Rinda's Reads: A Patriotic Pick for July

I read lots of books in July. As it is my birthday month, I felt it was my right to spend a little more time perusing pages and a little less time doing laundry (I am paying for that now). Instead of giving you a breakdown of every book I read in July, here is a list with grades and ratings. If you want to know more about a particular title, let me know.

The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg  (A-, PG)

Whisper Hollow by Carol Warburton(C, PG)

Bound by Sally Gunning (F, R--as in after one chapter, I had no desire to read anymore so I put it down)

Marianne’s Christmas Wish by Carla Kelly (B, borderline PG-13)

Miss Grimsley’s Oxford Career by Carla Kelly (B-, PG)

The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson (A-, PG-13)

Brave Emily by Valerie Tripp (A, G)

But this is the book I really, REALLY want to recommend!

Here is Where by Andrew Carroll

I came across an article about this book in a SkyMagazine on the plane ride home from D.C. I was so intrigued, I requested a copy from the library. It took a month or two to get to me, and it took me a few more weeks to pick it up, but once I did, I was hooked. I kept it a week overdue (somebody else had requested it and so I couldn't renew it) and had to turn it back in and I was only halfway through. I hope someday to buy it.

I know by now you are saying "stop rambling Rinda and tell us what it is about!" This is a brilliant piece of creative nonfiction. Andrew Carroll spent years collecting stories about little-known and mostly-forgotten pieces of America's past. For example, did you know that a graduate student CHOPPED down a 5,000 year-old tree in Nevada? Abraham Lincoln's son was saved from a train accident by the brother of his father's would-be assassin? Just after the end of the Civil War a ship carring POWs home sank and killed more people than would die on the Titanic? A woman was the first person to climb to the top of Pike's Peak in a day and age when no one thought a man could do it? A ByU graduate once hijacked a plane, demanded a $500,000 ransom, jumped out of the plane over Provo and then joined his own manhunt? 

Seriously, though, for history-lovers like me, this book is a gold mine. I think I learned/remembered more reading half of it than I remembered in all of my AP History course. So, basically, you should read it, and I should buy it (or at least request it from the library again so I can finish reading it!)

And Kevin's pick of the month is a personal childhood favorite of mine:

A is for Annabelle by Tasha Tudor

Originally published in 1954, this beautifully illustrated alphabet book delights little girls (and their moms and grandmas everywhere) with pictures of Annabelle and all of her doll accessories. I am so glad that I have a copy of my own now!