🤭❤️😡❤️‍🔥☹️ 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. 

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    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.

🚔🗺️🚓

🐎⚖️🐍 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