I have neglected this blog for several months. My kids and I took turns being sick since before Christmas. There was even vomiting during the opening of presents on Christmas day. My grandmother also went through a period of bad health. She will never be back to 100%, but she isn’t suffering as much as she did in December and January.
During this rather bleak season, I took up one of my hobbies again. After my 4th child was born, I started showing signs of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. The repetitive motion caused me a lot of pain. Recently, I have been able to pick it up again if I limit how much I do each day. I can no longer make something in a day or two. I now have to spread that out over a week or two… or more if it’s a large project. I have still enjoyed getting back to this hobby I enjoy so much. Here is a peek at the things I made so far this year:
In order: 1. Ankylosaurus for a baby shower, 2. Zebra for my daughter’s birthday, 3. Pterodactyl for my other daughter, 4. Eeyore for another baby shower, 5. Pug for my mom
I will try to write more posts soon about the books I have read for this year’s Read Your Bookshelf Challenge.
I put together my first reading journal for 2023. I kept the layout very simple so I would not feel overwhelmed about keeping up with it. This paid off because I managed to finish most of the pages I set up a year ago. Here is a look at what I put together…
Reading Journal Title Page
I kept the title page fairly simple. I used my favorite dinosaur stamp, a bookish sticker from my stash, and a book plate.
Year Header
I plan on using this journal for several years. I decided at the end of 2023 to start putting the stickers I receive from my pen pals on the yearly spread.
Challenges
I participate in Chantel’s Read Your Bookshelf Challenge every year. This year, I challenged myself to read two books for each prompt. I also tried out the A to Z Challenge. I missed a few letters, but I’m glad I tried it.
Series Tracker
I kept track of most of the series I started or continued in 2023. I did not finish all of them in 2023, so I will come back and mark off any I finish this year. For 2024, I do not think I will include series with only 2 books.
2023 Shelf
I kept track of all of the books I read in 2023. I color-coded them according to genre. At the beginning of each month, I drew all of the books from the previous month.
Favorites Bracket
I used this spread to help me determine my favorite book of the year. This made it really easy as I filled in each box as I finished a month and quarter.
23 Books in 2023
In January, I chose 23 books to prioritize in the year. I marked off these books as I read them. I repeated this spread for 2024.
I repeated most of these pages for 2024. I also added in a place for 5 star reads as I sometimes have more than 1 in a month. I also accidentally skipped a spread while putting together my journal for this year 🙃. I may also keep track of any read-a-thons I do this year. Do any of you keep a reading journal?
Millions of people have watched Jill Bearup’s Fantasy Heroine series of shorts since they came out in 2022, myself included. After much badgering by fans, Jill turned the videos into a novel titled Just Stab Me Now. I waffled about reading the novel. Being a romance, I did not know how spicy things would get on the page. I do not like reading explicit content. However, Jill promised in a Q & A video about the book that any spiciness takes place exclusively off page. Shortly afterwards, I happened to be on YouTube when the author posted a link to sign up for eARCs, and I snatched the opportunity to try out the book without a financial commitment. (FYI, Jill, if you happen to read this review, your email went to my spam folder. If you’re not getting very much feedback about the ARCs, you may want to put a reminder on your community page for people to check their spam folders.)
For those of my readers who do not know what I’m talking about, Jill wrote a superb synopsis about her book on Goodreads: “A desperate mother. A dubious escort. And a deranged author who won’t leave them alone.
“Caroline Lindley is determined that her new romance novel will be her best one yet. Fantasy! Formal gowns! Fencing! And, of course, a twentysomething heroine to star in an enemies-to-lovers plot with all of Caroline’s favourite tropes.
“But Lady Rosamund Hawkhurst is a thirty-six-year-old widow with two children, her sole focus is facilitating a peace treaty between her adopted nation and her homeland, and she flatly refuses to take the correct approach to there being Only One Bed.
“What’s an author to do?
“Based on her popular Fantasy Heroine YouTube Shorts series, Jill Bearup’s debut novel brings us the best of worlds both meta and medieval-inspired. Terry Pratchett aficionados will enjoy the political intrigue paired with convivial, tongue-in-cheek satire. And then there’s the slow-burn, fade-to-black romance too . . .
“If you loved Stranger Than Fiction and The Princess Bride, you will soon find yourself cheering on enemies-to-BFFs Rosamund and Caroline as together they learn what it means to be the hero of your own story.”
