Harmony Reads – Ep. 16 – The Count of Monte Cristo, King Arthur and a Giller Prize Winner!

Here we are with Episode 16 of Harmony Reads.

The Spoon Stealer is a hit with Betsy too. Simone has started the Count of Monte Cristo. Kim is half way through a new book and still has no idea what it is about – really.

0:00 Introduction
1:38 All done with Moby Dick – finally!
2:26 The Spoon Stealer – Lesley Crewe
12:30 The Night Stages – Jane Urquhart
16:26 The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
23:55 Study for Obedience – Sarah Bernstein
35:35 The Last Sin Eater – Francine Rivers
39:40 The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley

Thank you for watching Harmony Reads!

Hi everyone it’s Harmony reads episode 15 we’ve got an action-packed episode for you today okay nothing like a good snowstorm to get the reading all done and caught up yes indeed so we’re going to talk a lot actually when I did the uh description for the last one we we had

Talked about 10 books wow exactly so uh we were a little V I think we’re vitious all the time then I was going to say we should be keeping track but I think that’s exactly what we’re doing yeah it’s like we’re recording it for Prosperity so anyway we have uh I think

We’ve got a couple really good discussions that are going to happen uh happen here so for the first time ever on the harmony reads podcast we’ve had oh no the second time we’ve we’ve been rereading so two of us have Read Moby Dick and two of us have read the spoon

Stealer and uh you are the great influencer oh yeah right well anyway so we uh we have finished books because we had a in case you didn’t know we had a big snowstorm so that allowed some people time to have a pile of books in front of them that they can barely see

Over and then um Simone you finished up a couple books I guess just one yeah just okay and the other ones we’re not going to talk about because it’s just more of the same yep yeah okay all right so um let’s start with Moby Dick okay

Because you finished it I did that’s and we don’t really want to talk about it so it’ll be a fast discussion yeah did you were there any surprises for you no no okay so it all came back yep okay so that’s done so I’m reading a new book

That’s this size I think that that’s what they could have done to tell you the truth yeah um one of our re one of our viewers commented that you know it could be a 50 page Nolla or something to that exent yeah and uh yes yes if you want to get right

To the heart of the matter it could very well be shortened up but but that’s not I appreciated all the backstory because wailing is not something that’s within my perview right so you don’t regret rereading it no no I don’t regret reading that’s all we’re going to say

About it okay so then the next thing that we’re going to talk about is the book that I finished and then I passed on to Betsy and Betsy already has it done too so that’s yeah so that’s the spoon stealer by Leslie crew yeah so I’m I’m almost there I considered I looked

At the clock last night and went I’m already an hour past bedtime I could probably have it done in another hour and I was like no don’t do that because I can do that sometimes with books if they’re really good but then you plow so fast through the end

That you kind of miss it yeah you don’t say yeah so I went on and on and on about the spoon stealer and how I loved it and so now that you’re you’ve got quite far but there’s there’s still yes a couple twists to come in that little

Bit okay so you’re going to get the you’ll get that but we both were discussing this morning emaline is the main character that we all want to be emaline I met friends yes in this book finally it’s been a while since I’ve read a book where I found some book friends I really

Appreciate um Emma’s outlook on life and her positivity despite yeah all of the challenges she’s faced so her positivity is definitely I’ve heard you use this term toxic positivity which I’ve never tried out before but it’s definitely not that she has what I would say is a truly

Earned yeah perspective of gratitude and um trying to help people see what is still good in their life and she’s earned it through some significant experiences of loss and difficulty and um have I think she spends her whole life growing up feeling out of place so

She knows about trying to find home and what home is and who home is and how that all works so I really liked it I said to Kim when I came in this morning I think I’d like to grow up to be emaline and then I had to laugh and say

Actually I think I spent a significant amount of years trying not to be an analog just mainly looking at other people’s lives and going oh I know how you should fix that yeah yeah right so it it is really good and I will be looking up more lesle crew books yes I

