A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Books for Young Adults

The Red Sister

By Leave a Comment

I listened to The Red Sister a couple of weeks ago.  It’s the first of a three part series where we follow Nona and her  life learning with the nuns.  These aren’t your typical quiet nuns, but ones that learn to follow the path.  For some that’s a life of battle, and for others a life of meditation, and yet different for the rest.   I want to continue listening to the series, but it’s a fairly intense storyline so I’m listening to something a little less intense first.  Let me tell you about it eh?

The red sister by mark lawrence

The Basic Details for The Red Sister

Title: The Red Sister
Author: Mark Lawrence
Publisher: Ace
Pages: 480 pages
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: adult fiction, fantasy, action and adventure, epic fantasy, fantasy action and Adventure, 
Available formats: Paperback, kindle, audio, hardcover
Format Used: audio

The red sister by Mark Lawrence

About book and author

Red Sister brings us into the world of Nona.  A girl given by her parents to a child-taker.  Who, through a series events ends up with the sisters.  An eight year child accused of murder. At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers.  Children take 10 years to become a Red Sister, learning the ways of the Path, trained in the use of the blade and fist.   Here she will learn that it’s not until you are broken that you find your sharpest edge. 

Mark Lawrence was born in the USA but grew up in the United Kingdom.  He came back in to the USA to work on a variety of research projects including the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence programme.  Returning to the United Kingdom he lives with his family of four children.  He never had ambitions to be an author but here he is years later with several books under his belt.  Learn more here. 

So What Did I think?

I’d not heard of Mark Lawrence before I started Red Sister.  His ice world created in this story is just wow.  Like just very interesting.  And trying to understand how the old blood works its way into the lives of the current inhabitants of this world.  Primitive hard lifestyles that you catch glimpses of never used to be this way.  But the ice changes everything and makes life harder. 

Nona’s story slowly unfolds.

I can’t say it’s an easy story to listen to.  It’s very intense and Nona is a very angry child.  So many things happen to her and so many people want to see her destroyed.  Her focus…. protect her friends!  She’ll do anything she can to help them. A fierce weapon is who she was created to be.

You’ll find unexpected help, betrayal, bad people, good people, an interesting series of teachers (some good and some well… you know), unexpected kindness, and danger.  Danger seems to seep in around the edges everywhere.  It’s like no place is actually safe.  That’s part of lure of The Red Sister, the way it draws you in and you expect to see Nona handle the danger, and to do so with ferocity. 

Definitely worth reading (or listening to).  I have to admit, I did take a break between listening to The Red Sister and starting (so yes, spoiler alert, Nona does survive for the second book) The Grey Sister.   I’ll get my review of that to you later on!  🙂 

The Personal Librarian

By Leave a Comment

I listened to The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, a bit back. I still think on it.  I’d suggest you give it a read (or listen) if you have a chance to.  Let me tell you why.  

You’ll find romance, deception, books, and female determination.  A strong matriarch, children divided about loyalties, and solid look into real life history.  Come discover more about Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian to J.P. Morgan. 

image shows a pile of books text the personal librarian the story of bella da costa greene

The Basic Details for The Personal Librarian

Title: The Personal Librarian
Author: Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Narrator: Robin Miles (audio)
Publisher: Berkeley
Pages: 368 pages
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: adult fiction, historical fiction, racism, black & African-American women’s fiction, women’s fiction, American history, biographical, 
Available formats: Paperback, kindle, audio, hardcover
Format Used: audio

About the Book and Author

Belle da Costa Greene lived in a time where black women were relegated to jobs such as maids and washer women.  BUT she had lighter skin and a momma determined not to let people know she had African-American blood. This gave her children more freedom in the jobs they could hold.  Enter in the story of Portuguese blood to help explain their darker colouring.  Family fractures happen. 

This story speaks to the hardship of hiding heritage, to the status of women, and the difficulties she faced.  Learn more about how J.P. Morgan conducted himself, the work of a personal librarian, and catch glimpses into her personal life. 

the authors

Marie Benedict is a lawyer who loves to discover stories about women in history and telling their stories.  She loves to dig into history and discover the nuances about these women and bring their stories into the light of day.  Victoria Christopher Murray has an MBA in Marketing, grew up in New York, and discovered her love for writing in 1997.  She has since received numerous awards for her work.  Some of her awards are for work as an African-American author. 

