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)

Enola Holmes and the Clanging Coffin by Nancy Springer

 Enola is at the funeral of one of her friends when she hears a bell ringing.  She follows the sound to its origins, and discovers that a young woman has been buried alive. Enola and her companions exhume and revive the woman, but she can't remember who she is and why someone would try to kill her. Of course, Enola is on the case, but as she starts to dig into the woman's past, she finds she is wading into very deep criminal waters. Soon, protecting her new young friend become a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Nancy Springer wrote her first six Enola Holmes books in the early 2000's and then waited more than 10 years to write the most recent four.  I think her return to the character is probably because of her success with the Enola Holmes series on Netflix. Or it might be because the Sir Arthur Conon Doyle family trust sewed Springer and others for copywrite infringement in 2020, but the suit was dismissed. Anyway, whatever the reason, we are glad she started writing more novels.  This one is as good as all her others.  Enola is such a fun character, with equal quantities of courage and insecurities.  (Spoiler) I thought it was brave of Springer to take on writing about Holme's arch enemy, but she used a creative angle and handled it well.  I wonder if her taking on "the man who must not be named" in this book means that it will be her last. (336p. 2026) 

Loving Lieutenant Lancaster by Sarah Eden

 Lieutenant Linus Lancaster has been hesitant to take the up the living that should have gone to his brother who died in his arms during the war. He reluctantly accepts an invitation to a house party being held by the Jonquil family not knowing that it is a ploy by his sisters to try to find a wife for him. He is not interested in the long line of debutants they march before him, but there is a young lady who catches his eye. Jonquil Dowager Matron has recently taken a companion.  Arabella was a neighbor to the Jonquils when they were all children, but left orphaned at a very young age.  She has long wished that she could be part of the large, energetic, and loving Jonquil family, but she, instead, was left to be raised by a cruel aunt and uncle. As the house party progresses, Anabella finds herself the keeper of many Jonquil family secrets, and the recipient of Lieutenant Lancaster's attentions. Their stations are so different neither of them believe they have a future together, but can they stand to live their futures apart?

Here is the next in the "Lancaster Family" series. I am not sure why 2 1/2 years have gone by since I read the last one.  I have enjoyed all of them.  They are clean, predictable, and heartwarming.  This one is no exception.  The romance between Linus and Arabella is sweet.  At one point the reader thinks, "why is he going away, doesn't he know he is in love with her?" but I think that young, inexperienced people sometimes take a little while to figure things out.  There is a tie-in to the mythological character, Linus, but it is not a major point in the plot. In the books in this series, the main characters are supported by their family and given timely advice. They are not perfect, but they do look out for each other, which is nice in this day and age when family units are not what they used to be.  (256, 2015)