Reads things. Writes things. Fluent in sarcasm. Willful optimist. Cat companion, chocolate connoisseur, coffee drinker. There are some who call me Mom.
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This summer brought a lot of changes. Gabrielle is no longer blogging with me, but I wish her all the best with her own projects, and I really enjoyed having her as a part of The Story Sanctuary. Also, you may have noticed the new header and web icon images on the site. Yay for a fresh new look!
New tag line: Helping you find the right book for your reader.
Another big change is perhaps more subtle. Since I started writing reviews, the tag line of my blog was, “Young adult book reviews from a Christian world-view.” My goal has always been to write reviews of a broad range of books and include information that I, as a Christian parent, would want to know before passing the book on to young readers in my life.
I think, though, that the tag line leads people to assume that I’ll have certain views or only review certain books. It’s never been my desire to tell people what books they shouldn’t read. I’ve hoped to help inform readers about content and allow them to decide for themselves what’s appropriate or interesting.
Still a Believer
My faith is very much an important part of my life, and it will remain so. But I think I’ve been alienating readers who are looking for a more overtly Christian review as well as readers who have negative associations with the term “Christian world-view” and assume it means discrimination and judgement.
So, with all that in mind, I made a really difficult decision to change the tag line. I will still continue reviewing with the same focus: helping you find the right book for you or your reader.
What’s staying the same
My reviews will still include a content breakdown and cultural information about characters in the story. Specifically, the cultural breakdown is NOT meant to steer readers away from books because certain types of characters are represented. Rather, it’s meant to help readers from underrepresented groups find books whose characters represent them and to help readers looking for diverse literature to find it.
Diversity is super important to me. I believe literature helps us cultivate empathy for others by allowing us to imagine ourselves in someone else’s shoes, looking out through their eyes, experiencing their emotions. It’s certainly not a perfect education, but I do believe it helps. I know in my own life, reading diverse books has helped expose prejudices I’ve had often without ever thinking about them. It forces us to examine what we think in a way that our real day to day lives may insulate us from.
I’ll still continue to review Christian books as I always have, and I imagine my faith will come up here and there, because it’s part of me. I’m not looking to bury who I am. Rather, I’m hoping to be more transparent and less confusing.
At any rate, I’m hoping that going forward, The Story Sanctuary remains a welcoming space where we can share thoughts about books. I hope this blog helps you find books you had never heard of, and authors you come to love. That’s the greatest gift a book review blogger can get: knowing someone discovered a favorite book through your review of it.
August 2018 Monthly Wrap-Up
I’m going to do the wrap-up a little differently this time, too. Normally here’s where I’d list the reviews I’ve posted this month, but you can scroll through those on the home page, so rather than repeat them here, I’m going to do something different.
Bookish Conversations I Wish I Was Having: August 2018
Book I read in August 2018 that I’m most likely to reread:The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. If you asked me before I read this book whether an author could make me love a swamp monster, I would have seriously doubted it. Kelly Barnhill proved me wrong.
Plus, I absolutely loved the theme about foster mothering. I straight-out bawled when Luna says about her relationship with her mothers that her love is not divided, it is multiplied. I really need somebody in my life to read this book so I can talk about it more!
Book I read in August 2018 that surprised me the most:Behind These Hands by Linda Vigen Phillips. I feel like reading a book from a publisher I’ve never worked with before and am not familiar with is often a gamble. I had no idea what to expect from this humbly packaged novel-in-verse. And wow.
The story and the power of the lines pretty much blew me away. You’ll probably keep hearing me talk about this one, because I just don’t think it’s getting the praise it deserves.
What book did you read this month that surprised you most?
Leave a comment and tell me about a book you read lately that surprised you.
I have a love-hate relationship with literary classics. Is that kind of the same for everyone? I love, love, LOVE To Kill a Mockingbird, but omg please do not even get me started on Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Why are there people who like that book???? Just no. It’s not for me.
Ditto with Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations. I just could not get into those. Sorry. I know they’re favorites of literary geniuses and other readers.
