Scott and Sue Family

I have finished the first official reading challenge that I signed up to complete: the Book Awards II Reading Challenge.  Here are my reviews for the books I read:

Stones for Ibarra, by Harriet Doerr, National Book Award:  I really enjoyed this book.  It is set in a small village in Mexico and the main characters are 2 North Americans who move there to run an old family mine.  The emotional journey taken by the couple, especially the wife, is fascinating to watch, as she admits the beauty of the place while denying some of the essential aspects that make it beautiful.  I love “story within a story” books and this one has it.  We learn about many of the denizens of the village, although some of the images are clouded by the wife’s viewpoint and sometimes it’s unclear how much is true and how much is her perception.  We also learn about the couple and the secret they share that colors and hangs over the entire book.

1776, David McCullough, American Compass Best Book of 2005:  I really enjoyed this book.  Besides learning some cool Revolutionary War stuff, it was a very enjoyable read.  The style was easy to read and follow.  This was my first McCullough book and it’s easy to see why it has become such a bestseller.  Definitely recommend.

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde, Alex Award:  This book was so imaginative and at times hilarious.  This is one quirky author and I totally fell in love with this book.  I am definitely going to read more Thursday Next books because this one was so fun.

My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult, Alex Award: This was a great book except for the gratuitous use of the “f” word throughout.  I’m not a big fan of reading profanity so I found it quite jarring and definitely unnecessary.  Other than that, the book was sooo interesting.  The topic was a girl genetically engineered to be the perfect donor for her older sister who has a rare form of leukemia.  But the book was really about the dynamics of family relationships and how they deteriorate in the face of continual crisis.  The narrator changed with each chapter and sometimes the narrator carried the story forward and other times the narrator gave us the backstory.  It was fun to hear from all the main characters except the sick daughter who is the focus of the entire family’s existence.  I was also on the edge of my couch waiting to learn the truth about so many little mysteries.  Why does the lawyer have a service dog?  Who is the arsonist?  Why is the daughter really bringing the lawsuit against her parents?  The ending was a huge surprise that caught me off-guard, but it was satisfying in its own way.

The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler, National Book Critics’ Circle Award:  The point of this book is the emotional journey taken by the main character and it was more enjoyable than I imagined. At first, the character is amusing, but not that sympathetic, but he grew on me.  I cheered for him by the end and then watched the movie on Netflix.

Rifles for Watie, Harold Keith, Newbery Award:  This is a Newbery Award winner and an interesting story.  It told about the little-known campaign in Indian Territory, modern-day Oklahoma, and some of the details were fascinating.  I also liked the way the main character, Jeff, grew from a boy anxious to fight into a man able to see both sides of the conflict and understand both.

Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse, Newbery Award:  I enjoyed the prose style and the sparse writing style.  The author made you wait to find out the details of the story and it was an interesting story.  Worth reading and another on my Newbery list.

The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg, Newbery Award:  Such a nice book.  This is a story-within-a-story, which I like.  I’m not sure why that appeals to me, but whatever.  This is the story of a group of 6th graders on a Knowledge Bowl team.  The real story is that each one tells his or her journey to that point in first person, and the journeys are so interesting.  It is also a story of friendship and the group dynamics of how a friendship develops.  The characters are very deep and intriguing for 6th graders.  I really liked this book.

Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech, Newbery Award:  I didn’t think I was going to get into this book from the jacket blurb, but it turned out to be an engaging story.  The intertwining of Sal’s and Phoebe’s stories was clever and the way Sal found her own truth through telling Phoebe’s story was authentic.  We often don’t understand our own story until we observe another’s life and watch their struggles.  This was a good book with some plot twists at the end that left me satisfied.
The messages left anonymously on the front porch were great:
“Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.”
“Everyone has his own agenda.”
“In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?”
“You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.”

The Giver, Lois Lowry, Newbery Award: This book was awesome, just as everyone has told me.  What an interesting concept to live in such a structured world-totally makes you think about perceptions of emotions and their worth.  I loved this book.