"Breaking Triviality" by Sarah Everest

Are you fascinated by abandoned places?  I know many people are, including me.  I love looking at photos of them online, and even have several coffee table books about specific kinds of abandoned places, such as Old West ghost towns.  But I've never had the temerity (or good opportunity) to explore inside abandoned places... except one.  Which I'll share photos of at the end of this post.

Three of the characters in Breaking Triviality by Sarah Everest are "urban explorers" -- they like to explore abandoned buildings.  While some people enter abandoned places because they want to hide a criminal activity, or because they want to deface someone else's property with spray paint or whatever, urban explorers are different.  They're usually motivated by curiosity about the past, or by the thrill of seeing places that are rarely entered by others, or simply by the desire to explore.  

Marit and Zander's parents encourage their teens to plan adventures.  For Marti's 17th birthday, their parents let her plan a trip to the Netherlands to meet a famous urban explorer called Cas so he can show them around some amazing ruins in Rotterdam.  Marit and Zander have Dutch heritage, so they are eager to learn more about the land of their forebears.  Plus, Marit has had a crush on Cas for a long time, thanks to his YouTube videos.

That's what half of the book is about, because this is a split-time novel.  The other half is about a Dutch teen named Annelies who lives in Rotterdam in 1940, right when the Nazis are first occupying the Netherlands.  We get to see her living in and visiting buildings that, in the present day, those urban explorers are wandering around as abandoned spaces.  Annelies's mother has died, her father is at a loss as to how to deal with the invasion, and her brother is angry about everything, but especially about not being allowed to join the Dutch military.  Some Dutch soldiers are quartered in their large home, and Annelies makes friends with one of them, bonding over a dangerous situation he helps her with.

And, at the very end of the book, time travel enters the picture.  I quite enjoy time travel stories, so I am excited to see what happens to these teens next, in both eras!  Sarah Everest draws realistic teens who are more than halfway to adulthood but still sometimes do heedless or immature things, like all the real teens I know.  The urge to show off for someone you have a crush on, the inner conflict between trying to find out if someone likes you and not wanting to know just in case you'll get rejected, the desire to be seen as capable and mature even when you're not sure if you're either one -- those all made these teens feel very real and likeable.

Also, I'm half Dutch, so I really loved all the Dutch words, food, and history woven into the book!

This is the first book in a trilogy of Christian YA novellas, and it releases next week, June 16.  I was privileged to be selected to read an advance copy from the publisher, but I was not requested or required to review the book; all opinions are my own.

Particularly Good Bits:

But for some reason -- only understood by every single girl who has ever met their semi-celebrity crush in person and been one hundred percent overwhelmed by how exactly he met every expectation -- I couldn't make my mouth form words. (Marit, chapter one)

A shiver zipped through my body, but it was the good type, like when a song is so entirely right on every level that the hairs on my arms stand on end. (Marit, chapter six)

For the life of me, I had no idea how, in one day's time, I'd gone from being a politely behaved young lady to sneaking out of my house without permission during a war, making friends with the neighborhood witch, aiding an enemy soldier, and flirting with a young man I barely knew.  (Annelies, chapter twelve)

Her cool palm reminded me of an old saying of my oma's about how cold hands represent a warm heart. (Annelies, chapter nineteen)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some scary wartime scenes, light descriptions of a wartime wound, and a tense chase scene.

Now, about that ruin I have explored!  It's called the Chapman-Beverley Mill, and it stands beside a highway at the edge of my county here in Virginia.  It was a grist mill built in 1742, and it ground grain to make flour for the US Army for every war from the American Revolution on through Desert Storm... and then some villainous villain set fire to it in 1998 and burnt the whole thing down.  Except its stone exterior.

The mill site is currently closed to visitors because they are doing some stabilization and restoration to the structure, but we have visited it a couple of times, years ago, when it was open and you could just wander around inside the mill, plus a couple of outbuildings.  (How long ago?  Well, the two little tykes you see in the above photo are now 14 and 16...)

It's so amazing to see this piece of history in person, even though knowing that it could still be operational and useful breaks my heart.  

I don't have lots of photos from this that don't show my kids' faces, but here's one -- I'm stepping in through that doorway where you can see my husband standing in the second photo, and he and two of our kiddos are already inside.  

Obviously, we weren't exactly doing "urban exploring" because this place was open for people to check out when we went there, with a parking lot and signs explaining the history of the mill, what different buildings and objects were used for, and so on.  But it's the closest I've come.

"Magic for Marigold" by L. M. Montgomery

I read Magic for Marigold for our final Mother-Daughter Book Club meeting of the school year.  It was my first time reading this particular L. M. Montgomery book, and a first time for nearly everyone else in the book club, too, which was really fun.

