📃🖋️🩸🦴🔥Spy Thriller, Alternate History and Theology!

 

    I watched the Apple TV series, Slow Horses, based on the book by Mick Herron. It is a spy thriller and a darkly comedic work. I have enjoyed John L'Carree's books with their depressingly cynical take on the British Intelligence service during the Cold War. Herron's books are similar. Jackson Lamb is the head of Slough House, the place where those whose mistakes were too colossal to continue on the upward track, but they can't be fired. They are not the Thoroughbreds in charge, but the slow horses. It is gritty and warmhearted. The action is fast-paced and twisty.  

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    A YA book about a dangerous school for exceptional scholars with dark secrets? Yes please! Ink and Bone (The Great Library, #1) by Rachel Caine is a new-to-me fantasy series. It is diverting in a good way. The main character, Jess Brightwell, lives in an alternate history where the Library of Alexandria rules the world. No one is allowed to privately own books, which creates demand for them. Jess's family is an illegal book-smuggling ring. He is sent to train in the Great Library and become a conduit for smuggling originals, loves the power of books, and has divided loyalties between his newfound friends and his ruthless family. He loves the wrong girl and befriends dangerous people. Good stuff! This series of five books has been out for a while, so they are readily available. Hurrah!

"You have ink in your blood, boy, and no help for it. Books will never be just a business to you."

― Rachel Caine, Ink and Bone

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    A good friend gifted me Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung last Christmas. I like Systematic Theology and have read several. This one was the most bite-sized and accessible. That is a strength and a weakness. It covers the basics: Faith, Inspiration of Scripture, Attributes of God, etc., and gives sources for further study. The topics sparked conversation with others about Predistination and Theories of the Atonement. DeYoung is a senior pastor and also teaches Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. The topics he covers and the language he uses can be most suited to those with a Master's Degree, which I don't have. My degree is in Biblical Studies. I appreciated the stretching of vocabulary and ideas. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand theology more deeply. You might need to look up some words.

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🐁⛪️🇦🇺🥃🐴🍸Thinky Books

 

    Tell me a book is an award winner and I'm in! The Booker Prize is, according to their website, the leading literary award in the English-speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward, and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades (https://thebookerprizes.com/booker-prize/about-the-booker-prize) 

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood caught my attention because it was compared to Marilynne Robinson's writing, which includes The Gilead Series. I see similarities because both writers examine faith and inner life in the context of lived experience. The book is quiet, but compelling. I learned things about Australia's mice population, I can't unlearn.   

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    Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote is the December book for my book club. I picked it thinking it was a fun, breezy book, much like the movie. 

Nope.

It is a worthwhile book, but much sadder and grittier than I anticipated. I wonder if Holly Golightly is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl — a quirky young woman who enters the male protagonist's life and propels him forward, whether in his career, relationships, or emotional intelligence. 

Side note: I'm going to sound so smart at book club.

The book is about loneliness and glamour, about wanting to belong and wanting to be free. The conflicting desires of the main characters make the story hum with tension. It was a compelling read, and even though the book is fairly short, I finished it in an afternoon. 

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    A favorite podcast of mine is Hidden Brain. The format interviews people in the field of social sciences. The interview with J. Stuart Ablon. His research and conclusion were so compelling that I wanted to read his book, Changeable: How Collaborative Problem Solving Changes Lives at Home, at School, and at Work. One of his basic ideas is that people are disruptive and difficult not because of will, but because of skill. These skills revolve around communication, processing, and opportunities. When people are heard and understood, problems can be solved collaboratively. He has some great case studies. 

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🦃📚🦃📚🦃 Happy Thanksgiving!

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    I have been reading Roselle Lim a great deal, and this week it was Natalie Tan's Book of Luck & Fortune. The magical realism that pervades her books seemed especially strong. Her novels follow a pattern: a misunderstood woman with an underutilized ability finds her way to her strengths and a romantic interest, aided by magic. It's a formula that works. Lim is terrific at describing food and clothing. 

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    The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan reminded me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed, not just in its subject matter, being gay and hiding it, but also in the tone of the book. The book features several voices, but they all talk about Annie/Cass/Cate — how they know her and what she means to them. It is a coming-of-age story about a small-town girl with big ambitions who struggles against loving someone. What path do you choose? What do you leave behind? What do you move toward? The characters are serpentine in their "villains" and "heroes." The book is about a writer whose writing serves as a means of sorting out her motives and feelings. I see a touch of magical realism in the book in how things work out. 

