Been reading but not writing.

Broken down by category, here's what I've read this year.  Some were better than others but I thought all were worth my time.

Fiction:
Ordination ( 1 of 3)
Annihilation (1 of 3)
Horse of a Different Killer
ST TNG Greater than the Sum
Star Fleet Academy The Delta Anomaly, Th e Edge, The Gemini Agent and The Assassination Game.
Saga Vol 1 & 2
Sherlock Holmes The Missing Years: Timbuktu
The Novice, The Inquisition and The Battle Mage
The Hawaiian Quilt
Song of the Lion
The Hypnotist
The Rithmatist
The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Non Fiction:
The Richest Man in Babylon
Jump
At Home with Madame Chic
Miracle Morning
The One Thing
Norse Mythology
Little Things
Tribes
Mindworks and Intro to NLP

Spiritual

Arriving at Amen
The Grace of Yes
Travel Guide to Life
Listen Love Repeat

Arriving at Amen

If you're Catholic, either as a convert or a cradle Catholic, then you should definitely read Arriving at Amen by Leah Libresco.  In this book, the author goes through seven different "prayers" of the Catholic church - Mass, Confession, Petition, Examen, Lectio Divina, the Rosary, and the Divine Office, one in each chapter.  In each chapter, Leah discusses how she incorporated that prayer into her life, especially as it affected her on her journey from an atheist to a convert.

It is evident that the author is intelligent and very well read; however, nothing in the book talks over the heads of anyone who might not be.  A pet peeve of mine is authors who use Latin or French phrases and just assume that the reader understands them.  None of that in this book, Ms. Libresco defines her terms and the back of the book has a study guide that is useful for either a group or just one person.

This is actually a book I own.  I can't wait to tell those who don't read this blog about this book.  I hope you find it and enjoy it.

A surprisingly good book.

Let me just put this out there first.  I play World of Warcraft as a Draenei Paladin.  So, when I saw this book, Ordination at my local library, I picked it up and looked at but passed it by at first.  I had never heard of the author, Daniel M. Ford and have become a bit weary of small publisher type books.  I recently picked it up, needing a break from non-fiction books.  I just finished reading it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ordination , subtitled "Book One of the Paladin Trilogy", tells the story of Allystaire, a former knight, who has left the service of his former lord due to what he perceived as injustices in the current system.   As the story proceeds, he comes upon a  small village whose people, with an exception,  have been taken by slavers. Being led to find a young girl,  he sets off to rescue the villagers from the slavers.  Along the way, he draws the attention of a long forgotten goddess of mercy, " the Mother" and is ordained as her "Arm:" ( or paladin).  The Mother also calls others to be her "Voice", "Shadow" and "Wit" with a "Will" yet to come.  As the Arm goes forth, trying to bring the Mother's message to the world, other powers aren't interested in any message of mercy that might lessen their power over the populace.  These other powers include the rulers of the various factions as well as servants of other gods in the world.

The writing style is smooth, no stilted language or awkward sentences - much what you'd expect from someone with the author's MFA in Creative Writing.  The book is very readable - There are plenty of chapters and most of the chapters are broken into smaller sections.  At almost 500 pages, this makes it much easier to handle the reading load.  I'm looking forward to the 2nd book in the trilogy Stillbright due out sometime this year.

This book is available at Amazon, or if you're lucky, your local library.

Two hits and a miss

Happy New Year to all readers.


Okay, first the miss.  I was traveling recently and had extra time to spend in the airport.  Rather than buy a book I just got ideas for future books to read and then have put them on my library list.  The first of these books was Ego is the Enemy.   This book sounded interesting and I thought I'd give it a try.  The basic premise of the book is that one doesn't have to be an egoist to be successful and then continues to tell one how to get control of your own ego.  I read the first few chapters but this book never caught on with me.  I'm in no danger of becoming a superstar in whatever field I venture into.  This just wasn't pertinent to my life and so I freed up my reading time for something else.

