Prayers in Bath by Luisa Perkins
This lovely little book is by a friend (see an interview I did with her or one she did with Wm about this book) and it is indeed both lovely and little. Something that could have included an extra two hundred pages of intrigue clocks in at 109 pages (including four pages of art and several gaps filled with art-relevant design). It’s quiet and modest, and punches a great emotional wallop for all that.
I was caught offguard by how emotional I found the book at points, notably the final page. (Which I did not think would be the final page, but I was gratified and satisfied to discover it was.)
There are probably one or two awkward sentences per chapter, but I can’t really nail down a pattern. They’re more common when there are spiritual moments, but most of the spirituality is handled with aplomb. They’re more common when there is conflict, but maybe that’s for the best? I just mention these sentences because they are really the book’s only flaw.
I’ve read three of Luisa’s novels (two of the three published novels and one unpublished) and this is my favorite. I think (based on old memories of the other two books) that it’s the most consistent throughout, and the most…honest? I’m not sure what I mean by that, but I do mean it. Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s the only one that is openly Mormon rather than Mormon through allusion and subterfuge. The novel deals directly with lived spiritual experience and does it in a calmly realist manner. It’s a great success.
Witchy Kingdom by D.J. Butler
I took longer to read this book than the first two books in this fantasy series combined—in large part because I was a bit burned out, reading the same genre so long, and took breaks to read other books, some of those breaks quite long.
Which is no comment on the book’s excellence. It is excellent. Just, all combined, this trilogy comes near two thousand pages. And it ends nicely setting things up for more books. Which I happen to know he’s writing.
I know many people love this. I’m afraid I’m much more into beginnings and endings rather than endless middles.
Which is a lot of complaining about a book I genuinely loved and absolutely admired. It’s excellent adventure, excellent fantasy, excellent americana, excellent mormonism, and excellent religion. It does everything well.
I think I most admire its incorporation of initiation ritual—temple ritual as we Saints think of it—into this new world. It’s striking and provocative. I was impressed by the coronation scene, but it just kept getting better.
I really can’t recommend these books enough.
And if, for you, two thousand pages is just a nice chops licking, you’ll fit into them even better than I have.