It’s Monday! What are you reading? Is a meme started by Sheila at Book Journey. Kellee and Rikki at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts gave the meme a kidlit twist. It’s a great way to reflect on what you’ve read and reviewed the last week and plan what you want to read next. Join up with us and discover what good books other people are reading.

The past week was quite slow. Cold and snow invited us to snuggle in with mugs of hot chocolate and books and movies. I even–finally–got to watch the movie version of Paper Towns with my daughter and one of her friends. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, so I enjoyed the movie much more than the girls, who kept pointing out all of the differences. Over all, though, the movie captured the spirit of the book pretty well.

Blog posts this week:

• The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
• Poetry Friday: Fun with Magnets

I finished…

Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans – Even though my faith journey has not been as fraught with struggle as Evans was, I found myself nodding in agreement with much of what she writes. I read with a pen in hand so I could underline lines I want to come back to or that struck a cord. I read quickly because I wanted to find out what she would say next, but this is a book I will go back to and read again, this time slowly, so I can ponder.

Unlearning Church by Michael Slaughter (new edition) – Not just in church, but in many places I’ve been involved, I get frustrated when people do things because that’s the way it’s always been done. I used to drive my mom crazy with my demands for a better reason. In the context of church, Slaughter gives plenty of compelling reasons why every church should seek to grow into its ministry with its own unique character driven by the Spirit, NOT copy what has been done before. My  mind is reeling with ideas to think about–and to share with my church.

I’m currently reading…

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – I finally talked my daughter into letting me read this one aloud to her. I know she’s going to like it (sometimes mom’s approval is the kiss of death for a book recommendation), but she resisted. At first she stifled her snickers in her pillow as I read. Now she is commenting on the characters and asking questions and even asking for one more chapter…

Raising Chickens for Dummies by Kimberly Willis and Rob Ludlow – This week I’m learning about different breeds of chickens. My primary interest is in having laying hens for eggs. My husband is more interested in raising chickens for meat. It looks like we’ll be looking for a duel purpose breed–hens that lay (but not quite as much as those breeds used for commercial eggs) and that grow enough meat to make butchering worthwhile (but grow more slowly than broilers). I’d one day like to try raising chicks (my husband not so much), so I’d like a breed that tends to be broody at least occasionally. Now we’re waiting for a break in the weather to start construction.

My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Stephen Alcorn – I finished my tour of the Northeast and have headed down the coast to the Southeast. I grew up in North Carolina, so many of these poems are like a visit home. Each section is preceded by a quick look at facts about each state, and I am enjoying reading the interesting fact about each state.

Anatomy of a Curiosity by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanich – Have you ever wondered what goes on in a writers head as they go from idea to story?  These three writers generously share their writing process with the specific example of a story they’ve written. Not only do they share how they developed the idea, but they add notes in the margin of the story that explains choices they made in the drafting or revising process. So far I’ve just read the first story by Maggie Stiefvater. I’m looking forward to the next two as well.

Coming up…

Well, it looks like I have plenty of books to finish, but I am most excited about rereading a book from last year–Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor. I drove my family crazy with my constant talking about it, so I am glad to have a group to read and discuss it with this time around!

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