Fangirl

By: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Dates Read: December 28, 2020 - January 20, 2021
Pages: 434
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
I had read Eleanor & Park recently and all the book people on the internet say this is THE book for introverts. 

 

Fangirl follows Cath as she heads of to her first year in university.  Her twin sister attends the same school but while she is off making friends and partying,  Cath can be found in her room writing her fan fiction of this world's Harry Potter equivalent.  She gets along well enough with her older, grumpy roommate and her boyfriend.  Cath's single dad remains at home and she could care less about her mom that left them 10 years earlier. 

 

I had high hopes for this book.  It started so well and it had me intrigued.  Cath is judged severely for preferring to be alone while also navigating her first year of university, and the relationships that come with it.  She is meeting cute boys and learning that they are much different than her high school boyfriend.  Her dad struggles with his mental illness and she fears it may also pass to her.  She only wants to be a writer but her teacher dislikes her writing of fanfiction.  

 

It had so many places to go and then it just sort of fizzled out.  Her dad struggles with mental illness and for two pages she battles with the idea that maybe she will also struggle with it, and then we forget all about it.  She's not sure that she should date the guy she wants to date and struggles with it, and then just does it.  Her fiction writer teacher gives her a second chance at her major project, and then we don't even know if she even ever finishes it.  I mean, talk about dropping all the balls Rainbow Rowell.  

 

Honestly, I'm just so disappointed.  I'm disappointed that all the book nerds of the internet love this book.  I'm disappointed that Rowell can write the struggles one teenager faces so realistically in one novel (i.e. Eleanor & Park) and totally drop the ball in another.  I was hoping for yet another book to recommend to young people to get a glimpse into the lives of others, but the problems seem to just disappear instead of worked through.  

 

I guess I should also mention that every chapter begins with a snippet of either Cath's fanfiction or the "actual" writing from the Simon Snow books.  I could have done without it and Carry On (the spinoff book that is the actual fanfiction) is not something I will ever read. 

Rating: 2/5

Overhyped books that plummet in disappointment get low ratings. 

 

Recommendation: I don't know that I would really recommend this book and I don't think that I will be keeping it on my shelf for that very reason.

The Gospel Comes with a House Key

By: Rosaria Butterfield
Publisher: Crossway
Dates Read: December 14 - January 1
Pages: 220
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
Some dear friends of mine gave it to me with a note inside that said "every Christian should read this book," so I did.  

The Gospel Comes with a House Key talks about what the author calls radically ordinary hospitality.  People who live out radically ordinary hospitality see strangers as their neighbours and neighbours as family of God.  They don't see their homes as their own but as God's.  Hospitality is something they are seeking out (and planning for) every day all the time.  

Butterfield came to know Christ by a Christian couple showing her radically ordinary hospitality every Sunday.  She was invited into their home even though she felt as though she did not belong there.  They fed her, talked with her, shared with her, and beared burdens with her.  Now she does the same things with her neighbours and many individuals from different walks of life.  

Butterfield takes us through stories of her and her husband practicing hospitality.  She often begins with a story from her own experience and than uses that to give some practical ways in which we can practice hospitality.  She bases everything on biblical truth and talks about the hardships and joys that come from radically ordinary hospitality.  

The book was a beautiful reminder to love our neighbours and to love our enemies.  It was an excellent follow up to my last read, Everybody, Always.  Bob taught us to love everybody, always.  Rosaria is teaching us ways to actually do it.  She talks about some marginalized populations and some people that the church has often been not so friendly too.  She challenges all of this and calls us to do better and to start in our very own homes. 

It was a great book to read, but, ironically, it's not something we can start putting into practice right now due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.  However, I feel like there are many ways to start even in lockdown.  Phone calls and messages and porch gifts are all very manageable right now and I would guess that is what Rosaria is doing herself. 

Rating: 4/5

Recommendation: I don't think my friends were wrong.  Maybe every Christian should read this book. 

Hear Them Ring

By: Erynn Mangum
Publisher: Self-published
Dates Read: December 15-23
Pages: 312
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
Erynn Mangum is my favourite author.  Over the years she has released many novellas for Kindles only and since I will never own an e-reader, I had to wait years until she released them in a novella collection and here we are!

Hear Them Ring is a Christmas novella collection that includes four novellas: The Christmas Watch, Merry and Bright, My Revised Christmas List, and O Christmas Bree.  All four are warm, cozy Christmas love stories.  And I won't lie, from the very first chapter you can tell where every one of them is going except for the last one.  Let's just say this, Erynn Mangum really seems to have a thing for blondes with either blue or green eyes.  