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💔👩‍❤️‍👨💖 🐋🐻‍❄️🦊 Fun, Serious, Weak Sauce

 

    Roselle Lim writes about food and locations so well that I get hungry and want to book tickets immediately. In Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop, Vanessa has had the ability to tell fortunes and prophecies since she was a small child, but she hates it and refuses to be trained to develop it. That's not working well for her or her love life, plus it may be making her ill. Her clairvoyant Aunt Evelyn offers to once again take up her training, and she reluctantly agrees. Her aunt is opening a tea shop in Paris, and that's where they head for three weeks of intensive instruction. She meets an attractive stranger and wishes she could be "normal," but her gift demands her attention. Vanessa is at war with herself.

Here is a link to a previous Roselle Lim book I reviewed: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Roselle+Lim

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    Isola has been on my holds list for months because it was recommended on the podcast What Should I Read Next. It is a historical fiction book by Allegra Goodman. There was a woman named Marguerite de La Rocque, a sixteenth-century French noblewoman who was marooned on an island off the coast of Canada, then called New France. From the scant records of her life, Goodman creates a fierce survivor who endures cruelty at the hands of her guardian, perhaps because he wants her fortune. She is a wealthy orphan under his protection. Faith is part of everyday life, with daily prayers and exhortations to trust in the providence of God. I appreciate that Goodman doesn't dismiss faith, yet shows how being marooned on an island brings changes in Marguerite's understanding and trust. The novel is complex, and its central character grows from a helpless, naive orphan into a wise, brave defender of women. 

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    I read Ali Novak's My Return to the Walter Boys, and I found it weak. It is hard to reanimate the angst of will-they-get-together-or-won't-they a second time. They are teenagers, though, so anything is possible. 

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✍️🦁📚🏠🐈‍⬛🏚️❤️🐴🤠A Strange Blend of Historical Fiction, Horror, and YA Romance

 

    This book was shared with me by my friend Laurie. I have read several biographies of C. S. Lewis, but never anything about his wife, Joy Davidman. Even though Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan, isn't strictly a biography, it is a well-researched and thoughtful piece of historical fiction. Joy Davidman is a controversial figure in Lewis's life. Some critics think she pushed herself into Lewis's life in a stalker fashion; others see her as a brilliant mind in need of another brilliant mind to help her grow in faith. My favorite Lewis book is Till We Have Faces, which draws on the myth of Cupid and Psyche. At its core, it explores toxic love, one that seeks to possess and control. That's not the love that existed between Lewis and Davidman, and there is good evidence for that in his writing. I recommend this book to anyone interested in C.S. Lewis. 

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    We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is my book club book for November. As I have reached Shirley Jackson, I have learned that she is considered the Queen of Horror and has influenced Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and others. Her book is like a screwworm that slowly burrows into your brain. I spent the first part of the book thinking: what is happening, and the second part thinking: this can't be happening. The novel has an unreliable narrator who "ain't right in the head," but how and to what degree gradually dawns. There is a fragile balance between the isolated family of three and the local townspeople, who distrust and despise them. That the balance will be upended is plain, but the ticking down and the dénouement are exquisitely painful. 

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    Looking for something less creepy, I read My Life with the Walter Boys by Ali Novak. The inciting incident for this rich, New York teenager to leave her cultured life and all-girls boarding school to go live with a family of eleven boys on a ranch in Colorado is the death of her parents and sister in a car wreck. Novak does give her character angst and resulting trauma from her loss, but this is a teen romance novel with a love triangle driving the plot. There are many fish-out-of-water scenes, country-versus-city struggles, mean-girl jealousy, and romantic moments with hot guys. It was fun, and the ending surprised me. My age showed because I struggled with dating a sixteen-year-old who lived in the same house. The adults didn't seem to be aware of what went on. If you can suspend that it was a lighthearted, fun book.

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🐈📝🐈‍⬛🥀🕊️🌹Sequels!

 

Mockingjay is the conclusion to The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I like how it made me think about war, children, and moral responsibility. I appreciate Collins' parallel structure in the three books: picture of life, reaping, training, games, and return. It was a worthy conclusion of an action series, though it could have used a Boss Battle. It ties up plot ends well and, at the same time, doesn't sugarcoat the fact that the trauma of living under an oppressive regime doesn't evaporate. What prompted me to reread the series is the release of the prequels. I reviewed Sunrise on the Reaping here: get-ready-for-jane-austen-plus-latest.html

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    We'll Prescribe You Another Cat is a sequel by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda, to We Prescribe You a Cat. There is a clinic for the soul somewhere in Toyoko that you can only find if you need it. Delightful chapters show how a cat can change lives for the better — helping those stuck and unable to speak. There is also more background on how the clinic "works." It is a quirky, fun premise.

