A fantasy delight from my youth

A Necklace of Fallen Stars by Beth Hilgartner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I re-read this beloved book of my childhood for the first time in a long time. The writing is not as skillful as some of my newer favorites, but I'm not going to knock a star off for that because for me, what makes this book five-stars is the fact that it stayed with me for so many years. I was probably 13 when I first read it. I got it from the library, and for years every time I returned to the library I would take it down and read my favorite parts again. I lost track of the number of times I read this book. I grew up and moved away and every once in a while, in bookstores, especially used bookstores, I would look for this book, but I never found it. I mentioned it in one of those "ten books that changed your life" Facebook games, and a friend bought me an ex-library copy off Amazon. So appropriate that I now have a library copy. This is a charming story about a clever couple of teens, and the thing I remember most — the wistful, magical way it made me feel — has not dimmed with time. I love this book.



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An enjoyable devotional

Too Blessed to Be Stressed: Inspiration for Climbing Out of Life's Stress-Pool by Debora M. Coty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Debora M. Coty has a breezy, chatty style that makes you feel like you're having coffee with her at the kitchen table. She draws connections between her wacky, Erma Bombeck-style domestic adventures and Scripture to provide life lessons that help us cope with everyday stressors. I give 4 stars rather than 5 only because this book doesn't dig to quite the theological depth I look for. Other women may see that as a benefit, though. ;)



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A must read for new writers

Writing in Obedience - A Primer for Christian Fiction Writers by Terry Burns

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a truly wonderful book that will help Christian writers, especially novelists, clarify their place in the market. It helps us sort out whether our writing is a calling or an offering by describing the difference. It also examines the different types of audiences we may write for and how to tailor your writing for each audience.

The detailed breakdowns of how different stories need to be structured for these different audiences are alone worth the cover price. I have never seen that information anywhere else.

This book is a primer, so the second and third parts of the book contain a lot of information that will be very familiar to anyone who’s been around the writing block a few times. But then, this book is meant for the new writer, so that's OK.

The book is divided into three parts. Part One is packed with unique insights. Parts Two and Three contain a lot of the familiar material, but Burns's really excellent advice about how to keep readers turning pages is explained more clearly than I have ever seen elsewhere. Part Three is about how to get published, with an emphasis on the importance of perseverance.

The book is written in a casual, conversational style, as if you happened to wind up at a dinner table with Burns and Yezak at a conference and got to pick their brains awhile.

Even for those of us who already have a roomful of writing books, this book is a great refresher, and the inspirational angle is invaluable.

For a new writer, this book is a must read.

Disclosure: I received an advance e-copy of this book for review purposes.

This post originally appeared at kristenstieffel.com

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Heartfelt devotional for women with eating disorders

Hope for the Hollow: A Thirty-Day Inside-Out Makeover for Women Recovering from Eating Disorders by Jena Morrow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This devotional is written for women with full-on, life-threatening eating disorders like anorexia and bullimia. I happened to pick it up while it was on a Kindle free promo, even though my dysfunctional relationship with food isn’t that severe.

This is a well-written, heartfelt devotional. It doesn't contain a lot of heady theological material, which for me is a downside. I realize for some, that’s a benefit.

The author uses the Message translation a lot, which bugs me because I feel Peterson takes a few too many liberties with the text. Nevertheless, the devo is packed with bedrock spiritual truth that can help anyone develop a right view of themselves and restore a right relationship with God and with the food he has given us to richly enjoy.



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Masterful storytelling and a thrilling ride

Prophetess by Keven Newsome

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I can’t believe I waited so long to read the sequel to Winter, a book I love dearly. Prophetess is one of the most amazing pieces of fiction artistry I have ever read. Can I give it six stars?

The book starts out with a puzzle to solve, and it rolls along, picking up speed until by the time you pass the halfway point, you are barreling at breakneck speed to an inevitable ending that is gripping, chilling, and jaw-dropping.

