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!
6-3-26 Life: A Love Story - Elizabeth Berg - This quick read (about 200 pages) was so good. Flo is 92, a widow with not much time left to live. She was never able to have children, but she was good friends with a young girl, Ruthie, who grew up next to her. She decides to leave her house and all its belongings to Ruthie, but she wants to tell her the story of the (emotional) value of some of the items, so she begins to write her a letter, in which readers learn the story of her life, especially her relationship with her husband. Interspersed with the letter is Flo's modern-day friendship with Tessa, a 51-year-old death doula.
6-10-26 Painting Wonder: How Pauline Baynes Illustrated the Worlds of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien - I saw this book advertised and it piqued my interest. I'd never heard of Pauline Baynes (1922-2008) before reading this picture book, and it was interesting to read about her and her role in bringing the worlds of Narnia and Middle-Earth to life.
6-11-26 The Marquess's Masked Archer - Abbey Downey - When I was assigned this book for review and saw the cover and title, I sighed. I do not get paid enough to read these kinds of books! But I was pleasantly surprised. This was an Austen-esque romance set in 1907 Ohio society (Did I know before reading this that Ohio had a big society scene in the early 1900s? No, I did not.) Sylvie's mother is determined to marry her off, but she has other plans, which include performing as a disguised archer at the local amusement park. Meanwhile, the Marquess of Rockingham is in town for the summer working as an etymologist. While he had no interest in love, Sylvie catches his eye and he finds himself on a mission to woo her. This was a fun, lighthearted romance. (Read for a book review publication)
6-12-26 Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain - Maryanne Wolf - This is an older book (2008) and I imagine some of the information has been updated since then, but it was a fascinating look at the history and neuroscience of literacy, with a special section on dyslexia. It demonstrated through brain imaging how dyslexic brains work differently to read, almost in the same way that someone who has had a stroke can use different neural pathways to do tasks that they used to do automatically before their stroke. One of the great ironies of my life is that I, the great book lover, have a highly creative dyslexic daughter who hates books with the fire of a thousand suns. Wolf quotes an anonymous dyslexic child as saying, "I would rather clean the mold around the bathtub than read." I showed that to my daughter, who agreed 100%.
6-13-26 The Patchwork Players - Jennifer Chiaverini - I'm always excited to read a new book in the Elm Creek Quilt series. This one is set in 2004. An aging actress doesn't want the period series she is part of to end, even though several of the other actors are ready to move on. In a last-ditch effort to keep the group together, she signs them all up for a quilting retreat with the Elm Creek Quilters. It was good to visit with my old friends in this series.
6-16-26 Painting Prayer: Why Faith Needs Art-and Art Needs Faith - Alfonse Borysewicz - Borysewicz is a Brooklyn-based abstract artist who describes himself as "a painter who loves theology, struggles with his faith, and works out both through painting." In this largely autobiographical book, he explores the connection between abstract religious art and the Catholic faith. I'm always interested in the connection between art and faith, so I found it worth reading, even though his artistic expression does not appeal to my artistic sensibility. (Read for Catholic Library World)
6-18-26 Murder, Plainly Written - Mindy Steele - Steele kicks off a new series about a group of Amish writers known as The Plain Order Ink Society. When Englischer Sadie Lynch, a bestselling romance writer, moves to town, Wanda (a member of the society) is excited to befriend her and meet a real author. But when Sadie is accused of murder, Wanda and her friends are on the case, working to clear her name.
6-18-26 Eight Cousins - Louisa May Alcott - I had never read this book by the author of Little Women, but I had a copy on my bookshelf and decided to read it to my fifteen-year-old daughter. It is about a thirteen-year-old who is being cared for by her aunts and uncles after being left an orphan and the experiences she has with them and her cousins (all of whom are boys). It is an old-fashioned story, and it was a bit young for my daughter. I'd say this would be a good read for a preteen girl who enjoys 19th-century tales. I've heard the sequel to this, Rose in Bloom, is good. I might get it from the library to read myself.
6-21-26 Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton - Dale Ahlquist - There is a new Chesterton School in the works in my area. While I had heard of G.K. Chesterton, I've never read anything by him or known much about him. I decided to fix that a bit by requesting this book from the library. I feel like I got a good introduction to his work and thought. He was definitely a prolific writer and had a deep love for his wife. Much of his work was thought-provoking. However, the chapter title "Feminism and Other Fads" (and some of the content within that chapter) did make me cringe.
6-23-26 Jesus Said, "Be Not Afraid!" - Janele Hoerner - This is a picture book designed for children ages 5-12 who are siblings of children with special needs, but the message is one we all need to hear: that we are loved, that we are called to serve and pray for each other, and that we can trust in Jesus even when life is hard (as someone who suffers from anxiety, that last one is so much easier said than done).
6-24-26 Every Given Day - Cathy Gohlke - This was an interesting novel set in 1918-1935. A schoolteacher's estranged sister is dying of TB and she goes to New York to care for her niece and nephew. There is the minor complication that her sister married the man she had been in love with when they were young. He's now a successful businessman, but also remarkably self-centered, with little care for anyone, including his family. After the Spanish flu takes a huge toll on the family, her nephew is diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, a death sentence of its own. When a kind Scottish doctor offers her a thread of hope, she grasps on to it, even though it is a difficult road. Gohlke illustrates the tragic cost of Type I diabetes in the days before insulin treatments and portrays the miraculous development of that treatment.
6-27-26 Chasing the Clouds Away - Debbie Macomber - I brought this book on retreat with me to read in my leisure time. It was a feel-good romance about a poor young woman who teaches a rich young man the meaning of generosity and caring for others. They fall in love in the process, but ironically her pride makes her push both him and his generosity towards her away.
6-5-26 On the Passion of Christ (Summa, Part 3, Questions 46-59) - Thomas Aquinas - These questions explore the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus, along with his role as judge of the world.
6-17-26 Physics - Aristotle - In this work, Aristotle discusses causes, motion, and infinity. He also develops the idea of a "first mover" who must be indivisible, one, and eternal.
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