The first series, The Black Jewels trilogy by Ann Bishop, is a perpetual favorite of mine that I have read and reread at least a dozen times.  The books are pretty solidly set in the fantasy genre, with a minimal touch of romance in the third book, and definately need to be read in order to get the full story (the books are not stand-alone).  The books detail the life of Janelle Angelline and how she transforms the three realms of the world Bishop creates.  In this world, magic is an inherited gift among some humans and animal species.  Janelle, who is born as Witch–the embodiment of the dreams of those species with magic, comes in time to cleanse the taint brought by a quest for power by other members of The Blood (those that have been born into the magical caste of humans and animals). I’m not the biggest Ann Bishop fan normally, but this series kills it!

The second series only has one book out thus far, number two is out in August. By Heather Blake, the books are mysteries with elements of wishcraft–a type of witchcraft. It Takes a Witch: A Wishcraft Mystery is upbeat, fun and an overall good read with light elements of romance, a touch of fantasy and an overall mystery plot.

The third series is an e-book series by an independent author that I found on my Kindle one night when I was broke and needed something to read… A Modern Witch, by Debora Geary, is the first of three (there is also a spin off series) books with an incredibly new and interesting twist on witchcraft and magic. The books aren’t epic fantasy, and I really appreciate that sort of reading, when its been a long day…they are more about relationships, about people, and about magic. Its pretty much reading about normal people’s sort of charmed, but still challenging and magical lives…sort of how I would like my life to be once in a while, and just as much how it already feels at time. Debora Geary’s books are entertaining, lighthearted (but still with some serious stuff), fun and economical (and I love the idea of supporting an author, and not a publishing house).

…I also think its funny that 3 of the 5 are authored by a Stephen/Steven.

The Urban Naturalist by Steven D. Garber

I really liked this book.  It is not without its shortcomings–from a strictly biology/ecology perspective, its over simplistic and it doesn’t do justice from the diversity that surrounds us, even in an urban/suburban environment (but since a good portion of that diversity is regional, I think its understandable).  Also, its a bit out of date, as another blogger/reviewer pointed out (a blog worth checking out too–much better reviewer than I am!).  But, from a natural history perspective, I like its emphasis on accessibility.   Nature is in your backyard, if you know how to look and what to look for.  And as the desire to look and the ability to observe seems to be declining as a skill and an interest, I’m a fan of anything that does a reasonably good job of trying to rekindle that.

Overcoming ADHD: Helping Your Child Become Calm, Engaged, and Focused–Without a Pill by Dr. Stanley Greenspan

I’m not sure about this book.  On one hand, I like it…on the other hand, I don’t think that Dr. Greenspan has ever been a stay-at-home-mother of small children, much less one with ADHD.  I appreciate many of his suggestions…and I agree with his overall idea of medication as a last resort, or as a temporary tool to be used while working with a child in strengthening them before building the skills they need to handle their ADHD.  The problem is that (as with most ADHD books) most of it is only applicable with older children.  The other thing that bothered me through out the book, which I couldn’t put my finger on, until I had read some other reviews (including on him as a physician) is that there is a sort of feeling that “if this doesn’t work, you’re just not trying hard enough or doing it right”.  Granted, I might just be projecting my inadequacies as a mother, but it felt condescending enough that I can’t wholesale endorse the book, even though I did find it informative and useful.

Religious Literacy: what every American needs to know–and doesn’t by Stephen Prothero (audiobook)

I really like this book (its a re-read though I’m listening to it this time), both in terms of writing and because I think (particularly as we are in the selection phase of a presidential election cycle where religion is an important subtext) that the author makes an excellent case for the need to address religion in the context of cultural literacy, and ways that we can do so.  What this book is *not* however (and a number of people seem to think it should be, if their reviews are any indicate) is what specific facts would constitute religious literacy…if you pick this book up and read it with that expectation, you will find a glimmer, but largely be left disappointed.  The author has written a more recent book, God is not One, that looks like it might be a good fit as a beginning to religious literacy.

Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole

This is a total Guilty Pleasure re-read.  I think I might review her whole series when the newest comes out on January 10th.  But until then, I’ll just say that this is my favorite of the series, mostly because I think Naomi is a hella interesting character…and supposedly irredeemable vampires are sort of fun.

The Doomsday Vault (a novel of the Clockwork Empire) by Steven Harper

I’m still reading it, so officially the jury is still out…but I like it, with some character-building reservations.  I *want* to like the main character, but…she’s sort of lame (I’m only half-way thru, I hope she’ll improve, but I secretly fear she will suffer from what I chauvinistically call “guy authors don’t get chick-itis”).  The idea behind the plot thought–very cool steampunk, and zombies!!

Other Books Read This Month:
Courting Darkess (an Otherworld Novel) by Yasmine Galenorn
India Black and the Widow of Windsor (book 2 of the new Madam of Espionage Mystery series) by Carol K. Carr, which I will probably review soon–good books!
Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell
What Your Preschooler Needs to Know and What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know both edited by E. D. Hirsch
Dinosarumpus! (Normally I wouldn’t add in the kids books…but they adored this! We checked it out from the library–kids loved it enough, I think I’ll buy it used from Amazon!)

Read with: a cup of Yogi Kava Stress Relief tea, two cups of peppermint tea with honey, a glass of hibiscus lemonade, one (real) Coca-Cola (from the Mexican grocery), two refills on my stainless steel water bottle and a glass of moscato over two days in about 7 hours.

Overall impression:  I liked this book.  I love smart books–ones that are based, at least in part, in actual academic disciplines, and which uses them to drive the story in some way. This is a book written by a historian about a historian in denial about being a witch, who happens upon the biggest magical discovery in 150 years (a book which has been missing for that amount of time) and sets the community of supernatural beings reeling.

The book is set modern times, mainly in the collegiate atmosphere of England (Oxford and so forth), the French countryside and the Northeast of the US.  The inhabitants are a bit different though–witches, vampires and daemons, who may or may not be separate (but closely allied) species to humans, but all of whom must keep (mostly) quite about their differences to the main human population. The main character, Diana Bishop, comes from a long line of witches in America–all the way back to Salem.  In denial of her heritage, she eschews witchcraft in pursuit of the history of science (a study after my own heart, though her preference of 17th century chemistry is about 200 years too early, and the wrong discipline for me!).  In Oxford, she accidentally rediscovers the lost alchemic text known as the Ashmole 782 and unwittingly attracts the attention of the supernatural world, including the attentions of one Matthew Clairmont, (classic hottie) vampire, wine enthusiast and scientist. From there, they are pursued by witches, daemons and vampires (whom are mostly antagonistic to one another) for various reasons…but you’ll have to read it for yourself!

All in all, it was a darn good book.  It did get a bit bogged down in the middle, but it was forgivably well written and the characters were likable (though a bit cliched for the genre).  The biggest attraction of this book, that sets it apart, is the smart factor…its a bit like an atypical urban fantasy The DaVinci Code.

Four elements of five!

The list is divided into three sections–books on the oirigins of religious liberty and religious history in America, the state of religious liberty (and its threats) today, and religious literacy in general. There is some overlap in material covered between books because I find comparisons between authors on the same topic to be more useful.  With that being said, most of the historical books are written from a middle ground and balanced perspective, rather than one espousing either the religiousity or secularism of the foudning fathers (both of which, IMO, fail to take into account the historical and philisophical complexities of the day)…but I totally admit to the liberal and secular leaning bias for the books about what is going on today.

