Average Girl Reads

A Woman's Place: A Novel by Lynn Austin

Genre: Christan fiction
On my TBR list?: Yes

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

As America rises to meet the challenge of World War II, the call for defense workers unites four women at Seneca Shipyards in Michigan. As their lives intersect, this unlikely gathering of women will encourage, shape, and influence one another as they learn valuable lessons about themselves and about life, love, and faith.

This book, while not unpleasant to read, is a reminder of why I usually don't like to read modern books set in the recent past. Since I often seek out books that were actually written in the 1940s, modern texts set in that period can suffer in comparison. That was the case with this book. The attitudes of the characters about things like racism and women in the workplace seemed to be too modern for the time period. All the main characters are so enlightened and forward-thinking that it doesn't seem realistic.

Other than that, I liked Austin's writing style. She fleshed out the four female characters at the center of the story in such a way that they weren't just types to fill an ensemble quota like the quiet one and the bossy one. I think the most fully-realized character was Helen, the older school teacher. Austin gave plenty of good reasons in Helen's background to explain why she reacted the way she did, instead of pinning it all on one factor like a failed romance.

The Christian aspect of the novel is not as prominent as I expected. There is barely a mention of God in the first half of the book, and it is unclear until the end whether one of the women is a Christian, at all. This book definitely isn't as preachy as a Lori Wick romance. I enjoyed the book as a general work of fiction but as Christian fiction it doesn't offer any weighty issues for a long-time believer to mull over. Strangely, this is the one area where the book does emulate the 1940s well. In most movies I've watched from that era, God is mentioned without shame but without much discussion, either.

All in all, A Woman's Place is a quick read about four women and how they affect each other's lives. It's not on the top of my recommendations list, but I wouldn't shoo anyone away from it.


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Laced with Magic by Barbara Bretton

Genre: romance, mystery, paranormal
On my TBR list?: no

Book 2 of a series (release date for book 3 unknown)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Knit shop owner and sorcerer’s daughter Chloe Hobbs felt the Fates finally got it right when she met Luke MacKenzie. And no one could have convinced her otherwise—including the trolls, selkies, or spirits who also call Sugar Maple, Vermont, home. But then out of nowhere Luke’s ex-wife suddenly shows up, claiming to see the spirit of their daughter, Steffie—a daughter Chloe knows nothing about.

This novel is the follow-up to Barbara Bretton's Casting Spells and it has more "meat" to it. Since the business of getting the boy and girl together was taken care of in the first book, we could move on to throwing a few troubles their way and seeing how they handle them. Although I classified this as a romance, there are elements of the fantasy and cozy mystery genres mixed in.

The tone reminds me of the TV show Bewitched. The danger that Chloe faces doesn't feel as threatening as what you would find in a Sookie Stackhouse novel or even the last installment of the Harry Potter series. Chloe's neighbors are all kooky characters that mix the supernatural with the suburban and I would love to spend more time with them in another book or a TV series.

Fair warning for those like me who hate to wait: this book has a cliffhanger ending, and as of 24 Apr 2010 I couldn't find any information about a release date for the next book in the series.

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To wrap up National Poetry Month, I checked out another anthology called Best Loved Poems of the American People. I found out about this book when Dana Gioia mentioned it in his review of Garrison Keillor's Good Poems. I would love to tell you about it, but I haven't even seen the cover of it yet. Why? As soon as my husband picked it up from the library for me, my eldest daughter M confiscated it. Considering that the book was published in 1936, I didn't expect her to even look twice at it. To my surprise, she has been alternately giggling and sighing over the tome ever since. She even took it on a long bus trip she took with the school band on Friday. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to pry it out of her hands before National Poetry Month is over!

UPCOMING: I read two novels while waiting for M to give me my poetry back. My impressions of Laced with Magic and A Woman's Place: A Novel will show up on the blog soon. Reading choices for this week will be limited because I don't have anything on hold at the library. It's been three weeks and my library request schedule is still off-kilter from ABM changing his work schedule. We've finally decided to stick with Mondays as our pick-up day, so hopefully I'll have more books to talk about in two weeks' time.

TBR LIST: My current total is 183 titles, up from my last count of 176. My mini-list of books added in 2008 is down to 21 from the original 25 titles. I also have a title from my mini-list in hand to read this week. Most of the titles left on that list are YA books or light romances so I should be able to run through it quickly. That is, if I can get in the mood to read them. I looked at some of those titles today and said to myself, "What was I thinking when I added THAT to the list?" Perhaps another culling is in order.

I subscribed to the Poem-A-Day feed so I could enjoy a little verse during National Poetry Month. However, most of what landed in my inbox was what I call "the new poetry" (anyone out there old enough to remember the new math?). It didn't have the structure or rhyming scheme that I'm accustomed to, and I didn't understand what most of them were about. Then the poetry gods shone down upon me and presented me with a Dorothy Parker poem, "The Passionate Freudian to His Love". I discovered several months ago that my taste in novels has gotten lighter; I think that my taste in poetry has strayed away from the deep symbolism, as well. Although I appreciate a well-turned phrase and the artful combination of words that intrigue the ear, at the end of the poem I want to understand what I read.

