Top Three Gifts for Fantasy-Reading Moms (Lauricia)

Welcome back to Lands Uncharted. For this week's Top Three installment, I was going to discuss the best moments from Avengers Endgame, but if you're like me... you haven't seen it yet. So I decided it was still too soon for spoilers and that picking the top three moments would be best left to one of my fellow bloggers.

With all the Avengers excitement going around, it might be possible to forget another important day that's coming up soon. Mother's day is on May 12 this year. While that may seem a way off yet, it's closer than it appears. The time to think of how to honor Mom is now.

If you have a book-loving mom, what to get her is always easily solved. Books, books, and more books! However, this year I recommend putting a bit of a twist on things: a book reading package.

Every book reading package should be developed around a book. For your mom's reading entertainment, I recommend The Blood Rose Rebellion, by Rosalyn Eves. This historical fantasy takes place in 1847 London in a version of history where magic is wielded only by the upper class and its usage is governed by a select few known as The Circle. Anna Arden lives as a Barren member of this society. Not only does she lack the ability to use magic, but magic tends to go horribly wrong in her presence. When Anna accidentally ruins the societal debut of her sister, her mother sends her away to Hungary. There, Anna discovers that things are much more complex than she could have imagined, both in her life and in society, and she is forced to make a decision that will change the world as she knows it.

I enjoyed this book for it's Pride and Prejudice-with-magic vibe. The characters are well drawn and complex, and the conflict is believable and relevant. Although the page count of this book may seem hefty, the prose reads so smoothly that when you are finished reading you will wonder how you devoured the entire story so quickly.

As your mom is reading, she's going to want something to drink. I recommend Twinnings Orange and Cinnamon Spice tea. I have spent many years searching for the perfect orange-flavored tea, and I believe this is the one. It is light with a mild touch of fruitiness and a dash of cinnamon spice. The flavor can best described as that first hint of autumn that you sense in the cold breeze on a late August day. Mmmm...

Of course, your mom is going to be so in love with her book that she won't be able to stop raving about it. This will make you want to read it. She knows this, as well as she knows the likeness of never getting the book back, so round out her book reading package with a personalized book embosser. It's like a book plate, but on a much more elevated level. I learned that this was even a thing a few weeks ago, when one of my students was showing off the effect of the embosser she had just received from her mother. Oh. my. Goodness. Y'all, I'm not sure how I ever lived without this in my life. I'm not ashamed to admit that I ordered one for myself without even thinking about waiting to receive on for Mother's Day. As soon as mine arrives, I am going to spend however-many-hours-it-takes personally embossing every book in my library.

Granted, your book-loving, fantasy-reading mom will love whatever you do to remember her on Mother's Day. You will even earn high marks if your gift consists of nothing but books. But for the touch that really says, “I love you, Mom,” these Top Three picks are unique and personal.

(Okay, I have to confess I feel like a sponsor on an infomercial, but I truly hope you found this Top Three helpful. Let's keep the momentum going for those who are still searching for gift-giving inspiration. Please leave your gift recommendations for fantasy-reading, book-loving moms in the comments.)

Until next time,

~ Happy Reading!

A Top 3 Tribute to Mothers (Julie)

This weekend we celebrate our mothers. So I was thinking about books that have strong mother characters, but sadly, came up somewhat lacking. In many YA books, parents tend to be clueless and helpless, and it's up to the child to save the day. In fact, a lot of books have the mother kidnapped and the kid(s) has to save her.

In honor of our mothers, I've racked my brain and goodreads list to come up with 3 stories, in no particular order, with strong(ish) mother characters.


1) The Menagerie:The main character's mother is missing, but his friend's mom is around through this trilogy. The kids respect her and she is smart and wise and actually works together with the kids to save the day. 

2) Land of Stories:The mom in this series is well loved by her two kids. She does get kidnapped in one of the later books, but even through that experience she stays strong and tries to be useful.

3) Harry Potter series. Harry's parents are dead, but I really like Ron's parents. Mrs. Weasley is a lot of fun and a formidable mom. Definitely not the clueless, helpless mother of so many books.


Honorable mention: Pride and Prejudice. Ahh... Mrs. Bennet. What a mother! As with any mother with five daughters, she only wants to see them married, to a man with money. All the while vexing her family while working out her schemes.

Do you know of other books with strong mother characters?

Life is Unpredictable (Laurie)

Hello friends! I'm filling in for Laura, who just got back from an amazing writing workshop.

In trying to figure out what to write about today, I just kept coming back to the fact that the past few days have not gone as planned. At all. Not in any huge, life-changing kind of way. Just in lots of little ways that add up throughout the day.

Let's take Mother's Day, for instance. We went to a lovely church service, came home and had a nice lunch, then I got to open a few cards and a thoughtful gift. So far, so good. But I'd made a dinner reservation for that evening, which I could tell my husband wasn't too enthused about. To be fair, his concerns stemmed from the stress of trying to find foods that would be safe for my son who has allergies. I thought it through, and made a new plan. We would cancel the dinner reservation and instead have dinner at Noodles & Co, which we know has options that work for my son. Then, to make the day feel more special, we'd get ice cream nearby and enjoy it while walking on a beautiful lake front. Perfect.

But my sons were very tired, so they took really long naps. My husband, who is recovering from some kind of cold / sinus infection, also took a really long nap. Now, an afternoon where I knew I'd have tons of alone time would've been extremely welcome, but in this case I didn't quite know what to do with myself. By the time we went to dinner, it was 7:00. Dinner went fine, complete with my boys demonstrating some very creative dance moves out on the patio of the restaurant. But we hurried them along, hoping we'd still have time for ice cream. We made it to the ice cream shop, only to discover a sign declaring a risk of allergen cross-contamination across all their products (I had called ahead of time to check and they hadn't mentioned it). So, disappointed, we walked right back out again. But we did have a lovely walk along the pier, complete with a gorgeous sunset. And we stopped at a grocery store on the way home to pick up some ice cream, which we ate right in the comfort of our own kitchen :)

Yesterday, I planned to get my boys down for naps early so they'd be ready for their last day of swim lessons. Instead, we ended up taking my younger son to the doctor after lunch when he had a 103-degree fever and sores on his hands. Today, we're supposed to have storms all day, some of which could be severe, so I can't plan much of anything. Even while writing this post, I had 10+ distractions from my kids.

Life doesn't go as planned. You'd think I'd know that by now, but it's still hard for me to accept. I like to have a plan, to know what to expect, and to feel in control. But that's not how it works. It's hard, but it also can be a good thing. Because the unplanned leaves room for surprise blessings, such as the fun of having late-night ice cream at our kitchen table on Mother's Day. The unplanned also requires us to trust in God, because no matter how prepared we are things won't go as expected, and those are the moments we must rely on God to get us through and to have a better plan than ours. So I guess it's okay that I'm not in control, after all - I just have to keep working on not getting so stressed about it :)


How about you? Are you a planner, or do you like to take each day as it comes? Do you get anxious when things don't go according to plan? Do you have any strategies for embracing unpredictability?


Thanks for reading!
Laurie


P.S. I hope all you fellow moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! Whether it went as planned or not :)