My 2016 Autumn To Be Read Stack

photograph by me

 I will be the first to admit my reading habits have been anything but consistent this year. So, I am hoping to work on remedying that this autumn.

The Stack

The Book That Changed Your World by Vishal Mangalwadi
I first spotted this book on Goodreads when Suzannah was reading it. I remember thinking that it sounded fascinating, so imagine my excitement when a couple weeks ago my former writing class teacher gave me a chance to read it. So thrilled to dig into it!

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
This book first crossed my radar when Lila, the third book in this trilogy, was a runner up in WORLD magazine's fiction books of the year a while back. I am very much looking forward to it, especially after hearing how much Joy and Schuyler enjoyed it.

Beowulf by Seamus Heaney
And so my journey into broadening my exposure to the great classics of literature begins...

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
A friend told me to read this and I hope to follow it up with George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Plenilune by Jennifer Freitag
This book. I CANNOT WAIT! Enough said.

Behold the Dawn by K.M. Weiland
I am on mission read all of K.M. Weiland's books after devouring Storming earlier this year. I have read the first chapter already and I am excited!

Persuasion by Jane Austen
I have never read this or seen any of the adaptations, so I am going into this one practically spoiler free. Austen has a dear place in my heart. Do not underestimate the depth of her writing. Also, I have heard this novel is particularly suited to the autumn season.

What books are on your autumn reading stack?

Blog Updates

Please excuse the confusion, I'm currently giving this piece of the blogosphere a renovation.

What was formerly Ain't We Got Fun is now Hanna-col Writes. Welcome!

EDIT: If you follow me using the Google Friends Connect widget in the sidebar, you may need to unfollow and then refollow for the updated feed to start showing up in your Blogger Reading List.

The Return

photograph by me

It's been six months, my friends. Six whole months. How did this happen? Basically, my spring was busy with transitions at work and really hard writing struggles (that I'm still overcoming) and then it became easier just not to blog. I wanted to but with all my writing trouble, I felt guilty blogging if I wasn't really getting anything accomplished with my writing. I was afraid of feeling like a fraud.

But enough of fear. If anything, this year has been about challenging myself to forge beyond fear and know that with God's grace I can just give it my best shot and trust Him for the results.

So let's talk shop. I'm currently about to set forth on an adventure: reading all (well, most) of the books I own before buying more. How will I do this? By not setting foot inside a bookstore and avoiding Amazon like the plague (or a cliche). My personal book collection has exploded in the past year and is now overflowing into stacks throughout my room. This is what regular income does to bibliophiles. (To be honest, though, I do have a list of exceptions in case I do run across books I can't pass up or an indie author releases a new title. #SupportIndieAuthors)

I am hoping this adventure will help give me fuel for future posts and reviews. I want to get myself back into the habit of posting here weekly again. I have plans for this small corner of the blogosphere. Some of these exciting plans include a fresh look and a new name.

Now talk to me, my fellow bibliophiles! What have you been reading? Have you discovered any new favorite bookish treasures? What projects are you working on? Talk my ear off, people, because it has been far too long.

Book Review: Lost Lake House

Amazon

  “The Twelve Dancing Princesses meets the heady glamor and danger of the Jazz Age 

  “All Dorothy Perkins wants is to have a good time. She’s wild about dancing, and can’t understand or accept her father’s strictness in forbidding it. Night after night she sneaks out to the Lost Lake House, a glamorous island nightclub rumored to be the front for more than just music and dancing…in spite of an increasingly uneasy feeling that she may be getting into something more than she can handle. 

   “Marshall Kendrick knows the truth behind the Lost Lake House—and bitterly hates his job there. But fear and obligation have him trapped. When a twist of circumstances throws Dorothy and Marshall together one night, it may offer them both a chance at escaping the tangled web of fear and deceit each has woven…if only they are brave enough to take it." — Synopsis from Goodreads

  Every time I hear the news that Elisabeth Grace Foley is coming out with a new release I get excited. She is an author who has not once disappointed me and who I return to again and again for good character driven stories with a flavor of the old fashioned. In short, I devour each new release and then wait hungrily for the next. And Lost Lake House is no exception.

