Life at Gray Gables

Do you have a READING BUCKET LIST?

I am sure you remember reading great literature in school. Some of those books probably left somewhat of an impact on you, without you really knowing it.

For me, I remember reading The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite books, and although I was really "into" reading in school, I remember a lot of my friends griping about having to read so many books!

I was in hog heaven...

Anywhoo, I think that it is important to instill this LOVE for reading in my own children, because it is a HUGE part of my life.

I love everything about words, paper, word on paper...and now on my Nook! (well, I read on my tablet just because its BIGGER...OLD AGE DARN YOU!)

So, I have a list, compiled from others' lists of books that I think (yes, based on my personal opinions here) you NEED to read in your lifetime and I am not limited to ADULTS here... since I am a MOMMY Blogger...it is important to start with the children's books and work our way from there...and I won't judge any of you for bringing back the kids books, I promise!

I think that might be the BEST part, I get to re-read the classic books I grew up with and we have found some new ones along the way through my own kiddos! (SH!)

Alright, here goes:

TOP 100 BOOKS (Kel) thinks you NEED to read in your LIFETIME!

Did your favorites MAKE the list?

1984 by George Orwell
A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning: The Short-Lived Edition by Lemony Snicket
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Alice Munro: Selected Stories by Alice Munro
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Born To Run – A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 1 by Jeff Kinney
Dune by Frank Herbert
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Color of Water by James McBride
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The House At Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Liars’ Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Shining by Stephen King
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami
The World According to Garp by John Irving
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

How many have you read?

I am excited to RE-READ these and of course, I have added SO MANY MORE to my list...especially with my DAILY DEALS and STEALS! (check out my blog)

Please, shoot me a pic of the books your reading or that YOU THINK need to be on the list on my INSTAGRAM page!

KAMSTUTZ09

@KelleyAmstutz

/kel.amstutz

KAMSTUTZ09

Also posted on: https://kam0900.wordpress.com

So, many of you other there know my struggle.

I want to [desperately] be home with my kiddos.

The problem...well, I went to college...live a little above my means...and flat out, my Husband said:

"NO, you HAVE TO WORK".

Needless to say, here I am [or not] working, outside of the home, away from my babies, never seeing my Husband except on weekends...when he is NOT working. (tear)

This has been a HUGE ... let me stress... HUGE transition for our family because up until May of this year I WAS WORKING FROM HOME.

Ugh. I know...but once you are in it, you know how good it is and have to give it up [thanks to the company moving me to Part Time and falling down the crapper!] it SUCKS! I leave my house before my kids get up, make the long forty minute commute to an office, doing a job that I am not particularly fond of, then getting in my car after 8 1/2 hours to make another forty minute commute to pick up my kids (mind you, it is PAST dinner time at this point) to make another twenty minute trip home, fix a quick bit of dinner, clean up, get things ready for the next day, baths/showers, books (if we are lucky) and BED. BAM!

My kids summer has SUCKED, thanks to good old Mom, here.

I'm depressed to say the least.

I mean, I feel like someone killed my dog, daily!

So, now that I have had my BOO-HOO - poor me- MOMENT [thanks for listening] - it is time to

DO SOMETHING

about it.

I feel like sharing information with others who are in the same boat as I am right now, and want to be home for their kids, are as desperate as this lady and maybe we can all learn together!

Here is a list of Nine (9) Companies that I have found over ... and over ... and over again as:

GREAT PLACES TO WORK FROM HOME:

1. UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth is hiring registered nurses for telecommuting positions. Most of their “work at home” nurse positions involve seeing patients in their homes in your surrounding area. However, some are phone-based positions. Not a registered nurse? Fear not, they’re hiring for positions not based in nursing as well!

View Work From Home Jobs

2. Cricket Magazine

Cobblestone Publishing Company publishes six magazines for kids ages 6 and up.

– Appleseeds (theme-based social studies)
– Calliope (world history)
– Cobblestone (U.S. history)
– Faces (cultural anthropology)
– Dig (archaeology)
– Odyssey (science)

All six feature fiction, nonfiction, recipes and activities. They accept illustrations and writing for paid use year-round. Full details on rates and contact information can be found on their website.

View Work From Home Jobs

3. Obeo

Is photography your thing? Become a regional freelance photographer for Obeo, a real estate company. Your job would include setting appointments with the current homeowners, photographing the home and uploading them to the Obeo website. That’s it! Payment is based on a “per house” basis.

View Work From Home Jobs

4. Victory Media

That’s us! With an array of magazines – Military Spouse, G.I. Jobs, Vetrepreneur and STEM Jobs, we’re always on the hunt for freelance writers and photographers. What’s an easier job than getting paid to photograph and write about your military life?!

View All Careers With Victory Media

5. Hudl

Do you love sports? Do you fall asleep to Sportscenter every night? Well then, Hudl is looking for you. Hudl helps coaches and athletes win by providing a web-based platform where NBA, college and high school coaches upload game video, make comments and break down data for their players. The major company meetings are broadcasted via the web and Hudl flies everyone to its home office at least once a quarter.

View Work From Home Jobs

6. TutaPoint.com

With the only requirements being that you’re currently enrolled or graduated from a U.S. college or university and have a very minimum amount of experience, tutapoint.com is the perfect option for those who want to teach! You would be responsible for virtually tutoring high school aged adolescents, and the best part … pay starts at $14 an hour, plus bonuses and incentives!

View Work From Home Jobs

(Tutapoint.com not a good fit? Try Tutor.com!)

7. VIPdesk

Great opportunity for those who are bilingual!

The term “call center” never sounds very appealing, which is why VIPdesk uses “concierge” instead. You would be responsible for fielding calls from their very high-end clients, with tasks such as making restaurant, hotel and airfare reservations and getting event tickets. Perks: Very minimum qualifications needed and you’re labeled as an employee rather than an independent contractor, which means benefits and paid vacations!

View Work From Home Jobs

8. About.com

About.com is looking for freelance writers for their online content. With hundreds of topics ranging from Paleo lifestyles to parenting to global conflicts, you’re sure to find something you love to write about. There’s even a Netflix category – there’s no shame in admitting we’re all amateur experts in this field…am I right?

View Work From Home Jobs

DRUMROLL PLEASE -------------------------

9. Aria

Do you have good handwriting? Well then … you’re hired! It’s as simple as that. Aria is a company that is contracted by large donation-based organizations and non-profits to simply handwrite thank you notes to their donors. They even offer a 401(k) plan!

View Work From Home Jobs

It's all about helping, which I am more than happy to do. As one Mom going through a MID LIFE CRISIS to another, WE CAN DO THIS! I am getting my name, resume and skills out there, into the world, and YOU should too!

Good luck to all and keep me posted, you know I will keep you all in the know!