The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up // by Marie Kondo

//published 2014//

As usual, I’m running a bit behind on reading these trendy books, but I finally got around to seeing what Kondo’s book is all about.  While I was familiar with her overall vibe/message, it was interesting to read more of the details of her method.  However, I found myself disagreeing with her fairly frequently, as her method is quite extreme and, I think, in many ways and for many people, completely impractical.

So, in essence, the KonMarie Method involves purging a LOT of stuff – she recommends around 75% – and only keeping things that are absolute necessities and/or things that “spark joy” to you.  There were parts of this that I liked, and parts of it that I didn’t like.  In the pro column, I actually think going through everything you own and literally handling it and thinking about whether or not you need it is a GREAT idea.  Tom and I spent our first five Christmases in five different houses, so basically once a year we had to go through all our belongings and decide whether or not it was worth packing.  Now that we’ve lived in the same house since 2014, I’m amazed at how easily things pile up!!!  There are definitely areas of this house that I NEED to go through!  I also really liked the way that Kondo suggested starting with things less likely to be emotional and then working your way up – so starting with things like clothes and tackling things like mementoes and knickknacks after you have become more “in tune” with what genuinely sparks joy to you.  She also had some great thoughts on letting go of things that we’re only keeping because we feeling “guilty” about them – usually things that were gifts – by reminding her readers that those items have already served a purpose for you: they were given to you so that the person who gifted them could show you that they love you, and that gift has already done that, so you can pass it out of your life without feeling bad.  And while I’m not sure I’m ready to start actually thanking physical items for being there for me (I’d rather thank God for giving them to me) her overall thoughts on gratitude being foundational to contentment really resonated.

But in the cons column – I think Kondo is a little too cavalier with how much needs to be purged from the average person’s life.  To start with, there is somewhat a presumption of wealth – not that all of her clients/readers are wealthy, per se, but that they don’t need to be watching their pennies, because she seems to think it’s perfectly reasonable to get rid of, say, all your writing utensils and then just buy a new one whenever the need arises.  Okay, that kind of makes sense because I’m sure I have more pens than I need – but also why would I get rid of all of them and then keep buying new ones one at a time for the rest of the my life??  The same thing with clothes.  She thinks you should get rid of all the clothes that don’t spark joy for you, but then acts like all of her readers would be able to perfectly afford to replace the non-joy clothes with joy clothes.  So I’ve gotten rid of all my serviceable, if boring, tshirts and now I’m supposed to go shopping for just those few perfect joy ones??  The same with small kitchen appliances – just get rid of that blender, and then later if you decide you need one after all, you can go buy a new one!  In a budgetary sense, I’m not sure I can completely get behind her reasoning.

Next, I think Kondo gets a little carried away with deciding things have served their purpose so we don’t need them any more.  For instance, she thinks you can get rid of all your photographs because we “never look at them anyway” and they’ve served their purpose already, because the purpose, according to her, is to capture that moment at the moment – taking the photograph is just a way of recognizing that moment’s importance at the time.  What?!  First off, I actually do look at our photos a lot, especially the ones I’ve taken the time to put into photo books.  I also love looking at photos at my parents’ house and remembering bits of childhood and the past that otherwise would have been completely forgotten.  Yes, those photo albums take up a lot of space, but I’m not convinced that it’s wasted space??

It was the same with things like books.  Obviously I’m a bit obsessive about books, but I found myself wondering if Kondo actually reads???  She doesn’t see any sense in keeping books around because if you’ve read it, the book is now inside of you so you don’t need it any more.  She went on to tell a story about how she realized that she was keeping some books because they had certain passages that resonated with her, but she realized she didn’t need the whole book just to keep those underlined parts so she cut the books apart and pasted those lines into a notebook.  Of course, in the end she was decided she never looked through that notebook after all, so she could get rid of that, too.  But the wanton destruction of perfectly good books just really got to me – cutting them up meant that she had turned them into literal garbage that no one else could ever read, either.  Her whole section on books horrified me on so many levels.  I actually put down her book and went to find my husband just so I could rant to him about it!

I guess to me, a lot of Kondo’s advice felt wasteful.  Just like cutting up the books – while she does talk about giving stuff away, a lot of times she seems perfectly fine with rendering something useless for anyone else (by keeping the part you “need”) and just trashing it.  And while there is a balance of getting rid of stuff you are extremely unlikely to use again, I don’t feel like just purging your house of literally everything and then rebuying the stuff you decide you actually need is going to be particularly practical for a lot of us.

A final area that has stuck with me all this time as being just utter nonsense was the way she approached, for lack of a better word, prepping.  In Kondo’s world, you don’t need a back-up tube of toothpaste, because you can just got get a new one when that one runs out!  You don’t need an extra pack of toilet paper, because the store is just around the corner!  Why would you have more than one box of cereal when you can pick out one when this one is empty?  First off, she is obviously writing as a city person – it takes me 20 minutes to get to the grocery store from here, so yes, I do buy more than what I need at a time because I can’t just stop off at the story every freaking day of my life.  I also think that in light of the supply chain issues that are still ongoing, her advice is completely wrong.  I’d rather have a cluttered pantry with six months’ of food on hand than one that’s empty at the same time the grocery shelves are.  The truth is, you can’t always just run out to the store and buy something new exactly when you need it.  Sometimes it’s impractical to get to the store, and sometimes the store doesn’t have what you need.  I didn’t like Kondo’s attitude that stores just always are magically there and well-stocked every time you need them, and that if you have more than one back-up, you’re a secret hoarder who needs to recognize that it’s somehow unhealthy to have more than one pack of paper towels in your closet.

In the end, I think that home organization, like life, is about balance, and I didn’t find the KonMarie Method to be balanced for me.  I can see why her concepts resonate with a lot of people, but I felt like she focused way too much on just getting rid of everything as the solution to all of life’s problems.  But here’s the thing – while maybe not every single individual book on my shelves specifically sparks joy, the essence of that many books in my home does.  And yes, I do need to get rid of some of them, and I am as I read (or reread) through them, but I’m not going to trash every unread book in my home because it’s been here more than a year, like Kondo suggests.  I don’t see myself dumping my photo albums because they’re taking up precious space, getting rid of all the fun odds and ends we’ve collected on vacations, or getting rid of all my backstock of pantry items.  I also think that if you have problems with staying organized and keeping your house tidy, those problems won’t go away just because you’ve gotten rid of everything.  The mess may not be as big, but truthfully you can still make a mess even with just the necessities.  I never felt like Kondo really gave me a solution beyond getting rid of stuff.

