The first Wednesday of each month, Carolyn Astfalk hosts #OpenBook, where bloggers link posts about books they’ve read recently. Here’s a taste of what I’ve been reading:

Fiction

When Henry agrees to allow his sister’s incoming tenant to use a room in his house after his sister’s house is flooded, he thinks she’s an elderly lady. Edith, for her part, is convinced that Henry is an old man who can’t climb the stairs in his own home anymore. They communicate by notes on the kitchen table as they keep passing each other on their way to work opposite shifts — but their communication soon goes beyond the day-to-day household matters, leaving the reader wondering when they’ll ever find out the truth and get together. This charming novel packs in so much mistaken identity and so many near misses between the title characters that you can’t imagine how they haven’t figured things out yet … and then you turn the page and there’s even more! It’s hilarious. Set in a small town where the residents seem to know things even before the main characters do, this book is partially told in letter form, which I always enjoy.

If you like Hollywood stories and late-1940s historical fiction, this is the book for you. The characters in this book were terrific. Mercy and Rusty were pen pals during their childhood, both daughters of miners in different states, and both no strangers to loss. When Mercy finally gets away from her hometown to find Rusty in Colorado, she misinterprets some local news and believes Rusty is dead. She continues on to Hollywood but alienates some power brokers by insisting on safe conditions for the extras on the movie set where she’s acting in the last silent film Hollywood will ever make. Escaping incognito to Colorado once again, Mercy seeks to build a new life, finds Rusty still alive, and teams up with her to solve a mystery and reunite some friends long alienated from the rest of the town. I thought Mercy was just a little too twenty-first-century in some things she thought and said, but overall, it was an excellent story.

Leroy is the owner of a small family winery; his youngest daughter wants to bring in customers by opening a tasting room and giving tours. Her new website brings in two teachers traveling for the summer, along with a man they’d met on the way. One of the teachers, Brynna, is sure that she’d met (and fallen in love with) Leroy at summer camp long ago when they were teens. Bamboozled by one of Leroy’s unsuspecting daughters into taking a job at the winery, Brynna struggles with whether it would even be a good idea to tell Leroy who she really is.

The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh (Thomas Nelson)

When junior editor Kelsey is hit by a delivery truck on her way back to the office from picking up her boss’s coffee, she winds up in a hospital room next to publishing magnate Georgina Tate, who has a big secret: she’s  dying. Georgina (who could be the inspiration for the title character in The Devil Wears Prada) is clearly facing some regrets, and Kelsey has regrets of her own, and big dreams besides. Kelsey decides to say yes to all the things she’s said no to before — particularly spending time with friends and family she’s ignored in the name of getting ahead at work, which hasn’t worked out very well for her. After convincing Georgina to join her in this summer-long adventure, Kelsey makes it her business to track down Georgina’s estranged family and reunite them. This is a fun read and would be perfect to take along on your summer vacation! (Netgalley review; now available)

Julian, a lonely, elderly artist who feels dissatisfied with his own past choices, writes a brief entry detailing the truth about his life in a notebook and leaves it in Monica’s cafe. She’s also looking for more out of life, and in an unguarded moment, writes down her own truths and drops the book off in a nearby wine bar. Soon the notebook has made the rounds of several people and even traveled as far as the South Pacific; eventually everyone who’s written in the book is reunited and led to face the truths they were only willing to admit in writing. This book is set in Britain, and there are f-bombs galore. Be ready for that if you pick this book up.

Nonfiction

Enter into the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary with Maria Gallagher as your guide. You’ll contemplate the significance of these mysteries in your own life, along with the lives of familiar saints and Maria’s own reflections. This book opens the door to a deeper devotion to the Rosary. This book is a follow-up to Maria’s first book, Joyful Encounters with Mary, which I also highly recommend. You don’t need to read them in a particular order, and both feature brief but powerful entries that open the door to times of deeper prayer, as well as questions for discussion or journaling. (Review copy received from publisher)

All Things Catholic by Shaun McAfee (Sophia Institute Press)

This book is organized encyclopedia-style, with alphabetized entries for an extremely easy-to-use research experience. There’s also a table of contents that lists each entry (this might be overkill in a book already organized alphabetically, but it does let you see at a glance whether the term you’re looking up has an entry). If you have a question about the Church, this is a great place to get started. My favorite part of All Things Catholic is the occasional “Catholic Tip,” set off in a box from the rest of the text. These tips are usually written informally, offering real-life examples of some of the information included in this book. Read my full review. (Review copy received from publisher)

This book covers all the things you never knew were Catholic — as well as plenty of Catholic things you didn’t realize were so fascinating! I didn’t have to read more than 20 pages before I found a location mentioned that was very familiar to me: a shrine at a parish church in a town near where I grew up. A few pages later, I learned that the inventor of the first modern submarine (launched in the Passaic River, also near my hometown) had been a Christian Brother — the same religious order that founded and still ministers at the university all my children attended. I loved making these connections as I read this book. Read my full review. (Review copy received from publisher)

I like to dip into nonfiction a little at a time, and that’s what I’ve been doing with these two books, which I’m “reading for fun” and have not yet completed:

“Work smarter” has always been my motto — not because it saves me from “working harder” but because it means finding a faster, more efficient, or more effective way to do something. This leaves me more time or energy to do the things I want. I’m reading this book to find out how building good habits can help me to work even smarter. The author, James Clear, undertook the study of habits as part of his recovery from a traumatic brain injury.

This book is intense. It’s a sociological description of what has happened as children have had smartphones, and social media, in their pockets 24/7 over the last decade and a half. I left the classroom in 2015 and my youngest child is 22, so I really haven’t seen this phenomenon as it’s played out in schools, but I can attest to the difference in my kids’ adolescence when I compare the oldest one (in high school just as smartphones were coming out — and he didn’t have one until college) and the youngest, who got a smartphone during middle school. I’d definitely recommend The Anxious Generation to parents and educators.

Links to books in this post are Amazon affiliate links. Your purchases made through these links support Franciscanmom.com. Thank you!

Where noted, books are review copies. If that is not indicated, I either purchased the book myself or borrowed it from the library.

Follow my Goodreads reviews for the full list of what I’ve read recently (even the duds!)

Visit today’s #OpenBook post to join the linkup or just get some great ideas about what to read! You’ll find it at Carolyn Astfalk’s A Scribbler’s Heart and at CatholicMom.com!