To Narnia and Beyond

Even though reading aloud is one of my favorite things we do in our home, I often wonder if anyone is actually listening. Seeing that I have a rowdy four-year-old son that can't sit still or be quiet for more than a few minutes at a time and a 6-month-old daughter that only wants to eat the pages I hold in my hand, it's not the most ideal environment for a serious reader. However, I keep at it day after day because I love reading words aloud.

Where Have We Traveled in our Readings Lately?

We've been to Narnia once or twice. We finished reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe last week. We picked up the second book in the set, Prince Caspian, at our local library last Friday. It's a lot of fun traveling into the world and characters of this C.S. Lewis classic children's tale.

Late at night when the children have gone to bed, I've ventured back to Camelot. Not King Arthur's court; rather John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy's version of Camelot. I've been reading/listening to Jackie Kennedy's seven conversations about her life with the President, their time in the White House and her thoughts on any and everyone in JFK's life during those years. She only gave three interviews after her husband died. This is one of those interviews. These recordings have been sealed since 1964, when she talked to Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. a few short months after her husband's death. I find them absolutely fascinating. Only a few people would know about or remember my obsession with the Kennedy family. (In the 8th grade we had to make out a last will and testament for a history project. While most of the girls were picking boys in our school for their husbands in their will, I decided John F. Kennedy Jr. would be mine.) I've found reading the chapter of the conversation before listening to the cd portion of the conversation is most helpful. The book contains a lot of footnotes that help explain more about the people Jackie Kennedy mentions. I love listening to her voice and her stories about the closeness of the three living Kennedy brothers at the time (Jack, Bobby and Teddy).

Lastly, I've been roaming the countryside in England in the early 1900s. This has nothing to do with reading, though. This is all about the award-winning show Downton Abbey. I read several reviews of this PBS show and knew it was one I had to watch. Seeing as I have two kids and don't actually get to sit down at a set time to watch a TV show, I bought seasons one and two off Amazon and watched them at night after the kids went to bed. Mary and Violet (the great Maggie Smith plays this wonderful old broad) are my favorite characters. Violet delivers the best lines on televsion, while Mary's self-inflicted wounds make her the most lovable. All the other characters besides those two I fall in and out of love with. I went from feeling sorry for Bates to loathing his self-righteousness, hating O'Brien for her despicable deeds to being able to see past that as she begins to soften, and falling in love with the annoying Mrs. Patmore and her sidekick Daisy. I could go on and on. If you can find the time, maybe somewhere in the middle of the night as I did, this show is worth every minute!