🐺💦⚔️🪄📚🖋️Two Fantasy and 👨‍💼💭📝📖🐣✍️Two Real-Life

 

    Tears of the Wolf: Wrath and Weeping 1 is a new series by Elizabeth Wheatley. I have reviewed several of her books before; see the link here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/searchq=Elisabeth+Wheatley. She writes deeply researched fantasy involving magic, political intrigue, and romance. Brynn is a sorceress who obediently does what her mother tells her. That has led her to a loveless marriage, the loss of her small son, and becoming a warrior using her magic in battle to defend a weak king. To escape her mother, she agrees to marry a lowly thane from the far north. She wants to be left alone, but someone that powerful can't ever escape.

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    I heard about this series on the podcast, Life and Books and Everything with Kevin DeYoung. He bought this series for his wife for Christmas, and she loved them. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1, by Beth Brower, is a pleasure to read. The bookish protagonist is a spunky young woman in an imaginary neighborhood in London. She has many burdens to bear. She is an orphan, her father was Irish, she is poor, her relatives are rich, and her greedy uncle is in charge of what little finances she has. Many things are stacked against her, but she has determination and wit. I want to race through all eight novellas, but the waiting list is long, so expect more reviews to come.

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    I had reservations about reading Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway. I have an unapologetically Christian worldview, and from listening to the Pivot podcast with Scott Galloway and Kira Swisher, I knew he didn't, but I liked what he espoused about what makes a man. This could also be applied to women. He challenged men to be Providers, Protectors, and Procreators. He makes a case that young men are struggling. Social media, video games, gambling, limited economic opportunities, and other factors make it difficult for young men to flourish. He gives good guidelines and encouragement to take a risk. Scott Galloway uses solid statistics and information, plus sharing his own life story. It has the feel of an examined life, thoughtfully trying to bring value to those he loves. I appreciated his candor about his successes and failures, his unabashed love for his wife and family, and his desire to leave the world a better place.

👨‍💼💭📝

    It was delightful to read in Chicken Soup For the Soul: Being Grandma, edited by Amy Newmark, what other grandmothers and grandchildren had to say about the experience of being a grandmother. I have an essay published in the book — my first! — and I'm in really good company. This is a feel-good book with touching, funny, and encouraging stories. 

📖🐣✍️

🤭❤️😡❤️‍🔥☹️ Academic Life, Theology, and T. Kingfisher

 

    Inadvertently, I read two books with similar occupations and the problems inherent in them. Both An Academic Affair, by Jodi McAlister, and The Wedding People, by Alison Espach, rely on literature academics where the spouse is a partner hire. Something I learned from both books is that the world of academia is brutal: low pay, misogynistic, and exploitive. McAlister's book is a romance, and Espach's is closer to literary fiction: read "serious" fiction, but it contains Romance and has a dark, comedic side. People who dismiss romance books as unserious aren't reading too closely. For a book to be interesting, big problems must arise and be addressed. I've read more about abuse by domestic partners, by narcissistic parents, bosses, or siblings, loss of fortune, and infertility in Romance than anywhere else. In Romance, I know the main character will usually overcome, often with the support of someone who truly loves them. The ending is a happy one. With literary fiction, there is always a maybe-yes, maybe-no tension. 

    Both books were great. Wedding People advocated for saying the hard, impossible thing, much like a therapist would. It has a therapeutic quality. Those who face their genuine fears come out better than those who hold them in. The plot is funny, and like watching a rolling dumpster fire, entertaining. 

🤭❤️😡❤️‍🔥☹️

    My Bible Study leader did a study on Philemon and drew from A Companion to Philemon by Lewis Brogdon. It was so interesting and engendered such good discussions that I wanted to read the book for myself. A criticism of Paul, and the New Testament in general, is that it never outright condemns slavery. I find a close reading of the Bible reveals God freeing slaves over and over. The book of Exodus was removed from the approved "Slave Bible" for that reason. God wants the enslaved to be free. He also wants to free the enslaver. Philemon has been used to perpetuate and defend slavery, and Brogdon's book helped me understand how subversively Paul worked to dismantle the gulf between slave and master. Paul didn't address the book only to Philemon, but also to every church in the region, to Philemon's household, and to the church that met there. Paul's request was that Philemon receive Onesimus, his runaway slave, as he would Paul himself, as an equal, beloved fellow believer. Slavery needs me-before-you hardness to endure. The book of Philemon endorses radical change for everyone through the love of Christ. 

