Fair warning, this episode is ALL over the place!  

You will laugh and maybe cringe at my faux pas. 

You might cry with me at the end of the episode, and you’ll definitely learn about a lot of great books. 

In this episode I get to talk to my dear friend Elsie Iudicello.  

Elsie is a wife to my friend Jeff, and mom to 4 boys. Elsie lives in Florida where she is a farmer, a writer, a reader, a cook, and one of the most compelling and hilarious speakers I have ever the pleasure of hearing.  

Here are some highlights from our conversation: 

*Elsie tells me she loves old movies but also loves natural disaster movies. *Well, only one really. The movie Twister. For an interesting reason! 

*This is when I suggest another movie Elsie might like but that doesn’t actually exist and if it did, you might see it behind the curtain at Blockbuster. Enjoy the laughter that ensues. I’m never going to live this one down. 

*Elsie shares: “books bonded us in the beginning because we got to go play in different worlds together, and that has sustained us in the teen years. 

*We can meet on the bridge of a story. 

*Kids want a book where the author isn’t talking down to them. That doesn’t preach at them or sanitize everything. 

*Reading biographies and especially missionary biographies are so good for our kids to read. 

*Give them books about people stepping out of their comfortable worlds. Read those things into their hearts! 

* I want my kids to get to know people who have had to fight for their faith. 

* Parents need to be readers too. Because this statistic is true and makes my heart sad. “roughly a quarter of American adults say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year in print, electronic or even in audio form”. 

*”Don’t be in such a hurry to read the great books that you miss the good books.” Cindy Rawlins 

*On re-reading books: “I would rather be friends with 40 or 50 good dear books than read all the books in the world once.” 

*Find Elsie on Instagram at Farmhouse Schoolhouse 

Here's a list of all the books we mention in this episode: 

Ourselves by Charlotte Mason 

The Emperor’s Handbook by Marcus Aurelius 

The Good Master by Kate Seredy 

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder 

The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit 

Little Britches by Ralph Moody 

Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame 

Green Ember by S. D. Smith 

Wing Feather Saga by Andrew Peterson 

The Mad Scientist Club by Bertrand Brinley 

The Great Brain by John D Fitzgerald 

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 

Jules Verne books 

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing 

God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew 

10 Fingers for God: the life and work of Dr. Paul Brand by Dorothy Wilson 

Christian Heroes Then and Now series  

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morely 

The Awaking of Miss Prim: a Novel by Natalia Fenollera 

The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery 

The Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter 

Little Women Louisa May Alcott 

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 

How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn 

The Count of Monte Christo by Alexander Dumas 

Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast, and I’d be so very grateful if you leave a 5 star rating of the podcast and also a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta