Books

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (February 2015)

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We visited our parents over this past weekend – and while traveling is always exhausting, this particular visit seemed even more so (likely because Tirzah Mae seems to have gotten day and night confused again – or, more accurately, has decided to apply her daytime habit of eating every 1-2 hours to nighttime as well.) We spent yesterday breastfeeding (she literally spent no more than a 15 minute segment away from the breast until Daniel arrived home from work) – and thus NOT writing a Nightstand post. Ah, c’est la vie.

Fiction read this month:

  • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
    A terribly gripping fantastical steam-powered novel. It drew me in and kept me through Tirzah Mae’s first round of lots-of-shots. Title is linked to my review.
  • Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
    Growing up, this was probably one of my favorite books in the series – probably because of the ever-present food. I’ve been reading with Barbara’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge and cooking Farmer Boy inspired meals. Yum! I also wrote some reflections from the chapter on springtime
  • 11 picture books author last name BRETT-BROMLEY

Nonfiction read this month:

  • The American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates
    When Tirzah Mae arrived early, we suddenly realized all sorts of things we hadn’t gotten in order before she was born – stuff like, what happens to her if we were to have some sort of unfortunate accident? I checked a couple dozen books on estate planning out of the library, but The American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates was the one that I ended up reading cover to cover (with the exception of a few clearly nonapplicable chapters.) This book does a great job of guiding the reader through wills, trusts, and other forms of inheritance – including planning for any number of “what ifs”. I definitely recommend this as a resource for those who are beginning the process of writing or updating their will.
  • Urban Farming an “At*Issue” book
    Supposed to be multiple perspectives on this fascinating topic – turned out to be an extended infomercial for urban farming. Title is linked to my review.
  • The Mechanical Baby by Daniel Beekman
    A history of childrearing practices from the middle ages through the 1970s (when the book was written. Fascinating.
  • The Post-Pregnancy Handbook by Sylvia Brown and Mary Dowd Struck
    Theoretically, a great idea for a book. Very poor execution makes me unable to recommend it. Title is linked to my review.
  • Budget Dinners by Good Housekeeping
    This book announces that it “includes delicious meals under $10” – I’m not sure how well it succeeds at keeping costs below $10, since I didn’t really count up the cost and I generally am a relatively frugal cook anyway. But it delivered on deliciousness. I flagged over a dozen of the 100 recipes as ones to try and tried at least a half dozen. Of the recipes we tried, there were a couple we didn’t prefer (as much because I misestimated Daniel’s preferences as anything), but most were very good and worth adding to our repertoire. This is an excellent book with full color photos and easy-to-prepare meals. I recommend it.

On the docket for next month:

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Book Notes

Dreaming of Springtime

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I’ve always considered February one of my least favorite months. The days are still short, the winter has dragged on long, and generally February’s a pretty dingy month – if there’s snow on the ground (in Lincoln or in Wichita), it’s covered with a layer of grimy salt and road waste.

So as I’ve been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy, I’ve been reveling in Wilder’s description of springtime from chapter 11.

“Bess and Beauty stepped out willingly, not too fast, yet fast enough to harrow well. They liked to work in the springtime, after the long winter of standing in their stalls.”

That’s EXACTLY how I feel when springtime rolls around and I can get out into my garden. I have a hard time remembering to care for my garden regularly in the summer, and hate to tear it all up in the fall – but after a winter of indoor work, I’m more than ready to get out and plant.

“There was no time to lose, no time to waste in rest or play. The life of the earth comes up with a rush in the springtime. All the wild seeds of weed and thistle, the sprouts of vine and bush and tree are trying to take the fields. Farmers must fight them with harrow and plow and hoe; they must plant the good seeds quickly.

Almanzo was a little soldier in this great battle.”

I love the metaphor here, love how true these paragraphs are, love how they remind me of the parable of the sower sowing good seed.

