This children’s book is the perfect way to bring a little history into the romance of St. Valentine’s Day. It shares a summary of Valentine and how his life and death spurred the holiday we currently know. It is a very cute story with poems mixed into the prose. It is well written, well constructed and a definite recommend for teaching kids about the originator of the holiday.
I haven’t studied the life of St. Valentine myself to speak into the accuracy of information or anything of value I would add to the story. Bustard does have a note from the author at the end of the book explaining that not much is known about Valentine and the limited information he found shares about his love for others. Bustard explains the different types of love known to the Ancient Greeks and how Valentine demonstrates the love Christ has for all of us, not just romantic love for one person. This is such an appropriate note for the readers to understand that Valentine was a believer who epitomized the love of God shown in a variety of ways.
This is an additional book of 7 short stories within the world of Aerwiar from the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. This was one of the fun books that I put on a list for secret santa (among others) and didn’t think about until I got the present and figured I might as well reading it since I was in between books.
And I’m so glad I did start reading it! Oh, what a joy to dive back into Aerwiar and read stories of characters we know and some we don’t.
The book starts out with “The Prince of Yorsha Doon” by Andrew Peterson. This story takes place in a city we don’t visit in the original series. It is the adventure story of reinstating the proper city leadership. Quick, fun, and moral. It personally reminded me of Curdie and the Princess.
Next, “The Wooing of Sophelia Stupe” by Jennifer Trafton is magical. Every part of this story is wonderful, from seeing the original habitants of Anklejelly Manor, to experiencing the numerous animals featured in Creaturepedia, to the pure irony Pembrick is left with at the end. All around delightful.
“Willow Worlds” by ND Wilson was not especially engaging. Fun little story. Nothing Special.
“Shadowblade and the Florid Sword” by Andrew Peterson is the first Wingfeather graphic novel depicting an evening with Maraly and Gammon following the original series.
“From the Deeps of the Dragon King” by AS Peterson is the much imagined story of Podo Helmer’s escapade earning him the name “Scale Raker” from the sea dragons. It is mighty and crazy. An epic adventure with a solemn conclusion.
“The Ballard of Lanric and Rube” by Jonathan Rogers is the well known (and sung) Annieran tale referenced in the original books. Very silly and enjoyable to see brought to life.
The last and longest story in the series, “The Places Beyond the Maps” by Douglas McKelvey, is a gut wrenching novella following Sara Cobbler’s father on his journey to meet the Maker after Sara is taken in the Black Carriage. It delivers. As this story coincides with the events of the original series it is amazing to see the moments connected and brought to life in the most fantastic way. I remember the 4th book being so phenomenal and emotional as the series concluded around the world, and this story provided me with the same depth of emotion and Christian themes depicted in the language.
Overall I loved this collection and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Wingfeather Saga. And would recommend the original series to anyone interested in this book of extra stories. It was so enjoyable for me that I decided to switch my opening reading for 2024 from rereading the Chronicles of Narnia to rereading the Wingfeather Saga.
Ah yes, another Duggar memoir. This one is sharing about the family and life growing up as a filming family.
It is very well written, respectfully recounting her experiences while calling out bad behavior and lies. There are so many crazy things within the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP) that don’t add up and more things are revealed to the public as the Duggar children share their experiences with the world. One of the scariest things about IBLP is the limited control within the organization and at the family level. The Duggar children were taught that their family was different and to fear the outside world because no one else would understand them.
This is one of many points where we see a separation from the gospel. There are so many examples in Scripture of the necessity of community among believers and how that plays into our lives in the world. IBLP members separate themselves from other Christian groups and Jill shares how her family was part of a regular church before they decided to step into an IBLP church instead (after the church performed a dance at Christmas- Heaven forbid!); further isolating themselves from healthy Christianity. A key component to their faith is the branch of parental authority which they believe never ends, despite the clear direction of leaving and cleaving in the Bible. Understandably, this extended parental control often causes problems and can be a key component to the older Duggar children stepping out once married after struggling to reconcile having their own family amid the expectations to still act as a branch of their father’s will. This is also a main cause for staying in IBLP for so long as you grow up with such high expectations of your parents and believe they truly know everything and can do no wrong, and are only ever protecting you from the scary world outside your comfortable community.
