calm#20 - "The Celery Stalks at Midnight," by James and Debra Howe
Another Bunnicula book. I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the first two, but it was still a cute bedtime read for my son and me. 7/10
#21 - "Fantastic Mr. Fox," by Roald Dahl
This is a super-cute story – talking animals who get their revenge on some evil farmers. Typical Dahl, what with grownups who are just hideous in every way. I never read this one before now – my son and I read it at bedtime over just three nights. I had fun doing the voices. :) 8/10
#22 - "Buddha Mom," by Jacqueline Kramer
This is a beautiful book about "mindful mothering" - how to use mothering as a way of furthering Buddhist practice, and vice versa. At times, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy the book - it took a while for me to start to enjoy the author's "voice" - but I'm glad I stuck with it, because there are some truly beautiful things in this book. I found it inspiring, and touching, and I feel like it's given me lots of insight, and also some ideas of ways to improve both my parenting and my Buddhist practice. I'd highly recommend this book. 9/10
#23 - "All About Tarantulas," by Dale Lund
This is an older book about keeping tarantulas as pets - it's obvious that some of the information is out of date (mostly things about known species), but I'm sure that the basics of keeping tarantulas happy and healthy is still mostly the same. Not a long book, and it has lots of good spider pics, which makes it popular with my seven-year-old son. 7/10
#24 - "Dragonhenge," by Bob Eggleton and John Grant
This is a gorgeous book, which was given to me by
heathwitch more than a year ago. It took me a while to read, since I found myself wanting to read it slowly and take it all in, and I couldn't read big chunks of it at a time. It's a story - or really a collection of stories - about dragonkind, beginning with a creation myth of how the world was dreamed into existence by a dragon, all the way through to the end of the dragons' time on earth. The illustrations are stunning - I love Eggleton's vision of dragons - and Grant's text is lyrical and lovely. The story of Angrboda made me cry. I enjoyed this book very much, and am looking forward to reading "Stardragons" next. Thanks so much, Heather! :) 9/10 