This year, though, this passage reminds me of springtime of our lives and the great trust that parents are given of sowing seed and cultivating little hearts. It’s easy to be complacent, to assume that children will learn what we want them to learn, that they’ll establish good habits, that there’ll be plenty of time to teach them tomorrow. But the best time to plant a seed and kill a weed is springtime. And the best time to communicate the gospel and establish good habits is early in life.

Which is why I am resolving to be a little soldier in this great battle – and to establish my own habits now, while Tirzah Mae is tiny. Now is the perfect time to get into the habit of speaking the gospel to my daughter, the perfect time to steep us both in Scripture songs, the perfect time to live a visibly Christian life around my home.

Because the life of the earth comes up with a rush in the springtime. And I want the life that grows in my daughter to be a good planting.

“Almanzo asked [Alice] if she didn’t want to be a boy. She said yes, she did. Then she said no, she didn’t.

‘Boys aren’t pretty like girls, and they can’t wear ribbons.’

‘I don’t care how pretty I be,’ Almanzo said. ‘And I wouldn’t wear ribbons anyhow.’

‘Well, I like to make butter and I like to patch quilts. And cook, and sew, and spin. Boys can’t do that. But even if I be a girl, I can drop potatoes and sow carrots and drive horses as well as you can.'”

Okay, this one isn’t exactly about springtime – but it’s in the chapter about springtime. I agree with Alice – I’m awfully glad to be a girl!

I’m reading Farmer Boy as part of Barbara’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: The Post-Pregnancy Handbook by Sylvia Brown and Mary Dowd Struck

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Theoretically, having a book about the after-effects of pregnancy on a woman’s body, mind, emotions, and relationships is a great idea. The authors are right that pregnancy books and childbirth courses spend little time on the topic, and that women might be likely to feel that as soon as they deliver focus shifts to the baby and they get “left behind” to pick up the pieces of themselves without support.

So the idea behind The Post-Pregnancy Handbook is a great one. Unfortunately, the execution was only ho-hum.

When I started reading, I was shocked by the abrupt nature of the first chapter, detailing a variety of complementary and alternative medical approaches without so much as a paragraph of introduction. It was only after I’d started in what looked to be the second chapter that I realized that first section was meant to be a foreword of sorts.

The first non-chapter was a harbinger of what was to come. While there was a fair bit of science in the explanations of what happens to a woman’s body after birth, the proposed solution was often a method with only the most tenuous scientific grounds. When the book addressed emotional or relational topics, it generally couched them in Freudian terms that this reader, at least, found off-putting.

Additionally, with over 300 pages, this book just never ended. And recognize – this is coming from a woman who loves to read and loves to learn about the minute details of the human body. I took human anatomy in college for fun. So my guess is that the average reader would find this book overwhelmingly onerous.

And…to pile on complaints: the authors assume the mother who delivered vaginally will have a episiotomy. They are eternally ambiguous about the appropriate length of breastfeeding, sometimes seeming to encourage a year, other times three months. Their breastfeeding advice was only halfway correct and some of it rather inclined to sabotage successful breastfeeding. They encourage women to wait way too long to begin an exercise program following delivery. And, there is no concluding chapter (I rather like books to have a beginning, a middle, and an end – this had only middle.)

So, this book was a good idea poorly executed. I don’t recommend it.

Rating: 1 star
Category: Health
Synopsis: The authors explain what happens to a woman after pregnancy and how to manage common physical, mental, emotional, and relational difficulties.
Recommendation: A good idea poorly executed

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Urban Farming an “At*Issue” book

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The back cover proclaims:

“Greenhaven Press’s At Issue series provides a wide range of opinions on individual social issues. Each volume focuses on a specific issue and offers a variety of perspectives…to illuminate the issue.”

My library in Lincoln had a large selection of “Opposing Viewpoints” books (also by Greenhaven Press), and I loved seeing different perspectives on a variety of social issues. Reading the different essays and excerpts in those books stretched my mind and exposed me to a variety of opinions on any given issue. They forced me to look at things from different perspectives. I loved them.