Also read this with a feeling of like maybe I can almost become a maritimer I was looking for hints of like what will cuz I just I love the whole community of it in in one sense the r maybe part of it too I think is there are similarities in many small

Rural communities throughout Canada yes there are things that make a maritime Community a community there are things that make an outwest Community it’s there would have their differences but there are also a lot of similarities to being in a rural Canadian community and yeah and I have to say that because I

Actually used to live in the close by to where the to it the story is uh a farm on the outskirts of New Glasgow she drops P two County at one point yeah exactly in pix County y so our paper just fell it’s okay we don’t need

It anyway she so I actually spent time like between I don’t know I started school in grade four we moved from H for all know I started school in stellon and then I lived in pcto and my mom worked in New glasow and stuff so there is

There is a bit of a kick to be reading something that’s really like a uh really close but and really well written and like it’s was it it does have a different kind of feeling I could picture places that she talked about absolutely made me want to live on a

Farm and grow things and have animals yeah so and there is actually a sheep firm that’s talked about in the in the book yeah exactly so uh it was really funny because there’s a um you know a whole the whole knitting with or crafting with wool part of it as well

Which was really funny which led me into I actually stopped the book last night said Matthew there is a significant event or item that we need to purchase if we are going to call our house a maritime home and he was like what are you talking about I said we have to go

And pick out a hand hooked rug yeah that we hang on the wall yeah nobody stepping on it that is a picture that somehow connects with us and our heart and our home oh yes so just the way she talked about it I’ve I’ve been to the festival

Here last year and saw some of the hooked rugs and had my mind blown and now I’m like and now I want one yeah I just do because I think that will just it’s like having a a hand quilted quilt on a bed at home is to have the the

Hooked rug on the wall here so exactly yeah at one point she actually ped out as gifts for individuals um rugs that had something to do with each of them and I just found that part super touching so I’m really enjoying it I have a feeling there’s still more to

Come like you said um but she’s a really she ties up all the Loose Ends like there’s no it’s not yeah so she ties up all the lo I I have to admit I have been significantly worried that she is not going to make it back to England oh just

She does have some health concerns going on and so that right now is my biggest concern she’s been home in Canada for a while yeah so she’s not that’s is not really giving anything away because it’s it is her meem it all starts with her

Memo so it’s all uh so yeah and I can say we know she’s she’s living in England when it starts she comes home to Canada which is where she grew up and she’s planning it to be a visit so I hope that’s she makes it back so anyway

I have couple more chapters to go I will enjoy them and I will be looking up more Lesly crew what are you laughing at nothing I’m just like so tempted to no don’t on to the next I spoil anything I actually said to Matthew I was like I

Feel like I should finish this book so Kim can’t spoil it no no no no I’m not going to spoil it because it’s really there’s like I said there’s twists and you need to you need to that’s the end because I actually found that when she

Was reading her memoirs as part of the the group that she was in how the whole thing starts like that’s on the first page or second page or whatever then um she’s not reading her Memoir anymore and I kind kind of missed the Memoir reading

And I thought it was just a little bit I’m not going to say it changed it changed Direction a little bit so it was a little bit different kind of Rhythm that’s right cuz you told me you had said oh when you get in the middle it LS

But I’ve actually quite enjoyed the middle part as well um she does a lot she goes home and does a lot with different family members right um and I I don’t know I really kind of liked that part did you and it was also building up

To all being like perfect and happy and then I like that it turned into real life again yeah exactly yeah anyway but then then for me just kind of swings again different different again so I guess so that’s two for two yeah are you

Going to read it I would like to read it yeah okay I don’t mind about spoilers at all okay so Les crew makes you feel well we’re not going to spoil it for people that want to oh that’s right yeah makes you feel grateful and appreciative of

Being Canadian she makes you feel like you want to Adventure and see the world in a wider scope you don’t just want to stay in the small area she makes you appreciate family but she also makes you go oh okay I’m not the only one where family doesn’t run so smooth all the

