More Reading

I'm finishing the year with one more reading post. I did five of these this year, so this makes six, and I've read over 50 books. In between each blast of reading, I feel like I've read absolutely nothing, so looking back like this actually helps me to remember I did do more than scroll through meaningless junk on my phone this year.

Here is the last batch of reading,

Ottilie Colter and the Master of Monsters by Rhiannon Williams
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Predators Gold by Philip Reeve
Raising Girls by Gisela Preuschoff
Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve
Hunted Warriors by Lian Tanner
A Darkling Plan by Philip Reeve
A Different Land by Paul Jennings
The Ice Sea Pirates by Frida Nilsson
The Lost Realm by J. D. Rinehart
The Lost Barkscrolls by Chris Riddle and Paul Stewart

You'll notice an anomaly there if you read the titles carefully. A complete stray from my usual world of wonderful fictional fantasy, I read Raising Girls. I picked it up with good intentions, thinking it would be good from a professional view as well as a mother of two daughters. I'm still interested in reading Steve Bidulp's Raising Boys (purely professional motivation there), but to be completely honest, this version of Raising Girls was a total waste of time. If you want to hear what I really thought, just ask me, but I would not recommend reading it to anyone. Ever.

What I would say, is that the world building in the Mortal Engines Quartet by Philip Reeve is fabulous, and I liked the way the books really moved the story forward. I would recommend those to people for sure. After reading the second Crown of Three books (The Lost Realm) I would really love to read book three. Why is getting books from the library so hit and miss!?

The other thing I saw on the shelf last time I was in the library was book one (which I've read) and books three and four of Lemony Snicket's All the Wrong Questions series. My outrage at book two being absent was noted with much amusement by the pre-teen members of the library who were quietly reading before I came along.

What we've read with the girls has been James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator also by Roald Dahl. After we finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the girls were excited to see where the adventure would lead, and they were suitably excited about the trip to space, the space monsters and then the Wonka-Vite. It was a little harder to get through, because it was just that little bit more far fetched, and there were a lot more adult characters, who were no where near as fun as the children in the first book.

We are also reading our way through all of our Christmas books. Each year, I've wrapped 24 Christmas books and we use it for our advent calendar. We've done it since Sophie was two or three I think. It certainly helped that my mum was an early childhood teacher and had a large collection of Christmas picture books lying around still, but over the years our own collection has grown too. There is something super special about unwrapping a book to read each night and the girls love it. Their favorites have definitely been The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and The Jolly Postman's Christmas.

It's unlikely I'll be blogging again before Christmas, or even before New Years, so let me just say, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that as you think about the year that was, you don't believe the lie that it was all for nothing, and that you have photos, journals (or blogs) to remind you that you did, in fact, achieve something. See you in 2020!