{"id":13507,"date":"2015-01-27T01:39:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T07:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=13507"},"modified":"2015-01-27T01:39:28","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T07:39:28","slug":"nightstand-january-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2015\/20150127-13507.htm","title":{"rendered":"Nightstand (January 2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the nice things about breastfeeding is that it enforces sit down times throughout the day. It generally leaves with just one free hand &#8211; which means breastfeeding time is reading time (but not usually blogging time.) It&#8217;s nice that, even though I feel dreadfully behind around the house, I still get my reading in :-)<\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/nightstands\/IMG_7534.JPG' alt='January Fiction and Children&#039;s Books' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><strong>Fiction read this month:<\/strong><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>The Icebound Land<\/em> by John Flanagan<\/strong><br \/>\nBook 3 in the Ranger&#8217;s Apprentice Series &#8211; I&#8217;m continuing to really enjoy these, although I wonder if they&#8217;re going to start getting weightier. I noticed one &#8220;damn&#8221; in this one and drug addiction plays a significant role in the plot &#8211; I&#8217;m hoping I haven&#8217;t led <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davenespilled.com\/\">Davene<\/a> astray in encouraging her son Josiah to read this series.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>On a Whim<\/em> by Robin Jones Gunn<\/strong><br \/>\nThe second &#8220;Katie Weldon&#8221; book. She&#8217;s now officially dating Rick Doyle &#8211; and is working at acting normal around his roommate Eli.  This is what I&#8217;ve come to expect from Gunn &#8211; a relatively realistic view of college life at a Christian college with strong Christian iron-sharpens-iron friendships. <\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"blog\/2015\/20150113-13520.htm\"><em>Deceived<\/em> by Irene Hannon<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nA woman hires a private investigator to track down the boy she saw at a mall who looks like (and talks like) her dead son. Christian romantic crime-drama a la Dee Henderson. I enjoyed it quite a bit.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Anne of Green Gables<\/em> by L.M. Montgomery<\/strong><br \/>\nI always love returning to Avonlea &#8211; and Carrie&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readingtoknow.com\/2015\/01\/lucy-maud-montgomery-6th-annual-reading.html\">L.M. Montgomery reading challenge<\/a> gives me a chance to do so each year!<\/li>\n<li><strong>17 children&#8217;s picture books author BOU to BRIDWELL<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/nightstands\/IMG_7532.JPG' alt='January Nonfiction' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><strong>Nonfiction read this month:<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><strong>Books about houses:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Sears, Roebuck Home Builder&#8217;s Catalog: The Complete Illustrated 1910 Edition<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nAn old-style dreambook.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>House Styles at a Glance<\/em> by Maurie Van Buren<\/strong><br \/>\nWhat are the primary characteristics of a Queen Anne style house? How about a Tudor or a craftsman bungalow? <em>House Styles at a Glance<\/em> can help you out, with illustrations for each type of house that point out key characteristics. This was a fascinating book.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Books about preemies:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>The Preemie Primer<\/em> by Jennifer Gunter<\/strong><br \/>\nAn OB-GYN and mother of premature triplets, one of whom died shortly after birth, Jennifer Gunter describes the complications associated with prematurity comprehensively, taking a system by system approach (lungs, heart, brain, etc.) She also shares her own heartbreaking story of difficulties. This is a good overall review of both the hospital and post-hospital experience of having a preemie, slanted towards ongoing complications (since the author&#8217;s children experienced ongoing difficulties past age 3, when most preemies are considered to have caught up to their peers with no further &#8220;correction&#8221; needed.) I found certain parts of this book difficult as the author is clearly <em>not<\/em> pro-life and discusses selective reduction (aka abortion of one or more babies in a multiple pregnancy) and avoiding heroic measures from that standpoint (for the record, I have some definite opinions about avoiding heroic measures when there is nothing to be gained by doing so &#8211; but I come at it from a decidedly pro-life stance.)<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>The Preemie Parents&#8217; Companion<\/em> by Susan L. Madden<\/strong><br \/>\nWritten by the mother of a preemie, this book gives a good overview of the hospitalization period, but it&#8217;s strongest point is describing what&#8217;s normal for a preemie once he comes home. Parents are often told to treat their child like a normal newborn once they leave the hospital (after being educated to correct for gestational age) &#8211; but preemies aren&#8217;t exactly normal newborns. Madden carefully describes the unique characteristics of preemies during the first couple years of life while they&#8217;re still &#8220;catching up&#8221; to their peers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Other books:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Lookimg for Anne of Green Gables<\/em> by Irene Gammel<\/strong><br \/>\nAn exploration of the autobiographical and literary influences that led to Lucy Maud Montgomery&#8217;s Anne. Part biography, part comparative literature, this was a well-researched but still relatively speculative book. I enjoyed most of it, although Gammel&#8217;s fascination with human sexuality and speculation regarding Maud and her compatriots sexuality was less than pleasurable. I read this as part of Carrie&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readingtoknow.com\/2015\/01\/lucy-maud-montgomery-6th-annual-reading.html\">L.M. Montgomery reading challenge<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li><strong><em>The Food Police<\/em> by Jayson Lusk<\/strong><br \/>\nLusk, an agricultural economist, makes a case for keeping the government out of food &#8211; contrary to the wishes of the modern &#8220;food police&#8221;. Lusk discusses the economics of organic foods, agribusiness, fat taxes, and the &#8220;local food&#8221; movement. I greatly enjoyed this book &#8211; and while I have some differences with Lusk regarding what is desirable in terms of human behavior, I agree with him regarding what is desirable in terms of food <em>policy<\/em>. My biggest disappointment with this book is that, instead of taking the measured tone of a scholar, Lusk takes the more strident tone of a pundit, thus likely reducing the appeal of his message to the nonconverts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>On the docket for next month<\/b>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Heart of Darkness<\/em> by Joseph Conrad<\/strong><br \/>\nFor the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readingtoknow.com\/2014\/12\/reading-to-know-classics-book-club-2015.html\">Reading to Know Classics Bookclub<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Farmer Boy<\/em> by Laura Ingalls Wilder<\/strong><br \/>\nFor Barbara&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/barbarah.wordpress.com\/2015\/01\/19\/the-laura-ingalls-wilder-reading-challenge-2015\/\">Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Books about babies<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Books about building a home<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Children&#8217;s picture books author BRI &#8211; ?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget to drop by <a href=\"http:\/\/books.5minutesformom.com\/36122\/whats-on-your-nightstand-january-27\/\">5 Minutes 4 Books<\/a> to see what others are reading this month!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.5minutesforbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"What's on Your Nightstand?\" src=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/images\/buttons\/nightstand.jpg\" alt=\"What's on Your Nightstand?\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the nice things about breastfeeding is that it enforces sit down times throughout the day. It generally leaves with just one free hand &#8211; which means breastfeeding time is reading time (but not usually blogging time.) It&#8217;s nice that, even though I feel dreadfully behind around the house, I still get my reading &#8230; <a title=\"Nightstand (January 2015)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2015\/20150127-13507.htm\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Nightstand (January 2015)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13507"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13507"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13937,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13507\/revisions\/13937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}