A Lancaster Family Christmas

A Lancaster Family Christmas is a feel good holiday story about a Mennonite family and a city girl. Diana Manzella agrees to take an out of town trip with co-worker Betsy Yoder to visit the Yoder family in Lancaster County. Diana is an only child who comes from a family with distant parents.  She muses that her parents do not even know what subject she majored in during college. When Diana arrives in Amish Country she discovers that their world is completely different from her own on the Upper East Side of New York City. She isn't sure that she can make it through the weekend. However, Diana is fascinated by the huge homes and buggies but takes note that these families get along and have huge home cooked meals every day. This, too, is vastly different from her parent's household.  Diana also notices Betsy's brother Brett and his Amish friend Jesse.  She is attracted to both of them even though she knows nothing can come of a relationship with either of them because of their religious faith.

The food alone that Betsy's mother cooks will get you in the holiday spirit. It is hard to believe that there are women in the world who spend that much time in the kitchen. They seem to have limitless energy.  A Lancaster Family Christmas is a good book to start the holiday season with.  I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

I am rejoining the Nonfiction Reader Challenge next year. I am rather anxious about finding nonfiction books to read as I gave up reading them a few years ago. My interest has waned over the years but I was really happy with the books I read in 2021.  Thus, I am joining as a Nonfiction Grazer and plan on reading 6 books.

The Rules:

1)    You can select, read and review a book from the categories listed below during the year for a total of up to 12 books; OR select, read and review any nonfiction book. A book may be in print, electronic or audio format.

                        Choose a goal:

Nonfiction Nipper: Read & review 3 books, from any 3 listed categories

Nonfiction Nibbler: Read & review 6 books, from any 6 listed categories

Nonfiction Nosher: Read & review 12 books, one for each category

OR

Nonfiction Grazer: Read & review any nonfiction book. Set your own goal

2)    You can choose your books as you go or create a list in advance. You may combine this challenge with others if you wish. Use your best good faith judgement as to whether a book fits the category or not.

3)    Where a book is identified by more than one category, it may only count for one, not both.

4)    You can read your chosen titles in any order, at any pace, just aim to complete the challenge by December 31st 2022

5)    Create a blog post committing to your participation in this challenge.  If you don’t have a blog you are still welcome to sign up. You can create a shelf for the challenge at Goodreads or LibraryThing, post via Instagram, or Twitter. Just add your name and a link to your shelf/account in the sign-up.

6)    The challenge will run from January 1st to December 31st 2022. Participants may join at any time up until December 1st 2022

CATEGORIES

1. Social History

2. Popular Science

3. Language

4. Medical Memoir

5. Climate/Weather

6. Celebrity

7. Reference

8. Geography

9. Linked to a podcast

10. Wild Animals

11. Economics

12. Published in 2022

2022 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge

I am rejoining this challenge in 2022.  It was alot of fun in 2021. I particularly enjoyed searching for books that met the key words for each month.

Challenge Rules:

1)    The challenge runs all year long from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

2)    Eight “key words” are given for each month. Your task is to read 1 book that includes one or more of the key words in the title.

3)    Synonyms and different suffixes are allowed. For example, if the keyword is ‘Lake’ you may also use the words ‘Lakes’, ‘Water’, ‘Sea’, ‘Ocean’. 

4)    A check in post will be published here on the blog, in our Goodreads GXO Reading Challenges group and on Instagram each month. You can link up on the blog posts to announce your completion of that months challenge using the hashtag #Monthly KeyWordGXO

5)    Please properly credit and link back to Girlxoxo or Kim on Instagram any time you post about the challenge on your blog or social media.

6)    If you post what you’ve read to social media please use the hashtag #MonthlyKeyWordGXO.

7)    If you are on Goodreads consider joining our GXO Goodreads Reading Challenge Group. You can get book suggestions, do progress check-ins and meet other challenge participants.