Time so she just has this way of encompassing a lot of things that um the um uh the tendency to underestimate people that you shouldn’t that’s you probably you don’t really know what’s going on in their their lives and she was a little bit of an outsider but yet

She really um was a cog in so many people’s lives I think I can say without giving it away too much but kind of her Mantra in life that she goes through with is that a spoonful of kindness will do a world of difference and everybody out there needs a spoonful of kindness

And you find out at the very beginning that that’s why her that’s why her Affinity to Spoons is is about a spoonful of kindness right so just as an aside yeah this is could be something that you need to be a caution about this book is that I actually went out um we

Went out to dinner or for lunch the other day and there was the cutest little spoon that going to say something like that Kim and I was like I said to Ken I said I really want that spoon and like Ken’s gonna have to stand at the

Door upside down and Shake you and or tell her like turn out your pockets yeah anyway didn’t take it because I know that it’s you could absolutely go to secondhand stores and start collecting spoons there are definitely cute little spoons all over but I was like that’s not what I was overcome the

Temptation overcome the Temptation I did I sincerely I did yeah I did I will also say without giving away too much there are some very difficult relationships in here um so if you’ve had some really difficult family relationships and have maybe faced some really dark times with

Your family it might not be exactly for you there’s a lot of humor in it but there’s also some very dark thematic yes content in here as well exactly yeah so I’m enjoying it I’m definitely going looking for more by lesie crew and I’m delighted that she’s Canadian actually

Oh okay all right so uh um I have but I’m not reading that one yet I’m going to sounds good tell us later yeah we’ll tell you later should just finish up this one okay so the night stage is I have spent the last two weeks feeling

Embarrassed asked me what are the night stages and I made up this like confident sounding answer wrong I was wrong so I was like the people out there that have read it are going to think um has she even read this book what book is she reading oh so this is the night

Stages by Jane art um it’s the multi story we’ll call it there’s about five different stories that you follow through on this one throughout mainly through Ireland um and the one is the lady reminiscing in the gander airport in New Finland she’s grounded by fog and

Has a chance to just kind of review her life and Life Choices so the night stages that’s the part I’ll clarify is in the very end the two of the brothers end up cycling in the same bike race that happens through Ireland through multiple counties multiple towns up and

Down the mountains in Ireland um and the night stages are the stage of the race that they happens in the evening so they bike during the day but then of course they get to rest and they either bill it at locals houses or they often spend a

Significant amount of time in the pub yeah so the night stages ref refers to that portion of the race which I had I kind of knew the race was coming but I wasn’t yeah I was wasn’t sure was who was going to be in it and how it was going to All Connect

In the end and I won’t give away exactly what it is but that’s where you learn how these two brothers have become so estranged oh okay and this race has a lot to do with it it’s not the exact thing but a lot happens during that race to kind of antagonize that estrangement

So that is what the night stages are nothing to do with the mural on the wall which is actually I believe I looked into it is based on a mural that is in fact on the airport wall I don’t know if it’s still there today is Jane art

Canadian she is oh I know we’re just like Canadian no all over the place exactly yeah I was actually feeling um because the new book that I started I just picked it up randomly and um she was she’s also Canadian I don’t know what’s going on it’s great I know and I

Was I was uh you know quietly musing to myself all the way home from the bookstore and I was like wow we we have a lot of really talented I also find um I don’t want to sound too like I I feel as though out here on Pei the bookstores

Are doing a really good job of making sure that the Canadian authors are kind of upfront you know where they often put out the the new pics or that when you walk into a store what you’re going to see first I have found that several of the bookstores that I frequent regular

Regularly make sure those Canadian authors are up front they usually have the Pei section right up front and then they have the Canadian author they um this one was just in the uh cuz I went to the section where it was just authors uh by by alphabet alphabetical order so

