I read The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane a couple of weeks ago. I have seen this book everywhere and I love historical fiction so I figured this was a must-read for me. Since my reading was very slow and fragmented, I don’t remember a lot of the details of the story. I enjoyed it a good deal but I also felt slightly let down. I may have had my hopes set too high, but the story just didn’t capture me like I hoped it would.

In other news, I finished up my summer quarter. My oldest son has started college and is doing well, my daughter has started high school and seems to be enjoying it, and my youngest son goes back to school after Labor Day. Where did the summer go? I don’t feel like I really had a summer but I really enjoyed my classes and was challenged by them. I am looking forward to taking up the challenge next quarter with renewed vigor but for now I am enjoying a small break.  I plan to read a few of the books that have been accumulating on my TBR and catch up on some neglected housework.

Hopefully, I can post some reviews and catch up on my reader. I may have to just mark it all read and start fresh because I am waaaaay behind but it will be good to visit with friends again.

It has been a while since I posted more than a couple of hurried and harried book reviews so I thought I would take a second to drop a quick line to update. Life has accelerated for me way beyond what I imagined for myself this summer.  My kids are all set for their respective schools and I am on the downhill side of my first quarter back in school. I am truly loving it and things are going well. However, I am finding that I have little time for hobbies such as reading or blogging right now and I am currently only attending school part-time.

In the fall, I am gearing up to go full time. I have thought several times about dropping my blog altogether but the thought of doing that just makes me sad. Plus, I have almost a month off coming up where I plan to immerse myself in some books just for pure pleasure.

So for now, I have decided to just leave things as they are. I don’t want to make any quick decisions and regret it later and even if no one were reading here anymore, I would still love keeping track of my reads and recording my thoughts.

My challenges have pretty much fallen by the wayside. If I can fit books into categories, that’s great. If I can’t and I don’t finish the challenges then I won’t stress about it. But I will look forward to catching up with blogging friends during breaks!

So how is your summer going?

Just popping in to say that I did, in fact, start school for the summer quarter and I am still working part-time. Plus, we have been running around like crazy people trying to get #1 son set for college in the fall.

I am reading(I need to go to my happy place more than ever these days) and I promise a review of Talking to the Dead by Bonnie Grove is coming very soon. 

 And would you believe I still haven’t spent my gift card? Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I have a feeling that mine will be gone in a flash!

Whew! It has been a busy couple of weeks at my house. Wrapping up the school year has been busy for my youngest two kids but we made it. Girl-child graduated middle school with honors and will be moving up to high school next year. Youngest boy-child  did well and will be an eighth grader next year. Oldest boy-child will be starting at the local community college in the fall.  I just want to say for the record that I am WAY too young to be the mother of a college student. I don’t know what happened.

The next few days will be spent with us preparing to go on vacation next week plus the kiddos are involved in some activities so things don’t show a lot of signs of slowing down for a bit.

I recently acquired a part time job plus it is beginning to look like I will be going back to school very soon. If not later this summer then definitely in the fall. 

I am still reading though not as quickly as I would like. Currently, I am about 3/4 of the way through The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. It has been a fascinating book with striking parallels to the current economic situation in our country. However, it’s very information-dense(either that, or I am dense) so I have been taking it slow.

I am also about 1/3 of the way through Beside a Burning Sea. So far I have really enjoyed it but I am making slow progress because I haven’t had much time to sit down and read. The only reason I am making progress on The Forgotten Man is because it’s an audio book.

How is your summer shaping up?

I’ve gone and gotten myself interested in several books at once again. I tend to struggle when my attention is divided this way and it usually takes me forever to finish anything so I thought I would post an update.

I am about halfway through Tender Grace by Jackina Stark. It’s a story about a  woman whose husband passes away and her struggles to find herself and learn to live without her husband.
I am reading this one for the Christian Reader’s Challenge which ends Thursday. It’s my last title and I should be able to finish with no problem.

Yesterday, I received Lord, Save Us From Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America? by Dan Merchant from PaperbackSwap. The relationship between Christianity and Culture is something I love to study and this is one book that I have eagerly anticipated so I was very excited to get it. So far I am finding it to be a humorous, relaxed,  man-on-the-street discussion(with the author dressed up as bumper-sticker man ) about the way Christians are perceived and the author’s search for a way to dialogue, not to force his faith on people but to truly hear and be heard. I just started this one while I was waiting to pick my kids up from school.

I also started listening to The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan which is an eye-opening book about the things that happened during The Dust Bowl. I think that The Dust Bowl often gets overshadowed by The Great Depression. I know it does in my mind. I thought that it was a brief event that just happened during the same time. It was actually a horrific event that lasted several years. I am finding this one fascinating because I love learning about history.
I have been listening to this for the past few days while I walk. I am enjoying it a lot but it’s a long book and so far I have only been listening during my exercise time so this one may take a while too. However, I just woke up and realized that the Themed Reading Challenge ends July 31 rather than December 31(what was I thinking???) and since I am listening to this book for that challenge, I need to get a move on.

Finally, I am reading The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris for a TLC Book Tour which I am hosting in June. I have barely gotten into this one but have been hooked by what I have read so far.

That’s where I am. So what are you reading?