Releasing the Notes

When Matthew Cuthbert was sent to pick out a boy orphan who could help out around the house, he comes home with Anne Shirley. Anne is very different from what Matthew and Marilla could ever expect, a lively, rambunctious, and sometimes irreverent little girl who lives life at full speed.

Marilla may get exasperated at the constant troubles that Anne is getting herself into, but it isn’t long before she couldn’t imagine a life without this witty, spirited child.

This is a classic read, and you will find yourself loving Anne yourself by book’s end. The timeless power of Anne of Green Gables is something everyone should experience at least once in their lives.

Mary Lennox is sent to live with an uncle on his large estate. While she is there, she finds the freedom to explore the house and the grounds, finding many new and exciting things. When she starts hearing wailing from another room, she searches for its source, finding her sickly cousin Colin. Colin hasn’t left his room in months, as he is sickly and bed-ridden.

Colin isn’t the only secret she finds in her exploring. She soon finds a door that leads to a neglected garden, overgrown and full of weeds. With the help of the gardener, Mary begins to transform the space into something beautiful.

A time comes when Mary decides that Colin needs to see the garden as well, and she will need to sneak him out of the house, bringing her two secrets together.

A classic tale of childhood wonder and friendship, The Secret Garden is a pleasant book to fall into. Mary’s determination to find happiness in a house so full of despair will inspire you to see the world in a brighter light.

Corrie is a watchmaker, happily living a simple life working for her father in his shop. When World War II begins and Corrie’s family becomes aware of what is happening to her Jewish neighbors, they step in. Corrie finds herself smuggling babies in toolboxes, and young children in the back of her truck, as she makes “house calls” to work on clocks.

When the family’s involvement in helping Jews escape is discovered, Corrie and her sister are sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. In camp, Corrie and her sister strive to live and exemplify their Christian faith, even to the extent of praying for their enemies.

This true story is a powerful example of living up to your standards, and doing what is right regardless of the circumstances. The story is inspiring, and the ending is a beautiful example of redemption and forgiveness.

In a world of things, where we gather souvenirs and keepsakes that we put in boxes and stash away to never be seen again, Marie Kondo gives us a way to live simpler. She outlines a practice of picking up things around your home, and if they spark joy in you, you get to keep them. If they don’t spark joy, you thank them for what they brought to your life, then you let them go. This method, known as the KonMarie method of organizing, is time tested through Marie’s years of working as a Japanese organization and cleaning consultant.

So, if you find your cleaning starting to look like moving piles from one room to another, and repeating that over and over, you can find a better way through this book. There can really be a life outside of cleaning the same messes day after day after day, with the KonMarie way.

(That sounds cheesy enough to be a midnight shopping channel jingle.)

There is more to life than things. The Minimalist Home walks you through the journey of decluttering your spaces, keeping only what is really necessary. Opening up the space in your home will also open up space in your life to live more fully, giving you relief from living under the weight of unnecessary things collected over a lifetime. Becker focuses on more than just the things we keep, but the things in life we can choose to let go to live more simply, and to find more space for happiness.

With all that we bring into our homes, it is important to leave space for the things that matter most: peace, happiness, and living purposefully.

For years we have been putting plants through a natural (and sometimes unnatural) selection to favor the plants that produce the most food. The unfortunate side-effect of that in the search for quantity, we have lost quality. The food we eat today has a fraction of the nutrients food had generations ago.

This book not only identifies the problem, it also proposes a solution. Robinson has compiled lists of foods that have survived the years, still containing a dense collection of the nutrients we need. As we eat more intentionally, and grow foods that are nutritionally superior, we can help reverse the effects of poor food choices. Beyond sharing what varieties to eat, she shares ways in which to prepare the foods that focus on utilizing and maximizing the nutrients inside.

Feeling better starts with eating better, and this book has some of the best advice on how to do just that.

If you are wanting to level up your life, The 7 Habits is a great place to start. The habits found in this book focus both on our relationships with others as our relationships with ourselves. With time-tested wisdom, such as “sharpen the saw”, and well as new ways to look at problem solving with the “Think Win-Win” method, there is a lot to glean from this book.

If the book leaves you wanting more, there are many other iterations of the book, such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, and The 7 Habits of Happy Kids.

I don’t feel like I need to recap the story line for this beloved book, loved by generations of kids and adults alike. We are in the height of our oldest kids loving Harry Potter in our house right now, with Jim Dale’s voice pouring through our Alexa devices seemingly non-stop.

