Prepara Tu Corazón

Prepara Tu Corazón
Por Fr. Agustino Torres
Ave Maria Press, 2023. 144 páginas. Religioso

Únete al padre Agustino Torres, CFR, fundador de Corazón Puro, en un viaje multimedia de Adviento dirigido por los santos y la Sagrada Familia para prepararte para entrar en la historia del nacimiento de Cristo a través de la oración, la caridad y los actos gozosos de servicio a los necesitados.

Prepara tu corazón presenta impresionantes obras de arte originales de Valerie Delgado de Pax.Valerie e incluye meditaciones diarias sobre un pasaje de las Escrituras, preguntas de reflexión, oración y espacio para escribir un diario y tomar notas. Durante cada semana de Adviento, emprenderás un nuevo camino informado por la espiritualidad franciscana para guiarte a acercarte a Dios:

Primera semana, el camino de Nazaret: una espiritualidad que te sintoniza con las necesidades de los demás y la presencia oculta de Dios. Segunda semana, el camino de los santos: presenta a santa Lucía, san Nicolás, san Juan Diego y Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, cuyas fiestas caen durante el Adviento; te enseñarán a vivir con intencionalidad, humildad y devoción. Tercera semana, el camino de san José: revela la valentía creativa del padre adoptivo de Jesús, enseñándote cómo él hace para cada uno de nosotros un hogar en el corazón de Dios. Cuarta semana, el camino de María: un tutorial para aprender a decir sí al llamado de Dios en tu vida y confiar en su providencia amorosa.

Prepara tu corazón es perfecto tanto para uso individual como grupal. Incluye vídeos complementarios gratuitos; ideas para celebrar los domingos de Adviento en familia, con amigos y en pequeños grupos; y una guía para líderes descargable está disponible en avemariapress.com.

Si le gusta «Prepara Tu Corazón» le recomendamos:

Sé Sanado
Por Bob Schuchts
Ave Maria Press, 2021. 232 páginas. Religioso

"En algún lugar profundo de cada uno de nosotros hay un deseo ardiente de finalmente convertirnos en la persona que Dios nos creó para ser."

¿Sufre de heridas espirituales o emocionales que le impiden alcanzar esa meta? Sé sanado, la nueva edición en español del libro Be Healed, se basa en el popular programa del terapeuta católico retirado Bob Schuchts para la curación espiritual, emocional y física.Incorporando elementos de la espiritualidad carismática e impregnado de las Escrituras y la sabiduría de la Iglesia, este libro ofrece esperanza en el poder sanador de Dios a través del Espíritu Santo y los sacramentos.

Schuchts, el fundador del Centro de Curación Juan Pablo II, comparte con sensibilidad su propio viaje de curación después de soportar una serie de traiciones en la escuela secundaria--la infidelidad de su padre, el divorcio de sus padres, y la adicción a las drogas de su hermano mayor--y sus posteriores períodos de lucha con Dios y con su fe.

Sé sanado incluye herramientas útiles como gráficos, tablas, listas, preguntas de reflexión y desafíos personales para guiarlo en su viaje hacia la curación. El proceso de confianza de Schuchts para encontrar la paz interior y la curación está audazmente centrado en Cristo, manteniendo el enfoque en la persona de Jesús como "el médico vivificante y omnipresente de nuestras almas". Schuchts lo ayudará a reconocer su quebrantamiento y a encontrar su esperanza y sanidad en Cristo resucitado. Schuchtslo ayudará a reconocer su quebrantamiento y a encontrar su esperanza y sanidad en Cristo resucitado.


75 Prácticas Esenciales de Mindfulness
Por Matthew Sockolov
Editorial Sirio, 2022. 246 páginas. No Ficción

Maneje las frustraciones diarias de la vida con ejercicios prácticos y accesibles de atención plena. La práctica de la atención plena se ha generalizado, pero debido a su nueva popularidad, el verdadero significado de la atención plena se ha empañado. Los términos "permanecer en el presente" o "estar en el momento" a menudo son parte de la práctica de la atención plena, pero ¿qué significan realmente? ¿Cuál es el beneficio?

