October 2025

 Hi friends,

October was an interesting month for our family. I was furloughed the whole month because of the ongoing government shutdown, and I still don’t know when I’ll be called back to work. On the plus side, I didn’t have to take any time off to take care of sick kids. We had at least 1-2 sick kids home each week of October. On the down side, I had to clean up a lot of vomit along with all the other bodily fluids I have to clean up more regularly. 

I did get a few good reads in amid all the uncertainty. Despite not having to work full time, I found my time filling up with just the basics of taking care of my family and my house, so I didn't read a lot more than I would have despite the time off work. I also got to spend a lot more time with my two little kids who don’t go to school. They are pretty fun to be around. 

Anyway, let me know what you think of these books, and if you have suggestions for further reading. 

Best,

Tonya 

Boldly, Nobly, and Independent: 1893-1955 (Saints #3) by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: This was my second time reading this narrative history of the Church as told by the Church itself. This volume of history covers the ending of polygamy and growth of the Church in the early 20th century when the Church stopped encouraging all members to emigrate to Utah and to build the Church where they lived. Both of these decisions were huge changes to Church practice at the time and have ramifications that are still felt today. This was an interesting read for me right now because it helped put a lot of things in context for me. For example, the decision to end polygamy was extremely controversial and it stressed the faith of many faithful practitioners who believed that their practice of plural marriage was a sign of their devotion and faithfulness. It’s not overstating it to say that this change actively divided the Church in ways that many at the time probably wondered if would lead to the end of the Church. Of course, we’re still here, and that gives me hope that issues that divide the Church today can be resolved as well with time and work. These narrative histories are always a bit clunky, which is likely the result of many people providing input and feedback into the writing process, but I appreciate that they don’t gloss over big moments of Church history and controversy. I think it’s a good approach that helps build trust. No people or organization is perfect, even the Lord’s Church. Acknowledging that and not being afraid to discuss mistakes is a sign of a healthy and productive organization that can evolve and adapt as needed to a changing world. I like to remember that the Restoration is ongoing, and reading this book helps me realize how much things have changed in less than the 80 years since the end of this volume. I highly recommend for all members of the Church and anyone interested in learning what the Church has to say about its own history. 

Children of Time (Children of Time #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: Dang. This book was some pretty epic scifi. It tells the story of two parallel and mostly separate civilizations: one the last human survivors of an apocalyptic Earth and the other the human-assisted rapid development of sentient spiders on an alien planet. To be honest and much to my surprise, I found myself empathizing and enjoying the spider plotline more than the human one. It was just really cool to see the spiders literally evolve and to imagine what type of society super intelligent and sentient spiders would create. Although the spider storyline covers multiple generations and individuals over hundreds of years, Tchaikovsky keeps us invested in the individuals by assigning 4-5 spiders from each generation the same names and broad roles, so that we can see how their society and intelligence evolves over time without having to be introduced to new characters every 50 or so pages. It’s a genius device and works really well. I realize that in a book about super smart spiders it might same weird to say that the plotline about the humans was weird, but I really thought that it was. There’s some hooky AI characters and plot points that I didn’t enjoy very much, and while the story of the refugees made sense and would probably play out just as Tchaikovsky portrays it, for that reason it felt oddly predictable and exasperating. Maybe he was trying to convey that even thousands of years in the future and millions of light years from Earth, humans will be humans with all of our weaknesses and issues? In any case, I really enjoyed this longish read and will likely pick up the next books in the series. I would recommend for anyone who enjoys epic scifi and isn’t too squeamish about spiders.

The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club #5) by Richard Osman

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation yes

Review: Osman has become one of my auto-read authors, so I automatically read anything that he writes. I love the Thursday Murder Club, and in a lot of ways this book felt like a return to form after the fourth one, which just had a lot of tragedy and trauma for our gang of senior sleuths. I really liked that we got to know Joyce’s daughter, Joanna, more in this one and that Osman got to make some great observations about dating and relationships in the age of social media. After the tragic events of book four, the gang is still recuperating, and you can tell that Elizabeth in particular is not on the top of her game as she has been before. Still, the rust starts to come off as the mystery that our characters are asked to solve in this one progresses. I really loved Ron’s character arc about remaining relevant as his abilities decrease and finding ways to still protect and care for his family. Osman is just a brilliant writer, and every character continues to stand out as unique and individual. It really makes me want to retire to a British senior community one day and make my own murder club gang. I’m glad that I live in a world where I get to read Osman’s mysteries.  

The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review: I continued my Lord of the Rings re-read this month with The Two Towers, and it was probably the best thing I read all month. There were two things that surprised me about this re-read. The first was that this book is surprisingly short compared to the epic fantasy that I typically read now-adays. It comes in at a little over 300 pages, and I feel like I can’t find a good epic fantasy book for less than 500 pages that’s been published in the past 5 years. The other thing that surprised me was that there’s no intertwining of the two main plots. The first half of the book follows Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli through the Helms Deep plotline along with Merry and Pippin with Treebeard and the battle of Isengard. We then go back in time a few days/weeks and follow Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol/Gollum to the Black Gate and then through Ithilien. I feel like if this book had been written today the two plots would likely have been intertwined with each chapter leaving you with a mini cliffhanger. That being said, I enjoyed the continuity of getting to sit with each set of characters for many pages and see their journeys progress. I have definitely watched the Peter Jackson movies way more times than I’ve read the books and am much more familiar with them. One of the biggest differences I noted from book to movie is the treatment of Faramir. In the book, this guy is the most honorable, gold star, all around good guy, and I can’t help but feel that Jackson did him dirty in the movies. In the books, he never once even desires to take the ring from Frodo, and he goes out of his way to leave Frodo and company in the best situation possible when they part. Also, I don’t think that people talk about very much all the legitimately horrifying moments there are in these books. Like, I would say they should be considered fantasy/horror. There are some genuinely spooky and terrifying moments when Frodo and Sam meet Shelob and when Merry and Pippin nearly get eaten by orcs. Anyway, I’m really enjoying this re-read and highly recommend that you revisit the series as well if you haven’t in a while, or pick it up for the first time if you’ve been delaying.  