8)    You can track your progress using a blog or any social media platform. We are active on Instagram, Twitter, and Goodreads.

9)    Monthly Check in Posts will be linked below as soon as they’re posted. You can check in there, on our GXO Goodreads Reading Challenge Group or with our Instagram hashtag #KeyWordReadingChallenge

                            MONTHLY KEY WORDS

JAN – Last, Kingdom, Girl, Dark, When, Winter, Light, Window

FEB – Midnight, Never, Into, Sun, Love, Good, Spell, Search

MAR – End, Fall, Loud, Queen, Woods, Nine, Beautiful, Crown

APR – Race, Now, Chose, While, Stop, Burn, Red, One

MAY – Thorn, Catch, Black, Under, City, Cloud, Sing, Legacy

JUN – Sea, You, Hate, Perfect, Shade, Until, Beach, Little

JUL – Star, Next, Infinity, Iron, Word, People, Rise, Clear

AUG – Breath, Case, Hundred, Day, Happy, Language, Stay, Lie

SEP – Bright, Here, Out, Life, Strange, Rule, Story, Salt

OCT – House, Bone, Haunt, Body, Blood, Witch, Murder, Mystery

NOV – Many, Boy, River, Fever, Down, Gold, Jade, Hill

DEC – Still, Cabin, Cafe, Night, Lake, By, Holiday, Fire

Wrap-Up of the 12th Annual Graphic Novel and Manga Challenge

I signed up to read 12 comics this year but more than met the challenge with 39 books. At one point I thought that I would go for 52 books but gave up on that. 22 of the comics were written by new (to me) authors. Here is what I read:

Parenthesis by Elodie Durand

Run by John Lewis

Wicked Things by John Allison

The Grand Odalisque by Ruppert and Mulot

Women Discoverers by Marie Monard

Royal City by Jeff Lemire

Primer by Jennifer Muro

Freiheit by Andrea Grosso Ciponte

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto

Reckless by Ed Brubaker

Redfork by Alex Paknadel

The Banks by Roxane Gay

Idle Days by Thomas Delsaulniers

Hawking by Ottaviani and Myrick

Credo by Peter Bagge

Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang

Hand Me Down by Alex Paknadel

The Pull by Steve Orlando

Sentient by Jeff Lemire

Sara by Garth Ennis

Double Walker by Michael Conrad

Red Team by Garth Ennis

Tunnels by Rutu Modan

Sweet Tooth Compendium by Jeff Lemire

Snow Angels by Jeff Lemire

The Waiting by Klum Suk Gentry-Kim

COVID Chronicles by Ethan Sacks

The All Nighter by Jason Loot and Chip Zdarsky

Home by Julio Anta

Fire by Peter Bagge

The Father of All Things by Sebastian Girner

Pound for Pound by Natalie Chaidez

Let's Not Talk Anymore by Weng Pixin

Night Train by Steve Foxe

Rebecca and Lucie by Pascal Girard

Factory Summers by Guy Delisle

Hailstone by Rafael Scavone

The All Nighter by Chip Ddarsky and Jason Loo

Favorite Book:  Tunnels

2nd Favorite Book:  The Waiting 

3rd Favorite Book:  The Grand Odalisque

Least Favorite Book:  Snow Angels

Book of the Month: November

Is it possible to have 3 books of the month? November was a fantastic month for reading and I had a hard time choosing between Defending Britta Stein, The Widow Queen and Tunnels. All three were spectacular reads. However, since I have to choose I am choosing Tunnels. It is a graphic novel with an intricate plot that rivals a full length book. Rutu Modan is an incredibly talented comic writer from Israel whose graphic novels are all fully plotted with fully firmed characters. I think Tunnels is her best book to date. 