Looking Deeper

I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Bella da Costa Greene.  She was a remarkable lady who learned how to function well as a woman in a man’s world.  She did so with style and finesse. 

Even though I admire all the work she did, and how determined she was to make her way, I didn’t like all the choices she made.  It’s not necessary to like everything about a person and still like who they are overall though eh?  🙂  

I loved that she was able to meet the various expectations of her family, both the immediate and the more estranged.  This was a relief to her as well, albeit at times an added pressure to do well. I have a hard time imaging that one person could be so pivotal in helping their whole family do better.  I wanted at times to shake a finger at her adults siblings (and their spouses) and tell them to do better themselves.  That they shouldn’t expect one person to make it all more bearable. 

I liked the story in and of itself and was happy to to have listened to it.  For those who want to learn about a remarkable woman of history, listen to this story (or go read it).  🙂  You’ll see hard life decisions being made, see the joys of procurement of rare items, and satisfaction of learning the business end of life. Being able to scoop your rivals… fantastic!  🙂 

Author’s Remarks

I did wish that I didn’t listen to the author’s remarks.  Like many author’s remarks I expected to hear how the story was changed.  This was accurate, but then they went to on to say why they wrote it and brought racism into the picture and tied it into life today.  I would rather NOT have heard that part.  It changed the story from one that I enjoyed into “one I should have used to learn hard life lessons.”

That’s not what I wanted. I wanted to learn more about a woman from history.  Being, in essence, forced to consider deeper issues changed the whole impact of the life shown to me. It was a spoiler, not a help.   A help to me is “this is the true story, this is how I revamped it to make it read better”.  Or these things happened, but I changed the order, etc. 

Final Thoughts

So go read The Personal Librarian.  Skip the author’s remarks.  Enjoy the story and let the history of the day seep into your beingness.  Learn, but mostly just enjoy her story. 

Starship in the Stone

By Leave a Comment

Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table they become part of so much fantasy literature. Starship in the Stone is a 10 book series that takes the story of Arthur and revamps it.  There is much about the series that I liked and some things that occasionally irked me.  But since I finished the entire series there was more that I liked than not! If you like science fiction and adventure, where good guys do all they can to defeat the bad guys, this is the story for you! 

starship in the stone review cover

The Basic Details for The Starship in the Stone

Series Title: The Starship in the Stone

  1. Starship in the Stone
  2. Here Be Dragons
  3. Dread Reckoning
  4. The Wastes
  5. Dragon Rising
  6. Primal Fate
  7. Dark Wizard
  8. The Price of Honor
  9. Mad Queen
  10. Dragon King

Author: M.R. Forbes
Publisher: Independently published
Pages: averaging 350 pages
Intended Audience: high-school, young adult, adult, 
Genre: science fiction, space opera, space fleet, space marine,  
Available formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio
Read: Kindle

About the author and Series

M. R. Forbes has written a fair number of science fiction books.  He loves to read sci-fi books and has a love for the genre in every format he can find.  His goal is to entertain and surprise his audience.  You can learn more about his works at his website. 

The Starship in the Stone takes an unlikely hero, a bike messenger trying to escape a messy situation and lands him in a world unheard of.  It’s an twist on the Legend of Arthur.  You’ll find Merlin, a version of the Round Table.  Enemies that were once friends. Enemies that become friends, and heroes in unlikely spaces. In many ways it’s a coming of age tale. 

starship in the stone series

So What Did I think?

I enjoyed this series.  Normally science fiction books aren’t my thing, but the story drew me in.  An unlikely hero, a determined advisor, and an emergency situation, led to growth unimagined.   

There was a struggle with Merlin always calling Thomas “my boy”.  Like use his name!  Seriously.  His name is Thomas, call him that!  He’s a man, not a child.   And yes, Merlin is like an ancient being and in some ways I can conceive of him using the “my boy” moniker but it got a bit tiresome.  

