Ereaders for students

If you are considering the purchase of an ereader specifically for a student in your life (or for your own studies) I suggest reading the post on this site:


GoodEReader


The site gives reasons behind each of their recommendations.

Something for the young ones...Complete Farmyard Tales Book & CD (Farmyard Tales)

We came across this Usborne book at the AWBS Christmas Craft and Gift Fayre in 2008. Of course a mom who homeschools and loves to read can't pass up an Usborne book table, or any other book table!


We loved this book of books. It is a compilation of all the titles illustrated by now-deceased illustrator Stephen Cartwright. I read the whole book to our little daughter. We finished reading it in February 2010. Cartwright added a little yellow ducky to every scene he created for his Usborne series. Gigi found every little ducky!


The genius of this book is that it is written in such a way that a beginning reader can read half of the pages and still get the main idea of the stories and then later can learn to read the entire story! I love that! This version also came with an audio CD.


It is truly a treasure of our daughter and will carry happy memories with it through the years.

More Free classics for NOOK users! Hurry while the offer is available!

A friend pointed me to this today.
Twenty classics with introductions, etc can be downloaded for free during this offer.


EbookReaderBlog~Free B&N Classics


Enjoy!
I'm downloading mine now!
One of them is a title I wanted to read along with our daughter who will be reading it in her literature class this year!

I Am a Pencil : A Teacher, His Kids, and Their World of Stories by Sam Swope

I read this in January 2006.





I LOVED, Love, loved this book!
If you are a home schooler, teacher, writer, lover of books...you should read this book! Inspiring!


Really, that's enough said. If you fit any of the above criteria, just read it!

Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahoney

The basis of this book is the Bible; plain and simple.


Carolyn leads readers through chapters based on the following topics:


1 The Delight of Loving my Husband
2 The Blessings of Loving my Children
3 The Safety of Self-Control
4 The Pleasure of Purity
5 The Rewards of Kindness
6 The Beauty of Submission


Such books often seem to be written in a loftier-than-thou format which can be off-putting. Mrs. Mahoney, however, expresses her own disappointment in er own ability to live up to what she feels are worthy goals. Readers will be encouraged rather than discouraged.


In, fact, I should attempt to be as honest as Carolyn, is...
I think this is the book that I shared with some moms in one of our previous homeschool groups. It caused some conflict. The other mom took issue with something in the book. If I am not mistaken about which book it was, Carolyn mentioned something to the affect that sex was created for pleasure. The other mom argued that the express reason behind the creation of sex was procreation, only.


The King James Bible states: 
Genesis 2:18a
"¹⁸And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper meet for him."


Webster defines a help meet or helpmate as:
 one who is a companion and helper; especially : wife


Genesis 2:22-25

²²And the rib which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman and brought her unto the man.
     ²³And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
     ²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
     ²⁵And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.


I believe that God created woman for man because man was lonely. Adam hadn't even realized that yet. God knew. Adam needed a companion; someone to be a soul-mate. Someone with whom he could share his body, mind, and soul. Intimacy. 


I believe God created woman for man so that they could share sexual intimacy...and procreate. 


Can you even imagine procreation...the creation of lots of offspring...without the anticipated emotional support of a helper? I know, today many people choose to go it alone. Personally, I feel that's a really hard road to choose and it isn't the one I chose.
I can support others who do and I know it isn't easy an easy path. 
Heck, parenting isn't easy even with a devoted spouse!


I am thankful for the man in my life; David. He is a God-given treasure. Our marriage is a blessing to me. We still treasure moments of intimacy and I believe that is just one of the threads that holds us firmly together in God's hands.
~~~~
This is an expansion on my marriage and intimacy blog series:
My Favorite Books on Marriage and Intimacy Are...

I saw a new product today ~ to hold your book open for hands-free reading.

I wish I had taken a photo of it. I was at Bed Bath and Beyond. I think the price was only $4.99 and that included both sizes.


I picked it up and looked at it. I almost bought it. I just wasn't sure if it would hold a book at an angle that would make it easy to see and read while using it... I thought I'd come home and Google it for more information


Well, I have and I'm not finding much.


Here are two sites I've found so far:


The Bookworm Confessions Blog


FindMeAGift.CO.UK


Maybe most Bed Bath and Beyond stores carry it, I don't know. If you want one, I'd look there as a starting place.

Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

What a powerful, powerful story.  


I loved reading this book. It made me cry like a baby during the last quarter of the book, and I hate that...but I still love the book. 


Ron and Denver would have never been friends, if not for Debbie, Ron's wife. Debbie was used by God to bring them together and to bring Denver out of homelessness. Denver was used by God to help Ron and to be strong for him.


I wish I were more like Debbie...

~~~~
Denver's paintings are available through this site:
The Cerulean Gallery
The gallery is outside of Dallas.
~~~~
Thanks to my reading-friend, Christine, for mailing me her copy of this book to read!

Airline travel with technology...

Oh for goodness sake.

Really, people?

I know it is important and necessary that passengers' items be scrutinized before flights. I understand that fully. What I don't understand is how people aren't aware enough to realize that an important and costly item has been removed from their carry-on.

We lived in England for over two years. During that time we traveled internationally pretty frequently; often with five kids. Hubs and I are pretty self-aware and have taught our children to be also. I guess this post is to warn travelers to take nothing for granted. Be mindful of your belongings as you go through security check-points. Go through your carry-ons after they are returned to you.

TSA agent caught stealing an iPad

The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt

I once asked my husband who his favorite inventor was. He began telling me some incredible things about Nicola Tesla that I didn't know. I decided to see what I could learn about him on my own.

I began with this juvenile biography selection:



It was fascinating! Tesla must have been an incredible person. I came away from this book thinking he was just a scream. What an inventive spirit. He was world's ahead of his time. If he were suddenly brought back to life I can't imagine what he'd come up with, given today's advances in technology.

Later, my brother, Duffy, and I came across this adult selection while I was living in England:




This is a fictional story about Nicola Tesla. This book fictionalized a story around him, involving a bit of time-travel even. I really enjoyed the middle of the book...the end was a little disapointing but not enough for me not to rate this book favorably. I felt the author could have developed the climax and ending a bit more but she did a wonderful job of creating a story around this amazing man.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

This story is a historically-based fiction about Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, during the second world war. I wish we'd been able to visit there while we lived in England...

The story relates the creation of (and the events that follow) their literary society.

It was a fun book. The story was told by the means of fictional letters. I like stories told in that format. I have to say that I really expected to rate it higher than a four, but the end seemed very abrupt to me.

All told, if you like historically based fiction or books about WWII, it's worthy of your time.