I kept my expectations for this book low. Jill mentioned her struggles with writing a novel from her YouTube series. She had no desire to become a writer. Therefore, I did not expect the same level of polish to her writing as professional novelists.
I think Jill and her editors did an excellent job on this book. I felt a little confused at the beginning as the opening scene differed from the YouTube version. It took me a few pages to realize Rosamund was packing to leave the Queen’s palace instead of her home. I don’t know if this confusion came from the story itself, or if my brain skipped over an important bit. I did figure it out quickly and did not have any further issues placing myself in the story.
I’m glad the book did not become a written version of the YouTube shorts with extra scenes thrown in. Jill took the time to adjust the story to fit the different medium. For example, the author in the book (Caroline) writes books in addition to a full-time job. Therefore, she does not have an administer to help her work out troubles with the story. Her editor (Henry) helped with that. I enjoyed the scenes, texts, and manuscript notes where Caroline and Henry interact.
The additional plot with Caroline’s job helped me care about her more. She became more than just an author trying to work in tropes. I also liked the extra scenes with the author and Leo. His perspective helped tell the story. Leo’s references to Rosamund’s knives she carried made me smile.
Overall, I would give this book 4.5/5 stars. This may get bumped up or down in the future. I base my ratings off of my enjoyment of the story rather than how well the author writes. I also factor in how I think the book will hold up to a re-read. I definitely plan on reading this book again. Since Jill did do the YouTube shorts and plans on doing the audiobook version of the book, I think this would be an excellent candidate for an audiobook. Just Stab Me Now officially releases on February 5th in print and ebook formats.
I always enjoy writing this post to look back at all of the books my book club members read for an entire year. All of the prompts played off of the previous month, except for January. This made it difficult for some of my friends to participate every month. Since this will be a lengthy post, I will get right to the books…
January: title starts with “The”
The Key to Deceit by Ashley Weaver (mine)
The English Bookshop by Janis Wildy (mine)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
February: complementary color on the cover or spine
A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga (mine)
Recorder by Cathy McCrumb (mine)
Things in Jars by Jess Kid
Rembrandt is in the Wind by Russ Ramsey
Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem
Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw
March: title starts with the next letter in the alphabet
Set the Stars Alight by Amanda Dykes (mine)
Shadows of Swanford Abbey by Julie Klassen (mine)
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Posto
April: different genre
Odder by Katherine Applegate (mine)
When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson with Omar Mohamed (mine)
The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis
The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi (not recommended)
May: more pages
Greetings from Witness Protection! by Jake Burt (mine)
Edge of Extinction: Code Name Flood by Laura Martin (mine)
Destroyer of Worlds by Larry Correia
Keeper of the Lost Cities: Stellarlune by Shannon Messenger
Dusty Sandals: A Woman’s Walk Through the Prophecies and Promises of Matthew Volume 3 by Nancy Gemaehlich
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery
Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
June: title has half as many letters
Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier (mine)
Crime of Fashion by Chautona Havig (mine)
Two Across by Jeffrey Bartsch
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
Archangel by Sharon Shinn
The Library by Bella Osborne
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
July: set in a different country of world
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson (mine)
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (mine)
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Shift by Hugh Howey
This Savage Song by V. E. Schwab
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Zero Days by Ruth Ware
The Girl from Guernica by Karen Robards
Jovah’s Angel by Sharon Shinn
August: same genre
The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (mine)
The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson (mine)
Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn
Beauty Reborn by Elizabeth Lowham
Our Dark Duet by V. E. Schwab
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
September: word from page 50 (of August books) in the title
Allerednic by Chautona Havig (mine)
All the Lost Places by Amanda Dykes (mine)
October: first letter of the title matches the first letter of (September’s) author’s last name
The Hearts of New Cheltenham by Chautona Havig (mine)
Daddy-Long Legs by Jean Webster (mine)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Enchanted Hill
The Dark Lord’s Daughter by Patricia C. Wrede
The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold
November: set in a different time period
The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman (mine)
The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman (mine)
The Hollow Tree by James Brogden
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse
December: within 20 pages
A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman (mine)
Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman (mine)
Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman (I interested a friend in this series)
Before the year ends, I want to wrap up this year’s Read Your Bookshelf Challenge series. I managed to read two books for each of the prompts this year! For December, we had to read “a book within 20 pages” of the book(s) we read in November. Since I read books #2 and #3 in the Mrs. Pollifax series in November, and all of the books in that series have similar lengths, I chose to read books #4 and #5.
