Letters from the Apostles

Sunday book summaries are my casual log of what I’ve been reading this week. These are not formal reviews. They’re more my reactions and musings as taken from my journal when I complete the reading, and at times will contain notes about how they influence my thoughts on what I’m writing. 

This one has a couple of weeks’ worth of reading, so again…”periodic.” 

Here we go again. Part of March once again looks like it is going to be hectic, so…I may be writing these summaries every couple of weeks or so. Nonetheless, reading is happening. 

Starting off with a book I forgot to add to my notes—Megan Kate Nelson’s Saving Yellowstone. While it had some interesting pieces to it about Yellowstone’s history, parts of that history have come close enough to research I’ve done for a book that I spotted areas where things either got glossed over or not discussed. Unfortunate. I suppose that reflects the reality that much of this history isn’t new to me because I’ve been to Yellowstone and read some of its history. I much preferred her The Three-Cornered War, probably in part because it isn’t an area where I’ve done a bit of reading. 

The other nonfiction I’ve read recently is Hetta Howes’s Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife. I—somewhat liked this book comparing the lives of four medieval woman—Marie de France, Julian of Norwich, Christine de Pizan, and Margery Kempe. The history and background of what each woman’s everyday life would have looked like is excellent. However. Then Howes tried to sum it up and make this history relevant to modern feminism and…that did not work so well. I’m still not sure why. 

I’m off right now on an author reading binge, spurred by a Libby notice about a new book featuring Alexander McCall Smith (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series). As it turns out, Smith wrote a prologue for D. E. Stevenson’s loosely-woven trilogy set in England and Scotland, originally published after World War II and referring to issues from that era. After reading Vittoria Cottage, I was sufficiently enthralled to read the other two books, Music in the Hills and Winter and Rough Weather. 

These books are—well, in this era I guess one would call them a cozy read. They’re kinda sorta romance, in that relationships happen during the course of the books, but they aren’t Romance in the typical plot. Additionally, there’s a wee bit too much coincidence involving some secondary characters and their connections. But they’re a pleasant read. Smith sums up Stevenson’s work as “easy, in the sense that they are clearly written, tell an intelligible tale, and do not seek to impress the reader.” 

I’d concur with that assessment. 

But they’re a nice comfort read right now. Stevenson—Dorothy Emily Stevenson—was related to Robert Louis Stevenson and wrote a book a year for many years. These three books can be read as standalones, but there’s a clear progress. Vittoria Cottage chronicles the life of a new widow of a rather challenging man—not physically abusive but definitely psychologically abusive, and who busily kept isolating those he loved from others. Music in the Hills and Winter and Rough Weather chronicle their son’s exploration of possibly becoming the heir to a relative’s large farm, as well as his romantic endeavors, culminating in his marriage to the love of his life and their early times together. But other romances happen in these last two books which—to some degree adds up with the coincidence overload. A lost family then found, and the uniting of two couples who care for each other but kept finding obstacles to being together are just rather too tightly twined together, depending on the aftereffects of the bombing of Glasgow during World War II. On the other hand, even though I saw these events coming from a long way off, I still didn’t mind being able to figure out the connections. 

However, one piece of characterization I really, really liked was that of Mamie Johnstone. Mamie considers herself to be dull, boring, and not as smart as her sisters. But as the stories progress, we see that Mamie is an excellent observer of behavior and draws reasonably accurate conclusions about what she sees. I loved this study of the interior life of a quiet, retiring woman who is smarter than she gives herself credit for being. Stevenson pulled off a portrayal that works for me, and it’s the sort of character that can be quite difficult to do well, without falling into cliché. 

So I’m moving on to other Stevenson books, and have Listening Valley up next. 

When I was sorting and reshelving books a couple of weeks ago, I found one of my favorite Terry Pratchett Discworld books, Men at Arms. It’s an excellent book overall, but one of the things that make it stand out (not just the famous boot discussion from Vimes) is the deconstruction of the Chosen One trope. Captain Carrot is a descendant of the kings of Ankh-Morpork…and he’s not at all interested in stepping up to that role. Some might say that Carrot doesn’t know about his ancestry, but I definitely think he does. 

This is also the book where we start seeing other species appearing in the Night Watch, including one of my favorites, Angua, the werewolf. Always a nice read. 

Years ago, I had an obsession with the Inklings and tried to branch out from Tolkien and Lewis to read Charles Williams. I read most of Williams’s work, and found parts of it confusing. Well, I revisited The Greater Trumps, and…I’m just not into that sort of mystical stream-of-consciousness work anymore, if in fact I really was into it in the first place. It went on the “discard” pile. I still have a couple other Williams books, so I might give them a try once more. 

Because I’m contemplating working on a multiverse/time travel book, I picked up Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time. Weeell, the Suck Fairy didn’t hit this one too badly, all things considered, but…there were several threads that could have been used to expand the story a bit. Stereotypical characters, and I can’t help but think that a later short story set in the Spiders vs Snakes time war was much better, overall. Now I’ve gotta go dig that one out of the collection. In any case, this book is very much a product of its era. 

That’s pretty much it. Besides the Stevenson, I am reading Stephanie Burgis’s Enchanting the Fae Queen. We’ll see how that one goes. 

If you like what you’ve read, please feel free to check out my books on my website at https://www.joycereynolds-ward.com or drop a tip at my Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joycereynoldsward