With all the stuff I give away, it’s amazing to some people how excited I get when I actually win something. In the past couple of months I’ve won two great contests, both from Chelle! First I won her copy of The Glass Castle which was an awesome read that I highly recommend and then I won one of her great hand-knitted market bags! I’m a market loving kind of girl and I plan to get a lot of use out of it. It’s even more special because my friend spent time making it. Thanks so much Chelle!

I’ve also received some great books in the last while to review…

The Bilingual Edge is one I couldn’t really get in to simply because neither of us is fluent enough to speak another language to our children, but I did enjoy bits of it from the perspective of a mom who speaks a little French and a little ASL and wants my kids exposed to both. It’s not a riveting by any stretch but it does have some great information if you’re looking to give your kids that edge that bilingualism brings and you want to know how best to go about it.

Forgotten Ellis Island is one I wanted to read simply because I don’t know anything about Ellis Island and thought it would be interesting. I was right – it was great. A very easy and fast read that gives a true glimpse into what happened on Ellis Island. It brought about lots of emotion in me thinking about the mothers being isolated from their children in the hospitals and sometimes even being deported without them. A great read if you’re interested in that type of thing!

I have a pile of books still waiting to be read as well. I’m sure I’ll have some time in the next five years, right?