Enneagram, Romance, Chemistry, and a Master Class in Writing

    This entry will be especially long because I didn't post last week due to twins, traveling, and the torment of Covid (not me, Dear Husband). 

 

    There are many, many ways to learn about the Enneagram and many, many opinions about its effectiveness,  legitimacy, and provenance. I found The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile to be reasonable and balanced. Can you sort people into categories and understand them? Maybe? I think people are complex, and I doubt if I can fully understand myself, even less someone else. But I find it helpful to consider that other minds don't work like mine. For example, I prefer a stable, planned life, and Dear Husband desires adventure and spontaneity. This has occasionally, sometimes, okay frequently caused friction between us. Seeing us as different numbers (I'm a six, and I think he's an eight, or maybe a one) makes space in my head for life beyond I'm right, and he's wrong or, inconceivably, visa versa. It's a good thing for me and our marriage-building moments, also-known-as intense discussions, AKA big fights, for me to have an idea of different motivations and perspectives.

    Book Lovers by Emily Henry is a fun read, especially if you are familiar with romance tropes. popular-romance-fiction-tropes-to-keep-your-readers-hooked This book exploits them turning them upside down, making for a plot with unpredictable, exciting twists and turns. Henry's skillful writing had me rooting for these enemies to get together because I wasn't sure if they would. If you consider yourself a book person, you will especially enjoy all the book recommendations and allusions. It's a treat.

   Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is the story of a female scientist in the late fifties and early sixties. It depicts the worlds of science and academia where women are not welcome, and are actively abused: financially, sexually, and intellectually. Yet, it is a clever, humorous book and is already on the movie track. brie-larson-apple-lessons-in-chemistry-1234888875

    Though I was entertained Lessons in Chemistry, I found Garmus' depiction of the evilness of men and religion heavy-handed. Any belief in God made the character unintelligent and prejudiced. Although she tried to bring balance by having characters on both sides of the divide--a minister who doesn't believe in God and an understanding male OBGYN--it didn't give her point nuance or complexity and weakened her message.

   Last Night in Montreal reminds me of reading Julius Caesar in 8th grade English. Mrs. Cohen opened my eyes to the inner workings of great writing--structure, characterization, comparison and more--and I was amazed. Last Night in Montreal is a master class of great writing. It is tense and compelling. I'm not one to throw around five stars on GoodReads, but I gave five stars to this book, not because I enjoyed the story in the same way as I did Lord of the Rings or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but because it was valuable to my development as a reader and it deserved it.

Murder Mystery with Edgar Allan Poe 🐦‍⬛ and a Blah Romance 💔

 

    This week I read another excellent recommendation from a daughter, The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. It is a historical murder mystery centering around West Point in 1831. Retired New York constable Gus Landor has relocated to the Highlands for his failing health. He is called upon to solve a gruesome murder at West Point Academy, but he needs help from an insider. One presents himself--Cadet Poe, that would be Edgar Allen Poe. I gave this book five stars on  Goodreads because it is a masterful mystery. It captures the language and metaphors of the time. When Poe speaks or writes, it is with florid expressions and exactingly careful word choices that feel like his writing. I haven't read anything else by Bayard, but I'm curious if this is his imitation of Poe's voice or an extension of his own. Did he say to chatGPT, create a mystery in the voice of Edgar Allen Poe narrated by a grizzled former police officer set in 1831? I don't think so because it has an original voice and plot. It is dark, suspenseful, and gothically creepy. I admire what Bayard has crafted. I'm not alone. This novel won the Edgar Award in 2007. 

I think the book revolves around themes of death, revenge, poetry, and melodrama. It can be weighted down by its own words at times, but it has a rousing finish. 

