A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon Midweek Check in

So far I have read 173  pages of The Shack and listened to 2 CDs of Magic Steps. I was without Internet for a few days staying with my parents so that I could get to work quicker. The Shack is interesting, but not exactly what I thought it would be, but it should make for an interesting book club discussion!

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I am taking part in Lynn at Smoke and Mirrors and Bex at An Armchair by the Sea's Little House Read-Along hosted at this link. Each month a different Little House book is assigned and January's book is Little House in the Big Woods. All of the original Little House books will be rereads for me, but a few of them like On the Way Home and West From Home, I don't remember reading. I have also not read Pioneer Girl or A Wilder Rose at all, so those will be new for sure. I repurchased the whole set last year, so I will have the original books. I believe I also have On the Way Home and West From Home at my parents'.

Harper and Row

Laura Ingalls loves her home in Wisconsin and loves living with her Ma, Pa, Mary, and Baby Carrie in their log house in the Big Woods. Her grandparents, aunts, and uncles live just a few miles away and it is easy to take the horses and wagon there in a day. Laura is a bright child who is a little more mischievous than her beautiful blond sister Mary, but knows she must mind her Ma and Pa. Living in the 1870s, she is entertained by playing with corn husk dolls and a Christmas present of a rag doll. It was a simpler time, but one that had its own challenges. There were bears and panthers in the Woods, a quickly changing world with new machines, and her family had to make a living off of their land. Laura's straightforward and easy to read style makes it easy to see why this is a classic.

Historically, this book provides information on how they made straw hats, certain foods, remedies for stings, how to load a rifle and how they made bullets. It provides great insight into things we don't do any more. It also shows us how the family dynamic worked back then. I loved learning how Ma braided hats and made hulled corn and loved hearing Pa's stories to the children.

Being that this is set in the past, prejudices do come out. In this one, they are not as overt as in later books, but I know the series itself is often chastised because of the treatment of Native Americans. Pa makes a remark about playing "Indian" in this book and sings about a "darkey" at one point. When I was a child I did not notice this and when my parents read it to me, they read it as is and did not talk about prejudice in the past. I will say I love the series and it is a childhood favorite of mine, but if I read it in a classroom or to children, I may mention that there are words and ideas that we know are not true now, that they did not know back then. I do this when talking about Martin Luther King Jr and The Civil Rights movement and reading books that talk about the hate. I don't think the books need to be censored and I think children are smart enough to understand that times change.

This is one of my favorites in the series and the one I have reread the most. I think about how different life was back then, but also how things like love and family are timeless. I think sisterly squabbles and Laura worrying about her brown hair make this a read that children even today can relate to. As an adult reading it, I love hearing about the past, hearing about how they live off the land and could be self-sufficient. I love seeing the love of the family and their joy in the simple things of life. Laura is my favorite character in this one and I love how she is even honest about her childhood behavior. 5 cups of cocoa!

The Scent of Cherry Blossoms by Cindy Woodsmall

This is another COYER read and one that I checked out in ebook form from the library. This is the 3rd in the Apple Ridge series and the only one not a Christmas book.

WaterBrook Press

Annie is Old Order Mennonite, not Old Order Amish, but that does not keep her from having a crush on Aden, who is Old Order Amish, and whose family is co-partners with her grandfather in a small diner. To Englischer's their beliefs may not look that different, but they are. Annie uses electricity, believes in a more strict courting, and loves her grandfather's farm, especially the cherry trees. Annie is able to avoid Aden and her feelings toward him, until she gets into an argument with her mother, because her mother is not strict enough with her brothers. Annie is banished to her grandfather's and Apple Ridge and begins helping out at the diner, when Aden's brother, Roman, who is paralyzed is sent to help their uncle with a mechanical problem. Roman depends completely on Aden and he hates it. He was always the one to help Aden with his stuttering and he was always the one to court girls. When an old friend tries to get Roman to court her, Roman shuts her out. Roman also notices the budding romance between Aden and Annie and he and Annie's grandfather will do everything in their power to keep the couple apart. They know it will lead to censor on the part of the one who leaves behind the faith. Is this just a doomed crush or is it love? Can one embrace a different faith to be with the other?