This book was still a completely worthwhile read.  Tom and I talked about it a lot and really enjoyed debating the merits of different aspects of her method.  There were definitely some aspects of what she had to say that I found useful and have applied to my life.  But as far as this being an end-all to my organization/clutter troubles – this one wasn’t the solution for me.

The Horologicon // by Mark Forsyth

//published 2012//

Woohoo!! I’m officially reviewing books I read in August!  This feels like progress!!

This nonfiction book was an absolute delight.  Forsyth begins by explaining how everyone loves learning weird words, and it’s always fun to learn about words that were common in the past but have fallen out of style.  However, most dictionaries are organized alphabetically, which is great if you already know the word, but not great if you are trying to find out if a word exists to express your particular feeling or experience.  And so, Forsyth’s book is organized by the hours of the day, starting with 6a.m. – Dawn (“Alarm clocks – trying to get back to sleep – feigning illness”) meandering through the middle of the workday (“Noon – Looking as Though You’re Working: Effortlessness – sales and marketing – emails – approaching bankruptcy – asking for a raise”), and ending with Midnight – Nostos (“Making too much noise upon returning – attempting to work – undressing – arguing with spouse – falling asleep”), stopping at all the other hours in between.

Forsyth is British, which feels like it shouldn’t exactly matter, yet this is somehow delightfully British in tone, with a dry sense of humor and a wry way of twisting words and situations.  I flagged so many different words when I was reading this one and laughed out loud multiple times.

Some of the words felt like they could actually be useful –

For the moment, you can lie there [in bed] in a zwodder cursing the arrival of a new day.  … [an old dictionary] defines zwodder as: “A drowsy and stupid state of body or mind.”

Well, that sounds familiar!

Or how about “swale,” which means “windy, cold, bleak” – that could definitely be a useful word during a Midwestern winter!  And most of us know what consulting is, but how about constulting, which actually means “being stupid together”?? I see gongoozlers almost every time I drive down the highway and there is a wreck, as they are “idle and inquisitive persons who stand staring for prolonged periods at anything out of the common.”

I discovered that my dogs are experts at groking, which is “to stare wistfully at somebody while they are eating in the hope that they will give you some of their food,” and also that my husband is actually an aristologist, which is someone who “devotes their lives to the pursuit of the perfect morning meal.”

There are plenty of options for insults.  “Hydropot” was one of my favorites – it actually just means someone who is a teetotaller, but as Forsyth points out, it does have a lovely, insulting ring to it when shouted at someone.

Some of the words exist in partial form today – it’s always intriguing to me to see why we keep some words while others disappear.  For instance, while we’ve kept the word befuddled, we’ve lost the root word – which truly did exist – fuddling – which means drinking alcoholic beverages: at it’s root, befuddled actually means drunk!  Another fun one was nullibiquitous, which is the opposite of ubiquitous – so while ubiquitous means to exist everywhere, nullibiquitous means to exist nowhere, which Forsyth points out is a common problem with things like car keys when you are in a hurry.

All in all, this was just such a fun read.  I read a chapter every morning with breakfast, which was a perfect dosage of this type of book.  Forsyth was humorous and fun, but also managed to keep everything linked together and flowing by organizing the book the way he did.  If you enjoy words and wordplay, this one is definitely worth a read.

July Minireviews – Part 1

Progress!!!

Also, I’m getting so lazy with these minireviews that since I didn’t review them on Litsy (thus taking pictures of them), I’m not even bothering to look up cover images for them. This blog really is going downhill LOL

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Caroline & the Colonel by Shannon Archer – 3* (published 2021)

I was in the mood for fluffy romance/P&P variations at the beginning of July and this one sounded fun.  However, it’s hard to rate, because I thought it was going to be an easy 4* read, maybe even 4.5*, for the first 70% of the book… and then it went totally off the rails.  All of the sudden there was all this extra drama, this weird scene with Caroline making a public apology that made zero sense, and just… it got weird.  Which is a real shame, because I really loved the concept and characters for over half the book, but it was basically like Archer decided she wanted to write a sequel, but in order for that to happen she was going to need to have some loose ends, so instead of tidying things up, she decided to fray the edges.  Disappointing.

Ship to Shore by Elizabeth Adams – 3* (published 2019)

Another one that’s hard to rate.  I have read a few of Adams’s other books and really enjoyed them, so I thought I would try this random contemporary romance by her.  I was just absolutely loving this book with a fun premise and likable characters, but then at 80% (this was a Kindle book), the story literally STOPS – I can’t even explain how abruptly it stops – and says, “To Be Continued…” and then the remaining 20% is some other random story!!!!  This annoyed me so much that it colored my feelings about the entire rest of the book.  There was definitely no reason not to FINISH THE BOOK AS ONE BOOK, especially considering there still doesn’t appear to be any kind of sequel despite the fact that this was published in 2019…!!!!

Tips for the Lazy Gardener by Linda Tilgner – 3* (published 1985)

This one should really have been called something like “Tips for Gardeners Who Want to Be More Organized” or something like that.  So yes, being organized means less work further down the line, but in the meantime… well, basically gardening is just a lot of work no matter how you cut it.  It was a so-so read, but the other problem was that it really was just a collection of tips, so just a few sentences per paragraph, then the next paragraph some other random tip, making it kind of difficult to use as a reference book.  It wasn’t terrible, but it went in the giveaway box when I was done reading it.

A Timely Elopement by Joanna Starnes – 3* (published 2020)

This was another P&P variation, where Darcy’s proposal at Hunsford is interrupted with news that ANNE has eloped with WICKHAM!  I had read other books by this author before and found them to be decent, but this one needed another strong round of editing.  The concept was fun and I liked the way that she portrayed the characters, but the whole story was poorly executed with weird scene changes that made the reading choppy.  The ending was a bit out of left field as well.  Not a terrible read, but definitely could have been improved with some proofreading.

