lighthousebooks's reviews
556 reviews

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

5.0

This classic novel is an amazing study of emotions: love, hatred, revenge, jealousy, despair, anguish, isolation, guilt, selfishness. There is also a glimmer of compassion, sympathy, forgiveness, loyalty. It is dark and atmospheric and psychologically complex; so shocking that it is difficult to look away. One sees why this is considered to be one of the greatest novels of all time. 

The story is an interesting study of what happens when we allow emotions to be our god. When we fix our minds on ourselves, our feelings, our problems, peace escapes us. But when we fix our minds on God and trust in Him, perfect peace is ours regardless of our circumstances (Isaiah 26:3). 

Lack of peace is profoundly illustrated in the last chapter. Chilling! 😱

I listened to the Spotify Audiobook narrated by Billie Fulford-Brown. It was brilliant and I highly recommend it. I also followed along in a Duke Classics text.  

The One Year Book of Josh McDowell's Family Devotions by Josh D. McDowell, Bob Hostetler
Did not finish book.

We soldiered on quite awhile reading this one and finally decided not to finish it. It is biblically sound. We enjoyed the Bible reading. The stories are sometimes dated and often cheesy. We were feeling a lack of connection and experiencing a lack of engagement. Of course, it was published quite awhile ago, so it makes sense.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Did not finish book.

This is a book that I have seen on high school recommended reading lists. I would not give this to a teen. If it must be read it is better suited to the college-level. It is an interesting study of post modern literature, but it is vulgar, and includes profanity and sexual content. And it is depressing! It has an everything is meaningless theme, but there is no hope. Ecclesiastes is better.

Across the Ages by Gabrielle Meyer

I enjoyed this book though it wasn’t my favorite in the Timeless series. There were many good moments in the story. The overall message of faith and forgiveness was beautiful. The author’s note helped me to appreciate the history. 

The things I didn’t care for were a matter of personal taste. The romance was a little cloying for me and the faith messages overpowered the story at times. 

I think this is a clever series and definitely recommend you check it out if you haven’t already. I am looking forward to reading book five. 

Vibes: pirates, Spanish treasure, book lovers, Scottish brogue, prohibition, crooked cops, tent revivals, Hemingway, Lindbergh, Paris 

Educating the WholeHearted Child by Sally Clarkson, Clay Clarkson

I read this over ten years ago. It’s what convinced me I could homeschool and it helped me to decide how to go about it.

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

emotional funny sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Hilarious, heartwarming, then heartbreaking 💔 

First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

First They Killed My Father is a memoir by Loung Ung about the Khmer Rouge regime’s takeover of Cambodia and the subsequent genocide they perpetrated on their people. Loung Ung was five years old when this reign of terror began and she tells her story through the eyes of a child. She does not gloss over any details from her experiences in the killing fields because she wants to communicate that children are fully aware of the horrors they experience during wartime. 

This book is in our homeschool high school curriculum to teach about this time and place in history. It certainly does that in tragic and graphic detail. My heart is heavy with the terrible things people are capable of doing to each other. While this is a story that needs to be told, read, and discussed, I’m choosing to skip this one in our homeschool. 

The book disturbed me more than any war-related book I have ever read. It is akin to the most gruesome and graphic horror book you can think of, except it’s real. It happened. 

Content notes:
• extreme dehumanizing treatment, cruelty beyond measure
• extreme malnutrition and its effects on infants, children, and adults
• very detailed descriptions of beatings, executions/killing/murder/defiled corpses/bloody body parts/internal organs/decomposing human remains
• an absolutely horrifying revenge killing 
• rape implied several times off page and an attempted rape on page that is quite descriptive

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

My favorite part of this story was the beautifully drawn setting. There are features of the Alaskan landscape that are similar to parts of Maine, and the cabin in the story reminded me of my childhood home, also a cabin in the woods. We had the outhouse with the crescent moon and star symbol, but ours was a summer shower. We had the wood shed. An occasional bear. And pretend play. It all felt eerily familiar, except for the magical realism.

This is supposed to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I didn’t see it. The characters’ flaws illustrated the struggle with nature versus nurture and reminded me more of two classic novels than the fairy tale.

This is not an uplifting story. I was on edge for most of it, worried about what was going to happen, and the ending left me a little bereft. There is a lot to think about and reflect on and discuss which might make it a good book club read. 

However, while I really enjoyed parts of the book because of my personal history and thought the magical realism was well done, I wouldn’t recommend it widely. 

Note: Occasional strong cursing/profanity and open door sexual content. Was not expecting the latter especially 😓. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing

The Six-Day Hero by Tammar Stein

informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book started a bit slow for me. I thought there were too many crude lines. And I didn’t like the MC. His choices frustrated me. However, he does grow and I came to appreciate the storytelling by the end. I learned a little bit about what this time in Israeli history was like; however, I would have liked more historical and cultural details, even for middle-grade. 

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

5.0

“Of all the kids in the seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, there was one kid that Mrs. Baker hated with heat whiter than the sun. Me.”

And so begins this amusing and moving middle-grade read set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War with Shakespeare curses and grammar lessons woven in for good measure. I think this is my favorite Gary D. Schmidt book❤️🥹