I did like how not everything turned out perfectly.  People died, loved and cared for people. Ones that  I wanted to see make it to the end of the story.  Not all of them made it, which made the tale much more realistic and moving.

not always plausible

There were parts that seemed not quite plausible.  Would it really be possible for one starship to take on massive amounts of other starships and miraculously being able to avoid weapons fire? But that’s the nature of a story right?  Especially a story about a long-dead leader, embodied in a stone, with a high tech ship. Add to the mix an immortalized wizard transferred into technology (a computer) and you are bound to have things that seem a bit far-fetched.  All that said, I read through all the books eagerly!  🙂 

I wanted to know how Thomas was going to win the fight.  I wanted to know if Lancelot could be saved and if Morgana could be stopped.  Would Thomas and his lady friend become more than just friends? Could the round table be completed? 

Did I get the answers to all my questions?  NOPE.  But I did get many of them answered, and mostly to the good. Bad things happen, good things happen, and in the end… good prevails.   It’s just the way a good adventure story is supposed to! 

Starship in the Stone, an excellent space marine opera worth reading! 

The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog

By Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog through Harbour Publishing. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and it is so much appreciated. 🙂

Are you interested in the First Nations people of Canada?  Want to take in a unique perspective?  Enter in The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog.  I never knew that woolly dogs were a thing for our First Nations people… DID YOU?  Well, if you are like so many of us (I asked my colleagues at work and they too were surprised), come along for the adventure eh? 

The Teachings of Mutton

Basic Details for The Teachings of Mutton

Title: The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog
Author: Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa with Coast Salish Contributors
Publisher: Harbour Publishing Co
Pages: 264
Intended Audience: high-school, young adult, adult, 
Genre: indigenous stewardship, weaving and textile arts, native american biographies, history, northwestern North America,  
Available formats: Kindle, Paperback, 
Received: Paperback
Reviewed for: Harbour Publishing

About the Book

Did you know that there used to be a woolly dog?  It was an integral part of the Salish Community.  In this read by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa we are privileged to learn more about this dog and the people it was part of.  The woolly dog was bred for thousands of years for its woolly fibres.  These fibres were woven into traditional blankets, robes and regalia. Despite careful efforts to protect this breed by the by Coast Salish peoples, by the 1900s, the Woolly Dog had become so rare it is now considered extinct.

About the Author

Formerly the Director of Research Services, Liz Hammand-Kaarremaa is now retired and spends her time researching the Coast Salish peoples. She holds a Master Spinners Certificate and the textiles of the Coast Salish peoples are naturally a focus for her. Liz was instrumental in identifying a rare blanket in the Burke Museum to be made of Woolly Dog hair.

The Teachings of Mutton

Looking Deeper

Eleven chapters round out this educational read that is filled pictures, illustrations, and maps. As we progress through the chapters we get to see how the wooly dog came to be.

  1. Finding Mutton : The ancient story of Swuq’us
  2. Mutton’s journey to the Smithsonians: The Dog Children and the Original Occupations
  3. The Woolly Dog: The teachings of Fibre
  4. The Wool: The Cultural Importance of Blankets
  5. Where are all the Blankets: Misunderstanding our relationships with the Woolly Dog
  6. Mutton’s Ancient Origins: Connecting to our Ancestors
  7. Other Dogs: The care and Feeding of Dogs
  8. The Diet of Woolly Dogs: The care and Feeding of Dogs
  9. Processing Wool: The impact of Colonialism
  10. What did Woolly Dogs Look like? : Fur Beings and Woven Visions, Connecting with Musquem History
  11. An Ending and a Beginning

I appreciated how as part of the forward she mentioned how she wanted to respect the Coast Salish people.  Recognizing that she has her own preconceptions so hopes to let the Coast Salish people speak with their own words as much as possible.  Recognizing the Mutton may have been the name of this particular Woolly Dog, but wasn’t a name respected by the Coast Salish people. 

A scholarly read

This is a scholarly read, filled with illustrations, pictures, and maps to bring the text to life.  For instance, without this map I wouldn’t have clearly understood the range of the Woolly dog (the yellow area).  For such a niche breed, I didn’t expect that.