So I was excited to see what appeared to be a book with a similar bent about Urban Farming. I’ve read a few articles about urban farming – and I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading Wichita and Sedgwick County’s municipal codes related to animal husbandry within our (mostly urban) county and city. In general, I’m a fan of gardening and of raising animals to eat. My grandparents were rural farmers and my mother a prodigious in-town gardener. I know of research that suggests that children who help raise vegetables eat more vegetables, so I encourage mothers to try a little gardening with their youngsters (even if it’s just growing herbs on a window sill). So I figured it would be interesting to read more about the pros and cons of Urban Farming.

Unfortunately, Urban Farming did not provide pros and cons. With the exception of one article, all of the articles were unequivocally in support of urban farming, giving a variety of potential benefits (while not giving a whole lot of research on whether those benefits are more than just potential.) Most of the articles were case studies that were fascinating but that fail to provide any substantitive information as to whether urban agriculture should or should not be permitted and/or supported by regulation.

So, if you want to know what supporters of urban farming think, go ahead and read this book. If you want to be challenged to think critically about the issue of urban farming, this is going to be unhelpful. Bummer.

Rating: 2 stars
Category: Contemporary Issues
Synopsis: Urban Farming proponents detail the benefits of urban farming.
Recommendation: The articles inside aren’t bad, but they fail at their stated purpose of “[providing] a wide range of opinions”.

Categories Books

L.M. Montgomery Reading Challenge Conclusion

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I’m glad I set low expectations for this year’s L.M. Montgomery Reading challenge – because, having set them low, I was able to meet them (sort of).

I wrote that I intended to reread one of the Anne books – which I did. I reread Anne of Green Gables for probably the couple dozenth time. Yet despite multiple re-readings, Anne continues to enchant. Anne of Green Gables is a story of anecdotes, with no overarching plot – but I was struck, this time around with how many threads resolve by the end of the volume. Marilla’s crispness softens, Rachel Lynde admits that she was wrong about the foolishness of adopting an orphan, and Anne and Gilbert resolve their longstanding feud. But one of the biggest changes that occurs is Anne’s transformation from being a burden to be passed on to another each time someone dies to being a burden-lifter who passes on other opportunities in order to bear Marilla’s burden once Matthew is dead.

I also stated initially that I would possibly make another Anne outfit for my American girl doll. My hope was that I could complete the brown voile with puffed sleeves that Mrs. Lynde made at Matthew’s behest. I paid close attention to the garment’s styling, looked up fashions from the gay nineties to come up with what the dress might have looked like, and thought through how I wuld modify my doll dress pattern to accomplish that look. Then, one afternoon last week, I went down to my craft room to begin – and could not find the brown fabric I’d designated for the dress years ago. It wasn’t on my fabric shelf (either among the other browns or in any other section of the shelf), so I began searching. I searched first on my table, piled high with projects in progress. I found a pair of Daniel’s slacks and a couple of my skirts to be mended – and since they required black thread and my machine was currently threaded with that, I finished them on the spot. I was just nearing the end of the pile when Tirzah Mae sounded the alarm from upstairs – and my search (and the outfit) had to be put on hold. So no Anne outfit has been made. Maybe next year.

My final goal was that I “may or may not find and read a book about Lucy Maud from my local library” – I did find a book, Looking for Anne of Green Gables, and read and reviewed it.

So, overall, while it might not have been a substantial year compared to many, I was able to complete most of my relatively modest goals.

Check out what everyone else read and said at Carrie’s conclusion post.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Looking for Anne of Green Gables by Irene Gammel

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L.M. Montgomery states that the character for Anne of Green Gables “flashed into my fancy already christened, even to the all important ‘e’.” Irene Gammel, a professsor of comparative literature, disputes that statement, suggesting that “Anne” (and the events of Anne’s life) is the product of Montgomery’s reading, life events, and inner life.