This was a more complex book due to the fact that the couple had different religious beliefs. There may not seem to be a big difference in Mennonite and Amish, but there is. For awhile I thought that it would be wrong for either one to break his or her vow, but coming from a marriage where my husband is Protestant and I am Catholic, I know such things can work. We did not have to deny our churches to be married, but we do have to respect each other's choices and we do go to separate churches on the weekends. For Annie and Aden this would not even work, because it would be required for one to switch. This was a hard one to decide if it ended the way it should, but I think Cindy was respectful of both faiths in the book. A little more dramatic than the other four in the series, but a good read. 3.5 cups of cocoa.

The Dawn of Christmas by Cindy Woodsmall

This was a read for the Christmas Spirit challenge that I did not get around to reviewing and was also my first COYER read for the COYER Going Back to Basics challenge. This was an ebook I borrowed from the library after reading The Sound of Sleigh Bells for book club.

Waterbrook Press

Sadie gave her heart to an Amish man who then cheated on her with her cousin. Since both her cousin and intended denied the affair and Sadie was the only witness, the community thinks the stress of the impending nuptials made her overreact to an innocent accident. Sadie's father believes her and allows her to leave the community for a bit and do volunteer work in Peru. He also allows her to work at a Mennonite store until four years later he decides it is time for her to come home.  There she meets Levi, who feels pressure from his parents to settle down and get married. He sees the pain his brother went through when his wife left him and their young child and Levi decides he will never get married and never lose his heart to a woman. Levi and Sadie get a brilliant idea that the two will pretend to court and then break up allowing Sadie to use the "heartbreak" to travel back to Peru and give Levi a few more years from his meddling parents. When pretending leads to something more, can they both forget the past and experience the joy of Christmas and possibly a life together?

These books are sweet and easy to read. There is only a bit of drama and I love how they revolve around the community of Apple Ridge, PA and how the author brings in other characters for past books. I don't know if they are accurate to the Amish life, usually the Amish in my area joke that they read Amish fiction to see what they are supposed to be doing now. ;) I look at them as completely fiction with only the slight basis of fact as an Englischer would see when looking at an Amish community. This is the 4th book in the series, but third Christmas story, so I read this one and The Scent of Cherry Blossoms out of order, which gave away the ending of Cherry Blossoms a bit, so I recommend reading them in order, even if it is Christmas and you want to read only Christmas books. ;). I would give this 4 cups of cocoa and it was a nice finish to the series.

24 in 48 Wrapup

1. How many books did you read? Pages? I finished 3 books and am still working on 2. I read a total of 926 pages and listened to one hour of audio.
2. How many hours did you read? 14! I can't believe I read that much.
3. What do you think worked well in this readathon? I liked that the updates were spread out in 6 hour increments and I liked the Twitter hashtag.
4. What do you think could be done to improve the readathon for next time? I really enjoyed it. This was my first time participating and it was really stress-free. I can't think of anything to add or change.
5. Will you participate in a future 24in48 readathon? Yes, because it is stress-free and you can choose how active you want to be. Even though I did not make it to 24 hours, I still do not feel like a failure. I hesitated to sign up,  because reading for 24 hours would be unlikely for me, but I am glad I signed up! There was no pressure or guilt in not making it. Many people were like me and just read until they could read no more and we all felt like we accomplished a lot. Thanks to Rachel for hosting!

24 in 48 Hours 37-48

I was able to do some chores and listen to a random audiobook that was currently available on Overdrive, so far it is pretty good. It is A Potion to Die For and is a cozy mystery about a witch who brews love potions.

Hours read: 14
Pages read: 212-535 in The Girls from Ames, so 323 pages total and finished, Little House in the Big Woods 24-238, so 214 pages total and finished, and Mirrored 11%-100% so 89% total and finished, listened to 1 hour of A Potion to Die for by Heather Blake, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 522-565 so 43 pages.

24 in 48 Hours 24-36

Most of these hours I spent asleep, but I am getting started reading now!
Hours read: 9
Pages read: 212-430 in The Girls from Ames, so 218 pages total, Little House in the Big Woods 24-238, so 214 pages total and finished, and Mirrored 11%-57% so 46% total, listened to 1 hour of A Potion to Die for by Heather Blake