Alphabetical order so they were all there and um I just and this was one and then I looked another Canadian author author yeah oh so just by way of like closing this one up um betrayal all through the whole thing um lots of yeah it’s a kind of a

Memoir idea sort of everyone is reminiscing and everyone you’ve got a present and you’ve got a past and you’re bouncing back back and forth between the two so I really liked it like I said before a little bit more of an artistic read so just the language the language

Is just a little bit more um less of a sort of Storytelling and there’s a bit more Artistry to it but that’s yeah so that was that was that one okay so do you w to do you want to go sure I’m going to break the chain because I’m not

Reading a Canadian books it’s okay we forgive you I do read a lot of Canadian books but um upon the suggestion of one of our viewers thank you very much I started reading the count of Monty kristo and I am 19 chapters in and I am

Hooked it’s it is so good okay I’ve never read it like I’ve got goosebumps it’s so good so good just remind me because it was a long time ago that I read it does it start out or is it very close to the beginning there’s a duel there’s the

Threat of a duel okay so I am thinking the right book that’s all I wanted to know so it starts out with um first made in a ship the captain dies he brings it in to Marseilles okay and there’s a character on the boat that doesn’t think much of Dante it’s the

Main character and they decide at a basically a bar or a wine house he and Dante’s neighbor um and then another character that loves the person that’s engaged to Dante’s that they’re going to get rid of him okay so this yes yeah so I do remember okay they end up accusing

Him of being a Cahoots with Napoleon and he gets thrown in the chatau de which is a prison on an island that people don’t come out of yeah it’s it’s reserved for like the worst political prisoners outside of Napoleon who you know exiled on Elba so is this a book that is um

Fiction but ties in actual historical events there are his into classical literature a classic book yeah because at the portion that I’m I’m reading right now um he’s with the Abbey uh The Abbey is another prisoner and he’s managed to Tunnel through and they can they can visit each other in their cells

And they’re planning Escape um just remembering so okay I G have to this he’s with the Abby right now uh actually I’m a little bit further than this point but anyway he’s with the Abby right now and he’s going through the history of the treasure that’s supposedly buried this book is like it’s

A beast is so much in this book it’s by Alexandra deas so the person that wrote The Three Musketeers and the Man in the Iron Mask so he doesn’t write small books no I’m going to be reading this one for a while I’ve read I think I’ve

Read the not the man Iron Mask I should read that one too I think what got me into it is several years ago yeah several years ago now time um they did movies with the Man in the Iron Mask they did The Count of Monte Christo and

I think those sort of introduced me to the story and I was like I want more yeah so he’s at the point now where he he’s talking to the Abby and the Abby is confessing everybody thinks the Abby is crazy because he keeps s like trying to

Bribe all the keys and saying I’ll give you this many you know Franks or this much gold or you know what have you uh if you let me go kind of deal and they all think he’s nuts because they’re like he has nothing so it turns out that the

Abby is a genius and he’s you know he’s a very learned man and he creates all of these things from nothing so he makes like a knife and a needle out of a fishbone and he ends like the very first mcgyver yes oh he’s absolutely amazing and he starts teaching dant like French

And Italian or not French but Italian and Spanish and you know all these other languages and educating them in math and science so you know because they’ve got nothing but time so he’s telling him about the island of Monte Christo where this treasure is supposedly buried and

He’s giving the history of it and it goes all the way back to Pope Alexander I 6 in chesy bour and how you know they they were in need of money and all these like crazy things that happen so I’m absolutely hooked because say I think you’re enjoying it I’m really enjoying

It because I read a couple of uh books that touched on The Borges and wow they were nuts yeah nuts yeah yeah so yeah I can’t stop reading it I’m lucky I got any knitting done this week that’s saying a lot yeah because I just wanted to keep

Reading the book so you’d never read this one before no no I had picked it up like an yes okay and I started to read it but whenever I found out that it was shortened up it was like a reader Digest condensed version yeah I put it away