The Rogue’s Widow by Nicole Clarkston – 3.5* (published 2020)

I was TRYING to play it safe by reading books by authors who had written other P&P variations I liked, but this was kind of a batch of duds.  This one wasn’t terrible but was a bit of a yawn-fest without a lot happening.  Here, Wickham has an older brother (who is just as terrible as the original Wickham).  Through a mildly complicated series of events (orchestrated by Darcy), Elizabeth ends up marrying this guy on his deathbed, which means that she, as the widow, inherits his Pemberley-adjacent estate instead of George Wickham.  My notes just say, “Boring but inoffensive” which pretty much sums it up.

Sorrow & Second Chances by E. Bradshaw – 3.5* (published 2019)

In this variation, after Elizabeth rejects him at Hunsford, Darcy is mooning about London when he learns of Mrs. Bennet’s untimely demise.  He and Bingley head back to Meryton for the funeral, and from there reinstate themselves with the family.  This wasn’t exactly a bad variation but we pretty much only hear Darcy’s perspective and trust me, he spends WAY too much time worrying about literally everything.  This was a story that needed some tightening up as it felt repetitive (Darcy thinks and thinks about having a conversation, then we have to listen to the actual conversation, then we listen to Darcy analyze the conversation…) and thus a little too long.

The Perfect Horse // by Elizabeth Letts

//published 2016//

Those of you who have been with me for a while have probably noticed that I read significantly more fiction than nonfiction.  But I do also have a nonfiction TBR and have been trying to read more from that as well.  In June I started The Perfect Horse because I had read another book by Letts a couple of years ago, The Eighty-Dollar Champion, and really enjoyed it.  In The Perfect Horse I was so pleased to see that Letts’s attention to detail and ability to tell an engrossing story had definitely carried over.

During the 1930s, while Hitler was amassing territory and power, he also was working on a project to create the ideal war horse.  In World War I, horses were hugely instrumental to the war effort, so the concept of making a perfect “race” of horses fit in well with Hitler’s overall scheme of a perfect “race” of humans.  As various countries fell under German control, many assets of those countries were centralized, including famous stables and horses.  Letts follows the journey of several different horses, including two famous Arabian stallions from Poland, and several Lipizzaner stallions from the Spanish Riding School in Austria.  She also introduces us to the people connected to these horses.  There are a lot of people and places in play, but Letts’s writing is compulsively readable, and I honestly had trouble putting this one down.

The first two sections of the book focus on introducing the horses, people, and places involved.  Letts gives the readers the background of why Hitler found horses to be such an important part of his military program, and also discusses what the US Calvary was doing at the time (they were still on horseback!), yet we also begin to see the writing on the wall – horses are not actually going to be critical military assets for much longer.  It was really interesting to see the way that the horses were shifted around and centralized, and how the focus of Hitler’s horse breeding program was on creating virtually identical stallions for war, a horse factory if you will, with horses being trained and used as young as possible, and mares producing foals as rapidly as they could.  This was especially in contrast with the incredibly slow-moving and precise breeding/training program of the Lipizzaner horses, who aren’t ridden until they are several years old.

In the third part of the book, the war is moving along and Germany is falling.  It’s at this point that an American officer finds out, through a captured German, that a small herd of incredibly valuable horses are just across enemy lines.  With the Russians closing in from the east, and willing to literally eat anything and everything in their path, a decision is made to cross lines and basically steal the horses.  An interesting part here was the discussion about whether or not it was worth it to risk human lives to rescue equine ones, and I appreciated the way that Letts explained this –

This mission mattered to him – he wanted to save the horses.  All over Europe, there were men whose express job was to protect cultural artifacts and recover stolen art.  At the highest level, the American military was aware that even in the darkest times, care must be taken to protect irreplaceable cultural treasures.  But the horses, equally beloved, equally treasured, infinitely precious because they were living things, did not have the same official protection afforded to museum pieces.

For me, the book fell off a bit in the final section, which looks at the aftermath of the rescue.  Because the focus is more on this group of specific horses than it is on the Lipizzaner breed as a whole, it’s honestly a little bit of a downer.  The American Calvary stopped using horses after World War II, which meant that the horses were sold rather than used.  The American Jockey Club refused to acknowledge the meticulously-kept records of the heritage of rescued horses, which meant that they were almost valueless in America.  Consequently, the end-destination of many of the horses is unknown, although the fates of the four stallions that Letts focused on the most were happy.

All in all, I definitely recommend this one.  It was completely engrossing and an intriguing look at yet another aspect of both the war and Hitler’s regime.  Letts kept me completely engaged in the fates of these beautiful horses and the men who cared about them.  I felt like this quote really summarizes the story well –

World War II is still the most destructive event ever to have occurred in human history, with estimates of the total death toll as high as sixty million, or 2.5 percent of the world’s total population.  The irreparable loss to civilization that resulted from people being slaughtered and entire cultures being obliterated is impossible to measure.

Against the backdrop of all this wreckage, the saving of the horses was a small thing; and yet as Hank Reed’s men instinctively knew, it was only through individual acts of compassion that the world was able to climb out of the trough it had dug for itself and attempt to find its way into a more peaceful future.

Later, when people asked why he had decided to save the horses, Colonel Reed’s answer was simple:  “We were so tired of death and destruction.  We wanted to do something beautiful.”

June MiniReviews – Part 1

Have I mentioned that my life is pretty much just peaches right now???  You all really just can’t understand LOL  In the meantime, here are a few books that I read all the way back in June…

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

The Horse & His Boy by C.S. Lewis – 5*

//published 1954//

Growing up, this was one of my least favorite books in the series (along with The Silver Chair), but every time I reread it, I enjoy it more.  There’s a lot to soak in here about providence and why bad things happen to people and how that all works together for good, plus it’s just a fun story.  Narnia is always a joy to me.

Kitty’s Class Day & Other Stories by Louisa May Alcott – 3*

//published 1882//

I’m a huge fan of Alcott, and some of my all-time favorite books were penned by her.  However, I’ve had this collection of short stories on my shelf for literal years and somehow never read it… and when I did, I honestly wasn’t that impressed.  The subtitle for this one is “Proverb Stories” and each tale has a little saying/proverb at the beginning and then the story goes on to illustrate it.  Consequently, these came across as a little on the preachy side.  Alcott is always a fan of making her writing somewhat moralistic, but I feel like that works better with her longer-form writing, as we are able to see characters grow and mature organically.  Here, with only a few pages per story, the lessons felt a bit too in-your-face for my tastes.  Perfectly fine but honestly not particularly engaging.

