what we're reading {august edition}...

i read so many books this month...
one or two of them will remain on my favorites list forever and ever.

austyn and colton were both thoroughly caught up in the beauty of summer and didn't read nearly as much as they usually do.

so...
here's what we're reading...

erin's pile--cold antler farm by jenna woginrich.  first of all, i haven't found anything written by jenna woginrich that isn't worth reading.  her blog is definitely worth checking out if you've never been over there.  i love her writing style.
i absolutely adored made from scratch, and felt almost as strongly about one-woman farm.  when we decided to raise laying hens, her chick days was the first resource i bought.  
all that said, this is my least favorite of her books.  it felt like a less-interesting re-hash of one-woman farm.  however, it still had enough goat stories and homesteading tales to keep my attention to the end.  i don't regret buying it.

the longest ride by nicholas sparks.  i was reading blog tips last night, and one of them said that if you find yourself in a writing rut, you should turn things completely upside down for a month.  do something 180° different.
i think nicholas sparks needs to write a novel that takes place in a foreign country.  characters with foreign names.  no horses.  no Carolinas {North or South}. no cowboys.  no mountains.
i'd buy it.  and i'd read it.
because, Lord knows, i'm a devoted reader of his.  i've read every single one of his books...and own all of them, too.
but it's time for a change.  it just is.
and i know that i am no one.  a big old nobody.  
and he's a NY Times bestselling author.
but i get to express my opinions here and i always try to do so honestly.  

a homemade life by molly wizenberg.  i read glowing reports about this author and this book.  it was...good.  i absolutely loved bread & wine by shauna niequist.  this felt like a snobbish step-sister to that book.  i had a hard time with the constant references to foreign breads and foreign cheeses and obscure foreign ingredients.  maybe that's just my down-home midwestern roots showing through, but it just felt a little pretentious.  that said, i read the entire thing...and liked the second half better than the first.

recipes for a perfect marriage by morag prunty.  on a whim, i stole this book off my bestie's bookshelf, and am i ever glad i did!  what a hidden treasure.  this book is fabulous.  fiction that makes you think, that makes you see things in a different light, is my favorite. this is a definite re-read for me.

notes from a blue bike by tsh oxenreider.  okay.  i heard/read a lot of hype about this book.  i remember seeing photo after photo on instagram of bloggies reading it.  
so.  it wasn't what i thought it was going to be.
that doesn't mean it's bad, or dull, or boring.  it was just different than my preconception.  
i don't know exactly how to pinpoint it...all that comes to mind is that it seemed a bit more "lecture-ish" than "story-ish."
there were stories.  but everything was presented in a far more fact-over-fluff manner than i expected.
i feel bad.  i feel like i should be raving about it.  
and truthfully, i didn't hate it.  i didn't even dislike it.
i just wasn't nuts about it.
given that glowing recommendation, you'll laugh when i say it's definitely worth reading.  i just don't know that it's worth RE-reading.  
and that's the litmus test for me.

under the dome by stephen king.  oh my.  ohhhhhhh my.  this book.  it's well on its way to 1,100 pages long.  and i finished it in seven days.  i may have stayed up until 2am one night, and way past midnight a few other nights, but by golly, i finished it.
first let me say that i am not a stephen king fan.  meaning, this is only the second book of his that i've read...so i'm no follower of his, by any stretch of the imagination.
i know he's written some wacky stuff, and i have no intentions of reading any of that.
i have heard that many who are stephen king fans are saying that this is his greatest work to date.
and i can understand why.
my only caution to you would be this: if you read the book for the love of the plot and the story and the book, you'll love the book.  if you read the book because you just want to know how it ends, you'll be disappointed.
that may not make sense...but if you read it, you'll understand.
and you should read it.  for sure.
it would be on my re-read list, but.......1,100 pages.  oooof-dah.

{if you need to refresh your memory on ages/reading levels of my children, 

feel free to refer back to July's post!} 
austyn's pile--austyn is still plugging through the ranger's apprentice series by john flanagan.  i went into a lot of detail about this series in last month's post...it's a great YA series...every bit as suitable for boys as for girls.  if you have a YA reader, my bet is that they'd enjoy these books.  i, myself, read through the entire series in less than two weeks.

{not pictured}katie and the cupcake cure by coco simon {part of the cupcake diaries series}.  austyn sped through several of these, checked out from our library.  she especially liked the recipes at the back of each book.  although we didn't make any of those, all the kitchen-talk put austyn in the mood for cooking/baking.  she ended up making muffins one day and deviled eggs the next!  that's a win in my book!

colton's pile--colton is also still working on his series, the magic tree house books.  he even used some of his saved-up money to buy a couple of the special ones that he specifically wanted to own.  {more info on this series, also on last month's post.}

i told them both to get me the pile of books they've been reading recently.  that's it.  they each put their Bibles in the pile on their own.  warms my heart...but there's no coercion involved.  pinky-swear.

addison actually read a bit this month, too.  her current favorite for oral reading is the ultimate dick and jane storybook collection. 

also, we are currently reading by the shores of silver lake by laura ingalls wilder aloud together in preparation for our vacation to south dakota, where we will visit the ingalls homestead.

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we leave for vacation in a little more than a week, so i am forcing myself to abstain from starting a new book until then.  i have so many things that i need to finish before we leave, loose ends i need to tie up, that i can't handle the pull that a good book has on me.

i know i have a few ken follett books that i've never read down on my shelf.  i'm sure one {or more} of those will come along with me.
i keep hoping that my interlibrary loan request for delancey {another by molly wizenberg} will come in, but i'm beginning to doubt it.
i'm also eager to read the fault in our stars by john green, though i've heard that it's a bit of a let-down.

do you have any must-read vacation book suggestions for me?
do share!