🖌️📚🔵👀🔍

    Emily Hendry's newest story Happy Place sounded appealing. I had read one of her previous books, Book Lovers (https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Book+Lovers), and enjoyed it. Happy Place was disappointing. I found the characters uninspired. It starts with three college roommates, Harriet, Sidney, and Samatha, who bonded over their childhood hurts. From this inner circle, it grows to include their significant others who vacation yearly at a beach house in Maine. The house is being sold. They have spent a decade vacationing together, but this is their final summer. Everyone has secrets they're not telling, especially Harriet and her ex-financé, Wyn. They haven't told their best friends they've broken up. To make this final week perfect for everyone--but them--they decide to keep their split a secret and "act" like they're still together. Henry works hard on the atmosphere of Knott's Harbor, Maine, but the characters never animate, and the premise falls flat. There are some steamy encounters between Harriet and Wyn, but it feels gratuitous without the connection to back it up. 

☀️🌊⛱️ 💔❤️‍🩹❤️

🔮🪐🌟🐸🦹‍♂️🐉Childhood Classic, Fantasy, Dystopian Future, and Historical Fiction

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle was the March pick for my book club. We are having a great time reading Newberry Award Winners. Not everyone is a fan of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, so I wanted to know how this book would land with some of the others. It is over 50 years old! It has held up well. I appreciate how genuine the characters are portrayed: an angry fifteen-year-old girl, a popular athlete with a tough home life, and, of course, the beings from outer space. L'Engle has universal themes about the pain of growing up, being caught between good and evil, and the importance of love. What makes the book endure is that these topics are not dealt with tritely but sincerely and with great compassion. It's a winner.

🔮🪐🌟

 

    Apprentice to a Villain is the second in a series by Hannah Nicole  Maehrer. Fun fact: The series grew out of TikToks Maehrer, which was made around the idea of what it would be like to be an assistant to a villain whose job involves torture and general evilness. Here is a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDoN6GpjTb8&t=187s

    The second book continues the story with some problems solved and others cropping up. Maehrer developed her characters, which grew and changed. There are many nascent romances. She leans heavily on the frenemies-to-lovers trope. I found it annoying that the main characters, The Villain and Evie, his former assistant and now apprentice, refuse to admit they love each other, but I'm also amused at the ways the author finds for them to "have to" kiss.

I'm looking forward to the next book.

🐸🦹‍♂️🐉

    I have seen several ads for the movie The Wild Robot and decided to read the book before watching it. It is YA fiction. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown is about a robot from a shipment stranded on an unpopulated island. The Robot, Ros, is anthropomorphized, having feelings and forming relationships. I listened to the audiobook but understood the physical book has fantastic illustrations by Peter Brown. There are more books in the series. I would file this book under heartwarming.

🤖🪿🐿️🦫🦌🌳

    A friend recommended The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff. It is historical fiction about British female spies who aided the French Resistance in World War II. They trained for functions but primarily worked as covert radio operators. I am somewhat burnt out on World War II books, but I tried it. The story is told by three different women: two women in 1944 and a war widow in 1946. The story of the women clumsily fit around the story of actual events and felt forced, but it was still enjoyable and compelling. I'm glad I read it. 

🕵️‍♀️🔘🌇

🪄🎄🎅🐸📚🗡️🐉🌨️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Not the Best Week--Book Wise

Every book this week was part of a series. This was not a great reading week. Two of the books were barely meh, but one was terrific. That one first:

    Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret: A Festive Mystery by Benjamin Stevenson is the third in a series of clever mysteries. Ernest Cunningham has a knack for solving murders. This is useful because he ends up in the vicinity of several murders. Ernie talks directly to the reader, telling them they have all the clues they need to solve the murder alongside him. He is like a magician. I know there is sleight of hand and misdirection, but I don't spot it. When he explains it all at the end, it makes sense. Stevenson does a good job of writing a twisty plot. Benjamin Stevenson is one of my current favorite mystery writers. 

Reviews of previous books in the series: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Stevenson

🪄🎄🎅

 

    Love's a Witch by Tricia O'Malley is a romantasy — lots of magic and magical creatures. Three sisters return to their childhood village home. Their home was not a happy one, and it has left its mark on the three adult women. Sloane, the oldest sister and main character, is fiercely protective of her two younger sisters. More than they would like. O'Malley uses the enemies-to-lovers trope effectively. This book is the start of a series with an overarching problem of a family curse that keeps the three sisters from staying in one place for long because strange, disastrous things start to happen. This book didn't knock my socks off. The shift from enemies to lovers was too quick to feel authentic. It was cozy, and wacky things happened with magic going haywire.

