Get your FFRREEEEE Moody book......

[nokidsmom]

These books are pretty much what life was like growing up in Maxhell. I shudder. Asking for forgiveness over speading too much butter on your muffin? Told to suck it up when you have a migraine?

If they can allow two animal crackers for a birthday, then I can totally see spreading too butter on your muffin.

Being told to suck it up with a migraine tells us exactly how they handled Teri's depression. As much as she is seen as being equally responsible for the creation of the gulag that is the Maxhell home, here I can feel sorry for her. She had some real issues going on, there were means to treat it, Steve at one point was very gainfully employed with a decent health insurance plan yet she was told to suck it up. And have more kids. :angry-banghead:

[twin2]

So Mr. Moody watches the children work and then tells them how unselfish he is to do this? Steve is evil.

I have no doubt life with Steve had to have been a perpetual guilt trip:

I could be training for a marathon, but I'm so selfless that.....

I could be flying a plane right now, but I'm so selfless that.....

I could be climbing the corporate ladder now, but I'm so selfless that...

I remember one time Teri was describing a time when when depressed and crying. One or more of her children kept asking them what they had done wrong to make her sad. I can only guess who put that nugget in their mind..

[Trynn]

Alright, I left a review. It's under my real name, so I won't link to it here, but it is very long, and I tried, I really REALLY tried, to find something, anything at all, good to say about it. I think I succeeded, but people are probably still going to find my review very unbalanced in a negative way.

Still, I did enjoy rewriting certain parts, and I'm tempted to get the next book (used, of course) just so I can write more about The Adventures of Maude and her Grandkids. But then.... reading another Moody book just sounds like absolute torture....

bleh.

also, I already knew the mom was getting pregnant (with twins, as will be revealed in the next book) but at the end I learned... they got a puppy.....yay.

[MamaJunebug]

Palimpsest, I nearly lost it reading that recently exposed draft that the Maxwell mole found. Tell said mole s/he can count on me as a fan forever!

[nokidsmom]

I have no doubt life with Steve had to have been a perpetual guilt trip:

I could be training for a marathon, but I'm so selfless that.....

I could be flying a plane right now, but I'm so selfless that.....

I could be climbing the corporate ladder now, but I'm so selfless that...

I remember one time Teri was describing a time when when depressed and crying. One or more of her children kept asking them what they had done wrong to make her sad. I can only guess who put that nugget in their mind..

It's the hallmark of an enmeshed family for kids to feel responsible for the feelings of the parents. And the Maxwells take enmeshment to the max. Gah! :pull-hair:

[nokidsmom]

Palimpsest, I nearly lost it reading that recently exposed draft that the Maxwell mole found. Tell said mole s/he can count on me as a fan forever!

I totally LOL'd reading it, too. Especially that last email from Sarah to Daddy. If only it were true.

[twin2]

I'm still in the painfully long chapter about going to church. The preacher is giving a sermon about a time when his bus broke down in the desert, he gets on his news and starts to pray when he feels a tap on his shoulder and I quote:

A native man had seen me praying. He asked if I was a christian and when I told him I was, he was so glad to meet a white man who was a Christian.

WTF?!?!?!?!

And yes that is no typo, she forgot to put the word "said" in that sentence.

[twin2]

And the chapter ends with the kids talking about how hard they have all been praying for a new baby!

Sweet Jesus....

[VodouDoll]

Yes! That guy from the Ivory Coast was like, "I'm so happy to meet a white Christian!" And Sarah calls him a "native man!"

What the hell, Sarah? What the HELL?

And why are these creepy little children so into whether their dad can knock up their mom again? They talk about it constantly!

[Palimpsest]

I totally LOL'd reading it, too. Especially that last email from Sarah to Daddy. If only it were true.

Aw, thanks. Do you think I have a future in writing children's books? :wink-kitty:

I was not very diligently weeding one of my own flowerbeds yesterday morning when the concept came to me and I wrote it in my head. I just had to put it on the computer last night.

First, it occurred to me that this is not actually Sarah's writing but, as with everything Maxwell, a family collaboration. Every stinking word and idea in the book has been gone over by Steve and Teri to find the Maxwellian version of a Biblical teaching message. I can imagine the conversations around the editorial table: the children always need to ask permission to make dinner or do anything at all; Max needs to repent for taking too much butter; outsider children have behavioral problems; the children need to introduce themselves respectfully and robotically every. single. time. and so on. It makes the book supremely boring and so repetitive I could scream.

Second, all the books I loved most as a child involved benignly uninvolved parents encouraging children to be independent, not very nice parents or guardians who needed to be conspired against (see Maxwells), or absent parents. The children were forced to rely on their own resources, make mistakes, but always come out successfully by the end of the book.