One reason I love Erynn's books is because I find that while I am reading them I pick up my own Bible to read along with the characters.  If her characters are going to read a chapter, I am going to read a chapter.  It's one thing to get lost in a story and another to get lost in a story and learn about Jesus.  

My only complaint, as always since she began self-publishing, is the enormous amount of mistakes.  When I say enormous, I really mean enormous this time: twenty-one!  Twenty-one mistakes across four novellas.  Please Erynn, I have been begging you for years, please give me a first peak at your books because I will cherish them and make them less ugly on the eyes!!


Rating: 4/5 

Recommendation: If you love cheese-y love stories, this was made for you.  Warm, cozy, easy reads around Christmas time are always a pleasure. 

A Curse so Dark and Lonely

By: Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Dates Read: November 14 - December 13
Pages: 477
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
I saw someone on youtube say this was a Beauty and the Beast retelling (and I am a sucker for BATB), so when I saw it for $7 on bookoutlet in the middle of a pandemic, it seemed like a no-brainer.  

A Curse so Dark and Lonely switches back and forth between the two main characters: Harper and Rhen.  Harper is a teen living in Washington DC with a mom at home dying from cancer, a dad on the run from not nice people, and her brother working for those not nice people in hopes to repay some debt.  One night while she is on lookout, she sees a man seemingly trying to kidnap an unconscious girl.  Harper attacks him with a tire iron and suddenly finds herself inside a castle from what seems to be another world (spoiler alert: it is).  Rhen is the prince of this castle and land but it is not as it once was.  Every season a new girl is brought to him in hopes to break the curse that has taken everything from him and his people. The land of Emberfall is not what it once was as it is being attacked by a monster that Rhen cannot protect them from.  It is Rhen's last season and last chance to break the curse, but the kidnapped Harper is more eager to get back home to her family than fall in love with a tortured prince.  

I went into this book thinking I would be able to fairly easily predict what it would hold.  How could a retelling of a story from our childhood be almost 500 pages?  We are going to know exactly what is coming.  Wrong.  The basic premise is Beauty and the Beast: girl is held captive in hopes she will fall in love with the Prince and she doesn't like it.  That's it.  That's all they have in common.  This book goes deeper and darker and realer.  

Harper is smart and independent and does her best to get as far away from the prince as possible.  She also has cerebral palsy which, in all honestly, I don't think I have ever read a book with any character having cerebral palsy, let alone the main character.  It was really interesting to read how she works with it and how she explains it in a land where they literally have no idea what cerebral palsy is.  The two men in the castle assume she is weak or injured but quickly find that she is stronger than they think.  

Harper and Rhen end up working together with different goals in mind.  They agree to save the kingdom, if they can, before the season ends and everything probably goes terribly wrong.  I should maybe mention that the other main character is Grey, Rhen's personal (and only remaining) guard.  Grey teaches Harper how to fight, helps them build their crazy plan, and becomes close to Harper because he's not the one trying really hard to make her love him.  

Honestly, I don't think there is much more that I can say without spoilers.  The beast isn't quite what you expect.  The ending isn't at all what you expect.  I haven't wanted to pick up the second book in a series so bad in a long time.

Rating: 4/5

Recommendation: I don't read a lot of fantasy, but this was really good.  I think most people would enjoy.  It makes a childhood classic more suitable for teens and adults with stabbing and fighting and dancing and the mob! 

Everybody, Always

By: Bob Goff
Publisher: Nelson Books
Dates Read: January 12 - December 7
Pages: 223
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
Because Bob Goff wrote it.  

 

Everybody, Always is Bob's follow up to the wonderful and whimsical Love Does.  In this book Bob focuses on who we should love and how often.  The answer: everybody, always.  Again Bob brings us through stories from his own life where he learned (usually the hard way) how to love others without inhibition.  

 

Bob is a guy who is filled with love and whimsy and good stories.  He tells stories about his neighbours.  He tells stories about his family.  He has a whole chapter about Walt Disney World!  He attends a croc drop.  In all of this he gives us a little slice of what it means to love others.  

 

Bob always starts of simpler and slowly revs up to some heavier topics to fill the last chapters.  This time those last chapters focus on the work he has done with witch doctors in Uganda.  Bob is a lawyer by trade and has brought cases against witch doctors to justice.  He has also built a school for witch doctors where they read only two books: the Bible and Love Does.  He is loving the enemy always, as they are equally the "everybody" he shares about in this book.  

 

Bob seems to have a way of saying harsh things in the kindest of ways.  This book ends with a challenge for everyone - a challenge everyone needs.  Right at the end, it almost feels a little harsh, but it's a harsh reality that we all need.  He builds us up, gains our trust, and then challenges us to be different.  He challenges us to love everybody, always - not just the people who are easy to love.  Because you know what, love does.  