Newsome has mastered pacing. As in book one of this series, he tells two parallel stories set four years apart. This technique is hard to pull off, but he does it brilliantly. Every time he breaks from one story to return to the other, it’s at a moment when you cry “no!” because you want to know what happens next, but you also want to return to the other story, so you carom back and forth between them like a pinball, as the story bats you first one way and then the other full-tilt to the astounding climax.

Phew.

When book three comes out, it goes to the top of my reading list. Immediately.





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Helpful new perspective on sleeplessness

Surrendered Sleep: A Biblical Perspective by Charles W. Page

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I first saw this book, I was curious about how there could be a biblical approach to insomnia. The Bible doesn’t say a lot on this subject specifically, but it turns out to have a lot more to say about sleep generally than you might think.

If you’ve already read a lot of “sleep hygiene” literature, some of this book will sound familiar. But Dr. Page takes the approach to healthful sleep to a whole new level.

Whereas most sleep literature focuses on behaviors, Dr. Page understands that there’s more to sleeplessness than the temperature of your room or what time you turn in. He gets it. The things that keep us awake aren’t really our outward habits. The things that keep us awake are our inward anxieties and troubles.

That’s why this book has chapters on relationships, work, and finances—often tops on my list of late-night rumination. He also examines how a closer walk with God, while it might not put us to sleep, will make the sleeplessness easier to cope with.

Plenty of sleep researchers have said something like, if you can’t sleep after half an hour, get up and do something else until you’re sleepy. Which if you’re like me could mean you’re up until 2 or 3 a.m. reading or knitting. Or reading and knitting.

Dr. Page is the first writer I’ve seen suggest that if you’re still awake in the middle of the night, you should probably be praying about whatever is keeping you up.

The book contains a lot of thoughtful questions to probe what is troubling you and where you stand with God. My copy is now thoroughly highlighted and Post-It noted.

There are a few problems with the book; some awkward sentences and typos. The interior page design is striking, but kind of odd and distracting, diced up by dark horizontal and vertical bars. The exploration questions are placed in the margins over a dark gray background, so get a good dark pen if you choose to use the book as a workbook; otherwise your responses will be hard to read. But these are quibbles.

The writing is solid, and the book is well-thought-out and thought-provoking. It may not cure your insomnia outright, but it may lessen the symptoms. It will certainly make insomnia easier to live with.

Disclosure: The author provided me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.





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This book should be called 'Millionaire Mindset'

The Millionaire Map: Your Ultimate Guide to Creating, Enjoying, and Sharing Wealth by Jim Stovall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The thing I appreciate most about this book is that the author early on emphasizes that "millionaire" means different things to different people. For some it literally means a net worth of a million dollars. For others it means not having to worry about money. Stovall allows you to pick your own definition.

The premise of this book is that it will help you devise a "map" that will lead you to a destination of financial contentment, but really it's more like an outline of principles than a step-by-step set of directions. It's more like Google Earth than Google Maps.

The advice is sound, but if you've read more than a few financial planning books, it will all sound hauntingly familiar. Understand your income. Control your spending. Invest prudently.

This is a good book. There's just not a lot in it to separate it from other good financial planning and investment books. The prose is flabby in places, with lots of repetition, and the author spends a lot of time talking about himself.

Still, the overall takeaway is that becoming a millionaire is more about your mindset and your relationship with money than it is about what you do for a living or where you invest. If you're looking to develop that mindset—a healthy relationship with money instead of a codependent one—then this book is for you.

I received a free copy of this book from Story Cartel for review purposes.



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NET Bible: New English Translation good but not great

The NET Bible: New English Translation by Biblical Studies Press

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I got this Bible free in the Olive Tree Bible Study app on my iPad. (Love that app, by the way.)

The translation was crowdsourced, which explains why it's inconsistent in places.

The editors show a propensity toward cliches, e.g., Isaiah 64:11, "all our prized possessions have been destroyed," where a note indicates the alternate translation as "all that we valued has become a ruin." Given the choice between the two, why would an editor prefer the hackneyed old set phrase "prized possessions" over something plain, simple, and more literal?


