The Frugal Wizard's Guide for Surviving Medieval England

Oh geeze, I forgot to write about The Frugal Wizard's Guide for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson.

The Frugal Wizard's Guide for Surviving Medieval England is another one Sanderson's Secret Projects books. I wasn't really sure what I would think of it (I wasn't immediately grabbed by the title and premise like I was with the other two Secret Project books I've read). But I needn't have worried: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England hooked me from start to finish!

The book starts out with the main character awakening with no memory of who he is, where he is, or why he is there. Around him he finds only pages of The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, a guidebook that explains that he is in a multiverse, and Frugal Wizard TM has found a set of dimensions that resemble medieval England in our world; Frugal Wizard TM sells the dimensions to people so they can be the hero of their very own world. You see, the people from his world are advanced, with nanobots and other augments, so even though they might be ordinary in their time and world, they are extraordinary in a medieval setting. But our hero is not alone; he discovers that there are others from his time who are here and are looking at conquering the world. Piecing together who he is and why he's here, he needs to figure out who he is and what he's willing to do for this new world he's found himself on.

Once again, I enjoyed all the characters. The setting was a lot of fun (I really liked how the chapters were interspersed with pages from the actual Frugal Wizard's Guide to Medieval England - it was fun, and the drawings were fantastic!) I really enjoy Sanderson's writing, and I'm looking forward to reading The Sunlit Man (though I intend to keep it for a time when I need a good read, rather than jumping straight into it right now). 

The Rainfall Market

A friend at work recommended You Yeong-Gwang's The Rainfall Market to me (as well as a second book) after I told her that I've had a bit of a tough time reading lately. The Rainfall Market is a really quick read at only 209 pages, so I thought it was a great place to start. 

The Rainfall Market is the story of Kim Serin, a girl who feels like her life is a depressing mess. Her father passed away, her sister disappeared, her mother has no time for her, and she has no friends. When she hears that if you write a letter to the mysterious Rainfall Market, a magical place where you can exchange your misery for a better future, she jumps at the chance to obtain an invite. Once there, she has until the rainy season ends (about one week) to make her choice, or she will disappear forever.

But Serin isn't alone. As the holder of a golden ticket, she is given a guide cat, Issha, who can help her find the future she wants. Together the two of them go searching through the Rainfall Market, meeting (and often helping) many of the inhabitants (the Dokkaebi, a race of human-like beings who take and use different emotions and memories of humans) in search of the perfect Dokkaebi orb to bring back to her world for a better future. 

The Rainfall Market is a really cute and overall feel good story (though I admit, even though it has a happy ending that I kind of saw coming, I was crying at some of the events that got us there). This is the perfect read for when you're in need of something more light-hearted. :)  

Heartwork Journaling: Play with a Purpose

I stumbled on the idea of Heartwork Journaling a little while ago, I believe as an e-course. I didn't really want to sign up for it, but I discovered that the creator, Maritza Parra, had created a book, Heartwork Journaling: Play with a Purpose. So I decided to give that a read to see what this idea was all about. I've been journaling on and off for a few years now, so I thought this practice would be worth checking out. :)

The idea of Heartwork Journaling is that you use art to better uncover the feelings that you are dealing with, to both work through them and help you create a good life through self care and creativity. The main idea Parra reiterates all through the book is that your art doesn't have to be perfect or even pretty - it's 100% fine if the art you make is messy and something that you don't want to show anyone! She recommends getting a book of watercolour paper, watercolour paints, and some markers for outlining and writing on the pages (though near the end of the book she also mentioned using crayons or markers as an alternative, so that was nice to see). The book is made up of a bunch of lessons that I think are to get you started with Heartwork Journaling, though I'm not really sure....the lessons seemed to be kind of one-off art projects, and nothing really seemed to build off of previous lessons. There are some journaling prompts in most of the lessons as well to get you to reflect on emotions and other areas of your life (for example, boundaries and relationships). 

While I like the idea of Heartwork Journaling, I didn't really connect to it in the book. I didn't connect with the idea of being a divine scientist, and found the book overall too structured (in that I wasn't really interested in doing any of the lessons). I did find some helpful journal prompts though, so that was great.

I'll also admit, I wandered to the dollar store part way through reading this book, but I couldn't find anything I would call "watercolour paper," so I didn't really have any of the materials to follow the lessons in watercolour anyway. I have pencil crayons and could give those a try, but the whole idea really felt made for watercolour paints (they can kind of blend and bleed together in your art; pencil crayons or markers wouldn't really). 

While I am grateful for some of the prompts I discovered in Heartwork Journaling: Play with a Purpose, I'm not sure how much I will use a lot of the concepts in this book. But I also think it's worth checking out and deciding for yourself on how you feel about the idea. :)