In January, I worked like crazy for the first three weeks so I could spent the next couple of weeks recovering from a total right knee replacement. I’d had the left knee replaced last July, and it didn’t seem like I was very able to concentrate on reading very much after that one, so I didn’t have very high expectations. However, my mind has been much clearer and my energy much better than after the first knee replacement, so I was able to enjoy several books and dip into a prayer book I’ll be reviewing before Lent.
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
As a kid who grew up on The Wizard of Oz, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor. That surprised me, because I’m not usually a fanfic reader, but Gaynor did a masterful job in sharing Auntie Em’s backstory, including how Dorothy came to live with her and Uncle Henry. The novel is sprinkled liberally with Wizard of Oz Easter eggs, which were fun to find: 8-year-old Dorothy has a tiny toy tin man, a stuffed lion, and a straw doll, for example. Real historical events, such as the 1929 stock market crash and the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s, play a major role in the story. The difficulties experienced in farming communities in Kansas during the 1930s were not glossed over. The way Gaynor worked in the witches and the Wizard was fascinating and extremely clever. Every detail in the book is true to history and to the L. Frank Baum novel or the movie.
Adriana Trigiani’s The View From Lake Como takes place in a part of New Jersey I’ve visited, so I could picture some of the places and even some of the people in this story. After Jess divorces the man everyone had always expected her to marry, she moves into her parents’ basement and thinks she’s at a dead end, doing everything for her family and even working in her uncle’s business. But when her uncle dies and leaves behind some shocking financial secrets, Jess travels to Italy to fulfill some business commitments and finds herself needing to decide what she really wants, and whether she has to keep living the way her family expects her to.
A friend recommended The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly, and I’m glad I picked it up. The book is told in a dual timeline (present day and 1942), but I really felt that the present-day plotline could have been dispensed with entirely. The 1940s part of the novel makes up the bulk of the story and could have stood alone. Two teenage girls in a farming family on Martha’s Vineyard faces challenges when their brother joins the Army and leaves them to handle the work, led by their ailing grandmother. They’re joined by their brother’s girlfriend, now pregnant, who comes from a privileged background and knows nothing of growing potatoes. Meanwhile, a nearby military base threatens the future of all the area farms, and there’s a real danger that a German spy is lurking within the community.
YA/Children’s
A novel in free verse, The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez by Jasmine Paulino, was a delight to read. I admit to hesitating when I found out about the format of the book, but I’m glad I decided to try the book anyway. Alex, who has some learning challenges, is in a self-contained classroom but really wants to study science with the rest of the seventh grade, because his goal is to work for NASA. Through courageous self-advocacy (both with his parents and the teachers and administration at his school) and his own hard work, he seeks to prove that he’s able to handle that science class, after-school clubs, and other things he’d always thought were closed to him. The story is told through Alex’s journal and some text messages with friends. Highly recommended for readers 10 and up, as well as for parents of students with special needs or learning differences.
Leslea Wahl’s The Ultimate Blindside continues the adventures of Jake and Sophie as they observe a movie being made about how they solved a mystery (the story told in The Perfect Blindside). Just as filming begins, a car drives into the on-location set and lands in a lake. Without hesitation, Jake rescues the young woman and her daughter who were in the car, and Sophie and Jake plot to help the mysterious woman who’s on the run and in danger. Meanwhile, both of them (together and separately) must navigate friend, former friend, and bully issues related to Jake’s career and Sophie’s association with him. As the two eventually face real danger to themselves when they seek to solve yet another mystery, they’re challenged to lean on the faith they share. (Review copy provided by the author.)
Nonfiction
If you were a fan of the Little House on the Prairie book series and, particularly, the TV series, you’ll enjoy Allison Arngrim’s Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: . Arngrim famously portrayed the bully we all loved to hate, Nellie Oleson. This book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the Little House TV show, which was fun to read in itself, but it also is an examination of what it’s like to play a villain on TV (and the consequences, good and bad, for the actor when they’re out in public once they’ve played that role). It’s also a look at Arngrim’s early life and upbringing in Hollywood, which included challenges such as financial instability and recurrent sexual abuse. Language and content warning; this one’s not for the kids.
Just in time for Lent, TAN Books has released The Way of the Cross with the Saints. This small-format prayer book contains five versions of the Stations of the Cross, written by Saints Francis of Assisi, Alphonsus Liguori, and John Henry Newman, along with Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich and Venerable Mary of Jesus of Agreda. The Stations of the Cross is a beautiful devotion; it’s often prayed during Lent, but it can be prayed at any time, and it’s lovely to have options for prayers that resonate with you during different seasons. Stay tuned for my full review later this month at CatholicMom.com. (Review copy provided by the publisher.)
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.
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!
Copyright 2026 Barb Szyszkiewicz
Images: top copyright 2026 Barb Szyszkiewicz, all rights reserved; bottom copyright 2023 Carolyn Astfalk, all rights reserved, used with permission