Other times, though, the translators appear to be needlessly striving for originality. In Habakkuk 2:14, for example, they write: "For recognition of the Lord s sovereign majesty will fill the earth just as the waters fill up the sea."

The footnote shows the literal translation: Heb. "for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, just as the waters cover over the sea." The poetic meter of the original has been eradicated in the translation, and for no good reason I can discern.


The translators have a journalist-like aversion to metaphor. Deuteronomy 26:8 reads, "Therefore the LORD brought us out of Egypt with tremendous strength and power(a), as well as with great awe-inspiring signs and wonders." Note (a) then says, "Heb. 'by a powerful hand and an extended arm.' These are anthropomorphisms designed to convey God's tremendously great power…They are preserved literally in many English versions (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). Well, yeah. I suppose that's why those translations are among the most widely used. I'd rather have the literal translation with an explanatory footnote than the other way around.



Diction choices are very odd indeed. There seems to be an excessive concern about helping "modern" readers understand the text, which results in pointless things like Jeremiah 13:1 describing his "linen shorts." I trust that modern readers are not so dense as to be unaware of what a loincloth is. Elsewhere, the plans for the temple are called "blueprints," a whopping anachronism.



The translators' notes are copious, almost overwhelmingly so. But I do like seeing the thought process.


The notes often highlight occasions when the translators have taken liberties with sentence structure. The notes will cite a verse or verses and then note that they are "one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons."


In one place, they have left what they consider a "long" sentence, with this explanation: "The length of this sentence runs contrary to the normal policy followed in the translation of breaking up long sentences. However, there does not seem any way to break it up here without losing the connections." The sentence in question is Jer. 15:4 -- "I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.” Now, is that really so long? It's not unwieldy.

This aversion to long sentences and the anachronistic diction choices lead me to believe that this translation is aimed at readers with lower skill levels, e.g., young people and those for whom English is a second language. Yet the notes are highly scholarly, often delving deep into fine points of Hebrew and Greek grammar.


For example, here's the note on Jer. 31:19 -- "For this meaning of the verb see HAL 374 s. v. ידע Nif 5 or W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 129. REB translates "Now that I am submissive" relating the verb to a second root meaning "be submissive." (See HALOT 375 s. v. II ידע and J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, 19- 21, for evidence for this verb. Other passages cited with this nuance are Judg 8:16; Prov 10:9; Job 20:20.)"

I have no idea what half of that even means, and I'm a pretty skilled reader. But not in Hebrew.

The notes are sometimes written so much for those with a seminary education that they are out of reach of ordinary laypersons. For example, on Mark 1:31, "...the fever left her and she began to serve (a) them," where note (a) says, "The imperfect verb is taken ingressively here." Not knowing Greek, either, I have no idea what an ingressive verb is or why it matters.

So I'm not quite sure what to make of the NET. As a Bible study leader, I find the scholarly notes helpful, albeit over my head at times. But because of the tendency of the text toward oversimplification and paraphrase, I'm not likely to use it in class.



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1DVD does one thing really well

My Rating: ★★★★☆
I had a seemingly simple task. I had a collection of videos that I needed to show in a classroom equipped with an old TV (I mean it's a cathode ray tube, people) and DVD player.

Screeshot courtesy of DawnArk

1DVD Pro by DawnArk did exactly what I needed it to do: Burn all six videos to a disc that would work in the DVD player (as opposed to a data disc that will work in a computer). The tools for customizing the disc's home screen were pretty easy to figure out, if a bit twitchy at times. For example, the title field didn't automatically expand to fit the text, and grabbing the frame to drag it out took a few tries.

One major, gaping omission I see is that you can't save a project and finish it later, so be prepared to set up your file and burn all your DVDs in a single session. The Burn button opens a dialog with options to burn a disc or save an ISO file. But then you need a different app to make more discs from the ISO file. So if you're making lots of copies -- say video from a wedding or family reunion -- this is maybe not the best option. But to make one DVD, yes, it lives up to its name.