If you haven’t dipped your toes into the wizarding world, it is worth a peek.

Sometimes, the world of magic and wonder is just under our noses. When Seth and Kendra are sent to spend the summer with their eccentric grandparents, they are not sure what to think. Seth, always the rebellious little brother, breaks the rules their grandparents gave them, and discovers a family secret: His grandparents are the groundkeepers for a magical reserve.

In the world of fairies and fauns, everything is new and exciting. It is also dark and dangerous, as Seth and Kendra learn when they find themselves part of a party tasked with returning figures of dark magic back to the demon realm.

Clean and wholesome, Fablehaven is a fun read for the whole family.

As parents drop off their troubled kids at a reform camp, they then spend time learning skills from the camps directors. Avi and Yusef come from different walks of life, and have both been touched by the conflicts in the Middle-East. They have put in the effort to separate the person from their culture, and focus on the way in which they compliment each other. They share the lessons they learned along the way.

The book dives into the relationship we have with ourselves, and how our actions towards others determine our inner peace. My personal favorite aspect is questioning if we are treating the other person in any situation as a “you” or as an “it”. When we see people as people instead of problems or obstacles, the way in which we handle the situations will change drastically.

Spensa lives on a world that has been under attack since before she was born. Her father was killed in one of the attacks, and she dreams of taking up the fight in his place. She enrolls to be a pilot, but pilot school turns out to be much harder than she expected, and the odds are stacked against her.

When she finds herself living in a nearby cave, she meets a spaceship, one with the ability to communicate with her, and with a rather snarky personality. M-Bot and Spensa join forces to fight back against the forces above, but will they be able to do what generations before her have not?

This is a fun and imaginative fantasy series, complete with trademark Brandon Sanderson storytelling and surprise twists. The whole series is a fun and relaxing read.

An essential book on growing up, Wonder follows Auggie Pullman, a young boy born with a facial difference, as he leaves the safety of his mother’s homeschooling to enter a mainstream school. He has three kids who are assigned to show him around, and each kid shows a different part of surviving the rough world of fifth grade. Auggie has to navigate the normal parts of school – finding class, opening a locker – as well as the reactions he receives from other students.

The story also follows the story of Auggie’s sister, Vi, and his best friend, Jack, as they have to navigate Auggie’s entrance into public life as well, having to decide when to run to Auggie’s aid, and when to let him stand up for himself.

Exploring inclusion from so many different viewpoints really opens a window on what living life as a student outside of the normal population really is. Beautifully written, and thought-provoking.

As summer begins, Jay is excited about having the freedom of exploring the Oklahoma hills, after chores of course. However, a poster is placed in the town mercantile that advertises the one thing he would never expect to find in his adventures: monkeys. A circus has lost their monkeys, and is offering a large cash prize for their safe return.

Jay’s family is struggling financially, and he decides that this is just what his family needs. He spends the summer setting traps, determined to catch the chimpanzees, and learns many life lessons along the way.

Wilson Rawls has a magical way of telling stories, both heart-warming and heart-breaking.

Jonas and his family are growing up in a community free of pain and suffering, a perfect world. However, when he starts to peel back some of the layers to this perfect facade, he finds the disturbing lengths that the leaders will go to keep up appearances. He is chosen by the memory-keeper to be his successor, and becomes the receptacle for all the memories that could cause any emotion, things like war, poverty, and even sledding. As he lives these memories, he sees that the real beauty in life is in its imperfections. Now he has to decide: is he willing to go do what it takes to keep the status quo, even when the lives of people he loves are at stake?

Exploring the roles of opposition, this book points out the role that sadness and misery play in our overall well-being, and, on a deeper level, the atrocities that would have to be committed in order to create a “perfect” society. Is it worth it to go through hard times to see the real beauty of life?

This book has a lot to offer- the story of a boy who loses everything and his efforts to find himself, an inspiring sports story about a group of boys that learn to come together as and form a real team, and a story where people from the US win out over Adolf Hitler.

While I generally avoid sports books, personally, this one stood out to me as a book I shouldn’t pass up because of personal hang-ups, and I am glad I listened. The stories of each rower on the team coming from different backgrounds and places in life to form this gold-winning team was inspiring, as well as the moment where they truly start working together as a team and learn that they will accomplish more together than they each could on their own, is a beautiful lesson for life.