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling – 4*

My reread of the Potter books also continued in June with a chapter a day of the fourth book.  I think this is where the series really starts to take off, with a lot of connections being made.  It’s a chunkster of a book and sometimes does feel a little ponderous, but overall I still find this series plenty entertaining.

Written in Starlight by Isabel Ibañez – 3.5*

//published 2021//

In May I read Woven in Moonlight and found it to be a decent enough read that I wanted to pick up the sequel, Written in Starlight.  It’s hard to tell about this one without giving away some spoilers for the first book, but basically there is a character from the first story who ends up being sent away into the jungle as a punishment at the end of the book.  It honestly felt a little jarring, so reading the second book felt like reading the other side of the coin.  Although the main character is different, it really ties in with the first story and, I felt, tied up a lot of loose ends.  Overall, I think I actually liked this one better, even if the main character was super dense from time to time.

Led Zeppelin: Heaven & Hell by Charles Cross & Erik Flannigan – 3.5*

//published 1991//

My husband is a huge Zeppelin fan, so we have several nonfiction books about the band.  In my quest to read all of the books I own (LOL) this one was the next stop.  Published in 1991, it was written at a time when there was still a lot of chatter about whether the band would get back together, with John Bonhome’s son, Jason, as the drummer.  This book read more like an extended fanzine, with a lot of information about band paraphernalia, concerts, albums, concert memorabilia, etc.  If you already love Zeppelin and are just looking for some random tidbits, it’s worth picking up for the photographs if nothing else, but if you don’t know much about the band, this isn’t really a great place to start, because the authors definitely assume that you already have foundational knowledge about the band members and the trajectory of the band itself.  I definitely preferred Flannigan’s sections to Cross’s – I find Cross’s writing to be somewhat condescending, something I also noted when I read his biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven.  Ultimately, Cross felt like it was super important to spend a great deal of time hating on Hammer of the Gods by Stephen Davis (which I haven’t gotten around to reading yet), which, whether or not his claims were justified, just came through as rather petty.  A moderately enjoyable read, but not one I’d particularly pick up again.

May Minireviews – Part 3

Oh look, more minireviews from the backlog!!!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez – 3*

//published 2020//

This one has been on my radar for a while because of that gorgeous cover, and also because I’m always interested in books with a Central/South American flavor to them.  This book was, I think, what you might call magical realism rather than fantasy.  It was a solid story about a group of people holed up in hiding because they people that they conquered several generations ago have now risen up and conquered them.  There’s a lot of discussion about imperialism and what it means to have a group conquer another group, and which culture is the “real” culture, etc etc.  Some of it was handled well while other bits felt a little too polemic.  While I liked the characters, I also somehow couldn’t connect to them.  There were really random scenes that felt over-the-top violent for the rest of the story, and Ibañez decided to arbitrarily kill off a character I really liked, which always annoys me.  The author also chose to put a LOT of Spanish words in her text, which did add to the flavor of the story, but there was no glossary in the back, and the context did not always make the meaning of the words obvious, which meant I frequently had to stop to look up words, which always takes me out of the story – for some reason way more than it does when all I need to do is flip to a glossary.  (I think because looking it up means I have to actually set down the book and pick up a completely different item – my phone or a computer – to find the answer, which frequently leads to other distractions.)

In the end, I did like this book, and I think some people might like it even more than me, but it just wasn’t a perfect match.

The Marriage Game by Sara Desai – 4*

//published 2020//

I had actually been meaning to read this book for a while, and then a member of the traveling book club chose the sequel, The Dating Game, for her pick.  Even though the second book could be read as a stand alone, I figured this was a good chance to go ahead and read this one, and I ended up really enjoying them both.  This is just the kind of fun and fluffy romance I like (although a little on the sexy side).  Layla was quirky without being obnoxious; Sam was angsty but reasonably so; and Layla’s family was absolutely hilarious while still filling realistic.  This one definitely hit the spot and I can totally see myself rereading it at some point.

The Dating Plan by Sara Desai – 4*

//published 2021//

I didn’t like this one quite as well, but still really enjoyed it.  My main issue with this one is that Daisy and Liam are in a fake relationship, but are CONSTANTLY talking about how it’s fake when the people they are supposed to be fooling are just in the next room, or around the corner, or what have you.  It was driving me crazy how they would basically get into a shouting match about how the whole thing is fake, and yet Daisy’s nosy family never noticed???  It just didn’t jive.  Liam also spent a little too much time hating on himself – we get it, you were a jerk.  Still, all in all it was still great fun.  A third book is scheduled to be published in November, and I’ll definitely be reading it!

Living in Norway by Solvi Dos Santos & Elisabeth Holte – 3.5*

//published 1999//

This was another book that I read for the Food & Lit Club, where we “visit” one country per month with books and recipes.  May’s country was Norway, and I read this one in addition to a travel guide that I didn’t review (it was very travel guide-y).  Reading Living in Norway was like reading a PBS special. I could practically hear the soothing voiceover of a narrator the entire time.  Going season by season the authors visit different homes in Norway, discussing architecture, history, hobbies, and ways of life. I’m not sure how much this book reflects the majority of Norwegians’ lives as it seemed to focus a lot on the artsy types, but the photography was gorgeous and it was all and all an enjoyable read.  I’m fascinated by life so close to the Arctic Circle in terms of daylight and weather and loved reading how the people who live here embrace winter and the long hours of darkness.  So many of the architectural details there are because of the long winters, so it was very interesting to learn more about them.  Maybe not a book for everyone, but if you’re looking for some gentle nonfiction with a lot of photographs, this was pretty fun.

Love at First by Kate Clayborn – 3*

//published 2021//

I read Love Lettering last year and had a lot of mixed feelings about it, but decided to give Clayborn’s new book a try.  Once again, I was left with a book that had a fun concept but, for me, no follow-through.  I really liked Will and Nora, but this whole thing with Will needing to sublet the apartment felt weird and forced.  The synopsis makes it sound like Will’s going to, I don’t know, tear down the entire apartment building or something, but instead he literally just wants to make it into an Air B&B? Like I get you not wanting that to be your next-door neighbor, but it didn’t seem worth the amount of angst that was going on.  What redeemed the story were all the secondary characters – all the other apartment building folks were delightful and fun and I really enjoyed them.  This one weirdly reminded me a lot of Second First Impressions which I had read earlier in the month, and, like that one, this one just didn’t quite hit the mark for me, because all the conflicts felt strangely manufactured instead of natural.

