Stories from the Ashes Podcast

Find a free literary database containing the books we’ve discussed here:

Time Sensitive Announcement!

We talk about this at the very end of the episode, but Charlotte Mason's Home Education Series audiobooks are still available to support through Kickstarter! If the goal pre-sells are not reached then the project will not proceed which will be such a loss for the world (I don’t just say that dramatically, I truly believe it).

Please check out the campaign now and pre-order if you can! I’m so looking forward to my dyslexic teen being able to listen to Ourselves when we start reading it this fall and the riches being so much more accessible for her. At the time of this episode airing there are three days left in the campaign.

Anthony is currently running a giveaway on his site to win a hardcover set of books as well as an audiobook set and the giveaway’s open to everyone! So generous! Be sure to enter!

Books reviewed in this episode:

Links on the website are affiliate links- they don’t cost you any extra to use but they greatly help support the cost of running this site. Thank you!

* Charlotte Mason's Home Education Series

* The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins

* Lawrence Block crime books (Anthony’s favorites)

* Maus by Art Spiegelman

* Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust by Loïc Dauvillier (Ambre wasn’t imaging the title after all!)

* C. K. Thompson Books

* Marco Polo by Manuel Komroff

* Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton

* How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books by Joan Bodger

Books Mentioned:

* Parables from Nature by Mrs. Margaret Gatty

* Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

* Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R.D. Blackmore

* Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat

* Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall

* Pharaoh's Boat by David Weitzman

* Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

* Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

* Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Thank you for joining us today! We’d love to hear from you in the comments! Have you read any of the books we discussed today? Leave your review!

-If your kid/teen has a book they would like to recommend to our community, please submit their brief review to [email protected]. Include their first name, last initial, and age. Thank you! (It’s absolutely fine to submit a review for a book we reviewed already in an episode- we want to hear their voices!) If we share their review we will contact you so you know which episode to find it on.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: For every 5 reviews (ending 09/01/2022) we will give away a book recommended on one of our podcasts.

To enter, leave a review on your podcast player of choice or in the comments here and email [email protected]!

Find a free literary database containing the books we’ve discussed here:

Books reviewed in this episode:

Links on the website are affiliate links- they don’t cost you any extra to use but they greatly help support the cost of running this site. Thank you!

* Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom by Ursula Nordstrom,

Leonard S. Marcus (Editor), Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)

* Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White illustrated by Garth Williams

* Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

* The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe

* The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

* Eliott Family Trilogy by Elizabeth Goudge

* The Bird in the Tree

* The Herb of Grace/Pilgrim’s Inn in the USA

* The Heart of the Family

* The Blue House by Phoebe Wahl

* Be Kind by Pat Z. Miller

* Nature All Around: Plants by Pamela Hickman illus. by Carolyn Gavin

* Nature All Around: Trees by Pamela Hickman illus. by Carolyn Gavin

* A Year in Our New Garden by Gerda Muller- *since recording we’ve found this title has been republished by a Canadian publisher and is now available on Amazon!*

* Irena’s Jars of Secrets by Marcia Vaughn

* Edith Cavell by Adèle de Leeuw (Spies of the World series)

* The Ark by Margot Benary-Isbert

* Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert

* Drawn Together by Minh Le illustrated by Dan Santat

* The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

* More Stories from Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson

* A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin

Books mentioned

* 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

* Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder- Correction-Garth Williams illustrated the Little House books, not the Little Women books. Ambre got the “Little” right! ha!

* Sonja’s Chickens by Phoebe Wahl

* A Year Around the Great Oak by Gerda Muller

* Where Do They Go When It Rains? by Gerda Muller

* A Circle of Seasons by Gerda Muller

* Linnea Books by Lena Anderson

* Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge

* Belinda by Maria Edgeworth

* Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

* Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

* Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

* Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

Thank you for joining us today! We’d love to hear from you in the comments! Have you read any of the books we discussed today? Leave your review!