Because I’m like no I actually want the whole story it’s funny too because I think when I first picked it up I kind of picked it up with a bit of that like I think this is a man’s book and I was a bit like I don’t know we’ll see how it

Goes I like the movie but we’ll see but I totally got pulled into the world action an adventure an Intrigue fun you know he he develops a Vengeance because with the aby’s help he discovers why he’s in the sh yeah and who caused this there yeah so I I have a feeling that

You know there’s going to be some comeuppence in the future well that sounds exciting yeah it really is well I mean if you think of like the Three Musketeers right same guy who wrote that yeah it’s like you hardly get moments to breathe even though they’re in a prison and they’ve been

There for like a decade it’s still action packed yeah when when was that written H I can’t tell you well it would be post Napoleon yeah yeah um what like 1900s or 1800 earlier mid to late 18 well we’ll find out maybe this will be the point where

Not late no I don’t I don’t know let to look it up Industrial Revolution or I’m going to say something silly again and spend two weeks feeling like why did I put that have to Google it yeah yeah so this is where I asked Simone a question

And she says I don’t know I’m just going to Google it I said well well I could have Googled it but I thought I don’t we actually had a bit of a running joke for a while where I was calling my husband Google mat because I

Would do that to him all the time I’d be because I would expect him to know do be like why don’t you just know this yeah exactly that’s what do I would say um Google mat can you tell me yeah yeah and then and then I then and she just

Willingly well I’m going to Google it and and now Ken’s caught it cuz he he’s been Googling everything I think this this is what you and I both were curious but we also have limited time to to actually do just easier to ask somebody else anyway I started to feel guilty

Because then she I said well and then she actually some times she had to go get her phone I said okay wait so much like oh anyway well he’ll seriously be looking around for his phone and mine is sitting right there yeah I’m knitting my hands are busy

That’s right that’s right yeah so okay so that sounds intriguing it is and I can’t remember the person’s name that recommended it but thank you I really really enjoying this is what’s so great about this the whole thing is okay so for something completely different so um

I know I know I should have gone to the library and I still feel guilty about the fact that I I don’t know if this is some kind of Dragon s sickness or whatever but I have to own the books oh I don’t think that’s a bad thing the

Library is great for accessibility but we also want people to keep writing in order for that to happen we have to support them as well so for that too I actually was in town and waiting I explained in the other podcast that was there waiting for Ken and he was going

To drop me off I said drop me off at the library I’m going to sign up for a library card and I’ll actually get a book for and then I looked and oh it’s closed well I have to go to the book it didn’t open till 12:30 we’ll have to go

To the bookstore because I actually I have like a lot I have a lot of books okay so um so I purchased three books so maybe I need to come like look for a book to read at your house yeah when they’re under the boxes but I have a I

Have like a a a lot of books yeah sold some of them yeah I like to own I like I have my own Library nice yeah and I like hard cover especially so anyway but hard find these days I feel like I’m really far ahead of you today like I’m looking

Back at you the producer it’s okay yeah I’m sitting back so I’m not screeching screeching around on the seat no I’ve got the seat this time yeah so we wanted these seats talks not in a nice way yeah so we it was the chair it was the chair

We’re not moving to to much so if we look a little bit stiff we don’t that’s going to be the new game now musical chairs yeah who has the musical chair yeah yeah right okay sorry that’s like this Ry My grandmother used to say beans beans the

Magical fruit yep yeah that’s what it sounds like when you sit on this chair me the musical chair all right this is serious okay okay so I was uh first first of all I just go to the section where it has the author by niame so I somebody recommend it my next Leslie

Crew book so I was in the Leslie crew book which by the way the spoon stealer is now sold out so I was like H credit there I don’t know I was I’m wondering if we’ve inspired some people to but maybe not they didn’t have that many

Many but they maybe someday we can get a fleece and Harmony piic yeah there’s a goal to a exactly like who the hell’s Heather anyway so if Heather the if you go to any of the local bookstores on pei and you purchase the book that we encourage

