You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

You are not limited to the two chosen books. You may read any book within the theme "Author's first and last name start with the same letter" if you prefer.

In order to receive a badge you must:
1. have read the book before or during July 2025.

2. discussed it in this thread. Discussion must be more than "I read the book and I liked it". Discussion requires something more substantial and analytical of what you read. Please elaborate on your thoughts on at least 5 of the following topics:
- Setting
- Characters
- Writing style
- Genre
- How the book made you feel
- Which parts stood out
- Did you/will you read more by the author
- Anything else related to the book you find worth mentioning

This can be done in one post after finishing the book, but preferably in a few posts while reading. Please refer to our group spoiler policy for further information.

3. Report that you have read AND discussed the book in the reporting thread (include a brief summary of what you thought of the book).

General Rules:
1. Please mark your spoilers with the spoiler tags along with mentioning what stage of the book you are at so other's don't get a nasty shock. Chapter numbers/titles are generally best as they are the same across all formats and editions. See our spoiler policy
2. The book may be combined with the Year Long Challenge, Topplers, and Monthly Challenges.

Happy reading!

I'm planning to read Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews.

I have one here that will be slow going once I start, so I'll see how it goes.

I've started Rules for Ruin and so far it's been a little challenging for me to get into the 1860s setting. Of course, the rules were different back then and the dialogue takes some getting used to. It just has a different feel to it, so I need to get into a different head space when I'm reading. The set up to the story has been interesting, but I'm also getting the impression that it's going to be more of a romance focused story than I expected.

I listened to Seed by Ania Ahlborn. It's a horror story about the nightmare of childhood that returns after two decades and haunts his family. The setting should be perfect for horror theme, a town with bayous inhabited by strange people. But it lacks of atmosphere, and imho, the intro of the audiobook is scarier than the story itself.

The incidents are also sporadic it feels like the author just threw some plots when life was too peaceful. It's a bit difficult to comment about characters development though. (view spoiler)[I hate it when the MC tried to hide the truth and decided to solve it alone, with his own way that proved to be useless. He acted like he wanted to safe his family, but he didn't know what to do so he just faced the devil hoping he would be able to deceive it somehow. Maybe that's the purpose, having an unreliable MC. But it still annoyed me. (hide spoiler)]

It's a short book so I feel like it has many blank spaces that can be filled with some deeper explaination or something if the story was extended. The ending was also easily predictable, nothing surprises here.

When I started the book, I was thinking about trying to read her other books since some people were really like her works. But after finishing this, I think I'll put her aside.

I ended up reading two book that deal with the same theme and happen to have authors with matching first and last initials.
The first one is Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing
It is about the particular ways in which our current education system is harmful to black and native children. I still can't believe how long we were STILL taking native children from their homes and putting them in "Indian Schools". In this book she talks about how the education was built to construct and maintain racial hierarchies.
In the second book, Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom author Ranita Ray zooms in on a particular school in Clark Co. Nevada (Las Vegas) and spends over 2 years observing a group of students as they move through grades (until Covid interrupted her research). This lens was interesting because it looked at the individual as opposed to the systemic ways in which black and brown children are harmed in education (often by well-meaning teachers). These two books dovetailed nicely in that way to give a picture of what black and brown children endure in our education system. As a teacher, I appreciated this view and will work to combat it in my own classroom.

I’m reading The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy by Diana Darke. I’m about 20 pages into the book and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It also has lovely art and pics accompanying the text. It’s been awhile since I’ve held such a gorgeous a book like this in my hand. The book is about the Ottomans and the vast cultural legacy they created in 600 years of governance that stretched from North Africa, the Middle East and into Europe and encompassed a diverse population of many religions.

I finished reading The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy by Diana Darke and I’m glad to say I continued enjoyed it until the very end.

It was refreshing and informative overview of life under the Ottoman Empire and the many historical, social, cultural, religious contributions it made over the span of more than 600 years. I enjoyed the structure of the book - a combination of text and pics that enhanced the reading experience. I enjoyed the pace and level of details in the book. The author kept the information at an easily digestible level, not bogging it down by going too deeply and losing the reader, but instead designed to pique the reader’s interest to continue exploring more about the Ottoman Empire.

I will definitely be reading more by this author.

I am reading The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda. It is a mix of medical drama and mystery thriller. So far, I am enjoying it. I am curious to know more about the medical side of it along with the mystery part. I have my suspicions about what is going on behind the scenes. I wonder if it is as simple as the narrator is telling us or could the narrator be unintentionally misguided?

