Alexander the Great, 101 Dalmatians, Big Magic, and The Restorationist series

For the Littles:

Alexander the Great by Demi
Who is this Demi and why does she have one name, like Cher? I don’t care, this book is beautiful! The one we got from the library had a gold foil to it that made the illustrations that much more striking. I also liked Demi’s philosophical stance—though Alexander had everything—good looks, power, youth — at the end of his life, he said it was all a waste.

Bat Wheels (no author because this book is not really written by a person but by a committee)
This is not fine literature. However, I admire this guy for thinking of a book that combines two things that a lot of little boys like—batman and cars. A huge hit with my youngest, and it didn’t make my brain go completely numb.

For Family Readaloud:

Between Flowers and Bones by Carolyn Leilouglio
We Pre-Ordered this book — I do that exactly NEVER but my daughter loved the first book of the Restorationist series so much that I had to. This is the second in a series, and I liked it better than the first. The protagonist is a homeschool girl! Homeschoolers are vastly underrepresented in literature, so we were super happy to see that. And these kids travel through paintings (magic, not science). My art-loving homeschooled kids ate this book up. There’s going to be one more in the series—but I wish there were going to be about 5 more, the world is so interesting.

101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
Did you know this Disney cartoon is a children’s novel? This book was shuffled out of someone’s attic onto our bookshelves, so I thought I’d give it a try. It is pretty close to the movie (though obviously better), and we loved the tone and pacing. The humans are the dogs “pets,” and Missis (not Perdita!) is Pongo’s dumb but pretty dog-wife. Cruella is such a strange villain, but she’s made a little bit more demon-ish in this version. And if I ever get a dog, I’m naming it “Cadpig.”

For Myself:

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
I’ve never read any of her books, but I enjoyed this on audiobook. The chapters are short, so you could read one a day as a little writerly pick-me-up. I like that she says to write for the love of writing—whether you win awards or earn degrees or publish books—do it because you love it. She is a believer in “the muse” alighting upon writers, but also that writers have to make themselves available for the muse to light upon them—and then do the work once its there. Couldn’t agree more. Maybe I’ll read one of her novels sometime. (warning: there is some cussing, so you may want earbuds if you’ve got little kids around while you are listening)

The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi
This is another book I did on audio (I promise I’m reading paper books too, but I haven’t finished a single one this month!). I recommend this one for anyone who needs to get their stuff together. She’s got practical tips on how to organize and streamline all the things in your life without freaking out—kind of striking that balance between perfectionist and anarchist. I’ve listened to her podcast, so there wasn’t a lot of new information here for me, but it did help me rethink about where I was getting a touch perfectionist and could just let some things slide.

Broken Waters by Amy Bornman
This collection of poems was interesting in structure to me—it alternated between a poem for each week of pregnancy with a poem from a perspective of someone from the Bible. Even though I’m an old lady and past this baby-having-nervousness, I still enjoyed reading these poems about the yearning and trials of a first pregnancy. (You can also listen to Amy recite one of her poems while holding her adorable baby HERE! How cute is that?)

Writing Updates:

Spotlong Review has a few of my poems up in their latest issue (Handprints and Appraisal).