It’s very interesting to learn about the structure and systems within IBLP and seeing the families affected by it. There are IBLP conferences which include a display of ‘model families’ that come on stage and perform a musical number (acapella of course- no devil instruments!) in their well groomed and perfectly matching, modest attire. This is one of the things that might sound okay initially- you have a set of guidelines for families and it makes sense to show and profile some families who display the desired qualities- until you remember that all these people are sinners saved by the grace of God and our only model is Christ alone. There are plenty of additional examples of something that sounds okay until you start to process it and remember the greater instruction of Scripture. As is the case for other cults, IBLP also has one main person dictating what is suitable for families, claiming this is from the Bible, but a little personal study time will render those expectations personal preference, not Biblical mandate. In the case of IBLP specifically, the one man dictating Godly living for families was an old single man who never married or had a family of his own. And if you know anything about my view of leadership, one main point for a good leader is to never ask of your followers anything that you would not do, have not done, or don’t know how to do yourself. Obviously Bob Gothard was all talk and no example in his demands for ‘model families’ which is a trigger for me.
Unfortunately, Jill experienced a myriad of additional difficulties growing up in relation to becoming a ‘filming family’ as her dad so proudly labeled them. Even though she was 12 when the first documentary filmed and 16 when the reality show officially started, Jill still grew up in the spotlight and remained part of the show for decades. Jill does a good job of illustrating the advantages of filming, such as buying extravagant groceries for a large family during filming weeks, building a new ‘Big House’ for the family, having the Network pay for and film her meeting her future husband in Nepal and beginning their relationship, hosting and airing their wedding. However, there are obvious dangers of growing up in the spotlight and the pressure a family feels to perform in a certain manner for the public expectations. In Jill’s mentions of filming it seems to be very motivated by money and casually referred to as ‘an opportunity from God’ to share how beneficial it is to have a large family. It is easy to see how this attitude and perception of filming as a ministry puts lots of pressure on the older kids to remain within IBLP and continue filming for the popular TV series.
Needless to say, IBLP is a chaotic and unhealthy cult that I hope the families involved are able to re-evaluate their involvement and seek Christ personally. It is very encouraging to read Jill’s story and hear how she met her missionary husband, they served overseas as a missionary family, and are seeking to live and raise their boys according to Scripture, not IBLP practices. My hopes for the Duggar family are the same as the Dillard’s. For them to evaluate their personal relationship with Christ as individuals and to reconcile over any differing opinions.
Phenomenal! Gay Girl, Good God is a memoir of Jackie Hill Perry’s salvation and transition out of homosexuality into the loving arms of Christ. It is a story meant to bring to light the reality of living in sexual sin.
Jackie Hill Perry does a great job of articulating the gospel while sharing her story. She is a poet and that comes through in her writing style which has an artistic flow throughout. It was so enjoyable to read an author who comes with a different perspective on words and building phrases because you can see how she cares about the rhythm and sounds and not just using words to prove a point.
One of the most poignant moments in the book is when Jackie and her girlfriend are at a restaurant and there is a man acting a fool. There is an element of danger with this man and Perry is unsure if he is going to start a fight or pull out a weapon at any moment. On the inside Perry was so aware of her femininity that she was not able to protect herself or her girlfriend if anything were to go wrong with the random man. On the outside she played it cool and made an excuse to get out of there immediately, fronting about not wanting to eat there anyways and this guy is tripping. I’m so glad she shared this moment bringing the reality of male and female centerstage where it has been disguised and hidden in society. Whether people admit it or not, we have all had moments where the differences of men and women are exceedingly apparent.
One of the biggest takeaways for me is the power of prayer. Perry mentions different people praying for her over the years and it is so encouraging to hear of the faithfulness of these believers in what seems to be a hopeless situation. What a brilliant reminder that God is bigger and cares more for our loved ones than we ever can. Prayer is potent because God made it that way. It is so easy to feel the pressure to bring everyone to Christ personally, but that is not the job of each individual. What every believer can and should be doing is praying fervently for the salvation of those near us.
Overall the book is well written and engaging. I would highly recommend for everyone!
Ah, the first book read from the Blue Moon Bookstore in Canton, NC. Enjoyable, easy ready. Engaging with inappropriate moments. Not an overwhelming amount, but present yet the same.
This was a fun, quirky story paralleling three people whose lives intermingle in the final scene. We have a young girl, her teacher, and the jazz club owner each experiencing their own separate lives and bringing the reader into their peculiarities. I would say the book is entertaining, but also gets weird in a bad way where it didn’t have to cross the lines it does. I want to like this book more, but am held back.
This was an odd book because it would technically be magical realism, but it was hardly mentioned and more alluded to than displayed. By the time the magical portion was introduced to the reader I was way too far into the book to believe this ludicrous scene. If the book included this scene and similar ones early on I could accept it as reality for this main character, but I cannot. Unfortunately I would say it fails in that genre despite the potential.
