Piper Parrish lives a quiet but fulfilling life on Frick Island, a small island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. After her fisherman husband Tom goes missing in a storm and is presumed dead, Piper shocks the townsfolk by interacting with Tom as if he is still alive. A close-knit group, the Frick Island residents hate to break her heart, so they go along with it. When Anders Caldwell, a journalist for a small-town paper, ends up on the island to cover its annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he's shocked to see everyone going along with Piper as she talks to a husband who isn't there. As he learns more about the island and grows closer to Piper, he's conflicted about what to do, especially when his podcast What the Frick? about Piper's invisible husband goes viral.

I'm conflicted about this book. I enjoyed it, but the romance, storyline, humor, and characters just didn't gel enough to make it a standout for me. Anders is charming, in a klutzy, Clark-Kent kind of way. But, I don't feel like we saw/learned enough of Piper to really warm to her. Instead of showing us how wonderful she is, we're told over and over how much the townspeople adore her, even while she seems to be in a full blown mental crisis that they just ignore. I didn't see the twists coming, so that was a plus. Still, the romance between the two was lukewarm, particularly because Tom's death isn't 100% certain. Plus, a detail about Tom is revealed rather late in the story that makes it seem like it was just added in to make Piper's attraction to Anders less questionable. The townspeople are charming in a cranky, stuck-in-their-ways way, but their hearts are revealed too late to really enjoy their addition to the story. Overall, this was an interesting storyline with sweet, small-town characters, but I was definitely was left wanting more in the romance dept.

Much thanks to @NetGalley and #BerkleyPublishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (read by the author)

My emoji reaction to this book:

I really enjoyed listening to this interesting book.

As a liberal feminist and Lutheran who lives on the East Coast, I went into this thinking it would be "preaching to the choir." So I was surprised to learn so many things about the nuances of Medieval thought/Bible translation and the continued entrenchment of Bible-sanctioned patriarchy in conservative Christian circles...still...today...in 2021. Women can't preach and can't teach (except to young women). Women are meant to be mothers who stay at home and work merely in the domestic sphere. Women must defer to their husbands or men in all things. I had no clue these concepts were as entrenched as they are in today's Christian circles.

Barr is the wife of a youth pastor. Her husband was fired in 2016 from his church for challenging their beliefs that women cannot preach or teach. Dr. Barr herself is a Medieval scholar who teaches at Baylor University.

My takeaways here are certainly going to reflect my lived-in experiences and my educational and religious backgrounds. But they're also going to reflect my absolute astonishment that a translation of a few lines from the apostle Paul has been used again and again and again as the permission to treat women horribly in Christian circles (e.g. pastors counseling women to forgive their rapists). True, the translations reverberate with the patriarchy that's been baked into humanity since before the birth of Jesus, but still. It's amazing to me how hypocritical conservative Christians are: They read so many things into the Bible that aren't there and then, at the same time, take the words that are there at blatant face value, without any wider research of historical knowledge or even the knowledge of what's happening in the world/time in which they live...mainly the emotional intelligence, physical abilities, book smarts, etc. of the women they love and interact with. But then, patriarchy is a hell of a drug.

I liked how Dr. Barr reassessed what she had been taught through her upbringing and her church to come to new conclusions/beliefs through scholarly research and thought. Reading, researching, expanding beyond your lived-in experiences...all of these things are essential to opening your mind AND your heart to the other children of God you are encountering during your Earthly experience. Subjugating women--through the "belief" of a few lines in a book of stories that have gone through so many interpretations and iterations, through a scientifically disproven (again and again) belief that differences in biology mean differences in how able women are to function in this world, through what you've been taught by people who refuse to or are unable to engage in critical thinking...is wrong. The number one message of the Bible for Christians--no matter what Christian religion you are, where you live or what gender, race, ethnicity, etc. you are--is do unto others as you would do to yourself.

That message doesn't include subjugation, if you ask me. Thanks for making me THINK, Dr. Barr and see this subject from a religious and Medieval perspective. Fascinating and enlightening.