Book Review: Ten Thousand Thorns

Amazon

Princess Morning Light meditates in a hidden temple surrounded by ten thousand thorns. Guardian of a long-lost sword skill, the princess is destined to wake after a hundred years to return justice to All-Under-Heaven.

Or so legend says.

As the Vastly Martial Emperor extends his brutal domination across the world, rebel leader Clouded Sky flees the capital for the safety of his martial sect at Wudang Mountain. Meanwhile, the renegade martial artist Iron Maiden seeks a hero to awaken Morning Light. As bounty hunters and imperial guards close in, Clouded Sky must determine who he can trust - and who may be planning to betray him.

An action-packed retelling of Sleeping Beauty in the style of a Chinese martial arts epic! Novella, approximately 39,000 words. — Synopsis from Goodreads

She has done it again. If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you know I am a huge fan of Suzannah Rowntree’s fairytale retellings. I have little background in fairytales, except the ones Disney made famous, but Suzannah not only introduces me to the ones I am unfamiliar with but delivers a new spin on the familiar. Ten Thousand Thorns takes Sleeping Beauty to China in an exciting spin as a martial arts epic. It is beautiful, epic, adventurous, and thoughtful.

Following the journey that Clouded Sky and Iron Maiden undertake, I never knew for certain if this Sleeping Beauty retelling would play out how I expected it would. And, if I am honest, it did not play out how I expected it to. AND I LOVE THAT! This utterly unique retelling will keep you guessing and engrossed, while delivering all of Rowntree’s storytelling trademarks: real characters, vivid world building, and hints of allegory.

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

Book Review: Saving Amelie

photograph by me

Finding solid Christian published fiction has become something of a hunt for me. I have made it a habit to scroll through publishing houses upcoming release catalogues online and look through Christian fiction titles on Goodreads. Too often, I scroll through synopsis after synopsis in disappointment. I’m sorry. I just feel like Christian publishing is releasing rehashing after rehashing of the same story on loop. And we can do so much better than this. I really believe we can. We need to broaden the scope of Christian publishing outside of the romance genre and what is classified as women’s fiction. Yes, they have a place but we could be doing so much better. And that is why I became increasingly excited and invested in Cathy Gohlke’s Saving Amelie.

Saving Amelie hosts an intriguing and heartbreaking look at the Nazis work with eugenics and their mission for a pure Aryan race. Gohlke does not take a feel good route with this hard topic. This is hard novel where the characters forced to face hard situations, make hard choices, and ask some really hard questions about their own choices and beliefs. As Rachel and Jason try to smuggle the deaf Amelie out of Germany and away from her SS officer father, they have to grapple with why the Nazis are wrong. And therein lies this book's strength. The characters are not just going on an exciting adventure where everything ends up happily. They are forced to reevaluate their own motives and beliefs and change.

So, yes, I was impressed by this book and have begun tracking down Gohlke’s other novels. I just hope they live up to the expectations that this book has set.

Bookstores I Visited In London (& Paris)

In September I went to England, y'all! It was probably the most surreal vacation I have ever taken. I kept turning to my sister and we'd both ask each other: "Are we really here?" I guess that happens when lifelong dreams come true.

We stayed in London and took two day trips, one to Oxford and a second one to Paris. But let's talk about the bookstores I visited.

photographs & collage by me

Daunt Books — https://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/
The first bookstore I visited was Daunt Books near Baker Street and the land where everything is named after Sherlock Holmes. The store specializes in travel books but also has a solid collection of other genres— especially Vintage Classics and a whole shelf of beautifully vintage looking Agatha Christie reprints. If money and suitcase space was no object, I would have had a field day. I resigned myself to just purchasing the Vintage Classics edition of Persuasion by Jane Austen. Though I was sorely tempted by that cover for The Great Gatsby. Be still my cover loving heart.

