Quotes Wednesday

I just checked the book Cannery Row out from the library. It's one of the few John Steinbeck books I haven't read. So I figured a Steinbeck quote would be appropriate for today.

We spend our time searching for security, 

and hate it when we get it.

-John Steinbeck

Are you American or Parisian?

Have you seen this new book Bringing Up Bebe, by Pamela Druckerman? For a synopsis, see this Wall Street Journal article. Are you more American in how you're raising your kids? Or more Parisian? 

I'm not sure if I'm more American or Parisian, but one of the suggestions from this book that was mentioned in the WSJ article has already worked for us. We've always had a hard time with Bean at restaurants. She's never been interested in restaurant food so she would always cause trouble, making it more annoying than enjoyable for us. The culprit? Snacks. She's always been a big snacker, preferring small snacks all day long instead of three larger meals. I actually don't think this is a bad eating strategy, and in fact if you look at most diets they suggest snacking and having smaller meals as a weight loss strategy. And I'm a big snacker. So we probably won't change this up on a regular basis.

But the snacks do fill Bean up through the day so by the time we get to dinner she's mostly full and not all that interested in eating her dinner. In the past if we've gone out to eat she would be all over us while we were eating, or trying to get out of her chair, or pitching a fit. So annoying. 

Over the last few weeks we've tried the Bringing Up Bebe Parisian strategy on the days we want to go out to dinner as a family, which is to have only one very small snack during the day in addition to meals. And no more bringing snacks to restaurants to keep her occupied while we're waiting. I bring a small notebook and a pen for her to play with instead. And all of a sudden, Bean is better at restaurants - because she's...wait for it...hungry. Last night we actually got to enjoy our food for the first time ever. Bean didn't even say a word let alone try and get out of her chair. She was too busy eating. Brilliant.

I'm pretty sure I won't agree with everything in this book and honestly I don't want Bean to act Parisian. They aren't the nicest people ever. But this one tip worked so well that I'm definitely getting the book.

Au Revoir!

What We're Reading This Week

Today was library day, and we got some very cute books for Bean. These are our two favorites, so far we've read them each 10 times. 

Stella Is A Star, by Bernadette Peters

Cute little story about a dog pretending to be a pig so she can join the pig ballet class. Bean likes the ballet storyline, I like the mixed media collage illustrations best. Found here on Amazon.

 

Bedtime for Mommy, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

A little girl imagines that she is putting her mommy to bed, and the mommy tries everything she can to stall the process. I like this one for the silly humor. Found here on Amazon.

Goodnight iPad

This is definitely the next book I'm buying. Goodnight iPad is a modern parody of the classic Goodnight Moon. It's a funny story about today's wired house, written by the aptly named pretend author "Ann Droyd." Get it? Check out a reading of the book here on Brain Pickings.

Grace

Earlier in the week I posted about vintage children's books. Since it is Thanksgiving week, Bean and I have been reading one of my very favorite vintage children's books every night, one that my parents read to me when I was little, called A Child's Grace, by Ernest Claxton. Such a simple, sweet book about being thankful for love and the little things in life. Happy Thanksgiving.

What We're Reading Now

What I'm currently reading (and love):

Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. Love it so far, amazing descriptions of Bombay, a place I may never get to. I love books that make me feel as if I've travelled somewhere.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford. After reading the most amazing book Unbroken about WWII POWs in Japan, this take on prejudice against Japanese US citizens during the war is very interesting.

What Bean is currently reading from our recent trip to the library:

Itty Bitty, by Cece Bell. Honestly nothing much to this little tale of a tiny dog and his tiny home, but Bean loves the rhyming and somehow loves all the Itty Bitty things the tiny dog buys for his house.

Princess Penelope, by Todd Mack and Julia Gran. This book has humor in it that adults will love. It's about a little girl who thinks she is a princess because she has servants who pamper her (her parents).

Pink Me Up, by Charise Mericle Harper. About a bunny who dresses her daddy up and takes him to a pink-nic.   

Top 50 Book List

A few years ago I put together a list of my all-time favorite books that I had read. These are the books I've read that were so good or that I connected with so much that when I think of them it takes me back to the time in my life when I read them. They had meaning to me, they opened my eyes to different things, I had "aha" moments with them. I traveled in my mind to places I may never go physically, things clicked about the way the world works when I read them. They're not all classics, but I connected in some way to all of them. I shared the list a couple of years ago with my co-workers, who then put together their own lists and shared them with the team. I'm always trying to find great new books, and I got some great ideas from those lists.

There's a few books on my "want to read" list, including "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford, "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain, and "Faith" by Jennifer Haigh. I usually buy my books either on Amazon.com for newer books, or Half.com for books that have been out for a few years.  I also subscribe to Goodreads.com, a site that sends new releases each month and reviews from readers. So here it is, my updated Top Book 50 List of 2011. Please feel free to share your ideas for books that should be on this list!!

1.      Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

2.      Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follet

3.      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith

4.      Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolf

5.      Harvard Yard – William Martin

6.      Sophie’s Choice – William Styron

7.      Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon

8.      East of Eden – John Steinbeck

9.      Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

10.  The Inferno – Dante

11.  1984 – George Orwell

12.  Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

13.  Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay

14.  The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

15.  The Giver – Lois Lowry

16.  There Are No Children Here – Alex Kotlowitz

17.  Tuesdays With Maurie – Mitch Albon

18.  Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls

19.  The Help – Kathryn Stockett

20.  Half Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls

21.  The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown

22.  The Other Boleyn Girl – Phillippa Gregory

23.  Their Eyes Were Watching God – Nora Neale Hurston

24.  Devil in the White City – Erik Larson

25.  Brave New World – Aldus Huxley

26.  Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

27.  I Know This Much is True – Wally Lamb

28.  Life of Pi – Yann Martel

29.  Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier

30.  Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

31.  Back Bay – William Martin

32.  Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

33.  West With the Night – Beryl Markham

34.  Notes From a Small Island – Bill Bryson

35.  Hoop Dreams – Ben Joravsky

36.  Boss – Mike Royko

37.  Lake Effect – Rich Cohen

38.  Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

39.  Sacred Hoops – Phil Jackson

40.  Memory Keepers Daughter – Kim Edwards

41.  Midwives – Chris Bohjalian

42.  The Queen’s Fool – Phillippa Gregory

43.  She’s Come Undone – Wally Lamb

44.  The Girl With The Dragon Tatto – Steig Larsson

45.  The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd

46.  Nanny Diaries – Emma McLaughlin

47.  Confessions of a Shopaholic – Sophie Kinsella

48.  A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

49.  Pigs in Heaven and The Bean Trees – Barbara Kingsolver

50.  A Girl Named Zippy – Haven Kimmel