En Practicing Mindfulness, Matthew Sockolov, fundador de One Mind Dharma, explica cómo "estar en el momento presente es solo un aspecto de la práctica ... Mindfulness puede entenderse más completamente como estar presente con claridad, sabiduría y amabilidad". En estas páginas, Sockolov le mostrará cómo cultivar la conciencia y liberarse de las emociones fugaces para que pueda "presionar el botón de pausa, calmarse y manejar situaciones estresantes con confianza y facilidad.

MEB

Labels: Español, MEB, No Ficción, Religioso

Prince of Song and Sea

Prince of Song and Sea
By Linsey Miller

Disney Press, 2022. 345 pages. Young Adult.

Before Prince Eric's mother, the Queen of Vellona, went missing two years ago, she reminded him about the details of the deadly curse that has plagued his entire life. The curse? If he were to kiss someone other than his true love, he would die. With a neighboring kingdom looking for any excuse to invade their shores, and rumors of ghost pirates lurking the seas, Eric is desperate for any information that may help him break his enchantment and bring stability to Vellona. The answers he has been searching for come to him in the form of a letter left from his mother that reveals Eric must find his true love, the one with a voice pure of heart, or kill the sea witch responsible for cursing him in the first place. Now Eric is on a quest to find the Isle of Serein, the witch's legendary home. But after he is rescued by a mysterious young woman with a mesmerizing singing voice, Eric's heart becomes torn. Does he enter a battle he is almost certain he cannot win or chase a love that might not even exist? And when a shipwrecked young woman with flaming red hair and a smile that could calm the seven seas enters his life, Eric may discover that true love isn't something that can be decided by magic.

This book is based off of the Disney 1989 animated feature "The Little Mermaid," even containing scenes in which the dialog is word-for-word from the movie!  I enjoyed this expanded retelling of a Disney classic from Prince Eric's point of view.  While the movie scenes felt a little bit disjointed from the characters' overall development, the intriguing addition of Prince Eric's curse and fast-paced nature of the plot kept the pages turning.  I definitely recommend this book to my fellow Disney-ophiles and to readers who enjoy fractured fairytales!

 

If you liked Prince of Song and Sea, you may also like: 

 

Midnight Pearls
By Debbie Viguié

Simon Pulse, 2003. 197 pages. Young Adult.

 

A woven tapestry of magic, adventure, and romance tells the tale of a stunning mermaid, a horrible curse, and the power of love in the Kingdom of Aster, a place where legends are born.

The Wicked Ones
By Robin Benway

Disney Press, 2023. 315 pages. Young Adult.

 

Drizella and Anastasia only know one thing for certain: they will never end up like their mother, Lady Tremaine. When their father left them as young girls, he took what was left of their family's fortune and their mother's dignity with him. A few years and one deceased stepfather later, the only version of Lady Tremaine that Drizella and Anastasia know is a bitter and cruel head of house. Anastasia and Drizella have promised themselves-- and each other--that they'll be different. They'll find love, see the world, and never let their hearts go cold. But both sisters are all too aware of what it can mean when cast into disfavor with their mother, and fueled by Lady Tremaine's tendencies to pit the daughters against one another, Drizella and Anastasia are locked into a complicated waltz of tenuous sisterhood.

What Lies in the Woods

What Lies in the Woods

By Kate Alice Marshall

Flatiron Books, 2023. 322 pages. Fiction 

Twenty-two years ago, Naomi Shaw believed in magic. She and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent that summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her 17 stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls' testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes. And they were liars. For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods--no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be. 

In her debut adult fiction novel, Kate Alice Marshall constructs a tale of psychological suspense full of menace and the bittersweet memories of childhood. She excels in her depiction of the complicated, interwoven small town dynamics that breed secrets, lies, and, in this case, murder. At first, I wasn’t sure I would be able to relate to Naomi and the trauma she went through in childhood, but she won me over with her pragmatic nature and hunt for the truth. She was the perfect protagonist to push this fast-faced plot along as each new twist and turn is revealed. Overall, What Lies in the Woods is a dark and foreboding thriller with its fair share of surprises. 

