mentioned Andrew Murray's Abide in Christ. When I finished it, I moved onto The Storm-Tossed Family by Russell Moore. I'm still getting little snippets of that one in the mornings before the kids get up, and so far, it's been really thought provoking. I keep sending the Man snippets of quotes. I did pause in reading it, though, to plow through Anjuli Paschall's Stay which had some really excellent lines about relationships and gifting. You can tell she's naturally a blogger as the chapters are short and easy to digest quickly.

Reading good books helps my brain not turn to mush.

Then the Man read Conscience by Andrew David Naselli and J. D Crowley and has been trying to get me to read it too. It's going to happen--soon! He highly recommended it to both of our families, and since I trust his judgment, I'm going to highly recommend it to you. Without even reading it yet. Which shows you the extreme level of trust functioning in our marriage these days. Also, I'm a risk taker. He said it was especially timely for him to read considering our current political climate. Just throwing that out there for you.

According to the Man: worth my time. And ostensibly yours.

But it's not all serious books. I also come bearing gifts of novels--but sadly without pictures since most of my novel reading happens on the kindle app of my phone (which means I can more easily read while washing dishes--I keep a towel over my shoulder so I can dry off a finger to flip the page). Ally Carter, one of my favorite young adult writers, put out a new book, Winterbourne Home of Vengeance and Valor, which kicks off a new series. I love Carter because she makes me laugh and keeps me guessing and is also the perfect light read when you're already 88% brain dead. Another favorite YA writer who also makes me laugh and keeps me guessing but cannot be read while brain dead (otherwise you'll have to reread to catch everything you missed) is Megan Whalen Turner, who just released the last book in her Queen's Thief series, Return of the Thief. It came in on my library app after a long day of teaching and could not have made my heart happier. I read the first book in the series, The Thief, when I was still in middle school, I think, and to get to see all the loose ends tied up made my heart happy, even though, honestly, it was not my favorite book in the series and I would quibble with Turner over a handful of the choices she made. There was no blind fan-girling, but there were a few hours of happy reading.

There was, however, blind fan-girling when I read Kate Milford's Greenglass House duology. If you can pick only two books for cozy fireside reading this winter, these were really delightful (and I'm trying to track down the other books she wrote in this world). Although they will make you want all the steaming beverages and leave you expecting snow at any moment, even though you know that's not realistically what will happen. 

The Man gets photo credit for this picture. Also, is this not the perfect Sunday afternoon?

Last up, a quick smattering of nonfiction for your reading life. First up, Tribe by Sebastian Junger was a fascinating read and led to some great discussion time with the Man (so much so that we accidentally let Twinkle stay up an hour past her bedtime). If you are interested in the human psyche and how community and war affect it, this will give you some good food for thought. The Man and I had fun picking apart what we liked and disliked about the book and digging into how it affected our world view. Then, in my constant quest to read more memoirs, I read both Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan and Life from Scratch by Sasha Martin. Both fascinating reads that delve into complex relationship with their moms, I especially loved Martin's international food flare and had to go poke around on her blog afterward. All three books were well worth my time.

And on that note, there are turkeys to brine and other work to do and a jug of milk left out on the counter after the kids got their own breakfast because I was ensconced in the recliner and not inclined to move. Also, the girls are now discussing making clothes for one of their dolls, and I'm terrified that scissors are involved. Happy Thanksgiving! Thank God for books and creative children and living life on the edge!