A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax finds Emily sent to a health resort in Switzerland by her CIA contact Mr. Carstairs. “Her mission: to track down a missing package of plutonium–just enough to make a small atomic bomb.” During her stay, Mrs. Pollifax finds herself distracted by a young boy and his mysteriously absent grandmother. While looking for the plutonium, Emily attracts the assistance of a jewel thief questioning if he should give up the business and go straight.
I enjoyed this one as well. I like seeing Mrs. Pollifax put new skills to use in the books, as well as her intuition about people. Dorothy Gilman weaves together a good story with seemingly unrelated events. I always like to see how the pieces all fit together in the end. The other characters also come to a better appreciation for a character they would normally deem just a silly old lady.
In Mrs. Pollifax on Safari, Mr. Carstairs sends Emily to Africa to photograph the people on a certain trip. He thinks an assassin is among them and wants a visual of the man the CIA should pursue for justice for one of their murdered agents. While the evidence which sends Mrs. Pollifax on this adventure may seem lacking, I still enjoyed this installment in the series. The male characters on the safari were a bit difficult to tell apart at times, but I managed to get them straight by the end. I do wish we would have had more time actually enjoying the safari and search for animals. However, it was necessary to spend the bulk of the book observing the characters in the group. I did enjoy watching Mrs. Pollifax struggle a bit with the photo-happy tourist persona she had to adopt for this mission. I look forward to seeing what shenanigans she gets up to in the next book.
Books my friends read for this prompt included:
Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman (I interested a friend in this series)
The cover of this book popped up in my Facebook ads several times this summer. I finally went to track down a copy of this book earlier this month and found out I had received an advanced reader’s copy through NetGalley. I decided to prioritize it since I try to review an books I get from NetGalley, and The Wings of Poppy Pendleton came out in the middle of September.
When I sent my request for this book, I made assumptions about it based entirely on the cover and title. I expected a middle grade book about a girl named . . . well . . . Poppy Pendleton. Upon reading the synopsis on Goodreads right when I started the book, I discovered my error. “1907. On the eve of her fifth birthday, Poppy Pendleton is tucked safely in her bed, listening to her parents entertain New York’s gilded society in their Thousand Islands castle; the next morning, she is gone, and her father is found dead in his smoking room.
“1992. Though Chloe Ridell lives in the shadows of Poppy’s castle, now in ruins, she has little interest in the mystery that still captivates tourists and locals alike. She is focused on preserving the island she inherited from her grandparents and reviving their vintage candy shop. Until the day a girl named Emma shows up on Chloe’s doorstep, with few possessions, save a tattered scrapbook that connects her to the Pendleton family. When a reporter arrives at Chloe’s store, asking questions about her grandfather, Chloe decides to help him dig into a past she’d thought best left buried. The haunting truth about Poppy, they soon discover, could save Emma’s life, so Chloe and Logan must work together to investigate exactly what happened long ago on Koster Isle.”
This book starts out really dark. Within the first chapter, the author introduces us to a troubled marriage, drug abuse, and a potential affair. I did not like Poppy’s mother and found it difficult to have sympathy for her. She was selfish throughout most of the book.
I also did not care much for Chloe, the more modern heroine, either. She was closed-off to both the other characters in the book and the reader. I also found it a bit weird for her grandfather to be an adult character in the 1907 events. The author eventually explains a bit of the age gap eventually, but it still made the story a bit too unrealistic.
I do not know if I would have finished this book if I did not feel obligated to write a review for NetGalley. I did appreciate Dobson avoiding making the romantic relationships of the characters the main focus of the book. However, I found it difficult to enjoy this book. I would give it 3/5 stars and the following spoiler trigger warnings: drug abuse, child abuse, affair, child slavery, and smuggling.