Marigold is born into the type of large and eccentric family Montgomery excelled at writing.  Her father dies before she is born, and her mother names her daughter after the woman doctor who saves her newborn's life.  Marigold grows up in her family's large old home, with her grandmother and her great-grandmother and an aunt, as well as her mother.  And a bounty of aunts and uncles and the occasional cousin scattered across Prince Edward Island to give advice on how Marigold should be raised.

Marigold is not as dreamy and fanciful as, say, Anne Shirley or Emily Starr, probably because she grows up in a loving home with her own mother still alive.  She isn't as mousy as Jane Stuart, either, probably because her grandmothers are not tyrants and her mother is not an absolute milksop.  And maybe that's part of why I didn't love Marigold as much as Anne or Jane -- because she isn't as extreme.  She's sweet and kind and whimsical, and I did find that endearing, but she didn't lodge herself in my heart.

(from my Bookstagram account)

I also found the book as a whole whimsical and fun, but not a pure delight.  I blame that on how often things just go disappointingly wrong and unpleasant for poor Marigold.  Instead of mishaps coming out all right repeatedly, events that start out well go sour.  Over and over.  I got to feeling very sorry for Marigold over that, for sure.

Is this an unpleasant book?  Not in the slightest!  If you're an L. M. Montgomery fan, you're going to have fun with it.  Even if you aren't, you probably will find plenty to enjoy if you like gentle books about children growing up in bygone days.

Particularly Good Bits:

"If you don't believe things you'll never have any fun.  The more things you can believe the more interesting life is, as you say yourself.  Too much incredulity makes it a poor thing" (p. 86).

"I can't help liking things and I'm glad I do," said Marigold in a sudden accession of common sense.  "It makes life so much more int'resting" (p. 261).

"Keep your dream, little Marigold, as long as you can.  A dream is an immortal thing.  Time cannot kill it or age wither it.  You may tire of reality but never of dreams" (p. 319).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  It's good and wholesome and uplifting stuff, no doubt about it.

This has been my fourth book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list!

"The Swamp Fox, Francis Marion" by Noel Gerson

I am pretty sure that The Swamp Fox, Francis Marion was on my to-be-read shelves longer than any other book I currently own.  I believe I bought it back when we lived in Wisconsin.  We left Wisconsin in December of 2007.  That means I have packed up and moved this book three times.  

Well, I'm glad I hung onto it for nearly twenty years, rather than getting rid of it along the way, because I quite enjoyed this book!  Even though it was not quite what I was expecting.

I thought this book was going to be a non-fiction account of Francis Marion's guerrilla warfare against the British soldiers during the American Revolution.  Instead, it's written like fiction, and starts off in 1752, when Marion is a very young man!  It traces his on-again, off-again romance with the beautiful Esther Videau over several decades, while also showing how a young South Carolina plantation owner could become the kind of man who would basically invent guerilla warfare.

I did a scanty bit of research after finishing the book and found that a lot of what this book includes was true -- particularly that he really didn't get married until he was in his 50s, after the war had ended.  Since it's written in a fictionalized style, I didn't expect it to adhere strictly to facts, but it looks like the biggest thing they invented was saying that Marion only employed freedmen on his plantation.  In reality, he was a slaveowner like the vast majority of South Carolina plantation owners; this was published in 1967, during the tail end of the Civil Rights Era, so I'm guessing that may have played some part in that particular aspect.

Overall, this was a fun book, but I was disappointed that only a few chapters dealt with his Revolutionary War exploits, since I was expecting the whole book to be about that.  I'm glad I've finally read it, though!  And this marks my fourth book read for my #RevolutionaryWarReads challenge!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for descriptions of warfare and death.  It's pretty tame and generalized.  There's a bit of mild cussing here and there, too.  No smut or overt gore.

"Demystifying the Proverbs 31 Woman" by Elizabeth Ahlman

I had been taught, while growing up, that Proverbs 31 was a description of all the things a godly woman could do with God's help.  The ways God would empower her to care for her family and help others.  A sort of companion to "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13), but specifically for women.

So, I thought of this chapter as an encouraging one.  Who wouldn't want to be encouraged to take care of their families and household, and be praised as being "worth far more than rubies" and so on?

Then, one day, my mother-in-law heard me mention I had friends who sold Thirty-One bags and totes, and asked why the company was called that, so I said, "Oh, you know, the Proverbs 31 woman -- it's named after her."  And she sort of gasped and said, "Why would they name themselves after that chapter?  You don't actually enjoy that chapter, do you?"  I was like, "Um, yes, why not?"  And she was all, "Oh, it's so terrible because no woman can ever live up to that ideal."

