A Few Good Reads

The invention of e-book readers (my mini ipad to be exact) has made nursing a very enjoyable pastime.  I've always loved to read, but have had a hard time making time for it the past few years with the little ones.  Now that I have to be sitting and feeding James every 3 hours, it's the perfect excuse to kick back and immerse myself in a good book, hands free!

So, here are a few good reads from the past six months or so.  

I realize I'm a little late in the game on this one, since it was all the rage several yeas back, but I just completed it for the first time and LOVED it.  I picked it up last fall....I was especially intrigued by Adams' ten year stint in Europe as a US diplomat.  He lived in France, Holland, and England.  But then I got bogged down about halfway through.  I just couldn't read anymore about the intricacies of English country gardens.  Blah.  But then just recently I watched this:

The HBO miniseries based on the book.  It was AMAZING.  I watched it during my hospital stay after giving birth, like the only three consecutive quiet days to myself in the past five years.  So, then I decided I better finish the book, and did so within just a matter of days on my ipad, often reading at 3 a.m. with the little one happily eating away. There's so much that could be said about it, but in a nutshell it was downright inspiring.  I learned so much about the founding fathers and the fragile birth of our nation.  I felt like I knew John and Abigail Adams on a personal level when I finished it.  EXCELLENT read.

During our trip to Amsterdam in April, I became interested in Anne Frank after visiting the Anne Frank House. 

                                         

                                          

 Here, again, I know I missed the boat.  I remember everyone reading it in jr. high, but for what ever reason my particular English teacher didn't require it.  And I never was too interested because I remember all the 8th graders complaining how BORING it was.  Yeah, 8th graders.  But that stuck in my brain so I've never given it the time of day.  Pretty sad coming from a history teacher, eh?  But I downloaded it after our trip to Holland and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it!  I loved how honest and frank (no pun intended, hehe) she was and was amazed at her writing ability at such a young age.  Several parts were even humorous. It inspired me to keep a better journal. So sad that her life was cut short. 

And it was not lost on me that these two books, John Adams and Anne Frank, could not have been possible without their dedicated devotion to writing (Adams' thousands of personal letters and Anne's detail oriented diary).

My friend recommended this next book:

This was the harrowing tale of American GIs captured at the Battle of the Bulge who were imprisoned at a slave labor camp in Berga, Germany.  They were mixed with other European Jews and were the recipients of the same brutal treatment.  It's definitely not a "pick-me-upper" but it's a good reminder of just how awful the Holocaust was and that our service members were not invulnerable to it. 

So after reading that one, I needed something light.  My mom mentioned this one during her stay:

I laughed through the entire book.  It was SO funny.  This was definitely a guilty pleasure. 

 So, now I've just begun this one:

The story of the Roosevelts and the American homefront during WWII.  I'm just a few pages into it, but can tell already it's going to be a winner.  

Please share with me any of your recent good reads!