Library Day!

In order to avoid keeping my loyal readers in the throes of curiosity any longer, I am happy to share the results of my library crusade. 🙂 I didn’t find all of the books I was looking for, but I also found a few that I wasn’t. All in all, a pretty good library day.

1). Feather Your Nest: The Complete Guide to Outfitting, Cleaning, Organizing, and Caring for Your Home by Carentha Harris. 

I figured, since I’m going to be a *wife* pretty soon, and I’ll also have about one week to move and get settled in January before I have to go back to work and school, it couldn’t help to get a book that will give me some ideas of how to fit two apartments worth of stuff into…one apartment. 

2). Mamma’s Enchanted Supper…and Other Stories for the Long Evenings of Advent by Carol DeChant. 

I thought this memoir looked interesting. It is a memoir, in that it is a story written about the author’s family. However, each story is only a few pages, and each corresponds to one of the days of Advent. I am excited to read a story each day (or evening) and try to incorporate something a little less “traditionally Christmas-y” into our Advent rituals. 

3). Real-Life Homeschooling by Rhonda Barfield.

This book is really quite interesting so far. It is the story of 21 very different families who have chosen to homeschool, and for very different reasons. There is a family of 11, and some with only one child. Most of the families choose to homeschool for religious reasons, but some others do so because they believe they can do a much better job with their children than a stranger; some families choose homeschooling because of a child with special needs who can receive more attention at home. 

The stories are very honest, compelling, and I think a good resource for someone like me. Someone who does not yet have a family, but thinks they might want to consider homeschooling when they do. It’s not all sunshine and roses in the stories, but all in all, these are joyful, happy families. 

4). Learning Like a Girl: Educating Our Daughters in Schools of Their Own by Diana Meehan. 

I found this book to read for research on my thesis. It lead me to the homeschool book, as Learning like a girl was on the shelf next to the homeschool books. I’m fascinated by single-sex education, especially for girls at the middle and high school levels. I am doing some research on it for one part of my thesis. This book looks read-able. I love this quote from the introduction:

“A single sex all girls school may not be for every young woman. Just those who want to one day rule our city-state and the world.”

5). A Slice of Life: Contemporary Writers on Food by Bonnie Marranca.

Who doesn’t love food? So, who wouldn’t love reading about it? I thought this collection of essays would be easy train reading or for downtime between now and the holidays. With Advent coming, and a time of preparation for Jesus’ birth, I think it’s also important to read something that is just a bit less serious. Who knows, maybe it will make me think more than I think it will. 🙂