The Importance of Farms, Genre Bending, Cozy Magic, and Mythic Historical Fiction

In my original draft, I was lamenting the “hurry up and wait” mentality that was driving me slightly batty. We have a lot of balls in the air surrounding travel and moving, and while I’m well aware that it’s all very outside of my control, I really wish I was more in control of it all. Well, just as I was finished with this draft, I got some notifications that showed positive progress and some answers, yay! One of the toughest parts of life for me is dealing with the uncertainty and unknowns of the future, but it’s a big part of military life. The Serenity Prayer is well on its way to becoming my mantra this year.

It’s not all doom and gloom over here, though. My guest post for Military OneSource was posted last week, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to share my story and perspective with such a large audience. I’ve been working on a date-night mini-series for Guam Guide, and my Valentine’s Day article is now live. My reflections and tips on making friends as a military spouse was posted on Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life as well. This week will continue to be a flurry of publications for me, and it’s always such a gratifying moment to see my name in print. I’m especially excited for opportunities to share advice, tips, and my story. I had never imagined that I would be a Navy wife and live on the other side of the world, and I relied so much on blogs, articles, and YouTube videos to find my way through new experiences. I’ve been dedicating my work this year to “passing it on” and hopefully bringing some hope, clarity, and confidence to other new spouses who find themselves in confusing, lonely, and anxious situations.

Today we’re diving into a nonfiction book I wanted to love but found too preachy, an experimental book I absolutely loved, a cozy book with sparks of magic, and a historical fiction book whose hype was lost on me.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Here’s the thing about Kingsolver’s writing. She’s passionate and poetic, but she is also preachy to the point of being unrelatable and better than thou. I went in wanting to love this book, and while there are valuable takeaways, it’s just a little too much at times. In essence, that’s how I feel about all her work. The writing is beautiful, but the preaching becomes tiresome.

Kingsolver, her husband, and their two daughters moved back to rural western Virginia and set a goal of predominantly living off their land. They wanted to be less reliant on farms hundreds of miles away and to embrace eating locally and seasonally. In theory, I love this idea! My family owns a chemical-free farm, and I believe in the power of fresh, nutritious food, supporting small businesses, and protecting farmland. Eating what’s fresh in your region is always a good idea, but gosh darn it I do love eating tomatoes and strawberries in the wintertime, and I don’t want to feel bad about it. Kingsolver’s judgement upon those who don’t prescribe to her lofty ideals feels harsh given how fortunate she was to conduct her food experiment in the first place, and her commentary on America’s broken food systems and potential solutions is a bit too heavy handed. Yes, it would be lovely to own a farm with generous neighbors and friends who are willing to help and to be close buddies with all the producers at the farmers market. However, this is not going to be the case for most Americans. Farming is physically demanding, financially expensive, and anxious work. It is some of the noblest, most essential work you can do, but it isn’t all the sunshine and rainbows that Kingsolver makes it out to be. I so admire those homesteaders who live off the land, but I also tip my hat to people who visit their weekly farmers market to buy corn when it’s in season. Eating the rainbow at all times of the year is a miracle of modernity, but picking blackberries bursting with flavor right off the bush is a miracle too. Kingsolver’s experiment is extreme to prove a point, but I also think her approach is alienating for readers.

My family owns Rose Hill Heritage Farm 1630, a chemical-free farm in Suffolk, Virginia.

Please, I ask you nicely, support farmers markets and small, family-run farms (like Rose Hill Heritage Farm 1630). Support chemical-free, responsible farming practices that help the land and waterways more than they hurt them. Purchase an heirloom vegetable and really savor it. Pay attention to where your food comes from. But don’t feel bad when you purchase a banana or order a cheeseburger or buy shredded cheese instead of making your own mozzarella. Kingsolver is absolutely right that farming is essential work and that we all can make a positive difference in our food systems by eating locally and seasonally. I just don’t want to be beaten over the head by a glossy poster-family who barely seem to struggle in their return to rural roots.

My family also sells homemade baked goods and freshly roasted coffee. I am so proud of them and all that they've accomplished!

North Woods by Daniel Mason

I saw this one recommended by FictionMatters and picked up a copy at the Naval Base’s library. To me, this is the definition of modern literary fiction and was deserving of all the awards and praise it received. It blended genres, it experimented boldly and beautifully with voice, and it kept me turning the pages and constantly guessing.

The concept, at face value, is a simple one. The novel follows the inhabitants and visitors of a house in New England across hundreds of years and slowly reveals how their lives and fates intersect. The story, in execution, contains multitudes. In some instances, it is written in the form of a letter. In other chapters it zooms in on a beetle in shocking and surprisingly delightful detail. In other sections it has songs and ghost stories and crime reporting. It wavers from historical fiction to gothic to something you can’t quite but your finger on. Each story feels like its own immersive world with memorable narrators and casts of characters, and it felt difficult to be torn away. However, crumbs and traces of past stories steep their way into future stories in unexpected ways, and the connections are thrilling, spooky, and just downright fun. It’s hard to predict what will come next, and the depth, breadth, and sheer variety of voices and characters made you feel like you’ve explored many authors and novels instead of just one. I don’t say this to mean that the novel felt disjointed; rather, I mean that Mason showcased his talent for unrivaled versatility.

