During his travels, my husband has been listening to Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin. It’s what you might expect from the subtitle, but I found this part of the description interesting:  “[The book] illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them.” Hmm. That’s something new to me.

He’s also listening to some different kinds of saint stories with Saints Who Battled Satan: Seventeen Holy Warriors Who Can Teach You How to Fight the Good Fight and Vanquish Your Ancient Enemy by Paul Thigpen. (Is there an award for longest subtitle?) It includes the stories of Saints Pio of Pietrelclina, Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, Theresa of Avila, John Vianney, and a dozen others.

I read Be Brave in the Scared by Mary Lenaburg in one evening. Yes, it’s short, but it is also smoothly written and not longer than it needed to be – and that says something. I often feel as if nonfiction books are trying to fill pages, becoming repetitive, but not in this case. Mary Lenaburg’s story is brutally honest and well-told, and that’s why this book has been so well-reviewed. I expected it to be more specifically about her relationship with her late daughter, Courtney, but it’s so much bigger and broader. If you’ve ever struggled to trust God with your life – and who hasn’t? – I recommend you read Be Brave in the Scared.

I did a final read-through of my own novel, All in Good Time, hoping to catch every last typo or formatting error! It’s the story of a young widow of three children, Melanie, who unexpectedly finds romance with one of the coaches of her oldest son’s Little League team, Brian. (A “fun uncle” helping out, not a married dad!) But just as everything seems to be going right, it all crumbles. Brian has some secrets. One he can’t keep longer than a couple of days, and an old one he desperately tries to hold close. Some humor, some mystery/suspense, and some serious treatment of a pervasive societal and familial problem: pornography.

I’ve begun reading The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise by Cardinal Robert Sarah and Nicholas Diat during a portion of my weekly Eucharistic Adoration. Who would’ve thought so much could be said about silence? So far, lots of food for thought. As a naturally quiet person and someone who tires of the noise of media (social and otherwise), a lot resonates with me. Even so, keeping silent runs so contrary to so much of how life “works” these days that aspects of the book are challenging.

A Reluctant Bride (The Bride Ships Book #1) by Jody Hedlund was an enjoyable book to listen to while running errands and completing household chores. From a writer’s perspective, so much of this novel is done right: internal and external conflicts for the hero and heroine, romantic tension, character arcs, story goals, and more. Beyond that, it was simply an enjoyable romance, drawing upon the common theme of love conquering class barriers. Joseph and Mercy were such honorable characters it would be hard not to like them, even if I wanted to give them a little nudge now and then.

Ella’s Promise by Ellen Gable recently released, though I read an advance copy a couple of months ago. This is the final book in the Great War Great Love series, another sweet historical romance between an American woman and a Canadian man set against the backdrop of World War I in France. I especially enjoyed the bit of espionage that makes its way into this story and the satisfying resolution of the series.

As I make my way through Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a classic I’ve never read, my son is beginning Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker. Inspired by notes and texts left behind by Bram Stoker, Dracul is a prequel to Dracula, set in 1868.

Apparently he has a thing for thick classics, because he’s also begun reading Don Quixote by Cervantes. I think he’s trying to up his Quiz Bowl game in the literature category, but he’s always gravitated toward classics. My son’s going to be better read than I am, for certain.

In sixth grade, my daughter has been borrowing books from the classroom library. Unfortunately, she’s somehow reading a series in reverse order, which is driving her bonkers. The current book is Julie by Jean Craighead George about an Eskimo girl returning home after having lived among wolves. The first book in the series was a Newbery Award-winner.

My second-grade daughter so desperately wants a puppy that it’s become nearly the sole topic of her reading. Poor thing. She recently read Buddy by Ellen Miles, another in the Puppy Place series in which foster dogs are placed in homes by a brother and sister, Charles and Lizzie Peterson.

She also really enjoyed Drawing God by Karen Kiefer. I asked why she liked it, and she gave me a little summary of how a girl tries to draw God by drawing things that God is like: the sun, bread, and a heart. This is a creative story designed to get children to try drawing God themselves and unlock the creativity of their faith imagination. World Drawing God Day is November 7.

In first grade, my son has discovered Nate the Great books, and I am happy to revisit this series that I loved reading with my oldest child. Nate solves simple mysteries, often with a side of his favorite food, pancakes. What makes this series shine are the quirky kids in the neighborhood: Oliver, who follows him everywhere, Annie and her vicious dog Fang, and Rosamond and her cats. The book he most recently read is Nate the Great and the Snowy Trail by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat.