Microsoft Office: Necessary, but frustrating

My Rating: ★★★★☆

Microsoft Office is one of those products one buys because one has to. Word has become the industry standard in the publishing industry, so I have to have it. But feature bloat and the fact that the developers seem to move buttons and menu options and change keyboard shortcuts from each version to the next make upgrading a real hassle.

I bought a new computer at the end of last year because even though I loved my old G4 Wind Tunnel, it had become unreliable, which is just not acceptable in a machine I need to do my job. It was also dead slow, especially online, and I couldn’t upgrade any software or use new apps because new versions of everything only run on Intel processors.

So I bought the new iMac with the less-reflective screen. Love it. But of course my old version of Office wouldn’t run on the new Mac. For the most part, Mac users buy apps from the Mac App Store, but Microsoft is not in on this deal. Fortunately, ordering Office Mac 2011 Home and Business from Amazon was easy. I got a digital download, so no need to wait for a box to come in the mail. Installation went smoothly.

Excel has some great new formatting options that make it easier to use, but converting my old spreadsheets from Office 2004 to 2011 munged much of my conditional formatting. So I wound up re-building a lot of things. Hassle.

Word is still the best word processor on the planet, but the find command is now seriously messed up. Instead of opening the full-featured Find and Replace dialog box, command-F opens a search field at the top of the window. Getting to the full-feature Replace box requires using option-command-F to open the Find dialog and then clicking the Replace tab. As far as I have been able to discern, there is no way to assign a keyboard shortcut that invokes the replace dialog directly. Hassle.

Entourage, which was originally called Outlook, is now called Outlook again. All my data transferred from the old app to the new seamlessly. It's still a very good mail/calendar/to do app, but it lacks iPad integration. No hassle, I just use other apps instead: Postbox for mail, Apple's Calendar, and Errands for task management.

PowerPoint is a bit easier to use than before, once you get past the hassle of all the buttons being in new places.

I like the new Office, and I use it daily, but I don't love it.

Kobo app great for social media; lousy for research

Kobo's old-timey bookshelf view

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Since getting my iPad, I find I do most of my book reading on it. Which kind of surprised me, because I thought I would use it mainly for news reading and web surfing. Which I do, but that’s beside the point.

Amazon’s Kindle app is still the Ma Bell of reading apps -- they have a virtual monopoly but nobody much cares because they’re so much better at what they do than everyone else. Nevertheless, I do check out other e-reading apps to see what they have to offer and to support those who are trying to compete with Ma Bezos. Kobo is one of those.

Newfangled list view

It's an attractive app. You can customize the library view with either the quaint old skeuomorphic bookshelf or the more computer-y list. When reading, you can highlight and make notes, and a tab in the table of contents window shows your annotations.

But Kobo’s focus is solidly on social media. It’s all about sharing what you’re reading and earning badges. I don’t need no stinkin’ badges, I just need to be able to find a passage in a book.

One of Kobo's main benefits is its huge library of free books, including most of the major classics. But good luck if you want to find a single passage in a book. Every time the Kobo app gets an update, I open it up, looking for that magnifying glass icon. It’s still missing. So I can download Emily Dickinson’s poetry, but if I just need that poem about Hope, I have to look for it page by page (it’s on page 138, by the way). This is especially frustrating because in the help section of the Kobo website you can find instructions for searching within a book on Kobo’s hardware. So it’s not like they think no one needs this feature. They just can’t be bothered to add it to the iPad app.*

Badges are cute, but I'd rather have a search function.

Because of the missing search feature, I rarely use Kobo. But recently, I needed to reference a text, and knowing it’s an old book in the public domain, I started in the usual places. Kindle had a version, but not for free. Apple’s iBooks, same thing. OK, hold that one for Plan B. Plan A for public domain works is to find a free version. Project Gutenberg didn’t have it. Next stop Kobo. There it is. Of course, to download the free book I have to log in.