But my list of favorite classics is pretty long, and I almost never get to talk about them on the blog because there are so many amazing books coming out every week, I can’t even keep up with those. So today, as my post this Top Ten Tuesday, a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, I’m jumping ship, away from current releases, and swimming on back to list a few of my favorite classics in honor of the whole Back-to-School season!
First, though… did you notice anything different about The Story Sanctuary today??? I have a brand new header image custom designed for me, and I LOVE it. Let me know what you think about it by leaving me a comment or finding me on Twitter (@story_sanctuary).
Okay, back to classics! If you’re headed back to school, I hope you get to read some of these in class this year, because reading great books for a grade is kind of like discovering a favorite food is actually good for you. Yay! Bonus. But even if these babies aren’t assigned or your school days are done (woo-hoo!), they’re worth checking out for the sheer enjoyment of the stories.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This is without a doubt my number one favorite classic. I’ve probably read it five or six times, which for any book, isn’t that high a number for me, but is pretty huge for classics. I love the way Lee shows us everything that’s happening through Scout’s perspective. Often she’s totally unaware of the significance of events around her – like when she and Jem go visit Atticus at the jail and the mob approaches him. Scout has no idea how scary this should be. She only knows these are men who, in the daylight, are her classmates’ fathers who would never hurt her. But there are enough clues that we pick up on the bigger story and the drama or danger ourselves. So. Good.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I think one of my favorite things about this book is Fitzgerald’s goal that it be written so that anyone could read and understand it easily. I love that, and it makes this novel a quick read. I love the themes about true love and friendship and I’m always gripped by the destructiveness of the characters’ selfish behavior. (Okay, that sounds dark, but hopefully it makes sense.)
Watership Down by Richard by Richard Adams
I. Love. This. Book. It was a genre-defying book when it was published. A serious book about rabbits. Yes! And it’s amazing. Fierce, warrior rabbits and small oracle rabbits. Brilliant characters that I remember years after I’ve last read the book.
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
If you know me, you’re only surprised this didn’t come earlier in the list. I’m not a huge Austen junkie. I love this book, but I somehow never manage to get around to reading her other novels. And actually– true story– I did not like Pride and Prejudice the first time I read it in high school. Mostly I think I hated the format in which we had to read it, but that’s another story. The synopsis is I felt like it cheapened my experience reading the book. Anyway, after I graduated and my sister fell in love with the book, I went back and read Pride and Prejudice again and found myself totally getting lost in the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. (And yes, I love the movie. ONLY the BBC version, though.)
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
This is another big favorite. I love that Sewell wrote this during a time when it was this big ground-breaking idea that horses have feelings. It’s one of those “this will never sell” kinds of stories that reminds us that heart and courage are pretty much always worth reading about.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
I have kind of a love-hate relationship with this book, too. I love, love, love Francie and her family. I cried so hard at some of the tragic moments in the book. The writing is delicious. But I feel like I wanted a different ending. There’s a thing that happens toward the end, something that goes wrong, and she gets a letter that’s supposed to explain it. I kind of never really bought into that explanation. I needed there to be more. More backstory, more explaining, more reasons, more something. I don’t know. But other than that moment, I truly love this book and Betty Smith’s writing. In fact, I like another book of hers called Joy in the Morning even better than A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, so I probably should have swapped and focused on that one instead. It’s lesser known, but shorter and happier.
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
This is another one I’ve read a bunch of times. It has kind of a circular thing going on where at the end of the book, Ponyboy (I love the wild names in the story) wrestles with all that’s happened and ends up writing it down for a school project (sounds more contrived than it feels in the book) and the last line of the story is the same as the opening line of the book, as if he’s beginning now to write the whole tale. The Outsiders is the first book that made me want to become a writer myself.
