Book Club | Book Chatter

tree Hello and good morning! I am happy to say that I am starting to feel like my normal self again. I hope that continues because the kids will be here soon. My daughter comes in on 12/15 and my son 12/24. I’ve had a surge of energy too so I am now combing through my book lists to find just the right ones to end the year on. I’m getting excited!

On another note, I also have a list of chores I must do before they arrive. It’s a good excuse to get the house in order. We did take the pup for her shots so that’s out of the way. She milked it, with a little limp and everything but she is fine. She is such an actress.

Tonight is my book club’s holiday dinner and book exchange. It’s more fun to do it at someone’s home but there is still a need for us to eat outside (omicron) and so with the weather (cold and maybe even rain) we will try to eat on the patio of a restaurant with heat lamps and the like.

I still need to write up my review of Dune.

I also need to draft a list of all the restaurants the kids want to hit while here. I swear, I am going to gain 10 lbs. The food in the Midwest is not what they are used to. They have all these cravings, especially my son. Every day he adds another restaurant that we have to hit. He’s not here for long. It will take some planning.

I guess that’s it. I just can’t wrap my brain around December but here it is. There’s been a huge crime surge here in Los Angeles, a lot of smash and grab robberies and follow home robberies. I normally like to browse the shops this time of year but every day something goes down. I do not want to witness that AT ALL. People are crazy.

Have a great rest of the week and stay safe out there!

This Tender Land
By William Kent Krueger
Atria Books, 9781476749303, May 2020, 464pp.

The Short of It:

A lot of heartbreak, but these characters quickly pulled me in.

The Rest of It:

In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own. ~ Indiebound

This was the book I was reading when I got hit with all my health issues and so the details of the story are not forthcoming and I had to miss my club’s discussion so I have no idea how they felt about the book but here is my take:

I loved these characters but this book is filled with one heartache after another. These kids do not live an easy life and the people they encounter are both filled with good, and bad. It’s been compared to Huckleberry Finn and Where the Crawdad’s Sing and I can see that comparison, but honestly what it reminded me most of is The Wizard of Oz. Everyone is searching for something, mostly a place to call home. But the rhythm of heartache was hard to read over and over again and parts of the story were a tad hard to swallow. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it but felt that it got a little repetitive halfway through and could have been edited down a bit.

Have you read it? I had no idea how many books this author has written. I will absolutely read another book by him because I was really into these characters.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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