Gammel has meticulously picked through Montgomery’s journals (both the published and the unpublished) for clues about Anne – and has gone a step further to read through the books and periodicals Montgomery would have read prior to writing Anne of Green Gables. The result is a fascinating, if somewhat speculative book Looking for Anne of Green Gables.

Prior to reading this book, I was not terribly familiar with the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery (“Maud” to those who knew her) apart from the various biographical sketches Carrie has offered at Reading to Know.

So I knew bits and pieces but hadn’t really put them together into any clear understanding of her life events and how they fit together. This book helped me put some of those pieces together – although it’s important to note that this is not a biography proper, but literary criticism of a sort.

Gammel looks at various events in Maud’s life, relationships she’d formed, and news stories from her neighborhood that may have influenced the writing of Anne. Specifically, she looks at how Maud might have (or, when possible, actually did as evidenced by journal entries) interpreted those events and used them to color Anne. For example, Gammel suggests that the theme of Anne finding a family (and Marilla coming to love Anne) reflects Maud’s fantasy of a loving family (she did not feel that she was loved by her elderly grandparents, who raised her.) Likewise, the perfect bosom friendship of Anne and Diana reflects the type of friendship Maud dreamed of and attempted to enter into with half a dozen girls who always disappointed Maud when the character of their friendships changed over time. So Gammel suggests that many of the events and themes of Anne of Green Gables represent unfulfilled longings of Maud’s.

Gammel also looks at how the periodicals Maud would have been reading might have influenced her writing. For example, Gammel notes an advice column that gives the “cure” for croup that Anne uses (The column suggests that mothers who administer this cure can save their child’s life before the doctor has time to arrive.) In another example, red-haired orphan “Ann’s” show up in several stories or poems.

When I wrote a little blurb on this book on my Nightstand post recently, Barbara H. (who read and reviewed this book in 2011 commented:

“I also didn’t like that she seemed to feel she had to try to find inspiration for much that LMM wrote – as if LMM couldn’t have just made some things up out of her imagination.

I agree and disagree with Barbara. I felt that Gammel was more heavy-handed than necessary in suggesting that this scenario or that story was THE story behind various incidents in Anne of Green Gables; but I found it interesting and fairly likely that those scenarios and stories would have influenced Maud’s writing, even unconsciously. As a fellow voracious reader (although not a particularly successful writer of fiction – I’ve dabbled but never completed anything), I can certainly identify with sort-of “absorbing” the contents of what I read and having them come out in the most unlikely places. Often, I’ll say something or write something and someone will ask me where I got that from. Sometimes I’m conscious that I’m quoting something or paraphrasing something, sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I’m aware of what work I’m quoting or paraphrasing or drawing from, sometimes not. But frequently, when someone asks me for sources, if I search hard enough, I realize that the germ of many of the “original” ideas that pop into my head are not original after all but a continuation of what Mortimer Adler calls “the great conversation” (at least, I think that’s where I got that thought :-P).

I did have a few complaints with this book, in addition to the aforementioned heavy-handedness, and they happen to be the same complaints Barbara H. made (really, you should probably read her review). Maud had a number of close female friends, and Gammel frequently implies that these were erotic in nature (it seems the vogue thing these days to rewrite artists of days past as homosexuals, and while some of them might be, I am reminded when I read such conjectures of C.S. Lewis’s statements regarding platonic male friendship being the deepest love and think maybe there’s something about same-sex friendships of the past that our current sex-crazed society just doesn’t get.) Furthermore, Gammel frequently associates nature with paganism and assumes that Montgomery’s insertion of nature into the Anne books is a sort of rebellion against the Sunday-school literature Montgomery often wrote for. While this may be (again, it’s possible that was Montgomery’s intent), I think it just as likely that Maud simply enjoyed nature and created her heroine to enjoy it as well.

Overall, though, I found this a fascinating book speculating on the origins of the character “Anne of Green Gables”.

