One of my aims for 2018 was to increase the number of books I was reading. I’ve always read, but last year I seemed to acquire plenty of books but not read so many of them. This year I have read five books so far and have almost finished number six, so am doing well at keeping this commitment to myself.
I finished Gone Girl and have to say I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. I found it all a bit over the top and didn’t like any of the characters in it at all. I know others have loved this book but it just wasn’t for me. A book I enjoyed much more was 31 Dream Street and a fun book called The Hotel on Mulberry Bay. Both of the last two books were easy reads and actually quite enjoyable. I don’t ever pretend to read high brow literature – anything that’s fun and enjoyable suits me at the moment! I am currently reading The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Cherry Radford and I’m really enjoying this. I hope to have this finished by the weekend,
As for the children, they’ve been enjoying a wide range of books this last couple of weeks. We have been taking a look at some books that fit the notable days this month, namely Valentines and Chinese New Year.
The Great Race (The Story of the Chinese Zodiac) is a lovely book and one that we will bring out for many years to come I am sure. This tells the folktale about the Chinese Zodiac and it’s a fun and vibrant book, which really set us up for a lovely afternoon of Chinese New Year crafts at a friend’s house last week.
We also enjoyed I Love You which is a fab book which tells you how to say I Love You in five different languages. We also loved the companion book to this, 1-5 and the children are now adding Mandarin to their language skills and D now greets you with the phrase ‘Ni Hao’. These are both wonderful introductions to language and I can see us looking to learn a few more Mandarin phrases in due course as it’s really captured D’s imagination.
We have also been enjoying some lovely picture books, namely:
- Baby Bird by Andrew Gibbs and Zosienka
- Hattie Peck by Emma Levey
- Cat & Dog by Helen Oswald and Zoe Waring
- All at Sea by Gerry Byrne and Faye Hanson
All four of these books have been enjoyed by us all, and have been read time and time again. All at Sea is illustrated by Faye Hanson and I really adore her work; she uses a muted colour palette and it really works and looks so wonderful. The children adore this book and I do too.
Baby Bird and Cat & Dog are lovely stories of friendship and acceptance and they’re both lovely stories to share together.
What have you been reading? Are there any books you recommend I add to my own reading pile?