In Tunnels we read about a race to find the Ark of the Covenant in underground tunnels on the Palestinian side of Israel. When a big antiquities collector is forced to donate his entire collection to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Nili Broshi sees her last chance to finish an archeological expedition begun by her father decades earlier. She believes that the dig will locate the Jewish Ark of the Covenant, the most important artifact in the Middle East. Motivated by a desire to reinstate her father's legacy as a great archeologist after a rival accepted the tenure her father earned, Nili gathers a ragtag crew to help her: a religious nationalist, her traitor brother and her childhood Palestinian friend. As Nili's father slips further and further into dementia, warring factions close in on and fight over the Ark. The author believes that the biblical Israel lies in one of the most disputed regions in the world, occupied by Israel and contested by Palestine.  Often in direct competition, Israelis and Palestinians dig alongside one another, hoping to find the sacred artifact which is believed to be a conduit to God.  

I think readers of all types of books should consider reading this book.  It's a great story. 

The Rabbi's Wife The Bishop's Wife

The Rabbi's Wife, The Bishop's Wife is about the life of Joana HaLevi. Joana gave up what she treasured the most, her family, in order to maintain her Jewish faith. She lived in the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Burgos during the 14th and 15th centuries. As with most historical fiction novels of late, there is an alternating plot between 1391 and 2020. The publisher's summary:  

Spain, 1391.  Joana, wife of Schlomo HaLevi, the Rabbi of Burgos, mother of five, and daughter of a wealthy and respectable family, is living a comfortable, carefree life.  Until her world is shattered without warning one summer day.  While her husband Shlomo, now Pablo de Santamaria, joins the Catholic church and takes their family with him, Joana struggles with the unrelenting yearning for her children.  Will her soul find relief?  Will her children return to her side?

Jerusalem, 2020.  Ruth is struggling with personal conflicts when the COVID-19 pandemic shakes her world, adding loneliness and isolation to her struggle.  With her new online friend, she embarks on a voyage that will set Joana HaLevi's memory free from oblivion. 

I absolutely loved Joana's story. Ruth's story was rather slow. I don't think the alternating plot worked well. Why not just feature Joana who is the heroine of the novel?  Joana had to deal with the forced conversion of Jews to Christianity.  Her husband, the Chief Rabbi of Burgos, Schlomo Halevi, converted and took custody of all of her children and raised them as Christians. He studied for the priesthood in Rome and eventually became the Archbishop of Burgos. Schlomo's sister Maria also converted and she raised their kids. Joana had to arrange with Maria each week in order to see her children. 

The authors stated that they believed that Schlomo's conversion was real because he was wealthy enough not to need to convert for power and prestige. However, I disagree.  I think he would have lost his standing in the community if he did not convert. While he would have kept his money, he wanted to keep the power he had as the king's tax collector.  Schlomo changed his name to Pablo Santamaria and also changed the names of his children too.  Joana became a strong woman from her adversities. She continued to practice Judaism and also continued to act as a rabbi's wife by taking care of the poor in her community. I cannot imagine myself handling what Joana had to handle. She is certainly a great example of persevering during trials.

The 2020 alternating plot was dull, especially in the beginning of the novel. As this plot advanced the reader gets a dose of genealogy research. However, it just was not executed well. In addition, there were alot of grammatical errors. This does not usually bother me but there were sentences so poorly formed that I was not sure what their meaning was. The novel was translated into English from Hebrew so perhaps there were translation issues. 

If this book was just about Joana I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars.  With the alternating plot problems, I am downgrading the rating to 3 out of 5 stars.

Hailstone

The Hailstone edition I purchased contains issues 1 through 5 of a comic book series. I loved it.  The story follows Sheriff Denton Ross who is investigating the disappearance of a girl in an isolated town in Montana called Hailstone. With few police officers on his staff to help, Denton enlists the assistance of soldiers in the nearby military factory. The factory supplies the Union Army with weapons but after Denton sneaks in to the camp, he thinks something else might be going on there. He is pressured by the townspeople to look into the camp because they don't have much food to eat but the military officers have plenty. Denton's deputy Tobias sneek back in to determine what the factory is actually producing all while searching for the missing girl, Mary, who is the 4th young girl to disappear. I have never liked westerns, but Hailstone is a great read. 

