Summer Reading

I've got quite a few books going right now, which makes me feel slightly addlepated. Seriously. My friend Javamom just shakes her head at my manic reading. Anyway, here are my recent reads:

The Student Whisperer (finished), which I narrated onto the blog. This book helped me think about interacting with kids in a mentoring way, which is good. I haven't completed all the exercises in the second half, and I am not sure I will. My favorite part is her journals at the beginning.

When God Goes to Starbucks (finished) and Is God a Moral Monster? (still reading) by Paul Copan. My dad turned me on to Paul Copan this spring. Mr. Copan is something of a 21st Century C.S. Lewis in terms of Christian philosophy. Not as imaginative, though.

When Children Love to Learn (various authors) edited by Elaine Cooper. I am reading this with a group (and narrating it on this blog). Love, love, love this book. I never read it before. Silly me, I thought it would be a little fluffy, but it is as meaty as Charlotte Mason's original volumes. (Well, maybe not quite as meaty, but close.)

Toward a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (Volume 6). Our book club just finished this on Monday night. The last section of the book, combined with the first couple of chapters in When Children Love to Learn, taught me that I never knew what it meant to respect a person as an image-bearer of God, although I have seen it in action. I can't even write about it yet. A paradigm shift must be in the works.

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. I finished reading it, but am going back through in order to process through some of his main points. This one is being narrated onto the blog, too.

I am still reading George W. Bush's Decision Points, but I got bogged down in the chapter on Iraq. I've set it aside for the moment.

Mariel and I are reading Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis) and Churchill's Birth of Britain (almost there!) and we finished the second book of The Once and Future King (T.H. White) today. It's hard to resist the checklist mentality in the summer, but we are trying to read the books for the sake of reading, not finishing, if you know what I mean.

Aravis and I are finishing How to Read Slowly by James Sire. We are also reading Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell. We had planned on reading John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, but we haven't even started it and I just don't know...

Cornflower is done with all her school readings. Even though she is ten years old, she climbs into my lap every so often with a picture book. Ah, nostalgia.

We are all reading through Exodus together, too. The Israelites just got in trouble for worshipping the golden calf.

I checked some books out of the library the other day. Most of them sat on the table until I returned them this week. I did read one-- a book on community and the Rule of Benedict. That was a good one, but I can't remember the author. I like the Rule of Benedict as a practical application of loving one another in day-to-day life.

So that's what I am reading. What books have you read lately? Maybe I'll add them to my list...