The Other Einstein | Marie Benedict

Title: The Other Einstein

Author: Marie Benedict

Length: 304 pages

Publication date: October 18, 2016

Genre: Historical fiction

Rating: 3/5

I find it kind of interesting that there's basically a genre of fiction books about women who were married to famous men in the early 1900s. I've read The Paris Wife, which is about Ernest Hemingway's first wife Hadley Richardson, and I have Z, which is about Zelda Fitzgerald, waiting on my TBR shelf. When I first started reading The Other Einstein, I didn't know that's what I was getting into.

The Other Einstein is a fictional account from the perspective of Mileva Maric, who was Albert Einstein's first wife. They met in the late 1890s in a physics class. Mileva was the only woman in the program, and that's where she caught Albert's eye. They formed an intellectual connection first, which eventually led to a romantic relationship. The book essentially starts right when they meet and goes through their relationship and marriage. It was really fascinating because Mileva was a female physicist at the turn of the century, when women still weren't accepted in those fields at all. There isn't a lot actually known about her influence on her husband's theories, but this author speculates that she had a large role in his most famous work. The story doesn't get very technical about it (which I appreciated ha) but it was still interesting. I didn't feel super connected to the story, and there were parts when I could tell that it was a debut novel, but I still thought it was an interesting account. I would recommend if you're a fan of this "genre" of historical fiction.

None Like Him | Jen Wilkin

Title: None Like Him

Author: Jen Wilkin

Length: 163 pages

Publication date: April 30, 2016

Genre: Christian non-fiction

Rating: 4.5/5

I have an interesting relationship with reading books about Christian growth. I always want to read more, because I don't read much non-fiction at all, but I'm always leery in the back of my mind about the content of them, in terms of what kind of view the author has of God and the Bible. I was very pleased to read None Like Him, because this is a book I can very readily recommend!

In None Like Him, the author Jen Wilkin explores 10 different ways that God is different from us. I loved this take on exploring God's character, because I know I very often start to feel really good about myself as a Christian and think that I am well on my way to perfection. Well, if you read this book you're going to get a reality check. You're also going to grow in the fear of the Lord, which is always a good thing. In Wilkin's comparisons of God's character and human character, I realized that there were indeed some areas where I had made God more like me in my mind. (I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.) The good news is that God is very much not like me, and praise Him for that! I think Jen Wilkin has a very Biblical view of God and a right understanding of the Bible. I feel like there may have been one statement that gave me pause, but now I can't even remember what it was so it couldn't have been that bad.) Her reflections of God and our relation to Him was really insightful.

At the end of the chapters there are devotional questions and Scripture passages for reflection and meditation, as well as a guided prayer to close. I listened to this book on audio at work (side note, it's narrated by Wilkin herself) so I wasn't able to engage with those sections, but I'm itching to buy a physical copy so that I can have this wonderful resource in my collection! I definitely see myself coming back to this book often. I also want to pick up her other book, Women of the Word, because I can tell by her passion about the Bible in this book that it will be just as good.

The Ship || Antonia Honeywell

Title: The Ship

Author: Antonia Honeywell

Length: 336 pages

Publication date: April 25, 2017

Genre: Post-apocalyptic 

Rating: 2.5/5

I love reading post-apocalyptic fiction. I think I'm always looking for something that can compare with Station Eleven, which is one of my most favourite books. So far I haven't had any luck but I'm still trying. When I saw The Ship available on Netgalley, I had to give it a shot. 


Our main character Lalla has just turned 16. She has grown up in a world that has fallen apart. The oceans have risen significantly, the earth has been stripped of crops and trees. In attempts to monitor and control the population, everyone is required to have identity cards. If you don't have an identity card, you don't exist. The world has fallen into chaos. Lalla's father has come up with an escape plan of sorts, and on Lalla's 16th birthday it is time to escape. They head to the ship, a floating utopia with everything they need to survive a journey to somewhere where they can start over, along with 500 other people that Lalla's father has chosen to come with them. The ship seems perfect on the surface, but Lalla feels like something sinister is going on behind the scenes...


This book had so much potential for me. The premise was so interesting and I really wanted to know about the world, what happened on a global scale. It was hinted at but there wasn't a lot of exposition on that. 

The pacing was really weird. It felt like tons of time should have passed, but then Lalla will remark on the tally she's kept of how many days they've been on the ship and it's only been a few weeks since the last mention of her tally. The way things progressed just felt like they should've taken longer than what they did. It also felt quite repetitive toward the middle. The story is told as first-person narrative from Lalla's point of view, and she just thinks about the same things over and over. Her thoughts don't really vary at all. A few things happen here and there, but mostly Lalla walks around confused and frustrated that things seem too good to be true, but then does nothing about it. She just thinks about it a lot. 

Lalla is also supposed to be 16, but the way she is written I kept thinking she was 10 or 11. She is meant to be very sheltered by her parents, so I can see how that would make her more immature, but it just didn't jive with me. The rest of the characters didn't connect with me at all. They all just felt really generic shells of people. The dynamic between the people on the ship and Lalla's dad was a cult-cult leader dynamic, and that could have been played up a bit more, I think. There were some weird things going on there, but I just didn't feel anything. It felt like something I'd read before. 