Defending Britta Stein

Defending Britta Stein is a gripping legal thriller that takes place in Chicago during 2018. Britta Stein is a 92-year-old woman who has a tiff with Chicago's beloved 95-year-old tavern owner Ole Hendryks. When it was publicly announced that Ole was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Danish American Association of Chicago, Britta spray-paints insults in the middle of the night on the exterior of his tavern The Melancholy Dane. Britta exposes Ole as a Nazi collaborator during the Nazi occupation of Denmark with her insults. Attorney Catherine Lockhart is asked by a lawyer friend, Walter Jenkins,  to represent her in a $5,000,000 defamation lawsuit filed by Ole. Ole Hendryks has retained a high priced lawyer named Sterling Sparks from the prestigious Jenkins and Fairchild law firm. Sparks' nickname is Six O'Clock Sparks because he is an aggressive publicity hound. A former law clerk of Walter's, Emma Fisher, is Britta's grand-daughter and she accompanies Britta to her appointments with Catherine as well as does research for Catherine.  

Ole Hendryks has had an old photograph of him and his father posted in his restaurant for fifty years. He claims that in 1943 his family helped hundreds of Jews escape from the gas chambers during WWII. Ole and his father snuck Jewish families out of Denmark in their fishing boat in the middle of the night heading toward Sweden. He has been labeled a hero by his customers as well as the media. However, Britta Stein has alleged that Ole did not rescue any Jews but in fact helped gather Jews for deportation by the Nazis. She also said that the family's name is Hendrickson, not Hendryks. The lawsuit is being heard by a no nonsense judge, Obadiah Wilson, in the Cook County Circuit Court Law Division. With Catherine's husband Liam Taggart investigating Hendryk's background in Denmark the defense of Britta Stein begins.

This story was captivating from the beginning. I couldn't put it down even on the day I needed to shop for my Thanksgiving dinner. While I got to the store in late afternoon, the book was satisfying enough for me to keep thinking about it for the rest of the day. The plot follows the work that Catherine is doing on Britta's case. Most of that work involves interviewing Britta to get her side of the story. Britta insists on taking her time telling her story even though Catherine only has 3 weeks to get ready for trial. The interview takes 100 pages but is very entertaining. Unfortunately, what Britta reveals about life in Denmark under German occupation actually happened. The rest of the story, including the characters, is fiction.  I loved that the 1943 photo of Ole and his father in front of their boat turned out to be proof that he was a Nazi collaborator. Because Catherine cannot prove Britta's allegations, she uses an in court strategy that tricks Ole into telling the truth.  

Awesome read!  5 out of 5 stars.

Wrap-Up of the 2021 Library Love Reading Challenge

I read 48 books this year for the Library Love Challenge.  I signed up to read 60 books from my public library but didn't quite meet the challenge. 14 of the books were written by new (to me) authors. Here is what I read:

