The White Mare by Jules Watson Review

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to post a review on this book, since my review of The Pillars of The Earth was so terrible, but my thoughts on this book just have to be said. If I can save even one person from feeling like I do right now, then it's worth it. If you can't already tell, I did not like this book. I so wanted to. I had high hopes for this one. On paper, it had everything I could want in a book. But it truly failed to deliver. It is a historical epic tale set in 79 A.D. Scotland. It has Roman invaders, Druids, Warriors, and kings. It had all the makings for a great story. It just couldn't pull it off. The two main characters were mind numbingly boring. I never cared for either of them. They could get together or not, whatever. I ended up skipping pages of details, and I'm a details person. For instance, Diana Gabaldon and Ann Rice do it fantastically. This book is 600 pages long. I HATE quitting on a book. But at page 580, I put it down and said "NO MAS!" I just couldn't even give it the last 20 pages. If the author waited until those pages to wow me, then shame on her. Someone recently just told me to only give a book 100 pages, then feel free to quit it if it's not working for me. I think I'm going to have to adopt that rule. I could have read several other books that I might have loved instead of wasting my time on this one. Well, lesson learned.

Well, I didn't like it:(

OK, I know it's been forever since I've posted about reading The Pillars of The Earth, but hey, life happens. Here's my thoughts on it. It took me two tries, but I finally finished this book. The beginning is incredibly slow and boring, but I was told it gets better so I trudged through. By midway I was angry most of the time while reading it. There are several characters who are so incredibly evil and constantly getting away with horrific acts. It was like watching train wrecks and not being able to do anything about it. It would have been better if there were even one character that I truly liked, but even the so called good characters made me nuts. You need to be on anti-depressants to read this book. It was so draining to read about their horrible lives day after day. I couldn't wait to finish it to to see if something good would finally happen. I was not happy about the ending. All in all, I'm still kinda angry about the whole thing. On a side note, for anyone who has watched Days of Our Lives, did Waleran totally remind you of Stefano DiMara?

Favorite history on You Tube? Crash Course, of course!

HORRIBLE HISTORIES - The Wives of Henry VIII (Terrible Tudors)

Horrible Histories

Let me just say, if you don't already love history, this series will change that.  Horrible Histories is a set of books and videos that teaches all about the grossest, nastiest, and meanest bits of history, but in the most entertaining way.  The videos and books are disturbing and hilarious at the same time.  My kids and I laugh out loud while watching the videos.  We use the books to supplement along with Story of the World.  It adds a whole new layer onto our lessons and really makes the people and places we're learning about come to life.  I highly recommend checking it out! 

The Story of the World

We're a home-schooling family of two kids, grades 4 and 5.  We don't use a set curriculum.  We're always trying out new ways to learn to see what works best.  But there are some learning tools that we continue to use year to year.  

History is our favorite subject, and the main curriculum we have used since the beginning is The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer.  There are four books covering history from the time of Mesopotamia and works it's way through modern times.  You can also purchase activity books, quizzes, and audio CD's.  When my guys were little I bought the CD's.  We would listen to them together and then do the activity that went along with the lesson.  Now they read the books on their own and take the quiz after each chapter.  This is our forth year using it and we just love it.