I can hardly believe 2023 has almost come to an end. As of writing this post, I logged 172 books on Goodreads out of my goal of 175. Even if I do not reach that goal, I feel satisfied with the books I read this year. I discovered so many new favorites, abandoned some books not worth my time, and pushed myself to read a little out of my comfort zone. I chose 23 books to read for 2023. Some of these books I may not have read this year if I had not challenged myself to read them. I decided to do the same for the coming year and choose 24 books to read in 2024. For this list, I chose books I had never read before, not in any series I have already started, a mix of owned and potential library books, and a mix of fiction and nonfiction books. Without further ado, here are the books I chose to prioritize in 2024 (with snippets taken from Goodreads to summarize the plots):
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo: Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. I picked up this book at a library sale this year. It may make a good read aloud book with my children.
No Space Like Home by Dell Tunnicliff: If life were only as simple as following a yellow brick road. Gail’s quiet life among the Kansa Station turbines ends with a hug, a prayer, and a shove… into space. I bought this book back when Chautona talked about books for Anne-tober. I sometimes forget about the science fiction genre and how much I like it.
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys: Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe. Cristian risks everything to unmask the truth behind the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. He eagerly joins the revolution to fight for change when the time arrives. But what is the cost of freedom? I have read two books by this author. One I really liked, and the other annoyed me at times. This one has had amazing reviews by people with similar reading tastes to me. My husband found a copy somewhere, so I already have it on my unread pile.
A P.D. James book. I picked up a copy of The Skull Beneath the Skin at a library sale. I have thought about trying this author for a while and randomly chose one of her books at a bag sale. Since this is the second book in a series, I may read a different book by this author first.
A Georgette Heyer book. Again, I have been curious to try this author’s books for years. I snagged a copy of Charity Girl at a thrift store. However, the reviews on Goodreads lead me to believe this is not the best example of Heyer’s writing. I may decide to try out a different book. Or, I might start with a mediocre book and work my way up to the better ones.
Kydd by Julian Stockwin: Thomas Paine Kydd, a young wig-maker from Guildford, is seized by the press gang, to be a part of the crew of the 98-gun line-of-battle ship Royal William. The ship sails immediately and Kydd has to learn the harsh realities of shipboard life fast. Despite all that he goes through in danger of tempest and battle he comes to admire the skills and courage of the seamen – taking up the challenge himself to become a true sailor. My husband bought a copy at a library sale. I want to either read this or purge it from our shelves to make room for more books.
Volition by Chautona Havig: It’s Doctor Who meets mail-order brides when “rescuers” from the future arrive to save Andi Flanders from a happy life with her loving family and fiancé. Okay, so they meant to get her suicidal roommate, but hey. Mistakes happen, right? And as far as Andi’s concerned, they can fix them—by sending her home. However, when she learns what happens when she disappears from home, Andi has an impossible choice. Stay in the government-controlled futuristic world she despises and never see her family again or return to the twenty-first century and doom an innocent person to death. Volition— Life and death decisions are so overrated. I snagged a copy of the ebook during Chautona’s generous birthday sale this summer. I have not read her science fiction writing yet. I think I will really like this one since I have loved most of the books I have read by her.
Selected Poems: Emily Dickinson. I want to like poetry for adults, but I have yet to find some I really like. Amanda Flower referenced Dikinson’s poetry in her book Crime and Poetry, which I read last year and again this fall. When I found a copy of Emily’s selected poems at a thrift store recently, I decided to give poetry another try.
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton: is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for “social”) has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he’s always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers–until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy’s skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser. Chantel raved about this book when she read it this year. This seems like a low-commitment classic to read this year.
The Body They May Kill by Audrey Stallsmith: In the quaint village of Deerfield, Pastor Enoch Foster falls over dead in front of his congregation after drinking from the communion cup. An autopsy indicates he was poisoned. In the aftermath of his murder, his influence continues to be felt as a diverse group of parishioners learns to depend on God as well as each other–even though all of them are suspect! Chautona highly recommended this book in one of her videos. I enjoyed several of the books she referenced in Twice Sold Tales, so a few of the books she likes made it on my list to read next year.
Dear Mrs. Bird by A. J. Pearce: A charming, irresistible debut novel set in London during World War II about an adventurous young woman who becomes a secret advice columnist. I think I found out about this book from Chantel. I meant to read it for one of the Read Your Bookshelf Challenge prompts this year, but that did not work out. If I do not get to it this year, I will most likely take it off my Goodreads tbr.
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson: Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster? Since I finished the Sanderson series I started in years past, I want to get to some of his secret project books he published this year.