photographs & collage by me

Shakespeare and Company — https://shakespeareandcompany.com/
During my day trip to Paris, I visited this iconic bookstore that has been on my bucket list ever since I first learned about it in a picture book about Paris when I was little. It is just how you imagine a bookshop in Paris should be. Narrow passages and a winding staircase leading to an upstairs filled with more books. Sadly, photography isn't allowed inside. I did not actually buy a book here (shocking, I know, but I wanted to ensure I had enough money for food), so I bought a tote bag instead. Must say I do not regret buying that tote bag. Best purchase ever. (Side note: London is like California. Grocery stores expect you to bring your own grocery bag.)

photograph & collage by me

Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford —  http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/bookshop/home
I ended my day trip to Oxford by visiting this massive bookstore and purchasing a Penguin Little Black Classics edition of Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Browsing through all those gloriously gorgeous British covers could very easily have become a new hobby for me. It was such a treat to be able to see them in person instead of browsing through them on Book Depository or Instagram.

photographs & collage by me

Charing Cross Road —
Like every sensible human being who has read 84, Charing Cross Road I made a pilgrimage to that beautiful street— and stumbled my way through London Fashion Week while doing so. While, horror of horrors, I was too pressed for time to find that famed address, I did get to visit two still open secondhand bookstores on the street: Any Amount of Books and Quinto & Francis Edwards Booksellers. I acquired a vintage edition of Georgette Hyer's The Grand Sophy at Any Amount of Books for only a pound! They were having a basement sale where everything was one pound.

Have any of you been to these bookstores or cities? What are some of the bookstores you have visited on your travels?

Cover Reveal for A Sidekick's Tale

 Elisabeth Grace Foley has a new release coming out in November, everybody, and today is The Great Cover Reveal! *applause*

Synopsis:
Meredith Fayett needed to marry someone before the week was out or she would lose her ranch. It sounded simple, so ranch hand Chance Stevens agreed to take on the job, in spite of his friend Marty’s warnings that it could only lead to trouble. But even Marty, a loyal though opinionated sidekick, couldn’t have predicted the mayhem that ensues when his own eccentric relatives appear on the scene, dragging Chance, Marty, and Meredith into the latest skirmish in a long-running family feud. What follows is a hilarious tangle involving an emerald ring, a fearsome aunt, a scheming suitor, and a team of runaway mules—by the end of which Chance finds that even a marriage just on paper has its complications, and that it never hurts to have a good sidekick.


Go add the book to your Goodreads shelf and follow Elisabeth on Twitter or her blog for news of the release date.

Bye Bye August, Hello September

photograph by me

Is it really September already? This year has been flying by, my friends, and Real Life has been keeping me on my toes. But hey, I am going to England later this month! *runs about the house freaking out because she still doesn’t quite believe it's true* Yes, I have an impending trip to England coming up this month, autumn is just around the proverbial corner, and I am slowly working on getting my reading life back into shape. So, let’s do a quick round-up of what I have been up to of late.

Reading

I just finished reading Around the World In 80 Days by Jules Verne. I adored the 1956 film starring David Niven. While the novel is very different from the fantastically whimiscal 1950s epic adventure of the film, I still loved it. It helped knowing they were different going into the book. I have picked up reading through my two volume collection of O. Henry’s short stories after a year’s hiatus and hope to tackle A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, Saving Amelie by Cathy Gohlke, and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr this month. We will see how that goes. I just started Saving Amelie and, so far, it is doing a fantastic job of pulling me into the story.

Writing

I finished reading through the first draft of my novel The Letters of Lee Ames with a friend the other week. I have a whole slew of notes of adjustments to make in draft two and just began rewriting the opening scene a couple of nights ago. So excited for this!

Listening

Amelie from Montmartre Soundtrack composed by Yann Tiersen
Born Again - Josh Garrels
The Crown: Season One Soundtrack composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Watching

August is TCM’s Summer Under the Stars, where each day is dedicated to showcasing a specific actor or actress’s films, and my DVR has been busy keeping up with all of my recordings. Highlights include:
The Cameraman (1928) a silent comedy starring Buster Keaton
Double Wedding (1938) a romantic comedy starring the team of William Powell and Myrna Loy
Terror on a Train (1953) British made suspense starring Glenn Ford. The British title for this movie, Time Bomb, is a little less melodramatic.

