I don’t typically share individual book reviews unless they are part of a virtual book tour/blog tour. But Things Worth Dying For, more than anything I’ve read in recent memory, was the right book at the right moment.
Things worth dying for and its flips side, things worth living for, are what it’s all about. Over the past couple of years, those things have crystallized for me. Not that my beliefs have changed, but in a messy world, painted in blacks, whites, and shades of gray, the contrast between the darkness and the light have appeared, to me at least, more stark.
Up for a challenge? The Catholic Writers Guild invites you to participate in its 2022 Reading Challenge. Read as many or as few books as you like in this challenge designed to have you reading Catholic books, fiction or nonfiction, in a way that expands your reading horizons without having you search for arcane titles on dusty old shelves. (Though dusting off some of the books in your personal library may be a good idea!)
Welcome to the January 2022 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
My husband stumbled across a book I’d given him last year: Christmas Around the Fire: Stories, Essays, & Poems for the Season of Christ’s Birth by Ryan N. S. Topping. In fact, he read a selected story aloud to me—as it’s meant to be!—sitting alongside a cozy fireplace, and it was like something out of a storybook. There’s something about being read to, and, as an adult, I’ve experienced entirely too little of it. (I’m used to being the reader.) This book could help create some lovely family traditions.
I read fewer Christmas books than I’d have liked this year, but one of those I did complete was Mr. Nicholas: A Magical Christmas Tale by Christopher de Vinck. The “Christmas magic” accompanies Mr. Nicholas, as you might easily guess, but the story centers on a couple at the brink of divorce and their wonderfully simple son, who has Down syndrome. Mister Rogers Neighborhood serves as a touchstone in the story, which touched this fan of the show and western Pennsylvania native.
My daughter and I resumed listening to audiobooks together, something we haven’t really done since before the pandemic. We chose Pepper Basham’s The Mistletoe Countess, which I’ve seen so many glowing reviews for. We’re less than halfway through, but it’s easy to see why readers love this forthright, authentic, and bookish heroine. This young turn-of-the-century Virginian is paired with an English lord, and there’s a murder mystery to be solved at his beloved Havensbrook Hall.
Jennifer Rodewald has reached the last brother in her Murphy Brothers Stories with Brayden in After All. Having seen what the author has done in the other stories, aptly demonstrating the power of God to change hearts and lives, it’s not hard to accept what is a somewhat difficult story in which Brayden’s motivations and behavior sometimes made me cringe. Don’t worry, it turns out well! And, I think despite running out of brothers, there’s another connected book coming in 2022.
Let It Be Me is Becky Wade’s second book in her Misty River Romance series. Her stories are easy to sail through with smooth writing and witty banter. This book pairs a genius mathematician who discovers she was switched at birth and a closed-off pediatric heart surgeon (oh, the irony). There’s a mystery to solve regarding the circumstances of Leah, the mathematician’s, birth. I’m enjoying the story although I’m having trouble connecting with the main characters, something I don’t think I’ve ever experienced with a Becky Wade book.
My oldest son is home from college and is reading his way through his dad’s Star Wars books that he discovered in the attic over Thanksgiving break. He’s a fan of these now non-canon books and how they portray Luke Skywalker (as opposed to how the character is rendered in the final big screen trilogy). Both Heir to the Empire and Dark Force Rising are part of The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn.
We gave our teen daughter a beautiful hard cover edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë for Christmas. We recently watched a movie adaption, and she was primed and ready to read the classic. I purchased the book, and even I didn’t realize what a keepsake it would be. Not only does it include lovely illustrations by Marjolein Bastin, but it includes treasures like a copy of Bronte’s letter to her publisher, a postcard with period fashions, an advertisement akin to what Jane placed seeking a governess position, and more. I hope my daughter enjoys the Gothic romance of a courageous, principled orphan who finds love (and a wee bit of horror) at Thornfield Hall with Edward Rochester.
Having completed Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (again), my eighth grader also chose to begin Great Expectations. Thus far, she’s taken by the size of the volume and Dickens’s propensity for lengthy descriptions. I’ve not yet read this classic, which follows orphan Pip Pirrip’s life after he receives a mysterious inheritance.
My younger daughter received Coding Games in Scratch: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Building Your Own Computer Gamesby Jon Woodcockfrom her older brother. She enjoys simple programming apps she uses in the STREAM lab at school, and he thought she’d take to more coding. It teaches problem solving and all that, but mostly, I think, it’s just fun. (And her brother, who’s doing college-level programming now, is happy to spur her interest in something he enjoys.)
