What's on your nightstand?

Recently I discovered that 5 Minutes for Mom has a 5 Minutes for Books site, which is right up my ally! The fourth Tuesday of every month is "What's on your nightstand?" sharing what you've bben reading and plan to read the next month.

Let's just say this, I've been a reading madman...rather mad "woman" lately. In the last two weeks I've finished three books from my booklist for the year!

This month I finished reading:

• Jane Austen (a biography) by Claire Tomalin
• Through the Shadowlands: The Love Story of C.S. Lewis & Joy Davidman, Brian Sibley
  
• Daisy Miller, by Henry James (short and sweet)
  
• Prisoner of Tehran, by Marina Nemat (I read this one in two days!)
  

I'm still reading:

• Practicing Hospitality, by Pat Ennis & Lisa Tatlock
  
• Practical Theology for Women, by Wendy Horger Alsup (I'm a little over half way through this one.)
  
• Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, From Birth to Age 3, by Paula Polk Lillard & Lynn Lillard Jessen (I just started it today!)
  
• Mi primera mirada a Los Tamanos/Colores/Formas/Numeros (These are Spanish kids books on size, color, shapes, and numbers. I'm reading them to Joe, but more for my benefit than his. I'm trying to get my Spanish back.)
  

Next month I plan to read:

• Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde
• Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World, by Carolyn McCulley
• Story, by Robert McGee
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver

I really enjoyed reading the biographies/memoir. Prisoner of Tehran wasn't originally on my list for this year, but I saw it in the library a few weeks ago and on my most recent trip I picked it up. I read it in two days. It was really good, but sad. I'm really interested in Middle Eastern culture and literature, especially in regards to Iran. The book is the story of a woman who became a political prisoner during the Islamic Cultural Revolution. It follows her time in prisoner and how she got out.

It makes me want to go back and reread Lipstick Jihad, which I never actucally finished. It'd be interesting to see the difference of Iran from a woman who was coming of age during the revolution and a woman who goes back to Iran as a young adult 20 years after the revolution.

Just a note...

Practicing Hospitality is in conjunction with the book discussion over at Passionate Homemaking with Lindsay. The discussion and questions are posted on Mondays, although I usually post on Thursdays. You can join the discussion here.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is the next book in Simple Mom's Sound Mind, Sound Mom Book Club. The reading dates are March 19 - May 21, 2009.

I think it's funny...

...that I'm really not reading any of the books in my Current Reading (see sidebar). Those are definitely books I've started, but haven't quite finished. Don't get me wrong I want to finish them. It's just that I find there are other books I want to read that seem more interesting at the moment.

What am I really reading?

Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Mrs. Piper is getting picked up about once a week these days. It's a shorter book and should be classified as a "quick read," but I just haven't committed the time.

Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free by speaker/radio host of Revive Our Hearts Ms. Nancy Leigh DeMoss. (Truthfully, whenever I hear her name I can only think of it as my husband imitates it as a high-pitched Midwestern woman.) I'm reading this with my accountability group. We're reading a chapter a week. It's good. I'd definitely recommend it. I'm also excited about her new book with Dannah Gresh Lies Young Women Believe.

Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan & Sarah Edwards by Elisabeth D. Dodds is my latest read. I started this on our trip to South Carolina a few weeks ago and by the time we got home only had two chapters left. We've been home a week now and I have about 1 1/2 chapters left. Almost there! It's really good and interesting. I'm finding that I'm enjoying biographies more and more these days.

That's it really. I'm about halfway through Lipstick Jihad, but I haven't picked it up in months. Next weekend, we're heading out to Indiana for a friends wedding and it's my plan to bring it on the plane. We'll see how that pans out. *wink*wink*