-If your kids/teens have a book they would like to pitch to our community, please submit their brief reviews to [email protected]. Include their first name, last initial, and age. Thank you! (It’s absolutely fine to submit a review for a book we reviewed already in an episode- we want to hear their voices!)

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: For every 5 reviews (ending 07/01/2022) we will give away a book recommended on one of our podcasts.

To enter, leave a review on your podcast player of choice or in the comments here and email [email protected]!

Watch the episode on YouTube or here on the website:

Find a free literary database containing the books we’ve discussed here:

Books reviewed in this episode:

Links on the website are affiliate links- they don’t cost you any extra to use but they help support the cost of running this site. Thank you!

* Fairy Tales collected by Hans Christian Andersen 

* Jenny Wren by Dawn L. Watkins

* Medallion by Dawn L. Watkins

* Arrow by Dawn L. Watkins

* Shield by Dawn L. Watkins

* Emma by Jane Austen 

* Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

* Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian

* Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl (Surprise! She’s not actually an enchantress- an fyi for those who would otherwise skip this title due to avoiding sorcery.)

Books Mentioned:

* Aesop’s Fables by Aesop

* Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

* No Pets Allowed by Morgan Reed Persun (one of Dawn’s pseudonyms)

* A King For Brass Cobweb by Dawn L. Watkins

* Very Like A Star by Dawn L. Watkins

* Zoli’s Legacy by Dawn L. Watkins

* The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

* The Bracken Trilogy by Jeri Massi

* The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

Thank you for joining us today! We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

-If your kids/teens have a book they would like to pitch to our community, please submit their brief reviews to [email protected]. Include their first name, last initial, and age. Thank you! (It’s absolutely fine to submit a review for a book we reviewed already in an episode- we want to hear their voices!)

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: For every 5 reviews (ending 07/01/2022) we will give away a book recommended on one of our podcasts.

To enter, leave a review on your podcast player of choice or in the comments here and email [email protected]!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: For every 5 reviews (ending 07/01/2022) we will give away a book recommended on one of our podcasts. To enter, leave a review on your podcast player of choice or in the comments here and email [email protected] (please put GIVEAWAY in the subject line)!

-Find a free literary database containing all the books we’ve discussed here:

Books reviewed in this episode:

Links are affiliate links they don’t cost you any extra to use but they help support the cost of running this site-thank you!

* Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Julie Morstad (hear how this book was formative for Ambre’s eldest’s world view on personal limitations due to not being “typical”)

* The Backyard Goat: An Introductory Guide to Keeping and Enjoying Pet Goats by Sue Weaver

* Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats by Jerry Belanger and Sara Thomson Bredesen (Listen to hear which goat book Amanda prefered)

* At Our House by Isabel Minhós Martins, illustrated by Madalena Matoso 

* Grow Kind by Jon Lasser, illustrated by Sage Foster-Lasser

* In Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson, illustrated by Patrice Barton

* More Stories from Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson, illustrated by Patrice Barton

* Ernestine’s Milky Way by Kerry Madden-Lunsford, illustrated by Emily Sutton

-Kid’s Review: Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards (in the episode, Ambre incorrectly identified the author as just “Julie Andrews”)

* The Big Bath House by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Gracey Zhang

* Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias, illustrated by Tracy Subisak 

* Dolch Readers such as Dog Pals by Edward W. Dolch and Marguerite P. Dolch, illustrated by Fran Matera

* A Year Around the Great Oak or Around the Oak by Gerda Muller

* Where Do They Go When it Rains? by Gerda Muller

* The Keeper of Wild Words by Brooke Smith, illustrated by Madeline Kloepper

* Sonya’s Chickens by Phoebe Wahl

* The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

* Chewy Louie by Howie Schneider (and an update on Amanda’s Great Pyrenees puppy)

* Zhang Heng and the Incredible Earthquake Detector by Randel McGee

* The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs by Fiona Robinson

* The Emperor’s Riddle by Kat Zhang

* The Memory of Forgotten Things by Kat Zhang

* Books Mentioned:

* Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

* Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

* Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

* Dandelion Cottage by Carroll Watson Rankin

Thank you for joining us today! We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

-If your kids/teens have a book they would like to pitch to our community, please submit their brief reviews to [email protected]. Include their first name, last initial, and age. Thank you! (It’s absolutely fine to submit a review for a book we reviewed already in an episode- we want to hear their voices!)

