Gladdest Hours

Family Read-Alouds 2008

I started keeping track of  our reading last year in 2007 .   And, did it again this year for our family read-alouds, but slacked a bit with mine and Pete's.  

I'm so glad I did this!  It makes me feel like we actually "DO SOMETHING" over here at the crazy, always-seems-like-a-party-and-constantly-spinning-our-wheels House of Gallus!  

And, this is the first year we have independent readers too, so the girls have their own lists too!  Life is just SO EXCITING!  *wink*

Here are the Read-Alouds from 2008:

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 
2. The Adventures of Peter Cottontail 
3. More All-of-a-kind Family 
4. Blessed Imelda 
5. The Borrowers 
6. Children of Fatima 
7. James and the Giant Peach-2nd time 
8. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm 
9. The Year of Miss Agnes 
10. Understood Betsy 
11. The Penderwicks 
12. The Boxcar Children 
13. Heidi 
14. Runaway Ralph 
15. My Father's Dragon 
16. Ben and Me  
17. Surprise Island 
18. Dolphin Adventure
19. Ramona, Age 8
20. The Mouse and the Motorcycle
21. The Seagull and the Cat who taught it to fly
22. Thimble Summer 
23. Felicity Learns a Lesson
24. Sarah, Plain and Tall
25. Miss Hickory
26. Sebastian Bach: The Boy from Thuringia
27. Happy Birthday, Felicity! A Springtime Story
28. Stuart Little 
29. Meet Felicity
30. Farmer Boy
31. Boxcar Children: Mystery of the Spider's Clue
32. Saint Martin de Porres, Windeatt
33. The Song of the Christmas Mouse
34. Abel's Island
35. Mary Poppins
36. The Lion in the Box
37. The Real St. Nicholas

And, we're off to a good start in 2009 with Saint Catherine of Siena .  And,  Little House by Boston Bay , first of a series of books by Melissa Wiley about Laura Ingalls Wilder's grandmother, Charlotte.  

Here's to a another year of Happy Reading Aloud in 2009!

Books in 2007

I kept track of books we all read this year.  I used to do this during high school, college and in my early 20's, then stopped.  I can't find those lists....grrrrr.   I'd LOVE to have them. 

I can see from my list that I obviously needed a break from reading non-fiction: how-to's about parenting, home education, home management and political books....which have dominated my bookshelves over the past several years.  I returned to simply reading for pleasure and devouring book after book.  In a way, I thank Elena for this.  Her blog reminded me of some of my old interests and she had a few recommendations (along with her own books, of course) and voila! 

These are in no particular order, except the first four were my absolute favorites and plan on reading them again someday.

Suzanne - 2007

• In This House of Brede, Godden
• Madame Royale, Vidal
• Trianon, Vidal
• Katherine, Seton
• Dragonwyck, Seton
• Green Darkness, Seton
• A Miracle for St. Cecilia’s, Valentine
• A Woman Clothed with the Sun, Delaney
• First Fruits of Prayer
• Montessori in the Classroom, Polk
• Royal Road to Fotheringay, Plaidy
• St. Philomena: the wonderworker, O’Sullivan
• Talking to Fireflies, Shrinking the Moon: Nature Activities for all Ages
• The Cure of Ars: the priest who out-talked the devil, Lomask
• The Story of Saint John Vianney, Windeatt
• The King’s Pleasure, Nora Lofts
• The Lost King of France, Cadbury
• The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy
• True Devotion to Mary, de Montfort
• Real Learning, Foss (re-read)
• Look Back All The Green Valley, Chapell
• Anne of Green Gables (re-read)
• Saint Margaret Mary, Windeatt
• Pauline Jaricot, Windeatt
• Siblings Without Rivalry
• Light on Snow, Shreve
• Broken and Blessed: A Life Story, Adamkiewicz

Read-Alouds with the Girls (part of 2006-2007)

• James and the Giant Peach
• Kirsten’s Surprise
• Mr. Popper's Penguins
• Little House in the Big Woods
• Little House on the Prairie
• On The Banks of Plum Creek
• Raggedy Ann
• Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
• The Little Flower, Windeatt
• Pippi Longstocking
• The Courage of Sarah Noble
• All-of-a-kind Family
• All-of-a-kind Family Downtown
• Old Mother West Wind
• Happy Little Family, Caudill
• Holly and Ivy, Godden

Started, but didn’t finish:

• A Bear Called Paddington
• There’s an Owl in the Shower
• Blessed Imelda

Pete – Lots of baseball books this year and the usual history and war reading:

• Guadacanal, Hoyt
• Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in his Time
• The Last Commissioner: A Baseball Valentine
• The Teammates, Halbertstam
• Three Years Among the Camanches, Nelson Lee
• With These Hands, L’Amour
• The Queen’s Man, Penman
• Last Days of Summer, Kluger
• Clemente: the Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, Maraniss
• Culture Warrior, O’Reilly
• The Cure of Ars: the priest who out-talked the devil, Lomask

This year, I plan on reading a few from Elena's lists of Novels with Catholic Spirituality and British and American Catholic Novelists.

Happy Reading in 2008!