The Centurion's Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke

The entirety of The Centurion's Wife takes place within an 8 week period during 33AD.  It starts just after Passover when Leah is told that a Centurion has asked to marry her.  Leah is kept as a servant in Pilate's house, whilst also being his niece.  As Pontius Pilate is concerned that Jesus' followers will start rioting and a revolution after His death, Pilate's wife asks Leah to find out what she can about these rabble-rousers and determine whether they pose any threat to the peace that Pilate seeks to maintain.

The blurb says:

Janette Oke has dreamed for years of retelling a story in a biblical time frame from a female protagonist's perspective, and Davis Bunn is elated to be working with her again on this sweeping saga of the dramatic events surrounding the birth of Christianity. . .and the very personal story of Leah, a young Jewess of mixed heritage trapped in a vortex of competing political agendas and private trauma. Caught up in the maelstrom following the death of an obscure rabbi in the Roman backwater of first century Palestine, Leah finds herself also engulfed in her own turmoil facing the prospect of an arranged marriage to a Roman soldier, Alban, who seems to care for nothing but his own ambitions. Head of the garrison near Galilee, he has been assigned by Palestine's governor to ferret out the truth behind rumors of a political execution gone awry. Leah's mistress, the governor's wife, secretly commissions Leah also to discover what really has become of this man whose death and missing body is causing such furor. This epic drama is threaded with the tale of an unlikely romance and framed with dangers and betrayals from unexpected sources. At its core, The Centurion's Wife unfolds the testing of loyalties between two young people whose inner searchings they cannot express, between their irreconcilable heritages, and ultimately between their humanity and the Divine they yearn to encounter.

This book is a romance that would also be enjoyed by those who like historical or political fiction too.  The Centurion's Wife was recommended to me by a friend from church, but in all honesty, I was not expecting it to be as good as it was. 

Leah's family met hard times, and though she was living as the personal servant to Pilate's wife, she was an intelligent and independent woman who made the most of her situation, and did not want to lose the little freedom she has by being married off to a soldier.  Having a good knowledge of the Bible and the events after Jesus's crucifixion, it was interesting to see that as the backdrop of this unexpected romance.  I liked how these fictional characters were interwoven with the historical characters of Pilate, Herod, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Martha, Lazarus etc. and though it is fiction all the events are entirely plausible.  I also liked that the story focuses on strong women in a historical setting where that would have been difficult.

I really enjoyed this book.  I read it in a day, and even though I knew the story of the context, I wanted to find out what happened between Leah and the Centurion.  My only slight niggle is with the title - Leah and Alban only get betrothed at the halfway mark in the book, and the actual wedding celebration isn't until the end of the book, but that's only a minor thing.

Weekly Update Y2w26

Halfway through the year and I have lost 5.1 kg since January 1st; that's just over 11 lbs in old money.  That is a lot less than I would have hoped I would have lost by this point in the year, but I cannot get too disheartened.  My progress is steady, I am losing weight and I am forming new habits - that's a big win!

This week, I have been focusing on eating Veggies Most, as coined by the 2B Mindset, and it seems to be working.  I am feeling full and satisfied and genuinely am craving more vegetables in preference to other foods.  It's bizarre! lol

Here's a selection of the foods I've been eating:

Cabbage Steak with Piccalilli

 To bake the cabbage steak and the carrots, I simply lay them on a baking tray, coat with onion salt and garlic powder and a spritz of oil, before baking at 180C for 20+min, until they look soft and yummy.  I flip the cabbage steak halfway through baking, and the edges start to caramelise.

The topping for the first picture is sliced onions and chorizo, fried together.  As chorizo is a strong flavour, I kept to the basic for my baked veg.  Alternatives can be adding cumin, chilli or Mexican spices before baking the cabbage.  Then I added piccalilli mixed with a little yoghurt and thinned with vinegar so it goes further.

Naked Cheeseburger and Salad

By buying decent thick burgers, you honestly don't need the bread roll.  I've had burgers with cheese and BBQ sauce, or more piccalilli (I've only just discovered I like it), on a bed of spinach, cucumber, tomato, mushrooms etc and it is really filling and satisfying.  As a bread lover, this has been the main surprise for me, that I can enjoy traditionally breaded food without it!