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The way the story is formatted is a bit unusual. I went through a period of evangelical zeal about this book, trying to get everyone I knew to read it, and a couple people were so thrown by the way it’s written that they couldn’t get into it. (Dialogue is often not in quotes, for instance, but set apart after a colon.) I see authors bending those kinds of rules more now in other books, so I wonder if Cry would be more easily received now. At any rate, I loved the story and got completely lost in the South African landscape as we followed a man desperate to find his son in Johannesburg.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Forget the Disney movie version. It’s cute and all, but totally sells this story short. Kipling is a master storyteller and his way of describing things is so rich and fun. It’s a fairly quick read, too. Definitely on my list to read with my littlest when she gets a bit older.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
I didn’t read this one until just a few years ago, but I really enjoyed it. The characters stuck with me– flawed as they are– and I can still picture some of the most climactic scenes in my mind. Plus, for some reason, I have a thing for stories about natural disasters. I don’t know. My family is the type to hole up during a hurricane and watch Twister. (True story. We did this last year during a big storm.)
So there you have it. Those are my top ten picks for classics to read this year. I hope at least some of them still find their way into classrooms. I’m hoping to read at least one with my older girl this year at home, too.
What are your favorite classics?
Did any of your favorites make the list? Any of mine that you just could not get through? Leave a comment and tell me about it!
About A Touch of Gold
King Midas once had the ability to turn all he touched into gold. But after his gift—or curse—almost killed his daughter, Midas relinquished The Touch forever. Ten years later, Princess Kora still bears the consequences of her father’s wish: her skin shines golden, rumors follow her everywhere she goes, and she harbors secret powers that are getting harder to hide.
Kora spends her days locked in the palace, concealed behind gloves and veils, trying to ignore the stares and gossip of courtiers. It isn’t until a charming young duke arrives that Kora realizes there may be someone out there who doesn’t fear her or her curse. But their courtship is disrupted when a thief steals precious items from the kingdom, leaving the treasury depleted and King Midas vulnerable. Thanks to her unique ability to sense gold, Kora is the only one who can track the thief down. As she sails off on her quest, Kora learns that not everything is what it seems—not thieves, not pirates, and not even curses. She quickly discovers that gold—and the power it brings—is more dangerous than she’d ever believed.
Midas learned his lesson at a price. What will Kora’s journey cost?
My Review
I can never resist an unusual myth or fairytale retelling, so when A Touch of Gold caught my eye, I knew I needed to get ahold of a copy. I found it to be a cool reimagining of a familiar tale.
Right at the beginning, I wasn’t too sure about the book, though. The prologue is long and kind of confusing. It kind of sets up the story by recounting the story of Midas and introducing Kora, but I think a lot of that information could have been included in the early chapters instead. That would have made the opening read more smoothly for me.
Once I got into the story, though, I liked it a lot more. I wasn’t sure about Hettie, Kora’s lady-in-waiting, who at first seems super selfish and complains about EVERYTHING. Eventually she finds some things to be happy about and even stops seeming quite so selfish, which was great. She definitely grew on me as the story progressed.
I worried a little bit as I passed the halfway point, that A Touch of Gold was going to be a straightforward, boring story where it came to the romance. And then, boom! PLOT TWIST! Everything changed. It wasn’t an unpredictable move, but it was a really satisfying one. I loved the story even more after that point.
All in all, I’m glad I read this one. A Touch of Gold proved to be a quick read and an entertaining one at that. If you’re like me, and you can’t resist a retelling that’s a little more unusual, then resist no more – get you a copy of this book.
You might also be interested in A Touch of Gold if you liked Whisper of the Tide by Sarah Tolcser or Goddess Tithe by Anne Elisabeth Stengl.
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
Kora’s mother was Sunisan. (I’m not sure what ethnicity this maps to, but I didn’t look much beyond a quick Google search. The original story about King Midas would have taken place in Asia in what’s now Turkey.)
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between a young man and young woman.
Spiritual Content
Dionysus cursed Kora’s father so that everything he touched turned to gold. He was told he could reverse the curse by washing everything he’d turned in a river. He only partially completed this task and bears some consequences. Violent Content
A ruthless pirate called Captain Skulls collects human skulls on his ship. A couple scenes show beheaded bodies. Kora and her friends start a brawl in a tavern to distract their enemies.
