Be The Hero Of Your Kids' Book Club

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book. —Marcel Proust

One of my favorite pastimes is thinking about all the things I should have done with my kids when they were young but didn't. Okay, maybe not. There are times though that I can't help myself and this is one of them. Why oh why did a book lovin mom like me not think to do a book club with my kids? Think of the fun I would have had! Oh yeah, and my kids would have loved it too.

For those of you lucky enough to still have young readers in the house, here are some tips to make your kid lit book club a hit:

  • Kids only. Grownups are boring and tend to take over. Of course you need to help in the planning and be present, but let the kids run the show. This in no way implies parents shouldn't read the books with their kids and talk about them at home (we highly recommend it), they just don't get to come to book club.
  • Pick good books. This one is of course non-negotiable. We're here to help. Any of the picks below or on our bookshelf are sure to be crowd pleasers.
  • Keep it small. Shoot for 4-7 kids. More than that equals chaos.
  • Keep it simple and short. We're talking 1 1/2 hours max. Plan a couple activities around the book. Discussions won't come naturally, so come up with ways to spur them. Pinterest is full of great ideas, we've pinned some on our board here. Keep it fun!
  • Snacks. Just like grownup book clubs, everyone is really in it for the food.
  • Bonus: choose a book that has a movie coming out soon and plan to all go see it together.

BOOKS FOR 2ND AND 3RD GRADERS

Flora & Ulysses (see our review here)

The BFG (Movie being released on July 1st)

The Little Prince (See our review here. Movie being released on March 18th)

The Year of Billy Miller

(Full disclosure: we have not read this book but are of the firm opinion you can never go wrong with anything written by Kevin Henkes.)

BOOKS FOR 4TH TO 6TH GRADERS

The One and Only Ivan (see our review here)

Home of the Brave (see our review here)

Brown Girl Dreaming (see our review here)

The Goose Girl (or any Shannon Hale book, for that matter)

Out of My Mind

(We have not read this one either, but it comes highly recommended by one of our favorite young readers: Abbie. In fact, all the books featured in this post would be perfect as well.)

On the off chance your kiddos or their friends have somehow not read Wonder, we feel compelled to include it. See our raving review here.

Posted by Rachel

You Dodged A Bullet, My Dear

The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.

Wouldn't it be lovely if I could report that I've found my book on this book club Monday? Lovely, indeed. Apparently I, unlike Tracy, need to call in a search party. Or just order up a new one. That sounds less painful. Happily(?), I've read enough of the book to get started and can report that, at long last, I'm knee deep in decluttering. My thoughts so far:

  1. This is going to take awhile. Which is mildly depressing. Kondo warned me of this, but ever the optimist, I was sure I'd defy all odds and knock it out in a weekend. No one's ever accused me of being a realist. Looks like I'm in this for the long haul.
  2. I have a lot of clothes that I never wear. Some of which make me question if I know myself at all. Who bought this hideous blouse? Oh yeah, I did. This is why when my husband pronounced me hard to shop for, I couldn't argue. I can barely shop for myself. Looking at my kids' piles, I can safely say it runs in the family.
  3. Being the decision-challenged girl that I am, I needed something a little more definitive than Kondo's "does it spark joy" test when approaching my clothing. So I'm asking these two questions I found in January's Real Simple: A) Does it serve you? As in do you feel good wearing it and do you get compliments? Or are you tugging at yourself uncomfortably? B) How would you feel if you were wearing it and ran into your ex? This one's my favorite. I'd add your ex's mom. I may or may not have run into an ex-boyfriend's mom once in my ugliest sweats, no makeup, and hair in need of a good wash. Granted, my twins were babies, had been sick for days, and cabin fever clouded my judgement, prompting me to venture into public places looking as bedraggled as I felt. Pretty sure she didn't even make it out to her car before calling her son to assure him that while I may have broken his heart, he'd come out the winner. "Dodged a bullet" no doubt escaped her lips.
  4. Here's a thought: perhaps I should apply these same tests before buying clothes. I suppose this is the point of Kondo's method.

Okay, I've stalled long enough; time to get back to work. Before I do, here's a little something in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. James Taylor posted this video saying it is one of the best covers of his song Shed a Little Light he's ever heard. Enjoy!