Kobo is now closely entwined with Facebook, so much so that you can’t log in to a Kobo account without using Facebook, unless the two accounts are associated with different e-mail addresses. If you use the same address for both, when you try to log in to Kobo, you get a dialog that says “Your e-mail address is linked to an existing Facebook account. Would you like to sign in with Facebook?” No is not an option. Your options are yes, sign in with Facebook, or cancel and don’t sign in at all.

Part of the social media "feature" is being able to read other peoples' comments. Which would be great if they actually had some intellectual substance.

I asked Kobo’s help desk about this and was told you can sign in without Facebook. But the trick is, you have to sign in with Facebook first, then unlink Facebook from your Kobo account. That’s like, if I tell the waiter I don’t want broccoli in my soup, and he says, “We’ll just put it in at first, and then you can pick it out.”

Of course, if you like having every data point of your reading life funneled through Facebook’s marketing machine, this is a non-issue. And if you’re clever enough to sign up for Kobo with a different e-mail than you use for Facebook, it’s a non-issue. For me, though, it’s an issue.

So I found the book I was looking for in Google Play, and am reading it there. Kobo just dropped down a notch on my list of e-readers.

*—A Dec. 9, 2013, update added a search feature to the Kobo iPad app (version 6.2).

This book doesn't quite live up to its billing

A Sustainable Presbyterian Future: What's Working and Why by Louis Weeks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Disappointing. This book is loaded with anecdotes, which I suppose are meant to inspire one to try similar activities in one's own congregation. The writing is academic and a bit stiff in places. Each chapter closes with a set of study questions, but this book provides few answers. I borrowed it from our presbytery library, and I'm glad I did. As a leader in my congregation, I felt a duty to read it. But I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. The early chapters on Presbyterian identity and culture and the description of the "new Presbyterian ecology" were helpful, but from there the book kind of coasts.

The subtitle, "What's working and why," is half right. Weeks gives many examples of congregations doing things right, but offers little analysis as to why some programs work and others don't, or why some congregations flourish while others die. There are few "action items," by which I mean key takeaways that a church leader can implement. It's one thing to show a congregation with a successful ministry, and another to explain what another congregation would need to do to replicate those results.

One characteristic of this book struck me as particularly odd. The author notes that the "new Presbyterian ecology" he's studying "employs digital technology and social media more than printed and published literature." Yeah. More than. Direct quote. But this book is not, so far as I could discover, available in any digital format.

UPDATE: This book is now available on Kindle. This is the first title published by Geneva Press I've seen on Kindle. Hopefully there will be many more.

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The most fun I’ve had with a novel in a long time

Amberly by Mary E.  Hall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amberly is a light fantasy of the type Caprice Hokstad calls "Sword Opera." It's set in a storyworld modeled after 18th-century Europe. The greater conflict between Royalists and Anti-Monarchists is mirrored in the relationship between Marsten, a Royalist, and Eleanor, whose father leads the Anti-Monarchists. But both factions are united when their nation is invaded by enemy forces.

Hall has created a rich storyworld full of engaging characters. Each person is a well-rounded yet multifaceted individual. Her dialogue and narrative are beautifully written, with snappy banter and vivid sensory detail.

After a rousing opening sequence in which Marsten heroically rescues Eleanor from a band of invaders, the beginning slows down a bit as they travel cross-country to get her home. Romance blooms, and sparks fly when they reach her hometown of Amberly and her Royalist sweetheart meets the Anti-Monarchist family.

I enjoy the monarcy/democracy debate, an element rarely seen in fantasy fiction, which is usually staunchly monarchist. Hall accepts no easy answers, mainly because there are none and partly because, well, there’s Book 2…which I eagerly anticipate.

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A charming heroine on a great epic quest

Curse Bearer by Rebecca P Minor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had the pleasure of reading a portion of this manuscript while it was still in development. The character of Danae Baledric has intrigued me ever since, and I’m delighted to see her story published so others can enjoy it as much as I have.