And I realized that there are women out there who see it as a chapter full of Law -- all about what they *have* to do -- and not in the light of the Gospel, as in, not about how God can do *for them.*  And that made me sad.  And curious.  A few months later, Demystifying the Proverbs 31 Woman crossed my path, and I bought a copy because I thought, maybe I have it backward.  Maybe it's a hard and terrible chapter.

If you also have felt like that chapter is condemning you for not living up to an ideal, then you should read this book.  Because it will free you from that fear.

In this book, Elizabeth Ahlman first walks through the Proverb and shows how Proverbs 31:10-31 are an acrostic poem in the original Hebrew.  She shows how the whole chapter connects to the first few chapters of Proverbs -- the first few chapters admonish a young man to avoid Dame Folly and seek out Lady Wisdom, and this one chapter again focuses on how to value a wise and godly woman, and how the language echoes the earlier chapters.  This is not a portrait of a single human woman, but of Lady Wisdom, the personification of godly wisdom.  

Then Ahlman shows how this portrait of a godly woman connects to a specific woman in the Bible: Ruth.  She goes on to show how the verses are a portrait of the Church when it is acting according to God's will, of all Christians when they carry out their God-given vocations, and how they can also be a portrait of Jesus caring for his Church -- since he is Wisdom Incarnate.

As Ahlman puts it, "[t]he three ways of understanding this passage -- as a portrait of Lady Wisdom/Christ as Wisdom Incarnate, as a portrait of the Holy Church, and as a portrait of who we are in Christ -- all ultimately show us Jesus" (p. 158).

That sounds confusing, I expect, because I'm condensing down into a couple sentences what she spends a whole book explaining.  I think you should just read it for yourself, because then you will understand.

I was especially impressed by how many sources Ahlman drew on.  She wasn't just coming up with these ideas and insights on her own, but building upon theological writings from many, many others writing down through the ages.  

I came away with a great appreciation for how complex Hebrew poetry can be, how connected different parts of the Bible truly are, and how loving and uplifting this chapter is.  I underlined and scribbled in the margins all over the book, and I can't possibly share all my favorite parts here, but I'll share the bits I found the coolest, anyway.

Particularly Good Bits:

It can be tempting to look at this poem and see riches, wealth, and hardworking determination that we cannot possibly hope to match but must strive to match nonetheless.  However, when we consider all that the woman is and does is in the context of God's grace and mercy, her life becomes less example to be copied and more reminder of who we are (p. 55-56).

To have the "fear of the Lord" is to work vigorously in one's vocation with the strength endowed by Yahweh as He works through you.  It is to reach out a hand to the needy, "look well to the ways" of your household, proclaim Yahweh's mercy, impart His wisdom to others, and prosper (ultimately in the sense of salvation and eternal life with Yahweh (p. 81-82).

Throughout those [first] nine chapters [of Proverbs], Lady Wisdom is portrayed first as a young marriageable maiden and then as one who is preparing her household in order to be married.  In 31:10-31, the woman completes the portrait of Lady Wisdom, depicting her now at home with those who love her and who have sought her and been sought by her.  As a completion of that building portrait, she shows herself to be, in fact, Lady Wisdom (p. 159).

As a portrait of Jesus as Wisdom Incarnate, the Proverbs 31:10-31 woman offers us comfort, joy, and a reason to sing.  Gone are the temptations to find a five-step program to being just like the Proverbs 31 woman.  Gone are the thoughts of whether or not we are "good enough" or living up to who we should be as women of God.  Gone, even, are the thoughts that the passage from Proverbs 31:10-31is uniquely a women's text.  Rather than see in her a list of activities to live up to, or an example of how diligent and perfect and busy we should be, we see that this is our Savior diligently busy, active, and perfect for us (p. 160).

We need not view the actions and dispositions of the woman who fears Yahweh in Proverbs and the man who fears Yahweh in Psalm 112 as impossible tasks or qualities to live up to, but rather as pictures of who we are already in Jesus by virtue of our Baptism and the working of the Holy Spirit in us (p. 163).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG.  There's a little talk of preparing the marriage bed and keeping it holy and special, but nothing explicitly about sexual activity.

"The Gatsby Gambit" by Claire Anderson Wheeler

I picked this up at the library on an absolute whim, and it ended up being exactly the book I needed to read last week.

The Gatsby Gambit is kind of an alternate universe retelling of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  In this world, Jay Gatsby has a kid sister and is friends with Tom and Daisy Buchanan.  The kind of friends that are randomly staying at his mansion for a few weeks in the summer while their own mansion across the water is having some renovations done.  