Cabbage Steak with Mushrooms

The third picture shows cabbage steaks and carrots again (I love baked carrots - I feel like my eyes have been opened and atm I could eat them every day!), this time with mushrooms and spring onions on top.  I also made a sauce to accessorise them, of Korean BBQ sauce (which was too spicy for me) with Greek yoghurt and vinegar.  It was sweet, and tangy and spicy.  Despite having cabbage steaks twice this week, I don't love them, but with strong flavoured sauces, you can change what you're eating to keep it exciting and fresh.

This coming week, my plan is to keep eating the vegetables, and to keep off traditional carbs after lunchtime (I am still eating fruit and the occasional dessert or glass of wine in the evenings).  I am really noticing that this is making a difference (when I stick to it) to both my weight and to how my body feels in terms of bloatedness and hunger.

Exercise-wise, I have shifted my focus, so I am not worrying too much about getting the exercise done, but since lockdown has eased, I did walk 4.5km with a friend last Monday, and we plan to walk further this afternoon.  It may not be much, but this is a good habit for me to develop as it feels more like fun than hard work.

If I didn't Care by Kait Nolan

If I Didn't Care was my N in the series.  It is about best friends Judd and Autumn who have a shared trauma from the past which shapes their future lives - Autumn's father tried to kill them both. Set in the small town of Wishful, the story centres on these two characters as they try and deal with the fact that Autumn's father is being released from prison.

The blurb says:

He has one mission

Since they were children, career cop Judd Hamilton has built his life around taking care of his best friend, Autumn Buchanan. While he might once have dreamed of a different future for them, everything changed the day her father tried to kill them both. Determined to keep her safe, Judd put his feelings aside and turned his focus to protecting her, always.

She leads a double life

Nobody in their small town would ever dream that Autumn, Wishful's friendly librarian, is really successful erotic romantic suspense author, Rumor Fairchild. No one knows that the swoon-worthy hero of her series is based on her best friend, Judd. He's been fulfilling her rescue fantasies for years, and now she's ready to catapult them out of the friend zone to make her real life romance come true.

Their nightmare returns

But when the past comes full circle and Autumn's father returns to Wishful, even the power of Judd's badge isn't enough to keep her safe from the madman. If he wants the chance at a future with the one girl he's always loved, Judd may have to toss everything he's worked for aside to do the one job that matters.

This book is a romance, but with a definite suspense element to it. Though the who-done-it side of things was quite predictable (I won't say more as to not give it away), the build up of suspense and the plot was really good. There are plenty of humorous scenes too, especially at the book club...

If I Didn't Care is the first of the Wishing For A Hero series, and I happily spent a day being immersed in Autumn and Judd's lives.

Reading List O-Z

As I finished yet another book yesterday (I'll write a review of If I Didn't Care by Kait Nolan soon), I was searching my Kindle for the next book to read based on author - I'm now on O.  I had to scroll through over 70 pages of books, just to get to author O!  (There may well be a quicker way of doing it on my kindle, but I can't seem to be able to search specifically for an author's letter, so scrolling it is.)  Given that I don't want to be repeating that all the time, especially as we progress through the alphabet I'll have to skip more and more pages, last night I chose and downloaded the books I will read for the rest of the alphabet.

Usually I go by gut-feel, so sometimes I'm in the mood for romance, sometimes a thriller, sometimes fantasy, sometimes Sci-Fi; sometimes I'll want to read a classic, other times I want to read something lighter.  It depends on what I have just read and what's going on in life.  Now, however, with this pre-chosen list I have to hope that I've chosen well.  As always, I have gone by the title and by the book cover, so though I may have an inkling of what the book is about, I am often wrong.