~thalassa

(mirrored @ Hail Columbia Virginia’s FB)

Historical

Founding Faith by Stephen Waldeman

So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State by Forrest Church

American Gospel by Jon Meacham

The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes

Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of American’s Founding Fathers by Gary Kowalski

Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction by John Fea

Current

Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America (an Evangelical’s Lament) by Randall Balmer

Why the Religious Right Is Wrong: About Separation of Church & State by Rob Boston

Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican or Democrat by Lisa Sharon Harper

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg

God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis

Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States by Sara Diamond

Restless Souls : The Making of American Spirituality by Leigh Schmidt

Religious Literacy

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know–and Doesn’t by Stephen Prothero

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us by Robert D. Putnam

God in America, a 3 part PBS documentary by Frontline & American Experience, avaliable online for free viewing

Religion in America (8th Edition) by John Corrigan and Winthrop S. Hudson (this is a textbook, I recomend a library rather than purchacing it)

As the cover of my copy of Heartless says…”A novel of vampires, werewolves and teapots.”  And really, in my world, it doesn’t get much better than that…unless its vampires, werewolves and teapots in a bubble bath with a bottle of bubbly and a box of chocolates.  I have to say that I *really* love to read these books.  Maybe it’s the steampunk, maybe it’s the almost Austin-esque propriety of the heroine, or maybe it’s the author’s ability to put a some unique ideas to vampires and werewolves without running them…but in the end, I love reading these books.

These books are decidedly un-epic (in the LOTR sense).  If that is what you are in the mood for, you are picking up the wrong read.  But for a spot of diversion on a long afternoon, with a bit of Victorian flair, some steamy mechanisms, and a refreshing approach to the supernatural, this is like a big, fat puffy cotton candy at the county fair.

The Alexia Tarabotti novels tell the story of one Alexia Tarabotti and her preternatural ability—born without a soul, Alexis is a sort of antidote to for those with too much soul, who are able to become supernatural (hence the vampires and werewolves, as well as ghosts).   Her adventures feature her unflappable servant Floote, her aweful family, her good friend and dandy, the vampire Lord Akeldama, and her werewolf admirer-turned-husband.  Alexia solves mysteries of questionable clockwork gadgets and supernatural misbehavior while serving the Queen as one of her “advisors” on matters not-quite-human and sporting an excellent taste in fashion, and an appallingly eccentric pimped out parasol.

Four brass octopi of five (you’ll have to read ‘em to get *that* reference)

These four fantasy novels follow the meeting of Fawn, a naive farm girl running away from a loss of virtue with an unworthy farm boy (and the subsequent pregnancy) where she encounters a spot of trouble of the unnatural sort and the (D&D) ranger-like Lakewalker patroller Dag who offers her the guidance to rescue both of them from an untimely (and series ending) end.  When the loss of her child (caused by the unnatural being) leads to some unusual complications for Dag, he is forced into close quarters with Fawn, upsetting the preconceived notions of both with regards to their respective Lakewalker vs. Farmer societies and cultures.  Over the subsequent books, both Fawn and Dag are forced to seek acceptance in both worlds and attempt to forge a path bridging both and combating the misconceptions and misunderstandings between their respective societies to combat the unnatural menace to both.

I can’t say that these are the *best* fantasy novels I have ever read, but they were enjoyable enough that I managed to breeze through all four in under a week.  Light on romance, heavy on the do-it-all alpha male prodigy meets unlikely but plucky heroine cliché, the series is set amongst an unique but overly simplified society.  Fawn and Dag, our main couple, are met by a series of compatriots (some of which I would have liked to see more of) that shape their quest to unite the factions they were born to, in an almost Romeo and Juliet (I say almost because of the lack of tragedy) sort of way.

If all this sounds a bit derogatory or overly flippant, I apologize…I quite enjoyed this series (enough that after rereading the first at a friend’s, I went to two different book stores the very next day to pick up the rest of the series and read all four in about four days).  Though I did find the Farmer vs Lakewalker dichotomy overly simplistic, I did find the Lakewalker culture building to be quite interesting—from the “native” Lakewalker food of the “plunkin” (an aquatic sort of potato-like staple) to the idea of owning no permanent structures (the idea being that all belongings can be picked up and moved whenever necessary).  While the overall premise follows along several common themes, in both the fantasy and romance genres, the story itself was well written with an engaging style, and the characters were sufficiently likeable to make up for their stereotype fulfillment.