It’s a novel I wish I could read again for the first time just to feel the same anticipation, surprise, and curiosity all over again. If you don’t mind being patient and going in without expecting a clear and straightforward plot, you will find so much to enjoy. If, however, you want a novel that fits cleanly and clearly within the historical fiction or gothic genres and traces a singular family experience with a unifying voice, you’ll be disappointed. Let this be an invitation to be open and trusting in a thoroughly unexpected and ever-changing reading experience.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Mandanna Sangu

This was a book club pick that was the perfect amount of warm and cozy. Mika Moon is a modern-day witch who has been told since childhood that she must hide her powers and stay away from other witches…or else. However, this results in some loneliness and lack of fulfilment and a whole lot of unanswered questions. Everything changes when Mika accepts a job as a magical instructor for three young girls in a mysterious mansion hidden away in the countryside. Mika becomes part of the eclectic found family of the loving staff, and she even has a love story of her own while finding greater love and confidence for herself. While there are some stressors about keeping the girls’ identities hidden and a darker secret lurking beneath the sunshiny surface of the magical countryside mansion, the novel is light and fluffy and thoroughly focused on the power of relationships. It’s a quick read that feels like a warm hug and will keep you smiling throughout. If you’re like me and want something a little supernatural but without any of the spooky elements, this is a great choice for next Halloween.

Lovely War by Julie Berry

I have to say, I just don’t get Berry’s central choice in this narrative. Lovely War follows two separate narrative threads: the conflict between the Greek gods and the seemingly doomed but beautiful love stories that unfold against the backdrop of World War I. While Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Ares having a dispute is interesting as a concept, it feels forced into what is an otherwise traditional and expected historical fiction/romance story. The Greek gods don’t do anything to enhance the narrative, and I feel like they do more to take away from the pacing of the story (which already suffers from a sluggish start).

While readers rave about the characters, the love story, the tragedy, and the prose, the story just fell flat for me. I didn’t deeply connect with either love story, the pacing dragged, and while I appreciate that World War I and African American musicians were highlighted (two topics that rarely make the rounds in popular historical fiction), I felt like there wasn’t anything that really stuck with me or stuck out to me. In a market saturated with stories about war, loss, and love, I think there are other options to enjoy before seeking this one out.

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Watching: The Flour Barn Homestead is such a cozy YouTube channel that spotlights a family-run bakery in Ohio. I could watch them roll out cinnamon rolls all day, and they’re great inspiration for my own baking. On a far less cozy note, Tom and I watched and loved Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials on Netflix. It starts off a little slow, but the body count accumulates quickly. The cast is delightful, the wide shots are so aesthetically pleasing, and the tension is high. It kept me guessing throughout, and I love its tone and spirit. If you liked the Thursday Murder Club, Man on the Inside, and Knives Out, this is another one you’ll enjoy.

Listening: The Testament of Ann Lee has an oddly addicting soundtrack, and while it’s not playing in theaters in Guam right now, I’ll probably watch it when it comes out on streaming. I’m also back onto audiobooks again after a two-week slump, and I have Sarah Adams’s cozy small-town romance to thank for that. I love having a male and female narrator, and it’s the fluffy kind of immersive read that makes it easy to listen to while you’re doing housework. I’ve listened to her When in Rome series completely out of order and am so bummed that the first book isn’t available on audio with either of my library cards. It looks like I’ll have to save up my audiobook hours on Spotify instead.

Cooking: Wanting to avoid an iron supplement if I can, I’m trying to be intentional about iron and protein in my diet. I’ve been cooking a lot with red meat, and I love when Tom can help me to cook steak. My favorite dinner last week was steak with roasted sweet potatoes. Fresh vegetables haven’t been varied or abundant at the Commissary lately, so I’ve been relying more on my freezer and canned stashes and my sturdier root vegetables and gourds. Hamburgers, ground turkey pasta sauce, roasted sheet pan gnocchi with vegetables and chicken sausage, and beef stroganoff were all reliable favorites in the recent rotation.  

Baking: My current craving is thick, gooey chocolate chip cookies, so I’ve gone down an Instagram rabbit hole learning about micro-bakeries and their cookie-making tricks. I’ve added chocolate chunks alongside chocolate chips, and I love the extra chocolate-boost and gooiness it adds. My next step will be chilling the dough overnight, a step I should have followed with Iram Mansoor’s recipe I saw on Instagram, but I got too impatient to wait. The cookies tasted great without the chilling, but the edges browned, the cookie spread too thin, and the middle was underdone. Lesson learned, patience is key. I remembered that Mom used to make chocolate cake donuts, and I finally had an excuse to break out my  donut pan when she sent me the recipe. They’re thick, chocolatey, rich, and so, so addictive. If you dip them in milk, they’re perfect.

Doing: Tom and I went to trivia with a friend, and we got second place; not too bad considering the massive size of some of the other teams. I also started a coffee shop meetup group for military spouses who are interested in reading and writing. We had our first meetup on Sunday, and it was a nice opportunity to meet people with similar interests.