Winter Reading Challenge - Update

It's only February 4th and already I've come near the end of my list. That's okay though even though so many other things have fallen by the wayside - I knew it would happen!

I'll finish these books and then take leave of absence from reading to attend to the other neglected parts of my life. Things like laundry, cleaning, organizing, painting, sewing, and whatever else has shriveled into insignificance since I started this craziness!

Laura Lippman's Baltimore Blues - done
Laura Lippman's Charm City - done
Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild - done
Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner- reading now
Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle - done
Katherine Paterson's Jacob I Have Loved - lost in the abyss of katherine's room
Lois Lowry's The Giver - done
Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue- done
Lynette Long's Painless Algebra- working through it
John Bul Dau's God Grew Tired of Us - done
John Townsend's Boundaries With Teens- avoiding
Susan Cooper’s Over Sea, Under Stone- done
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising- done

You might notice that much of my list includes young adult selections. I've always tried to read the same things that my kids are reading, especially the books they've picked out themselves.

Caroline's class is reading The Golden Compass but (when given the option) she decided she'd rather not, so she and a few others are reading The Dark is Rising. I read the first in the five book series called Over Sea, Under Stone, which I enjoyed. It reminded me quite a bit of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but not so much that it was distracting. The first book set the stage for the remaining books of the series, and even though most of the characters change, provides an essential foundation. I guess they can be read alone, but I'm glad I started with the first, rather than the second book.

For the record I enjoyed reading The Golden Compass too, and look forward to reading the rest of that series. I'm hoping the girls will read it as well, as the main character is a wonderfully written young girl who uses her brains, trusts her intuition, and (so far) makes the right choices.

That's all.