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Literary analysis/biography
Synopsis: Gammel explores the events and stories that may have influenced Lucy Maud Montgomery’s character “Anne of Green Gables”.
Recommendation: If you really enjoy Anne of Green Gables and don’t get too upset at glimpses behind the curtain (How’s that for another literary reference?), you’ll probably enjoy this book. If conjecture or the idea that an author might not be quite as original as you originally supposed bothers you, no need to get yourself worked up by reading this book.

I read this as part of the 2015 Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge. Follow the link to check out who else is reading – and what they’re reading.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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When was the last time you read a book straight through cover to cover?

The last time I did was January 28, right after Tirzah Mae got her two month shots.

The book was Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus.

The circus arrives unexpectedly, massive black and white tents surrounded by a black wrought iron fence in what yesterday was only a field. The placard at the gate announces that it is open at night only.

Once the circus-goer pays admission, he passes through the gates into a circus like none he’s ever seen before. Everything inside is in black and white, bright light and total darkness. The grounds dazzle every sense as the circus-goer follows interwoven circles through dozens of tents. Each tent contains its own entertainment. Some are typical fair, if more spectacular than usual – contortionists and fire dancers and cat trainers. But some of the Night Circus’s amusements are completely novel – a garden made of ice, an enchanted wishing tree, a labrynth of rooms each more mind-boggling than the last.

What the circus-goer doesn’t know is that this ephemeral entertainment, popping into and then disappearing from one site after another, is not the main attraction. The Night Circus is a venue, a stage, a stadium in which a high stakes game between two great magicians is played out.

The game started many years ago, when a student magician innovated a new philosophy of magic, a new technique for wizardry. His master challenged him that a new philosophy or a new technique is only worthwhile if it can be taught. Each magician would choose a student, would train that student in his own magic – then, when the time was right, the two students would be pit against one another to see whose magic would prevail.

It’s been years since the last match, but now at last, Prospero has found a student he feels sure will prevail against anyone Alexander could train. He invites Alexander to a show, invites him to the game, offers as his contestant his six-year-old daughter Celia. Alexander accepts, begins training his own apprentice. And when Alexander decides that the time is right, he contacts a man in London to create an acceptable venue for the competition – and he sends a two-word message to Prospero: “Your move.”

The Night Circus is undoubtedly one of the most unique and most interesting fantasies I’ve ever read. While the story is set in familiar late-nineteenth-and-early-twentieth-century England and America, the setting is at the same time completely novel, thanks to the spectacular Night Circus and the magical premise of the story. The characters are mysterious, elusive, and absolutely fascinating. The plot is engaging and the story well-told.

That said, I doubt The Night Circus would be a hit with everyone. The story includes magic, yes, but also astrology and fortune-telling – all givens in the world of The Night Circus. A sex scene about three-quarters through rather disappointed this reader (it wasn’t terribly explicit, but enough so to make me uncomfortable.) And a jarring f-word in the first couple chapters almost made me put the book down (that was thankfully uncharacteristic for the novel – and I rather wonder why it made it past the editors, it was so out of place for the novel’s Victorian, albeit steampunk, setting.)

So I recommend this novel with serious caveats.

Rating: 3 to 4 stars
Category: Steampunk (but it transcends the genre)
Synopsis: A circus provides the setting for two magicians to pit their young students against one another in a mind-boggling sensory display of wizardry.
Recommendation: Masterfully written, fascinating premise and setting – but certain “dirty” elements make me hesitant to recommend this to all readers.

