Picture Books for a Cold Snowy Day

It has been freezing here almost all month long. When I say freezing I mean 10 degrees and below almost every day.  I am so done with January. We have been spending most of our time indoors so I thought I would share some of our favorite cold weather picture books. These are not about Christmas which is a little harder to find.

Sneezy the Snowman We love this book. Cute ryming book with fun colorful pictures. Be careful with this one, you may be asked to read it about five times a day.

Red Sled This book is mostly pictures with a very few words but the illustrations tell a wonderful story about what happens during the night with a little red sled.

A Very Special Snowflake Short book about losing a white puppy in a snowstorm. Addie loves pointing out the dog in every picture.

The Snowy Day Classic snowy day book. This book gets Addie so excited to go out and play in the snow. Even when it is FREEZING

What are some of your favorite books?

Favorite Thanksgiving Picture Books

Here we are almost at another holiday. I thought I would make a new list of our favorite Thanksgiving picture books like I did with Halloween. It's a lot harder to find good Thanksgiving books but here are a few books that we enjoy reading.

1. Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' I remember reading this book when I was little and I still love it today. Apparently they decided to reillustrate it using a family of foxes instead of the original people, which is strange. I like the original. But it's still a fun and silly book we all enjoy.

2. Thanksgiving Is Here! This is a sweet short book about Thanksgiving day. The illustrations are my favorite part. Addie loves looking at all the people and figuring out what they're doing.

3. Balloons over Broadway This is the true story of the man who created the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is really well done and an interesting read for even the parents. It's a little too old for Grace at 18 months but Addie enjoys reading it. 

4. 10 Fat Turkeys Addie thinks this book is hilarious. We have a lot of fun reading the little rhyme and looking at all the funny turkeys. Definitely for the younger crowd. 

5. Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl This is also a book from my past. Instead of illustrations the book has pictures of a young girl reenacting a day in Pilgram times. Addie enjoys looking at the pictures and I think it gives her a better idea of what it was like to be a Pilgram. 

 What other Thanksgiving books are we missing?

Update:
Here are some more Thanksgiving books I've found that we like.

The Night Before Thanksgiving

Halloween Picture Books

We read a lot of books around here.  It is one way I love to play with my girls. I have a hard time playing imagination or princesses but I can read picture books to my girls for hours.

I'm always on the look out for new books for us to read and every holiday we try to find some new favorites. These our the current favorites in our house for Halloween. Let me know if you have any other recommendations! We are always looking for more.





Room on the Broom
Room on the Broom is my favorite of all the Halloween picture books. It has a fun story, a little rthym and wonderful pictures. It is written by the same author as one of our other favorite picture books, The Gruffalo.

Hoodwinked
Hoodwinked is the story of a cute little witch who is looking for the perfect creepy pet but she is having a hard time finding the right one.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
I think this is considered a Halloween classic. We enjoy reading this book which is probably the spookiest of our Halloween books. Not enough to make Addie scared but enough to make her curious about the ending.

Skeleton Hiccups
This one is probably my least favorite of the group but my four year old thinks it's hilarious. She will laugh out loud as the skeleton tries to get rid of his hiccups.

Too Many Pumpkins
This book is not really a Halloween book but a book about pumpkins. Rebecca hates pumpkins but she finds herself overwhelmed with pumpkins one year. She has to figure out what to do with her abundance of pumpkins.

Pumpkin Jack
Pumpkin Jack is another book more about pumpkins.  This book is about Tim carving a pumpkin for Halloween and naming him Jack. After Halloween he has a hard time getting rid of Jack so he leaves it to rot and watches as the pumpkin changes through the year.

Skeleton Meets the Mummy
This is a cute little story about a Skeleton going for a walk on Halloween when he is scared by a sound. He turns around and finds a Mummy chasing him!

Frankenstein
This is a parody of the classic Madeline. We have a lot of fun reading this book before Madeline and then finding all of the differences.

 Update: Here area few more books we loved reading. I'm going to update the list here so I remember for next year.
  Big Pumpkin
  Which Way to Witch School?
  A Job for Wittilda

These is my words

My new favorite book right now, These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-190 by Nancy Turner. 

"A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon form- from child to determined young adult to loving mother- she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her, and recalls the enduring love with cavalry office Jack Elliot that gives her strength and purpose."

I cannot even tell you how much I loved this book. I had a really hard time starting because the title and cover are just, blah. That doesn't matter at all once you get into this book because it's amazing. Sarah is my hero, she is a strong stubborn woman that does what needs to be done, Period. Several times during this book I was in awe of her and all the trials she had to deal with. I told Reed a number of times that I would have died if I was in her shoes, I don't know how she did it.  I got so emotionally involved in this book that it tore my heart out and I cried like I haven't done in a long time. Normally that would make me hate the book but I don't, I expected to cry and that's what I did.

I have to mention the romance between Jack and Sarah, this is probably my favorite romance ever, as of right now. I may change my mind later since I just finished the book about 5 minutes ago, but you will love the connection between Jack and Sarah. It feels like Anne and Gilbert to me, but more. LOVED IT, is all I have to say. I'm going to go back and reread my favorite parts of the book now.

If you are like me just waiting for  Mockingjay  to come out so you have something good to read, go check this one out and start reading, you will get so caught up in this story you will forget to feed your baby breakfast. 

Read it, tell me what you think. I've got to talk to someone about this book!

Jane Austen Ruined My Life

I finished my second Readers Choice Book a few days ago titled Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo. Here is the synopsis from Good Reads.

English professor Emma Grant has always done everything just the way her minister father told her she should -- a respectable marriage, a teaching job at a good college, and plans for the requisite two children. Life was prodigiously good, as her favorite author Jane Austen might say, until the day Emma finds her husband in bed with another woman. Suddenly, all her romantic notions a la Austen are exposed for the foolish dreams they are.