I think my biggest problem was that everyone just felt like a paper cutout. The world these people came from was horrible and any backstory that was mentioned was really interesting. You would think that people that came from that place would have more feeling, but everyone was so bland. I always lean more towards characters than plot, but this book do either of those strongly. I knew what was happening almost right away, but it took Lalla almost the whole book to figure it out.

I can't really recommend this book, but I wouldn't say don't read it either. Like I said, there was so much potential, and maybe it will do for you what it didn't do for me. I did also read The Time Being, which is a short story prequel to The Ship. It added a little backstory, so I would recommend reading that if you do read The Ship.

I'll just keep on my search for the next Station Eleven, I suppose...


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Beauty & the Beast || Mallory Reaves

Title: Beauty & The Beast 

Author: Mallory Reaves

Length: 160 pages (each)

Publication date: April 18, 2017

Genre: fairy tale, manga

Rating: 3.5/5

While I wouldn't say that Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney movie (that honour goes to Tangled), it is definitely up there in the top 3. I mean, what bookworm can't relate to Belle? I really enjoyed the new live action film that came out this spring as well. I liked some of the ways they drew out the characters and gave them more depth. When I saw this manga duology, I just had to read it. The story arc is pretty much the movie verbatim, with the addition of some inner thoughts. Volume 1 follows Belle's story, and volume 2 follows the Beast. The art wasn't amazing, kind of typical manga, and of course the story got really simplified from the movie. But if you're a fan of the movie I'd recommend this for a fast and fun read. 

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink.

I wanted to sit down and write a blog post, but now I'm here and I don't know what to write about! I have a clever title and that's about it.

(I have actually been wearing pink on Wednesdays lately because I'm cool like that.)

Summer definitely feels like it's ramping up over here. Tomorrow is our last Bible study meeting before we break for summer, and I've only got a few more weeks of choir practice before that's done for the summer as well. I really love all of my church activities, but I'm ready to use my evenings to work on projects I've been putting off. I always tell myself winter is a good time for projects because I'm inside anyway, but no, I just end up reading and knitting. So I plan to tackle my very long list of to-dos over the next couple of months. Maybe I'll have to blog about it to get my motivation up! Hmmm... watch this space.

The plan this weekend (over the long weekend, yes!) is to paint a couple of bookshelves. Maybe 3... if I can convince myself to do that. It is supposed to rain all weekend (because that's what it does on May Long weekend, it rains) so I may just set up camp in the kitchen. But painting is it. I'm reading the rest of the weekend!

T5W: Summer Reads

It's warming up here in Manitoba and I'm starting to think about the books I want to read this summer! So today's Top 5 Wednesday topic is pretty fitting. Today we're talking about summer reads, books that remind you of summer and what you would recommend other people read this summer. Without further ado...

1. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour - Morgan Matson
I read this as my first MM book last summer, and it was just perfect. It's a road trip story, so if that doesn't say summer then I don't know what does.

2. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
Another story that takes place over a summer and features a bit of a road trip. I know not everyone likes John Green's books but I personally love them. His characters are kind of pretentious, but in the way that teenagers often are. I find them so relateable to my teenage self.

3. Summer Days & Summer Nights - edited by Stephanie Perkins
I didn't love every story in this short story collection, but most of them were super cute. I just realized that 4 out of my 5 recommendations are YA so sorry about that, but that's how I feel.

4. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series - Ann Brashares
This was my quintessential series as a teenager. I reread them summer of 2015 and it was a great time. All of the books take place over summer, and they have that perfect feeling.

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - Douglas Adams
This one might seem a little random, but for me, I always want to reread this series over the summer months. It might be because they're fun and crazy, and I just read through them really fast, which is something you want in a summer book. Maybe it's because I first read through them in the summer. But whatever the case may be, when I think of summer books, these definitely come to mind.

What do you think of my list? What are some of your top summer reads?

Mer || Joelle Sellner

Title: Mer

Author: Joelle Sellner

Length: 128 pages

Publication date: April 19, 2017

Genre: YA urban fantasy graphic novel

Confession: I am a sucker for anything that promises to have mermaids or has to do with Atlantis. So when I saw the cover of this graphic novel on Netgalley, I didn't need any more information before I hit that request button.

Mer tells the story of Aryn, who has moved to a new city with her dad and sister a few months after her mother passed away. She isn't pleased about it, but meets some kids at school that befriend her pretty quickly. What she doesn't know is that they have some dangerous secrets...

What I liked about it:

1. I liked the mer-people aspect, obviously. 
2. It was a fast read.
3. It was about mer-people. That came from Atlantis.

What I didn't like about it:

1. The characters were really under-developed.
2. The story was really typical, it didn't do much that was unexpected.
3. The dialogue was quite awkward, it just didn't feel like how people actually talk.

I wouldn't recommend buying it, but if you see it at the library and you want to stay occupied for a half hour, I'd pick it up. 

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.