Welcome to the January 2020 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com!

While he’s preparing for Marian consecration, my husband has been listening to/reading Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah by Brant Pitre. Part history, part Catholic apologetics, the Old Testament Marian typology presented in this book has been fascinating to him. I’ve seen some accolades for this book on social media too, and I’m looking forward to reading this one myself.

I’ve been reading Dracula by Bram Stoker for a long, long time. In fact, my daughter recently asked why I was reading a “Halloween book” at Christmas! I’ll finish it soon, I promise. In the meantime, I’ve been listening to several books as well. The Thorn Keeper by Pepper Basham, while being the second book in her Penned in Time series, is the first historical novel of hers that I’ve read. This World War I novel has the feel of a dramatic saga akin to a soap opera in parts. The characters are lively and engaging, and its redemptive message is a good reminder to try to see others as Christ sees them, as they are, not as they were. Change happens.

Maybe the final days of Christmas preparations made me a bit Grinchy, but I wasn’t feeling A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson. The contrived contemporary Christmas romance novella is akin to a Hallmark movie in print form, but the romance was so abrupt, it ruined the story for me. Being sensitive to authors’ feelings, I think this may be the first time in years of reviewing that I’ve used the work “schlock.”

Kill Shot by Anne Patrick is a Christian romantic suspense novel teaming a Maine sheriff with a combat veteran to discover who wants to see the former Army medic dead. I’m only a few chapters in, but I see some chemistry brewing between this pair, and the story is moving at a nice clip.

For Christmas, my sixteen-year-old received Drive! by Corinna Turner. This dystopian dinosaur adventure is sure to please Jurassic Park fans. I quite easily bought the dinosaur-inhabited world with secured city dwellers separated from hunters and farmers living beyond the safety fence. Somehow, the author nicely adds a bit of faith as well, even ascribing a patron saint to these rugged adventurers.

My sixth grader recently read a book her older brother and I both loved: Treachery and Truth by Katy Huth Jones. This is the fictionalized story of Good King Wenceslas of the famed carol told from the point of view of his servant Poidevin. This is a great one to re-read at Christmas time—or anytime.

In class, my daughter is also reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, a Holocaust book set in Denmark. I’d love to see how it compares to Bright Candles by Nathaniel Benchley, which is similarly set. (More about that book in Sabbath Rest Book Talk from July 2017.)

In her big ol’ heap of chapter books lying around here, the eight-year-old found The Ember Stone: A Branches Book by Katrina Charman, the first book in The Last Firehawk series. I asked for a summary and got a laundry list of animals on some kind of adventure that included a barn owl and a squirrel. And an egg that might have combusted. She seems to be enjoying it.

She’s also begun Lisa Hendey’s  Chime Travelers series. I thought being the Christmas  season, she’d like to read The Strangers at the Manger, but she wanted to start at the beginning, so she read The Secret of the Shamrock, a story involving Saint Patrick, first. Her sister also enjoyed these books that I’d describe as a Catholic Magic Treehouse series with a brother-sister pair traveling through time to experience the lives of the saints.

Being Christmas, one of our favorites resurfaced. My husband picked up Jolly Old Santa Claus by Mary Jane Tonn years ago because it reminded him of the Christmas Little Golden Books from our childhoods. This is a cute story about Santa Claus’s Christmas workshop preparations with the help, of course, of his elves (called brownies here). For extra fun, you can find Santa’s cat, Lady Whiskers, on most pages.

One Winter’s Day by M. Christina Butler came home from school with my youngest son, but I think we have our own copy on a shelf here somewhere. (Shows you how well organized our books are.) No matter which copy we read, it’s a cute tale of a hedgehog who generously gives away his warm scarf, mittens, etc. to friends in need.

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Welcome to the June 2019 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com!

Do you read and/or listen to many books simultaneously? I’m usually listening to one audiobook and reading one ebook or paperback at a time. Occasionally, I’ll add another that I’m reading bit by bit. My husband has so many going I can’t keep track. One that sparked by interest is The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys are Struggling and What We Can Do About It by Warren Farrell and John Gray. The blurb describes it as: “A comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers, and policymakers can do to help our sons become happier, healthier men, and fathers and leaders worthy of our respect.” It touches on mental health, fathering, and education. As a father of two boys and a Cub Scout and Boy Scout Leader, this topic is of great interest to him.

Did you know whole books are written about sleeping in hammocks? Me neither. Enter The Ultimate Hang: Hammock Camping Illustrated by Derek Hansen. Whether you’re looking to lounge in your home, back yard, or intent on serious trail hiking, this book has tips and many illustrations for setup as well as staying warm, dry, and bug-free. Done right, the hammock should be more comfortable than the ground.

Laura Frantz writes sweeping sagas filled with longing, heartbreak, and romance in the broadest sense of the term. In A Bound Heart, Magnus MacLeish, laird of a Scottish isle, is alternately drawn to and pulled away from his childhood friend, Lark MacDougall. Exiled from their beloved home, they are sent as indentured servants across the Atlantic to America. The narration is very well done with heartfelt emotion and Scottish accents that seem, at least to this uneducated ear, to be on point. Filled with lovely imagery and strong, honorable characters.

I’ve just finished The Hidden Legacy: A Novel by Carrie Sue Barnes. Through this novel and Ellen Gable’s Great War-Great Love series, I’ve come to learn about the service of American nurses in France during World War I. This story is split between France during WWI and the beginning of the 21^st century, moving between nurse Annie’s tumultuous past serving wounded soldiers and her relaying the tale to her granddaughter Laurel eighty-three years later. I was drawn into the characters’ lives and their attempts to love bravely and freely while letting go of past hurts.