Jay, the Buchanans, Nick Carraway, and Jordan Baker all come across is slightly nicer versions of themselves from Fitzgerald's book.  Daisy and Jordan have the ability to be kind if they want to.  Jay is a little less aloof and a little less unbelievable... and it feels comfortable to call him 'Jay' and not 'Gatsby.'  I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I can't figure out another way to say it.  I think of this Jay Gatsby as Jay, and I think of the original Jay Gatsby as Gatsby. Nick Carraway is very similar to his original self, though maybe a bit more patient.  And Tom Buchanan is... still a lout.  Still a womanizer.  Still a self-satisfied snob.  

As for Jay's little sister Greta Gatsby, she is a delight from beginning to end.  She's all finished with finishing schools at last and ready to step out into the adult world, only she discovers that having been screened and sheltered from the adult world maybe wasn't so entirely bad after all.  Because the adults in her world are not always up to good things.  Sometimes, the ones she loves most are behaving very badly indeed, and she had just been unaware.  And others might have the kinds of dark secrets in their past that come to light violently and permanently.

All in all, this is a stylish and smart murder mystery tangled up in a coming-of-age story, Roaring Twenties-style.  The historical details were fabulous, the characters were sharply believable, and the book never felt like it was capitalizing on the fame of a classic so much as exploring a "what if?" in a natural and fun way.  It explores issues of the day such as classism, ableism, and sexism without pouring too much of our modern mores into the mix, and also deftly scrutinizes cruelty, infidelity, family, and romance.

Particularly Good Bits:

Sometimes she felt--oh, it was such a tricky thing to put into words!--this suspicion that the world was not quite the world she read about.  That she was still being... protected from things.  Not by Jay exactly, not by anyone in particular, but by some invisible, insidious buffer (p. 30).

Ladies, certainly, were not supposed to question things.  Ladylike meant gracious, and gracious meant accepting (p. 85).

"She wanted everyone to think she was happy; she wanted to look happy.  That was something she knew how to do much better than actually being happy.  Poor old Daise has been told how to look and what to feel for so long, I think sometimes she hardly knows how to locate a feeling of her own" (p. 96).

"I never wanted to marry a romantic.  They're dangerous.  They fall out of love with you the minute you turn out to be human, and then they blame you for being a disappointment" (p. 15).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for a lot of veiled discussion of adultery and sexual activity, some period-appropriate bad language here and there, murder, and one person's memory of something violent happening in the past.

"A Name to Remember" by Hannah Hood Lucero

This is my first Hannah Hood Lucero book, but it definitely will not be my last!  Wow.  I get the hype now, fam.

Compelling and befriend-able characters?

Check.

Alluring North Carolina small town setting?

Check.

Horses?

Check.

High, yet believable, stakes?

Check.

Suspenseful climax?

Check.

Made me cry multiple times for happy and poignant reasons both?

Check.

Made me laugh aloud?

Check.

Yup, I'm a fan :-D

(I've actually met Hannah, and she is a whimsically maniacal delight to hang out with, so I was already a fan of her as a person before this, but now I am a fan of her writing as well...)

High school senior Isobel Lee gets recognized everywhere she goes, but not for a happy or fun reason: her Army medic dad recently died in combat overseas, and strangers and acquaintances alike all want to either thank her for her family's sacrifice or tell her all the reasons they disagree with American military operations like the one that killed her dad.

Isobel and her mom move in with her grandmother in a small North Carolina town.  Gran owns horses and is a sass-master extraordinaire, but also sweet and kind and warm and everything a grandma should be.  

Her first day at her new high school, Isobel makes friends with Hank Olsen, though she doesn't realize who he is when she befriends him.

Hank Olsen is also famous in their small town, but not for good reasons either.  His dad went to prison for murder and his mom is a druggie, and Hank is considered to be trailer trash just like his parents.  But that's not what Isobel doesn't realize about him -- she doesn't realize at first that he is the sweet boy she got an instant crush on five years earlier, when she and her parents were visiting Gran one summer.

Isobel and Hank both feel sparkage toward each other, but they first build a solid friendship before moving on to holding hands and kissing and inviting all the warm fuzzies of young love into their lives.  They both have some emotional issues to grapple with, and some real-world problems as well.

This small NC town is plagued with fires every winter, and the fires all seem linked to Hank somehow.  Most of the town suspects he's a firebug, and when new fires break out, soon there are people calling for his arrest or banishment or both.

Man, this book was so good!  I inhaled it in just a few days, and now I want to read Lucero's book Cathey's Creek Road, which is also YA and also set in the same basic area.  In fact, I ordered a copy as soon as I finished A Name to Remember, so it should be hitting my doorstep pretty soon!

One quick theological note: there's definitely some decision-based theology in this book, which some of my readers will want to be aware of.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for violence, portrayal of mental illness in teens (including self-harm and violence toward others), mentions of military violence and PTSD, and romantic yearning between teens that acknowledges temptation/desire to do more than kiss.  No cussing; no smut; no gory violence.

Top Ten Tuesday: Me, Myself, and I

This week's prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Book Titles that Describe Me and My Life."  I had a lot of fun figuring out ten picks for this!  Some are fiction and some are non-fiction, and they range all over the genres, so I've included just a smidgeon of info for each of them.

A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer (PG-13) -- murder mystery set during a British Christmas house party (note: this is not Regency-era historical fiction like most of Heyer's books)

Grateful American by Gary Sinese (PG) -- memoir by actor Gary Sinese about his life and the ways that the American military and being an American have impacted him, and how he has chosen to try to give back to his country and its defenders

Holy Hygge by Jamie Erickson (G) -- nonfiction book about how to make your home a haven for your family and for others, and how to use that coziness to reflect your faith and share it with others

I'd Rather be Reading by Anne Bogel (PG) -- nonfiction book about what it's like to love books

Imagination Redeemed by Gene Edward Veith and Matthew P. Ristuccia (PG-16) -- nonfiction look at ways that Christians can use their imagination while also glorifying and obeying God

In the Company of Sherlock Holmes edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (PG-13) -- collection of short stories by various modern mystery authors, all of the stories either about or relating somehow to Sherlock Holmes

A Little Persuaded by Kendra E. Ardnek (G) -- last book in the Austen Fairy Tales series, it retells both "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Anderson and Persuasion by Jane Austen

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde (PG-16) -- second book in the Thursday Next series of hilarious book-lover fantasy

Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler (PG-13) -- four classic hardboiled mystery novellas starring Philip Marlowe

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (R) -- fictionalized biography of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of England's King Edward IV

How about you?  Did you do a Top Ten Tuesday list this week?  If so, please share a link!  If not, what book titles can you think of that describe you or your life?

"The Least" -- My New Story in "Sparkler"

Are you or someone you know on the hunt for clean fiction that is appropriate for teen readers?  If so, then you definitely need to check out Sparkler, a brand-new online magazine!  Sparkler is devoted to connecting readers in search of clean YA fiction with authors who write exactly that.

Authors like me :-)

In fact, I have a flash-fiction story in their debut issue, which dropped today!  It's all about a young man striking out on his own who has taken what he was told is a shortcut, and he finds something unexpected along his chosen trail... something that forces him to make a difficult decision.  It's called "The Least," and you can read it right here. 

My short story is historical fiction, a cozy Christian western just like you'd expect from me :-)  But there are lots of genres represented in this magazine, including fantasy, contemporary, and sci-fi.

"Spark of the Revolution" by Megan Soja

What a lovely book!

Spark of the Revolution follows a young British woman named Patience who arrives in Colonial Boston in 1773, escorted by her brother William.  Their mother has died, and Patience is eager to be reunited with her father, who has been living in Boston ever since an injury meant he was unable to continue making his livelihood at sea.

Patience is shocked to discover that her father has remarried already, and now she has a stepsister as well as a stepmother.  She struggles especially much because she was hoping that she and her father could grow closer as they grieved for her mother and adjusted to their new life together, but now he has already moved on and seems to not be interested in getting to know her better.

Will finds work at a Boston printing office and makes friends with some young men who are secretly part of the Sons of Liberty organization leading the boycott of Britain's taxes on tea and so on.  One of his new friends is Josiah, a blacksmith who catches Patience's eye as well.  Josiah is struggling with his Christian faith and with loneliness.  Will and Patience bring friendship and eventually love into his life, and Josiah grows and changes the most of anyone over the course of the book.

While there is a romance central to this book, the themes of sibling friendship and family love are basically just as strong as the romance, and I loved that.  The historical details of pre-Revolutionary Boston are fantastic, and "seeing" the Boston Tea Party happen made me bounce with joy.  The writing is fluid and enjoyable, and the characters are delightfully believable and real-feeling.  I'm so glad there are two more books out in this series already, and a fourth coming before the end of the year!

Particularly Good Bits:

But it had been a decade since she'd spent more than a handful of months at a time in her father's company, and nearly three years since she had seen him at all.  Not enough time to plant any new memories in the garden of her heart (p. 22).

The whole of Boston seemed poised and tense, like a barn cat crouching low and steady, barely twitching her tail before she pounced on her prey (p. 138).

"Each day is one the Lord has made, a gift from Him that we give back by living in obedience and trust.  To know tomorrow is His place, not ours" (p. 185).

