What we’re reading Wednesday

I’m linking up with Jessica this week – late on Wednesday, but it still counts, right?

Our reading group picked the book The Shadow of His Wings, by Fr. Gereon Goldmann, for this month.  I’d read it a few years ago, but remembered it being an incredible story.  I’m almost finished with it again, and it IS an incredible story! 

I mentioned this book to a friend who told me that she had to quit reading WWII books – too much horror – but read this one when her book club picked it a few years ago, and liked it because of the strong sense of the hand of God throughout.  It certainly has that! 

The writing is very straight forward and no-frills, but the movement of God in this man’s life is so striking that it may be best that he didn’t try to embellish it.  I found it inspiring, and have given it to Michael to read, even though I haven’t quite finished – 20 or so pages to go.

Michael just finished To Know Christ Jesus, by Frank Sheed, which is why I gave him my book before I was quite finished.  I usually have several books going at once, which Michael finds baffling.  He finishes each book before moving on to the next one.  So I figure I’ll just finish when he and the book are home. 

Michael very much enjoyed To Know Christ Jesus.  I read it a few years ago, and we’ve had some good discussions of it over the past couple weeks as he read it. 

Picture books for the kids these days:

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, by Dubose Heyward

This one is a cute story – with heroic virtue and housekeeping training on the part of the mother bunny.  Also the very funny line:  “And they went away liking themselves very much.”  I generally save this for this time of year – Lent and Easter – because the Easter Bunny is featured, so it seems seasonal.  Naomi had forgotten it from last year, so it was fun to read to her again this year – she let out some cheers at key points of the book. 

The Little Rose of Sharon, by Nan Gurley

Elizabeth Foss recommended this book on her blog, and I got it on Abebooks.com.  The kids really like it, although Tess spent most of the time I was reading asking, “What this one saying?  What this one saying?”  Sometimes that’s a sign she loves the book, and sometimes it’s a sign she is totally bored…Not sure this time, but the older kids enjoyed the story. 

The Kitchen Knight, by Margaret Hodges

A library pick for Sim, who predictably loves all things Arthurian after we watched The Sword in the Stone.  I like the illustrations and the story, although the ending is a bit weirdly unclear on which of the princesses ends up with the hero…That didn’t bother Sim, who doesn’t pay much attention to princesses in books, anyway.  It also didn’t bother Hannah or Naomi, who decided for themselves.  And it didn’t bother Tess, who really just wanted to know what all the characters (including the horses – who were not talking horses) were saying on every page.

Naomi is currently working on Redwall, by Brian Jacques, and loving it.  Sim got a Lego ninja (or should it be ninja Lego?) graphic novel from the library and plays “Sensei Wu” constantly.  Hannah just finished The Mystery of the Periodic Table, by Benjamin Wiker.  Her only criticism is that, since it was written a while ago, the more recent elements weren’t included in the story.  But she feels that this might not be too terrible, because humans created the more recent ones in labs, mostly, so their stories are probably more boring (this is Hannah’s take; I’m sure the discoverers wouldn’t deem their discoveries boring).  She liked the book otherwise, and has pulled back out the beautiful coffee-table book The Elements, by Theodore Gray to peruse again now that she’s heard the story behind the table.  Michael delights in Hannah’s interest in chemistry.