The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh: A middle-grade survival story that traces a family secret back to the Holodomor, a terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s. Again, Chantel mentioned this book in one of her videos. I want to find more good middle grade books to recommend to my niece and to have my boys listen to on audio as they get older.
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit: Jerry, Jimmy, and Cathy stumble upon a mysterious castle with a beautiful princess asleep in the garden. The princess is really Mabel, the housekeeper’s niece, who is only pretending to be royalty. But when she shows them a secret room filled with treasure where they discover a magical ring, enchantment becomes a reality. I used to love books like this when I was a teen and young adult. I want to find more books like it to enjoy as an adult.
The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragón: Margaret, Rose, Jane, and Fran had a good thing meet every week in the quiet of their peaceful chapel and knit prayer shawls. No muss, just ministry. That is, until their pastor boots them out of the church in his last-ditch effort to revive the dwindling congregation. Chautona mentioned this book as a possibility for Anne-tober and/or as one of the books she read in October. A couple of people also commented on her videos about enjoying this book during the fall. It seems like a cozy book to read in the cold months. It reminds me a bit of my church growing up as a group of ladies crocheted and knit prayer shawls for the church.
Love, Mary Elisabeth by Christy Martenson: Eleven-year-old Mary Elisabeth’s life will never be the same. It’s 1924 and her mother has contracted tuberculosis – a deadly, terrifying disease. A far away sanatorium holds the only hope of saving her. Papa takes a grueling job at the shipyards to pay for her treatment. Mary Elisabeth must travel 350 miles from home to begin a new life on her uncle’s farm. Her only connection to her parents is by letter. Will that be enough to give her courage to brave the challenges that await? I gleaned this book from my reread of Twice Sold Tales this fall. I read a few books referenced in this story this year and loved most of them. I added just about every book I had not read to my Goodreads tbr.
The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold: Among her late grandmother’s belongings, Nikki finds an old notebook filled with handwritten German recipes and wise sayings pulled from the book of Proverbs. With each recipe she makes, she invites locals to the family table to hear their stories about the town’s history, her ancestors–and her estranged father. Brunsvold’s debut novel, The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip, may be my favorite book I read this year. I may pre-order this one as I have already heard good things about it from people who received advanced copies.
The Dark Lord’s Daughter by Patricia C. Wrede: Kayla is just an ordinary girl . . . or so she thinks. When a day at the state fair is interrupted by the news that she’s the daughter of a “Dark Lord,” she and her family are quickly whisked to another world—one that’s chock-full of magic but lacking in technology! I haver really enjoyed Wrede’s books over the years. I am eager to read her newest release.
The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis: A window into the thoughts of one of the greatest public intellectuals of our time, this collection reveals not only why Lewis loved the written word, but what it means to learn through literature from one of our wisest and most enduring teachers. I enjoy books about books and reading. I look forward to reading this one.
Teatime Discipleship by Sally Clarkson: With Teatime Discipleship , Sally invites you into her beautifully photographed home, pours you a steaming cup of tea, and shares the prayers, Scripture, stories, recipes, and traditions that are dear to her heart. You’ll experience the incredible gift of teatime as you take in eternal truths about God’s love and design while learning how you can use your own unique gifts to share with others the beauty of a life redeemed by Christ. I enjoyed other books by Sally Clarkson. This one looks gorgeous.
A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller: Author Paul Miller shares his insights and conclusions about how to connect the broken pieces of your life and allow prayer—even poorly delivered—to fill the gaps with meaning and substance. Miller’s down-to-earth approach and practical nature will help you see that your relationship with God can grow and your communication with Him can get better. Parents will find Miller’s family-life experiences especially helpful. My praying life could use some work. I hope this book will get me on a better track.
Broken Bread by Tilly Dillehay: When we take the business of breaking bread together seriously, as the early church did, we not only use the table to build community, faith, and love, but the act of preparing and eating food becomes sweeter, more savory, and much more enjoyable. A Sheologians podcast referenced this book. I ended up buying a copy as I do not think my library has it, and Amazon had it on sale this week.
Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan: a charming, fascinating, and wonderfully witty nonfiction account of her days on an archaeological dig in Syria with her husband, renowned archeologist Max Mallowan. Something completely different from arguably the best-selling author of all time, Come, Tell Me How You Live is an evocative journey to the fascinating Middle East of the 1930s that is sure to delight Dame Agatha’s millions of fans, as well as aficionados of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody mysteries and eager armchair travelers everywhere. I want to learn more about the woman who wrote so many good mysteries. I also had an interest in archeology in my younger years.