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (January 2015)

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One of the nice things about breastfeeding is that it enforces sit down times throughout the day. It generally leaves with just one free hand – which means breastfeeding time is reading time (but not usually blogging time.) It’s nice that, even though I feel dreadfully behind around the house, I still get my reading in :-)

January Fiction and Children's Books

Fiction read this month:
  • The Icebound Land by John Flanagan
    Book 3 in the Ranger’s Apprentice Series – I’m continuing to really enjoy these, although I wonder if they’re going to start getting weightier. I noticed one “damn” in this one and drug addiction plays a significant role in the plot – I’m hoping I haven’t led Davene astray in encouraging her son Josiah to read this series.
  • On a Whim by Robin Jones Gunn
    The second “Katie Weldon” book. She’s now officially dating Rick Doyle – and is working at acting normal around his roommate Eli. This is what I’ve come to expect from Gunn – a relatively realistic view of college life at a Christian college with strong Christian iron-sharpens-iron friendships.
  • Deceived by Irene Hannon
    A woman hires a private investigator to track down the boy she saw at a mall who looks like (and talks like) her dead son. Christian romantic crime-drama a la Dee Henderson. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
  • Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
    I always love returning to Avonlea – and Carrie’s L.M. Montgomery reading challenge gives me a chance to do so each year!
  • 17 children’s picture books author BOU to BRIDWELL

January Nonfiction

Nonfiction read this month:

Books about houses:

  • Sears, Roebuck Home Builder’s Catalog: The Complete Illustrated 1910 Edition
    An old-style dreambook.
  • House Styles at a Glance by Maurie Van Buren
    What are the primary characteristics of a Queen Anne style house? How about a Tudor or a craftsman bungalow? House Styles at a Glance can help you out, with illustrations for each type of house that point out key characteristics. This was a fascinating book.

Books about preemies:

  • The Preemie Primer by Jennifer Gunter
    An OB-GYN and mother of premature triplets, one of whom died shortly after birth, Jennifer Gunter describes the complications associated with prematurity comprehensively, taking a system by system approach (lungs, heart, brain, etc.) She also shares her own heartbreaking story of difficulties. This is a good overall review of both the hospital and post-hospital experience of having a preemie, slanted towards ongoing complications (since the author’s children experienced ongoing difficulties past age 3, when most preemies are considered to have caught up to their peers with no further “correction” needed.) I found certain parts of this book difficult as the author is clearly not pro-life and discusses selective reduction (aka abortion of one or more babies in a multiple pregnancy) and avoiding heroic measures from that standpoint (for the record, I have some definite opinions about avoiding heroic measures when there is nothing to be gained by doing so – but I come at it from a decidedly pro-life stance.)
  • The Preemie Parents’ Companion by Susan L. Madden
    Written by the mother of a preemie, this book gives a good overview of the hospitalization period, but it’s strongest point is describing what’s normal for a preemie once he comes home. Parents are often told to treat their child like a normal newborn once they leave the hospital (after being educated to correct for gestational age) – but preemies aren’t exactly normal newborns. Madden carefully describes the unique characteristics of preemies during the first couple years of life while they’re still “catching up” to their peers.

Other books:

  • Lookimg for Anne of Green Gables by Irene Gammel
    An exploration of the autobiographical and literary influences that led to Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne. Part biography, part comparative literature, this was a well-researched but still relatively speculative book. I enjoyed most of it, although Gammel’s fascination with human sexuality and speculation regarding Maud and her compatriots sexuality was less than pleasurable. I read this as part of Carrie’s L.M. Montgomery reading challenge.
  • The Food Police by Jayson Lusk
    Lusk, an agricultural economist, makes a case for keeping the government out of food – contrary to the wishes of the modern “food police”. Lusk discusses the economics of organic foods, agribusiness, fat taxes, and the “local food” movement. I greatly enjoyed this book – and while I have some differences with Lusk regarding what is desirable in terms of human behavior, I agree with him regarding what is desirable in terms of food policy. My biggest disappointment with this book is that, instead of taking the measured tone of a scholar, Lusk takes the more strident tone of a pundit, thus likely reducing the appeal of his message to the nonconverts.

On the docket for next month:

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Books, Everyday Life

A Much-Needed Holiday

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Many people might describe my personality as driven – and, when I think of it, that’s probably a rather apt description.

Driven recalls to mind an animal with a man behind it, cracking a whip or wielding a cane. So long as the animal keeps moving and moving as fast as the driver desires, he is comfortable enough. But should the animal slow or stop? He feels the whip upon his back.