Pirates battle Kora’s companions. Some brief descriptions of peril, fighting, and injuries.
Drug Content
Kora and her friends go into a seedy tavern.
About Even if the Sky Falls
All she needs is one night to be anyone she wants.
Julie is desperate for a change. So she heads to New Orleans with her youth group to rebuild houses and pretend her life isn’t a total mess. But between her super-clingy team leader and her way-too-chipper companions, Julie feels more trapped than ever.
In a moment of daring, she ditches her work clothes for DIY fairy wings and heads straight into the heart of Mid-Summer Mardi Gras, where she locks eyes with Miles, an utterly irresistible guy with a complicated story of his own. And for once, Julie isn’t looking back. She jumps at the chance to see the real New Orleans, and in one surreal night, they dance under the stars, share their most shameful secrets, and fall in love.
But their adventure takes an unexpected turn when an oncoming hurricane changes course. As the storm gains power and Julie is pulled back into chaos she finds pretending everything is fine is no longer an option.
My Review I’m a little torn in how I feel about this book. On the one hand, Julie’s story drew me in immediately. Obviously she’s recovering from something intense, but we don’t learn right away what’s happened to wreck her so deeply.
Then she gets this opportunity to escape her past completely for a little while. I loved the characters in the band she meets and especially Miles. It only took like half a second for me to start hoping Miles and Julie would get together.
The hurricane descriptions were pretty wild. As a Floridian, I’ve weathered several storms. I’m not sure I buy that so much happened from a Category 2 storm, but I’m sure it depends on a lot of factors, like which side of the storm hit them and that sort of thing. Certainly no matter what category it is, being outside in a hurricane is really dangerous!
What I really struggled with, though, is the ending. The romance gets resolved, and that was great. But all the way along Julie flashes back to what happened at home before the mission trip, and I think I wanted those two worlds to collide more completely. I was hoping her family or her brother would make an appearance at the end and we’d know she’d turned a corner even in her ability to deal with things at home. Not that everything had to be fixed, just some kind of scene tying things together.
Other than that, I’m glad I read it. I hate that Julie had such a bad experience on her mission trip, because I have such fun memories of my own trips. But considering what was going on in her life, it made perfect sense that she would feel alienated and unable to connect with the enthusiasm of the rest of the group.
The descriptions of New Orleans were fun and vivid – I felt like I was there, and I’ve been craving beignets since reading about them. Yum!
Cultural Elements
Julie is Latina and talks about visiting relatives in Puerto Rico.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of extreme profanity.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between a boy and girl. At one point a boy and girl go swimming in their underwear. References to sex. One scene shows some nudity and lets us know the characters have had sex without any graphic details.
Julie’s mission leader clearly wants a relationship with her. He’s clingy and clearly makes her uncomfortable, since he seems willfully blind to her “no” signals. He doesn’t assault her or anything like that, but he does make her feel gross.
Spiritual Content Julie’s family is Catholic and she’s on a mission trip with a church group, but it’s clear she has a lot of doubts in terms of her own faith. She’s bitter and depressed and feels like the church people don’t understand her and are too happy-happy.
Violent Content Someone tries to choke Julie. She escapes.
The storm beats Julie and her friend up pretty badly. There’s one scene where they battle the elements, and things look pretty grim. Some details about injuries. It’s definitely a perilous situation.
Drug Content
Julie and her companion drink beer at a party and later share a bottle of wine.
About The Brink of Darkness
Things have changed for seventeen-year-old Zoe ever since the otherworldly events that brought her together with the mysterious bounty hunter she calls X. In order to save Zoe and her family, X has done the unthinkable – he’s given up his freedom and returned to captivity in the Lowlands.
X is determined to break the lords’ hold on him once and for all, but being stripped of his power pushes him toward a darkness he’s never experienced and a past he’s never known. The secrets that surface could be the key to reuniting X and Zoe… or they could mean the destruction of everything they have been fighting for.