Native art featuring the Woolly Dog has a prominent place.  I just loved this inclusion.  Made everything so much better you know? Makes me regret that the Woolly Dog is no more.  It looked like a fun little dog to have around.  Not too big, not to small, and very useful besides! 

These dogs were such an integral part of their community, rather cool to learn about. 

My recommendation

If you want to take an unique look at indigenous peoples of Canada, check out The Teachings of Mutton.  You will find loads of information about the textiles, the geography, and the history of this helpful little dog.   It’s kinda too bad that their usefulness waned.  Technology and imports isn’t always a good thing when it comes to a niche population. 

Seeing the quality of the blankets they made with their wool, makes me wonder if they can use DNA from the blankets to somehow bring them back.  What do you think?

A useful book if studying the First Nations people of British Columbia.  A fascinating book if you love textiles and their history. A wonderful look into a type of dog I’d never heard of before.  Give it a look see,  you won’t regret it! 

The Lost Bookshop

By 2 Comments

You know how you start to read a book and you think… It’s got potential but I don’t know if I can get into it?  A book with two timelines that tends to drive you nuts with the bouncing around and then you discover something odd…. and suddenly you are hooked and totally invested?   Well, that happened with me with The Lost Bookshop.   Let me tell you more. 

the lost bookshop by Evie Woods

The Basic Details for The Lost Bookshop

Title: The Lost Bookshop
Author: Evie Woods
Publisher: One More Chapter
Pages: 448
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: magical realism, Contemporary romance, history, women’s domestic life, fantasy,
Available formats: paperback, kindle, audio

Evie Woods is Irish and loves to draw the unexpected and somewhat magical into her works.  She tells a good story between the everyday and the magical.  Weaving together worlds into something new that is very believable. 

In The Lost Bookshop we catch Henry searching for a bookshop that can’t be found.  He’s caught references to it, but can’t really track it down. And in his same timeline we find Martha.  A lady running away from a domestic situation that isn’t safe, finding herself working as a maid for a most unexpected lady.   As Martha gets caught up in Henry’s search we learn the story of Opaline and her bookshop. 

the lost bookshop

Looking Deeper

I’m not going to say this is always the easiest book to read, and I’m not a fan of reading two different timelines and trying to sort things out. BUT those divergent timelines worked really well together and caused their own little surprises in the end. 

Domestic abuse and generally just the poor treatment of women is a fact in both timelines.  I was horrified at the treatment of Opaline at the hands of her brother and the “institution” she was placed in.  How could people be like that?  Institutionalized cruelty has always dumbfounded me. 

I LOVED Opaline’s resilience though, and I love how Martha took, learned and survived.  This is very much a story of survival for both women.  The touch of magic/fantasy throughout was an added bonus.  You were left wondering, just might this bookshop pull out next?  What book or words of encouragement does Martha need?  What is the story that Martha is having penned?   The mysterious help she received from the lady of the house left me with a certain amount of wonder and lots of curiousity.  I never did get that fully assuaged. 

When all the pieces finally fit together you are left with a great sense of satisfaction.  I was so pleased by the end of this story, it’s made me go out and hunt down other works by this author. 

I’m half way through The Story Collector, and want to read to read about the mysterious bakery on rue du Paris.   Doesn’t that sound intriguing?   I think Evie Woods has gained a new fan!   🙂 Go out and read The Lost Bookshop today!!!  

Sunshine in a bottle

By Leave a Comment

So after having enjoyed the Lemon Sugar series I was eager to try the next book by Carolyn Finch.   Sunshine in a bottle takes on the life of Indi.  Indi is a hairstylist with a troubled relationship with her mother.  Her mother has turned her life around and developed a whole Wellness Centre that she has lift to Indi (with some conditions) at the time of her death.  Indi’s plan… sell the whole thing!  Wants nothing to do with her mom and her legacy.  Too much pain sitting there for her to want to deal with it.  Life intervenes, and thus Sunshine in a Bottle is written. 

