Hillary Jordan

336 pages

I had heard a lot of buzz about Mudbound on other book blogs. I was interested in reading it but when it became an Alex Award Winner earlier this year, I moved it right to the top of my list.

On the Flap:

When Henry McAllen moves his city-bred wife, Laura, to a cotton farm in the Mississippi Delta in 1946, She finds herself in a place both foreign and frightening. Laura does not share Henry’s love of rural life, and she struggles to raise their two young children in an isolated shotgun shack with no indoor plumbing or electricity, all the while under the eye of her hateful, rascist father-in-law. When it rains the waters rise up and swallow the bridge to town, stranding the family in a sea of mud.

My Thoughts:

I usually try to write up my own little synopsis of a book but this one just had me flustered. I couldn’t figure out how to describe it in a succinct fashion so I decided to take a hand from the publisher rather than re-inventing the wheel.

It’s hard to say that I loved a book that deals with such tough subject matter as prejudice, hatred, and violence but when the author is so skilled in evoking emotion, you gotta love it.

When Laura McAllen’s husband Henry drops the bombshell on her that they are leaving her city home and all of her family behind and moving to the Mississippi Delta in a week, I was angry at his lack of consideration for her feelings and sympathetic to Laura and her difficulty in adapting. I’m not sure I could go from having a shower in my home to bathing once a week and then having it be such a chore that it is turned into something that must be done rather than an enjoyment.

The profiles of the racism and prejudice are difficult but they are moving. It’s a sad journey back into our past where these events took place but, as with other painful historical facts, it is necessary to revisit them to keep the memories alive so that the learning continues.

I was really drawn in by Mudbound, much more than I expected to be. I would recommend this to lovers of historical and/or southern fiction. There are also WWII elements to this story but they are played out to a lesser extent. (4.5/5)

Ivan Doig
352 pages

Oliver Milliron is a recently widowed farmer in Montana who responds to an advertisement that says “Can’t cook but doesn’t bite.” In need of a housekeeper, Oliver hires Rose Llewellyn who brings along her brother, Morris Morgan. When the town preacher elopes with the teacher and Morrie is pressed into service as the new teacher, he and Rose begin building a relationship with Oliver and the Milliron sons, Paul, Damon and Toby that will stand out in Paul’s memory years later when as Superintendent, he is reminiscing and deciding the fate of one room schools.

I found The Whistling Season to be a book that I could only read in small chunks. It was slightly wistful and nostalgic in places, making me wish it were possible that  way of life still existed so I could explore it, if only for one day.

On the other hand,  I often found myself wondering what the story was about: Paul, one room schools, Rose and Morrie, Montana, or the Milliron family? Yes

The Whistling Season is definitely not a page turner. Yet, I found that I always wanted to get back to the characters. The storyline didn’t develop at all like I expected which is good( I like that it wasn’t predictable) and bad(I felt lost at times.) I enjoyed the descriptions but found some other areas a bit plodding.  In the end, I felt it was worth reading but not one of my favorite Alex Award Winners. (3/5)

It’s been a while since I had time to post anything other than a book review but I have been indulging myself in some YA Fiction reading lately. Since I have an on-going project where I am slowly reading my way through the Alex Award Winners and since I am participating in The Book Awards II Challenge, I decided to make it count for that.

I am currently reading The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. This 2007 Alex Award Winner is about a vanished way of life on the Montana prairie. I am about halfway through it and have really enjoyed it so far. I also have Mudbound by Hillary Jordan waiting for me. This one won the Alex for 2009. Plus, I also have A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly which is a 2004 Printz Honor Book. I read and loved both The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose by Donnelly so I am especially looking forward to that one.

On the challenge front, I haven’t completed any yet. I have been pretty good about not over-committing myself even though there are a couple out there that I would really love to join. I am resisting the temptation because I hate not finishing things. I am reading for enjoyment and trying to fit my challenges around it.

I apologize for being a bad blogger lately. I have been horrible about responding to comments, commenting on other blogs and I have been ignoring Twitter completely. Hopefully, I can be more active since things seem to have slowed down around here a bit. However, with three teenagers in the house, you just never know.

So, what have you been reading?

Audiobook(Read by Lillian Rabe)
Aryn Kyle

Alice Winston is a 12 year-old-girl who is growing up on a Colorado horse farm. Her mother suffers from apparent depression rarely leaving her bedroom. Her sister Nona, the pride of the family and the showing circuit, gets married and runs away leaving Alice alone to help her father run the barn. They are always short of money and her father is always trying to find a way to make ends meet even though it means doing things that they’d really rather not such as boarding horses for rich people.

Alice is walking the painful line where she isn’t quite a child nor is she an adult. She is forced to deal with several difficult things for a 12 year-old: the death of a classmate, her mother’s emotional problems, her sister’s abandonment, and feeling that she will never please her father. Plus, she is dealing with all of the normal 12 year-old things like her first kiss, her first heart-breaking crush, and finding her niche among her peers.

This book didn’t turn out to be anything like I thought it would be. I am not a particular fan of either westerns or horse stories. However, this is a beautiful story of a young girl dealing with the ordinary difficulties of coming of age as well as the individual difficulties unique to her life.  I spent a lot of time alternating between wanting to shake the snot out of Alice’s father and feeling really sorry for him for the way his life worked out. I also had the same reaction to her sister Nona. Alice just seemed to be a tumbling along in their wake. She does eventually find her footing though not before suffering a few painful missteps.  In the end, I was left admiring them all because even though they made bad choices at times, they made the best that they could from the circumstances of their lives.