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster: explores the ‘classic disciplines,’ or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found. One of my pen pals recommended this book to me. I think it will be a great addition to my personal education for the year.
I chose these books to challenge myself a bit, get to some books I have put off for a while, read some nonfiction, and to clear some space on my shelf where I keep books I own but have not read. I hope to find some new favorites from this list. Do any of you write out a list of books to read each year? I will read more books than this, but I want to prioritize these books.
My book club has its December meeting tomorrow, so I thought I would pop onto the blog and share what we read for November before I forget everything. I am so glad I take notes at every meeting. For November, we had to read books set in a different time period from the books we read for October. Since the books I read for that month took place in 1912 and 2022, I decided to read more of the books in the Mrs. Pollifax series. Several of the books follow Mrs. Pollifax in the 1970s as she does courier work for the CIA. Since she didn’t start work for the secretive organization until her 60s, Emily Pollifax escapes most spies’ notice. However, she still manages to get into some dangerous situations.
I read the first book, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, back in May and decided I needed to continue the series. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax follows Emily as she leaves on an impromptu mission to the Near East (Istanbul to be more precise) to try to help a defecting Communist safely leave the country. In the process of meeting up with this woman, Mrs. Pollifax collects an eclectic mix of people as they elude enemy agents across Turkey. While some parts of the story seemed unrealistic, I still had a great time reading this book. Some of the appeal of Mrs. Pollifax is the preposterous scraps she gets herself into and the ingenious ways she gets herself out again, all while wearing her signature over-the-top hats. I would like to give this book 5 stars, but the parts with the CIA guys and one of the tagalong characters had a lot of swearing in them. I do not know if this reflects the times or tries to show characters being worldly, but it often took away from the story for me. I still enjoyed this book more than the first.
I continued on with the series for November and read The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax. Carstairs calls on the talents of Mrs. Pollifax again, this time to deliver eight forged passports to Bulgaria. She goes on her mission armed with an amazing new hat with the passports concealed within it. A chance encounter with a group of traveling youth distracts Emily from her main mission when one of the young men is arrested upon their arrival in Bulgaria. Mrs. Pollifax spends her trip evading the strict travel company and unknown agents in order to deliver the passports to the underground, help the wrongfully imprisoned young man, and plotting other forbidden activities. Although less swearing pops up in this book, I did not enjoy it as much as book #2. Emily seemed more like a hardened agent and less like the naïve grandmotherly type from the other books. I still rated this book 4 stars and read more of the series.
Other books my friends read, not necessarily for the reading challenge, included:
I have fallen behind on posting about what I and the members of my book club have read for Chantel’s Read Your Bookshelf Challenge, but I have kept up with reading books for the challenge. For October, we were supposed to read a book with the first letter of the title matching the first letter of the author’s last name of the book we read in September. Since I read All the Lost Places by Amanda Dykes and Allerednic by Chautona Havig for the previous month, I chose to read Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster and The Hearts of New Cheltenham by Chautona Havig (ignore the “The” at the beginning of the title, my friends did). I actually read all of the currently published New Cheltenham books within a month so I could get to this one for this challenge.
I have heard about Daddy-Long-Legs from a couple of people on BookTube who share similar reading tastes as myself. I decided to give it a try as it fit both this prompt and one for Chautona’s Anne-tober (I wrote about all of the books I read for that challenge here). I was definitely in the mood for an epistolary novel when I picked this book up. The first couple of years Jerusha/Judy spent at college appealed to me since she becomes a bookworm and learns how to navigate the real world. As she becomes more refined and ladylike in her last two years, I did not like her as much. I started this book with it already slightly spoiled for me, and Judy’s interactions with the man who ends up being “Daddy” felt questionable to me. They would definitely raise red flags for some modern readers. Overall, I gave the book 4 stars. I still haven’t decided if I will read the sequel.
Like I mentioned earlier, I ended up reading all of the currently available (a new one comes out next month) New Cheltenham Shopkeepers books in the span of a month so I could get to this one as a book with a title starting with “H”. I had Kindle Unlimited at the time, so I took advantage of having all of the books available to me for free. I really enjoyed the first and fourth books in the series. Chautona really sets up an interesting story with The Ghosts of New Cheltenham, and I loved the literary themed dates in The Stars of New Cheltenham. The Hearts of New Cheltenham follows Jarod as he is forced to take a month-long vacation while his work is shut down for maintenance and upgrades. His friend Crystal sends him to New Cheltenham in the hopes he will become interested in a woman there and no longer want to discuss their marriage pact from 10 years ago. It was fun watching Jarod go from clueless to fully invested in a relationship. I look forward to seeing more of him and Ellie when Crystal comes to visit in the next book. I ended up giving this book 4 stars and will probably put it in my rotation of books to read at Christmas.
Other books my friends read for this month included:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Enchanted Hill
The Dark Lord’s Daughter by Patricia C. Wrede
The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold
When Chautona Havig announced an Anne of Green Gables themed reading challenge for October, I knew I had to participate. Chautona and her daughter came up with eight prompts and a free space. I managed to read a book for each of the spaces and black out my card. Here are the books I read. . .
“Call me Anne with an E” (a book starting with the letter E) Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn features an island nation devoted to Nevin Nollop and his famous pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” As a result, an entire island focuses on education and writes lengthy epistles to each other. When one of the tiles falls off the memorial, the council decides Nollop wishes people to no longer use that letter. As the book progresses, more letters become banned, epistles shorten, and people become banished. I enjoyed seeing the letters go from erudite to barely comprehensible gibberish.
“Kindred Spirits” (if you liked. . . you’ll like. . .) Nothing Else but Miracles by Kate Albus. Chautona claimed this book reminded her of Anne when she first came to Green Gables. Dory and her brothers do their best to keep their family together while their father fights in WWII. I did not like this book as much as A Place to Hang the Moon. Dory did too much sneaking for my comfort. Also, Albus teased us with something the characters did not know and never found out during the book.
“I suppose it was a romantic way to perish” (someone dies) Written Off by Barbara Cornthwaite is the third book it the Wilkester Mysteries series. While I gave the first two books in the series five stars, I did not enjoy this book quite that much. I liked the concept of the mystery stories which include details of crimes showing up in Katrina’s piles of papers to grade. I think some of Katrina’s choices do not fit in with the character I got to know in the other books.
“I love a book that makes me cry” (a tear-jerker) Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery. Books do not actually make me cry. Several people have claimed this book made them cry, so I thought it would fit this prompt. Rilla really grew as a character throughout the book. Some of the parts were sad, but the book still did not make me cry.
“Graveyard of buried hopes” (a spooky book) The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright tells the story of women vanishing near a castle built in the woods in the Midwest. The spooky atmosphere of the book made it a perfect read for October. One problem I have with Wright’s books is her tendency to focus on physical attraction between characters too much. I would rather read more words dedicated the mysteries.
“No mistakes” (a character gets a fresh start) Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster reveals the growth of Jerusha “Judy” Abbott as she goes from orphan teen to educated young lady. A member of the board of trustees at the orphanage where she grew up pays for Judy to attend college for four years. I enjoyed the first couple of years, but I liked her less as she went through her last two years.
“When your imaginations come true” (sci-fi or fantasy) Maxine Justice: Galactic Attorney by Daniel Schwabauer follows a down-on-her-luck personal claims lawyer as she becomes embroiled in schemes of intergalactic proportions. It took me a while to get into this book. I think the synopsis gave away way too much of the plot. I did not like Maxine as a character and did not care about the scrapes she got herself into. I think I am becoming a person who just does not like books which feature a lawyer as a main character.
“Life is worth living as long as there’s a laugh in it” (comedy) The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith chronicles the everyday life of the main character. I just did not catch the dry, British humor. The main character just seemed to be a bit of a sob to me.
“I’m so glad we live in a world with Anne-tobers” (free space) The All-American by Susie Finkbeiner follows sisters Flossie (13) and Bertha (16) as they navigate young womanhood while their father is investigated as a potential Communist. While the bulk of the story focuses on Bertha and her quest to join an all-women’s baseball team, Flossie steals the show sometimes. She reminds me so much of Anne in the first Green Gables book. I enjoyed the book, but it could have been stronger on Christian elements. The book also ended rather abruptly, but I suppose that matches with the events in the story.
Marshall's Reporter's Corner 