Just in case some of you HS mommies need a few good books recommended, this is what my summer reading list was:

Memoirs of a Geisha was so interesting. I know little of the Japanese culture and appreciated an autobiography by another Geisha (did not jot down name of that book) to better understand the novel. Now I need to rent the movie!

The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks, and then watched the movie with hubby.

The Lighthouse Keeper by James Michael Pratt was a bittersweet tale of love and faith and light being shared individually and through the generations.

God's Handmaiden by Gilbert Morris was a favorite since I enjoy a good historical novel and I know so little about Florence Nightengale. A young girl becomes a nurse under Ms. Nightengale and learns to handle war and love and much more. This will be a book I want my girls to read in upper highschool.

Jordan's Star by Gilbert Morris is about a wagon train and then pioneer life. Love is found, lost, found again, and gets a bit contraversial but stays true with an appropriate ending.

The Spider Catcher by Gilbert Morris is pre and then during Revolutionary times both in London and America. Redemption and learning to live despite hardships see these characters to a sweet ending that we hope is happy.

Marvel Comics 1602 my brother is a huge fan of Batman and of graphic novels. So when I found this at my library I checked it out and was intrigued by the story line. The idea of Mavel Comic's super heros debuting in turbulent times in Europe and then escaping to America was wildly creative. I am sure in another ten years Brian will have his nose stuck in a book like this.

Passing by Samaria by Sharon Ewell Foster. Set in the south and then Chicago in the Teen's and 20's of the 20th century, it brought to light the racism Afican American's faced. The workings of the KKK is disturbing and to have her compassionately present both sides of the story was done surprisingly well. My own grandmother's family had a cross burned on her lawn when she was little because they were Catholic. The idea that much worse happend to people over skin color is shocking to someone of modern times, but yet less than 100 years ago was viewed as common. I hope our children continue to appreciate everyone as a Child of God and stories like this remind that freedom is not to be taken for granted.

Jerusalem: City of God by Ellen Gunderson Traylor. I enjoy all of her books thus far and this was no exception! To actually have a city, let alone The City of David, be the main character was so fascinating! I was a fly on the wall, so to speak, from it's founding by Malchezedek all the way to the late 1940's when it was now part of the modern Israel! A commitment is required for the 600+ pages, but well worth the investment as I feel a great grasp of Biblical events and timing. It also got me to dig out Bible Atlas's and maps we have so I could see just what valley they were talking about, see drawings of temples and look upon photographs of wilderness and imagine that some parts of Israel just might look as they did thousands and thousands of years ago. I was humbled to realize, and spoke to my pastor about, how it took so much time to work the country up to the glorious reign of Solomon and the honor of building the Lord a temple, only to have the next generation arrive and destroy it all. We humans are so very fallible. Even with wisdom from on high, we still are so very human. That was a good lesson for me to understand, encouraging me to seek the Lord daily. This book is one I hope all my children read, and hubby to, at some point in their lives. As with all her books, Traylor's stories stick to Biblical facts and always get me hungry for more, turning me back to my Bible to read and further ponder the incredible stories.

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. This book was so lovely and heartbreaking in it's portrayal of the Bible story of Hosea and Gomer, and I learned a lot of how God must feel when we too leave His care and return to our destructive ways. The love story is so honest, both characters confused and yet on a path that takes them back to each other, with each of them learning about God and themselves along the way. A story to recommend to any adult!

Little Earthquakes told about four women, three of whom have babies around the same time, and the lives they lead pre and post baby. I laughed out loud over some of the things they live through, recalling my own days with newborns and hubby and my trials in adjusting to parenting our babies. Other times I wanted to pull a character aside and give advice about their situation, convinced I had lived through some version of what they were going through. A very down to earth, real book.

That is it! As September is just around the corner, the book I am reading now won't be done in time to qualify as "Summer Reading" and with my ambitions of starting grad school come January I probably won't have another summer filled with books quite like this! Thanks to my girlfriend Debbie for be willing to mail back and forth some of her favorite books and to my kids for playing so nicely with their doll house, dress up clothes, etc. so I could sneak in ten or twenty minutes here and there during the day.