I finished The Book Thief and it really was wonderful. I loved the uniqueness of the narrator and the lush, evocative imagery. Overall, it could have been a very depressing and sad book but it really wasn't, despite the morbidity of the subject matter. Again, this book is classified as a juvenile read in the US but I would say it's really only appropriate for high-schooler age and up. 



After the relative heavy reading of The Book Thief, I'm now reading a really frothy, light romance called The Trouble with Paradise by Jill Shalvis. I've never read her before but she's got a very funny, witty way about her. I'll be looking for her backlist soon. This book is about  frustrated fashion designer who wins a Pacific cruise that goes awry. I've just gotten to the part where they get shipwrecked. It's a frothy version of Lost:-) 


One of the benefits of 4 years of infertility was that DH and I got to really define what we wanted our parenting styles to be and also what we want to impart to our children. One of the values that is of primary importance to me is a love of reading. Both DH and I share that trait and it's something I want Connor to have too. But, HOW one does that, especially in our television-computer-media saturated world, is of interest to me. I've found this excellent reference book, How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Rail Codell and wanted to recommend it to all the moms and dads out there. There is also a companion website at http://www.planetesme.com



And last but not least, our Netflix account is getting quite the workout now that I'm on bedrest. Maybe we'll make a dent in the 178 movies in our queue! Last night we watched The Jane Austen Book Club. I didn't care for the book too much because I found the writing disjointed and the multiple characters too hard to distinguish. However, it translates brilliantly to film! I highly recommend this one. Plus, the guy playing Grigg is really a cutie pie!