May Minireviews – Part 1

Well, I’m finally delving into May’s reviews, and since May does seem like more recent past than April, I at least feel like I’m making progress!!  May is traditionally a super busy month for me since I work at a greenhouse, which means there aren’t as many books to review as there are in most months…

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Happiness Hill by Grace Livingston Hill – 4*

//published 1932//

I read a lot of fluff in May, because that’s what I trend towards when I’m busy (or stressed or depressed or in a reading slump or just feel like it haha).  I actually own this one, so I know I’ve read it before, but I couldn’t remember the details – not that the details of a GLH book varies much from one book to the other, but still.  If you don’t like your romances to be clean, somewhat religious, a little saccharine, and quite predictable, don’t pick up GLH.  But I find that that’s frequently exactly what I want, and I quite enjoyed this one, with the traditional strong-moraled heroine, the goofy brother, the gentle-but-in-poor-health parents, and the lonely young hero who yearns for some family.  Basically, if you like GLH, you’ll like this one.

PS No, I’m not the heathen who used this book as a coaster at some point!

100 Years of Color by Katie Greenwood – 3*

//published 2015//

This nonfiction book had such an intriguing premise, but for me it just didn’t quite follow through.  Greenwood looks at each decade from 1900 through 2000, pulling advertising posters, artwork, and textiles, and discusses the colors that were popular during that decade and why… except she doesn’t really get to the “why” all that much.  Instead, each decade has a (very) short discussion page, then several images with no explanation as to why she particularly chose those or thought they were good examples of the decade.  There was so much potential here to really delve into popular colors and patterns but instead she barely skims the surface, making the book more or less unmemorable.  It was definitely a case of me wanting to like a book more than I did.

Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse – 5*

//published 1925//

I’m still working my way through all of Wodehouse’s works in published order.  The 1920s were a great decade for Wodehouse’s writing, as he invents the immortal duo of Jeeves and Bertie, and this book did not disappoint.  I’ve read all of the Bertie and Jeeves books in the past, but am never adverse to revisiting them.  This collection of loosely connected short stories included a couple of favorites, like a chapter from Jeeves’s point of view.  And who can resist a story titled, “The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy”??  Certainly not me!

Unicorn Famous by Dana Simpson – 4*

//published 2021//

This is the latest installment of the Phoebe & Her Unicorn comics, and just as much fun as the rest of the series.  While these can obviously be read in any order, they’ve been so much fun to read in publication order, as characters (and unicorn lore) do develop throughout the series.

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne – 3*

//published 2021//

In my attempt to read newly published books by authors that I like as they get published, I reserved Second First Impressions at the library and was intrigued to read it after thoroughly enjoying The Hating Game.  However, this one just didn’t really hit the right notes for me.  While I did like the main character, Ruthie, she also frustrated me a lot.  The snarky best friend/coworker also really got on my nerves and I felt like she crossed the line and became condescending towards Ruthie, acting like Ruthie was just too sheltered and backwards to really know what she wanted from a relationship.  Like Ruthie would make a statement about what she wanted from life/a relationship and the snarky best friend was like, “Oh, no, that’s what losers would want!  THIS is what you REALLY want!”  I honestly found it a kind of offensive that Ruthie’s desire for a quiet, not-drama-filled life was dismissed as boring and pathetic.

I’m also personally a bit over having a character’s Tragic Back Story be because of a horrible “religious“ father. Can we please stop having background characters be “Christians“ just so you can talk about how hypocritical they are? Thanks.  I definitely felt like Ruthie could have had a terrible dad and a lot of the same issues without all the extra effort of emphasizing how “religious” her dad was.

Finally, while the two old ladies who lived at the retirement home were funny and sweet, their whole schtick of only hiring good looking young men so they could make them do embarrassing things until they cracked just felt, for lack of a better word, cringe.  I can’t even imagine how this aspect of the story would have gone over if it was two old men who hired young women so they could comment on how good they looked in various outfits and then send them off to do demeaning and difficult tasks just to see how long it would take them to quit.  I mean seriously.

So while this one was an okay read for me, I definitely didn’t love it.  It really lacked the chemistry, snark, and snap of The Hating Game, and read closer to women’s fiction than romcom for me.  The “humor” felt a little forced, like Thorne was writing a serious story but kept trying to make it into a romcom instead.

Three-Act Tragedy AKA Murder in Three Acts by Agatha Christie – 4*

//published 1934//

While this isn’t my favorite Poirot story, it was still quite good and, as usual, I had no idea what the solution was.  Hopefully no one ever needs me to solve their murder, because I can 100% promise that I won’t be able to do it!  One of my favorite parts of this book was the fun way Christie listed the cast of characters in the front.  The chapter/section headings also aligned with the parts of a play, carrying the theme throughout.

February Minireviews – Part 3

We’re just going to pretend like it’s perfectly normal to review books three four months after I read them… (because yes, I wrote half this post in May and am only just now coming back to it!)

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

The Substitute Guest by Grace Livingston Hill – 3.5*

//published 1936//

Are GLH’s books predictable and cheesy?  Yes.  Is that what I want sometimes?  Also yes.  This one was pretty normal GLH fare, but that’s not actually a bad thing in my mind – sometimes I just want something warm, relaxing, predictable, and happy.  It’s rare that GLH doesn’t deliver.

