Books - The House in the Cerulean Sea Duology by T.J. Klune

Ya'll! Read these books! I'll just start with that. I had been hearing about The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune for quite a while and kept trying to catch it at my favorite used bookstore - Chamblin Bookmine - but they never had it. Apparently people don't give it up! And now, I am one of those people! This book has earned a permanent spot on my bookshelves.  

Here's a quick summary: The House in the Cerulean Sea is a heartwarming novel about Linus Baker, a caseworker who investigates magical orphanages. Assigned to Marsyas Island Orphanage, he encounters six unusual magical children and their charming caretaker, Arthur. Linus's life transforms as he grapples with his own prejudices and discovers the true meaning of family, love, and acceptance. The story explores themes of found family, prejudice, and the power of empathy. That's your basic Google AI summary. But, oh my goodness, this book is so special. I laughed, I cried, I got angry, I laughed again, I cried again, I got angry again, and I just didn't want the book to end. There were several laugh out loud moments for me, but the one that got me the best involved my home state. I won't spoil it for you, but I'm guessing even folks not from Florida will laugh at that one. 

 

The large majority of our book club loved this book as well. There are some themes that may make some folks uncomfortable, and honestly from my perspective, I truly hope those folks read the book even more. One of the magical children is the antichrist, at seven years old, named Lucy. I thought the author handled this beautifully  - it is a fantasy story, after all! - but the very religious may feel otherwise. The other magical children included a wyvern named Theodore, a shape shifter named Sal, a garden gnome named Talia, a girl who could make trees named Phee, and a big watery blob named Chauncey who just wanted to be a bellhop. Adult caretakers Arthur and Zoe are also magical, but I won't spoil their magic for you! It's a beautiful story about accepting others for who they are, tolerance of differences, fighting for those you love, and love in all forms. When I finished this one, I immediately wanted to start it again. And then...

The sequel came out!! Yay!! Somewhere Beyond the Sea came out in September 2024 and picked up right where The House in the Cerulean Sea left off. I enjoyed this one just as much and rooted along for Linus and Arthur as they continued to fight for a world that accepted the beauty found in all of us, no matter how different we may look. I found both of these books to be true balms for the soul is this time of division and political turmoil that we are experiencing here in the United States. I read some pretty heavy stuff sometimes with my love of historical fiction, and sometimes I need what my next door neighbor called a "palate cleanser" of a book. These two books definitely deal with heavy topics, yet they do it in a way that hopefully opens your eyes to the treasures we can find in each other if we just take the time to truly get to know that person rather than judge them by their appearance, difference, ability or disability. The pair has made it to my top 10 all favorite books list.     

  

Books - A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson

 

 

 A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson is our Chapter Night Book Club read for March. I loved this book! Historical fiction is my favorite genre, so this definitely fit the bill, but normally I read WWII historical fiction; this is American historical fiction. A Pair of Wings tells the story of Bessie Coleman, the real life first black female aviatrix in America.

Born to a former slave turned sharecropper in Texas in 1892, Bessie was learning how to fly at the same time that Amelia Earhart was learning to fly, and it's about time her story is being told. In her early 20s, Bessie made her way to Chicago and her brothers, and, having always had the dream of becoming a pilot, she worked in Chicago saving every penny she had. Her luck and hard work turned for the better with the help of two powerful, wealthy black men who wanted to help her soar. However, for Bessie, being a black woman, there was no school in America that would teach her, so with the help of these two men, she made her way to France to learn to fly, learning to speak French before she left America.

Books - Flight of the Wild Swan

 

I read a TON. And I needed to get better at tracking what I read on a regular basis - other than marking something read on Goodreads! - so I've decided to start sharing my reads here on my blog. I'm part of an online book club called Chapter Night with a group of sorority sisters. Seems like a really basic name, right? But we actually came up with that name because when we were in college, our weekly sorority business meetings, required attendance!, were called "Chapter." Since chapters are also what most often make up a book, it turned into the best name for our book club. We started during covid as a way to connect, and we've just continued! We actually just had a Chapter Night Book Club weekend in Savannah for the Savannah Book Festival, so I'll share photos from that soon! 

So back to this book. Flight of the Wild Swan by Melissa Pritchard was our book for January 2025. I was pretty excited to read this because I really gravitate toward historical fiction, and this book was based on the life of Florence Nightingale. I've always heard of Florence Nightingale, but honestly I've never really known much about her. Well, this book didn't tell me as much about her as I'd hoped. I did learn her "growing up" story; I did not know she grew up quite privileged, and her family was part of the wealthy class in her time. While she had a burning desire to help others, her family quite preferred that she would have just stayed home and done the things that girls of her status and time were supposed to be doing ... like sitting around working on her needlework. No, that was not for Florence. After often sneaking away into the nearby town to help those less fortunate with her inate medical talents, much to her family's chagrin, she slowly earned the support of her father (though never her mother or sister), and through various opportunities finally turned her full focus to nursing and training other nurses where needed to assist soldiers in war. I'd say the most interesting part of the book was her time in northern Africa working in a very small hospital with very few supplies and funds. She was quite inventive in making ends meet.

All that said, while some of the book was interesting, I truly put it down and gave up on it twice before I finally forced myself to finish it for the sake of the book club. I think it was the writing style that turned me off. It was written very much like a diary, with very short entries as chapters. If I'm remembering correctly, there were very few chapters longer than three or four pages, and most of them were actually only one or two pages. If you like diary-type books and you like historical fiction, you would probably enjoy this, but that format just didn't work for me. I gave this one three stars but I'd be interested in learning more about Florence through a more engaging book. 

A Reading Goal for 2025

As I get back to regular blogging, one of the things I plan to share here are my reads. I love to read and am in an online book club with a group of my sorority sisters. We started it during the pandemic, and it's blossomed from there. The group has even gone to the Savannah Book Festival together, and I'm excited to make that trip this February! The photo above includes all but one of the books I read in 2024. I finished number 31 on New Year's Eve after I pulled this graphic together! If I get super ambitious, I may back post my reviews from 2024 that I posted on Instagram. We'll see!

And below, ta da, is one of my big reading goals for 2025: War and Peace! I learned of a slow read of War and Peace here from my friend Hanna and decided to give it a shot. I even have a few friends joining me! The book is about 1,350 pages and 361 chapters, divided into four sections. For the slow read, we are reading one chapter a day, taking a day off between each section, getting us to the end of the year. I'm reading my chapter over breakfast since I read my book club reads before bedtime. It's not too late to join in since the chapters are pretty short! Drop me a note in the comments if you plan to join in! What do you like to read?