O - The Centurion's Wife by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn
P - Ties that Bind by Anne Patrick
Q - Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn
R - Rise of the Dragons by Morgan Rice
S - The Lanvin Murders by Angela M Sanders
T - Incarnation by Jason Tesar
U - [ETA: Plague 99 by Jean Ure]
V - Stronger than Magic by Melinda VanLone
W - Now, Then and Everywhen by Rysa Walker
X - [ETA: On Her Own Two Wheels by Stacy Xavier]
Y - Forged in Rage by Sean Young
Z - The Forever Man 1 by Craig Zerf

As you can see, I am missing a U and an X.  Though I'm meant to be working my way through the books I have already bought, it does bug me somewhat that I'm missing just two of the letters of the alphabet.  If you know any fiction authors whose last names begin with these letters, please recommend them to me.  Ideally, I'd like a free book on Kindle (as the whole point of this was to not buy any more), but I'd be willing to pay a little just for completeness.

Toward a Liberalism by Richard Flathman

Towarda Liberalism is a philosophy book and I can only guess it was free at some point, as otherwise I don’t know why I would have bought it?

The blurb says:

In Toward a Liberalism, Richard Flathman shows why and how political theory can contribute to the quality of moral and political practice without violating, as empiricist- and idealist-based theories tend to do, liberal commitments to individuality and plurality. Exploring the tense but inevitable relationship between liberalism and authority, he advances a theory of democratic citizenship tempered by appreciation of the ways in which citizenship is implicated with and augments authority. Flathman examines the relationship of individual rights to freedom on one hand and to authority and power on the other, rejecting the quest for a single homogenous and authoritative liberal theory.

It’s a collection of essays and I confess that much of it was beyond my understanding, having never studied philosophy before. After finishing the first essay, I decided to persevere and read the other essays too, but many of the technical (philosophical) definitions were unknown to me, so though I understood the individual words, some of the sentences seemed to talk around in circles.

After each essay, I wrote up a brief description, and that has become a bit of an essay in itself.

The first essay is all about Theory and Practice. It centres around Oakeshott’s and Wittgenstein’s view on how philosophical theory and philosophical practice are related – or not. Not knowing beforehand what their views are (tbh, I hadn’t heard of them before) I was at a disadvantage, so could only go by the author’s description of their views and therefore his (the author) critique of their validity. I think the final two sentences in this essay to be a good summary:

But if liberalism acknowledges and welcomes the variety and changeable character of moral and political practices, if it recognizes and delights in the restless diversity of moral and political practitioners, these conclusions concerning the limitations and possibilities of theory and theorizing are neither surprising nor disturbing, neither to be resisted nor regretted. More than this the theorist of theory and practice cannot and should not try to say.

The second essay is all about the difference between in authority, an authority and authoritative. I found this essay much more understandable. It was shorter than the first essay, and kept on point. It still requires concentration, but I found myself nodding along as I was reading. My quoted summary of this essay:

Liberals are correct that authority is dangerous. … Nevertheless, by comparison with our other practices, authority abbreviates and truncates the processes of reflection and judgment through which agreement develops among free human beings.

The third essay is about authority and citizenship, and whether you can have one without the other. Authority is always objectionable as it only has a role when we’re unsure about the actions we should take. Some philosophers talk about high and low citizenship, but that doesn’t change the character of authority, rather the attitudes of citizens to that authority.

The fourth essay is about freedom, what freedom means and whether it is good or not. Within this chapter, there’s a section on religious freedom and freedom of religion, which I found much more understandable than other sections – probably because, being a Christian, it is relevant and therefore more interesting to me. It also discusses the link between freedom and perfectionism; and whether freedom is a liberal conception that has a role in political philosophy or not.

The fifth essay is about moderating rights, perhaps because of extremism attached to the rights itself resulting in ultra vires behaviours of those looking to reinforce those rights. Again, I have found this chapter very relatable to me, due to having encountered many Local Authorities who do act ultra vires surrounding Home Education – claiming that home educators must accept visits, and that we must send them samples of our children’s work etc (when in fact, most Elective Home Education Officers who work for the Local Authority have zero qualifications in education, let alone have knowledge of home education or child pedagogy). The essay then goes on to defend civil encroachment and civil non-enforcement. The essay ends:

If I am correct in thinking that extremism in the exercise of at least some rights is prevalent, and increased incidence of announced and defended civil encroachment might benefit the practice of rights in much the manner that civil disobedience has benefited the practice of authority.