You to purchase just drop the mention that you were in SP on we’re teasing okay truly yes on it so um so I bought three books so one of them was the next Leslie crew book that I’m going to read I think it’s called the recipe for life or recipe of life or

Something anyway it’s one of her her books which my sister recommended be my next one so I’m or my mother anyway um everybody’s on a lesli crew kit because there’s lots of lots of them the other one was they had the third um Ken fet book which is

Columns of fire column of fire so I did get that but I’m not going to start that yet cuz that’s another big Biggie and then I found this slim little which somehow not because is so beautiful but the cover really um it made look caught my attention it’s actually a beautiful

Painting of a bird but the bird’s dead so I’m I’m intrigued what why that is yes and the name of the book is study for obedience and it’s written by a woman called Sarah Bernstein or Bernstein and um I don’t know if that’s Stein or Steen

Anyway I think that depends on where you from because the E comes before the I okay so that’s steam yeah okay I only know that CU my last name yes I know yeah I know you probably get a lot of yeah yeah so um she’s from Montreal

But she lives in Scotland oh so how I mean I had to have it so and it’s uh it says on the back strange and beautiful this is a unique novel that is Primal and Eerie where language creates silence and vivvid image IM is reflect a kind of earthiness where our most intimate

Selves live and it’s absolutely correct it is strange and beautiful the writing is beautiful we were talking about it a little bit before uh we started I don’t even know what it’s about really yet so I’m quite the way through it’s very it’s not it’s big print it’s not uh it’s it’s a

Slim volume I would say and uh but it’s very entertaining to read you kind of she’s talk about breadcrumbs this is she’s an expert at that and I was saying to smone and um and Betsy I said it’s amazing how so if you play music you can

Hear with your ear if you’re if you’re um if you’ve been if you taught if you’ve been taught enough or play music enough you can hear with your ear the signature the time signature of the piece like 34 44 68 whatever you get that when you play it even though you’re

Just playing notes on a uh page the Rhythm comes out because of the way that the the the music is written this book is written like that you read it with a certain Cadence and Rhythm because of the way that she’s she’s constructed this like the the actual physical

Construction of this the sentences and her punctuation and everything so it’s um it’s uh it’s inter inter in from like a just a kind of a study point of view it’s it’s interesting but um it is a strange and weird book but like very you have to keep reading you have to keep

Reading I like strange and weird sometimes yeah so um it’s uh it won a a prize from Granada Grant granta which is I think it’s a Publishing House in the UK because a young or best of uh best of young British novelist 2023 it also won a Giller prize which is

The Scotia Bank uh a Canadian a very prestigious writing uh um prize in Canada and it was shortlisted for the booker prize which is a a similar literary prize from the UK so um can’t I can’t go wrong but these books tend to be a little bit

Hottie like when they win these prizes sometimes sometimes but it’s um so I can’t the only thing I can’t really even tell you what it’s about it’s a it’s a it’s a woman who’s the youngest of her family and it starts um it starts out by she says that she spent her lifetime

Looking after the other her other siblings so she there’s a big family and then it’s because that’s already kind of weird so you’re the youngest but you’re saying you spend a lifetime looking after the other siblings that happens within the first couple pages and I was

Like what does she what does she mean by that so anyway then it starts to reveal itself and she writes it and she’ll she’ll go down a road and then she’ll say okay I’ve gone too far I have to go back so then she goes back again oh I

And then she goes forward and then she goes back again so little tendrils all over the place yes exactly I’m going have to read this one too yeah so she’s uh she moves to look after her eldest brother okay but yeah that so that sort of makes sense with what she said before

But that’s not your whole light you had they had to get old before you could look after them so I anyway so um and we have no idea what he does but he’s got money okay and she’s um we have no idea where she’s been and they we have no

Real clear understanding of where the town is that move to but she sometime somehow the brother moves from where they live to where his ancestors are from but you think you know what it is and the next paragraph that she dashes that idea so that’s not where they where