🐉🌨️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

    Adversary to a Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer is the fourth in the series. I thought the first book was fun, inventive, and quite clever. The subsequent books have to try much harder to capture the whimsy of the first one. It didn't happen. The author's solution to the plot slowing down is a sex scene. I find too much sex and not enough plot and character development boring. 

🐸📚🗡️

Every Book a Winner or Came Close!

 

    North Woods by Daniel Mason is a fantastic book. It is filed under historical fiction but contains a ribbon of magical realism that gradually becomes apparent. The book starts with two Puritan lovers who run away to Western Massachusetts and proceeds through history until the present day, changing narrators with each chapter. It took a while to understand what was going on, I think, intentionally. As the filaments of stories coalesced into whole cloth, I was captured. I like a mind-bending story, and North Woods is that.

🌲🏚️👻🌳

 Good, Sad, Hopeful

    James McBride's award-winning book, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, is worth every minute spent reading it. The book opens with the discovery of a body in a well with a Mezuzah. The police go to the only Jewish person left on Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, to find answers. The rest of the book, jumps back to the 1920s to explain the mystery. McBride vividly paints each character in his large cast, often giving their origin story. The reader comes to know Chona, Dodo, Nate, and others richly and is invested in their struggles. Because it is the 1920s and the characters are primarily black and Jewish, they face many hardships. McBride paints a painful picture of intricate relationships fueled by kindness, power, and the struggle to flourish.

🎶🕎🕍🎺

    I've been laid low this week with a stomach bug and sought comfort in fantasy. A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross was a great choice. It was nominated as Goodread's best fantasy novel of 2022. Ross builds an intricate web of a world. Jack Tamerlaine is summoned home by his Laird from his training as a musician on the mainland. Young girls are being stolen from the Eastern side of the divided island where the spirits of the water, earth and wind are both kind and cruel. Magic surrounds the inhabitants, but there is a steep cost to using it. River Enchanted meets all the requirements of a fantasy series: reluctant hero, strong heroine, love, rivalry, danger and mystery. It is also part of series, so I now I'm waiting for the next book to become available.

😕

🎶🧝‍♀️🌬️🌱🌊🔥

New Series and End of Year Round Up

    I started reading the Longmire series by Craig Johnson. The Cold Dish and Death Without Company are the first two. I'm really enjoying them. Craig Johnson writes a tight mystery- always enjoyable- but I'm most captivated by the dry humor and the supporting cast. The protagonist is mildly depressed, and it would be a much darker book if it weren't for the strong women surrounding him and his faithful best friend. If he can keep this up throughout the series, it will be a fun year for me reading through his catalog. Book 19 is due to come out in 2023. In a future post, I'll compare the book series with the Netflix version. 

🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠

    I have done the GoodReads reading challenge for several years. I have settled on aiming for 100 books and usually pass it, but I'm reluctant to up the number. 100 is a satisfying number, and 125 or 150 just isn't. 

I see some trends in the latest books I read. One is the multiverse and, perhaps related, time travel within your life. Another is same-sex relationships. If it's not the centerpiece relationship, there is one somewhere in the book.

I read several terrific books this year, and a few I wish I hadn't.

📚📚📚📚📚

Most Helpful: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Favorite Mystery: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Most brutal to Read, but Worth It: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman

Favorite Sci-Fi: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Most Disappointing:  The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Most Comforting: The Penderwick Series by Jeanne Birdsall

Favorite Fantasy: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Most Interesting Relationship: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Favorite Memoir: Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

Most Surprising: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

Made Me Think: Hell of a Book Jason Mott and The Sentence by Louis Eldrich

Most Disturbing: The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin

My Favorite Book of 2022 is:

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

2022 READING 
CHALLENGE

Participants	6,758,337
Books Pledged	334,703,276
Avg. Books Pledged	49
Time Left	3 days, 17 hours

You have read 134 of 100 books in 2022.

YOUR 2022 BOOKS

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