I'm not sure what was up with April, but I only made my way through two books.
Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
I had high hopes for this book. I picked it up for a quarter at the local Salvation Army. It is a Newbery Medal winner which usually means it's going to be good but this one was just okay for me. The writing itself was nice enough but the plot was yawn-inducing.
From the back cover:
Sounds fascinating, yes? No. It was only 130 pages but it took me a long time to get through it--just not compelling enough for me. There were a few interesting parts but to say they were exciting would be giving them too much credit.
I will say that I really, really want to visit Machu Picchu before I die, but that really doesn't have anything to do with the book. Rather, my interest in the Inca civilization is what compelled me to pick up the book in the first place. I probably would have been better off just reading about it on National Geographic's website.
America America by Ethan Canin
This is the current pick for our family book club so I will reserve most of what I have to say for that occasion. As a former resident of western New York, I was excited to find that the story was set there. That's where the excitement ended. It was long and meandering and I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. It took me a long time to read it--around three weeks. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.
I had high hopes for this book. I picked it up for a quarter at the local Salvation Army. It is a Newbery Medal winner which usually means it's going to be good but this one was just okay for me. The writing itself was nice enough but the plot was yawn-inducing.
From the back cover:
"Cusi, a modern Inca boy, leaves his home high in the Andes mountains to learn the mysterious secret of his ancient ancestors. . .now he must prove himself worthy to be entrusted with the fabulous secret from the past."
Sounds fascinating, yes? No. It was only 130 pages but it took me a long time to get through it--just not compelling enough for me. There were a few interesting parts but to say they were exciting would be giving them too much credit.
I will say that I really, really want to visit Machu Picchu before I die, but that really doesn't have anything to do with the book. Rather, my interest in the Inca civilization is what compelled me to pick up the book in the first place. I probably would have been better off just reading about it on National Geographic's website.
This is the current pick for our family book club so I will reserve most of what I have to say for that occasion. As a former resident of western New York, I was excited to find that the story was set there. That's where the excitement ended. It was long and meandering and I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. It took me a long time to read it--around three weeks. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.
2 comments:
Thank you for your reviews, I hope to be a "regular" to hear your books and critiques.
So glad you stopped by! I've been trying to review my reads once a month. I have a goal to read 40 books this year so by the end of the year I should have a pretty good collection of reviews.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
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