A few classics, sorry these are all British, that fit this profile would be Swallows and Amazons, the E.E. Nesbit books, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, anything by Geoffrey Trease. On specifically Christian children's books, I loved Patricia St John. Her child characters had real Christian moral dilemmas to work through but got to have good adventures at the same time. The St John books are probably out of print, but I have an urge to reread The Tanglewoods Secret right now to take the taste of the Moody brats out of my mouth!

I'm bracing myself to write the Amazon review now.

[Terrie]

Looking at the bit about how to remember which is Max and which is Mitch (a comes before i, and Max is older), my immediate response is "So, how do I remember which is Molly and which is Maddie? A comes first, but Maddie is the youngest." Or does it simply not matter, because they're girls?

[VodouDoll]

Why wasn't the littlest one allowed to be mad when some other kid stole her milk and drank it?

[FundieFarmer]

Well it's not free anymore (without Kindle Unlimited). I'm not sure if that was planned for today or not though.

[Palimpsest]

Well it's not free anymore (without Kindle Unlimited). I'm not sure if that was planned for today or not though.

I can lend it to you - if someone can tell me how lending books on Amazon works. PM me. :)

[FundieFarmer]

I can lend it to you - if someone can tell me how lending books on Amazon works. PM me. :)

Thanks Palimpsest, but I actually downloaded it! I was going to read some of the reviews and noticed.

I hope the people praising the book aren't raising their children the same way!

[Palimpsest]

Thanks Palimpsest, but I actually downloaded it! I was going to read some of the reviews and noticed.

I hope the people praising the book aren't raising their children the same way!

Seriously! Poor kids.

If anyone else wants to borrow it just shoot me a PM.

[VodouDoll]

Their neighbor lady had been a missionary in Indonesia, where she taught her Indonesian neighbors to wash their clothes with soap. What am I even reading right now? This is so condescending.

[AuntCloud]

Trynn, frankly I'm a little worried about those special mint plants Alexa has behind Grandma's garage.

Did the Moody children accidentally mow them over? Did the lawnmower throw a spark that set the special mint on fire, so Mrs. Moody got a real smile on her face for the first time since she met Mr. Moody? Did Mollie and Maddie decide to make lemonade for everyone and added a sprig of mint to each glass? Or did Miss Marple give them a plant and a recipe for her wonderful mint brownies?

Please tie up this loose end, the suspense is making my countenance ungodly!

[Trynn]

Uh... That's in next week's installment... If you can't make your count ends godly, I suggest you purpose in your heart to be content with the installments that already exist, and.. And...

Maude did think about messing with their food/lemonade; but she was worried they'd let the 3 year old have some of whatever it was and she didn't want there to be problems that could potentially arise from that. (Ie, a drunk 3 year old.) She's, uh, still working on a way to mess with the Moodys without causing serious damage...

[Just_Jane]

I felt a bit sad today thinking about all the books I loved a child and that some kids don't get to read because they aren't godly books. It was those fun books that taught me to love reading and to find joy in letting my mind go off on an adventure.

[ViolaSebastian]

Their neighbor lady had been a missionary in Indonesia, where she taught her Indonesian neighbors to wash their clothes with soap. What am I even reading right now? This is so condescending.

This leads me to believe that John may have been in Indonesia during his great escape, as we both know that Sarah has zero imagination and he's probably was with whomever inspired the original writing.

[FloraKitty35]

I'm still in the painfully long chapter about going to church. The preacher is giving a sermon about a time when his bus broke down in the desert, he gets on his news and starts to pray when he feels a tap on his shoulder and I quote:

A native man had seen me praying. He asked if I was a christian and when I told him I was, he was so glad to meet a white man who was a Christian.

WTF?!?!?!?!

And yes that is no typo, she forgot to put the word "said" in that sentence.

At least she called him a native and not a savage.

[anjulibai]

I wonder who "Cristal clear" is. Maxwell leghumper or just random jackass that thinks anything criticising anything "Christian" is oppression?

[twin2]

At least she called him a native and not a savage.

True, good point. Of course she never bothered to explain why the "native' wanted to meet a white Christian.

Also during that church service, Mollie has a loose tooth. It comes free and she swallows it. Mollie and Mom go to the bathroom to clean up. That is it no further mention of the lost tooth. Stuff is just so random in this book.

[twin2]

According to Kindle I'm 70% through this, thank god.

So Mollie finally has her first cookie order. Oh noes she forgets the baking soda. Mom, who is actually present for a change, talks to her about how she made mistakes when she first got married because she didn't know how to cook anything but packaged food (don't worry, Dad bought her some cookbooks and encouraged her). See, when poor Mom was Mollie's age, she was too busy playing with friends and doing her own things then to spend time learning her homemaking skills. Mollie is so lucky to get started learning early.

She's 9-freaking years old!