⛓️⛓️‍💥⛓️

    I like T. Kingfisher. Raven and the Reindeer is a queer love story with supernatural elements. The plot is strong, and the action is fascinating. I like the characters' growth arcs. Vernon can be counted on to take a turn that is surprising and unexpected, to create an unlikely group of companions to tackle an impossible challenge, and to unexpectedly find love. It's a good formula, and Vernon works it well.

𐂂❄️🐦‍⬛

Other T. Kingfisher books I've reviewed: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=T.+Kingfisher

🌊🧙🐉🥛❤️🐐 More Septimus Heap and Romances

 

    Syren is Book 5 of the Septimus Heap Series by Angie Sage. Sage gives each book a unique flavor by giving Septimus, Jenna, and their friends new environments to adventure in. Syren takes place mostly on a beautiful island with a dark secret. Challenges are overcome by having moral courage, and it doesn't always happen on the first try. Sage creates good foils of those who choose selfishly and those who sacrifice, but not in a moralistic way. She shows the difficulty and reluctance that often accompany hard decisions. 

🌊🧙🐉

    In The Lost Husband by Katherine Center, a young widow with two children moves in with her estranged aunt on a goat farm in rural Texas. I smiled at the premise of being a goat farmer, which sounds very Hallmark channel, but Center makes it work. This is a romance book, but also a book of self-discovery. It was gently predictable, but also held some surprises. 

🥛❤️🐐

    The Darke Index, the sixth book in Septimus Heap series, but Angie Sage, brings the action back to the castle. Sage has created some complex villains and protagonists for a children's series, and I'm here for it. This is the penultimate book of the series, and I anticipated it would mostly set up the final book. Still, it skillfully tells a complete story while also hinting at possible final conflicts. I am gifting my granddaughter, who is a die-hard Harry Potter fan, the first book for her birthday, and I am curious how it will stack up. Septimus and Jenna have their 14th birthdays, the first one they will celebrate together; however, the jealous and powerful Merrin Meredith has other ideas. 

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    The True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley is an unlikely-buddies-on-the-lam story. It is cleverly conceived and executed. Louise, an elderly woman with a mending broken hip, is forced to have a live-in helper. The help is an almost-college-graduate who recently lost her soccer scholarship because of a career-ending injury. Neither of them is happy with their situation or with sharing life together. Then, circumstances force them into an uneasy partnership. It is an enemies-to-friends trope done well, containing surprising twists and turns. Good one.

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🐎⚖️🐍 True Grit 🤯 and Fun Stuff

    True Grit by Charles Portis is my March Book Club book. I have seen both the John Wayne version and the Jeff Daniels one, but have never read the book. It is a stunner. I listened to the audiobook read by Donna Tartt that included her introduction. The novel operates on many levels, and, as Tartt points out, it is similar to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It has a quest, villains, a journey, a brave but naive questor, a shady but savvy guide, and a vain, talented warrior. I could be describing The Lord of the Rings. The book was published in 1968 and was once taught in high school literature classes. I think it deserves to be there. The 1960s were "the golden age of Westerns." Think of Bonanza and The Magnificent Seven. There are grand themes of dispensing justice versus revenge. Humanity versus Nature. What makes someone evil, rather than misguided? It is set on the edge of the West, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and moves into unregulated Indian Territory. In the 1870s, many characters were former soldiers in the Civil War. The central character is whip-smart, determined 14-year-old Mattie Smith, who hires MarshalRooster Cogburn to pursue her father's murderer, Tom Chaney. They are joined by a Texas Ranger who is also hunting Chaney to bring him to Texas for crimes he committed there. These three are together and also at cross-purposes. 

    The biggest surprise was how humorous this book is and how violent. It does not romanticize the West; it is a gritty tale of cowardice and bravery, loyalty and betrayal, and perseverance and weakness. 

🐎⚖️🐍

    Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley was a quirky and fun book. A screwball comedy that twisted in ways I didn't anticipate and made me laugh out loud, mostly at the mother/teenage daughter interactions. Oakley really captures that, as well as the husband-and-wife dynamics of a 19-year marriage, as a major status quo change--an empty nest-- is on the horizon. It pokes fun in a winky-way at influencers, weird billionaires, pretentious restaurants, and other very 2026 things. 

📱👨‍🍳💣😂❤️

🪄🏰🐉🧙⏳ More Septimus Heap--Did I Mention There are 7 Books? ❤️And a Katherine Center Romance

 

    Queste by Angie Sage is the fourth book in the Septimus Heap Series. I admire how Sage takes the adventures to wild places and ties in previous characters well. I like to know the behind-the-scenes process for things. I picture a giant spreadsheet of her series tracking what has happened, color-coded character arcs, dividers for each novel, and fancy links to expanded text. She's rocking the messy middle with intense plot lines and character growth. 

