Welcome to the January 2017 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com! As of this writing, I’m trying to hit…
9 CommentsRelevant Fiction for Body & Soul
Tag: book reviews
As 2016 comes to a close, I’ve collected reviews of the best Young Adult (YA) fiction I’ve read over the past year. Some of these titles are Christian fiction, some secular, but all are “clean” and appropriate for teens. (And for the enjoyment of old fogeys like me too.)
I did not include The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer here only because that series isn’t in need of more visibility. It’s an excellent series that fans of Star Wars or classic fairy tales will particularly enjoy. Fast-paced and tightly-written, there’s enough adventure, humor, scifi, and romance to please almost any reader.
At the end of this post, you’ll find some other YA favorites of 2016, including other books written by the authors featured below. (I stuck with one book featured per author.)
If you’re looking for more great books for teens, sign up for the B4CT (Books for Catholic Teens) newsletter!
2 CommentsWelcome to the December 2016 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com! Now that December has arrived, the days are…
Leave a CommentSerena Chase’s contemporary Young Adult inspirational romance novel Intermission releases today on Kindle. This book quickly became one of my favorite novels of the year!
Sixteen-year-old Faith Prescott eagerly awaits the day she will exchange her small Iowa hometown for the bright lights of Broadway, but her success-driven parents want her to pursue a more practical career, labeling “artsy” people—including their daughter—as foolish dreamers worthy of little more than disdain.
When Faith meets nineteen-year-old Noah Spencer she discovers someone who understands her musical theatre dreams . . . because he shares them.
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As a lifelong Catholic raised by lifelong Catholics, pastors’ families are something I have little familiarity with. Latin-rite Catholic priests with families are very few and far between. (But, yes, they do exist!) My inexperience did not diminish my enjoyment of these novels. Whether part of a pastor’s family or not, we all understand expectations, superficiality, and hypocrisy learned in myriad ways both inside of church and out.
It’s interesting to see how the themes and observations in these three books overlap despite three very different and distinct author voices.
4 CommentsWelcome to the October 2016 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com! I’m re-reading a book I’ve read at…
4 CommentsWelcome to the September 2016 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com! My husband has been subjecting us to The Fellowship of…
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I enjoy reading books by contemporary authors, but now and then I like to pick up a classic. There are so, so many I haven’t read. These are three I had been meaning to read for a while. Interestingly, at the crux of each of these vastly different novels is the sin of adultery. And in each case, its ramifications are played out.
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The depth and grandeur of O Pioneers! didn’t catch up with me until the end. I’d read My Antonia in college and Death Comes for the Archbishop a decade ago, and loved both. O Pioneers! only confirmed my appreciation for Cather’s writing.
I was struck again by the beauty of her prose and imagery.
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