Hello awesome readers. Today’s short read Saturday is a quick little read from an author that is on my November TBR. Soon I’ll be reading the novel A Glimmer of Guile by Mary Patterson Thornburg, but today I am reviewing one of my 24-hour read-a-thon reads, Uncle Bud’s Health Mine and the Girl Who’s Going to Fix the World.

Uncle Bud’s Health Mine and the Girl Who’s Going to Fix the World

Author: Mary Patterson Thornburg
Category: Short Story, Fiction, Fantasy
Suitable for: Most Ages.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Format Read for Review: Kindle
Pages: 24

This is a quick read with a general positive vibe. It starts off in the past in a mine turned “health mine” that has mysterious stories about its history. Whether it’s the radon or something else that is affecting the people who visit it, you can decide. Eventually the radon disappears and the mine closes but a girl emerges from it. Being near this girl seems to have a positive impact on people’s lives and as she grows she aspires to help people. Overall it’s a feel good read with elements of fantasy. It had a cute ending but I wish it could have been longer and we could have seen her go out into the world and change more people’s lives. Being so short there was really only so much story between the cave and the girl. It was well written and I look forward to reading more by Mary Patterson Thornburg.

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Vivia has guile. Using only the power of her mind, she can make water boil, heal the sick, create illusions, and even transform herself into a bird or a pirate. But guilish folk are considered witches by most people, and that frightens them.

Her first teacher taught her healing arts, and after that she studied with Taso Raym, the most powerful male witch in the land. He taught her many things, and not just guilish skills. Unfortunately, neither Vivia nor Raym could ignore their attraction to each other, and intimacy between them would have meant the end of her guile. So she joined Ladygate, an all-female community, and accepted that love was not for her.
After a while, though, she realizes Ladygate is not where she belongs either. So she accepts the task of investigating the disappearance of a lord’s son, kidnapped, it seems, by the malevolent witch Orath. Her guilish training is not quite complete, and she hopes Raym can help her.

But Raym has also disappeared. Vivia is on her own, with a task to do—one that now touches her heart. She’s almost sure she has the necessary strength and skill…
…Unless Raym and Orath are in league with each other.

Meeting challenges head on, Vivia learns from her mistakes. Her guile grows with each success, as she follows a convoluted, hazy trail to the sea and, beyond, to the lair of Orath and her tyrannical consort, the Red Prince. There she finds Raym, captive and enthralled by a guile stronger and more deadly than she ever imagined. Planning carefully, she prepares herself for a confrontation she must believe she will win…