Open Book for August 2023

 

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!

 

7-9-23 Emily's Quest - L.M. Montgomery - I finished up the Emily trilogy by L.M. Montgomery. This book covers Emily's life as a young adult and features several love interests and the ups and downs of her career as a writer. I am so glad I read these books, and honestly, I probably appreciated them more as an adult than I would have if I had read them around age 10 or 11 when I was reading the Anne books. I wish there were more in the series!

7/13/23 - Rosary Gems: Daily Wisdom on the Holy Rosary - Fr. Donald Calloway - This is a lovely book of quotes by Servants of God, Venerables, Blesseds, and Saints on the beauty and power of the Rosary. If you need some added inspiration to pray the Rosary each day or simply want to reflect on this prayer, I highly recommend this book.

 

7-19-23 The Secrets Beneath - Kimberley Woodhouse - This suspense-filled romance sent shivers up my spine. It has several plot lines. Set in 1870s Wyoming Territory, the main character is trying to gain respect as a paleontologist working in a man's world. She reconnects with her first love (the romance part of this tale), but the mysterious disappearance of her best friend 10 years earlier still haunts them. When a child goes missing again, it seems like history is repeatiRng itself. (Read for a book review publication)

7-20-23 Finding Dorothy - Elizabeth Letts - I enjoyed this book so much! It is focused on Maud Gage Baum, the wife of L. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wizard of Oz and is a dual timeline tale with the story of Maud and Frank interspersed with Maud being involved with the creation of the movie after Frank's death. 

7-24-23 The Echo of Old Books - Barbara Davis - I had a delightful time reading this book! It is a dual time-line story taking place in the days before WWII and 1984. In the 1984 era, Ashlyn Greer is a rare book dealer who can feel the "echoes" of old books - who owned them and what they were feeling. When she comes across a pair of unusual books, she is on a mission to discover the true story behind them. 

7-26-23 7 Secrets of the Eucharist - Vinny Flynn - The Eucharistic Revival makes this a great time to read this classic by Vinny Flynn. It will help you develop a greater appreciation for the Eucharist. I'll offer you with this one quote from the book to ponder: "We are each called to enter into an unbroken relationship with God, and Christ remains with us in the Eucharist to make this possible."

7-27-23 - Blink and We'll Miss It - Ginny Kochis - This is clean YA fiction set in North Carolina that deals respectfully and honestly with mental illness and generational trauma. Teenage Mae struggles to live her own life in light of her mother's mental illness and her grandfather's overbearing nature. Complicating matters is that Mae has "blinks" in which she can see images of the past.

7-30-23 After Anne - Logan Steiner - I had been eagerly awaiting this book to come in from my library holds list! It is a fictional retelling of the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables and the Emily series that I recently read. She also wrote many other books. I have read biographies of her life before, so I knew going in that this story doesn't end well. One of the hard things about writing a book about someone's life is that you have to deal with the messiness of real life. There was no fictional way to give her a happy ending. However, I did enjoy this book. I thought it was a well-written effort that was well-researched and attempts to get into the mind of the author. My only criticism is that the timeline is disjointed. It jumps around a lot and it is hard to keep track of what is going on when. I do recommend it for those who want to learn more about the woman behind the Anne stories.

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 sophomore year). 

The Fairy Queen - Edmond Spenser - I have come to the conclusion that I am just not a fan of epic poetry. I find it difficult to read, even with the explanations close at hand, and I don't understand it. So, I have been slogging through The Fairy Queen. According to the introduction in the version I am reading, this was written in the late 1500s as a tribute to Queen Elizabeth I. The queen is held up as the embodiment of temperance who had the power to redeem female history. The queen was the earthly manifestation of God's light. Supposedly, this is a very Protestant book. I am just looking forward to finishing it and moving on.

My twelve-year-old daughter and I read the following books this month:

7-11-23 The Chosen Prince - Diane Stanley - This was an enjoyable story that takes place in ancient Arcos. Alexos is a prince chosen at birth by Athene, but being chosen doesn't mean his life will be easy, especially after he experiences a life-altering illness. This book had important themes such as sacrifice and forgiveness. It is interesting for anyone who enjoys stories about the ancient world, including Greek mythology.

7-28-23 Second Sleep - Diane Stanley. My daughter and I enjoyed The Chosen Prince, so I decided to get another book by the same author. This one is hard to explain - it has time travel and mystery, so I'll include the actual description because it says it better. But, it was very interesting and I was eager to see how it would all turn out. 

To get Max and Rosie’s minds off their mother’s mysterious disappearance, their grandmother, Mozelle, suggests that they visit the old log cabin where their mom spent her summers as a child. This is a place where, when it gets dark, you go to bed. But according to Mozelle, their mother had her happiest dreams during her nights at the lake. 

That first night, Max and Rosie travel in their dreams to an almost impossibly beautiful place where they meet a wonderful new group of friends. But was it really just a dream? Or is there something extraordinary and magical about this compound by the lake?

As Max slowly grasps what is really going on, he wonders if he might have found the key to the mystery of his mother’s disappearance—and how to bring her safely home.

 

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Purchases made after clicking a link help support this site. Thank you!