Community, Help, and Encouragement for Active Parents
“Like Water for Chocolate,” by Laura Esquivel, is set in Mexico aroundthe time of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-17. It’s novel of love . . . or is it a novel of the magical power of love . . . or is it a romantic comedy? Honestly, I am not really certain. This is one [...]
Oh. My. Gosh. “Cutting for Stones,” by Abraham Verghese, is one of those books that will stay with me for a very long time. When I finished it, I felt like I had parted ways with friends. First of all, what comes to mind when you hear the word, “Ethiopia?” Skinny, black skeletons with distended [...]
“Out Stealing Horses,” by Perr Peterson, is set in eastern Norway in late 1999. The main character is a man named Trond, who is in the twilight of his life. He has moved out into the countryside to be alone, to avoid human entanglements and to reflect on his past. As fate would have it, [...]
It has been a fun year of virtual travel through books. I’ve been to Afghanistan, China and France during the period of my own lifetime. I’ve been in the Caribbean around the turn of the 20th century. I spent several centuries in Russia, and I am currently reading “Out Stealing Horses” set in eastern Norway [...]
A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle, sent me to the atlas. This was a place I had never heard of. But as I was reading, I kept seeing Cary Grant and Debra Kerr visiting Grandmother in the movie An Affair to Remember. A Year in Provence is the true chronicle of Peter Mayle and [...]
In the book, Iron & Silk, Mark Salzman relates his experiences while teaching English to Chinese medical students during 1982-1984. It is a non-fiction work, an easy read, and very enlightening. (And there’s a movie!) I enjoyed the time I spent with Mark in China, especially meeting the people he met. There were his master [...]
I’m baaack! Remember the Novel Destinations book list for adults? It is very important that we keep our minds stimulated while in the midst of teaching ABCs, potty training, diapers, cooking, cleaning . . . When I was a young mother, I did not realize how important my own education was until I found myself [...]
I’ve always been fond of biographies, even as a child. I loved reading about other people’s stories and triumphs. As an adult, the more I read about other people’s lives, the more I realized that in this world, some are fortunate, while others are living the same horror every single day, over and over again. [...]
First, let’s define what I mean by “smart”: Each of our children has been given by our Maker 5 senses and a brain that work together to help him learn about the world he was placed in. Each child has also been given a special aptitude for one aspect of the world or another (be [...]
Since school started, my travels have been restricted. I finished “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Gabriel García Márquez, after forcing myself to read such an un-appealing title. The setting is somewhere in the Caribbean, and the main characters are Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza. The meet when they are very young and love [...]