I read this as part of my personal goal to read all of the Alex Award winners. I found it touching and well worth reading.  (4/5)

My Choices:

1. Wolf in the Shadows - Marcia Muller (Anthony)
2. A Place of Execution - Val McDermid(Anthony)
3. The God of Animals - Aryn Kyle(Spur)
4. The Virgin of Small Plains - Nancy Pickard (Agatha)
5. Something Wicked - Carolyn G. Hart (Agatha)
6. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre(Edgar)
7. Briarpatch - Ross Thomas(Edgar)
8. The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig (Alex)
9. Never Let Me Go-Kazuo Ishiguro (Alex)
10. The Floor of the Sky -Pamela Carter Joern(Alex)

2009:

City of Thieves - David Benioff

The Dragons of Babel - Michael Swanwick

Finding Nouf - Zoe Ferraris

The Good Thief - Hannah Tinti

Just After Sunset: Stories - Stephen King

Mudbound - Hillary Jordan

Over and Under - Todd Tucker

The Oxford Project - Steven G. Bloom

Sharp Teeth - Toby Barlow

Three Girls and Their Brother - Theresa Rebeck

2008:

American Shaolin - Matthew Polly

Bad Monkeys - Matt Ruff

Essex County Volume 1 - Jeff Lemire

Genghis, Birth of An Empire - Conn Iggulden

The God of Animals - Aryn Kyle

A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

The Night Birds - Thomas Maltman

The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz

2007:

The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig

Eagle Blue - Michael D’Orso

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen

Color of the Sea - John Hamamura

The Floor of the Sky - Pamela Carter Joern

The Blind Side - Michael Lewis

Black Swan Green - David Mitchell

The World Made Straight - Ron Rash

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

2006:

Midnight at the Dragon Cafe - Judy Fong Bates

Upstate - Kalisha Buckhanon

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

As Simple As Snow - Gregory Galloway

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Gil’s All Fright Diner - A. Lee Martinez

The Necessary Beggar - Susan Palwick

My Jim - Nancy Rawles

Jesus Land - Julia Scheeres

The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

2005:

Candyfreak -Steve Almond

Swimming to Anarctica - Lynn Cox

Donorboy - Brendan Halpin

Shadow Divers - Robert Kurson

Work of Wolves - Kent Meyers

Truth & Beauty - Ann Patchett

My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult

Thinner Than Thou - Kit Reed

Project X - Jim Shepard

Rats - Robert Sullivan

2004:

Wonder When You’ll Miss Me - Amanda Davis

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time - Mark Haddon

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - Z.Z. Packer

Stiff - Mary Roach

True Notebooks - Marc Salzman

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear

Leave Myself Behind - Bart Yates

2003:

One Hundred Demons - Lynda Barry

My Losing Season - Pat Conroy

Seeing in the Dark - Timothy Ferris

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

Crow Lake - Mary Lawson

The Year of Ice - Brian Malloy

When the Emperor Was Divine - Julie Otsuka

The Dive From Clausen’s Pier - Ann Packer

The Fall of Rome - Martha Southgate

10th Grade - Joseph Weisburg

2002:

Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks

An American Insurrection - William Doyle

Gabriel’s Story - David Anthony Durham

Nickel and Dimed - Barbara Ehrenreich

Peace Like a River - Leif Enger

The Wilderness Family - Kobie Kruger

Kit’s Law - Donna Morrisey

The Rover - Mel Odom

Motherland - Vineeta Vijayaraghavan

Black, White and Jewish - Rebecca Walker

2001:

Chang and Eng - Darin Strauss

Counting Coup - Larry Colton

Diamond Dogs - Alan Watt

Flags of Our Fathers - James Bradley

Girl With a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier

In the Heart of the Sea - Nathaniel Philbrick

The Man Who Ate the 747 - Ben Sherwood

The Sand Reckoner - Gillian Bradshaw

Soldier - June Jordan

2000:

High Exposure - David Breashears

Ender’s Shadow - Orson Scott Card

River Cross My Heart - Breena Clark

Educating Esme - Esme Raji Codell

The Reappearance of Sam Webber - Jonathon Scott Fuqua

Stardust - Neil Gaiman

The Hungry Sea - Linda Greenlaw

Barefoot Heart - Elva Trevino Hart

Plainsong - Kent Haruf

Imani All Mine - Connie Porter

1999:

The Endurance - Caroline Andrews

Getting In - James Finney Boylan

Needles - Andie Dominick

At All Costs - John Gilstrap

Space - Jesse Lee Kercheval

Last Days of Summer - Steve Kluger

Legends: Stories by the Masters of Modern Fantasy - Various Authors

Antarctica - Kim Stanley Robinson

Almost A Woman - Esmeralda Santiago

Caucasia - Danzy Senna

1998:

The Secret Family - David Bodanis

All Over But the Shoutin’ - Rick Bragg

Sugar in the Raw - Rebecca Carroll

What Girls Learn - Karin Cook

Snow in August - Pete Hamill

The Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Lest We Forget - Velma Maia Thomas

Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven - Dawn Turner Trice

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis