Welcome to the November 2024 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!

Last month, I caught up on Cece Louise’s most recent rom coms in the After All series. Faking After All includes the fake dating trope as well as enemies to lovers or grumpy/sunshine—take your pick. I really enjoyed this fun romance between uptight, ambitious executive Victoria and soon-to-be gym owner Caleb. She’ll help him with his grand opening if he’ll pretend to be her boyfriend for work functions. The characters are well-developed, and it is a quick, easy read.

In Working After All, “odd” Audrey is forced to work for her cousin’s partner/best friend Jackson, the object of her teenage affections. In their last interaction, she suffered a humiliating rejection, and now, after losing her job and her fiancé, well, beggars can’t be choosers. Jackson soon discovers Audrey has become an attractive woman, and sparks fly—including some actual July 4^th fireworks.

I embraced the early reading of Christmas novellas, including Roseanna M. White’s Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor. I want to crawl into that cover illustration! Like many others, I have a great love for The Nutcracker derived from many years of ballet performances. The story was uplifting without being schmaltzy and the reminder of the importance of imagination and whimsy was perfectly suited to the early 20^th century Christmas setting. A new Christmas favorite!

I listened to Christmas Ella by Angela Ruth Strong on my way to pick up my son for fall break. This Christmas romance is set in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with a reality TV show as the backdrop. As you might guess, this story is a nod to Cinderella with some nefarious stepsisters and a masquerade. It hits all the right notes for a sweet Christmas novella.

Four members of the family read “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, a classic short story that could be classified as horror of the non-gory, Edgar Allan Poe sort. It can easily be read in one sitting, but the story will stay with you as you ponder the wishes made on the monkey’s paw. As they say, be careful what you wish for.

My oldest son read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for the first time and loved it. The painted edition linked here to Amazon was available at a fantastic price, and I couldn’t pass it up! We all know the basic premise of Frankenstein, but reading the original for the first time, my son was struck by how movie adaptions fall short. In his review, he said, “Perhaps the perception of Frankenstein has shifted so much that Hollywood isn’t even aware of the source material or production studios don’t want to tell a story that has themes like the differences and necessities of the sexes, the creation and dignity of new life, and the restraint of ambition at its heart.”

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was also on his spooky season reading list. Until seeing the sticker on the Amazon cover, I didn’t realize this had become a Netflix series. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is widely regarded as “the greatest haunted-house story ever written.” From the description, four seekers arrive at Hill House: “Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past.” Hill House will soon choose one of them to “make its own.”

My middle-school daughter read Corinna Turner’s Elfling. In this fantasy, Serapia Ravena, accompanied by her dragonet pet, searches for her father. But her father has some secrets, and Serapia’s quest to save him is fraught with danger. In my own review, I noted that Elfling “examines the nature of evil, sin and its consequences, suffering, forgiveness, and immortality from a Christian perspective.” My daughter really enjoyed it though she was surprised at a dangerous turn in the book. (That’s intentionally vague to avoid spoilers.)

With her class, she also read Kate diCamillo’s The Tiger Rising. It may be a National Book Award finalist, but my daughter didn’t care for it and found it bland and boring. A twelve-year old boy, Rob, encounters a caged tiger in the Florida woods. He also meets and befriends a girl named Sistine. Together, they discover “that some things—like memories, and heartache, and tigers—can’t be locked up forever.”

My middle school son read Is That an Angry Penguin in Your Gym Bag? by Todd Strasser. When the Tardy Boys show up at the ice rink for hockey practice, they discover it’s been overtaken by penguins. The boys must save the penguins from a villain who wants to make them into penguin oil. Sounds very juvenile. My son liked it though.

I received a copy of Pauline Books & Media’s beautiful anniversary edition of A Boy Who Became Pope: The Story of Saint John Paul II by Fabiola Garza. JPII is one of my favorite saints, and I’d long wanted to read this book. Though it’s a picture book, the length lends itself to an older audience than is typical. Reading JPII’s biography once again, even in simple terms–but as a middle-aged adult, I am struck by his remarkable fortitude and reminded the saints are not cowardly but bold and courageous. We could all benefit from this saint’s prayers and his example.

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