Brotherly Love Quilt Block and What's on Your Nightstand?

Brotherly Love Quilt Block

I'm participating in the monthly feature, What's on Your Nightstand?  Participants post what they've been reading the past month as well as what they're planning to read in the future.

Picture Book:
Sisters and Brothers by husband and wife team Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
A nonfiction book about siblings relationships in the animal world.  The beautiful cut-and torn-paper collage illustrations greatly add to the book. 
Did you know that nine-banded armadillos are always born as identical quadruplets - four brothers or four sisters or that New Mexico whiptail lizards have only sisters?  These are the kinds of interesting facts you'll find in this book.  As a mother of three sons, my favorite fact is about the wild turkey:  "Wild turkey brothers are lifelong companions...After they hatch, the young birds stay with their mother and siblings for a year.  The females leave to begin their own families, and the males begin their life as a band of brothers."
     
Middle Grade Novels:
The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars
A boy spends the summer on the farm with his aunt and uncle, discovers a black fox, and grows up in the process.

Class Clown by Johanna Hurwitz
Set in a third grade classroom.  About the class clown who wants to become
the perfect student.

  I am reading these two novels with small groups of students at school.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio
NPR's Backseat Book Club selection for September 2013 - check it out here
"August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school - until now.  He's about to enter fifth grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid, then you know how hard that can be.  The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face.  But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?  I highly recommend this to everyone fifth grade and above, including adults!

Book Club Books:
Deadly Currents by Beth Groundwater for my local book club
Mystery set in Salida, Colorado
Not the best book we've read but was fun to have it set in Salida.  I learned a lot about the lives of river rafters.

The Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs for the online Quilters' Book Club
Realistic fiction set in Wyoming and on a roadtrip back East
If you've ever had a child go far away to college, you'll relate to this book.

Books I've listened to:
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Nonreligious thoughts on spiritual Christianity
My husband and I listened to this on the drive to and from Breckenridge.  I had read the book earlier and seemed to enjoy it better when I read it than when I listened to it.   

Miss Julia Meets Her Match by Ann B. Ross
I picked this CD up at my library just to have a book to listen to.  I didn't especially enjoy the book, but I did enjoy listening to the reader with her Southern accent.

Cookbooks:
The Louisa May Alcott Cookbook compiled by Gretchen Anderson, illustrated by Karen Milone
A children's cookbook that includes recipes for foods mentioned in Little Women and Little Men.  Black and white line drawings.  I love cookbooks connected to novels!
   
Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook by Martha Hall Foose
Recipes from the Mississippi Delta

I usually check this book out from my library once a year.  I've never made any of the recipes, but I enjoy regional cookbooks.  Color photos and colorful stories along with the recipes.  Includes interestingly named recipes like Sold My Soul to the Devil-ed Eggs, Mother of the Church Ambrosia, Strawberry Missionary Society Salad, Tallahatchie Tomatoes, Apron String Biscuits with Red-Eye or Tomato Gravy, Sweet Tea Pie, Ponchatoula Strawberry Cupcakes, and Commitment Caramel Cake (for committing someone to the church, marriage, or the ground).

Just for Fun:
Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman
Southern fiction set in Charleston, South Carolina and a farm in Kentucky

Favorite quotes from the book:

"Some people run toward life, arms flung wide in anticipation.  Others crack open the door and take a one-eyed peek to see what's out there.  Then there are those who give up on life long before their hearts stop beating - all used up, worn out, and caved in, yet they wake each morning and shuffle their tired legs through another day.  Maybe they're hoping for a change - a miracle, even - but runaway dreams and lost years hang heavily on their backs.  It's the only coat they know how to wear.  They've become accustomed."

"Never tie your happiness to the tail of someone else's kite."

What's on your nightstand?  Inquiring minds want to know!  Answer in the comment section below. 

By commenting, you are entering you name in a give-away for a copy of The Double Wedding Ring by Clare O'Donohue, courtesy of Plume Books.  There will be two lucky winners this month!

You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post here.