Saturday, February 20, 2010

Books and Movies

I'm on a reading kick again. It's not like I never read, it's just that sometimes I enjoy it much more than others. I'm in one of my "enjoying it immensely" phases.

Here's some of what I've read/am reading/want to jump into lately.



Have read:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This was a book club selection which we discussed last week (over bagels and coffee at Panera--yay!) I really liked it which came as a surprise, even to me! One of the things I like about this particular book club is that they push me to read things outside of my norm, and this book was no exception.

Habits of a Child's Heart: Raising Your Kids with the Spiritual Disciplines by Valerie Hess and Marti Garlett A friend suggested this book when I asked her about some Lent resources for kids and I remembered that another friend had given it to us a few years ago. It's based on Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline and honestly, I can't say enough good things about it. The authors include ideas (for children as young as four) on disciplines such as Prayer, Simplicity, Solitude, and Service. Y'all, this is an excellent, excellent book.

Everyday Food, March 2010. I pretty much devour this magazine the day it arrives in my mailbox. Every issue has easy and delicious recipes--like roast pork with squash and onions. One of my favorites. EverdayFood has an awesome website too!


Am Reading:
Photoshop Elements for Dummies This program is awesome, but the learning curve is steep. This book makes it feel a little more manageable for me. In retrospect, I probably should have bought this book which is more along the lines of what I hope to use Elements for. My friend spent four hours with me at Starbucks one day this week giving me a private tutorial. It took me four hours to make this one page but I think I'm off to a great start!!!


The Message Remix by Eugene Peterson I'm still on track with my read thru the Bible in a year plan. Started Leviticus this week and that makes me even more thankful for The Message translation. There is a group of us doing this together, and if you're super motivated to catch up on almost two months of readings, you can join us! I'm using this plan.

Going Rogue by Sarah Palin This isn't included in my photo because I haven't bought it yet, but it's the selection for next month's book club. Have any of y'all read it? [I'm really asking you, Lisa!]


Want to jump into:
Patched Together by Brennan Manning This book released earlier this month and my husband helped the author work on it, so it's top on my list right now.

The Family Cloister by David Robinson When I was looking for that Valerie Hess book last weekend I stumbled upon this one on John's bookshelf. Looks interesting. Same with Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn. If they're worth the read, I'll let you know.

Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian I've never read anything by this author but I've heard he's great. John brought this one home to read for himself, but as soon as he's finished, I'm next in line. Bonus: I think my other book club might choose this selection for next month.

And movies? I love movies. Period.

I watch an episode of Glee pretty much every day. Not sure what that says about me. It's not a movie, but that's what makes it even better. I can barely stay awake for an entire movie after my kids go to bed, but I CAN stay awake for a 45 minutes television show. Win-win.

Bruce Almighty. Seriously one of my favorite movies EVER. I've been searching for it on the $5 rack at Walmart for two years (not even kidding) and when I was in Walmart last week I caught sight of it while walking past. I literally stopped my buggy/cart and said out loud: NO WAY!" I backed my buggy up and tossed that dvd in my cart faster than you could say "Alrighty then", smiling the entire time. My kids aren't allowed to watch it but I may or may not have watched it twice this week while doing things around the house. LOVE it.

The dvd teetering on top of Bruce Almighty in my stack of books/movies is The Brady Bunch. My kids are working their way through Season 4 and they love it. Last night we ate pizza and watched the episode where Marsha gets hit with the football --"Oh, my nose"--and hunky Doug breaks their date because "Something suddenly came up". I can pretty much quote The Brady Bunch line for line. If you're my age, I bet you can too!


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have looked at The Road a bazillion times but thought it wouldn't be my thing, but we seem to like a lot of the same books so maybe I should give it a try. I wish we lived closer so we could share books.

I met Brennan Manning at a CBA show. I was just drawn to him. There's something about his eyes that just make me want to give him a hug. That was probably a super weird thing to say. But now it's out there and I'm not even going to delete.

You need to give us reports if you like them or not before I add them to my already full-to-overflowing list.

Leah Belle said...

i read the Sarah Palin book in December. i checked it from our public library...really enjoyed it!

Becky said...

Back this fall you and several others were raving about a book that you couldn't put down? Was it "The Help"?

Didn't the 4 of us watch Bruce Almightly in Hot Springs?

Melissa Stover said...

i love chris bohjalian. i haven't read that one though. now i'll have to get it.

dawn said...

I love the Brady Bunch--did you buy the kids them on DVD or can you rent them? Love Bruce Almighty too--thought it would mock God so had no interest in it until a friend reccommended it. I love it!

I have to get that Child's Heart book. Sounds like a wonderful book. And I have never checked out Everyday Food--sounds good!

Thanks for a fun list!

Stephanie said...

The girls and I have been speeding through Brady Bunch seasons and are waiting anxiously until March when T said we can order season 4. I'm having so much fun watching them again with the girls. And we have both Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty on our shelves and it has been forever since we've watched either of them. We may have to put those in the rotation soon!

I'm currently reading the Betsy Tacy series ... so wonderful and sweet. I'm a little sad I didn't know about these books growing up!

Sandy M. said...

I bought & read Going Rogue as soon as it came out & I loved it! I usually struggle to read non-fiction (love Christian fiction), but I could hardly lay this one down!

Janna Widdifield said...

Gonna check out that Habits book. Thanks for the tip!

Mollie said...

Love the Message Bible!! So good!!
Need to try the photo shop for dummies....that would be me!!

Gretchen said...

I'm so impressed with your scrapbook page that I can hardly stand myself. Soooo good! I've been doing the digital albums at Snapfish, but this looks so much better and more like the real scrapping I used to do. Hopefully, after your learning curve, it'll even be faster than old-time scrapping.

I have wanted to read Brennan Manning for a long time. Don't know why it's taken me so long.

Lurve the Brady Fam! You do know that I once dressed as Cindy Brady for a party in college. And then a friend of mine was Greg. Fun times.

Moriah @ Please Pass the Salt said...

I'm going to bookmark this post for reference when I'm re-surfacing from house (and sewing) projects!!!