Gods of Jade & Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – 3.5*

//published 2019//

This was one of those books that I wanted to like more than I did.  While the concept was quite good, somehow the book just lacked magic.  The third-person narrative – which I usually prefer – here felt distant and almost stilted.  There were times that there would be an somewhat lecture-y tone to the tale, filling the reader in on a piece of culture or fable, rather than letting those things be a natural part of the story’s flow.  This was also a book that definitely needed a map, as I had no real grasp on the distances they were traveling.  All in all, while it was a fine one-off read, it didn’t really make me interested in seeing what else Moreno-Garcia has written.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever by John Donohue & JT Malloy – 3.5*

//published 2020//

It’s always hard to review a book that’s memoir-ish, and this one is no exception. The author was in his late 20s during the Vietnam War. He had been a Marine straight out of high school but was considered “too old” to enlist for Vietnam, so he was working as a merchant marine. When the war protests started to turn on the soldiers themselves, the guys from Chick’s hangout-bar thought it would be amazing if someone could go visit all the active duty guys from their neighborhood, take them some local beer, & reassure them that what they were doing was appreciated & they were missed & loved. Chick’s job enabled him to hop on a boat headed to Vietnam with the idea that he would take 3 days shore leave when he got there & find some of the guys. What with one thing & another, his boat left without him, leaving him stranded in Vietnam in the days leading up to & the first couple of weeks of the Tet offensive!

Reading this book is basically like listening to your old uncle tell his stories from the war. It wasn’t a bad book at all, but it did tend to ramble off & sometimes go into back stories not directly related to the main plot & it wasn’t always easy to tell what was happening “now“ & what was an explanation from the past. (i.e. a few paragraphs telling a story to illustrate why Chick doesn’t like ship captains – it was hard to tell if it was THIS ship captain, or one from his past.) Chick is also very pro-unions, which I’m not against unions but I also got a little tired of every chapter having at least a few sentences explaining why unions are awesome & solve everyone’s problems.

For the most part it doesn’t get too political & there’s some great perspective here on how basically the soldiers were just doing their best to do what they were told. Most of them had been drafted, they weren’t passionate about being there, & they didn’t have the ability to see any kind of big picture concerning how the Vietnamese people really felt about the situation. In the end, Chick decides that the protestors weren’t wrong to protest the war, but still felt that harassing the young men being sent to fight wasn’t the right way to execute that protest.

This is a memoir so it’s inherently biased, but was overall an interesting read for a bit of a different look at the war – Chick is pro-soldier, but also a civilian. It was a pretty fast read & I appreciated that the author decided to keep the language pretty clean throughout.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold – 4*

//published 2021//

I’ve read a couple of Arnold’s books now and have enjoyed them all.  This one is his newest and I read it as part of my personal campaign to read new books by authors I like as they come out instead of just sticking them on the TBR and maybe getting to them in five years.  This one is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with a girl who has to take a cross-country journey to find a mythical portal that her father is convinced is real.  She meets up with several other travelers on her way.  This was a book that was eerie and engaging, and one that folded back on itself in a way that was somehow believable.  It had just a few too many unanswered questions for me in the end, but still completely sucked me in and kept me turning the pages.  Like Kids of Appetite, it had elements that it felt like I shouldn’t like, but somehow worked.

You Have a Match by Emma Lord – 3*

//published 2021//

After really enjoying Tweet Cute last year, I was interested to read Lord’s new book.  However, this one just fell short for me.  Mostly, there was just too much going on.  The main character, Abby, finds out that she has an older sister who was adopted.  She and Savvy start communicating without telling any of their parents and agree to meet at a summer camp.  There was a lot of potential here to explore the dynamics between the two sisters and how they related with the adults involved, but Lord’s writing gets sucked into typical YA drama, with way too many pages spent on Abby’s crush on her best friend, Leo.  This was definitely a story that would have been significantly better without the love story aspect.  I was looking for an adoption story with Parent Trap vibes and instead got boring YA-romance angst with bits of adoption drama thrown in.  It made the story feel rather choppy and disconnected.  All in all, it wasn’t a bad read, it just wasn’t for me.

The Newark Earthworks // by various authors

//published 2016//

I’ve always been intrigued by the Moundbuilders, possibly because my area of Ohio is rich with mounds, so it was always something we studied growing up. We’re only about half an hour away from Newark and have been to the Great Circle Mound several times. Once, when I was taking a class, I also was able to visit the Octagon Mound, which, although owned by Licking County, is under a long-term lease to a private golf course and so is unavailable for the general public to visit most of the time. For people who didn’t grow up in this area, or who aren’t particularly interested in this aspect of history, you may be unfamiliar with the ancient Native American cultures about which we know almost nothing for sure – likely ancestors of the tribes living here when the Europeans arrived, but even that cannot be known for sure, especially since those tribes had no particular oral history associated with the mounds.

The Great Serpent Mound and Fort Ancient are probably the most famous of Ohio’s earthworks, and are both well-worth looking up and visiting if the opportunity arises. But I’ve always had a soft spot for Newark’s earthworks, partially because they are so close to home and partially because they always seem somewhat neglected by historians. When I was in college (almost 20 years ago!) I took an Ohio history class with my favorite professor. He assigned us various famous Ohioans about whom we had to write a report and also give a lesson about to the rest of the class (since the course was a required one for education majors, he liked having us do some of the teaching). One of my Ohioans was “Oog – a Moundbuilder,” and the professor told me later that he had specifically given me the assignment because he knew that I absolutely HATE the way people make assumptions about ancient history and then state them as facts. The truth of the matter is that we know incredibly little about past cultures for certain. We can make guesses and assumptions about them, but literally KNOW almost nothing. The way theories and actual guesses are presented as facts fills me with rage, so I had a great time with my Moundbuilders report, which turned into a bit of a lecture on the importance of separating theories from facts haha

//The Great Serpent Mound// It’s unknown if the same people built this mound as built the Newark Earthworks //

ALL THAT TO SAY – a while ago I stumbled across this book and was genuinely excited because when I did my college report back in 2003, this book didn’t exist – in fact, the number of books about the Newark Earthworks at that time numbered exactly zero. (For the record, it now numbers exactly one, so while progress has been made, it isn’t much!) This book, published just a few years ago, is actually a collection of essays, each written by a scholar in a field related to history/ancient cultures/archeology/etc. The subtitle for the book is Enduring Monuments, Contested Meanings and in the introduction the editor explains that while they wanted to hear from a variety of voices on the topic of the earthworks, they also wanted to recognize the fact that there are different theories about both the mounds’ past and future. Thus, not all of the essays are in accord with one another, and I really appreciated the acknowledgement that that’s okay. It’s important to explore different theories and ideas in order to see what pieces fit together.