Today I am reading Good Poems in honor of National Poetry Month. I figured it would be a good choice for me since I have a simple mind when it comes to poetry. I like poems that I can understand, plain and simple. I don't get the poems that are just collections of pretty words or that are written as one giant paragraph. As Garrison Keillor said in the introduction to this book, "Good poems tend to incorporate some story, some cadence or shadow of story." If I can't dig out the story, then it isn't the poem for me.

Anyway, I picked up the book first thing this morning and started reading. It quickly became evident that several pages were missing. They had been torn from the book in such a neat way that at first I thought I'd gotten a misprinted copy. Once I realized that the book had indeed been vandalized, I was a bit perplexed. I can't remember the last time that I felt the need to rip pages out of a book or a magazine. This book was written after the advent of the internet; Keillor even mentions the website that is associated with the book, The Writer's Almanac. So why would a reader rip out a favorite poem when she could look it up online? Barring that, you could at least copy the poem by hand into a notebook. I could almost understand if it was just one poem. You could say the reader was so touched by the words that passion overtook reason and she had to have that exact page for her own. However, there are nine poems missing (someone was kind enough to put check marks next to the missing ones in the table of contents -- the librarian, perhaps?). That seems more like blatant disregard for future library patrons.

QUESTION: Are you reading any poetry for National Poetry Month?

There once was a site called Poetry Thursday. The site owners gave prompts every week and then others would write poems and share them. Sadly, the owners shut it down in 2007. I only got to participate in it for a few months but I really enjoyed it. Below are a few links to posts I made during that time:

Sundays are for Mary Travers and Meditation
The Transformation
Inspired by Another
Because I Couldn't Resist

Last week, I did a search to see if a similar site had sprung up, and that is when I ran across several reminders that April is National Poetry Month. It must have been all the NPM vibes that made me feel nostalgic for Poetry Thursday! Perhaps I'll check out a few poetry books this month to celebrate.

I finally broke down and started watching the first season of True Blood, the HBO series based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books. So far it has followed the first book enough to feel familiar, yet they've added some subplots that can hold the interest of someone who already read the books. I know that a lot of times readers are disappointed when they finally see the movie or TV show adaptation of a favorite series, but in this instance I have no complaints.

UP NEXT: I mismanaged my library list and ended up with nothing to read this weekend. Also, my husband's new promotion (huzzah!) may shift my library pick-up day to Friday so I may not have anything to read for the rest of the week as we make the adjustment (sob!).

If I do manage to get to the library this week, I will probably be reading romances. Two of the books I've requested are Laced with Magic and A Promise for Ellie. The former is the second book in Barbara Bretton's series about knitting, romance, and magic. The latter is the first book in a Christian fiction series called The Daughters of Blessing. Unless I misunderstood the description, it is set in an Amish community. I hope so, because I have been craving a good "bonnet book"!

TBR List: Three months have passed so I thought I should share an update on the state of my TBR list. Right now it seems to be working as a "to be remembered" list more than a "to be read" list. If I hear an interview on the radio and find out that the interviewee has written a book, I add it to the list. If I am watching CBS Sunday Morning and they speak to an author as part of a segment, I add it to the list. Right now, my TBR total stands at 176 titles. That is a lot, but I fully intend to start weeding out the list soon.

As for my goal to go through the books that have been on the TBR list since 2008, I still have 23 of them on my list (starting total was 25). One of them got moved over from my "not at my library" list, one of them was a book I skimmed but added back to the list to read later, and one of them has been requested from the library. I also have two poetry anthologies that I intend to check out soon since this is National Poetry Month.

Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton

Genre: supernatural romance
On my TBR list? Yes

Book 1 of a series

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Book synopsis from Goodreads:

Sugar Maple looks like any Vermont town, but it’s inhabited with warlocks, sprites, vampires, witches—and an ancient secret. And Chloe Hobbs, owner of Sticks & String, a popular knitting shop, has a big secret too. She’s a sorcerer’s daughter in search of Mr. Right—and she’s found him in Luke MacKenzie, a cop investigating Sugar Maple’s very first murder. Bad news is he’s 100% human, which could spell disaster for a normal future with a paranormal woman like her.

When I picked up this novel, I expected something along the lines of the Sookie Stackhouse series: a mystery in a magical world with a little sex and romance thrown in. Instead, I found it to be a vanilla romance. There was a drizzle of supernatural chocolate syrup and a knitting cherry on top, but it was still vanilla ice cream underneath. Luckily, I like vanilla so this was a quick enjoyable read for me, even if it was a little predictable.

Despite the fact that I am a knitter, the knitting component was my least favorite part. The name-dropping of various yarn brands and knitting terms didn't feel organic; it was as if the author was trying to earn her "knit cred" by giving a few shout-outs to other knitters. I know from reading the blogs that she's contributed to that Barbara Bretton is a real knitter and not a poser, so I'm surprised that the knitting didn't mesh with the story more thoroughly.

I'm hoping that the second book in the series, Laced with Magic, has a little more depth to it. With this book, I felt like I knew from the beginning how everything was going to work out -- not just "girl gets boy" part but even the supernatural subplot was rather predictable. Now that the heroine has her man, I'm curious to see what Bretton focuses on.

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