June 2011 Reading List

18. Gospel-Powered Parenting by William P. Farley
This was a really good book. It continually brought me back to the Gospel as my motivation for everything - parenting, teaching, disciplining, loving. At first I was frustrated because I didn't feel like it was very practical, giving me steps to follow to "be a good parent," but gradually the Lord started to show me that in order to parent according to the Gospel, I need to let the Gospel soak into and impact my heart first. If I am walking with the Lord, then everything else, including parenting will fall into place!

19. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
This book took me a while to get into - like HALF the book - but once I got past that sticking point I couldn't put it down. And because it's based on what good be very real events, that made it all the more enthralling. Little Bee is basically a novel about a girl from Nigeria who's town is destroyed by oil-hungry men and her interactions with a middle-class family from England. I thought it turned out to be a fascinating read on refugees.

20. Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent
What was there not to love about this book? Birth stories, an autobiography/memoir, and emotional writing. This was a page turner for me. And if I owned it it would go on the shelf right next to Ina May's Guide to Natural Childbirth.

Quotes that made me love her and her story:

"Chilbirth is normal until proven otherwise."

"I was hooked. I thought if I saw lots more babies born, perhaps I'd discover that missing bit of information, the secret of that enchanted moment when one person suddenly becomes two people."

"'Colin, I don't understand this passion you have for a baby [brother/sister]. Why do you want one so much?' 'Oh Mom! Oh, just for the joy of it!' I conceived my Spirit Baby a week later. Just for the joy of it."

21. Reading with Babies, Toddlers and Twos by Susan Straub & KJ Del'Antonia
This was an okay resource. The writing was pretty basic and really nothing new. They had some basic developmental charts and emphasized rereading several favorite books over and over again. I saved titles from their recommended lists simply because I'm always looking for new books to check out from the library, but other than that it was really nothing different from every other reading resource/anthology.