Love and Lavender by Josi Kilpack

 Hazel Stillman has a keen mind and a club foot.  With no hopes of an advantageous marriage, she devotes herself to her chosen profession as a teacher at a girl's school.  Duncan Penhale has a brilliant mind, but his spectrum disorder makes social interaction difficult. Hazel and Duncan share an uncle (though there is no blood relationship since Duncan was an adopted nephew), the same Uncle Elliot who is determined to help all his nieces and nephews find true love.  He offers each of them the fondest wish if they are able to find and marry a suitable spouse. He didn't anticipate that they would confer and decide to marry each other just to get the inheritance. Fearing that they were missing the point, Uncle Elliot adds one more requirement, they have to live together a full year, acting as husband and wife, before they inherit. At first they share a house, but not much else, but as they come to enjoy each other's company, despite their peculiarities, their pretend relationship begins to feel much more real.

Here is another in the Mayfield Family Series.  I have enjoyed the books in this series because the main characters learn to overcome their own shortcomings and hangups to make their match work. I love the message that two people who are willing to be nice to each other can learn to love each other. Kilpack does a good job of making Duncan sympathetic, even though he is not neurotypical and showing how Hazel could fall in love with him.  She also shows how Duncan learns to recognize and show his love for Hazel.  It was a refreshing read after the heavy Irving Stone book. (2021, 320 p.)

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone

 Michelangelo Buonarroti was born to an old but financially endangered family in Florence in 1475.  Stone's novel about his life is highly fictionalized, but interesting and insightful.  It recounts his life from his childhood in the hills above Florence, through his apprenticeship, and then his time in the household of Lorenzo de Medici.  Stone portrays his lean years trying to establish himself, and then the period when he was forced into projects he didn't want by a long list of corrupt popes and cardinals. Stone particularly focuses on the periods when Michelangelo was working on his most famous pieces, the David, the Sistine Chapel, the de Medici tomb and finally the dome of St Peter's. 

You may have been wondering why I haven't posted in a while.  It is because this recorded book is 34 hrs long! Someone recommended I read it before my trip to Italy next week, and I am glad I did.  I had read it before, years ago, maybe when I was in college*, but it was good to refresh my memory about the time period and all the social pressures that influenced Michelangelo's work. The reader of the audiobook does a good job (even at 125% speed) and the writing style is very readable, if a little sentimental.  I wonder how similar Michelangelo was to Stone's portrayal?  Stone quotes from Michelangelo's letters and poems, and refers to contracts and deeds, suggesting that these were the primary sources he used in writing the book, but that might have just been a literary device.  I was very impressed with Stone's ability to describe and interpret the motivations behind each of the principle art works.  Mostly, I am just excited to actually get to see some of these amazing works next week in person! (776 p. 1961)

*When I read the book those many years ago, I think I was too naive to pick up on a lot of the sexual imagery the justified the book's title. It is subtle, but everywhere :)

The Barren Grounds by David Robertson

Morgan has been shuffled from one foster home to another in Manitoba, Canada since she was three years old.  Even though the adults in her most recent home are trying to be nice, she still feels mistrustful and angry all the time.  When another foster kid, Eli, joins the home, they don't really get along well at first. Then one day they find a secret door in their attic that leads to a mythical land, Misewa.  To Eli, who was raised in an indigenous community, the land feels like home, but they are not in the land long before they discover that the talking beasts of the land have been stuck in perpetual winter for many years. Morgan and Eli have to decide if they will risk everything to try to help the creatures of Misewa.

Robertson has borrowed a bunch of tropes from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. There is the magic door, the perpetual winter, talking beasts, and a different timeline when you are in the mystical land. In both books there is the epic struggle of the good vs evil.  In  the Narnia Books, the White Witch represents evil or Satan, but in this book the bad guy represents Europeans. It is also interesting to compare Ochek, who is the hero/mentor of this book to Aslan in the Narnia book. (spoiler alert) When Ochek first meets Arik, a talking squirrel,  he wants to kill and eat her, even though she is a sentient being. The children have to stop him. In other words, the big hero, the savior character,  is, in a way, a confessed cannibal. I could see some people having problems with that and the anti- "white man" message. If, however, you just take it as a middle-grade fantasy, it is actually pretty good. The writing is artful and the characters as are well drawn and complex. It is a book that would make a good young reader stretch and contemplate some really hard questions. It would also be an interesting book for a parent/child book club. (2021, 256 p)

The Truth about Miss Ashbourne by Joanna Barker

 Cassandra Ashbourne is surprised when she finds out she has received a generous inheritance in her maternal grandfather's will. The only stipulation is that she go and stay with her family for a month. Her family has been estranged from that side of the family ever since her mother, a rising aristocratic debutant, eloped with a naval officer. Since her mother's death, Cassandra has supported herself as a governess, but when that goes sour, she decides to accept the inheritance and meet her maternal relatives.  She worries that they will be critical of her, a working class girl, but is pleasantly surprised when most of them are warm and welcoming. When she first meets Wm Rowley, the heir to the estate, she thinks he is a merciless tease, but as they spend time together their relationship starts to warm up as well. He is a rich, handsome, and charming gentleman, and she a poor governess.  Will she ever feel at home in his world?

