{what to read next?}

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Just finished reading the Work & the Glory book series (9 thick books) for the second time. Cried for joy as the imaginary Steed family reunited in the Salt Lake valley. Awesome, awesome books! If anyone is ever interested in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (= the mormons), then these are the books to read. They have made three movies of the book series too. Very fascinating. Very interesting. Me lovey, lovey, lovey!

Nauvoo, Illinois which our church members built after they were forced to leave their homes in Missouri, has always fascinated me. What an incredible story how out of a swamp a beautiful city was created. Out of poverty and persecution. I so want to go and visit Nauvoo one day.

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Now I need to figure out what to read next. The Twilight books for the third time perhaps? :D Does anyone have any good book suggestions? I'm interested in books that are uplifting/interesting/mysterious or tell some kind of great story (f.ex. a historical novel) and have no swearing/sex/gory violence/disturbing scenes in it.

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I think I'll share couple of fun, historical snippets of info from the W&G books.

First one is about "The New England Primer", a book that was used to teach children to read. It was first printed in the early 1700's. "It contained a hefty dose of prayers and pieties along with basic reading material... Many of the lessons, couched in verse to make them easier to memorize, were dour in their content and illustrated with pictures to match... For example, the letter F was taught with the rhyme, "The idle Fool is whipt at school," and a wicked-looking schoolmaster with a long switch proved the point. The Y entry suggested, that one ought to take one's happiness with a dose of gloom. Here a skeleton was shown arriving at a party of children."

Our school books have come a long way. :)

Another fun snippet of info was the reason for the word malaria.

"The shakes - or ague, as it was more commonly named - was something to be dreaded. So called because of the violent shaking that often occurred during the intermittent chills and fever, the sickness was found throughout the continent, but was especially prevalent in warmer climates and in areas which contained substantial wetlands. The fact that tiny protozoa which attacked the red blood cells and caused the debilitating infection were passed to humans from the bite of the female anopheles mosquito would not be discovered for another sixty years (closer to the end of 1800's). People attributed the ailment to the musty, foul-smelling odor caused by the rotting vegetation so common to swamps and marshes. Thus came its formal name - malaria - from two Italian words meaning, literally, "bad air".

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