The sixth essay looks specifically at the Theory of Rights and the Practice of Abortion. As somebody who used to be very anti-abortion, but now thinks it is correct that abortion is safe and legal – I just wish it was a service that never had to be used (see my previous blog on the topic) – I was interested to see what conclusions the essay would draw. It is quite a long chapter, so though it was interesting, it took a long time to read through. Sometimes I felt Flathman jumped in his reasoning, or made assumptions that I couldn’t quite logically follow (that is not to say they were illogical, just that I an a non-philosophy student could not follow them).

He goes through various arguments against abortion if the foetus is animate, sentient and possessed of reflexive consciousness. Within this latter discussion, Flathman says:

...it follows from these facts about it that the fetus should not be thought of a bearer or possessor of rights. To have a right is to be in a position to choose to exercise that right or not…

He then goes on to say that since a foetus cannot exercise that right, the fetus does not have any rights, and therefore the argument against a right to abortion due to the rights of the fetus is null and void. This is one of the arguments that I didn’t understand, since surely children are not in a position to exercise a particular right or not, but that doesn’t mean we have a right to infanticide; or women in some areas of the world may not know or not be in a position to exercise any rights, but that doesn’t mean that they should be walked over and treated as property. But as I said, it may be that I simply don’t understand the words that he is using, but this seems like a poor argument to me.

Flathman also uses the argument that “Abortions do not destroy human persons. Abortions destroy fetuses.” but does not elaborate as to when exactly the fetus does become a human, implying it is at the moment of birth. In fact he equates a fetus with being simply a sperm or ovum, and if a foetus should not be wasted, then it should similarly be prohibited to use contraceptives, masturbation or any kind of act where they may be destroyed. Yet a sperm on its own, or an egg on its own, will never become a foetus.

In the section entitled “Can a Legal or Moral Right in the Strict Sense to Abortion on Demand Be Justified?” Flathman expands on how such a right for one person impacts on other people – specifically if the second person has a moral/religious/other reasoning why they won’t perform the abortion.

The answer to these questions is a qualified yes.

…

The yes is qualified for the same kinds of reasons that have convinced a number of societies to qualify the obligations imposed on pacifists and other conscientious objectors to do military service in what are believed to be justified wars. … And so far we can [establish both a legal and moral right] without nullifying the right, we should excuse from the correlative obligations those persons for whom abortion remains morally unacceptable.

I will end my analysis of this essay by quoting a few sentences from his conclusion:

The concept of a right is one of the most widely used, and most commonly abused, items in our moral and political lexicon. We have claims to an extraordinary variety of rights and we find rights attributed to an astonishing diversity of creatures and things.
… because that case is very strong, and because its strength derives in no small part from the support it receives from the principle (LP) which provides the optimum bases for defending individual rights, a right to abortion on demand is exactly what women ought to have.

The final essay is entitled “Egalitarian Blood and Skeptical Turnips”. I don’t know if all my brain cells were used up on the previous essay, but I didn’t really get this. It discusses reasonings by Ackerman, and whether they are reasonable or not, but seemed to go round in circles to me. I can tell you that the essay was discussing Morality, Neutrality₁ and Neutrality₂, but in all honesty, I didn’t get my head around what they meant, nor which Neutrality was which. I did highlight some parts of the chapter, that I will quote below, but I can’t really remember why or the relevance of them.

Accordingly, he takes the familiar tack of contending that in reason everyone should or ought to agree to those policies and that those who do agree are justified in imposing the policies on those who fail to see the light.

And also,

Justifying policies by arguing that they contribute to this (or any other) agreed-upon end is a far cry from claiming that they are required because we cannot agree upon ends.

And finally,

If all that Ackerman gave us in support of egalitarian policies of Neutrality₁ was the skeptical foundations of Neutrality₂, he would have given us precisely nothing in support of those policies.

Overall, I am glad I stretched myself and read this collection of essays, even though I freely admit I didn’t understand it all, and that some spoke to me clearer than others. I have a friend who is currently studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics and I do now understand some of what she talks about, even if I can’t necessarily reply using correct philosophical terms.