Mama would forever be a part of her, woven tightly into the fabric of Patience's life, and as time passed and the sharpness of the pain dulled, the joy of those memories grew and flourished (p. 295).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some discussions of violence, though it is pretty well kept off-page.  No cussing; no smut.

This has been my third book read from my #RevolutionaryWarReads list!

"The Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief" by Maurice LeBlanc

What fun!  I had honestly never heard of Arsène Lupin before I bought this book.  I bought it because I really love the MacMillan Collector's Edition books, which are elegant pocket-sized hardcovers with delightful dust jackets.  I check every now and then to see what books they have released lately in case any are of interest to me, and this one looked like fun.  Sort of a precursor to The Saint books by Leslie Charteris, in a way. 

Arsène Lupin steals expensive things from rich people. Along the way, he often solves a crime or clears up a mystery.  Sometimes, though, the story is really just all about a clever heist he pulls of.  He's a gentleman thief, after all, not a detective.

Of the nine short stories in this collection, my top favorites were:

"The Seven of Hearts," in which Lupin not only executes a daring burglary, but solves an old crime.

"The Escape of Arsène Lupin" because I always enjoy prison-escape stories.

"Holmlock Shears Arrives Too Late" because it was really funny, and didn't so much poke fun at Sherlock Holmes as play with his character like this was a fanfic story (which it basically is).

I liked this book so much, I have asked my mom for a boxed set of the complete collection (there are like 8 or 9 more books, though not all in these editions, alas) for my birthday.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a little violence here and there, plus obviously themes of theft and robbery.  No cussing; no smut.

This has been my third classic book read and reviewed for my fifth Classic Club list.

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie

My sister-in-law sent me a copy of The Mysterious Affair at Styles as part of a little book box last year.  She sent it to me to cheer me up when I was having a really stressful time, and it definitely worked!  Even though it took me a few months to read the book itself, having it to look forward to was a definite morale booster, as were the neat goodies that came with it.

This is not only the first book featuring the great detective Hercule Poirot, it's Agatha Christie's debut novel.  It's full of all the elements you would expect from a Poirot mystery:  a seemingly unsolvable crime, lots of suspects, some red herrings, and a solution that eventually makes sense.  Plus, we get to see Poirot and Hastings become friends, which is so fun!  

Is this my favorite Poirot mystery?  Don't think so, but it doesn't have to be.  I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm glad I've finally read it!

Particularly Good Bits:

"You gave too much rein to your imagination.  Imagination is a good servant, and a bad mater.  The simplest explanation is always the most likely" (p. 84).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for murder and the tiniest bit of strong language.

This is my second book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.

"Sitka" by Louis L'Amour

Basically, Sitka is an origin story for the state of Alaska.

I'm not even joking.

Jean LaBarge grows up in the swamps of Pennsylvania before heading off into the wilderness and ending up a young man on the California coast.  He spends a lot of time on sailing ships.  He gets big and tough and true-hearted, like all the best L'Amour heroes.  He keeps in touch with his childhood best friend, who stays in the East and becomes an important politician.

And he obsesses over Alaska.

Now, having been obsessed with Alaska myself since I was 11 years old, I understand that last bit.  There's something kind of magical about even just the name.  Alaska.  

I actually bought my copy of this book while in Alaska last August.  (I bought it in Skagway, not Sitka, but that doesn't matter.)  It took me thirty-four years to get there -- quite a bit longer than it takes Jean LaBarge.  He gets there while it still belongs to Russia and helps to open up to the possibility of Russia selling it to the United States.  He also spends several months crossing Russia from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  He falls in love with a Russian princess, with a sort of classic Medieval courtly love, since she's already married to a really great guy.  He makes enemies and defeats them.  Lots of really exciting stuff happens in the best style of L'Amour's sweeping epics.

It took me six months to read the first 60 pages of this book, and three days to read the last 250.  Make of that whatever you want.

Particularly Good Bits:

It gleamed there on his calloused palm, heavy as sin in the heart of a man.  "If that isn't gold, what is it?" (p. 55).

To a fool time brings only age, not wisdom (p. 78).

It was a pity, he reflected, that the men of good will are so poorly armed, for at times it was a handicap not to hate (p. 169).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some brawling and other non-gory violence, some references to bawdy houses, alcohol consumption by adults, scenes of children in peril, and mild innuendo about men's intentions toward women.  

This is my first book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list!

Did Someone Say "FREE Audiobook"???

I did, it was me.  I said free audiobook, and I meant FREE!!!

ONE Audiobooks, which has produced all of my audiobooks, picks one title from their catalog each month to let people listen to for free.  And, in March, that book is Dancing and Doughnuts, my Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling!

All you have to do is go to the OneAudiobooks website and follow the directions.  Once you save Dancing and Doughnuts to your account, you will have until June 1 to finish listening to it.