For the last fifteen minutes or so during weekly adoration, I’ve been reading The World’s First Love: Mary, Mother of God by Fulton J. Sheen through FORMED. In each chapter, I highlight beautiful and profound insights that I’m eager to share. Venerable Fulton Sheen’s clear thinking and wisdom are evident on every page. It’s a mix of spirituality, history, and theology.

The last book for my son’s sophomore literature class is Thomas Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons. The class reads portions of the play aloud together and other parts independently. I’m looking forward to watching the Oscar-winning movie adaption of this story of St. Thomas More’s conflict with Henry VIII with him once the school year ends.

With the long days of summer looming ahead, my daughter has decided to give the rather long but beloved classic Little Women by Louisa May Allcott a try. We watched the movie adaption featuring Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder several months ago, and I think my daughter will come to love the book.

Eager to have a cavy of her own, my daughter is also reading Guinea Pigs by Kay Ragland. The pictures of the cuddly creatures are adorable, but there is also a lot of information about breeds and care though this book was written in the 1980s.

Many, many nights in our home end with my youngest son requesting Secrets of the Rainforest: A Shine-a-Light Book by Carron Brown. Armed with my book light, the kids take turns shining it behind the pages to reveal the hidden creatures in the rain forest: the tapir, the leaf-cutting ants, the sloth, and more. Another quality book from Usborne!

In anticipation of his older brother’s birthday, my little boy also borrowed Click, Clack, Surprise! (A Click Clack Book) by Doreen Cronin. The wry farm animals in this series of books entertain me as well as the kids, and this birthday-themed story centered on a duckling trying to ready himself for a party is cute.

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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Welcome to the April 2018 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com!

De-escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less  by Douglas E. Noll provides the reader (or, in my husband’s case, listener) with practical tips for dealing with angry family members, co-workers, etc., by being the peacemaker.  My husband’s only at the beginning, so he hasn’t formed an opinion about the book, but he’s hoping that it will help him understand angry emotions, both in himself and in others.

I recently downloaded Quenby Olson’s The Bride Price, a Regency romance. I’ve “met” the author through 10 Minute Novelists, but she also lives locally. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every book I’ve read by her, and she’s a skilled and talented author. (I’m also impressed by her productivity given the craziness of motherhood and family life.) I purposely haven’t read the book blurb so that I can enjoy this story as it unfolds with no expectations, confident that I’m in the hands of a capable author.

I’ve also been reading a series of young adult books by Glenn Haggerty. Run is the second in the Intense series. (A prequel novella, Escape, precedes it.) The central character, Tyler Higgins, is learning to navigate friendships and bullies amidst adventure that keeps him in peril. I like that through his (very normal) mistakes and flaws, Tyler persists, finding courage and growing in wisdom and grace. Run is Christian YA (not heavy-handed) alive with action, and probably best enjoyed by pre-teen and teen boys.

I picked up the final book in the Michael Vey series, Michael Vey 7: The Final Spark by Richard Paul Evans from our local library. My son zipped through the book in a couple of days. (I think it’s easy reading compared to his school-required selections.) My son is glad to have completed the series but remarked that some of the plot seemed contrived. “Too convenient,” is what I think he said.

He’s also read and is studying Medea by Euripedes, another in the line of Greek tragedies he’s been reading. The bloodshed in Medea centers upon revenge as Medea kills her own children to punish her husband. Fun stuff, the classics.

The Riddle of Penncroft Farm by Dorothea Jensen is one of my daughter’s new favorites.  This, too, is set in her favorite time period: the Revolutionary War era. The book takes place in and around Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and includes a bit of mystery and a ghost story as well as history. I’m thinking we’ll have to make a trip to Valley Forge this summer since she was too young to remember our previous visit.

Still working through the Lois Lenski collection at the library, my fourth grader is also reading Judy’s Journey. The story follows a family of migrant farmers up and down the East Coast of the United States as they look for work. As you can imagine, that kind of lifestyle would be difficult for a child moving from school to school.

Fresh off school celebrations held for Dr. Seuss Week, my kindergartener has been reading (and reading and re-reading) There’s a Wocket in My Pocket. I don’t consider myself much of a Dr. Seuss fan, but this is one of my favorites. (I wouldn’t mind a few nupboards in my cupboards, provided they keep it clean.)

In time for Easter, my youngest daughter picked up The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Sunday from the back of church.  This is part of the Christian line of Berenstain Bears books written by Mike Berenstain and published by ZonderKidz. (I prefer the older books by his parents, Stan and Jan Berenstain.) While there’s nothing here my kids don’t know, it would be a good introduction to Easter for a child with only a secular understanding of Easter or one who has not attended church. And I actually did learn something. Apparently there are people who don’t believe we should celebrate Easter with chocolate and candy. What!?! (N.B.: That’s not what the Bear family believes. )

I’m also reading The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward and Marjorie Flack to my youngest children. I can hardly believe that I haven’t included this book somewhere in a blog post before. This tattered softcover book was among the books my husband brought from his parents’ house years ago. Inspiring to moms everywhere, this country bunny has her industrious charges so well-disciplined that eventually the little bunnies can handily run the household. This frees the mother bunny to take on Easter bunny duties. And wouldn’t you know that all those years of mothering made her a particularly compassionate, determined Easter bunny.

What are you reading? Share it at An Open Book and find new book recommendations too! #openbook Share on X

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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.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! STAY A WHILE AND LOOK AROUND. LEAVE A COMMENT. SHARE WITH A FRIEND. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE, PLEASE SIGN UP FROM MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON NEW RELEASES, EXTRAS, AND HOT DEALS!