Emily's Tree by Lisa Washburn

 Emily's home life is less than ideal.  Her mother drinks, her grandfather sits in an armchair smoking and watching TV, and the whole house is a mess. The only light part of Emily's life is her love of art, and a recurring dream she has had since she was small, about a beautiful place with a tree and and kind woman. One day Emily has a fight with her family and flees the house. As she sits on a bench in a park two young sister missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints approach her and offer to buy her hot chocolate. That is the start of her journey from darkness into light.  She eventually goes to the local LDS church and meets the Baker family.  They are kind to her and ignore her worn out clothes and the smell of smoke the hovers around her.  In fits and starts, Emily comes to recognize the spiritual meaning of her dream and make her way toward a better life as a member of Christ's church. 

This is a new novel, self-published through Amazon, by a  LDS author who is the relative of one of my friends.  It is very heartwarming and earnest.  The story is sweet, if a little predictable, and the two protagonists are likeable and relatable. The transformation that occurs in Emily's life during the story reminded me of the changes in some of the people I saw who joined the church when I was an LDS missionary, though to my knowledge none of them had visionary dreams to help them along. It is a decent first novel and portends good things to come from this author in the future. (302 p. 2026)

History Smashers: The Mayflower by Kate Messner

 Almost all American school children first learn about the Pilgrims' arrival in America in kindergarten Thanksgiving celebrations when they hear about the Mayflower, Squanto, and the first Thanksgiving. How much about that over simplified story is true?  This book, written for children, examines the truth, myths, and complexities of what really happened when Europeans started settling in North America.  There is a lot of emphasis on how the event affected the native peoples who were already living in the region and the difficulties both they and the early settlers had in survival and intercultural relationships. It also tracks the possible origins of some of the misconceptions about the Mayflower story.

Because of the 250 anniversary of the founding of America, Utah's Libby consortium has made several books about the history of the United States available to check out without waiting lists.  This is one of them.  Most of what is mentioned in the book I, as an adult, had already heard, but I did encounter a few new facts.  The book is written at a child's level, but it doesn't pull any punches about the injustices enacted on the native peoples by the arriving Europeans. Since I have been working in the schools this year, it made me wonder what is the proper way to teach children about the Pilgrims.  How early do we expose them to collective guilt about how Europeans stole land and abused the people living on it, not to mention causing the death of millions by bringing disease to this continent for which native peoples had no resistance?  Should kindergarteners be making Pilgrim hats and paper feathered headbands? How about 4th or 5th graders?  It is a difficult question. If a parent or teacher wants to breach it, this is a good resource. (224 p., 2020)

Spy School Revolution by Stuart Gibbs

 In this 8th installment in the Spy School series, Ben is back in Washington DC, at the headquarters of the CIA when a grenade launcher hits the room next to him.  Someone is trying to kill him, and Zoey believes it is Erica Hale. All the Spy School friends get sucked into a quest to discover the truth about a historical supervillain organization called Croatoan.  Was it really behind all the major upheaval in the U.S. since the time of the Revolution?  Does it still exist? Can they stop it from destroying America as we know it?

Here's another Spy School mystery.  It is much like the others, i.e. fast paced, fun and full of interesting facts. This one explores Ben's conflicting emotions about Zoey and Erica, and their feeling about him, so that is an added bonus. These are always fun, and I would recommend them or any of Stuart Gibb's series to middle grade readers who like action/adventure. (352 p. 2020)

Fair Isle and Fortunes by Nancy Warren

 In this sixth of the Vampire Knitting Club series, Lucy's cousin, Violet, has volunteered to play the part of a fortune teller at a village fair.  When one of her fortunes turns out to be "dead" accurate, local fear and distrust of witches spikes.  Lucy decides she must solve the murder to diffuse the tension between the townsfolks and her cousin's coven. With the aid of the vampires, particularly Rafe, she digs deep into the past when another murder had rocked the community.  Could the two murders be related?

Here is another in one of my fluff-and-fun series. This one is much like most of the others and doesn't really advance the overarching plot very much.  Still, it has the delightful characters and quirky setting that draws people to the series and keeps them reading more. The mysteries in this series all have the same shape, but Warren does a good job of not making the solution too obvious. (232 p. 2019)

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riodan

 Percy Jackson never did well in school.  He has dyslexia and ADHD and trouble seems to find him wherever he goes. Then a disastrous field trip reveals that he is really a demigod and that monsters from Greek mythology want to kill him.  His best friend takes him to Camp Half Blood where other demigods train to be come heroes. There he makes friends and is sent on a quest to recover something that has been stolen from Zeus himself. 

Of course, I read The Lightning Thief when it first came out and even met the author. That was before I started this blog, so I never blogged about it.  My husband and I recently watched the Percy Jackson videos on NetFlix so I decided to read the first one again. It really is a fun series with non-stop action, well crafted characters, and fun world building. It also helped me realize that the NetFlix version does a good job capturing the spirit of the books. (2006, 377 p.)

A Sure Way: Following Truth in a World on Fire by Edith Stein, with editorial notes by Carolyn Beard

 Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family in Poland in 1891.  She was very bright and was able to study philosophy in Poland in a time when very few women were in the field. While in college she for a time became an atheist, but was later introduced to some Christian students and professors and eventually converted to Catholicism. When Hitler rose to power and invaded Poland, Stein lost her teaching position at a public university because she was born Jewish, and decided to enter a monastic order and become a nun.  She continued to write essays and poems about the Catholic faith. As conditions for Jews worsened, her friends urged her to leave Poland and join a different monastery in the Netherlands.  Eventually, however, she was captured and taken to Auschwitz, where she died in 1942. This book is a collection of excepts from talks, essays, and poems that Stein wrote after her conversion. The book starts with a long biographical introduction, and then each except has a short paragraph by Beard explaining the context and importance of the passage. 