Country Heaven by Ava Miles

This book was chosen as my M, and it was a good tonic to the previous book I read.

Country Heaven is a romance from the Dare River series.  It features Rye Crenshaw, a famous country singer who offers chef Tory a job for the summer on his tour bus, before she has to return to studying for her PhD.

The blurb says:

When famous—and infamous—country singer Rye Crenshaw saunters into the diner where she cooks, Tory Simmons is certain she’s got him pegged. He’s a bad boy rock star who indulges himself in all things, women included. But while she couldn’t care less about country music or arrogant men, Rye makes her an offer she can’t refuse when he asks her to be his private chef on his multi-city concert tour. The job is the answer to all her prayers: it will clear out her debt and finance the fresh start she desperately needs. Rye is certain his sassy new cook is the last woman who’d ever tempt him, but spending time with the wholesome girl next door will do wonders for his damaged public image, whether she likes being forced into the spotlight or not. Her food also happens to be the best he’s ever eaten, both comforting and seductive. But spending time with Tory on the road shows him a new side to her—one that’s as impossible to resist as her food. And when an emergency in his family whisks him home, he does the one thing he’s never risked: he lets a woman into his heart… Soon the emotions Rye faked for the tabloids become all too real, but will the country heaven he’s found in Tory’s arms survive in the real world? 

This is a romance, but not quite as predictable as they often are in this genre.  Much of the story is taken up with Rye's difficult family (which leads nicely into other books in the series) with domineering matriarchs and overbearing patriarchs.  There is much forgiveness in this book too - not for everybody, but overall this is a nice, uplifting book.  I enjoyed it.

Weekly Update Y2w25

I think my weight is in stabilising mode (ish).  This week, I've had three not-so-healthy eating days - yes, I am trying not to label them 'bad'.  That's why I'm thinking of this being in stabilising mode, rather than thinking my weight is rising again and giving up.

One night last week we had an Indian takeaway, and I was 'good' (you're right, I shouldn't be using that word either) and stopped eating when I got full, but having rice and bread that late at night, not to mention the amount of fat and cream that was in the curries (conveniently forgetting the lack of vegetables, even with ordering a side of onion bhajis and mushroom bhajis) meant I wasn't surprised that my weight rose dramatically the next day.

Last week my husband dropped hints (by buying a premixed packet!) that he wants a giant cookie for Father's Day, so on Saturday I ended up making it by myself whilst the girls were playing Minecraft together.  Despite not having any distractions, I forgot to put the chocolate chips in - doh!  Hindsight says I should have used the choc chips with the packet of icing for decoration. Did I do that? Nope.  No, I thought it would be better to use the choc chips in cookies, if that's what DH was expecting.  So I found a recipe online for basic cookie mix, and made more cookies. I hadn't noticed how many cookies the recipe was for, and there was far too much mixture for the number of choc chips, so I took some of the mixture and used the chips for that.  Then I took some more mixture and mixed it with hot chocolate powder and cocoa powder (my girls don't like it if the chocolate taste is too dark/bitter), and the rest I made into oatmeal and raisin cookies.  I made TWENTY FOUR extra ones, plus the giant cookie that I had made earlier! And that wasn't the only mistake - I made the icing for the giant one according to the recipe but it was too liquid, so I added all the icing sugar I had, and that still wasn't enough, so I had to add flour to thicken it up. 

As we had a movie night on Saturday, which ended up being a Who-vie night, because the girls wanted to watch episode after episode of Dr Who instead of a film, we ate some of the mini cookies then.  On Sunday, Father's Day, we ate the rest of the cookies and the large one.  Yes, I set myself up for failure by making too many cookies, and I succeeded at that failure by eating them all.  Not by myself - I'm not quite that bad, but it certainly wasn't veggies most.

This week, I'm going to try and go back to eating a lot of vegetables and drinking water.  If I have carbs and grains, I want to eat them at lunchtime so they can be digested easily, as I've noticed I still feel full the following day if I have them at night.  Our next veg box is arriving on Wed, and we still have veg left from last week, so I need to use them up today and tomorrow, so that should motivate me to eat more of the nutritionally rich foods.