If you liked What Lies in the Woods, you might also like: 

A Flicker in the Dark

By Stacy Willingham

Minotaur Books, 2022. 357 pages. Fiction

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth. Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she's worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So, when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

The Last Time I Lied

By Riley Sager

Dutton, 2018. 370 pages. Mystery

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched Vivian, Natalie, and Allison sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she, or anyone, saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her. Now a rising star in the New York art scene, her paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends. Already haunted by memories from 15 years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past and the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

BW

Going Dark

Going Dark 

By Melissa de la Cruz 

Union Square and Co., 2023. 329 pages. Young Adult 

When 19-year-old Josh returns from Rome without his budding influencer girlfriend Amelia, he immediately becomes a suspect in her disappearance, but as college sophomore and hacker Harper attempts to clear his name, she unearths secrets from both Josh and Amelia’s past. 

I really liked the multiple perspectives in this novel. Each one provided a level of context and discovery that gradually linked the whole story together. In the beginning I wanted to take things at face value, but then started getting some Gone Girl vibes, which really made the story interesting. For teens who aren’t super familiar with mysteries and know what clues to look for as they’re reading, this is a good starter that comes together well. 

If you liked Going Dark, you might also like: 

A Good Girls Guide to Murder 

By Holly Black

Delacorte Press, 2020. 390 pages. Young Adult 

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it. Almost everyone. Having grown up in the small town that was consumed by the crime, Pippa Fitz-Adeleke chooses the case as the topic for her final project. But when Pip starts uncovering secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden, what starts out as a project begins to become Pip's dangerous reality... 

Nothing More to Tell  

By Karen M. McManus 

Delacorte Press, 2022. 358 pages. Young Adult 

Starting her dream internship at a true-crime show, Brynn becomes determined to solve the murder of her favorite teacher four years earlier and begins to uncover secrets that change everything--and place her in the crosshairs of a killer. 

ACS

Magic Has No Borders

Magic Has No Borders       
By Sona Charaiportra
HarperTeen, 2023. 338 pages. Young Adult Fiction

From chudails and peris to jinn and goddesses, this lush collection of South Asian folklore, legends, and epics reimagines stories of old for a modern audience. This fantasy and science fiction teen anthology edited by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra contains a wide range of stories from fourteen bestselling, award-winning, and emerging writers from the South Asian diaspora that will surprise, delight, and move you. So read on, for after all, magic has no borders.

I always love finding books that give more people opportunities to see themselves in stories. The premise of this collection is that it provides updated versions of tales that are familiar to South Asian cultures. Even though the legends and characters were new to me, I enjoyed that I found themes common to my usual fairytales. Each story was unique, and I was amazed at how each authors voice came through distinctly. This is an obvious recommendation for anyone who grew up devouring books about mythology. I would also suggest it to anyone who wants to revitalize their imagination. It was delightful to see how these stories sunk into my subconscious and influenced my dreams.

If you like Magic Has No Borders, you might also like: 

Reclaim the Stars: 17 tales across realms and space

By Zoraida Cordova

Wednesday Books, 2022. 417 pages. Fiction

From stories that take you to the stars, to stories that span into other times and realms, to stories set in the magical now, Reclaim the Stars takes the Latin American diaspora to places fantastical and out of this world.

Follow princesses warring in space, haunting ghost stories in Argentina, mermaids off the coast of the Caribbean, swamps that whisper secrets, and many more realms explored and unexplored; this stunning collection of seventeen short stories breaks borders and realms to prove that stories are truly universal.

Transmogrify: 14 fantastical tales of trans magic

By Haron G. Davis

HarperTeen, 2023. 400 pages. Young Adult Fiction

Perfect for fans of All Out and Cemetery Boys, this anthology claims a seat at the table of fantasy literature for trans and gender nonconforming stories. Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you'll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences--because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings: 15 retellings of Asian myths and legends

By Ellen Oh

Greenwillow Books, 2018. 328 pages. Young Adult Fiction

Star-crossed lovers, meddling immortals, feigned identities, battles of wits, and dire warnings: these are the stuff of fairy tale, myth, and folklore that have drawn us in for centuries. Sixteen bestselling and acclaimed authors reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate. A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother's mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place. From fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge, these stories will beguile readers from start to finish.