Denied tenure in the wake of the scandal and left penniless by the ensuing divorce, Emma packs up what few worldly possessions she has left and heads to England on a quest to find the missing letters of Jane Austen. Locating the elusive letters, however, isn't as straightforward as Emma hoped. The owner of the letters proves coy about her prize possessions, sending Emma on a series of Austen-related tasks that bring her closer and closer to the truth, but the sudden reappearance of Emma's first love makes everything more complicated.

In the end, Emma learns that doing the right thing has very little to do with other people's expectations and everything to do with her own beliefs. Laced with fictional excerpts from the missing letters, Jane Austen Ruined My Life is the story of a woman betrayed who uncovers the deeper meaning of loyalty.

Here is my review:

The title and cover of this book really drew me in, I thought it would be something fun and light to read. In the end I thought it was pretty good. Not great but I didn't hate it. I'm not much of a Jane Austen fan, I never read any of her books (although most of them are on my list for this year) but I have seen the movies. This book is about a professors that knows everything about her life so it was kind of interesting to get a little of that personal information.

This book also has a small amount of mystery as the main character runs around England finding clues to piece together more information about Jane Austen. It also has a little romance on the side, which I always enjoy.

What this book really did was make me crave to go to England, it has always been a dream of mine and the details in this book made me wish to go even more.

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People

I'm really excited to do more book reviews this year. Last year I didn't feel like I had enough time to write reviews for the books I read because I would just hurry onto the next book.

I found this book at my library where they are doing Readers Choice right now. I love Readers Choice because every time you read one of the books involved you get a stamp, when you have enough stamps you get a free book!

Most of my reviews will be short and sweet. I don't know much about reviewing books, all I can tell you is if I liked it or not. So here goes...


The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

Here is what Good Reads has to say about this book:

What does an Indian man with a wealth of common sense do when his retirement becomes too monotonous for him to stand? Open a marriage bureau of course!

With a steady stream of clients to keep him busy, Mr. Ali sees his new business flourish as the indomitable Mrs. Ali and his careful assistant, Aruna, look on with vigilant eyes. There’s the man who wants a tall son-in-law because his daughter is short; the divorced woman who ends up back with her ex-husband; a salesman who can’t seem to sell himself; and a wealthy, young doctor for whom no match is ever perfect. But although his clients go away happy, little does Mr. Ali know that his esteemed Aruna hides a tragedy in her past—a misfortune that the bureau, as luck would have it, serendipitously undoes.

Alexander McCall Smith meets Jane Austen in this delightfully charming Indian novel about finding love.

I agree with the Alexander McCall Smith comparison, if you've read any of his books you will notice a similarity in their style. I'm not sure I agree with the Jane Austen comparison but it does have a little romance in it which I love.

This book was fun, clean and interesting. I have never read a book based in India so I really enjoyed reading about the culture there. I did think a few parts of the book got a little boring but not so much that I stopped reading.

I DID IT!

I did it. I read 100 books in 2009. I'm so happy that I actually did it. I thought it would be easy because I love to read, and I do it all the time, but it was actually really hard. A lot of the time I didn't feel like reading but felt like I had to read whenever I had any down time, it became more of a chore.

This year one of my goals is to read more of the classics. I read a lot of good books last year but I read even more fluff. They were fun while I was reading them, but I don't remember anything about them anymore. I want to read books that are more substantial this year.

Here is a list of some of my favorite books from last year. The are all different and I enjoyed them for different reasons. If you have a question about one of these or the others I read just let me know!

• The Hunger Games and Catching Fire - LOVE LOVE LOVED these books.
  

• They did it with love - Fun mystery, interesting twisted ending

• Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Cute and easy book. I loved how clean and simple it was.

• City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass - Great books to read when done with The Huger Games. Not quite as good but I really enjoyed reading them.

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Loved this book a lot more than I had imagined. Interesting story and cute little romance.
  

• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Loved the movie, wanted to read the book.
  

• Murder on the Orient Express - I love Agatha Crisitie. There is a reason why this is a classic Mystery.

• Austenland - Fun book for Pride and Prejudice lovers.
  

• Love After All - One of my favorite LDS Romances.

• Jurassic Park - First time reading it and I really enjoyed it. Great way to break up the romance mystery pace I had going.

• The Help - Really interesting book, I think it should be made into a classic.

• The Lovers' Knot - Another fun mystery with a little romance on the side.

• I'd Tell You I Love You but then I'd Have to Kill You - Young Adult spy book series that will be made into a movie, I think younger girls would really enjoy reading it.

• Princess Academy - Another Young Adult book that I really enjoyed reading.
  

• I'll find you - Great LDS mystery, reread it and enjoyed it as much as the first time.

• Time and Eternity - A new LDS Romance to me that I still remember, so it must have been good.

• The witch of Blackbird Pond - I love this classic Young Adult book.

• Dear John - Nicholas Spark book, so I cried. I didn't love the ending but I enjoyed reading the book.
  

Catching Fire

Have you read The Hunger Games? You should. If you have, you should now read Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games). I read it in one day; I had to read it that fast. I get so into books I forget I'm a wife and mother. I was really worried about the second book because usually in a trilogy I get bored during the middle book, however this was a pleasant surprise. I loved this book as much as the first. I've talked about them so much I've even got my husband wanting to read them.

Book Review: The School of Essential Ingredients

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives. One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian’s food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen.

In short, I found this book boring. A few of the individuals stories just skimmed because I found them uninteresting and I was excited to move onto a new book. I also found I didn't believe all of the powers that food had on the class memebers. I love cooking and I love food I just didn't believe it could help every person in the class find what they were searching for in life.

Rating: 2 out of 5