Piece of My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

Death and the Maiden by Ariana Franklin

A Yellow House by Karien Van Ditzhuizen

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anapa

One by One by Ruth Ware

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

The Binding by Bridget Collins

America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray

The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

The Queen's Marriage by Lady Colin Campbell

The Blended Quilt by Wanda Brustetter

The Woman in the Green Dress by Tea Cooper

The Girl From Silent Lake by Leslie Wolfe

The Henna Artist by Alka Josh

Beneath an Indian Sky by Renita D'Silva

The Night Away by Jess Ryder

The Hawaiian Discovery by Wanda Brunstetter

The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray

Idle Days by Thomas Desaulniers-Brousseau

Portrait of Peril by Laura Joh Rowland

Midnight Fire by P. K. Adams

Well Behaved Indian Women by Saumya Dave

China by Edward Rutherford

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey

The Perfect Daughter by Daniel Palmer

Return to the Big Valley by Wanda Brustetter

Peaches and Schemes by Anna Gerard

The Night Gate by Peter May

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

The Cellist by Daniel Silva

Dominus by Steven Saylor

The September Society by Robert Finch

Viral by Robin Cook

Hemlock by Susan Wittig Albert

The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs

An Untidy Death by Simon Brett

Murder at the Metro by Margaret Truman

The First Actress by C. W. Gortner

The Last Odyssey by James Rollins

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

The Beginning by Beverly Lewis

A Tapestry of Light by Kimberly Duffy

Twisted Tea Christmas by Laura Childs

The Widow Queen by Elzbieta Cherezinska

The Good Death by S. D. Sykes

Favorite Book:  China

2nd Favorite Book:  The Widow Queen

Least Favorite Book:  The Bone Code

Reading By The Numbers Challenge

I just found out about this new challenge for 2022. It is hosted by Bev@My Reader's Block who hosts a few other challenges that I participate in. This is a reading challenge at its most basic - just track everything you read. Anything counts - graphic novels or comic books, hard copy, e-books, audio novels, etc. If it is a book, it counts. And although the covers shown in the challenge image are all mysteries, you may read from any and all genres that interest you.

The Rules:

1)    The challenge runs the 2022 calendar year.

2)    There are no pre-set challenge levels.  You decide on you personal goal.

3)    Books may be used concurrently with other number reading challenges

4)    A blog and reviews of the books are not required to participate, but if you have a blog, please post your sign-up for the challenge and the link to the post in the form on the My Reader's Block blog. 

5)    If you post on Facebook, Instagram or other social media to log a book, please use #ReadingByNumbers2022.

This challenge is easy so why not sign up?  My goal is to read less next year! I have read over 160 books so far in 2021. I am an artist with arthritis and have not been able to get much done this year.  My hands would not cooperate. It may be time for another carpal tunnel surgery. So, I am setting a goal of 100 books. 

The All Nighter #1 and #2

The All Nighter is a comic book series by Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo.  It is the story of four vampires who operate an all night diner. The vampires look like humans but they never age. The third installment of this 5 ebook series will be published next week on November 30, 2021. In February 2022 a print edition of the series will be published that contains numbers 1 through 5 of the series.  It is a fabulous story and the author is talking with Amazon Studios to develop The All Nighter into a movie. Per the Head of Content for Comixology, Chip Mosher, the story is about the importance of found family and the dangers of pretending to be someone other than who you are.

Alex, Joy, Cynthia and Ian have agreed to blend into human society by operating the diner. It is only open from sunset to sunrise. The group is not allowed to go out in public because they do not want humans to know that they exist. Alex, however, is bored flipping burgers and is dying to get outside and be himself.  He dreams of being a superhero. Joy is a woman trapped in a child's body who wants to be seen for what she is. Cynthia is a former high powered business executive who wants the respect that the used to command. Ian is the leader of the group and he just wants a simpler life. Their identity remains secret within the restaurant and all of them try to not give in to their thirst for blood. 

The comic is a fun workplace comedy as well as a superhero epic. Two police officers are regular customers and they offer some smiles with their own comedy act. Alex, who loves superhero movies, decides to go outside during his shift, don a cape and start fighting bad guys. Unfortunately, his trip gets noticed by The Takers, an organization that will kill any vampire who becomes noticed by humans. Ian and Cynthia do their best to hide Alex's activities when they are visited by Frankenstein from The Takes. 

A great read!  5 out of 5 stars.