KJ

No One Left But You

No One Left But You
By Tash McAdam
Soho Teen, 2023. 269 pages.
Young Adult Fiction

For me, this book is the definition of not judging based on the cover - this cover doesn't do the novel justice! It is waterfalls of meaningful prose, woven in between a suspenseful thriller and everyday teen angst, and I read it all in one day.

BEFORE: Newly out trans guy Max is having a hard time in school. Things have been tough since his summer romance, Danny, turned into his bully. This year, his plan is to keep his head down and graduate. All that changes when new "It Girl," Gloss, moves to town. No one understands why perfect, polished Gloss is so interested in an introverted skater kid, but Max blooms in the hothouse of her attention. Caught between romance and obsession, he'll do whatever it takes to keep her on his side. 

AFTER: Haircuts, makeovers, drugs, parties. It's all fun and games until someone gets killed at a rager gone terribly wrong. Max refuses to believe that Gloss did it. But if not Gloss, who? Desperate to figure out truth in the wake of tragedy, Max veers dangerously close to being implicated - and his own memories of that awful night are fuzzy. 

I was captivated by the relationship between Gloss and Max; equally scared and excited for both of them. Max, particularly, is such an extraordinary character; his inner monologues ring true and cut deep. It's so important that we humans use books to build empathy and compassion for people who are different than ourselves. If you've been hesitant to read a book with a trans main character, or just haven't ever considered it as an option, this book is a good one to start with. 

"The world urgently needs culture-changing stories about transgender people. More people say they have seen a ghost than know a trans person. When you don't know people, it's easy to demonize them," said GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis. "Visibility creates understanding and opens doors; it's life-saving. Our community has achieved so much and yet, we are still being victimized and villainized with cruel and harmful lies. Sharing stories is the antidote." 

If you like No One Left But You, you might also like: 

Something Like Gravity
By Amber Smith
McElderry Books, 2019. 386 pages.
Young Adult Fiction

After coming out as transgender, Chris is still processing a frightening assault he survived the year before, while Maia, grieving the loss of her older sister, is trying to find her place in the world, which makes falling in love the furthest thing on their minds - until it's not.

If I Can Give You That
By Michael Gray Bulla
Quill Tree Books, 2023. 312 pages.
Young Adult Fiction

Seventeen-year-old Gael, a trans boy, learns to let his walls down while finding community, discovering his sexuality, falling in love, and navigating difficult family situations. 

The Sky Blues
By Robbie Couch
Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2021. 325 pages.
Young Adult Fiction

Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. His small town turns absolutely claustrophobic when his secret promposal plans get leaked to the entire school.

Only on the Weekends
By Dean Atta
Balzer + Bray, 2022. 551 pages.
Young Adult Fiction

Fifteen-year-old Mack is a hopeless romantic - likely a hazard of growing up on film sets thanks to his father's job. Mack has had a crush on Karim for as long as he can remember and he can't believe it when gorgeous, popular Karim seems into him too. 

LKA

What You Are Looking For Is In the Library

What You Are Looking For Is In the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

Hanover Square Press, 2023. 300 pages. Fiction

What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it. A restless retail assistant looks to gain new skills, a mother tries to overcome demotion at work after maternity leave, a conscientious accountant yearns to open an antique store, a recently retired salaryman searches for newfound purpose. In Komachi’s unique book recommendations they will find just what they need to achieve their dreams.

This bestselling collection of cozy short stories is the perfect thing to curl up and read on a stormy winter day. Each story follows a different person who stumbles upon a small library in a Tokyo community center and unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that leads to small and big life changes. While I do not claim to have the seemingly magical sensibilities of the librarian in these stories, one thing that keeps me excited about libraries is the potential libraries have to make peoples' lives better, as is exhibited in each of these stories. I especially loved that the book that was usually most helpful to each person was a random book that the librarian added on at the end of a list of what they asked for. If you're looking for an uplifting book about everyday people, this is the book for you.