At bedtime, we read Brother Lorenzo’s Pretzels: Prayer and the Holy Trinity by Cornelia Mary Bilinsky. We enjoyed this little history of the pretzel and how it was used to teach children basic religious concepts. It’s nicely illustrated and comes with a pretzel recipe at the end. I recommend it with a side visit to the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania, the first commercial pretzel bakery in America.

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

While he’s driving about, my husband has been listening to a variety of books, including Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw. (We were born and raised in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, so this has particular interest for him.) If you’re not familiar with this titan of the Industrial Revolution, Carnegie emigrated from Scotland at thirteen and became a wildly successful businessman and philanthropist. Even on audiobook, my husband says this work is daunting, clocking in at more than thirty-two and a half hours, or nearly 900 pages in paperback.

And to illustrate his varied interests, he’s also listening to Monsters Among Us: An Exploration of Otherworldly Bigfoots, Wolfmen, Portals, Phantoms, and Odd Phenomena by Linda S. Godfrey. I could use this as research for one of my works-in-progress, but I digress. Godfrey has written a dozen books on this topic (including one mentioned here) and is a frequent radio and TV guest expert on cryptozoology.

Not entirely unrelated on the otherworldly spectrum is Manual for Spiritual Warfare by Paul Thigpen. This, however, is less about entertaining curiosities and more about practical advice. It’s highly rated on Amazon (and a good number of the few low-star reviews are download or binding issues not related to content). There is an unseen battle going on around us, inside our families, our homes, and our hearts. Important stuff here.

His last selection is one for beer nerds and foodies (because it’s tied to the Slow Food movement): The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution. If your town is like ours, craft breweries and beer pubs have been popping up like dandelions in the spring. This movement, however, has been brewing (see what I did there?) since the 1960s. Interestingly, the author, Tom Acitelli, is a Jim Beard Award finalist, which gives me a perfect segue into what I’m listening to!

The Saturday Night Supper Club by Carla Laureano features a Jim Beard Award-winning Denver chef who is bought out of her upscale restaurant when an essayist’s screed against the coarseness of public discourse on social media goes viral, slandering the chef by hyperlink. And that’s as far as I’ve gotten, though I’ve seen many positive reviews of this book.

The Butterfly Recluse by Therese Heckenkamp was a quick read with a sweet romance and a suspenseful twist I didn’t see coming. We’re tending some Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars right now, so the butterfly element was right up my alley.

David Liss’s The Whiskey Rebels wasn’t at all what I expected, but I loved it just the same. My interest was piqued by having grown up within miles of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. (See Andrew Carnegie above.) This novel, which includes fictional and historical characters, is filled with intrigue and financial machinations. It follows disgraced Revolutionary War patriot and spy Ethan Saunders and widowed frontierswoman Joan Maycott. I dare say I laughed outloud more during this book than any I’ve read. Ethan Saunders, while hardly a paragon of virtue, has a fantastic dry wit. Kudos to David Liss for Saunders’ dialogue! (For sensitive readers: there are some scenes of non-graphic brutality and a few instances of coarse language.)

My high school junior is reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I haven’t read the play since high school, but I think I also read it in the fall, which seems appropriate for the run-up to Halloween. My son enjoyed the first act, but by the second act, he said he loved it. Witchcraft accusations are flying left and right by that point. I feel a re-read coming on.

In middle school, my daughter’s sixth-grade class is reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. This Newbery Award winner concerns an orphaned boy and tackles issues of racism, poverty, and homelessness. I confess I’ve never read this one, but my daughter is enjoying it as much as her brother did when he was in sixth grade.

While looking at the library’s selection of puppy books for my younger daughter, I came across Lydia the Patriot: The Boston Massacre by Susan Martins Miller. We visited Boston this summer, a treat for our colonial-history buff daughter, so I thought she’d enjoy this. Turns out it has Christian themes as well, so, bonus!

In the second grade, my younger daughter’s class has already covered several books, starting with Freckle Juice by Judy Blume. I was treated to a re-telling of the awful freckle juice ingredients (said to produce freckles):  grape juice, vinegar, mustard, and more.

You could say the second grade in our parish school is frog-themed because their teacher has an affinity for frogs – or F.R.O.G. (Fully Rely on God) Our Principal is a Frog by Stephanie Calmenson seems like a good fit for the class! My daughter thought this was a fun book.

