The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I guess this blog should really be called "What Kristin Has Read" since I wait until I finish something before I post about it. I was reading The Road before I read Harry Potter 7, but some things take precidence, and HP is one of them. Anyhow, since I finished Harry, I went back to the Road and finished it up as well. I liked it. It was an interesting story, about the relationship between a man and his son, after the world as we know it has ended and they are some of the last people on earth. I loved the innate goodness of the boy, whereas the man has become jaded and suspicious, yet the boy remains compassionate and hopeful. Their relationship is quite beautiful and pure and the man does the best he can to protect the boy from the harsh realities that surround them. It does end up happily, in a way, and overall, I was pleased. My only complaint would be that McCarthy doesn't really give you any background information about them, and you're never sure why all the other people died. Nuclear bomb? Plague? What gives?

Harry Potter # 7

Well, for most of the last two days, I've been reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I finished it last night. Very satisfying. If I had been JK Rowling, this is exactly how I would have ended it. I even liked the epilogue, which some people were complaining about. Come on people! It's not the Lord of the Rings! I think it might even be the best book in the series, but they're all pretty good. Maybe I'll read all of them again sometime. Anyhow, HP#7 takes its place on my bookshelf and awaits for Katherine and Caroline to become old enough to read it. Well done JK! You rock!

The Read Aloud Handbook By Jim Trelease

Every once in a while I read a book that inspires me to change the way I do things. This is definitely one of those books and I highly recommend it to all parents. I've always thought we were pretty good about reading to our kids, and both Katherine and Caroline have fairly large vocabularies for their age, but it's stumped me that although she loves being read to, Katherine doesn't particularly care to read. Why is that? Well Trelease's book has given me a new prespective on things, and I'm so glad I bought it. I've implemented a nightly ritual where both the girls can read 15 minutes after being put to bed before I turn the lights off. Trelease's idea and it's working great. I've also started reading to them even more, even Ben too, though he get different kinds of books. We read for probably a good 45 minutes to an hour broken up thoughout the day. I think this has already made positive changes in our family, and I love reading to them as much as they like hearing it.

Loving Your Children Is Not Enough

Okay, I've read a few things since my last post, but with the move and all, I've forgotten what they were. So forgive me for putting this latest book and skipping all the others. It's another parenting book and it's a really really good one. I bought a couple of this authors books to help me deal with some anger issues that constantly get in my way as a mom. This book makes perfect sense, and when I remember to do things like the book told me to, it works. It's so good that I think I need to read it all over again, because it was a few months ago when I actually started it. So that's on my to do list. Highly, highly recommended if you are a parent.