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: maybe

Review: I read this book for a book club that I sporadically participate in. I think it was meant to be funny, but it was more of a situational irony than a laugh out loud funny, and not all of the humor worked for me. This story is kind of like an anti-romcom in that it tells the story of the breakup of a long term couple. Alderton chooses to tell most of the story from Andy’s first person point-of-view. He’s a mildly successful comedian living in London who is shocked when his girlfriend of four years, Jen, breaks up with him after a trip to Paris. It’s a testament to Alderton’s skill as a writer that she kept me engaged in the story even though Andy was extremely annoying. Like, I don’t think it was just me who would find him annoying. I’m sure that Alderton wrote him purposely to be annoying and to help us understand and empathize with why Jen left him. Like I said though, she gives him enough redeemable characteristics that you like him enough to keep reading. I personally kept reading because I had heard that the last chunk of the book was from Jen’s point of view, and I really wanted to get inside her head and see how she was handling the break up compared to Andy. I think it’s somewhat revealing that Andy’s post-breakup story takes up about 200 pages of the book, and Jen’s takes up less than 100. Oh man, I could write a lot more about everything that was wrong with Andy, but I think I want to wrap it up and say that I don’t think I really actually bought the whole premise of Alderton’s argument. She maintains through the character of Jen that some people are happier and better alone than in a relationship and that love is not enough of a reason to stay in a relationship. However, Jen also lists several instances and actions of Andy’s that drove her to break up with him. She doesn’t indicate that she tried to work with Andy on addressing these actions or strengthening their relationship. She just leaves. All of that to say that I think that Andy and Jen had massive problems and neither of them had the will or tools to help fix them, so Jen concludes that she’s better alone and Andy uses the absurd things he does in wake of their breakup as content to improve his stand-up comic career. My takeaway from the story was not that some people are just happier and better alone but that Jen and Andy had issues that they couldn’t work through. Anyway, that conclusion is certainly colored by my own experience with romantic long-term relationship—of which I have had only one— and how I handle conflict and challenges with my husband when they arise. I’d be interested in hearing the perspective of others on this topic too, so feel free to share. 

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review:  I’ve really enjoyed every Kuang book that I’ve read. I definitely feel very smart when I’m reading them even when, as was the case with this one, I don’t understand the references she makes or what she’s talking about. Like, I read the whole book and could still not explain to you how Kuang said the magic system worked. That being said, I didn’t feel like a better understanding of the magic or all of the academic and philosophical references Kung makes would have improved my reading experience much if at all. When I got to those parts in the text talking about magical or academic theories, my brain just kind of went, “Oh, that’s nice. Keep reading.” Not following every nitty gritty detail might bug some people, but I was much more invested in the plot and the character growth, so it didn’t bother me. In this book, Kuang draws from her experiences as a grad student at Oxford and Cambridge to tell the story of two grad students—Alice and Peter—who descend into hell on a Dante-esque journey to save their advisor and get those precious letters of recommendation to help secure a tenure track job when they finally graduate. Alice is an amazingly well realized character and probably has the most satisfying arc of any protagonist I’ve read from Kuang yet. Kuang emphasizes themes of trauma, abuse, and forgiveness, and the moment when Alice finally confronts her abuser is so freaking satisfying. It was far and away the most emotionally cathartic moment in the book. I was happier with the ending than I thought I would be based on how the other books I’ve read by Kuang have ended, and I would recommend for anyone looking for a great fantasy read. 

The Enchanted Greenhouse (Spellshop #2) by Sarah Beth Durst

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes

Review:  I read and enjoyed the first Spellshop book because it delivered exactly what it said it would: a cozy and fun fantasy romance read. This second installment is set in the same world but with a completely different but related set of characters. It also understood the assignment and delivered a great cozy and fun fantasy romance read. All of the major plot points and the progression of the romance followed the typical fantasy and romance tropes, which although predictable, was really well executed. There’s a reason that certain plot and character moments become tropes, and that is because they are generally enjoyable and make sense, so when an author executes a particularly common trope well, I think it makes for a good albeit predictable story. Like sometimes I want to be really surprised and shocked by a book, and sometimes I just want it to deliver what it promised without much hullabaloo. In this book, our main character is a former librarian and one-time magician, Terlu, who got turned into a statue as punishment for illegally casting a spell to make a spider plant sentient to help ease her painstaking loneliness. The book starts with her being de-statufied and then immediately meeting the male romantic lead and helping him solve the problem of trying to maintain a rapidly failing magical greenhouse. This book contains lots of talking plants and delicious home baking, as well as a male lead who, as is typical in this type of romance, is nearly flawless and somewhat personifies the perfect boyfriend. The most unbelievable point of this story was that this guy was still single, but I guess living alone on an island and obsessively caring for a bunch of magical plants might explain his continued bachelorhood…. Anyway, I enjoyed it and will definitely read more from Durst.