For the Mind

Summer Reading

Do you like reading during the summer? I know I do! And we sure visit the library more often in the summer than when we’re in school (me and my siblings of course).

I haven’t been reading that much this summer though. I’ve been too busy with caring for the yard, weeding, watering flowers, and veggie plants, cleaning, maintenance painting around the house, running, volunteering, and so much more.

But here and there, I try to catch some time to read.

So, here are some neat books I recently found, and I thought you all should know about them too, just in case you find time for some reading enjoyment.

There will be an upcoming post about books I do NOT recommend to be read, but first the good news- then the bad news, right?

 Here’s the good news.

The Prairie River Series are a charming fictional series about an orphan girl who trusts God to lead her through life during the Civil War period. But she lives far away from all the battle, in the midwest, so it’s mostly like a western, oregon trail type of story. Although I’ve read many books, and usually know how to predict the outcome of the story, this author knows how to make her stories catching, always throwing in something unexpected- it was hard to predict what would happen, so I finished the book pretty quick.

Another thing I liked was that there was no romance in the stories (at least in the first or second books). Are you surprised? I do not think it is healthy for young ladies to read romance stories. It only does harm, by putting unnecessary ideas and imaginations in their head and giving them an unrealistic view of life- leading them to be disappointed in the future. Those fictional romance stories are not true, and they can feed girls with thoughts that are not pleasing to the Lord, and hinder them from growing spiritually. I don’t claim I never read any stories that had romance. I did, but my family and I have decided to stop reading books that do have romance, and I try to keep that commitment and although I am not perfect in it, I am praying I will do even better. And there are so many other great books out there to read that are more useful. Biographies, missionary stories, instructional books, military books etc.

So I would recommend the first two books of this series. I cannot say the rest are really romance free or as good as these two.

This book below is a nice true story of the Holocaust. It is sad, and it has a bittersweet ending. It is a secular book, but it is neat, and the  girl of the story is now an old lady who got to re-visit the places she went through during her childhood. It even has pictures of her and her family when she was little and when she is grown.

The rest of these stories are picture books, but I like them nonetheless! This first one is also a true story during WWII. Really interesting to read, and look at the pictures and learn details about life during that time in the Netherlands.

A story of the Revolutionary War, The Scarlet Stockings Spy, is a really cute story! It’s not based on a true story, but it is very touching  and patriotic. The pictures are also really beautiful. It really tells of the sacrifices made by our military then and now.

Another great historical book. This is the story of the writer of our national anthem. I liked it because it had good pictures and a good, true story!


Finally, the link below is a PDF file with a book that has Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases. You can use it as a resource, to browse through and increase your vocabulary. I love it! And I hope to have the discipline to look through and really add spice and punch to my writing and vocabulary skills with phrases such as incorrigible merriment, or estimable qualities, emphatic earnestness, and so much more!

Check it out for yourself.

Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases

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