They are okay and so it’s really like twisty turny and I’m pretty sure and I even cheated and read the last page because I thought well let’s see what’s going to but that gives you nothing so you’re just have you’re going to have to go on the journey I actually sometimes

If I succumb to that and it gives me nothing I get a little bit peeved I’m like oh how dare they not give it all away on the last page now I’m going to have to actually dig through this book to find yes this makes you think of the

Con last night when they were introducing the song liar he gave one truth and a whole string of lies that just got more and more elaborate before he introduced the song right so this kind of makes you think uh the kids Valentine’s Day concert okay yeah so it makes me wonder

If maybe she’s a liar I don’t know no I have no idea I that would be an interesting concept for a book though yeah to write the whole thing as bch of Lies well that’s what I thought I thought that it was that this part was true is oh what that

Was no that wasn’t but I yeah oh okay anyway it’s very very interesting it’s it’s not difficult to read but the language is very sophisticated I would say the way she uses language is is very sophisticated and um I can see why it would have piak the interest of all of

These uh committees and things like that so um definitely when I can read cuz it doesn’t look like it would take too too long no no I’m and I mean it’s there’s not many words like it’s big print and and uh I think there’s 150 Pages or there such thing as narrative poetry

Sort of that’s exactly and and it has a a distinct Rhythm to it okay which is uh because you know even if you’re reading in your head you’re you’re reciting sort of like even if your lips aren’t moving I don’t my lips definitely move when oh

Yeah huge Whisperer oh oh okay now I was you used to get in trouble if your lips and as the sound came out I do I still do sometimes yeah anyway I I that’s all I can say I can’t I spent a long time telling you I have no idea what this

Book is about that’s great though it’s going to be interesting yeah it means at some point it all has to come together otherwise it would not have won awards yes exactly so but it’s buried in there somewhere I think think it’s I think it’s kind of like you read the last

Sentence and then you go like back in your head and go oh okay one of those I think it’s one of those love those though yeah yeah anyway and I have no idea why there’s a poor little dead bird on the book but we’ll find out and study

For obedience not study of obedience or not studying for obedience study for obedience even that’s a mystery yep yeah okay so that’s that’s uh stay tuned I’ll have it finished obviously by the next uh episode okay and then bets’s got two books I have two more so I’m kind of

Going to do them a bit together because they’re so very opposite to one another so the first one is called the last sinine eater by a novelist called Francine Rivers um she is at at one point in her life she was a Harlequin romance writer oh um but she has since

Shifted from that and actually writes a lot of um I don’t it would be Christian literature or Christian fiction Christian fiction that’s the word I’m looking for so she has done some other series she started with one of her first series was quite a significant one that

Took place during um Roman times the Gladiators I read that one when I was a teenager and I liked it but this one out of hers kind of jumped out to me the most because it’s kind of most unique and it talked about it it incorporates a

A folklore tradition that I found really interesting so the sin the sinine eater is a um tradition that came out of Wales and Scotland that um like well this one’s happening at the 18th what is it 18th century or Not Sorry 1850s mid1 1850s is when this story happens so

Settlers come over from Scotland into the hills in the Smoky Mountains and they kind of want to start fresh and move away from the old place and and leave all that behind but essentially what happens is they start this new community and then just as sort of the

The headman or the leader that kind of was their protector dies he insists the sinine eater being instilled back into I had never heard of this but some knew about it so what a s sinine eater is is they would draw lots and a young man all

The young men from the community would have to draw lots and whoever got the shortest stick or whatever um he became the siner so it became his job or role to be separate from the community but live nearby and whenever someone died he would come to their funeral and he would

Have to eat bread and drink wine and there would be a ceremony that he would in theory take on all of their evil Deeds onto himself so that they would be free to enter Heaven and they believed that this was their entrance into heaven and their forgiveness and Redemption for