Basic Details for Sunshine in a Bottle

Title: Sunshine in a Bottle
Author: Carolyn Finch
Series: Blyss Series
Publisher: Carolyn Finch Writes
Pages: 311
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: women’s fiction, wellness, weight loss, romance
Available formats: paperback, kindle

My Thoughts

I enjoy Ms. Finch’s style of writing. After thoroughly enjoying the Lemon Sugar series, I was positive I would like this book as well. And though I did enjoy her style, I was less than enamoured with Sunshine in a Bottle.

What did I like?   I loved the people connection.  You could palpably feel how much people wanted to help Indi heal from her past pain.  They very much wanted Indi to become the best that she could be.   I loved that.  It’s great to see people drawing together to help someone become more than. 

The romantic element was okay, but kinda meh for me.  Of course you can see that opposites will attract, but this one seemed too forgone a conclusion.  

The whole emphasis on the paleo diet.  I’m sorry I was just lost on this one.  Her sickness, and everything as a result of allergies and her diet.  Just seemed to really be pushing a way of eating and then adding in things that didn’t really add up.  Like ancient people would be so focused on making hollandaise sauce? And isn’t it making a whole lot of assumptions about what people ate and how we can modernize it? It seemed a bit too pat for me I guess. And it could honestly be that I am being too much of a skeptic. 

The total diet and complete change of life was a bit too much for me.  In the end it took away from my enjoyment of the story.  It came out as too predictable, and too “neatly” tied up.   I have zero desire to follow up with the rest of the series. 

I enjoyed the good family connection exemplified in the literal Sunshine in a bottle. Finding a way to recreate scents and shine forth good memories.  I really that part.   Well done that! 

Now if I were reading just for a quick weekend getaway enjoyment I might have liked it more as it was a feel good story.   I’d give it a three stars rating. 

 

 

Lemon Sugar Series

By Leave a Comment

The first book in this series randomly popped up in my kindle unlimited suggestions and I thought hmmm… might be interesting, but maybe not.   Let’s try it.  And so read In the Company of Men and was hooked. 🙂   I have to admit to some skepticism though since a rather leery of anything slightly romance-y.  BUT I LIKED IT!   I did.  I was so surprised.  In the Company of Men made me laugh, made me worried, raised my suspicions, and surprised me.   Good stuff eh?  🙂  And so I want to tell you about Carolyn Finch’s Lemon Sugar Series. 

Lemon Sugar Series

The Basics Details for In the Company of Men

Title: The Lemon Sugar Series
Author: Carolyn Finch
Series: Lemon Sugar
Publisher: 
Pages: 376
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: mystery, historical fiction, crime fiction, history, women’s fiction, cozy mystery,
Available formats: paperback, kindle

Three books in the series.

All follow a similar theme.  Gal has a need … provide for her family in a male-dominated world of the 1920’s.   Runs into issue, with a touch of mystery about it, meets a guy who is willing to prove useful/helpful, lots of feel good emotions, and a story well-told.  TOTAL win for me.  🙂 

Author is Carolyn Finch who is a new author to me.  I do plan on finishing this series and then hope to find others by her.  She produces feel good stories with a romance element that doesn’t make me gag.  🙂  Ms. Finch loves to read and grew up as part of a farming community.  This lifestyle is steeped in her blood and she still loves living on the farm. 

Lemon Sugar Series

So What Did I Think?

It was so refreshing to delve into romantic women’s fiction and not have my gag reflex stimulated.   The romance in this read was realistic and not the central focus.   And I laughed!   Oh my, the number of times I laughed, and at one point even entered a cry of dismay.  That of course created conversation twixt me and a coworker and who knows… maybe I encouraged her to try this series!  🙂 

Set in the 1920’s I loved the quiet romance and the promise of a new life.  I loved how both the men and woman wanted to do what is right and good.  The not so nice people were fairly obvious and easy to not like (making it super easy to cheer for the good folk).  I loved the men being men and the women being women.  No gender confusion, just the simplicity of men and women being who they are. 

I do have to admit to some dismay at the speed of the romance.  But I’ve read a number of historical books where in the older west relationships proceeded fairly quickly, so this wasn’t totally unexpected.  But the romance wasn’t central to the story and events would have played out well with or without it, so nice to have a story like this.   Both of the first two books in this series were similar in style, I expect Hope and Dreams to be the same.