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Ishida

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🐈🚗💀🪄🧙‍♀️🐺 Three Books from 2025 and a Reread

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett depicts how people are a mix of good intentions, bad decisions, not what they seem, and more than one can imagine. I was listened to this through the Libby app and I sped it up to 2x because the tension of what was going to happen was unbearable. The main character, PJ, is on a voyage of the damned road trip with two orphans, his estranged daughter, and cat named Pancake. Pancake has the special abiltiy to be able to predict when someone is going to die. So that's unexpected. There is so much dying, but in ridiculous and funny ways. I found this book darkly, macabre, and humurous as it explores what do we need: Something to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. Annie Hartnett has a special gift for writing about kids, pets, and death. 

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2025/06/contemperary-dark-humor-not-single.html

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    The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, by Caitlin Rozakis, is about a parent dealt an unexpected hand concerning their child. Vivian, a recovering people-pleaser, has a young daughter, Aria, who has been attacked by a werewolf, changing her into one. This sends the family in a really unanticipated direction. Vivian and her husband move to a snobby small town in Connecticut to place their daughter in The Grimoire Grammar School, a magical school. This book could be an interesting study on the pressure on couples who have a child with a chronic problems that require lifestyle changes. They find themselves ushered into a community they didn't want to join, but they do so for their daughter. 

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THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

    Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Should I enjoy a story that features children murdering each other? Collins took some of her inspiration for the story from Greek Mythology. The Athenians had to send fourteen adolescents, seven female and seven male, every nine years as tribute. They were put into a labyrinth to be hunted down by the Minotaur. This theme and the fascination with reality television fused to create her story. It feels plausible. Her plot and characters are strong.  Katness is conflicted about killing others, but also wants to survive. It's hard to look away. As the middle book of a trilogy, Catching Fire keeps the reader engaged, moves the novel and the series forward, while at the same time building excitement for the finale.

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I have enjoyed many T. Kingfisher books. What Stalks the Deep is the third novella chronicling the adventures of a sworn soldier of Alex Easton. The books are shelved in horror/fantasy. I say this every time, but I'm not the biggest fan of horror, but to read Kingfisher, I'll endure it. She is an evocative writer and does twisty plots with twisted characters excellently. This isn't the strongest of the series, but it is still memorable and worth the time.     

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🌹⛴️🦵Dystopia, 🧙🦊🐓Fantasy, and 🎩🏰👒Jane Austen

 

    The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa is a dystopian novel that blends elements of magical realism, set in Japan. Things disappear from the island like perfume or boats. When the islanders wake up, they can tell that something has vanished and feel a compulsion to rid the island of every vestige of it. Once the object is gone, they can't remember it, even what it was called. A few of the population can remember everything. They are hunted and arrested by the memory police. The Memory Police gradually shrinks the world. With each disappearance and adjustment, the people of the island continue on with life. This book reminds me of Animal Farm by George Orwell. There is the top story: items disappear and the islanders adjust, but there is more going on. To describe the book in one word, haunting. 

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This is the second Sangu Mandanna book I've read. https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Sangu

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping is in the same magical universe as The Very Secret Society of Very Irregular Witches. I would classify them as well-done Romantasy. Using the vehicle of cozy romantic fantasy, Mandanna explores the desire of those in power to stay in power at the cost of others, specifically those not from the "proper" families or who are not "typical." I found it an encouraging read.

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    I listened to The Book of Fatal Errors by Dashka Slater on my Libby app because it was read by Kevin R. Free. He is one of my favorite narrators. I would put the book at an upper elementary reading level. I found the pace of the plot slow at first--there was a lot of world-building going on--but it demonstrated, in a nonmoralistic way, what it's like to be the weird kid and find a path through the shame of finding delight in things your peers don't. 

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    I decided to reread The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins because I found her prequel about Haymitch so good, and I wanted to re-examine him. It is a dystopian novel about the United States, now called Panem, after a terrible war. The winners, the Capitol, force the twelve surrounding districts to send two tributes between twelve and eighteen, one male and one female, each year to the Hunger Games, where they fight to the death until only one remains. It reminds me of Roman Gladiators using children. Katniss is from the poorest part, District Twelve. Only one person, in fifty years, has won from her district. But Katniss is a survivor. This year may be different.

