Discovering the Ice Age
Magic Tree House Adventures in my library with my toddler. I can’t wait to take her to the Natural Science and History museum! I think it’s about time for her first trip.
She is completely enthralled with Jack and Annie now, and begs for the next story as soon as we’ve finished the last. For parents just coming in for these blog posts, it helps to have some kind of tactile activity and/or lots of related picture books available while toddlers listen to chapter books.
She was really into the bits about the Woolly Mammoths. We learned from Mary Pope Osborne’s research guide that there were different kinds of mammoths: Columbian Mammoths were the biggest, Woolly Mammoths the second largest, and there were smaller ones called Pygmy Mammoths. Of course, a two-year old sees these different mammoths and calls them Daddy Mammoth, Mommy Mammoth, and Baby Mammoth. It’s ok, we still have time to figure it all out.
My child is enamored by sharp teeth and weapons. She also likes maps and any time a location is discussed in a history book she wants to know where it is in relation to Texas and Virginia. Texas because that’s where she’s from, and Virginia because that’s where Pocahontas met John Smith. This was the topic of conversation when the Giant Beavers of North America were discussed during our Ice Age study.
We prefer the Life in the Ancient World book over the Early Humans book. It has a lot more detail, it WILL be used as our first official History textbook and I already have the lesson plans blocked out. There are projects scattered throughout, both crafty and educational, and I think it is a must have homeschooling tool – especially for those pursuing a classical route. Rocks and Fossils is a really awesome book for an older child. I think around ages 8-11 this is going to be a household favorite.
The Best of Foodie Memoirs
Title: Lunch in Paris
Author: Elizabeth Bard
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Genre: Travel/Memoir/Cooking
If you are looking for Eat, Pray, Love or Julie & Julia at the bookstore – STOP. Pick this up instead. It’s friendlier, wittier, and far more relaxing.
It was the water color that got me first. That and the fact that I love memoirs with recipes, they pretty much dominate my source of kitchen plans. Then, that first page of that first chapter: Coffee, Tea, or Me and her description of herself – I felt so at home, so in league with a kindred spirit.
She says things like “I stood pressed against the wall, like a field anthropologist caught in the middle of a buffalo exorcism,” when describing a French dance party. How can you not fall in love with a writer that expresses herself like that? I literally started laughing out loud, and I hate using that phrase since all the texters in society have begun speaking how they type, so when I use it I really mean it.
Bard is pleasant and loveable. She has dilemmas that I can sympathize with, as opposed to Gilbert’s laments in Eat, Pray, Love which seemed all a little over the top and self inflicted. I did laugh a few times when she chalked something her husband did up to his being French, a lot of times it just seemed very husbandy to me. But for the most part, I think I was only laughing when I was truly meant to, when she utilized some turn of phrase or told a story that should make the corners of your mouth twitch while you read.
My favorite moment was when a friend tells her she can’t just go to the market for the rest of her life. Before Bard got a chance to say it herself, I inwardly pleaded… why not? It doesn’t matter whether you loathe or love the grocery stores here in the states, Bard will make you fall in love with European markets and long desperately to go make purchases at a butcher shop in Paris and linger over vegetables in the streets.
Go. Buy. Enjoy. I know you’ll love it.
Newspaper Clippings On Chesil Beach
Or IN On Chesil Beach, rather…
Title: On Chesil Beach
Author: Ian McEwan
I love used books mostly because of the crap you find inside them. Receipts, plane tickets, love letters, movie stubs, money – I’ve found it all.
In On Chesil Beach, a book published in 2007, I found a 1990 Wall Street Journal clipping of a book review written by Richard Locke. It discussed McEwan’s most recent title at that time, Innocent, and compared him and other contemporary authors to Graham Greene.
It was the highlight of McEwan’s novel for me, the only other redeeming quality being McEwan’s excellent prose and the use of the word ‘wafted.’
I’ve read other work by McEwan, Amsterdam
Love this picture by a fellow book reviewer. Click to read her take.
Where Atonement
As I told fellow book clubbers, I think Atonement is an atypical novel for McEwan. It highlights all his strengths as a novelist and abandons a lot of the things I dislike about his other work.
I didn’t enjoy On Chesil Beach, but as usual McEwan’s prose was lovely. I just didn’t like the story. I was uncomfortable with two married people trying to figure out how to have sex on their honeymoon for 200 pages. Amsterdam was equally annoying and somewhat dull.
Atonement is truly the equal opposite of the other two titles. It has layers upon layers, I sympathize with characters. Briony, though a sort of villain, is also a rich, multifaceted character. It is a genius piece of work that can be discussed along side the genius of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden without ever wondering why it is sharing shelf space with such a prolific artist of words.
I can read Atonement over and over again and find new things to marvel over. The first time I spent countless hours studying words and names… Briony, which means “climbing plant.”
Bryonies are occasionally grown in gardens, sometimes accidentally, sometimes deliberately so. Some species find use in herbal medicine. Generally however, these plants are poisonous, some highly so, and may be fatal if ingested. – Wikipedia
This time, a fellow HPB Humble Book Clubber pointed out the stunning use of windows, glass, and viewpoints of the characters. As well as Triton being the statue in the fountain that supplied the initial setting for all the confusion… Triton who is a messenger of the sea, and the confusion being that of miscommunications and vivid imaginations. There is a wealth of things to dive into when re-reading the book.
Even if On Chesil Beach offers similar literary gems to dig into, I have no desire to do so. I feel as though Edward and Florence have annoyed me enough already in this lifetime. I debate, even now as I type, whether to keep the book at all. I may give it away, it is in near mint condition and other people enjoy things I do not. But neurotic hoarder in me wants to create a shelf in my library of all books I find featuring the word ‘wafted’ and perch it there along with the rest. It is a good thing I am married. I am sure my husband will cock an eyebrow in that meaningful way that says ‘Don’t be crazy’ and I shall submit to the idea that it makes a better gift than tribute to my odd obsessions.
Anakalian Whims 