Wherein we discuss the benefits of doing a reading challenge, why you should not bite off more than you can chew, and how to find joy, not limitations in a reading challenge.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: For every 5 reviews (ending 07/01/2022) we will give away a book recommended in one of our podcasts. To enter, leave a review on your podcast player of choice and email [email protected] (please put GIVEAWAY in the subject line)!

Find a free literary database containing all the books we’ve discussed here:

Books reviewed in this episode:

Links are affiliate links they don’t cost you any extra to use but they help support the cost of running this site-thank you!

* The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera

* Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson (not set in South America, Ambre!)

* The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout (Ambre’s light read for summer)

* Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

* Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca

* Adventures With Waffles by Maria Parr

* The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore

* Medallion by Dawn L. Watkins

* Shield: A Prequel to Medallion by Dawn L. Watkins

* Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

* Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Other reading challenges we’ve used/recommend and mentioned in this episode:

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

Literary Life “2 for ‘22” Reading Challenge

Goodreads 2022 Challenge

Join us as we speak with author M.L. Farb as she shares her life experiences and writing processes that went into the creation of her fantastic Historical High Fantasy and Fairy Tales. In our spoiler free episode we will discuss our personal favorites (so far!) and will hear which series Maria is currently writing a new book for. Join us!

She’s one of our top “Authors you should be reading and probably aren’t yet”.

Find a free literary database containing all the books we discuss here:

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: For every 10 reviews we will give away a book recommended in one of our podcasts. To enter, leave a review on your podcast player of choice and email [email protected] (please put GIVEAWAY in the subject line)!

Books reviewed in this episode:

Links are affiliate links they don’t cost you any extra to use but they help support the cost of running this site-thank you!

* The King's Trial: The King Trials Book One by M.L. Farb

* Fourth Sister: Hearth and Bard Tales by M.L. Farb

* “The Princess Who Never Laughed” -The Princess Who Never Smiled, The Unsmiling Tsarevna or The Tsarevna who Would not Laugh is a Russian folk fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki, as tale number 297 (thank you, Wikipedia)

* Heartless Hette: Hearth and Bard Tales by M.L. Farb

* Vasilisa: Hearth and Bard Tales by M.L. Farb

* The King's Shadow: The King Trials Book Two by M.L. Farb

* Books and Authors mentioned or briefly covered:

* Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

* The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

* Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

* Grass Beyond the Mountains by Richmond P. Hobson Jr.

* Corrie TenBoom's books

* The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop

* Jerry Spinelli

* Victor Hugo

* Ralph Moody

* CS Lewis

* JRR Tolkien

* John Flanagan

* Linda Sue Park

* Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli

* Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

* The Calvin and Hobbes book by Bill Watterson

* Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection by Bill Watterson

* Shakespeare’s plays

* The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis 

* When I was a Pie by M.L. Farb

Ambre is the caretaker of the Reshelving Alexandria Community on Facebook. Amanda is Ambre’s real life friend and together we are lead reviewers and curators of the RA Literary Database.  We love discussing books and life together. We love to share stories in all their forms because stories have the power to form and change hearts and minds.

Find a literary database of all the books we discuss here at www.ReshelvingAlexandria.com

Watch the video version of the podcast on the Stories from the Ashes YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP5Vi22aJGI

Books discussed:

Rectangle Time by Pamela Paul, illustrated by Becky Cameron

The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Give and Take by Elly Swartz

The King’s Trial by M. L. Farb