This book was written because the Earthworks are being considered (or at least were at the time – I’m not sure where they are in the process five years later) as a UNESCO World Heritage site, a title that I think that they deserve. So the idea for the book was to provide an introduction to the Earthworks, their known history, their theoretical ancient history, and various ideas for their future. While I did overall enjoy this book and I learned a lot, it’s an incredibly scholarly book in tone. It wasn’t particularly friendly to the layman and there were many areas that went over my head because I’m not actually any kind of expert in archeology (or math). I understand why they went the route they did with this book, but it would be amazing if someone would write a book on the topic that was more approachable for an everyday person.

Part One of the book is titled “The Newark Earthworks in the Context of American and Ohio History” and the essays in that section look at the known/recorded history of the Earthworks, discussing what parts of them were destroyed as the city of Newark was being built and what areas have been preserved (and how) and the basic original layout of the mounds. The main section of the mounds consist of a gigantic circle (3309 feet in circumference) which was originally connected to a large square by means of a road between oblong mounds. The square, in turn, was connected by a much longer road to an octagon linked to a smaller circle. There were also various other smaller mounds and roads that were part of the original complex. All that now remains are the Great Circle, the Octagon plus its smaller circle, a small piece of the Square, a few other odd and end mounds. The rest have tragically been destroyed over the years.

//Map of the Newark Earthworks before the widespread destruction began of many of the mounds. The circle/octagon towards the top left and circle towards the bottom are the main mound structures still standing today //

My favorite essay of the entire book was by Ray Hively and Robert Horn and is titled “The Newark Earthworks: A Grand Unification of Earth, Sky, and Mind.” This essay delves into the connections between the Earthworks and the moon and is absolutely fascinating, even if much of the math went over my head. The authors talk about how we can’t assume that just because one aspect of an ancient creation lines up with something in the sky that it means it was meant to do so – but when multiple things connect, we can start to assume that it was purposeful. In Newark, the Octagon has a complicated but precise relationship with the lunar cycle –

The moon completes its north-to-south-and-back excursion in only 27.3 days. A more careful and persistent observer would note over time that the precise location of the lunar extreme rise and set points oscillates much more slowly between maximum and minimum extremes, spanning a period of 18.6 years.

Despite the fact that this lunar pattern only repeats once every two decades, the mounds that comprise the Octagon correlate with the maximum and minimum northern and southern rises to an amazing degree of accuracy. This type of observation is something that would have to take place over many years in order to make sure that the mounds were being placed directly. Further, Hively and Horn go on to explain how the actual location for the earthworks complex is ideal in association with not just the lunar observations, but with various solar notations as well.

This post is already getting completely out of control length-wise, but I still have so much I want to discuss!  Several essays connected the mounds to other mysterious works of the ancients around the world – these connections were also tenuous – they were an attempt to compare things that have been learned about other locations and also methods that have been used in the preservation and current usage and then connect those things to the Newark mounds.  However, since I had picked up this book to learn more about the Newark earthworks, I found myself losing interest at page after page talking about about earthworks and buildings in other places around the world, especially when the emphasis was on how those locations were “definitely” used by the ancients so now we can “definitely” know how the Newark earthworks were used as well.  I’m sorry, but you simply weren’t there.  We can make many educated guesses and create complex theories, but that’s as far as we can go – and we literally will NEVER know the answer.

Another section of the book contained essays arguing that Native Americans should have more/complete control over the future of the Newark Earthworks.  While I could appreciate the spirit of these essays, I couldn’t bring myself to completely agree with them.  There is no actual oral history connecting the modern American Tribes with the moundbuilders – the mounds were not being utilized for ceremonial or other uses when the settlers moved into this region.  I’m not convinced that the Shawnees, currently living in Oklahoma, should have more to say about how the mounds should be used than the actual people who currently live around them.  There is no doubt that many horrific things happened in the past to the Native Americans and to their sacred places and burial locations, but there is also no evidence that the Newark Earthworks were either of those things for any people still living.

Consequently, essays that took the traditions of modern Native Americans and retrospectively applied them to the builders of the Earthworks also annoyed me.  Thousands of years have passed, there is absolutely no oral history recorded that explains the mounds, and we have no idea what the actual beliefs or political systems of these people were, so condescendingly explaining to me that “obviously” the moundbuilders had similar beliefs concerning the (non) ownership of land as did the native tribes that lived in the area when the Europeans arrived doesn’t really fly with me.  Ideas on land ownership, political hierarchy,  and religion are constantly evolving and shifting – do you really think that the people themselves died out so completely so as to not be remembered by their descendants, yet somehow all of their beliefs passed down through those same generations completely unchanged?

For instance, one essay discusses “Indigenous Views on Land and Place” and goes on to explain that, “Land and spiritual places are of central importance to indigenous nations. … Indigenous peoples did not own land in the Western sense of fee-simple holding. Rather the people belong to the land, like the plants, animals, places, and sacred bundles. ‘We do not own the land, we are of the land, we belong to it,’ according to Lenape teachings.” The essay goes on to claim that, because of this, only indigenous people have the right to say what should happen with the earthworks (in Newark and elsewhere) because those are sacred places. This is all well and good but… there is literally no evidence to show that the people who built the earthworks had the same feeling about land and its relationship to people as the beliefs of current Native tribes.

//Overhead view of the Great Circle Mound//

I’m also always amazed at how modern interpretations of the ancients ALWAYS uses some form of religion as an explanation for EVERYTHING.  Because obviously the only reason anyone would ever want to study the lunar cycle is because they worship the moon, apparently.  This modern-day arrogance that states that no earlier cultures could have ever been interested in science for the sake of science really grates on my nerves.  It comes from a place of insisting that humanity itself is growing ever better, stronger, and more intelligent – when I actually believe that the opposite is true.  At best, we cycle through highs and lows, and there is absolutely no reason why there could not have been a high point of civilization, science, and society during the time that the Earthworks were constructed – that things could have been built and studied from the sheer curiosity and interest of doing so rather than from some deep need to appease a god or usher the spirits of dead ones into the afterworld.  Yet this concept is virtually NEVER explored in anything I read about any ancient cultures.  Our modern day superiority insists that even though these cultures may have been “intelligent”, the only thing that could actually drive them to accomplish anything so amazing and involving such intricate and dedicated long-term study is… religion.  (And I say this as a religious person!)

