Hello, dear friends! I’m here today to share the fiction, fantasy and mystery books that I read last year. As always, I hope that these posts inspire you to read and give you a place to start.
Books Read: Eleven
Average Rating: 3.5 stars
Best: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Worst: Deceptive Calm by Patricia Skipper
Fiction
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham – 4 stars
“The gate was packed with weary travelers, most of them standing and huddled along the walls because the meager allotment of plastic chairs had long since been taken. Every plane that came and went held at least eighty passengers, yet the gate had seats for only a few dozen.”
Luther and Nora Krank are sick of holiday cheer and decide that they’ll skip Christmas this year…until their daughter announces that she’s coming home from Peru and can’t wait for the traditional holidays. It was a funny, innocent little story that I enjoyed reading on the depressing ride home from Christmas festivities.
“My children know nothing of Christmas. They have so little, and want so little, it makes me feel guilty for the mindless materialism of our culture.”
The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans– 3 stars
“The first gift of Christmas was love. A parent’s love. Pure as the first snows of Christmas. For God so loved His children that He sent His son, that someday we might return to Him.”
There’s not much to say about this – it was a cute story about the meaning of Christmas. I got a really nice copy from a Little Library, so that made me happy.
Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope – 4 stars (x2)
“It was a thousand pities that so good a woman should have been driven by the sad stress of circumstances to tell so many fibs. One after another she was compelled to invent them, that there might be a way open to her of escaping the horrors of a prolonged sojourn in that hotel.”
I love a good, random holiday tale, and this did not disappoint! It’s so odd, I have nothing to say except, “Go read it and see for yourself.”
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg – 4 Stars
“If you think of doing something in New York City, you can be certain that at least two thousand other people have the same thought. And of the two thousand who do, about one thousand will be standing in line waiting to do it.”
I have a soft spot for children’s books when they’re well written. When you think of children running away, you don’t imagine that they’ll go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and hide out there. That’s what I love about this story – it’s all so unexpected, and yet so believable at the same time. Jehosheba and I could have been Claudia and Jamie. Konigsburg got the sibling dynamic spot on.
“The only two ways to get to know someone are to live with him or play cards with him.”
Deceptive Calm by Patricia Skipper – 0 stars
*gags* Boy oh boy, I could rant on about this book for pages, but as it is an indie published work in an obscure corner of the internet that few people will read, I won’t waste my time and sum up by saying that this book was full of profanity, violence, and just about every other vice known to man, and if I wasn’t being paid $25 to read it, I would have thrown it away after the first paragraph (yes, I should have quit and I regret reading it. Lesson learned.)
The Sea Glass Sisters by Lisa Wingate – 3 stars
“Every decision you make in life has benefits and consequences. Sometimes you just have to go on faith, and even that comes at a price. It means you have to give up the idea that you’re the one in charge of the universe.”
I’m not a huge fan of things related to the sea and beaches, but this was a cute story about faith and regaining a relationship with God despite trials. I want to read the rest of the Carolina Heirlooms series and hopefully will get more into the characters and plots.
Fantasy
The Nightmare Virus by Nadine Brandes – 4 stars
“Nole used to say turning to God wasn’t weakness. That being weak is where the true strength came from.”
Some viruses go after the body. But the Nightmare Virus goes after the mind. When dream technology goes wrong, a virus spreads across the globe, trapping people in a universal dreamscape. They call it the Nightmare Virus.
This is the Nadine Brandes that I missed in Wishtress. This was deep, suspenseful and allegorical. It’s one of the few modern fantasy books that I’m impressed with.
Ignite by Kara Swanson – 2 stars
“’I’ve never … not felt dangerous. Or in danger,’ I say, more to myself than to anyone.
Eli looks down at me. ‘And you feel safe right now?’
I let out a soft breath. ‘This place isn’t afraid of me. And neither are you. That’s safe.’
A knowing look fills his brown eyes. ‘Like being able to breathe for the first time?”’
I’ve already ranted about this book. To sum up, this preached the secular gospel, “Trust yourself, love yourself, you alone can heal yourself, you are a mighty woman, and you need no one else.”
The Postmodern Pilgrim’s Progress by Kyle Mann – 4 Stars
“Projectors are like hymn books, except they are an average of 123,400 percent more expensive. They are used to help humans follow along with the music because their memories are very poor. The only thing worse than a human’s memory is his attention span, which the projector remedies by adding flashing lights and pictures of clouds to the worship lyrics. It’s odd that they even need this, considering the song that morning consisted of a single line sung forty-eight times. Humans are such limited creatures.”
The Postmodern Pilgrim’s Progress is a retelling of John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, set in our modern world. Ryan, to fulfill a promise to his dead brother, goes to the church nearest him. After screaming at the prosperity-gospel pastor, a projector falls on his head and knocks him into another world. Ryan and his sidekick Faith go on an epic adventure to find a king, ring a bell, and save The Dying Lands.
Ryan wasn’t a very interesting MC, and his character arch was a little cliché, but I liked that he was just an ordinary guy. Nothing special. No “chosen one”. He had no clue what he was doing. He didn’t want to find himself in the situation he was in. He was a failure, he wanted to quit, he wanted to walk away from it all. There is something comforting about un-heroic heroes.
Mystery
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – 3.5 stars
“There was something magical about an island—the mere word suggested fantasy. You lost touch with the world—an island was a world of its own. A world, perhaps, from which you might never return.”
I’m not sure what I think about this novel. On one hand, it is a brilliant plot. I was trying hard to figure it out, and the end was a total shock. It was one of the darker mysteries from Agatha Christie, and as I was reading it, I was rather convicted. Last year my most read author was Agatha Christie. Is that sad or what? Why was I filling my mind with death and murder, hatred and rage, instead of using that time in a more profitable way? Christie also has a lot of occult influence in her books. I don’t think that murder mysteries in and of themselves are evil, and I will enjoy one now and again, but I was really convicted that I need to focus more on books that will grow my faith and encourage my walk with God.
“In the midst of life, we are in death.”
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle – 3 stars
“There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.”
This wasn’t a terribly intriguing mystery, though I did enjoy Sherlock’s methods of detecting, and Holmes was a great sidekick. And hey, the fact that this story was full of Mormons made me laugh (we used to live in Utah).
“Where there is no imagination, there is no horror.”
Have a wonderful day!
~Hattush
Do you have any recommendations for good Christian fantasy? What themes do you look for in your fiction books?
Daughter of the Light 