What are we reading in August?
Annie Deighnaugh
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
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August: What Are You Reading
Comments (79)Ha! Indeed. I got the Rue Morgue reprint from Betterworld Books but as it had a lot of typos, the original Dell publication might have been a better choice. I think it was set in prewar times as the heroine had travelled from the US but although I first came to Australia in 1960, so many things were the same. The older men preferred their women to be ladies who neither drank much or swore but smoking was all right! Fortunately I didn't go by train across the continent until the track was standard and so I went on the Indian-Pacific with no changes or dead bodies en route!...See MoreWhat are you reading in August?
Comments (50)I finally finished Prince of Tides. I didn't have a lot of time to devote to reading the last few weeks, but I can usually finish a book in a week at most. This one took me three weeks! I love Pat Conroy, but whew, it was a long one. Furry, I read Defending Jacob many years ago with my book club. Really enjoyed it and good discussion points. I'm just starting a book called When The Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi. It was recommended by a friend. It's about a family who escapes from Afghanistan/the Taliban to Europe....See MoreWhat are we reading? August 2021 Edition
Comments (159)I'm very much enjoying This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. Almost from the start it read like an echo of Huck Finn. Halfway thru the book I googled the two titles and this came up: Krueger said that one thing he knew about this book when he started was that he wanted the kids to be on an epic journey, and the journey he thought most about was Homer’s “Odyssey.” For years, local author William Kent Krueger has wanted to write an updated version of Huckleberry Finn. “I knew it would be a story of kids on the river, but an updated version,” he said. “I knew when I wrote the story it would still be in the past, but I wasn’t sure just when.” The multi-award winning author has spent the past three years researching and writing the book, while still working on his Cork O’Connor fiction series about an Irish and Ojibwe private investigator. The result is “This Tender Land,” a story of four Minnesota orphans set in the Depression era, who flee from the Indian school they had been sent to and travel by canoe along the river, connecting along the way with others who are trying to survive hard times. The author wrote in 1st person narrative as the protagonist. It's important to remember that this is his recollection of his youth and that he is now 80 something. That helps to explain how and why his characters, as children, speak and think as much older than they are. However, it puts me off when a six year old - I know the age well - speaks philosophically and uses adult vocabulary. iI takes you away from a really good story when that happens. The racial issue in Huck Finn is also in This Tender Land because one of the four is a Native American. Who had his tongue cut out as a child. He uses very fluent sign language as do the other two boys. This boy, called Moses, is gifted in many ways and liked by all the four come upon. He begins to show his rage at the racism he experienced and others he knew. I give it four stars, one off because of the disconcerting language of an adult coming from children. it has great suspense, which I love. Good descriptions of their world, largely living outdoors and intriguing interaction and relationships among the four. This from Good Reads: In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota's Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O’Banion, a lively orphan boy whose exploits constantly earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Odie and his brother, Albert, are the only white faces among the hundreds of Native American children at the school. After committing a terrible crime, Odie and Albert are forced to flee for their lives along with their best friend, Mose, a mute young man of Sioux heritage. Out of pity, they also take with them a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy. Together, they steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi in search for a place to call home. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphan vagabonds journey into the unknown, crossing paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, bighearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole. (less)...See MoreWhat are you reading in August?
Comments (91)Vee, I would love to see photos of your collection of stray cats! LOL Still very hot and humid in central Florida. It will probably be that way until late October. My hubby and I are going to Colorado for a week starting next Sat. so we are looking forward to less humidity! I don't mind hot weather but 85% humidity is really draining. I just finished re-reading another Virgil Flowers book. I need a break from murder stories so have started Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson. I've only read one chapter but I like it so far. It opens in London in July 1914. Donna...See MoreOlychick
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