As you can tell from the summary, this is not an original storyline, but Ms Barker does a good job of telling the story in an appealing way.  It is a bit like eating a favorite dessert.  Even though you have eaten it dozens of times before, you still enjoy eating it again. Cassandra is a mixture of reserve and spunk.  William is a charming tease. The relationship between Cassandra and her new found grandmother is sweet, and even her first experience with a ladies' maid is cute.  Ms Barker has a good sense of humor, and there are some delightfully lighthearted scenes.  I look forward to reading more by Ms Barker. (2018, 272 p.)

Royal Heir by Traci Abramson

 Princess Cassandra of Sereno is just starting to take on some of the roles that she will inherit as the king's oldest child. When an assassination attempt seems to be aimed at her, rather than at her father, her father sends her into hiding at the summer palace of their neighboring kingdom and long-term allies, the Meridians. In order to keep her true identity secret, she pretends to be the girlfriend of her new bodyguard, Levi Marin. Levi has worked for the rulers of Meridian for several years, but has secrets of his own.  As he works with Cassandra to try to figure out who is trying to kill her, their pretended relationship begins to feel more real. Levi knows he shouldn't fall for the princess, especially because he has not been entirely truthful with her, but he finds his attraction to the beautiful, brave, and intelligent royal is hard to resist. Will their growing closeness lead Princess Cassandra into even more danger?

When I picked this off the shelf I didn't realize it was the 4th in the series but it works fine as a stand-alone.  Abramson is not a NYT best selling author, but the story line is solid and the characters are, if a little too perfect, at least likeable. Ms Abramson's books often include mysteries involving the intelligence community, and I discovered that she actually worked for the CIA for a few years. This book demonstrates her understanding of the complexity of creating personal security systems. The book is by Covenant, and is squeaky clean. I was a little distracted by the narrator, who was trying to use an Italian accent, but it came out sounding like a Russian accent, but I generally enjoyed the book anyway. (2020, 304 p)

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman

 The people of the Mainland used to think that unicorns were sweet with rainbow colored poop.  Then they saw footage of the fierce and bloodthirsty wild unicorns of the Island. The only way to tame the terrifying predators is to have them bond to a human at the moment of hatching. Skandar has always wanted to be a unicorn rider, but is afraid to hope after his older sister fails the hatchery exam.  When his time comes, mysterious circumstance bring him to the Island and he is bonded to a rare and outlawed "spirit" element unicorn. The Island the the Mainland are threatened by the Weaver, a terrifying spirit element rider, so Skandar must try to hide is elemental affinity while still gaining the trust of his young and strong-willed unicorn. As the threat of the Weaver mounts, Skandar begins to understand that he, with the help of his new friends, might be the only one who can end the Weaver's reign of terror.

At first I was amused by the premise of this middle-grade novel. It is clearly a pushback against all the unicorn merchandising of the last few years. As I read on, however, I got caught up in the story and characters.  This is an above average "magic school" novel with complex themes and interestingly flawed characters. The world building has a few holes, but the setting, particularly the Eyrie,  is a lot of fun and I think would really appeal to the target audience. There are some humorous passages, and a lot of good action writing. This book has a satisfying ending, but leaves enough unanswered questions to lead the reader to the second in the series (which I am likely to read sometime) (2022, 448 p)

Meditations for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman

In this self-help book Burkeman writes short chapters meant to be read one each day for four weeks.  Each one gives suggestions, quotes, and perspective about how to let go of toxic perfectionism and unrealistic expectations, and embrace natural limitations in order to live a fuller life.  Burkeman suggests that the reader follow generous promptings, pay attention to their own needs, finish the projects they start, prioritize things that fulfill their "life task," and reject the notion that all important things are difficult. He advises the reader to recognize when things really are too hard and impractical and to accept defeat with good grace. The goal of the book is to help the reader remove anxiety and stress due to worrying too much about things we can't control or do, and spend time on things that bring more joy and meaning.

This is a good choice to hand to the person in your life who wears busyness and stress like a badge of honor. Burkeman has a lot of good advice and the book is written in an accessible tone and length.  I didn't read the book as it was intended, i.e. a chapter a day for four weeks, but I still feel like I got something out of it.  That being said, when I started to write this review just a few days after finishing the book, I had a hard time remembering the specific topics he covered--so not super memorable. A lot of the principles he promotes have similarities to American Buddhist ideas of non-striving and being present but he doesn't use that terminology at all. This has much more of a "put your feet up and sit a spell" vibe. I think it is a message needed in current American society. (2024, 208)