09/24/2026
Here's what Sara read in August:
Earth by David Brin
The Spellshop (Spellshop #1) by Sarah Beth Durst
The Enchanted Greenhouse (Spellshop #2) by Sarah Beth Durst
Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacao's Soul by Rowan Jacobsen
Science & the Sacred: Beyond the Gods in Our Image by C.S. Pearce & Philip Clayton
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult & When We Love Them by Danielle Mestyanek Young
And her thoughts:
Sarah Beth Durst's The Spellshop and The Enchanted Greenhouse are cozy fantasy that has me actually wanting to keep reading. Such a lovely world; enough tension but not too much, enough tragedy, but not too much, enough relationship stuff but not too much. Just cozy and perfect escapism (I liked the Greenhouse best - I have a lot of plants and this would be heaven - it was a toss up between flying dragon-cats and dragons the size of bees).
Earth by David Brin is one I re-read on a consistent basis. Written in 1990 is is startlingly prescient; and holds up. I love the Gaia hypothesis, and the physics and geology and hydrology are pretty amazing; and the PREMISE of the whole thing is potentially earth shattering. I love it more each time I read it.
Wild Chocolate by Rowan Jacobsen resulted in me buying artisanal chocolate, and a molinillo to froth it. What we think of as chocolate can be so much more and some searching out single origin chocolate and tasting and testing just made the whole thing even more delicious. Did YOU know chocolate had terroir like w**e?!
The Culting of America is a sobering but useful read on more than just cults, or MAGA, or even what it means to be “in” or “out” and how it affects our behavior. Former US Army captain who left a religious cult, and joined a military one (her words - and as an Army veteran, I don’t disagree!), and got a PhD in organizational psychology - so she knows of what she speaks! The what to do, how to resist, and what it means is all useful information, albeit, challenging.