⌛️😰⏳

    I took a reading break from Septimus Heap to read a little romance. I enjoy Katherine Center's novels and picked up The Bright Side of Disaster. I read romance for escape, so some of the more audacious plot points I was great with. I knew the right people would end up together. She set the stakes high with a pregnant Jenny Harris, being left by her fiancé the day before she gives birth! If only she had an empathetic, hunky neighbor who could help her out. There is a trope that if you want to reveal a character's true self, how do children and pets react to them? If dogs hate them, or they hurt a pet, or avoid children, something is fundamentally wrong with them. It helps separate the white hats from the black.

👶🏻❤️🐕

Here is a link to reviews of other Katherine Center titles I've read:

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Katherine+Center

🐉🏰🗝️🪄🧙🛶All Septimus Heap!

 

    After some heavy reading — see the previous week's post — I am taking a YA break. I have seen the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, but hadn't read any... until now. I had expected to be a Harry Potter-ish remix. It has similarities. There is magic, dark forces, a mistreated orphan, and dangerous situations, but I found Magyk, the first in the series, different, not as dark, for one. Mistaken identity figures big in the novel's plot. There is a fun rivalry between characters involving proper magic. The villains are somewhat silly in their evilness. Angie Sage shines at making a knotty plot seem hopeless, then untying it with panache.

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    This novella provides background on the Port Witches, Simon Heap, and Dom Daniel, showing how the bad guys' choices come back to bite them.

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    The adventures continue in Flyte and Physik. Angie Sage is excellent at creating fresh plots with her cast of characters. The main characters, Septimus Heap and Princess Jenna, make poor choices, face consequences, and grow in wisdom and understanding in humorous and audacious ways.

🐉🏰🗝️

🪜🎭👺🦴⌛️Katabasis! 🤯

    I have someone in my life who, when they recommend a book, it will be  1) really good, 2) super weird, and 3) possible in the horror category. Katabasis by R.F. Kuang was recommended to me by this person, and it was all three, plus an intellectual plunge about power and purpose in the form of a novel. The word I would use to sum up the novel is "layered." The book is entertaining as dark fantasy. There are many references and nods to other literature on descent: Alice in Wonderland, the Divine Comedy, The Odyssey, and patheons of Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese Myth. She references Freud, Foucault, Toni Morrison, and many others. There is a lot going on, more than I could absorb in one reading. Kuang has accomplished something extraordinary; a reader could read it once and enjoy it, or read it several times and find new insights each time. 

🪜🎭👺🦴⌛️

    Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman is not Dungeon Crawler Carl, but there are many similarities between them. They are both litRPG. The protagonist is reluctant, brave, and clever, aided by a sassy pet-like sidekick. The humor is irreverent. Corporations are evil, money-grubbers, and the people/players that pay to indulge in their games are psychopaths. The plot is surprising and twisty. My biggest complaint is that it isn't Carl and Donut. I like how Dinniman makes a wild, crazy novel feel relevant to our current political situation. I think he may be subversively subversive.

🤖🎮🐔🐷👨‍🌾

    I like a well-done romance, and Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane is well done. It operates on the enemies-to-lovers trope, where they also have to pretend to be dating. The main characters, Bel and Connor, are both journalists in a tiny office in Manchester. The opportunity to break an important story requires undercover work—not those covers! Will the two coworkers eventually come to appreciate each other's strengths and learn to work together? Worth the journey to see it happen.

 📰 💖 🗞️

    I am currently rereading some of my favorite books. I have finished all of Jane Austin,  The Murderbot Diaries, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Let me say: I love them all.

⚔️🤖🦁

🐟🦀🦦🦞🎣🚜👨‍🌾🐄 Light-Hearted Aussie and Serious Thoughts About Life

 

    Sometimes I have reserved books on Libby, but don't remember requesting them. They show up in my feed to be borrowed, and I worry about what I'm going to encounter. Heretical Fishing by Haylock Jobson is one of those books. Maybe I heard it was like the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, because it is a litRPG (Literary Role-Playing Game). A billionaire dies and finds himself in a different world that reminds him of world-building games he's played. All he wants to do is fish, live by the sea, and create meaningful relationships--things he failed to do in his previous life. The pace is gentle, the plot is more about fun times than leveling up. The hero, Fischer, moves through his new life mostly oblivious to conflict and antagonism from others. His kindness earns him loyal friends and awakened, ascending pets. The book is overlong and lacks conflict, but it is readable and humorous.