Four plunkins of five.

I’m not totally sure where to start with this book…  It’s mostly a cookbook, and I haven’t road tested 99% of the recipes in it, so in a way, I can’t really say that much about it.  Even so, I welcome the recipes in it because they emphasize techniques that avoid processed foods, and have been largely lost to our modern culture.

With that being said, I agree with the basic message implied in this book—that we are overly dependent upon the industrial food system, that overall, this system contributes to the societal health problems endemic in our culture and that a return to simple eating (and to spreading the food preparation techniques of our great-grandmothers) would be a start to ameliorating some of these problems.  Unfortunately, I have some very big reservations with the specific dietary claims made by this book and the lack of scientific evidence for them.  I think that this book passes a great deal of pseudo-sciencific off as some sort of anti-establishment, stick it to the man, revolutionary ideology that is being purposely ignored…which I find just as autocratic and arrogant as the secondary title of this book.  I also happen to know that this book has some major fans who would happily (and in some cases, angrily) disagree with me until they are blue in the face…

Three spoons—two for the recipes, and one for the basic premise.

Many years ago (at least 10 or 12, probably more like 15) I read a trashy romance novel.  It was to be the first of two.  But I never read the second one.

I’m not sure what brought this to mind…but I sort of want to read them.

Except, I don’t remember the title of the book.  Or the author.

All I remember is the basic plot and some of the main characters.  Amanda (not sure of last name McK* something or ther), daughter (or so she thinks) of prominent Boston businessman travels to pre-quake/fire San Fransisco to meet her real father, only to find him murdered.  Oh, and with a half-sister, an opera singer understudy (whom the second novel is about) named Lily who happens to have a pirate for a fan boy.  Amanda decides to discover her (real) father’s murderer, and in the process falls into lust with gambler-and-casino-owner-turned-luxury-hotel-owner of unknown name.  Amanda’s douche of a fiancee shows up with evil mother, who ends up being the killer over some sort of bank robbery of stock certificates.

Book two is about the opera singer understudy whose knife is found in opera star’s corpse…but I don’t know if it was ever published because I was never able to find it (I read it from the library in high school).

…so, if anyone has any inkling of this book or author, I would greatly love to know.

I rarely never forget a book, especially one I liked, so its making me kind of sad.

(reblogged from my tumblr)

Sex With Kings is a witty and entertaining read on the various aspects of the life of a royal mistress through the lives of the mistress of European kings. The book is divided into the various aspects of a royal mistress’s tenure polishing the royal scepter, from a discussion of our perception of mistresshood being all about “Sex With the King”, to some of the realities of being the royal mistress from rivalry with the queen to the so-called “Fruits of Sin–Royal Bastards”.  The author uses a variety of sources to tell the story of these women who often changed the path of history from the bedchamber and are often ignored in the greater narrative of history.  From start to end, this book is probably the most entertaining work of historical non-fiction that I have ever had the pleasure to read!

Six out of five tumbles!!

Now on my WTR List: Sex with the Queen: 900 years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers and Passionate Politics

Founding Faith, by Steven Waldman, explores the eventual establishment of religious freedom through the efforts of five of the founding fathers and a discussion of their religious views.  This book criticizes both the views of the founding of this country as a “Christian nation” as well as liberal arguments to the contrary.  As with much of history, the reality seemingly lies somewhere in the middle, and this book successfully establishes that middle ground.  Mr. Waldman’s writing is both entertaining (in a sort of ah-ha! moment way) and remarkably thorough for such a short read (there are only 208 pages of the body of the book itself, the rest is bibliography, notes and index).

Click here for a  far better review that I am capable of at the moment (I’m feeling lazy) and which expresses my overall sentiments.

Four and a half of five Benjamins.