Between the inappropriate moments and the failure to convince the reader of the magical aspects, I would not recommend this book.
If you are following along, I previously read Lilith and mentioned I would like to read more from that author so here is the next book from MacDonald.
It is the story of the princess Irene, a boy named Curdie, and the Goblins living underground. The princess wanders through the castle one day, stumbling upon her great great grandmother whose whole abode is enthused with magic that allows her to assist the princess, and others as needed. Curdie is a miner along with his dad. He meets Irene and her nurse, Lootie, one evening they are out too late and cannot find their way home as the Goblins come out at night and torment anyone who is still out late. Curdie baffles the Goblins with his rhymes and leads the pair back to safety. Later on he ends up spying on the Goblins, finding out their plan to steal the princess and have her marry their prince. Soon enough he gets caught outside the castle, trying to determine where the Goblins are mining to get access to the castle. As the story climaxes with the goblin invasion at the castle Curdie is able to help the castle staff run the Goblins back into the mine and follow a magic thread through the village to find the princess safely at his own home being cared for by his own mother.Â
This delightful story follows Irene and Curdie through their separate and overlapping adventures with just the right amount of magic and low fantasy in a children’s story. Primarily a chapter book, it does include some traditional black and white illustrations throughout. As the story is from the 1800’s the writing does progress slower than the typical modern story so it is an adjustment to read a story without the modern rhythm and demand for constant action to keep the reader’s attention. Still a great story I would recommend for older readers who aren’t scared by the goblins.
Unimportant side note: I have a DVD with a collection of 10 Princess stories (not Disney) that I play in the background while I puzzle. I was so excited this week that The Princess and the Goblin is one of the stories and it was so cute and silly and reminded me to post about it. What a bonus to a fun story!
This is a fun read about a mother who gets kidnapped by aliens. Her kids don’t know what happened to her so they ride their bikes out in search of her only to be attacked by the same aliens who kidnapped their mom. Don’t worry! The good aliens arrive just in time to save the kids who are now accompanying them on the journey to rescue their mom. Spoiler alert- they don’t save her so you have to catch up in the next book.
Unfortunately, there are some factors that made this book annoying to read and I believe they would all be solved by re-formatting the novel into a graphic novel. The first issue is that this book claims to be a graphic novel, but it is in regular story form with some full page illustrations randomly dispersed. There are occasional blank pages through the story which I’m hoping is only a problem for the digital reader. My best guess is that the chapter ends on an odd page and the formatting team wants the clean look of starting each new chapter on an odd page so there is sometimes a blank even page between chapters. If that’s not the case it certainly needs to be fixed before publishing. Throughout the beginning there are different slow moving moments and moments of telling the reader things that could easily be shown. This I think would solve itself if the novel takes on graphic form. I don’t believe the first 40-60 pages are necessary to slowly tell the backstory. We could easily jump into the action starting in the 40-60 page range with quick moments of notes to tell backstory like, “Alice woke up in a strange place, utterly disappointed that her night was not a bad dream. Only her brother was in the room. Sigh. That must mean her mom is still missing and the police really did arrest her dad in suspicion.” We don’t need to read the whole scene when police come to the house to investigate the family, or see dad’s temper first hand. Readers are intelligent and ready with our willing suspension of disbelief, just tell us quickly what we need to know and we are there with the kids and aliens.
The content is a cool story that students will enjoy, but they might struggle to get into it. Definitely Middle School and up for the violence. Warning: there is a quick mention of homosexuality in the first chapter that is easy to miss and forget about as the story progresses. I’m hoping that the rest of the books in the series don’t bring it back up, but I’m alert that it may come up later in the series unexpectedly.
I received a free, advanced digital copy of this book from NetGalley.
Lilith was part of my reading for a college lit class that I did not finish. I decided to give her another try. Similar to last time, it was difficult to get through the first half of the book. It takes too long to get into the action and the main character, Mr. Vane, doesn’t enter and remain in the parallel world early enough to hook me. I did notice the similarities to Alice in Wonderland at the beginning and had to double check that Alice was published 30 years prior so Carroll would be the influence on MacDonald. I can also see how MacDonald influenced writers after him, particularly CS Lewis. Finding those similarities kept me reading in the beginning though I wouldn’t say the story gets good until halfway through.