Minor creates well-rounded characters who are engaging and sympathetic. Her villains are perhaps too vile, with no reedeming characteristics whatsoever. But they are also chilling.

Some reviewers have described the beginning as slow. I disagree. The beginning is just what it needs to be. There’s action and suspense moving the story forward, and the pace increases as you get further into the plotline. This is well-done pacing.

Minor’s storyworld, which also appears in her Windrider Saga, is more richly imagined here, with more detailed descriptions and varied locales.

My one complaint -- and it’s hardly worth knocking a whole star off for it -- is that Minor reaches for a lofty tone that doesn’t quite ring true. I felt this in the Windrider Saga also—as if she’s trying to be the next J.R.R. Tolkein instead of being the first Rebecca P. Minor. In the passages where Minor has found her own voice, the writing sings. But every once in a while, there’s an off note. I have the same problem when I try to sing soprano.

That said, Minor does a great job of getting her heroine into more and deeper trouble as the story progresses. And since not all of those troubles are resolved, a sequel is in the offing. I’m looking forward to it.

Disclaimer: I was given an advance copy of this book for review purposes.

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Constructive encouragement for those with multiple interests

The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One by Margaret Lobenstine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Much workplace advice is based on becoming an “expert” in one’s field. But some of us don’t have the kind of single-minded devotion required to dedicate oneself to a single field for a lifetime. For years, I worried that my career was hampered by the odd personality bent that led me to pursue diverse hobbies or topics of study, sometimes for years on end, only to drop them later for something else. My jack-of-all-trades nature made single-mindedness impossible, but I sometimes regretted my lack of focus. I carved out a niche for myself as the newsroom factotum, but I felt I couldn’t be considered an “expert,” even at copyediting, because I lacked that single-mindedness.

Then I discovered this book.

Margaret Lobenstine has done us a great favor by giving us a reassuring label for our predilection. Being able to label one’s behavior is to increase one’s understanding of it. Better still, by collecting the stories of other Renaissance Souls -- people like Maya Angelou and Ken Burns -- Lobenstine reassures us that we’re not alone.

Reading this book, I discovered that I’m not odd. I’m not scatterbrained. I’m not a failure. I’m a Renaissance Soul.

Lobenstine proposes a continuum of interest, ranging from the single-minded pursuit of one art from an early age, as we see in Wolfgang Mozart, to the multitude of changing interests pursued throughout a lifetime, as we see in Benjamin Franklin. People will fall at different points along this interest continuum, and knowing where you are on it can help you design a career and a life that will be fulfilling.

Lobenstine gives us another helpful label: focal point. This is her term for any area of interest, regardless of whether it’s a job, a hobby, or a hobby you want to turn into a job. She outlines a variety of career paths, including options such as developing an umbrella title to embraces several interests -- writing, for example, can embody numerous topics -- and pursuing two careers simultaneously that complement one another -- such as banking and financial planning.

The book contains a number of exercises meant to help one identify one’s values and interests and prioritize them. These will be familiar if you’ve worked with a life coach or executive coach before, or if you’ve read life and career design books. But the attitude of this book -- the way it embraces the variety we crave -- distinguishes it from all other such books. Because this isn’t just about career design. It’s about designing a life around your interests and desires, with the understanding that those interests WILL change.

Lobenstine recommends picking four or five focal points to concentrate on in any season, while keeping a notebook filled with ideas for pursuing other interests you may wish to keep in store for the future. Then, when you feel you’ve exhausted your possibilities for one focal point, you can pull your notebook out and choose another to take its place. She offers a structure and plan for the kind of interest-shifting Renaissance Souls will do anyway.

But one of the best lessons I learned from this book is that expertise does not require exclusivity. It may take longer to develop -- In my case, it took ten years in a newsroom -- but that doesn’t make one any less an expert.