If you like What You Are Looking for Is in the Library, you might also like:

The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

Viking, 2020. 288 pages. Science Fiction

At a particularly low point in her life, Nora Seed finds herself faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one when she discovers the Midnight Library: a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of her life in another reality.

The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams

William Morrow, 2021. 373 pages. Fiction

Working at the local library, Aleisha reads every book on a secret list she found, which transports her from the painful realities she's facing at home, and decides to pass the list on to a lonely widower desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

MB

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

 by Jessie Q. Sutanto 

 Berkley, 2023. 338 pages. Mystery.

Mystery Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady--ah, lady of a certain age--who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of oolong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her college-aged son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing--a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn't know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?

This own voices mystery novel was a fun read with a satisfying twist ending. The characters/murder suspects are all deeply flawed but loveable. The author states that Vera is based on her own mother and I enjoyed this small peak into Asian American family life. The narration changes each chapter allowing the reader to get inside the head of each character, which made me hope that none of the murder suspects were actually guilty! By the end you’ll want to be friends with these people. The descriptive writing of the tea shop, the food Vera cooks and each character makes it easy to visualize the scenes and characters in the book. 

 If you like Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, you might also like:

Mother Daughter Murder Night

By Nina Simon

Harper Collins, 2023. 357 pages. Mystery

Nothing brings an estranged family together like a murder next door. High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of: her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she's built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage - and hoping that boredom won't kill her before the cancer does. Then Jack - tiny in stature but fiercely independent - stumbles upon a dead body while kayaking near their bungalow. Jack quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She'll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack and Beth's help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn do the one thing they've always resisted: depend on each other.

Yinka, Where is Your Huzband 

By Damilola Blackburn 

Viking, 2022. 373 pages. Romance 

Meet Yinka: a 30-something, Oxford educated, British Nigerian woman with a well-paid job, good friends, and a mother whose constant refrain is "Yinka, where is your huzband?" Yinka's Nigerian aunties frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, her girlfriends think she's too traditional (she's saving herself for marriage!), her sister thinks she needs to get over her ex already, and the men in her life ... well, that's a whole other story. But Yinka herself has always believed that true love will find her when the time is right. Still, when her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find A Date for Rachel's Wedding. Aided by a spreadsheet and her best friend, Yinka is determined to succeed. Will Yinka find herself a husband? And what if the thing she really needs is to find is herself? With shades of Bridget Jones' Diary and Jane Austen herself, Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? brilliantly subverts the traditional romantic comedy with an unconventional heroine who bravely asks the questions we all have about love.

JK

Cursed Princess Club

Cursed Princess Club

By LambCat

Webtoon Unscrolled, 2023. 273 pages. YA Comics

Gwendolyn, the youngest of the King's three daughters, is living proof that princesses don't always have it all. She isn't like a typical fairy-tale princess, or other princesses in the Pastel Kingdom. Gwendolyn, with her big heart and love of baking, isn't particularly attractive. Unlike her sisters who have woodland creatures do their hair and makeup, or have flowers blossom wherever they sleep, Gwendolyn is a bit...different. So when her father proposes marriage for her and her sisters to make an alliance with the Plaid Kingdom, it breaks Gwendolyn's heart to hear that Prince Fredrick thinks she's "really ugly." Overwhelmed and ashamed, she runs away into the forest and encounters the twisted world of the Cursed Princess Club, where her life will never be the same.

The artwork is as fun and bright as the characters and the intertwining of text and illustrations is spot on.  Laugh-out-loud funny, but at the heart of it is a strong message of self-love.  Do yourself a favor and pick this up the next time you need...well a pick me up! You won't be disappointed.

If you like Cursed Princess Club, you might also like:

True Beauty

By Yaongi

Webtoon Unscrolled, 2022. 283 pages. YA Comics

After being bullied to the extreme for her looks, Jugyeong Lim uses the power of make-up tutorials to transform her appearance in order to change her fate at her new high school.  But she isn't just avoiding bullying now, and while her self-esteem and romantic life are constantly in flux, she's popular too?!  