This fourth grader has also been busy snatching paper from the printer to draw all sorts of shapes and characters, so we gave her How to Draw Cool Stuff: Holidays, Seasons and Events by Catherine V. Holmes. It seems easy to follow, and she’s been bringing me pages from her new sketchbook filled with Christmas trees, elves, and ornaments.
In school, her class completed The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, which we’d read together last year. They’ve also continued to read from the I Survived Series, reading I Survived the Galveston Hurricane, 1900 by Lauren Tarshis. Eight-thousand people were killed in the Texas hurricane that took locals by surprise.
I recently edited a book in Theresa Linden’s Armor of God series, which my daughter loves. I need to get her her own copy of Boots of Peace, which follows George Pennington’s pursuit of a full set of armor. So far, he, his younger brother, and his friend Robyn have earned their Belt of Truth and Breastplate of Righteousness. With each piece earned, they learn valuable lessons about life and virtue while discovering a little more about the mysterious knights’ table they’ve discovered in the woods. This series is perfect for children in the sacramental years who are either preparing for or have recently received First Penance and First Holy Communion.
My third grader enjoyed Bots: The Most Annoying Robots in the Universe by Russ Bolts, in which some space robots are discovered. At least that’s what I absorbed from his brief description of this graphic novel about Joe and Rob, a couple of goofy robots who discover strange video cameras that fell from the sky.
All of the kids enjoyed Let’s Explore! Woodland Creatures by Claire Philip. It includes a series of woodland animals, how each is adapted to its habitat, finds food, is affected by the seasons, and more. The illustrations by Jean Claude are charming too.
Our son received The Night the Saints Saved Christmas by Gracie Jagla, and it’s such a sweet and beautiful tale of the saints in heaven working to deliver Christmas presents when St. Nick gets sick. The rhyme is fun to read, and we love picking out the saints, like St. John Paul II delivering presents on skis or Blessed Pier Giorgio scaling mountains to distribute gifts. This book would make a treasured part of a child’s Christmas library.
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I didn’t quite hit my Goodreads reading goal this year. I usually do. But circumstances were different this year, and that meant less reading and almost no writing. I’ve also become pickier and pickier about what I read and more and more critical, a hazard of being a writer and consuming many books.
In looking back over the 90+ books I read last year, these five-star books stood out. I didn’t double-check, but I’m fairly certain these are all 2021 releases. (Or, in the case of The Work of Our Hands, late 2020.)
Teenager Evie Gallagher is stunned when her 45-year-old father dies tragically and suddenly. Too many unanswered questions accompany Evie’s challenging journey to adulthood. When she finally discovers the reason her father led such a troubled life, shock turns to anger. She is determined to find justice for her father.
Nervous about the first day of his freshman year, 14-year-old Hank Gallagher steps inside Holy Archangels High School for the first time in September of 1954. Although the majestic Holy Archangels statues inside the school’s grand lobby present an air of protection, it is not long before Hank passes right under them and into the hands of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Confused and cornered by threats, Hank attempts to abandon his secret to the past, but a horrible wound on his heart eventually leads to a catastrophic breakdown.
Based loosely on actual events, chapters alternate between Evie and Hank to reveal a life haunted by betrayal and a revelation of true justice and hope.
Welcome to the December 2021 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
Life has conspired to limit both my and my family’s reading time lately, but I still have some books to share! First, The ChristmasLights, a collective story written by six members of Catholic Teen Books, including myself, is now available as a 99-cent e-book. Following a prompt, each author contributed a segment to the story then passed it on to another author. Only the final author knew the ending until we read it aloud on the Reading With Your Kids Podcast. It was such fun! I re-read the story in preparation for publishing the e-book, and I could still hear each author’s voice in my head as I read it. Camilla and her family are on her way to visit her newly widowed grandfather for Christmas, but a hazardous snowstorm sends their vehicle into a ditch. Camilla must find help for her injured parents and little brother. Encouraged by a vision of her late grandmother, Camilla does find help—in the most unexpected ways. All profits from the e-book will be donated to Cross Catholic.
I’m about halfway through Ellen Gable’s soon-to-be-released Where Angels Pass, a story of a boy’s abuse by a priest and the ramifications for him and his future family loosely based on the author’s experience. I love that Ellen Gable deals frankly with the ways in which both the victim, Hank, and in particular his daughter, Evie, are harmed. The value of fiction shines in this story that allows the reader to understand how Hank’s trauma results in lifelong consequences.
Corinna Turner writes faster than I can read, I think, and her latest (coming soon!), A Saint in the Family, includes an addition to her I Am Margaret series. I’ve read the short stories and novellas contained in this edition separately, but I appreciated reading those that feature heroine Margo’s brother Kyle all in one place. Kyle is a hero in his own right in these side stories. I don’t know of any author writing as effectively about the day-to-day sacrifices that sanctify us as Corinna Turner.
