While I really do love quality children’s books, and I genuinely don’t mind reading them to the girls, there are still times when I need to read something aimed at people over the age of eight. Today, I’m sharing just a few things that I’ve found pretty good lately.

This is hardly a new book, but I’ve been rereading my small collection of Celia Rivenbark‘s essays, and [amazon text=We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier&asin=0312312431] is still my favorite. If you don’t know Celia, she’s worth a read. (And according to that website, there’s a [amazon text=new book&asin=1250029236] destined to make me giggle despite its naughty title.) She’s a humor columnist, and holds nothing sacred when it comes to cracking a joke. She can make you cry and laugh uproariously on the same page. If you need a pick-me-up with a Southern twang, Celia’s your girl – unless you really detest slightly bad language and the occasional raunchy joke. In that case, she might just cause a bad case of pearl clutching.

Here is where I admit I’m the last person on the planet to have read [amazon text=Bossypants&asin=0316056898], by the incomparable Tina Fey. Like everyone else in my demographic, I think that Tina & I could be BFFs, if we only got to meet. Laced with Tina’s trademark off-color snark, Bossypants covers everything from her teenage theatrical eureka moments to what really made her impersonate Sarah Palin on SNL. If, like me, you’ve been living under a large rock, it’s worth your time to pick this up now that it’s in a cheapo paperback format that you can probably buy at the grocery store. The story of her honeymoon alone is worth the $8.99 cover price. (Let’s just say that it was an actual cruise ship disaster.) Tina’s very blunt and straightforward about the challenges of her career, of motherhood, and of blending the two. For those of us living in stay-at-home mom world, it’s a fascinating glimpse of a place some of us dream of visiting, with a side of maternal angst and class guilt. Seriously, just read it.

At the other end of the spectrum, I’m (very, very, very) slowly working through a couple of the volumes in [amazon text=Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series&asin=1889209007]. We’re at the point of figuring out some things regarding how we’ll handle the girls’ schooling, and I’m interested in Miss Mason’s ideas. Nonetheless, the Victorian prose is far from easy reading, and Miss Mason definitely didn’t infuse any extraneous humor into her writings. There are a number of areas where I think she was amazingly prescient, and others where I’m not quite sure I’m on board. You might hear more about this later. 😉

And somewhere in the middle of the previous books, we have Adriana Trigiani’s [amazon text=The Shoemaker’s Wife&asin=9780061257100]. My 91-year-old grandmother lent this to my mother, who lent it to me. An epic telling of an Italian immigrant family’s journey, the book stretches from Italy to America and back again. The story contains all the joy and sadness you’d expect from the typical immigrant saga, especially given the interference of a couple of wars and the Great Depression. Trigiani’s descriptions are masterful, and her imagery really does paint a picture for you. There’s also a non-traditional love story here that will sweep you away. Reading this was escapism at its finest.

So what have you mom types been reading? Tell me!

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