That’s me.

I am the driven and the driver, weary and wanting rest but beating myself up when I slow or stop.

Adding a newborn to the mix adds a layer of fatigue I never imagined was possible. The driver insists that I get something done – that the house be cleaned, the dinner prepared, the blog post written. The daughter insists that I hold her rather than sleep.

So is it any surprise that I emerged from bed yesterday after a highly productive but exhausting Saturday followed by an utterly sleepless (okay, I got four or five thirty minute stretches) night and announced to my husband that I wanted a break.

“I just want to take a day off and read all my library books,” I told him.

Which got me thinking. Could I read all my library books in a day?

Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to literally read them all completely in a day – but could I even read a chapter of each?

I asked my husband for permission to take a 24-hour holiday – and at 1:30 pm yesterday I began my holiday.

I breastfed Tirzah Mae and made dinner – and I read, and read, and read.

By 1:30 pm today, I had read one chapter each of 41 books (40 nonfiction and 1 fiction), leaving just 4 nonfiction and 3 fiction books unread (also 24 children’s picture books that I didn’t even try to read).

I feel great.

It was a much-needed holiday (and I didn’t feel the whip crack even once.)

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Deceived by Irene Hannon

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Kate Marshall’s husband and son died in a boating accident three years ago. It’s taken time to pull her life together, but she’s done it – moving from New York to Missouri, working as a counselor for battered women looking for work. But as she descends an escalator at the local mall, she hears a childish voice ask for a “poppysicle”. Then she sees a boy who looks like a dead ringer for her lost son – except three years older than he was when his father’s boat capsized and he was lost in the lake, with his body never found. She can’t get the incident out of her mind, so she hires a private investigator to find out who the boy is – just to ease her mind.

Of course, she doesn’t expect that she’ll fall in love with the handsome PI or that she’ll end up with her life in danger.

I hadn’t read anything by Irene Hannon until my church book club selected Deceived for their January book club – but, having read it, I’m glad I did. Hannon’s writing style (and her subject matter) reminds me a lot of Dee Henderson – and I was so disappointed when Henderson’s writing skidded to a halt.

How is Hannon’s writing similar to Henderson’s? They both feature highly trained mid-thirties (or at least, I assume they’re in their mid-thirties) professionals in dangerous professions, both involve some sort of crime investigation, both include love stories that progress way too fast (in my mind). One difference is that Henderson’s mysteries tend to be mysteries – something that keeps the reader puzzling through to the end. With Deceived, we know the who-dun-it pretty much from the get-go, it’s the “how done it” and “why done it” that’s the mystery. Furthermore, Henderson spends most of her time developing her main characters – the leading man and woman (who will, of course, fall in love before the book is done) – while Hannon took a significant amount of time developing the villain (actually turning him into a fairly sympathetic character) and a secondary character.

I may be slightly annoyed by how fast the romances evolve (how’s that for hypocrisy?) and especially how kissing precedes commitment (at least in that I’m not hypocritical – Daniel and I’d committed to one another before we even met). I may be slightly annoyed at how shallowly Christian the characters are (that is, how they’re Christians who are committed to their churches but don’t bother to make sure they’re on the same page theologically before they get totally attached to one another – believe you me, theology is one of the first questions I asked of any potential beau!) Overall, I’m thrilled to have been introduced to another author who writes in the crime-drama genre I enjoy. But overall, I’m thrilled to have been introduced to another author who writes in the crime-drama genre I enjoy.

If you’re a fan of Henderson, or if you enjoy any of the massively popular crime-drama television shows these days, you’ll probably also enjoy Irene Hannon’s Deceived. Go ahead and give her a try.

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Christian Crime-drama romance
Synopsis: Kate Marshall hires a PI to investigate the boy she saw in the mall who looks exactly like her son would have – except that he presumably died in a boating accident three years ago.
Recommendation: Recommended for fans of Dee Henderson or of crime-drama in general