  Elisabeth Grace Foley brings the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses to the roaring 1920s in Lost Lake House. As others have pointed out, it is difficult to go into details without fear of giving out too many spoilers. Dorothy and Marshall are sympathetic protagonists who both need to learn to tell the truth about their secrets and own up to whatever price they will have to pay— if they don’t, the consequences will be even more destructive. I loved her handling of the child-parent relationship too. She doesn’t glorify Dorothy's deception, but instead shows how it slowly starts to destroy who Dorothy, herself, is.

  I highly recommend this to readers of all ages. It’s a fairytale retelling with a twist of the old fashioned that is sure to please historical fiction lovers, ardent readers of vintage fiction, and fairytale aficionados alike.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Bells of Paradise

Amazon

   Only a madman would go into Faerie of his own accord.

   The one thing John the blacksmith loves more than his peaceful, hardworking life in Middleton Dale is the tailor's free-spirited daughter Janet. But unlike John, Janet dreams of adventure beyond the Dale. And when her dreams lead her into Faerie to be captured by a dangerous witch, John realises he must dare the perilous realm of the Lordly Folk to free his bride.

   A poignant and profound retelling of the Grimms' fairytale Jorinda and Joringel, set in the fantastical realms of Elizabethan folklore. Novella, approximately 25,000 words. — Synopsis from Goodreads

   I’ve never read a story quite like The Bells of Paradise, nor a character quite like John. John is the steadiest hero I have ever run across, and, truly, therein lies his greatness and heroism. He does not want fame or fortune, he is content to be a blacksmith in Middleton Dale and live his life married to the girl he loves, raise a family, and do honest work. But he loves Janet and when she is taken from him, he is willing to brave anything to bring her back, even the ever twisting and changing realm of faerie.

   Suzannah Rowntree has taken another fairytale I am unfamiliar with and made me fall in love with it. The lush historical setting of Tudor England and the eerie enchanted world of faerie turn out some of Rowntree’s finest writing. The supporting characters stand before you daring you decide whether they are friend or foe. Yet again, the author has managed to weave in a hint of allegory and strong theme without once detracting from the story, but enhancing it instead. Honestly, everything is so vivid and full of life in this story, I barely know how to put how much I loved it into words.

   I highly recommend picking up this latest addition to Ms. Rowntree’s fairytale retellings. This is not just a tale of adventure and heroism. In the words of another reviewer who summed it up just right, “It’s about the price of a cup of coffee, and gives you soul food that lasts much longer.”

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Resist by Emily Ann Putzke

Pre-order on Amazon

Munich, Germany 1942—Hans Scholl never intended to get his younger sister involved in an underground resistance. When Sophie Scholl finds out, she insists on joining Hans and his close friends in writing and distributing anti-Nazi leaflets entitled, The White Rose. The young university students call out to the German people, begging them to not allow their consciences to become dormant, but to resist their tyrannical leader and corrupt government. Hans knows the consequences for their actions—execution for committing high treason—but firm in his convictions, he’s prepared to lose his life for a righteous cause. Based on a true story, Hans, Sophie and all the members of The White Rose resistance group will forever inspire and challenge us to do what is right in the midst of overwhelming evil. — Synopsis from Goodreads

  It was with mixed feelings of excitement and dread that I read Resist by Emily Ann Putzke— excitement that I was finally able to read it and dread that it wouldn’t live up to my high expectations. I needn’t have worried. Once again, Miss Putzke has delivered another solid piece of historical fiction, only this time it’s a true story.

  The story of Hans and Sophie Scholl was unfamiliar to me before I read about them on the author’s blog. Their outstanding courage and steadfastness to their beliefs in the dark times of Nazi Germany is powerful to read. They are forgotten heroes whose story needs to be told. In Resist it has. And their story should make us think. I appreciated the author’s decision to include the White Rose leaflets in her novel. It gives the reader a higher appreciation of the risks the group ran and the words they were willing to lay down their lives for.

  A trademark I’ve begun to look forward to in Miss Putzke’s work is strong, clear characterizations. Hans, Sophie, and their friends jump off the page and into our imaginations as living and breathing men and women. They are historical figures that have come to new life through the author’s words and their story touches you all the more because of it.

  I highly recommend Resist to lovers of historical fiction, true stories, or readers with even the slightest interest in WWII. If I have one content warning for readers it would be a splattering of language throughout the book— it is mainly confined to several utterances of what is considered “mild” language.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.