 

Bob, I tried to see you on Tom Sawyer Island last September, but maybe I'll try again sometime when Disneyland opens up again (or maybe sometime when you're in Canada after the borders open). 

Rating: 4/5

I am giving this one a 4 simply because it is not quite the perfection Love Does was.  Still an exceptional book though.  

Recommendation: This book should be read by everybody, always...well, at least once.  If you haven't read Love Does start with that one and then come back to this. 

The Library of Lost and Found

[Audiobook]
By: Phaedra Patrick 
Narrated by: Imogen Church
Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Dates Listened: September 29 - December 4
Length:  10 hrs 32 min
Source:  Overdrive

Why did I read it?
Yet another audiobook to fill the complete silence of my office.  I seem to be on the search for the perfect book about book-lovers.  

 

Martha Storm is a part-time librarian waiting for her chance to finally be hired on full-time (after a decade plus of work).  One night on her way into work, she finds a mysterious book outside the library door.  However, this is not any ordinary book, it is a book full of stories she wrote when she was a child.  Not only are these her stories, but there is a handwritten note addressed to Martha inside from her grandmother, dated two years after her supposed death.  This sends Martha on a mission to figure out how her stories ended up in a book, how her grandma could have signed that note, and how it ended up at her library in the first place.  

 

The Library of Lost and Found is a nice book about a book.  Martha is a middle-aged woman just waiting for her time.  After leaving the life she knew to take care of her parents when they were sick, she has fallen into a life of taking care of others instead of herself.  When a book with her stories shows up all of that changes.  On her search to find answers, she makes some new friends, reconnects with family, and finds herself.  The story overall is pretty charming and there is maybe even a hint at love, but there were many parts you could see coming long before they happened.  The writing was really good but if you want more of a mystery, this isn't it.  

 

There was a little something at the end that I thought was pretty weird and random.  For a 40 something year old, she reacted (I feel) unrealistically and found herself in another unrealistic situation.  It through me off a fair bit and seemed pretty out of place.  It was used as a climax that sets the book off too finish, but it just did not work for me.  

 

The audiobook was read in a lovely British accent, as all British book should be.  It could make any book better - this one didn't need it, but it's always appreciated. 

Rating: 3/5

Recommendation: It's a charming book about a lady with a book.  If that sounds like something nice to you, go for it. 

Every Little Piece of Me

[Audiobook]
By: Amy Jones
Narrated by: Therese Plummer and Tavia Gilbert
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Dates Listened: 
Length:  11 hrs 36 min
Source:  Overdrive

Why did I read it?
Work was quiet so I went looking for a random book to listen to.  This one was by a Canadian author and mostly took place in Canada's east coast so I fell for Canada.

Every Little Piece of Me follows two women who are in the spotlight in their own right: Mags and Ava.  Mags is the lead singer of a rock band she formed with her eventual husband.  When they finally make it big, tragedy strikes and Mags is left to navigate the world of music amidst her grief and anger.  Ava is, reluctantly, a cast member of her family's reality show in which they run a bed and breakfast in Nova Scotia.  She grows up on the show and watches it broadcast her families ups and downs as it takes a heavy toll on them.  

They advertise this book as the first time they meet, Mags saves Ava's life and the second time they meet Ava saves Mag's.  Everything in the middle they are pretty well separate.  In all honestly, I did not like either character's story.  We go back and forth between each character and watch them grow up and into these broken women who need to save each other.  I guess I'm for the idea of women helping women, but the stories were not great.  It actually felt like both of them were just being dragged along as victims and all we could do was blame the media but don't worry, women support women.  It felt really forced and I don't know if it is the best showing of women empowerment.  We can blame the media for a lot of what happened to these young women, but they did a lot to themselves and were not just victims. 

It felt like the author was throwing grit onto grit and trying to make this as edgy as possible.  Going into it, I thought it would be cool to be in the brains of a reality start and a rock star, but it was all just...blegh.  I think this book was supposed to be heart-wrenching and throw some blame on how the media treats women but it just did not get me there.

I don't have anything bad to say about the narration.  They were fine.  If anything, they almost sounded a little too similar and if they didn't start each chapter with the character's name I would have been lost. 

Rating: 2/5 (This makes it to two mostly for the first few chapters and Canada)

Recommendation: I don't recommend this book.  There has to be better Canadian fiction than this.  There has to be better women empowerment, media shaming, edgy books.  There just has to be.  

Also I would give this book an 18+ because some of the content is not appropriate for high school (in my opinion)