In the first grade, my son’s teacher has been reading some Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Park. At home, we’re reading Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Graphic Novel by Natalie Muglia and Sam Estrada. It’s a beautifully illustrated story within a story as St. Juan Diego’s encounters with the Blessed Mother are re-told to future Cristero martyr St. José Sánchez del Río. You can read my review at CatholicMom.

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

On our way home from our Boston-area vacation, which included visits to the Concord-Lexington area and Minute Man National Historic Park, my husband downloaded Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence by Carol Berkin. I only heard the first several chapters, but my husband finished it after we got home. (I’ll get to the rest, eventually.) I never took a women’s studies course, but I imagine this is somewhat like the material covered. A little on the textbook side but still interesting, Revolutionary Mothers provides a detailed look at women’s roles during the war that may be overlooked elsewhere.

Because he’s also been listening to How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter, and Self-Preservation Anywhere by Bradford Angier, I get unusual texts about the edibles in our yard, such as rose hips. As we’ve added more native plants to our gardens, I’ve come to learn a lot about how such plants have been used, and this sounds like an interesting lesson in the varied uses of plants we’ve long considered merely ornamental. And did you know you can eat a porcupine? My husband did say that this book would be more useful in paperback form for easy reference.

I’ve been tearing through a lot of books lately, so let’s get right to it! On audiobook, I listened to The Pirate Bride (Daughters of the Mayflower, Book 2) by Kathleen Y’Barbo. While the word “bride” in the title connotes romance, I do not categorize this is as such. The romance thread only surfaces in the final 10 percent of the book. That said, I loved this book, which my 11-year-old daughter ended up enjoying as well. The narration was well done with characters of French, Spanish, American, and African descent. Plenty of action, some unexpected twists and turns, and a French pirate – er, privateer add to the enjoyment. The heroine, Maribel, is a spirited, independent young woman whom I longed to see reunited with her privateer crew.

I’d been itching to read Sons of Blackbird Mountain (A Blackbird Mountain Novel) by Joanne Bischof for most of the past year. Having loved her novel The Lady and Lionheart and seeing so many rave reviews of this new book, I was anxious to read it. I was not disappointed. The story centers around three Virginian brothers of Norwegian descent: Jargon, Thor, and Haakon. Thor, a burly man who is deaf and mute, is center stage in this story as he meets and woos Aven, the widow of the brothers’ cousin, come to start a new life in America. The characterization of these brothers is among the best I’ve read, and the author does a tremendous job with the challenge of writing a deaf/mute hero. I’ve begun reading the second book in the series, Daughters of Northern Shores.

In between the others, I flew through More Than Words Can Say (A Patchwork Family Novel Book #2) by Karen Witemeyer. The author really makes it look easy in this smooth read that does the marriage of convenience trope justice. The ongoing tension between Zach and Abigail and when their marriage will become more than a simple agreement had me turning digital pages late into the night. Despite the prominence of the whole “marital relations” issues, it’s really a cute, clean story that is refreshingly frank about marital love and the emotional intimacy that should co-exist with the physical intimacy. There’s also a nice spiritual message of relying on God.

Our monthly Star Wars pick is Bloodline by Claudia Gray. This novel focuses more on political intrigue involving Princess Leia in the years before The Force Awakens than action-adventure.

While my son reads the Star Wars novel, I’m eyeing some of his summer reading for school, which includes two novellas written in Latin. Both are written by Andrew Olimpi, and the first is Perseus et Rex Malus. (Translation: Perseus and the Evil King) I may take a crack at reading these myself to sharpen my very rusty Latin translation skills.

In perusing the selections for her summer reading assignment, my daughter discovered a new beloved author! She immediately homed in on books written in the colonial period and began reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. She loved the book and quickly moved on to the remaining books in The Seeds of America trilogy: Forge and Ashes. All feature African American slaves during the Revolutionary War.

I’ve begun reading aloud The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald to whichever children care to listen. The version we checked out of the library is illustrated by Okama in Japanese manga style. I love that there are illustrations on every page, but the manga is clashing with the pictures my imagination generates. Just a personal preference. We’re not too far in yet, so I don’t have anything to add about the story itself though I discovered this book through another An Open Book post! Here’s what the description says: “The classic fantasy novel that inspired The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia now featuring playful illustrations by Japanese manga artist Okama!”

My soon-to-be second grader discovered the joys of young sleuth Encyclopedia Brown in Encyclopedia Brown and His Best Cases Ever by Donald J. Sobol. I read many of these with my oldest son and always enjoyed the little mysteries. This collection comprises fifteen favorite stories.