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Awesome Epic Quest

DawnSinger by Janalyn Voigt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Kai and Shae, the central characters in DawnSinger, are intriguing and engaging. They’re been raised as brother and sister, but Kai knows this is a ruse. Shae’s true identity has been concealed for her own protection. This puts an unusual twist on their relationship, especially when the court minstrel starts flirting with Shae. The romantic element is a relatively small part of the story, but it’s filled with unexpected intricacies and ties firmly into the main plot.

The first half of the book is cloak-and-dagger political intrigue in the High Queen’s court, and the second half is straight-ahead epic quest. The stakes and tension are high right up through the end.

Voigt’s prose is eloquent, and she creates a lot of wonderful word pictures. When this is applied to dialog, the results can be a bit high and lofty and stilted, but many fantasy fans will see this not as a bug, but as a feature. The settings are rich, and there’s a map. All the best fantasy novels have maps.

This is the kind of story that stays with you long after the last page. The kind that keeps you wondering where your new friends are and what they’re doing. I’m looking forward to the sequel so I can find out.


Disclosure: I was given an advance e-version of this book for review purposes.

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Rich storyworld with an intriguing culture

The Duke's Handmaid by Caprice Hokstad

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


At the outset it seems that Kee's choosing slavery over a life of freedom and poverty is based on a desire to live in the Duke's palatial home, with access to luxuries like hot running water and abundant food. But in truth, she is drawn to his house not by material things, but by her loyalty to him.

I may be reading into things a bit, but I see Kee's decision to willingly be the duke's slave as mirroring the church's "enslavement" to Christ. I asked Caprice about this:

I didn't really try to make everything fit a tight analogy, but I think I did create some parallels here and there, some conscious, some not. Some critics have said my books are anti-Christian, and to them I point out that St. Paul used "bondservant of the Lord" far more often than he called himself an apostle.

After some action-packed and unflinchingly violent opening chapters, the book settles into a slower pace, as farmgirl Kee is trained in etiquette and protocol so she can serve the duke as a slave. She learns about the brutal realities of slavery, but teaches others some lessons about submission and servanthood in the process.

The plot shifts into high hear for the second half, which is loaded with intrigue and chicanery, daring escape and noble sacrifice.

The author is occasionally a little too textbook-like in describing her speculative storyworld. Nevertheless, it is a rich setting, and her descriptions of it, though forced at times, are quite good. Although the duke’s culture is very different from our own, it is internally consistent -- a necessity for good fantasy.

The characters are well-rounded and engaging, and I enjoyed the story. I look forward to reading the sequel, Nor Iron Bars A Cage.


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A beautiful fairy tale. Literally.

I Am Ocilla by Diane M. Graham

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Diane Graham brings new life to an old genre, the fairy tale, with her vision of five kingdoms separated and oppressed by a cruel overlord. Her storyworld contains all the old favorites: dragons, fairies, talking animals, evil curses, and true love.

The first-person, present-tense voice takes some getting used to, but it totally works. Since Ocilla is an amnesiac, all she has at the outset is her "here and now." As the story progresses, she discovers her world and herself anew.

The story is an episodic quest, as Ocilla and her allies travel across the five kingdoms, breaking curses and preparing for the final showdown. It's all wrapped in lyrical, beautiful prose. Vivid sensory details put you right in the story.

Most of the story progresses through slow, lyrical periods of discovery alternating with moments of sheer terror. The first 80 or 90 percent of the story proceeds at a measured pace, but the ending comes in a rush -- almost too hurried, leaving some questions unanswered. But this is a quibble. Great story. Great characters. Happy ending. And it has what I've come to see as the essential element of great speculative fiction: a storyworld you'd like to go visit. Often.

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Weight loss takes time

Recently a friend said, "Have you lost weight? I came up from behind you, and you don't look the same."

Well, I'm glad my behind looks different these days. I told her, "Yes, I've lost 35 pounds since May."

She asked how I did it.

"Ruthless calorie counting. I have an app for that."

