Plot Points #69 💌

Valentine's Day, little gentlemen, fashion through the decades, and why publishers need to market better

Feb 14, 2025

Plot Points is a weekly newsletter where I share my favorite books, links, words, and more. If you enjoy what you find here, please consider subscribing or buying me a coffee.

Hi friends and happy Valentine’s Day! 💕

We’ve been learning a bit about Saint Valentine this morning in my small effort to reclaim overly-commercialized holidays as we discover more about the liturgy and history of our faith. I printed out these free Saint Valentine coloring sheets while we watched a short video on his life, so nothing fancy, but I am trying to make a concentrated effort to get underneath all the consumeristic stuff to the details beneath these annual traditions.

(With that being said, my mother is coming to pick up the kids today so Pierce and I can have a night for ourselves. Remember that pink suit from Goodwill? She’s about to have her day in the sun!)

Friend, I hope you know, regardless of your relationship status, how much you are loved. You were created with intention and joy by Love Itself, and the Father looks on you with adoration because you are the pinnacle of His creation. He didn’t have to create you, but He wanted to, and the world is better for it.

Thanks for spending some of your time with me today. Have a wonderful weekend!

Grace + peace,

Wendi

Word of the Week ✍🏻

Tsundoku: (n.) buying books and letting them pile up without reading them.

Point #1: Let’s hear it for the teachers!

This sweet video of an elementary school educator showing her boys how to treat a girl with dignity and respect gave me all the heart eyes. I love how she explains that chivalry is a way to honor a girl’s worth, not a way to insinuate weakness. What a bunch of lucky kids.

Point #2: “If BookTok was a community of men, we would be calling the police.”

Thank you to

the reading nook

for saying the quiet part out loud! Y’all are gonna continue to see me write + share about the issue of predatory publishers marketing fluffy-looking books to young people that are actually filled with explicit (toxic, poorly-written) sex. This is an ongoing issue with my pre-teen daughter, who reads voraciously and asks me almost every day to check and make sure some pink and yellow YA novel isn’t full of references to, ahem, riding some dude’s junk. (My words, not hers.)

the reading nook

says it best: “I can count on one hand the amount of sensual novels I have read that made me feel connected, inspired and converted to the character’s lives, wishes, wants, needs. Sex should be the cherry on top of a very well-crafted plot, world, universe and not a “tiktok girlies are going to love this one” dumbed down version of it.” 👏🏻

Point #3: I could watch these videos for hours.

Beautifully-shot, educational, short videos on how to get dressed in hundreds of different time periods? YES, PLEASE.

Point #4: Read the classics.

My only real reading goals for this year are to read the classics, many of which I’ve honestly never picked up before. This short list is a great introduction for those of us who want to beef up our TBRs but feel overwhelmed by all the Great Books out there.

Bonus Point: My thoughts exactly.

I’m pretty sure all us Millennials lived the same teenage years 😂.

Reading in The Nook 📚

I’m back to one of my favorite historical fiction gals this week. India Holton’s latest The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love is an odd, funny, lovable romance with a whole lot of charm, but I am seeing a lot of the same characters in her books again and again. It’s giving Ali-Hazelwood-But-In-The-19th-Century vibes. Always a solid, entertaining read with a lot of heart and humor, but I need something fresh!

Next up are the two books I got in my Book of the Month boxes before I cancelled my subscription. (I only signed on for the free “Book Person” cap 🤣.) The first is First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison, which is marketed as a Sleepless in Seattle kind of love story, and the second is The Favorites by Layne Fargo, which was called “part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & the Six.” Um, that’s a wild pairing, but okay? Don’t steer me wrong, BOTM.