Fearless, Lauren Roberts

Fearless, Lauren Roberts

Part of the Powerless series, this book takes place after Kai brings Payden back to Ilya and Kitt surprises everyone with a decision not to execute her for the death of the king, but instead to marry her to bring unity to the people of Ilya, a merging of the ordinary and the gifted. However, her heart belongs to Kai; but what choice does she have? It is marry Kitt or be executed.

This book deals with grief after trauma and loss, and the many ways that people process their grief, both healthy and unhealthy. We see how even those we paint as villains for their choices have to carry that burden of what they have done and sometimes they really felt they had no choice in the matter. We see how being raised in traumatic ways ends up causing one to turn from his harmful practices, while another succumbs to the brainwashing and mental illness he grew up in, trying to justify his heinous behavior for the greater good. It shows humanity in all its imperfection, the good and the bad, and also, secrets are revealed that end up changing everything.

 

Oathbound, Tracy Deonn

Oathbound, Tracy Deonn

This is the third book in the Legendborn series. Bree Matthews, a black girl in the south, going to a mostly white college, ends up being the heir of King Arthur, and the society of the Legendborn is beside themselves that his heir is a black girl, not a white male. Many  of them turn against her and try to kill her, so she leaves them to protect herself and the ones she loves, and makes a bargain with the Shadow King, to learn everything he knows. This is not to turn to evil, but find a way to thwart the source of evil that is trying to destroy her world. 

I should have written this when the book was fresh in my mind but life got in the way. It is a book filled with magic and sorcery and is a mixture of the legend of King Arthur and the racist southern American areas, truly and interesting choice of combination.

Things in this book were not wrapped up, and a fourth book is in the process of being written, I did enjoy this book as well as the whole series. I heard there may be a tv series in the works as well.

 

Monster in the Cave: How to Face Your Fear and Anxiety and Live Your Life, David Mellinger and Steven Jay Lynn

Monster in the Cave: How to Face Your Fear and Anxiety and Live Your Life

David Mellinger and Steven Jay Lynn

I found this book to possibly help my husband, who has had some severe issues with anxiety and dissociative episodes. It was easy to understand and talks about many different kinds of anxiety and also includes such issues as schizophrenia, OCD, etc. There are chapters on different types of medication used for treatment, what they do, pros and cons to taking them as well. There are worksheets to use for different exercises in learning how to control anxiety, and many different things you can do to help cope with it and overcome it. It took me most of the summer to get through it...not exactly pleasure reading, but also we dealt with my mother and mother in law having medical issues and taking care of them... so not a lot of reading went on over the summer. Glad to be done with this, it was enlightening.
 

Sons, Pearl S. Buck

Sons, Pearl S. Buck

Sons is the second book in the House of Earth trilogy by Pearl S. Buck. The first book is about a Chinese man who works hard farming and gains land to become a great and wealthy farmer in China. He has three sons, and after his death, the land is divided between them. This book is about the three sons, Wang the Landlord, Wang the Merchant, and Wang the Tiger, a soldier and warrior. It is mostly about Wang the Tiger and his conquests, how he builds his "empire" and his army, and he has a son with the purpose of training him to inherit his warrior kingdom.

I find it interesting that Wang the elder, the father of these three sons, wanted all his sons to farm, but they all had different ideas of what they wanted in life. So it is with the son of Wang the Tiger, who has a passion for agriculture, even though forced to become a military student. It seems to have come full circle; however, there is one more book to read, A House Divided, so we shall see how things turn out.

I have to take a break from reading Pearl Buck's works. Her stories are excellent but the writing style sometimes goes on forever and is a bit dry. They are a great way, though, to immerse yourself into learning about how the Chinese people lived in her lifetime.