July Reads

Due to our wonderfully relaxing vacation in NC, I feel like I actually made a dent in some books I’ve been wanting to read.

I finished Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain on the car ride home and felt quite accomplished to have finished it in just over a week. Motherhood, though joyous, does limit your leisure time for reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (for the 5th time? 6th time?)

and Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Author of Anne of Green Gables).

If you haven’t read the Anne books you must. Really. MUST MUST MUST. Although they are occasionally (frequently) super sappy, you really can’t beat ’em. Anne of the Island and Rilla are my particular favorites but I’ve been meaning to re-read Anne’s House of Dreams as well.

I started The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris yesterday on the drive home. I’m not sure how much I like it yet. I’ve read some of her shorter pieces and meditations that I liked a good bit and I do like how the books is framed by the Liturgical Year. Have you read it? What did you think?

A book club is reading Catherine of Siena by my beloved Sigrid Undset (author of Kristin Lavransdatter) this month and I ordered it from Amazon and hope to attend the discussion. I don’t know anything at all about St. Catherine and I thoroughly enjoyed the first two chapters I read this morning. I love Undset’s grasp of the Middle Ages and her depiction of women is always rich and interesting. Apparently one of the catalysts for her conversion to Catholicism was her research of medieval hagiographies and she does a great job writing a biography of this fascinating saint.

Although we’ve been reading it for months and months, Benjamin has recently decided that Where the Wild Things Are is one of his favorite favorites. I’m glad because I never get tired of reading it. I love Maurice Sendak.

Thanks to Sheena’s recommendation, we borrowed David Shannon’s A Bad Case of Stripes from the library and Benjamin has been requesting it over and over.

We also borrowed (thanks to Amy’s recommendation!) some of the Elsa Beskow books. My favorite was Pelle’s New Suit. The illustrations are to die for.

What are you enjoying reading this summer? What do you like reading to your kids?