Reading in the Garden

  Become a Fly on the Wall of the White House.    Become a fly on the wall of the White House! This book gives an inside look at life in the most famous house in the country. You will discover the massive operations behind the scenes, its residence staff members and their duties, stories of the presidents and their families, and fun trivia. Find out what’s hidden under the Press Briefing Room, which president liked to eat squirrel stew, and which president and first lady went by code names Rawhide and Rainbow.     This book is geared for mid-kids readers ages 8-12, but I found it highly intriguing and recommend it for all ages.  I was constantly interrupting my husband while he was trying to read his own book telling him to “listen to this” as I recited snippets to him.  This book is an absolute treasure! Happy Reading,   Annette 

  One of the Greatest Tests of Human Endurance If this book had been fiction, you’d think the author might have over done it with all the nonstop danger, misery, and drama.  Enough already—it’s just too far-fetched to think that the brutal existence with ENDLESS threats of disaster could be real—but it is. Their ship demolished by ice, dangers of cracks in the ice floes they lived on for months on end, attacking leopard seals, gale winds, frost bite, starvation, and the unrelenting hazards of the sea had me holding my breath at times.  This is surely one of the greatest battles of human endurance against nature! Other Nonfiction Sea-related Adventures - 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin -Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr.   Fiction About Antarctica  - Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple -The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe -An Antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne (a continuation of Poe’s story)   Fiction at Sea  - Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown  (