Recent Fiction

Books have always been extremely important to me. Superman and I hope to one day own a house with a library- we already have enough books to fill it! Superman is pretty much a genre guy- a lot of science fiction and fantasy, but he does appreciate classic literature as well. I'm eclectic in my reading choices. Mysteries, suspense, urban fantasy, chic lit, classic lit, historical fiction etc. I read a little of everything. At the end of last year I read mostly historical fiction for some reason, and now I'm on an urban fantasy kick. Eclectic, right?

 

My reading year started with two gigantic books- Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Cary- that took me until pretty recently to finish up. In the last few weeks I've read The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory, Undone by Rachel Caine and I'm most of the way through Little House in the Big Woods. I haven't read Laura Ingalls Wilder since I was 7 or 8 years old!

 

It's so interesting re-reading books from my childhood. I remember this book differently from how it actually reads. It seemed so large and the chapters so long when I first read it, and the story so big and wild. I loved this book tremendously as a child and I can remember exactly what our copies looked like when my mother gave them to me and what they looked like after I'd read through them several times. I had this same feeling when I re-read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry a year or two ago. That book had such a tremendous impact on me as a child and on really directing me to see what truly important things are. Reading it as an adult brought a different direction and depth.

 

Ender's current favorite is The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. We've read it at least once a day for the last week or so. He has such empathy for the little house as the city moves in around it and the house is abandoned by his owner. He cheers when we get to the page where the little house has someone to live in her again! Empathy and compassion is a big theme in Ender's life right now and I see that reflected in his reading choices.

 

Ezra is obsessed with Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. Besides the fact that this book is a classic, I think Ezra is attracted to the book because he can say most of the animal noises. This book is important for Ezra because it's the first book that he will sit all the way through and often will ask to read it again. For a child that refuses to sit in one place for longer than three seconds it's quite an accomplishment to get through a full book.

 

Superman? Well he's been on the same Star Trek book for months and months now because sadly his reading time is full of text books. He does listen to audio books while driving for work and currently in his truck is the Left Behind series. I believe he's on the fourth book now.

 

I'm pretty sure you can tell that books are an important part of our home. We seem to have stacks of them everywhere and we have a weekly visit to the library. I always seem to have non-fiction books I'm working on as well- I'm sure I'd get through fiction faster if I didn't have 3 books going at once!