Prayers of the Dead

Prayers of the Dead is a historical mystery set in England's Tyndal Priory during the 1280s.  The story opens with a murder. Eda, Countess of Ness is found stabbed to death in the chapel by her husband's knife. Of course, he becomes the main suspect. Prioress Eleanor begins to investigate the matter as the crowner is out of town.  Soon thereafter a priest is found murdered in the same chapel. Eda had many enemies because she gossiped with another priest about sins that people in the area committed and they would be outed the next Sunday during the sermon. Eleanor interviews everyone in the priory and tries to find a connection between the two deaths. When Crowner Ralf returns, he insists that the crimes fall under the king's law and that Prioress Eleanor is biased because the Earl of Ness is her cousin.  Eleanor insists that she has jurisdiction over the crime.  She also believes that her cousin will talk more freely to her than to the crowner. After speaking with him, she realizes that he is lying to her. While she has given her word to the Crowner that she would not be blinded by family ties, she thinks that she may have to turn her cousin in.  Prayers of the Dead is the 17th novel in a series that features Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas of the Order of Fontevraud.

Tyndal Priory was part of the real Order of Fontevraud.  This particular Order had both men and women and both were ruled by a woman. I was not aware that there were Orders such as this one. The story started out well. The pace was fast and the introduction of the characters was fascinating. They all had interesting foibles and one of the priests was intersex. No one knew this until he ended up dead and an examination of his body showed that he had both female and male genitals. However, the middle of the book was slow.  Nothing much happened other than Eleanor interviewed the other characters. No real information about the crime was revealed here so it was a little boring.  Toward the end, the novel picked up as Eleanor discovers more and more truths about those who lived in the Priory. The ending was a surprise.  

What I found unbelievable is that two of the characters were aware that there were people who were intersex, or hermaphrodite as they were called in those days, and that it was OK for them to marry as long as the spouse knew about the condition. This doesn't sound 13th century to me. The Author's Note at the end of the book gives her views on gender and the belief that there are three genders: male, female and blended. She continues with a diatribe about how society has treated these people and developed rules governing them.  She stated that when she began writing the novel, she wanted to have an intersex character. Four out of the ten page Author's Note is devoted to gender roles. I was turned off by all of this. Reading is an escape for me and I do not like being preached to, especially with historical fiction. 

I would have rated the novel 3 out of 5 stars but the preaching requires a rating of 2 out of 5.

Tunnels

Rutu Modan is one of my favorite comic writers. Tunnels is her 4th graphic novel to be published. She also teaches at Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem.  In Tunnels we read about a race to find the Ark of the Covenant in underground tunnels on the Palestinian side of Israel. When a big antiquities collector is forced to donate his entire collection to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Nili Broshi sees her last chance to finish an archeological expedition begun by her father decades earlier. She believes that the dig will locate the Jewish Ark of the Covenant, the most important artifact in the Middle East. Motivated by a desire to reinstate her father's legacy as a great archeologist after a rival accepted the tenure her father earned, Nili gathers a ragtag crew to help her: a religious nationalist, her traitor brother and her childhood Palestinian friend. As Nili's father slips further and further into dementia, warring factions close in on and fight over the Ark. The author believes that the biblical Israel lies in one of the most disputed regions in the world, occupied by Israel and contested by Palestine.  Often in direct competition, Israelis and Palestinians dig alongside one another, hoping to find the sacred artifact which is believed to be a conduit to God.  

Tunnels is a great adventure story.  It delves into the world of Israeli archeology, the rivalry in academia and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  As the author stated in her Afterword, Tunnels is the most complex story she has ever written. The story grabbed me from the beginning. I knew that it was fiction but everything seemed so real. Perhaps this is because the characters have both good and bad attributes, just like the rest of us. There are plenty of twists and turns in the story for mystery readers as well. In addition, there are a few subplots that add to the story.  For instance, Nili believes that a tablet uncovered by an antiquities dealer, who buys from ISIS, will uncover the place where the Ark is located. Someone has to be able to decipher what the tablet says, though. 

The pacing of the comic is perfect. It is a brilliant story with awesome illustrations by the author.  I am so glad that Ishai Mishory translated this book into English so that I could enjoy it.  Tunnels is a fabulous read.  5 out of 5 stars.