Remembering Isaac: The Wise and Joyful Potter of Niederbipp

Author: Ben Behunin

Description: (amazon.com)

Jake, a soon to be college graduate stumbles upon an ad in an art magazine. The town of Niederbipp is looking for a new potter to replace, Isaac, the seventh potter in a long string of potters reaching back to 1717. For the past 8 years, Jake has dreamed of being a village potter. He applies for the job, despite his plans for the summer and to his surprise, is awarded the Pottery, an apartment and a vast collection of old pots.  With the help of his new friend Amy, Jake begins to piece together the secrets of life Isaac lived by and shared with all who knew him.

Review:  

This is a fun read. You really get to know the town’s quiet little charm and spunk; as well as the eclectic mix of people that live there. Seriously once you read it you’ll be wishing the town of Niederbipp truly existed, so you could visit the charming town and people who live there.  It is the first of three books in the series. It is fantastic and leaves you wanting to read the other two. I truly loved Jake and wanted everything to work out for him, he is a real and likable character. Don’t be intimidated by the length of the book, it is a really quick and easy read.

A little more background info on the author, Ben Behunin, he is a Utah native and a real life potter, so he knows what he’s talking about with all the pottery in the book. He actually opens his home sudio twice a year for people to come and view/purchase his pottery creations. Quite the experience, he is very talented.  

Rating: Five out of Five stars

Book Review Tuesday

Minding Mama by: Marilyn Arnold

Genre: Humorous Fiction

Description: (target.com)

A road trip across America is no easy feat, and even tougher when one of the guests is no longer present? so to speak.

Review:

This book is hilarious! Constantly had me laughing out loud. A very easy and light read. I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it to anyone.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Book Review Tuesday

The Night Circus by: Erin Morgenstern

 

Genre: Fiction

Description: (amazon.com)

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will…

The game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Review:

I did enjoy this book. Granted it was a little strange, and long, I am glad I stuck with it and read the whole thing.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book Review Tuesday

With school getting ready to start up again I’m hoping I will have more time to devote to my blog. Bean is going into Kindergarten and Buggy will start preschool. My babies are growing up so fast! My goal is to start reviewing books, and posting them on a weekly basis. Book Review Tuesday! One of my favorite things to do (when I can find the time) is reading! My husband is constantly telling me I read far too much, and to my author husband I said if it wasn’t for people like me he’d be out of a job :) needless to say he doesn’t bug me about reading anymore ;)  So I thought why not put more into my reading and help other people find good books out there to read and also which to avoid… in my opinion anyways. So here is goes…

The book I would like to start with is very dear to me! One of my favorite books that I have read too many times to count… the book is falling apart if that tells you anything.

Return to Red Castle by Dorothy Keddington

Genre:  Clean Romantic Mystery

Description: (found on Amazon.com)

     Red Castle ... an ancient citadel of wine-red stone in the heart of Utah's primitive High Uinta Mountains. Hidden away near its rocky base, a small plane lies twisted and broken.

     The four men ... desperate, ruthless, will stop at nothing to retrieve the plane's valuable cargo, but their only clue to its location are the words ... Red Castle.
     Jesse Chisholm ... rugged, lonely, one of the new breed of modern Mountain Men. As a geologist for the Forest Service, he calls the wilderness his home and only the mountains know the secrets of his heart.
     Melissa Heydon ... spirited, young, in love with life, the mountains, and Jesse Chisholm.

Review:

This book is seriously one of my all-time favorite books. It is one of the first books I can remember reading and is a big part of why I love reading so much! I can’t remember quite when, sometime in my early high school years, I was bored during the summer so my mom made me read this book. I fell in love with it and have been a read-a-holic ever since. That summer I went through countless novels and haven’t stopped reading since.

I couldn’t tell you a bad thing about this book, I love everything about it! Dorothy is great at painting a picture in my head of the scenery and things she describes. When I read her books I feel like I’m watching a movie in my head as I read.

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars (seriously 10 out of 5)

Daddy's Girls Reviews: Bedtime for Monsters

We read a lot of books in this family! Every night the girls get to pick out two books each. They have their favorites that get read again and again, and then they had some we didn't get past the first four pages. I noticed my girls had their opinions of what made a good and not so swell book. So I had a crazy thought, "why not start a review blog and share what these two girls think?" So I asked the girls. They were all for it. Why not? This would make sure daddy didn't cop out when it was reading time. (Yes, sometimes when I am tired, reading a picture book is the last on my list, but I do it for my girls.) So we started Daddy's Girls Book Reviews. We plan on making posts that share our reviews and opinions on picture books, chapter books, and lower-level middle-grade books. We not only post our reviews here on the blog, we share our reviews on amazon.com, b&n.com, and goodreads.com. Our hope is to encourage those fantastic authors and illustrator to create more fabulous books for us to read together. 

Bedtime for Monsters
by: Ed Vere
 

Summary: “In this hilarious bedtime story, a monster is licking his lips . . . maybe he’s thinking about eating a bedtime snack? And what if that snack just happened to be you? Gulp! He’s getting closer and closer . . . and his tummy is rumbling really loudly. But all this monster actually wants is a sloppy monster-sized goodnight kiss!”

Daddy’s Girls Review: This was a book we read again and again! It was engaging and fun. 3-year-old Bean says, “I thought the monster was going to eat me! It turned out he only wanted kisses. I liked the monster, he is cute! The art is fun, especially the ‘pickle thorns’.” We recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun story with a surprise at the end.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Daddy's Children's Books

So the first stories I have to post about that we love are the ones written and illustrated by Daddy! Of course Bean's favorite book is one written for and about her. She has imaginary friend dragons that are all over our house and follow us where ever we go. Her favorite one is Danny, the big green one who is always with her, Dora the purple dragon is always being mean, whenever Bean gets hurt its always Dora's fault either tripping her or biting her or countless other things she has come up with.  

Bean's Dragons is about Bean and her dragons who always get her into trouble!  

 ABC Adventures: Magical Creatures is a fascinating tale of Professor Vontriponmybottom and the magical Creatures he encounters through the alphabet. A new installment of ABC Adventures will be coming out in spring 2014, ABC Adventures: Cooking with Kids, featuring Daddy's art and my recipes! More on this one to come later!  

 Trouble With Bernie is about an imaginary friend Daddy had when he was a little boy and of course the trouble he got him into. What good are imaginary friends if you can't blame things on them right?