My latest television discovery would have to be the 1970s TV show Laverne & Shirley. It is hysterical.

So, what have you all been up to? Read any great books? Found a new favorite song? Watched any really good films or discovered a new favorite TV show?

The Great Book Sale Haul

photograph by me

"Book buying ban? What book buying ban?" Those were my infamous last words as I walked away from not just one but two book sales this month. So what tempted me away from my oh so determined book ban? Well, since you asked (and I conducted a poll on Twitter) here are my latest findings.

Chimneysmoke by Christopher Morley
This small book of poetry captured my interest because of its author. I read and adored Morley's Parnassus On Wheels and followed it up with its sequel The Haunted Bookshop.

Every Frenchman Has One by Olivia de Havilland
I almost bought the reprint edition of this book earlier this year and was delighted to find a vintage edition for only two dollars. The classic film lover in me is excited to read Ms. de Havilland's account of moving to France in the 1950s.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Yes, I already own a copy of this Dickens classic but this one is a beautiful vintage edition by Oxford University Press with original illustrations.

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
I have never seen the film they made out of this novel that Humphrey Bogart won his Best Actor Oscar for or read anything by Wouk, but I have an interest in seeing both the film and exploring Wouk's writings. His name keeps cropping up in WORLD magazine articles. Which would you recommend first, the book or film?

Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb
I first heard of Charles Lamb when I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and then this particular title kept popping up here and there. And the cover on this one is particularly pleasing. So I bought it.

The Tiger of Mysore by G. A. Henty
Is there any homeschooler from the conservative Christian community of the 2000s who did not voraciously read Henty when they were young? If not, I am sincerely sorry. You missed out on a slew of wonderfully fun adventure stories, but there is still time to remedy it. And if any of you also greatly enjoyed reading Henty as a youth, let me direct you to this post which contains a particularly brilliant summary of every Henty story ever written.

Downton Abbey Rules For Household Staff
This little book I picked up goes over the different roles that the staff had in a Downton Abbey era household. As a history buff, historical fiction writer, and someone who enjoyed the show this was half for fun and half for research.

The Brandons by Angela Thirkell
Book seven(?) of the Angela Thirkell Barsetshire series. I first heard about this series from Elisabeth Grace Foley and have been keeping an eye out for the series ever since. I previously located a copy of Wild Strawberries (book 2). Now, I just need to find the first book High Rising.

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
I am excited to read my first of Shute's novels set in Australia. I loved Pied Piper and Pastoral, so I have my fingers crossed for this one as well.

Gather Ye Rosebuds and This Same Flower by Jeannette Covert Nolan
I know nothing about these two books except that, according to their dusk jackets, they take place in the American mid-west during the early 1900s. I found them in an out of the way corner of the book sale which turned out to be a gathering place for a bunch of Nolan's books.

Hobnailed Boots by Jeannette Covert Nolan
A Revolutionary war story. The title on this one sounds familiar and I half believe that maybe years ago we read it in a family read aloud, but I honestly do not know for sure. I may be mistaking it for another book with boots in the title.

O. Henry: The Story of William Sydney Porter by Jeannette Covert Nolan
A fictional biography of O. Henry. This type of book is how I am most familiar with Nolan's work. Also, I found old newspaper clippings inside and the inside of the cover is brilliant. (See top left corner of photograph.)

Miss Pinkerton by Mary Roberts Rinehart
I have never actually read anything by Rinehart but I have been intending to remedy that. The subtitle on this sold me— "Adventures of a Nurse Detective". A mystery + a nurse = a book I will most likely love. My childhood dream was to be like Florence Nightingale. Let's just say I had a romanticized notion of what the nursing profession was like. I probably would have horrified Miss Nightingale. Not to mention, blood and I do not have a good history. But I digress ...

Introducing Charles Dickens by May Lamberton Becker
A biography of Dickens that I read and enjoyed in school years ago, I was delighted to stumble across a copy to add to my own library.

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War In 1914 by Christopher Clark
I feel like the title is fairly self explanatory on this one. It is yet another nice thick non-fiction book on a time of history that fascinates me.

Have you been to any good book sales recently? Have you read any of these books?