I am still creeping my way through Rules for Ruin. There's nothing wrong with the story. It's just not my favorite time period to read so it's taking me a little longer to get through. I need to find a chunk of time to sit with it. I am enjoying it for the most part.

Ayacchi wrote: "I listened to Seed by Ania Ahlborn. It's a horror story about the nightmare of childhood that returns after two decades and haunts his family. The setting should be..."

I read this one back in 2015. I don't remember anything about it. I didn't write a review, just rated is at 4 stars. Must have liked it at the time.

Kristie wrote: "I am still creeping my way through Rules for Ruin. There's nothing wrong with the story. It's just not my favorite time period to read so it's taking me a little longer to get throu..."

Wow! Not only does Rules for Ruin have an author with the same first letter for her names, her title does do!

I finished reading The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda

I read the audiobook version of this and the narrator has the sweetest American voice that you could find. This leads me to believe that she is a credible and truthful narrator but at times (view spoiler)[ she isn't a reliable narrator and doubts what has been happening to her and she doubts her own memory. Even at times, she cannot remember what happened exactly and she has only fragments of memories. (hide spoiler)]

The author did a good job of keeping me guessing throughout and planted a few plot twists as the book curved it's way towards a resolution. The characters are very realistic. The police officers play a role at key times to keep the investigation going. (view spoiler)[ there presence seems to spook the main character who is not sure how the box cutter (knife) got there (hide spoiler)]

I like this genre of book and I was particularly pleased to find that Megan Miranda has an alliterative name. I gave this book 3 stars. I thought it was well laid out and that there was good balance between guessing and telling in this mystery.

Grainne wrote: "Kristie wrote: "I am still creeping my way through Rules for Ruin. There's nothing wrong with the story. It's just not my favorite time period to read so it's taking me a little lon..."

That's being dedicated. :) Nice cover though Kristie.

WoF Karin

I re-read Dying Out Loud: No Guilt in Life, No Fear in Death which I read a number of years ago, by Shawn Smucker since I own it and remember liking it.

This is a biography/authobiography, told in first person. Let me explain. It's not about Shawn Smucker, but he travelled to Turkey where he recorded Stan Steward and took some of the photos in the book, but not all, when Steward was dying from late stage cancer (caught very late.) Therefore, most of it is in the first person voice of Steward as transcribed and edited by Smucker.

Stan, his wife and two children were missionaries in Turkey--and by missionaries I mean they respected the local culture and customs and made many close friends there even though no one converted. However, when his kids were basically grown up (one was in college in the US) he was diagnosed he decided the best thing he could do was to die with hope and peace because he felt that the one thing his Muslim friends lacked was hope. The book ends when he dies, but being true to the nature of it, doesn't write about the results (these can be seen on a video online) which was that it led to conversions.

However you feel about religion or conversions, the story is remarkable for how this family became part of the lives of others, and even learned to live as a community in a way foreign to Americans (there everything is a community decision, eg they once ended up using tile they didn't care for in a bathroom because the group liked it the best.)


At times this book is a tear jerker, particularly because Stan and his wife, Ann, were very close to each other and with their kids, but there are also times where I could see how frightening some of the situations they were in as they travelled to areas near the border of Iran but also how heartwarming many of their interactions were.

Sean Smucker writes many different books; I have no idea if I'll read more by him, but if a book came up and I didn't remember his name, I'd check out his page and see I've read this and think he writes well.

I wasn't able to finish Rules for Ruin. I got about halfway through though. It's fine really. I just don't have much else to say about it. I'll be back to post a review here when I finally finish. I may have to skim read it.

Kristie wrote: "I wasn't able to finish Rules for Ruin. I got about halfway through though. It's fine really. I just don't have much else to say about it. I'll be back to post a review here when I ..."

Too bad, Kristie. Hopefully it picks up a little towards the end.

Remember to report your read!

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After sitting down with Rules for Ruin again today I finally gave up on it. There is nothing wrong with the story. It just isn't interesting to me and I think reading the same book for an entire month and only getting halfway through is enough of an effort. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I agree. It is supposed to be fun. It doesn't make sense if it becomes a chore.

Right on the mark Sandra. It's disappointing where you have expectations for a book, and then they fall flat. Best just to move on.