The life they’ lived um so so the story is about this young girl named catty Forbes or could be Katie but it’s C Ai and they’re Scottish so I assume it’s caddy um and it’s her story of why she wants to go and find the sinine eater you’re not supposed to associate with

Him you’re not supposed to talk to him at all for sure um but she has a reason to go and find him and so it’s it is a really good story but it’s also really sad I cried several times through it um but I will also just be very up front it

Is filled with significant biblical passages so if that is not your cup of tea That’s did you finish it finish it’s actually a reread from long time ago I went and bought the book again because I’d seen it and it reminded me of it I

Wanted to read it again okay so I think what really I appreciate about it is um you really get transported to the Smoky Mountains and you just want to shake your head sometimes and be like what like why do they why do they cling to this when they came here to start fresh

Yeah exactly that’s what but it’s just it’s kind of a story of how fear and guilt can make you grasp at anything to to alleviate that in your life so that’s what these people are doing they’re just trying to alleviate so much guilt and so much fear and um because they’ve kept

Themselves secluded and in that seclusion they’ve actually I think hindered themselves they tried hard to keep out the rest of the world but then it’s also kept out Advanced learning and as well so it it’s it’s intriguing so if you don’t mind the fact that there is significant biblical

Passages in it um go ahead and give that one a try and then on the complete opposite Spectrum I started the Mist Of Avalon which is a King Arthur story and Simone is like that’s about as Pagan as they come so I’m kind of jumping all over the

Place right now so this is a King Arthur story from the perspective of the females that were within his life I don’t know a whole lot about King Arthur himself I’ve done a lot of reading of in that time period but not focused on the legend of him and the Knights of the

Round Table so I’m curious to I’m not very far in um the first part is really because I’m being introduced to A Whole New World so names of places people locations Wars that are going on I’m I’m just still sorting out who’s fighting who who’s in power who’s the threat so

It’s all this like we’re setting up a basically an entire political landscape yeah so I can know what’s going on in the world you read this one yeah yeah yeah so it’s it’s interesting so far um the main lady is oh my goodness Morgan LEF yes they don’t say Morgan they say

Morgan oh it looks like Morgan so I was saying that but it’s just Morgan I guess it got Nam depends upon the legend right and it’s been 25 years since this one since I read that yeah okay so I came to work the other day I said to Simone how

Do you say this and I spelled out a name for her and she’s like gave me a few suggestions so I’m really having to like just look at the names and decide because Sone Simone would know Simone would know I’m Google or actually you know what it was because I’ve talked

With you about the fact that you like fantasy and you’ve read from significant from this significant books from this genre that’s why I made that assumption I was digging into her experience that I knew she had unlik me who just randomly thinks of things and then expects her to

Know anyway so I’m not very far in I put this one aside to jump into the spoon stealer so I will come back to this one but I think this will be a slow read for me and I think I will read some others along the way just because it is it’s

Text Heavy um like I said lots of names and I I need to know what’s going on because it’s going to matter if I miss details it’ll matter what I like about this book in particular is it’s a different spin on the Aral aruan Legends okay and normally Morgan or morgane is

Portrayed as like Wicked and bad that’s my thought you know and in this one she’s not okay so maybe I’m doing this in the wrong order or maybe I’m doing it in the right order because I for me this will become the Arthur Legend and then everything else will be like Oh okay

That’s your version of it but this is the version I will know so okay cool which yeah I kind of like the idea of knowing it from the female perspective I’m a little bit female go go go so right we might have had a moment like that this week didn’t we yeah

Yes I forget what it was now that I don’t know but it like woman power I remember I remember saying that and growled a little bit it was it’s really funny I love it to wrap it up folks from the man it’s also lunchtime soon too yeah it’s past lunchtime

Actually so all right so thanks for staying with us for another episode and uh you really got a whole mixed bag this time so we’ll see what happens I I can actually hardly wait for the next two weeks to see how it all resolves and I

Hope you guys feel the same yeah so have a great two weeks and happy reading everybody bye