I was asked to review this book as a galley by Plough, a small Christian publisher.  I have not read many theological philosophy books outside of my own faith tradition and I found this one very interesting and inspiring. Stein's main premise that we should seek communion with Christ by contemplating the Cross. As we take upon ourselves the burden of the Cross by obedience and total submission to God's will, we find joy the transcends anything that we might be called on to suffer. I think in much of modern Christianity, God is often seen as an overindulgent parent that is eager to send blessing regardless of our own worthiness or obedience.  It is refreshing to read of a Christian who focuses more on total submission and complete devotion as a way of finding joy and peace in Christ. The introduction to the book and of each short chapter are well written and informative. Beard has done a good job choosing excepts that are self-contained and fairly short (most are less than four pages). Like a rich food, you have to take in this book one small bite at a time to really savor it. I would recommend  it to anyone (especially any woman) who is looking for a thought provoking and inspirational devotional reading. (Coming out April 2026, 108 p.)

The Kissing Tree by various authors

 In a small town in Texas a lone oak stands just outside the town limits.  It becomes the center of four generations of romances, set in the late 1800's, the Depression, WWII,  and ending in the present day.  Each romance novella in the collection is written by a different author, but there they were clearly written in order from the earliest to the latest, because each refers to events in the pervious stories.  The romances are sweet and clean and just what you would expect from the title. Because they are written by different authors, there is a refreshing varieties of personalities for both the male and female protagonists. I also enjoyed how each author envisioned how a small rural town would change from one generation to the next. This is not great literature, and I did enjoy some stories better than others, but, overall, a good enough escapist novel for a clean romance reader. (2020 400 p)

My Friends by Frederik Backman

 Louisa has been in the foster care system most of her life.  Her best friend has recently died, and now she is breaking into an art gallery to get a glimpse of a painting of three boys on a pier. When security guards chase her away, she hides in an ally where she bumps into a man she thinks is homeless, but who is really the famous artist of the painting she loves. The connection between the two is instantaneous, but the guards are still chasing her and she has to run away. The chance encounter changes the course of her life.  She gets caught up in discovering the history of the artist, his friends, and what happened on the day that was immortalized in the painting. To help her on the path of discovery is one of the boys depicted in the painting.  He is now a middle aged adult, hardened and reclusive due to all he has suffered, but when he meets the girl, he is reminded of his own youth, and he begins to talk.

I don't know of any current author who can tug on a reader's heartstrings as much as Frederik Backman. Reading the book, one cannot doubt that he had a youth similar in some way to the characters he depicts.  He captures the crushing affects of abuse, the heartache of neglect, and the joy of a teenager's unfettered summer like someone who really knows what it is like.  At the beginning of the book he hints that things are not going to turn out well and that the story will be a tragedy. By the end, however, even though there are some tragic elements, there is more hope that you expected. His books are quiet sentimental, but if you are in the mood for all the "feels" he really can't be beaten as a writer. (2025, 448 p.)

The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karnina Yan Glaser

 Luli lives in New York's China Town in the 1930's.  Her family's restaurant used to be crowed every day, but the stock market crash of 1929 changed all that, and now her family is at risk of losing not only their restaurant but their home. Luli tries to think of more ways to bring people to their restaurant, and decides to turn the storage room into a mini museum of some Chinese art that her uncle has collected. More than a century earlier, Han Yu's family comes down with a terrible plague. In a desperate effort to find a cure, 11- year-old Han Yu decides to travel the Silk Road with no one to help him but a host of animals, including a mystical tiger, that are strangely connected to him.  As the story of Luli and Han Lu play out in alternating chapters, both children test the limits of the courage to change the fates of their families. 

I put this on hold when the Newbery awards were announced back in January.  This was an Honor winner.  I was expecting to like is as much as "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri that won an Honor last year, but I did not. I think the problem with this book is that it tried to tell two stories. Though both of the stories were interesting, and the protagonists were likeable spunky children, putting both stories together slowed the pace of the book. It was clever how Glaser wove the two stories together around the central image of the silk fragment, but about 1/2 way through I got bored and had to increase the playback speed to get through it. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood this week. Still, I would recommend reading the Nayeri book over this one, especially for children, since the Nayeri book is half the length, and more exciting. (432 p. 2025)

 

Charming Artemis by Sarah M. Eden

 Charlie Jonquil, the youngest of the formidable Jonquil brothers, has only one enemy, Artemis Lancaster.  They have butted heads for years, and only just tolerate each other when they are brought together at family gatherings. Then, at one of said gatherings, they are caught in an innocent, but socially compromising position. The only way to save their reputations is to marry.  Artemis thinks all her hopes for a happy life are over, and Charlie has to give up his dream of becoming Cambridge Don.  Still, they are stuck with each other and it is in their best interest to try to get along. As they try,--and with lots of support from both their families--they begin to see good in each other and gradually, without really realizing it, they start to like, and maybe even love, each other.

This is, I think, the last of the "Lancaster Family" series.  In a way it serves as a kind of curtain call. We see all the different couples, joining together to help their youngest siblings.  It is also reminiscent of the first in the series, Seeking Persephone, because that one also dealt with two people learning to love in an arranged marriage. The book is very sweet and full of lots of warm fuzzies.  Even though Charlie and Artemis are supposed to be mean to each other, they never really are.  We see much more of them trying to get along than of them fighting. If you are at all not in mood for hot-chocolate-with-whipped-cream-and-sprinkles-in-print, you might want to wait on this one until you are. (281 p. 2017)