🐟🦀🦦🦞🎣

    Hannah Coulter, by Wendell Berry, is the February pick for my book club. It is another gentle book, but it contains depth and conflict as it balances grief and gratefulness for life. Hannah recounts her small-town life as a farmer's wife from her youth to her old age. Hannah is deeply wise in the ways of community. A sadness of the novel is how small farms collapsed after World War II, as the next generation found jobs elsewhere. My Dear Husband is from a farm family. He proudly states that his grandfather never had a W-2. He has justified pride in what his family has accomplished. Hannah Coulter is a vehicle for showing the dignity and resilience of farm families. 

🚜👨‍🌾🐄

🎉📖👩‍💻 I Got Published In a Book!

 

    I started this blog to put some short stories I wrote out into the world, but then let it slide. I resurrected it as a place to talk about the books I read each week, but kept the name because I can be lazy like that. However, I kept writing and submitting work. I got published online and in The Sun Magazine's Readers Write column. My goal for the past few years has been to write something and get paid for it. 

It has happened!

 https://www.facebook.com/ChickenSoupfortheSoul/

 #CSSBeingGrandma

 https://www.chickensoup.com/book/being-grandma

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Being Grandma is available on March 10th at bookstores and online.  I am grateful to be published, especially for my supportive husband and first-draft editor. Hurrah!

🎉📖👩‍💻

🏠🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒🌀🧠😶‍🌫️🦠 Great Weird Books

 

    The Names by Florence Knapp has a wonderfully quirky premise. How much does a name influence one's path in life? Three different storylines spool out from three different name possibilities: Bear, Julian, or Gordon. The other aspects of life remain the same. He has an abusive father, a downtrodden mother, and a fierce older sister. What will they all become under the influence of the son's name? This novel explores identity, the lingering scars of abuse, and how to find hope. The Names is Florenc Knapp's debut novel, and it is extraordinary. Wonderful characters, a whimsical proposition, and lovely descriptions underline a belief that people generally want to do good, but also want to feel powerful.

🏠🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒🌀

    I didn't like Social Crimes main character, wealthy socialite Jo Slater. It was difficult to root for her, especially as she made poor choice after poor choice. Jo, from Oklahoma, is fascinated with Marie Antoinette's life and decor, and catches the eye of a wealthy, much older millionaire from New York. He pursues her and sets her up in a New York apartment while he tells his wife he wants a divorce. They marry, and she becomes a leading light in society because of her wealth, fabulous parties, and impeccable taste. That all changes, and it changes how Jo approaches life.

🍸👑🗽

       I like weird books, and There is No Antimemetics Division by antm (not a typo). This book explores themes of identity, the spread of ideas, and whether we really know what we think we know. It opens on a world where dangerous-to-life ideas — ones that cause division and disconnection from others — invade but contain self-erasing properties. So its victims don't know that they've been infected and have no defense or cure. Now, imagine a secret organization that fights those entities called the Antimemetics Division. To keep itself secret, it must regularly wipe its employees' minds to prevent them from being compromised. qntm makes it work. I enjoyed this clever, mind-bending book. Once I accepted the premise, I, too, began to anticipate the problems they faced and to admire their solutions. 

🧠😶‍🌫️🦠

🌊🛶🏝️The Wayfinder

 

    The Wayfinder, by Adam Johnson,  is probably the longest book I'll read this year. It's over 700 pages and Adams uses all the pages to tell this complex, intricate story. The book contains multitudes of characters, plots, and ideas. It is historical fiction set in Polynesia during the Tu'i Tonga's reign. To remain emperor and rule a vast number of people in any place, one must be ruthless, scheming, and focused on power. I found this book to be like Wolf Hall and Shogun. There are characters who rise by crunching the bones of others beneath them, and those who rise because they sacrifice for others. Adams employs magical realism or mythical realism to embody aspects of life. There is a talking parrot, a fan that contains the breathe of life, and special powers granted to royalty. The story is told by multiple voices: a young woman, whose name means story who seeks to find a way to help her starving people, a second prince who is being trained as a navigator, a second prince who was sent to war to keep him from becoming a threat, but now he's returned, and the most powerful female in the kingdom. This book is sweeping in its scope, but it also feels granular in its level of engagement with those who dwell in the lower levels of society. 

🌊🛶🏝️