My eighth-grade daughter finished Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson. I thought I’d entertain her by singing a poem to “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” but, even better, we discovered the poems, because of their meter, can also be sung to the Pokémon theme song. (I’ll spare you a link.) She’s not generally a big poetry fan, but she did enjoy these poems, which she read between her continuation of Edgar Allan Poe short stories from last month.
My fourth-grade daughter has picked up her older brother’s Jedi Academy series. She’s read the first three books in the series, written by Jeffrey Brown. (The subsequent books are written by a different author.) Star Wars Jedi Academy, which includes lots of illustrations among its chapters, is best described as Star Wars meets middle school.
I read Tomie dePaola’s David and Goliath aloud to my two youngest. The hardcover picture book has recently been published by Magnificat-Ignatius. The book sticks to the story in 2Samuel and goes a little deeper than the short, familiar retellings of David slaying the giant. (My daughter pointed out that she’d never heard the part about David beheading Goliath.) It makes clear the message that God is the one, true God, who comes to the aid of the small and lowly.
The Adventures of Loupio: Volume 6, The Quest by Jean-François Kieffer is part of a series of graphic novels from Magnificat-Ignatius that follow an orphan boy, Loupio, befriended by the wolf tamed by Saint Francis. In this volume, Loupio travels throughout Italy, dependent on Our Lady of Providence, braving cold, hunger, theft, and discouragement as he seeks a bell for Saint Francis. The illustrations are lively, and the text is simple enough for young readers (seven and up). A map in the back traces the path of Loupio’s adventure, and music and lyrics are provided for the melody Loupio sings trying to earn coins to purchase the bell. Books in this series would make a lovely gift.
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Welcome to the November 2021 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
The Halloween/All Saints/All Souls ‘spooky season’ means we broke out the Edgar Allan Poe collection. I rummaged through thirty, yes, thirty boxes of books in the attic several times until I found my lovely little Poe collection, Tales of Mystery and Imagination. This book was a gift to me many years ago. It’s small and portable and has a lovely ribbon bookmark and gold edging. My teenagers have been reading various stories, my daughter for pleasure, and my son for his short story reading group. I’m determined to at least revisit a few of my favorites, including “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
I finally moved The Spice King by Elizabeth Camden to the top of my list after hearing of so many people who loved it. The book is set in turn of the 20th century Washington, DC, and concerns the nascent workings of the Department of Agriculture in attempting to regulate processed foods. The history and politics surrounding that effort fascinated me, recalling some of what I’d seen in The Food That Built America (which I recommend). The wealthy spice company siblings in the book also intrigued me, but the romance between spice king Gray and civil servant Annabelle fizzled instead of sizzled.
A World War II debut novel with Catholic themes by a local author had been waiting on my to-read pile for some months. The Cross Our Compass by Mary Rose Kadar-Kallen surprised me in a good way. What started as an idyllic family story evolved into a war story of some depth, focused on the value of suffering seen through the lens of Christ’s death and resurrection. I would’ve preferred the story in a closer point of view, but I was still moved by the main character’s experiences in the European trenches.
Author T.M. Gaouette will soon release the final book in her Faith & Kung Fu series for teens, Loving Gabriel. I read an advance copy of the story that showcases the maturing relationship of Hollywood starlet Tanner Rose and devout country boy Gabriel. The novel will give teens lots to think about in discerning marriage and the importance of honesty and communication in intimate relationships. There’s also an element of danger and suspense that adds some excitement to the story.
I’m only a quarter of the way through a lengthy debut novel written by a teenager—Morning Star by Bennett J. Bauer. There seems to be limited availability—only through the publisher—but its completion is quite a feat for someone so young. It’s a little early to tell, but although the mechanics of writing are well executed, I think the story could use some tightening and revision for it to really grab the reader. Morning Star will appeal to young fans of historical adventure and piracy.
My kids all seem to be reading the same books the last couple of months. Two of them are reading Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe. It’s interesting to compare the covers of the books. The more recent, pictured here, has a completely different feel and appeal than the original cover featuring a sleepy dog, which my son borrowed from the school library. My oldest also once enjoyed this story of a rabbit draining the juices from vegetables much as a vampire drains blood from its victims. Some silly fun for the season.
Honey in a Hive by Anne Rockwell provides kids (and adults) with a very thorough education in the lives and workings of honeybees. I recall someone telling me that they educated themselves on a variety of topics by reading children’s nonfiction books, and this one is a great example of what a valuable practice that might be.
Want more details on An Open Book? You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up. No blog? That’s okay. Just tell us what you’re reading in the comment box.
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