My Review
So many great lines! Pretty much any section told from Zoe’s point-of-view is packed with fantastic side comments and banter between her and her friends. X’s sections aren’t quite as peppery, but I loved the Ukrainian for all his snarky one liners.
So much heart. The Brink of Darkness is, above all else, a story about true love. Both the love between X and Zoe and love of family—birth family, and family you make for yourself.
I struggled with the amount of violence portrayed in this book. Some scenes show graphic torture and reference some pretty horrible events. If I didn’t like the other elements of the story so much, I don’t think I could have finished it. Even though I did, this probably isn’t a good choice for sensitive readers. If I had known how much was in the book, I probably wouldn’t have tried to review it.
Which isn’t to say I’m sorry I read it. I don’t know. I’m really torn. I really didn’t like the amount of violence, but I am a total sucker for a book with great banter and such fun characters. I’m glad it had that quality. See my comments below for additional notes on content.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Cultural Elements
Zoe’s best friend Val is a lesbian. Zoe’s family members are vegans.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of strong profanity. One odd thing about the book is the lowercase use of “god” throughout the whole story, even when spoken by a priest.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between man and woman. References to sex, but no description. (Two people lie down in a boat together. They remove shirts and then the scene cuts away from them.)
Spiritual Content The Lowlands (sort of like Hell) is a place where people who’ve committed heinous acts find themselves in the afterlife. It’s governed by lords who have some supernatural powers, but are themselves dead humans. Several characters reference a Higher Power (capitalized in the story) who is ultimately in charge, but only intervenes in the direst situations.
I found it odd that the story uses a lowercase for God versus uppercase for the Higher Power of the Lowlands.
Violent Content So. Much.
Several scenes show torture in pretty graphic detail. The methods used to punish inhabitants of the Lowlands are pretty harsh. This is not one for sensitive readers. I had a really hard time with some of the descriptions and skimmed over a couple passages. At one point X is under the governance of a woman who thrives on torturing others. That part was too much for me.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can’t escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.
Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack.
My Review
Okay, wow. I liked this book so much. I wondered a little bit at the beginning if it would be a lot like THE HATE U GIVE, which I also liked and which had some similar elements. (Kid from a lower income neighborhood going to a private school who has experiences with police brutality, racism and gang violence, even an interracial relationship and how difficult that is for a family member.) And all those elements definitely play a role in this story, but it still felt like a completely different book in the way the story was told.
I loved that Jus writes letters to Dr. King. What a cool way to connect the Civil Rights movement to a present-day story and situation. I also felt like the story captured some of the complexity of a community facing issues like this. While this is Justyce’s story, we also see so many of the other characters respond to what’s happening in striking ways—sometimes because they’re so emotional and other times because they simply aren’t.
I think THE HATE U GIVE is an incredibly powerful story, and I don’t want to take anything away from it or from the amazing author, Angie Thomas, by saying this, but actually, I liked DEAR MARTIN better, if I had to rank them. Amazing story. This one will stay with me for a long time.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 15 up.
Cultural Elements
Justyce and his best friend Manny are black and go to a mostly white school. Justyce’s close friend and debate partner is Jewish. Jus writes letters to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently. It was sporadic enough that I’d sometimes forget it was in the story. Often used in anger. Some racial epithets also used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Jus makes vague mention of experiences with his past girlfriend. His best friend reminds him about an incident in which he caught a girlfriend cheating on him (he references Jus finding her in a compromising position).
Spiritual Content During a funeral, Jus thinks about his friend’s beliefs and how they contrast what the preacher is saying about living on in Heaven. His friend didn’t believe in God.
Violent Content Brief descriptions of violence and racial epithets. A couple scenes show or reference one kid punching another. Usually those moments are choppy and out of focus. Another scene shows a man shooting two kids. News stories and conversations reference other shootings.
Drug Content
Jus drinks alcohol twice.
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