It's kind of like borrowing a book from the library, where you have a certain number of weeks to read it, and then you return it.  You don't get to download and keep the book for free, but you get to experience it for free within a certain timeframe.

If you're new to my books, I write cozy Christian westerns.  My Once Upon a Western series retells fairy tales as clean YA historical fiction.  These are non-magical westerns with no cussing or smut, containing sweet PG-level romances and mild violence only (think an old John Wayne movie from the 1950s).  

Dancing and Doughnuts is about a Civil War veteran trying to find work in a small Kansas town.  He takes a job trying to figure out who is spiking the refreshments served at a family-run dance hall.  Twelve sisters, uncountable doughnuts, rowdy cowboys -- nothing can stop our hero from solving this mystery and helping the family resolve some bigger problems in the process.

The audiobook version is read by Steve Corona, whose narration of my book One Bad Apple won a SOVA last year.  Steve has been my ideal narrator for Dancing and Doughnuts since the idea of audiobook editions for my books first entered my head, and he absolutely knocks this narration out of the park. Do yourself a favor and listen to it for free while you can!

"The Greatest Lawyer That Ever Lived: Patrick Henry at the Bar of History" by George Morrow

This is a slim volume containing two essays about Patrick Henry, both by George Morrow.  In both essays, the author contends that Patrick Henry is essentially a mystery to us today for two reasons.  

First, Patrick Henry wasn't obsessed with writing things down OR with keeping records of his writing and speeches for posterity.  He was very gifted as a defense attorney and as a public orator, but his speeches had a strange ability to make people agree with him at the same time as not be able to remember exactly what he said.  So even the speeches we think we know he made, George Morrow says are probably just vague approximations of what he said because Henry didn't keep the speeches he wrote and no one else could remember more than the basic gist of them.  Yes, including the famous "Give me liberty, or give me death speech."

Second, George Morrow makes a convincing case for Thomas Jefferson being virulently envious of Patrick Henry for decades because Henry was a much more accomplished lawyer than Jefferson and a much better public speaker.  Morrow contends that, after Patrick Henry's death, Thomas Jefferson began systematically and effectively erasing Patrick Henry's good qualities from public and private memory alike and replacing them with the idea that Patrick Henry was a mediocre lawyer who got a lucky day in court now and then, was a lazy and cowardly state governor, and so on. 

If nothing else, these two essays have convinced me I need to read more about Patrick Henry and not rely on my memories of what my high school history books said about him thirty years ago.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Nothing scandalous or untoward here.

This has been my second book read from my #RevolutionaryWarReads list!

"Daniel Boone's Own Story" by Daniel Boone and "The Adventures of Daniel Boone" by Frances Lister Hawkes

How weird that these two short books have never crossed my path before this!  Especially considering what a big fan of Daniel Boone I have been since I was in single digits.  I've read so many junior biographies about him, so many articles... but never his own short account of how he helped open Kentucky for settlement?  Not sure how it escaped me before now.

Well, Daniel Boone's Own Story is the bold adventurer's own recounting of how and when and why he explored Kentucky with his brother and a few friends, how he returned to lead surveyors there, and why he brought his own family with a larger group to settle there.  This all happened before and during the American Revolution, but had little to do with the Revolution except to mention Lord Dunmore a couple of times (he who was Royal Governor of Virginia until the Revolution began) and to talk about refusing to surrender to British authority even as a possible escape from being held captive by a hostile tribe.  

I loved how Daniel Boone expresses himself in this.  He's straight-forward, modest, thoughtful, a little funny here and there, and can turn a pretty phrase.  And he repeatedly credits God with blessing his efforts, helping him and others out of difficulties, and making the beautiful wilderness land that Boone so cherished.

The Adventures of Daniel Boone by Francis Lister Hawks obviously draws on Boone's book, but fleshes the narrative out more.  It talks about Boone's life before and after the opening of Kentucky, which is nice.  I didn't learn much new from it that I hadn't read in other books, but I enjoyed the refresher anyway.  Hawks has a high-flown, old-fashioned writing style that makes Boone seem doubly plainspoken and uncomplicated by comparison.  But I didn't dislike the book just because his prose got a little purple here and there.  

Particularly Good Bits:

So much does friendship triumph over misfortune that sorrows and sufferings vanish at the meeting not only of real friends, but of the most distant acquaintances, and substitute happiness in their room (p. 4, Daniel Boone's Own Story)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for discussions of torture, some of which would be very disturbing for people with vivid imaginations.

