Welcome to #OpenBook. I'm joining up with Carolyn Astfalk who hosts an #OpenBook Linkup on CatholicMom.com.
Here's what I've been reading this past month. The
dates indicate when I finished the books. Thanks for
stopping by!
5-7-25 The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern - Lynda Cohen Loigman - I delighted in this dual-timeline story set in 1920s and 1987. In both timelines, it tells the story of Augusta Stern and Irving Rivkin. In the 1920s, Augusta was the daughter of the pharmacist at the pharmacy where Irving worked as a delivery boy. Augusta wants to be a pharmacist herself but she also learns about using herbs and natural remedies to heal from her aunt. One of the elixirs her aunt prepares helps clear the mind. It isn't a love potion, but if you love someone, it will help make you realize it. Augusta uses it on Irving, hoping he will realize he loves her, but the results are disastrous. Sixty years later, they meet up again at a retirement community, and a lot of old feelings and complications are brought to the surface. As an added bonus, when I read the author bio at the end of the book, I realized this book was written by a woman who grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. which is one town over from where I live!
5-11-25 The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams - The two main characters in this book are a seventeen-year-old girl who is unwillingly working at a library for the summer and a widower who is grieving the loss of his wife. They bond over a mysterious list of books that they and several other minor characters in the book read. The book incorporates lessons from those books, and I was able to appreciate the lessons of even the books I hadn't read that they were discussing. Ultimately, this is a story about the power of healing that books and the friendship of others can provide.
5-14-25 The Women of Oak Ridge - Michelle Shocklee - In 1944, Mae Willett goes to work at Oak Ridge to help earn money to support her family. Little does she know the community is helping to build the bomb that will end WWII. Life gets complicated when her roommate begins dating a man whom Mae doesn't trust. In 1979, Laurel Willett is working on a dissertation on those who worked on the Manhattan Project. She is eager to visit Oak Ridge and learn her aunt's story, but her aunt isn't talking. With the help of an attractive detective, Laurel begins to delve into the mystery of her aunt's past. I enjoyed this historical novel that featured mystery with a small side of romance. (Read for a book review publication.)
5-16-25
Anxiety: A Catholic Guide to Freedom from Worry and Fear - Art Bennett, Laraine Bennett, and Lianna Bennett Haidar - This book is a wonderful resource for any Catholic who suffers from anxiety. It explains where anxiety comes from and how we may unwittingly add to its power in our lives. It also offers practical help for coping with anxiety and removing its power over our lives. It is all written from a faith-based perspective which is very helpful.
5-18-25 The Eights - Joanna Miller - I greatly enjoyed this novel about the first group of women allowed to officially matriculate at Oxford University in 1920. It centers on the lives of four women who live on Corridor 8 ("The Eights") who become close friends. They are all trying to find their place as well as deal with living in the aftermath of World War I. Dora is grieving the loss of her brother and fiance in the war. Beatrice is the daughter of a famous suffragette, who never had much use for her daughter. Otto was a nurse during the war and was scarred by the experience. Marianne is the quiet daughter of a pastor who returns home every other weekend to attend to her duties there. (Note: This story does feature one lesbian sex scene.)
5-19-25 Breathe Deeply: The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary as Invitations to Peace - Allison Ramirez - I didn't realize when I picked this up that it is a book on using the Rosary to pray for relief from anxiety. Apparently, God knew I needed to read it. It offers a Scripture passage, reflection, a "Place Yourself in the Story" meditation, personal story, and activity suggestions from the author for each decade of the Joyful Mysteries. In addition, there is a unique prayer to offer before each Hail Mary that focuses on praying for relief from anxiety in different situations. It is clear that the author understands what it is to suffer from anxiety, and I found these prayers very moving and helpful. It concludes with Mary's Magnificat for Anxiety which incorporates Like 1:46-55 and adds portions related to anxiety. This is a beautiful resource for anyone who wants to pray for mental peace.
5-22-25 A Summer to Treasure - Leslea Wahl - I'm always happy to read one of Leslea Wahl's Catholic teen books and this one was no exception. A trio of teenage siblings is forced to go on a summer road trip with their family, but it turns into an unexpected treasure hunt. Along the way, they'll learn some interesting facts about their parents and grandmother as well as some important lessons they can take with them into the future.
5-23-25
God's Masterpiece - Elisabeth Hasselbeck - This is a charming picture book for young children about how they are a unique and wonderful creation of God. (Adults can sometimes use that reminder as well.)