That something else was The Magnolia Story.   If you've ever enjoyed the HGTV show "Fixer Upper", then I think you'll like this book as well.  The Magnolia story chronicles the lives of Chip and Joanna Gaines from when they first met until approximately early 2016.   They certainly seem to be the same, down to earth, fun people they are on the show.  As either Chip or Joanna tell their part of the story, the type face changes.  I thought that was a great way to help identify who was talking in the book.  In my library system, this book is classified as a biography and I'd agree.  There is little in the way of decorating tips or business advice.  I'm glad I checked it out from my library as it doesn't seem a book I'll want to re-read.  None the less, I enjoyed reading it and definitely recommend it to fans of the show.

My second hit is a book called So Long A Letter,  by Mariama Ba.  I can't recall exactly where I found this recommended but it may have been on a list of African Literature.  So Long A Letter, is a work of fiction.  It tells the story of Ramatoulaye , writing to her college friend and describing her life after the death of her husband.  I found it fascinating to read on several levels.  First was the story of this woman, somewhat like me, as a wife and mother and how those roles were important to her.  Secondly was the view into a post-colonial Senegal and the Muslim culture there as it effected her marriage and the start of her widow-hood.   If Ramatoulaye was a real person, I would like to know her and have her as a friend.  The insights the author presents as the character talks about changing roles of women in the society, dealing with religious strictures, being a mother, even her love for her bigamist husband are interesting to anyone regardless of their culture and status in life.  It is a relatively short book and well worth your time.

The Compound Effect

I'm taking a goal setting course for 2017.  This book, The Compound Effect was mentioned in an aside and I picked it up to read at my local library.
It's a short book, a quick read but if you're ready to make some changes in your life, this is a good place to start.  It is under 200 pages, including references and includes links to the author's website that are still active even though the book was published in 2010.
Mr. Hardy starts with the example of would you rather have $3 million today or 1 cent today that doubles every day for a month.  He goes on to show how small changes in what we do can, OVER TIME, have large effects.   For example, cutting out 100 calories per day won't cause you to lose "10 lbs in a week" but you might lose 10 lbs in a year, relatively easily.
Not only does the book cover personal, physical changes but finances, motivation and how those you surround yourself with affect you.
If you're interested in trying to change your life, don't wait for New Years, pick up this book today.

A short quick review

Like everyone else, I've been busy lately so here is one really short review. At the beginning of November, our book club read Graced and Gifted by Kimberly Hahn.  Chosen and Cherished is the first in the series and Beloved and Blessed is the third and final book.  Our consensus was that this was a great book but less applicable to us, older women.
The chapters are short and easy to read and the book is set up as a multi - week study.  A great option if your group meets weekly.  This book also would make a great wedding present for a young woman in your parish.  Kimberly shares several stories from her life to illustrate her points.  Even though the target audience seems to be for women just beginning their vocation as wives, it is still worth reading if you are not.  I just wouldn't suggest it as a one and done book club selection.

Playful Magic

I recently finished Melanie Rawn's Touchstone (Glass Thorns)   .  I had picked up her Window Walls at my library and after a short reading discovered it was a sequel to this book.  After reading lots of fantasy, Rawn presents the Ogres, Fairies, Picksies, Elves, etc with a different twist - in her world, all these people have intermarried and most of the characters are some mix of these with humans.

Touchstone is about the founding of a magical theater group and focuses on two of the quartet - the "tregetour" or playwright and the "glisker" the member of the troupe that manages the magic provided by the playwright.  The main character, the tregetour Cade, is part wizard and as such, has visions of possible futures.  These visions drive the story.  Who should he hire, what should the name of the group be, how seriously should offenses within the group be taken.

The book reads a bit like a diary - we went here and did this.  The overarching plot, if there is one, is a bit hard to discern.  For the first book in a series ( Glass Thorns), I understand that it is necessary to set the stage for the future books.  However, this was a bit slow, even for that.  If establishing the framework for the other books in the series, Touchstone could have been a novella rather than a lengthy novel (368 pages according to Amazon).

If you want to start a new series, this might fit the bill.  Otherwise, I can only give it a lukewarm referral.