Since these are so short, I am counting them together as my 50th book read for my 4th Classics Club list.  Which means I have finished my list!  Again!  Since January of 2014, I have read and reviewed 200 classic books :-D

(Actually, I've read more classics than that in those ten years, because I only count a book once for the Classics Club, and if I read it again after that, it doesn't count for my lists.)

I'll be making a fifth list soon!  Stay tuned for that...

"Or Give Me Death" by Ann Rinaldi

Whoa.  How is it I've never read an Ann Rinaldi book before?  I guess our small-town library must just not have had any of her books, even though her first book was published the year I was born, because I would have devoured everything of hers I could find.  Historical fiction has been my jam for as long as I can remember, and I read all the historical fiction in the teen section of our library.  Sometimes repeatedly.

Well, you can bet her books are going to show up on this blog after this.

Or Give Me Death is a novelizational look at several very hard years in Patrick Henry's family life, seen through the eyes of two of his daughters.

Did you know Patrick Henry's first wife battled mental illness?  Did you know the family had to eventually lock her up in a suite of rooms they set up in the basement so she couldn't harm the children or herself?

I mean, this sounds like something out of a Charlotte Brontë novel.  Except it's totally true.  While reading Or Give Me Death, I kept looking things up and discovering that, yup, that new-to-me sad or strange fact was true.  Over and over.

The first section of the book is told from the perspective of Patrick Henry's eldest daughter, Patsy.  It begins in 1771, with Patsy gradually realizing her mother is mentally unstable and becoming dangerous.  It shows how much weight descends on Patsy's shoulders as she has to take over mothering her younger siblings and running the household.  She grows up very quickly once they have to confine her mother Sarah, and marries young.  She and her new husband take over running the family estate because Patrick Henry is often away either practicing law or debating revolutionary things with other important leaders.

The second half begins in 1773 and is from the perspective of a younger daughter, Anne.  Anne resents how bossy Patsy has become, resents being told she must grow up and stop living as a carefree child, and resents how many secrets she must keep for the various members of her family.  She has to grow up too quickly and suddenly, but unlike her sister, she has a harder time resigning herself to this.

I felt a lot of sympathy for both sisters, and wished often in the second half of the book that Rinaldi had not made Anne quite so stridently antagonistic toward Patsy.  They are both enduring a really hard reality, as are the rest of the members of the family.  I'm not sure how much of the sibling discord is factual, though I do know that there's a note at the end from Rinaldi saying that Patrick Henry and his family left very little by way of a paper trail, so she had to work mostly from things written about them by their relatives and friends and contemporaries, and extrapolate a lot from what would be common parts of life in Colonial and Revolutionary Virginia.  

While I found the sibling antagonism less than pleasant at times, I still very much enjoyed this book.  And I didn't find that antagonism unrealistic, I just... would have preferred less of it, because then the characters would have been happier, and I generally just want characters to find ways to be happy!  But that's not always realistic or feasible.

Particularly Good Bits:

Dark, unexplainable things happened all the time in the outlands of Virginia (p. 7).

"Ah, we all could do with a little divine vengeance at breakfast," Pa said.  "What better way to start the day?" (p. 51)

When do you keep a secret, and when do you tell?  Do you tell the truth, knowing it will hurt someone?  Or tell a lie to keep from hurting them?  How much does keeping it inside cost?  Eventually it will come out, won't it?  And hurt the person you are trying to protect, anyway (p. 117).

"Our family is broken, Anne.  It happens betimes with families.  So what we must do is know that while other families get to enjoy the whole, we can only enjoy the pieces.  But don't hold them too close.  broken pieces have edges and can hurt.  Look outside the family for your happiness" (p. 164).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some non-gory violence, scary scenes involving children in peril, descriptions of madness and mad behavior, talk of ghosts and 'second sight,' and a horribly cruel death inflicted on a slave girl (off-page and lightly described, but thoroughly awful).  Definitely a teen read, not for kids.

This has been my first book read from my #RevolutionaryWarReads list!

Top Ten Tuesday: Go Away and Stay Here

This week, our Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books for Armchair Travelers."  Here are my ten favorite books with vivid settings that really make you feel like you are visiting their locations!

I'm organizing these alphabetically by title this week because I don't feel like putting them in the order of how much I like them.  I've also included where they take place, and linked the titles to my reviews in case you are curious about them.

1. Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard-- Pennsylvania

2. The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- Muskoka, Ontario, Canada

3. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim -- Italy

4. The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle -- Dartmoor, England

5. Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes -- Boston, Massachusetts

6. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson -- Scottish Highlands

7. The Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett -- Rocky Mountains

8. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry -- Chincoteague Island, Virginia

9. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster -- Italy

10. Swamp Water by Vareen Bell -- Okeefenokee Swamp, Georgia

What books have you read that have really vivid locations?