Even when Mr. Vane explores this other world it takes so long to meet Lilith and get to her castle. Now, the journey Mr. Vane takes and the people he meets all make sense by the end; I was just expecting to meet Lilith sooner based on the blurb on the back of the book. That is my own unmet expectation. It is very interesting in the second half how many spiritual parallels lead the reader through each chapter. That is always enjoyable to read with a deeper understanding connecting to the author with some insight others miss. While I did enjoy the story at the end, I’m not sure that I would say I liked it overall or that I would recommend it. I do think it would be better to read in a lit class with conversation surrounding each section than just my own reading here and there. I did enjoy MacDonald’s writing and would like to read other books of his.
Have you read Lilith? And what did you like and dislike?
Dona Quixote: Rise of the Knight is a graphic novel coming out in September and I am so excited for it! I am not the traditional graphic novel reader, but I do try to read a variety of genres and styles. I was particularly drawn to this story because I recently read Don Quixote De La Mancha and was fascinated to see someone create a modern variation paying homage to the original work.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of the books I heard about, but never read for myself. It is the science fiction story of a man who escapes Earth while it is being destroyed by Vogons. He accompanies an alien who has been on Earth gathering material for the hitchhiker’s guide. We follow the pair through many adventures across time and space.
This is actually a series of books, not just one. Douglas Adams wrote the first three books as a trilogy, but decided to add two more books semi-arbitrarily due to the popularity of the trilogy and demand for more. This is why it is still called a trilogy instead of a series. Very silly, I know.
I was pleasantly surprised by the silliness in this series. In my very limited experience with science fiction I did not expect this renown novel to make me laugh so often. The surprise of frivolity was great to keep me invested in this story.
The premise of other worlds outside the Milky Way allows for endless adventure and displays of creativity. We follow Arthur Dent, the human, into space with his buddy, Ford Prefect, whom he previously believed to also be a human, only to find out that Ford is in fact from Betelgeuse Five, not Earth. Arthur and Ford get picked up by Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian McMillan to round out our four main characters. Oh, and I guess I shouldn’t leave out Martin, the depressed robot, even though he wouldn’t be surprised to be left out, but that’s another story. We follow this group all throughout space and time trying to find the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.
Adams plays with time travel in the most absurd way by the end of the series. In the first book, travel is strictly just through space. In the second book we discover that the Restaurant at the End of the Universe is actually a place in time, not space at all. The restaurant serves dinner to customers who enjoy a spectacular view of the destruction of the entire universe before skipping off to their regular time in space. It is quite a fascinating idea that this restaurant only exists in a time of thirty minutes somehow suspended in a time warp. Don’t think about it too long! The third book doesn’t deal too much with time travel, more with trying to save the universe from destruction. So the original trilogy focuses on space and not time travel, as expected. The fourth book depicts a weird glitch in reality that isn’t quite time travel, but creates some interesting ramifications for the future. It is the fifth book where everything goes haywire. The characters travel through both time and space willy-nilly and are simultaneously living in an alternate reality with another version of only one character, but no mention of other characters’ alternate reality versions.
Now, you can guess that the last two books follow the same rhythm of chaos in other aspects. The fourth book is a fun romance set in a funky, alternate, but this is current, reality with no explanation of how this is reality. It continues the frivolous path in a sweet manner that I can excuse the inconsistencies as a fun addition to the trilogy.
The fifth book is just crazy, in a bad way. It was a nice try, but it makes no sense. I don’t believe these characters would continue on in the way Adams suddenly presents them. The writing is clever, and ties lots of loops through moments in other books, but it is not a worthy addition to the series. In fact, it actually takes away from the original trilogy and the only redeeming moment in this book is the ending where everyone dies and you know there is no chance of any more frivolous books being added to the series. It is the most unrealistic (for the world Adams has already created) nonsense. I don’t believe the time travel, I don’t believe Arthur’s fate, I don’t believe Trillian’s occupation or offspring, I don’t remember what ever happened to Zaphod, and I don’t believe that Vogons have some ultimate plan for destruction when the Earth no longer needed to be destroyed.
Altogether I can recommend reading the original trilogy and stopping right there. The last two books are annoying and unnecessary. I would also warn readers that the last two books develop more adult content that is uncharacteristic of the first 3, which is certainly a factor of the books getting worse and the addition of adult content is not believable with the characters we know and love.
There are some delightful moments and quotes, but the toughest part of the trilogy of five is the utter despair throughout. It is obviously written by someone without any clear understanding of God or his place in the universe. There are so many moments of derision toward God and confusion about the world and any kind of purpose. This is where we see Adams’ worldview overtake this fiction story time and time again in his writing. The whole premise of each book is riddled in hopelessness; pointlessness. Adams is more direct in some scenes and vague in others, but he clearly has no hope or understanding of life, much less the joy of a life united in Christ.
Sonya was here 