Pick of the Literate: October 2023

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 15, 2023

The Queen of Days by Greta Kelly

This takes place in an island kingdom in a feudalistic society. Balthazar runs a crew of thieves he considers his family. He is hired to steal a temple idol and is required to take The Queen of Days as part of his patron’s desire. Tass said Queen of Days, is something different and Balthazar's crew is not receptive to adding her to the team. Add otherworldy events, and you have the summation of the plot.

Kelly painstakingly creates her characters. In my case, I wasn’t thrilled with them at first but as she provided them with depth, they became likeable. My penchant for likable characters has resulted in criticism in the past and frankly, I don’t care. I want to like my protagonists.

Tass’s mysterious past and nebulous and notorious family connections explain much of her power. Her alienation from her own family makes a good counterpoint to the effort Bal makes in crafting his own family.

Action, mayhem, magic, gods, and explosives provide the fun but the underlying message of the importance of family, biological or contrived, is what made the book for me.

I enjoyed the book, and I highly recommend it.

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

Thursday, October 5, 2023

Sarah’s Song by Vicky Whedbee

I did not expect to like this book. When I first got it, I made an initial judgment that it was “chick lit” and I don’t like romance stories. Well there is some romance but overall it is a tale of survival in a time when I was unaware surviving was so hard. The book is set in Hurricane Hollow, Tennesse, and starts in 1941. It is a family saga.

My captivation by this book was the realization of how different life was for people in those hills at a time when I was thinking that life in a steel town was tough. My family would vacation at an Uncle’s cabin in the mountains in the 1950s. There was no running water, no electricity, and an outhouse. We thought we were rugged living that way for a week. The characters in this book lived like that normally. The lack of civilized amenities the characters had, which I took for granted as a child, astounded me.

The family relationships and close ties to others in the community were more familiar. Whedbee did a marvelous job portraying a family, a community, and a time. The Grapes of Wrath came to mind when I read this book and considering it was at least five decades ago that I read that book, I have no idea if my comparison is accurate.

Some of the cooking scenes could have been shortened or accurate recipes could have been included.