Posted by Rachel

Weekly Wrap-Up

In the chaos of everyday life, it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters, and I can use my habits to make sure that my life reflects my values. —Gretchen Rubin

WHAT WE LOVE THIS WEEK

Gretchen Rubin. Well, we love her every week. But as tomorrow is National Ditch Your New Year's Resolutions Day (yeah, it's really a thing), we're feeling a little extra adoration for Gretchen as she swoops in to save us from ourselves once again. Better Than Before has been in our stack of books for a while now and mid-January seems likes the perfect time to move it to the top. 

Book Swaps. We may or may not be book hoarders. Marie Kondo would say there's no may about it. We can see that we're in for a bit of quibble with her as we approach the book category in our decluttering nightmare...er, mission...but throwing a party like this (or this) might make parting with some books a little less painful. Maybe.

Cozy cabins. We're dreaming of hiding away in one of these with our stack of books. And lots of hot cocoa and food of course. Yes, lots of food.

The stars aligning. As they did last week when we found ourselves in the same state as each other, along with another dear friend, and able to spend an afternoon laughing, talking, shopping, and laughing some more. And eating glorious food at Eva's Bakery. May the stars align more often.

COMING NEXT WEEK

Reports of real progress in our decluttering. Really.

A review of When Breath Becomes Air.

Our new gift guide where you'll find the perfect book for just about any occasion.

Confessions Of A Semi-Adult

I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them. —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Has it been 28 years since we were in London?  Wow.  For a minute there, I felt old.  I’ll be the first to readily admit that I’m a semi-adult.  That means I do adult things: I go to work, I pay my bills, I vote, I rein in my teenage daughter when she crosses boundaries and I even make her come home at a relatively respectable hour each night.  Gasp!  

But there’s a limit to my adulthood.  For example, what legitimate adult sends video footage to their bestie of their bedraggled, post-Christmas (more like post-apocalypse) bedroom?  The best part is Rachel sent her own shots back!  A sure sign that our friendship was shaped by the stars. When I read that Rachel couldn’t find her book club selection, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, naturally I laughed out loud.  Then I thought Attagirl.  Way to keep it real Rae! (Never mind it made me feel normal because my copy is buried in an ever-expanding, messy stack(s) of books.  It won’t require a search party to find it, but still…)

All that to say…it makes me squirm a bit that I’m reviewing The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom.  (A.) It feels a little trite this time of year, doesn’t it? And (B.) this is what responsible adults do: they wave off sugar, potentially with a scoff, because of course it’s bad for you.  Okay, that may have been an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

While I’ve exercised regularly for decades, and I have fairly healthy habits other than the Coke one, I decided it was time to sharpen the saw. I’m 13 days in, with 17 left to go, and I feel good.  The authors of The Whole30, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, made promises to that end: “The physical benefits of the Whole30 are profound.  A full 96 percent of participants lose weight and improve their body composition without counting or restricting calories.  Also commonly reported: consistently high energy levels, better sleep, improved focus and mental clarity, a return to healthy digestive function, improved athletic performance, and a sunnier disposition.”

While I’m not ready to give the Hartwigs credit for my sunny disposition, I do feel good on this food “plan.” (It’s not a diet mind you, which accounts for so many testimonials of long-lasting success found throughout the book.) Another favorite thing about this 400-some odd pager is that it provides loads of tasty recipes to help you stay whole. If you’re looking to “reset” this bright-eyed January, I’d give the Whole30 a try.  

For the record, my inner child wants all of you to know that the next time I’m in a movie theater with my milk dud-eating Rae, I will be consuming jujyfruits with the same fervor as Elaine Benes.

Posted by Tracy

27, Palace Court's Newest Resident

Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. —Samuel Johnson

27, Palace Court has a new resident! Isn't she lovely? Twenty-eight years ago this week, Tracy and I were standing on this very doorstep (how do we not have a picture?) beginning our stay at the BYU London Centre. Now my darling niece Mariah is following in our literal footsteps. I get teary-eyed just looking at her face: brimming with excitement, not even fully comprehending how glorious this experience is going to be. And oh will it ever be glorious.

