What We’ve Been Reading Lately – August

A big part of our life and homeschool is reading, if you haven’t already signed up for the book-ish newsletter I would suggest you do so, I have some fun stuff I will be sharing there soon.

Sharing what we’ve been reading each month is a great practice for me to look back on the month and I love sharing about our reads because then other people read them and we can continue to have great book discussions.

I also enjoy getting book recommendations, so if you have one (or more) that you think we would enjoy, let me know!

 

THE MOM

I’ve mentioned a few times but this has been a slow summer for reading for me. Summer is usually slower but I only read one book in all of July, that’s extra slow.

Thankfully things have been picking up this month and I’ve finished three books and think I will finish at least one more before the month is officially over.

The first book I finished was The Ministry of Ordinary Places which I had started already last month. I really enjoyed it and found it very fitting for my season in life.

After that I read The Fairest Beauty which I found at a thrift store. It is a fairy tale retelling which I’m usually a fan of. Though I was a little disappointed with this one. It is a Christian fairy tale retelling which was exciting and it started out so well and was very promising but I felt like it went downhill and ended up being too romance-y for me. This author did write more fairy tale retellings so I’m curious if they are all the same in that regard, if yes I probably won’t read any more, if not, I’m more interested in trying another one.

 

 

The next book I read I totally devoured and already have told a lot of people about. I think this is my absolute favorite fiction book of the year so far. The book is Mark of the Raven. It’s a Christian female fantasy and I really can’t say enough good things about it. Though, I don’t want to give away too much but think: female assassin and a great contrast between light and dark. If you are a fan of fantasy at all I would highly recommend checking it out.

Honestly, I didn’t read anything for more than ten days after finishing Mark of the Raven because I was waiting for book two (Flight of the Raven) to come from the library and I didn’t think anything would live up to the series. But I just picked up book two and will probably be finishing it in a day or two if the first book was any indication.

 

 

THE GIRL (8)

She jumped into her list of independent reads for grade 4 and has been reading the third Harry Potter book.

When she wants some easier reading she will pick up one of the Stilton books, currently she’s reading through the Mouseford Academy books.

 

 

THE BOY (6)

This month has been all about the easy readers for him. This stage of reading was not very long with my daughter so we hardly read any of these books, for him it’s been a bit slower and these books (while boring) are helping to build his fluency and confidence so we’ll continue with them.

 

AUDIOBOOKS

We are on about chapter forty-eight of North! Or Be Eaten, we’re all still really enjoying the book and I was hoping to wait until November to buy the next two audiobooks (because I feel like they will go on sale then) but I’m not sure if we can wait that long . . .

During our lunches this month we have been listening to another Christian Heroes book, this time the story of Cameron Townsend and the start of the Wycliffe Bible Translators, I have yet to be disappointed from a single book in this series. My only problem is that it makes me want to go be a missionary in whatever country we are currently hearing about.

 

 

PICTURE BOOKS

A couple of years ago we got a copy of What Should Danny Do? to review. It’s pretty much a picture book choose your own adventure all about making positive choices. My kids loved the book right away and have read it many times over the years, trying to get to all the different endings. They’ve been back at it again and I love to see them reading together.

 

Any suggestions for what we should read in the next month?

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