The Remarried Empress

By Alphatart

Ize Press, 2022. 249 pages. Graphic Novels

Navier was the lifelong companion of Sovieshu, the emperor of the Eastern Empire, with whom she spent her youth discussing the empire they would build together. She was intelligent, compassionate, and courageous. She was the perfect empress of the Eastern Empire, until the day Sovieshu fell for another woman, demanding a divorce. 

RBL

 

Revelations of Divine Love

Revelations of Divine Love

By Julian of Norwich

Penguin Books, 1998. 192 pages. Nonfiction

Coming from a society where women were barred from serious writing and teaching, Julian, an anchorite of the great medieval city of Norwich, nevertheless uses her womanliness and the English vernacular of the day to describe a series of revelations which she received from God in the year 1373. She identifies the female nature of Christ's suffering and the motherhood of God, using images from domestic daily life, emphasizing the homeliness of God's love. She writes in a lively and unpretentious manner and her theology is precise without ever being pedantic.

C.S. Lewis, when he read Julian of Norwich, wrote in a letter that it is, "A dangerous book; clearly. I'm glad I didn't read it much earlier." Julian's view of God and religion is as fresh and challenging today as it was in Medieval England. There is a fierce joy and beauty in how she views Christ and his care for us, often referring to him as a lover. Whether reading it for historical or spiritual reasons, it is a very worthwhile book to read. As she famously said, "All shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." I highly recommend this book! 

If you like Revelations of Divine Love, you might also like: 

The Book of Margery Kempe 

By Margery Kemp

Oxford University Press, 2015. 275 pages. Biography

 

The Book of Margery Kempe (c. 1436-8) is the extraordinary account of a medieval wife, mother, and mystic. Known as the earliest autobiography written in the English language, Kempe's Book describes the dramatic transformation of its heroine from failed businesswoman and lustful young wife, to devout and chaste pilgrim. She vividly describes her prayers and visions, as well as the temptations in daily life to which she succumbed before dedicating herself to her spiritual calling. She travelled to the most holy sites of the medieval world, including Rome and Jerusalem. In her life and her boisterous devotion, Kempe antagonized many of those around her; yet she also garnered friends and supporters who helped to record her experiences. Her Book opens a window to the medieval world, and provides a fascinating portrait of one woman's life, aspirations, and prayers.

The Cloister Walk

By Kathleen Norris

Riverhead Books, 1997. 385 pages. Nonfiction

Why would a married woman with a thoroughly Protestant background and often more doubt than faith be drawn to the ancient practice of monasticism, to a community of celibate men whose days are centered around a rigid schedule of prayer, work, and scripture? This is the question that Kathleen Norris herself asks as, somewhat to her own surprise, she found herself on two extended residencies at a Benedictine monastery. Yet upon leaving the monastery, she began to feel herself transformed, and the daily events of her life on the Great Plains - from her morning walk to her going to sleep at night - gradually took on new meaning.

MGB

The Foxglove King

The Foxglove King
by Hannah Whitten
Orbit, 2023. 466 pages. Fantasy 

When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the ten years since, she's lived by one rule: don't let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city. Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore's job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore's power is revealed, she's taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King. Lore fully expects a pyre, but King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what's happening and who in the King's court is responsible, or die. Lore is thrust into the Sainted King's glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Guarded by Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, and continually running up against Bastian, August's ne'er-do-well heir, Lore tangles in politics, religion, and forbidden romance as she attempts to navigate a debauched and opulent society. But the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her. And even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, they might be drawing closer than she thinks. 

 Hannah Whitten has grown as a writer, writing more fully fleshed out characters and plotlines than in her already strong debut Wilderwood Series. As a reader who sometimes gets bogged down in the complex world-building of fantasy novels, I appreciated The Foxglove King’s unique, but easy to grasp magic system. If you’re up for a fantasy with an intriguing plot, accessible language, haunting atmosphere, and a bit of a crush triangle (but not enough longing or angst yet for a full-blown love triangle), The Foxglove King is a good pick for you.

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