5-29-25 Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World - Jessica Slice - I'm recommending this book with some caveats - the author is pro-trans, pro-choice, and pro-surrogate parenting and there are places where her arguments seem to lack a cohesive logic (such as she is against people choosing abortion to end a pregnancy simply because the child may be disabled, however she defends the right of people to choose that abortion anyway). However, this book really challenged my thinking about disability and opened my eyes to how disabled people are able to parent their children well, albeit in different ways. It also raises the point that child protective services and the medical system have an inherent bias against those with disabilities (even more so if the person happens to be of color and/or poor). The author makes the case that CPS should be done away with. As someone who dealt with DCF for over three years while fostering and then adopting my daughter, I agree with that 100%. This book was very eye-opening and forced me to consider my own biases (which is always uncomfortable but necessary).
5-30-25
Jesus Heals: Finding Hope, Wholeness, and Peace - Allison Gingras- This is the latest edition in the Stay Connected Journals for
Catholic Women series. This is a scripture-based reflection/journal that
invites women to ponder the ways Jesus healed women during his earthly ministry
and the ways he can bring healing to our own bodies, minds, and hearts today.Gingras writes in a conversational struggle and is willing to honestly share her own challenges with faith. This is recommended for any woman who needs healing from Jesus (and really, that is all of us).
5-31-25
Pope Leo XIV - Jesus Colina - I am truly impressed by how quickly traditional publishers have been able to get out books about our new pope. This one was sent to me by OSV for review. The author is a Spanish journalist based in Rome. It combines a biography about Pope Leo XIV with chapters on the positives and challenges of the Catholic Church today. I found this book very interesting in that it reports on the Church from a global perspective, and as an American, living in Massachusetts, I often have only a myopic view of the Church. I recommend this book for anyone interesting in learning a bit more about Pope Leo XIV's background or who wants to know what is happening in the Church around the world. For being written quickly, this 107-page book is quite informative.
5-31-25
The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One Through the End of Life - Suzanne B. O'Brien, RN - High on my list of worries is caring for my parents at the end of their life. I'm not good in medical situations. I don't know how to navigate any of this. And there is a whole lot of unknown - when? how? I am a planner and I can't plan for this. Just writing this has my chest tightening and my blood pressure increasing. This is written by a hospice nurse. It is a secular book, but it offers a great deal of practical information about the nitty-gritty of caring for people at the end of life, and what that might look like with different illnesses. O'Brien is trying to empower people to make good decisions and know what to expect. While the material is difficult, O'Brien's writing style is conversational. I found this book to have a great deal of helpful information. O'Brien also runs
https://doulagivers.com/ which offers free training for caregivers. She also shared these five things to say when someone is dying: "I forgive you, Please forgive me, I love you, Thank you, I wish you only peace." Those are good things to say anytime.
6-1-25
The Lost Passenger - Frances Quinn - After reading about death, I needed something to relax with. This is a novel about a woman tricked into marrying an aristocrat in England. When she survives the Titanic (and he doesn't), she assumes the identity of a maid who also perished in the disaster and begins a new life with her son in America. I really enjoyed this story, but as I was reading, I kept thinking I had read another book about a woman who assumes someone else's identity and I couldn't remember what it was. Thanks to Google, I found out it was
Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict, which I had also enjoyed.
Since spring of 2019, I have been making my
way through the Great Books Curriculum of Thomas Aquinas College (I'm
currently working on the readings for junior year).
5-12-25 A Treatise Concerning Human Knowledge - George Berkeley - Berkeley lived from 1685-1753 and wrote this in 1710. During his life, he lived in London, Dubai, and America and was known to be eccentric. He sought to destroy skepticism and atheism and influence Hume and Kant. This book looks at the concept of ideas.
5-24-25 An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume - Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher who examined the psychological basis of human nature and believed all human knowledge comes from experience. He rejected miracles. He didn't outright reject God, but at the same time, he seemed skeptical of belief in God. In general, this work left me confused.
My fourteen-year-old daughter and I read the following book this month:5-20-25
Ungifted - Gordon Korman - This was a fun story about a middle-school boy who gets sent to a gifted academy by mistake after an unfortunate incident in which he accidentally destroyed his middle school gym. So, he's hiding out at the academy, trying to fit in with kids who are way smarter than he is and stay out of sight of the superintendent.
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