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    It is book club season again. Yeah! The theme is short books. We started with Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. It is the first one accepted for publication, but wasn't published during her lifetime. I had read it many years earlier and found it difficult to follow. As I researched it for book club, I gained a better understanding of the structure and flow. I appreciated the sly wit and sarcasm more than in the past. I doubt if it will ever be my favorite Jane Austin book, but I like it better than I have before.

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🐅🏰🐁🧙‍♂️👸Two Rereads, One History, and Awesome Adult Fantasy

    The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens by Nicola Clark was recommended to me by my daughter. She said it was action-packed and fascinating. Henry VIII and his wives' lives have filled many books, but this book focuses on the women surrounding the queens--the ladies in waiting--some of whom became queens themselves. Using source material from accounts, records, and letters from the time, Clark creates a vivid picture of the intrigue and the danger of being a woman in Henry's court. 

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    Louis Sachar is best known for his Young Adult book Holes, a wonderful coming-of-age book filled with magical realism. His novel for adults, The Magician of Tiger Castle, shares many of the same good qualities, including quirky characters, magic, a reluctant hero, and a cadre of good-hearted people trying not to be defeated by those ruled by selfish ambitions. Even though aimed at adults, the book retains some of the lovely charm of YA with a satisfying ending, tigers, strong-willed princesses, and magic.

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    This has been a week of rereading, starting with Matt Dinniman's series, Dungeon Crawler Carl Book VII, This Inevitable Ruin. Dinniman balances slapstick hilarity with pathos and struggle. This book was exceptionally long. I read it quickly because it was fast-paced and I wanted to know what happened. In my reread, I wanted to revisit Carl and Princess Donut, knowing they survived. It was an examination of the nuts and bolts of how it happened. Dinniman relies on a combination of skill, social capital, and luck. 

I recently discovered that the next book in the series is scheduled for release in May 2026. Whoot!

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    With the release of the Apple+ Series Murderbot, based on the series, I have been hungry for more of Murderbot's adventures. Even though Murderbot is genderless, it is still quite human--an anxious, overclocked human with built-in arm guns. So lovable. I listen to the audiobooks read by Kevin R. Free. He is excellent at creating personalities with subtle voice changes. I have no problem keeping several characters straight. He is an award-winning narrator. He has won the Golden Voice by Audiofile Magazine. Here is a link to an interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRdusDvttdE&t=15s

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🦊🔐💻 The Latest Richard Osman!

 

    Richard Osman reminds me of Fredrik Backman because he writes with heart, but not sentimentality. Osman's latest book, The Impossible Fortune, the fifth installment in the Thursday Murder Club series, is an excellent addition to the series. I'm glad all the members of the Thursday Murder Club are going strong. Osman's characters continue to evolve and grow while facing the struggles of aging. This series is quite fun in a screwball comedy sort of way.

On another note, I watched the movie made from the first book on Netflix, and was somewhat disappointed. They nailed Elizabeth and Ibrahim, but I thought the material was too rich and complex for a 90 minute movie. It needed to be a series.

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    I was visiting my six-year-old granddaughter last week, and she was listening to the audiobook of Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes, the Newbery Award winner for 2004. I was  ntrigued. The protagonist, 12-year-old Martha Boyle, is struggling with weighty material: the sudden death of a school friend, worry for an aging grandparent, finding herself attracted to a boy she'd previously disliked, wanting to be a writer  but unsure how. Changes wi hin and without. I think this would be a good book for a parent child book club. So many complex topics are thoughtfully addressed.

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    I was familiar with Kevin Henke ' picture books. I love the bright illustrations and hilarious plots. Here are some of my favorites.

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💘🐕❤️‍🔥🐈❤️‍🩹 Fantasy and Romance--Typical Week!

    I greatly enjoyed Shannon Chakraborty's series The Daevabad Trilogy and was excited to read her latest book, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. There is a lot of setup and introduction of characters. I found it dragged despite a lot of effort to keep the plot snappy. There are many intriguing and bold characters that form a dynamic team, facing significant, seemingly insurmountable problems to solve. I will go on to read the rest of the trilogy.

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    Hurray! Another Abby Jimenez book! This one is Say You'll Remember Me. It is her most recent one. Maybe I was having a grumpy week, but I didn't find this one as stellar as her previous works. There are dogs and a cat; quite appropriate, considering the love interest is a veterinarian. It tackles the heartache and struggle of caring for a family member with dementia with warmth and understanding. Here is a link to other Abby Jimenez books I've reviewed:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1743281317i/216437557.jpg

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