In the end, this was an interesting read, especially for someone with an interest in ancient cultures in general and the Newark Earthworks in particular, but I felt that far too much emphasis and weight was placed on the interpretation of these mounds rather than what we actually KNOW and can observe for ourselves.  I would have loved more information about the lunar cycle and the connections to other high points in the region – basically, I wanted the first section to be the entire book lol  This is a book worth looking into if the topic really interests you, but someone needs to write a version that is more accessible for everyday readers if they actually want to interest “regular” people in the earthworks and their future.

January Minireviews – Part 2

Lately, I’ve considered giving up book blogging since I’ve been quite terrible at keeping up with it. Life is busy and I have a lot of other commitments. Plus, I’m not going to lie, I hate the new WordPress block editor with a seething passion. HATE. IT. It’s so counter-intuitive, overly-complicated, and absolutely nonsense when you just are trying to have a regular blog where you write stuff and stick in a few pictures – I’m not attempting to create an actual webpage here, I’m trying to write a BLOG. Every time I start to write a new post, I just remember how much I hate working on WordPress now, which makes me extra depressed because I’ve always been such a huge fan of this site and have had several different blogs here over the years. Is anyone using a different host that they like better? I’m up for exploration because WordPress now SUCKS.

But anyway, all that to say, at the end of the day I actually use this blog to track what I read and whether I liked it, so even if other people don’t read my reviews, I actually use them as a reference point all the time haha So for now, even though I’m always a couple months behind, I’m going to keep at it. I do enjoy writing the actual reviews (usually) (except for the part where I have to use WordPress’s stupid new editor) so I’m going to keep posting a few reviews whenever I get the chance.

And so – here are some books I read back in January!!!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll – 3.5*

//published 1865, 1872//

These books (generally published together now, although originally published seven years apart) are classics that I hadn’t read in decades. There’s a group on Litsy visiting one fairy tale per month, the original and then whatever variations or retellings anyone wants to read, so it seemed like a good way to hit up some of the stories I either haven’t read or haven’t read in a long time, starting with Alice. As I had vaguely remembered, I didn’t particularly enjoy these stories. They’re okay, but they are just a little too frenetic for my personal tastes. I’m consistently intrigued by what books become classics. Why are these books, published way back in 1865 and 1872 still considered childhood classics that everyone should read? I honestly don’t know because while they’re fine stories, I really don’t find them particularly inspiring or engaging. I didn’t mind reading them, but don’t particularly see myself returning to them again.

Thirteen at Dinner AKA Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie – 4*

//published 1933//

This is a crafty little Christie starring Poirot and the faithful Hastings. It’s kind of impossible to talk about this one without using spoilers, but I’m still, after all these years and rereads, consistently impressed with Christie’s story-crafting abilities. It isn’t just the mystery, which was solid, but her ability to make the reader care about what happens to various characters. She pretty much always “plays fair”, giving the reader the facts needs to solve the case… but I pretty much never do. Some of the time for my rereads, as with this one, I remember who the villain is, but still enjoy watching Christie line up the red herrings .

The Pioneers by David McCullough – 4*

//published 2019//

This is a nonfiction book that originally drew my attention because its focus is on the settling of Marietta, Ohio, and the impact that that had on the push of settlers into the Northwest Territory. I’ve read maybe one other McCullough book, but can see myself checking out some of his other titles. Overall, this was a solid read, but at less than 300 pages, not particularly a deep one. While I enjoyed the quotes and diary entries that made the text more personable, I also sometimes felt like McCullough let them dictate the direction of his book a little too much. The last section, especially, wanders away from Marietta and kind of all over the place, almost as though he still had some good quotes but didn’t know how to work them in. But there were loads of fun facts, like how there is a recorded instance of the settlers cutting down a tree that was TWENTY-ONE FEET in diameter, or how one community was so determined to establish a library that they collected animal pelts and sold them to buy their books – Amesville still bills itself as the home of the Coonskin Library. I’ve been to Marietta several times and visited the museums there, but it was interesting to hear about some of the other settlers, as much of the information in Marietta is focused on the most famous of them, Rufus Putnam.

All in all, a decent read about pioneer history, but one that I would label as a starting point rather than all-inclusive.

Bill the Conqueror by P.G. Wodehouse – 4*

I’m always in the mood for Wodehouse even when I think I’m not in the mood for Wodehouse. As always, this book followed Wodehouse’s classic formula, but he does it so well and with such funny, funny one-liners that I always enjoy every page. With a whole slew of likable and unlikable characters all engaged to the wrong people, this was another fun read by my favorite author.

The Fortune Teller by Gwendolyn Womack – 3*

//published 2017//

This is where waiting two months to write a book review really does the book an injustice. At the time that I read this one, I had a LOT of opinions about it, but now most of them have fizzled away. Basically, the main character works for an auction house that sells incredibly high-quality, expensive stuff. She’s an appraiser, and the story opens with her assessing a collection of books and documents. In them, she finds a manuscript that claims to have been written by a woman from the time of Cleopatra, but what really shocks the MC is when she comes across HER NAME in the manuscript. As things unwind, we discover that the manuscript’s author was a seer and she is writing this entire thing about various future descendants of herself.

I wanted to like this book, and if I turned off the logic side of my brain I did like it, but there were just too many gaps and issues for me to really get behind it. The MC herself is super annoying and a total user of everyone around here. She’s recently found out that she was adopted and is acting like a petty, spoiled child about it and at times is downright cruel to her adopted mother. For someone supposedly in her late 20s/early 30s, she frequently sounded like a petulant, sulky teenager. Even if I accepted the fact that the author of the manuscript was a seer with the ability to look to the future, I couldn’t believe that she would have the mental capacity to understand everything that she was seeing. Could someone from Cleopatra’s time have a vision that involved airplanes and cars and understand them – and have words for them?? The stories that the seer was writing were far too complete to actually make sense as a prophetic manuscript, although the stories themselves were engaging.

The plot with the missing tarot cards was convoluted and choppy and still didn’t make sense at the end. This was one of my traveling book club books, which is why I read it – it wasn’t particularly a book I would have picked for myself, or finished reading if I had. Not a terrible book by any means, but it didn’t really inspire me to find out if Womack has written anything else.