I must say number 27 has never looked better. Those flowers and topiaries! Those steps and front door! And that lovely 27 etched in glass above the door. Swoon! Makes me more lonesome than ever for that lovely abode. I'm thinking Tray and I need to visit while she's there. Maybe we should create a GoFundMe account? Sounds like a worthy cause to me. I'm sure we can all agree the world would be a better place if Tracy and I made it back to London this year.

In the meantime, I'll re-experience it all vicariously through Mariah. Her Snapchat story is my new favorite read. As I sent her off, these words from Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road came to mind:

A newspaper man I know, who was stationed in London during the war, says tourists go to England with preconceived notions, so they always find exactly what they go looking for. I told him I'd go looking for the England of English literature, and he said: "Then it's there."

May you find the England you've gone looking for, Mariah, and best of all, may you find your Tracy.

Some pictures I've stolen from her Snapchat. The top left corner is a full shot of 27, Palace Court.

Some pictures I've stolen from her Snapchat. The top left corner is a full shot of 27, Palace Court.

Posted by Rachel

Be The Hero Of Your Book Club

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books. —Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Peel Pie Society

I have a love/hate relationship with book clubs. Love—because what's not to love about getting together with friends who love books and consuming large quantities of treats? Hate—because I'm sometimes forced to read books I would never choose and find a polite way of saying that slogging through said book made me want to scratch my eyes out.

We care about you and your eyes, so we've compiled a list of guaranteed crowd pleasers. Throw in some edible delights and you're sure to be a star.

BEST BOOKS FOR A GREAT DISCUSSION

A Man Called Ove (see our review here)

FOR THOSE STILL DOING THE ENGLISH MAJOR THING

The Snow Child (see our review here)

The Bartender's Tale

FOR GROUPS CRAVING A LITTLE INTROSPECTION

The Gifts of Imperfection (see our review here)

My Grandfather's Blessings (see our review here)

IF BEACH READS ARE MORE YOUR STYLE

After You (of course, you must read Me Before You first - see review here)

Posted by Rachel

Words Are Her Brilliance

Maybe, I am thinking, there is something hidden like this, in all of us. A small gift from the universe waiting to be discovered.

This book is a gift. For the young, the old, and the in between—as every children's book should be. C.S. Lewis of course put it best: "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally—and often more—worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond." I don't understand people who refuse to read children's literature. Good children's literature, that is. No one should read bad children's literature, least of all children. But the good ones? Read them. And read them often. To quote another author with initials for a first name, J.K. Rowling: "The true dilemmas of childhood are the dilemmas of the whole of life…belonging and betrayal, the power of the group, and the courage it takes to be an individual."

Brown Girl Dreaming is one of the good ones. It is a memoir of childhood; a portrait of a writer as a young girl, and the stories, people, and places that shaped her. In a voice so pure and lyrical and unaffected that not once does Jacqueline Woodson betray herself as an adult—savvy young readers would never stand for that—we see her world as she did then, as a young African American growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. How different this novel would have been were it told from an adult's point of view, looking back. How infinitely better for us all that it's not.

Raised in South Carolina and later Brooklyn, New York, Woodson was torn between two completely different worlds, and never felt entirely at home in either place. In the South, kids teased her and her siblings for their northern way of talking, and its prejudices made it harder to remember that she was "as good as anybody." In the North, being a Jehovah's Witness meant following rules her friends didn't understand. But home was her family, as was her forever friend, Maria.

And words. Words become her home too. Beginning with her insatiable love of stories as a young child, to her initial struggle to read on her own, to the thrill of her first blank composition book, and finally, to her ultimate discovery that "words are [her] brilliance."

Here's an example of that brilliance:

I am not my sister.
Words from the books curl around each other
make little sense
until
I read them again
and again, the story
settling into memory. Too slow my teacher says.
Read Faster.
Too babyish, the teacher says.
Read older.
But I don't want to read faster or older or
any way else that might
make the story disappear too quickly from where
it's settling
inside my brain,
slowly becoming a part of me.
A story I will remember
long after I've read it for the second, third,
tenth, hundredth time.

I know will remember this story long after I've read it for the second, third, tenth, hundredth time.

Posted by Rachel