Tap & Track HD may not be the best calorie-counting app, but it's working for me. I chose this app from among the many calorie-counting apps available because it doesn't require an Internet connection to access its calorie database, as others do. All the data is stored in the app.

When I say losing weight takes time, I don't only mean it requires months to lose in a healthful way. I mean several minutes at each meal need to be invested in calculating and recording one's intake. Weighing or measuring each portion takes time.

Tap & Track helps cut down on this time with its list of common foods and an extensive list of restaurants. I looks like pretty much every restaurant chain that publishes its nutritional information on the web is included. So, for example, I now know that my Chipotle chicken bowl contains 540 calories. That's almost 40 percent of my calorie allotment for a day, so I'm trying to discipline myself to eat only half the bowl. In fact, I've learned that at just about every restaurant, it's a good idea to take whatever meat and carbs they bring you and cut the portions in half.

The app is a little rough around the edges:

• It has a favorites list for things you eat often, but it doesn't handle nonpackaged foods like fruit and vegetables well. When you pick an item from the food list, you can measure in grams or cups, or in the case of fruit, "one medium," etc. But add it to the favorites list, and you're limited to fractions of a serving, which requires knowing what the original serving size was. It turns out to be more precise to just pick it from the master list every time and enter the portion size in grams, since I prefer to weigh. The favorites list does work well for packaged goods like cereal bars and bread, where the serving size is uniform.
• The recipes feature is useful, but would be better if it were possible to edit the quantities. For example, l started with a salad recipe that was half romaine and half spinach, but decided to use more romaine and less spinach. I couldn't just change the quantities. I had to delete and re-add the ingredients.
• l love that the help file is built-in instead of being online, but its grammar needs some help.
• There are some typos in the food list, e.g. diary instead of dairy, drak instead of dark. OK, that's a really picky nit. Sorry.

Enough complaining. Here's what I like:

• There's a list of previous items which keeps track of several days' worth of items, which is useful for creatures of habit like me who tend to eat the same things repeatedly. Things I eat every day, like apples and tangerines, I can just pick from the previous list instead of looking them up in the master list every time. Unlike the favorites list, the previous list remembers the unit of measurement I used last time, so if I had a 52-gram tangerine yesterday and today one that's 56 grams, I just have to change the number.
• The overview screen shows a breakdown by nutrient type, so l can see when I'm overdoing the carbs. Which is often.
• The history page lets me see how good -- or bad -- I've been during the week.
• The profile automatically calculates my daily calorie count based on my current size and sedentary job.
• The exercise list shows that I could burn more calories at yoga than t'ai chi, and informs me that 20 minutes of housecleaning burns 87 calories.

This may not be the best calorie tracker (My rating: 4 of 5 stars), but it's the best $5 I ever spent.

Windrider II makes for a grand quest

The Windrider II: A Greater Strength by Rebecca P. Minor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This volume continues the quest begun in book one. Here, the Windrider Squadron gains some new members, but Vinyanel and Majestrin are still, as far as I'm concerned, the stars of the show. Vinyanel's mentor/teammate Veranna has a key role to play, but some of the best bits are from Majestrin's point of view, showing that the dragon is a true partner with the elves.

For an experienced warrior, Vinyanel still has a lot to learn, and he grows a lot in the course of this story. We're often told every hero must have a flaw, but often our heroes are sort of blissfully unaware of their flaws until the bitter end. Not Vinyanel. His flaws were sharply revealed in book one, and in book two he learns to deal with them. We also see a heretofore unmentioned weakness for a woman. A whole new facet of his personality.

The woman, I think I can say without spoiling too much, is not Veranna. That the hero and heroine of this story are not also one another's romantic interests is one of the things I love about it. Veranna is enamored of another Windrider, and Vinyanel professes to be interested only in his weapons.

Other things I love about this story: the elves are like real flesh-and-blood beings with flaws and feelings, not just aloof, serene caricatures; there are words in it I have to look up; faith lessons are woven into the story without being plunked in awkwardly; and -- of course -- dragons.



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