The kids and I enjoyed two books I received from Magnificat-Ignatius. The first is Stories of the Blessed Sacrament by Francine Bay. Twelve true stories emphasizing the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist are retold for children. Some stories were familiar to us, others new, including one I’d like to dig into. Great for all children but especially those approaching First Communion.

Mozart: Gift of God by Demi is a beautiful, sturdy picture book that brings Mozart’s faith to the forefront alongside his immense talent as a composer and musician. In addition to providing a traditional biography of Mozart, it allows the reader to see how faith and devotion inspire creativity and how our gifts and talents can be used in God’s service.

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

Around the time of the D-Day anniversary (June 6), my husband began listening to The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach by John C. McManus. The book is an account of the harrowing World War II battle. With fewer WWII veterans remaining every day, this history takes on greater significance. So many, including my own father and father-in-law, spoke so little of the horror or the heroism they experienced.

I’ve been listening to a historical novel that goes back a few centuries farther: The Mayflower Bride by Kimberley Wodehouse. It’s the first in the Daughters of the Mayflower Series, which in includes eight books by six different authors. While from the title you’d guess this is a romance, what strikes me most are the hardships faced by the pilgrims. Stormy seas, sea sickness, scurvy, a leaky ship, scarce food and water, threatening natives, and more. Crossing the Atlantic was not for the weak. Historical figures interact with fictional ones in this sobering account of the journey to the New World by “saints” and “strangers.”

Many of the books I’ve been reading have yet to be released, and that includes one I’m ready to begin. The Killing Tide by Dani Pettrey is the first in her Coastal Guardians series. If you’re a fan of Christian romantic suspense, the author has two series under her belt already, and they are consistently entertaining. This series launches with a Coast Guard Investigative Service special agent butting heads with an investigative reporter who happens to be his boss’s sister as they try to uncover who is behind the death of one Coast Guard officer and the disappearance of another.

This summer’s CatholicMom.com Book Club features Our Lady of Charity: How a Cuban Devotion to Mary Helped Me Grow in Faith and Love by Maria Morera Johnson. The Cuban history is fascinating, and the author’s experience as an exile enriches her account of her heritage and person devotion to the Blessed Mother under the Our Lady of Charity mantle. I was privileged to interview the author. The interview and a series of chapter reflections round out the summer book club. Learn more, including how to buy the book at a discount through CatholicMom.

As the school year ended, my son told me about the great movie his Latin II class had watched. From his short description, I guessed that they’d watched The Eagle. Conveniently, I’d read The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutliff as part of Sabbath Rest Book Talk. Marcus sets out to discover the fate of his missing father, who led the Roman Ninth Legion. We requested the book from the library, and so began his summer reading.

For his birthday, my now-high school junior (gulp!) received The Jedi Path. (You knew there were Star Wars books coming, right?) This unique book is an ancient training manual for Jedi. It includes history and lore of the Jedi order with notes from Yoda, Luke Skywalker, and others. My son says it’s great for Star Wars fans and just plain fun to look at, but he does warn that since Disney has acquired the Star Wars franchise, information included in the book is no longer canon.

Star Wars: Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray is the latest Star Wars novel, and this one is part of the new canon. It follows Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi master and his padawan, before The Phantom Menace. Seeing as my son has been buried in this novel, for which he acquired a signed, hardcover copy, I’d say he thinks it’s very good.

My little second grader is moving between picture books and chapter books. She attends a lunchtime book chat for children her age (Chewsy Readers) at our local library. In conjunction with this summer’s spaced-themed reading program, she brought home Dwarf Planets: Pluto, Charon, Ceres, and Eris by Nancy Loewen. Simple graphics and illustrations make the astronomy lesson palatable for all ages. She loved this book!

We picked up an inexpensive copy of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is one of those childhood classics that I missed out on, and I’d like to read it myself. Straight from the description: When orphan Mary Lennox moves to her uncle’s house, she finds lots of secrets, including nearly a hundred rooms. She discovers an escape in a secret garden and is determined to bring the garden back to life.

My two youngest are enjoying Audacious Ignatius by Paul Mitchell with bright illustrations by Katie Mitchell Broussard. Who would’ve thought so many words rhymed with Ignatius? This brightly illustrated, rhyming picture book is a fun biography of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. It’s a great introduction to the saint for young children – and a vocabulary-building book as well!

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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