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American Road Narratives: Reimagining Mobility in Literature and Film by Ann Brigham
Author: A True Story by Helen Lester
The Big Roads by Earl Swift
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Chopping Spree by Diane Mott Davidson
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Giant Days, Volume 4 by John Allison, Max Sarin, and Whitney Cogar
Hannah and the Homunculus by Kurt Hassler
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson
I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
I Say Tomato by Katie Wall
Instructions by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
Jem and the Holograms, Volume 3: Dark Jem by Kelly Thompson
The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Mayday by Karen Harrington
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson
National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography by Tim Fitzharris
Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton
Noragami Volume 03 by Adachitoka
Over the Ocean by Taro Gomi
Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman
Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel
Ten Things We Did by Sarah Mlynowski
Tip of the Tongue by Patrick Ness
Triangle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
Tru & Nelle by G. Neri
The White Road of the Moon by Rachel Neumeier

Miscellaneous
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 03)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 10)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 24)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 31)
June 2017 Reading Report June 2017 Reading Sources

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5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish



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Red Hook Road: 07/30/17

Red Hook Road  by Ayelet Waldman

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman is described as a "rich and rewarding story of love, loss, and the power of family." In reality, it's a thick book report on the architecture of Red Hook, Maine, some genealogy and other facts.

The book starts with a meandering, Lake Woebegone style monolog about the two families, the home where the wedding is being held, and some other atmospheric stuff. Somewhere in the middle of all that a young couple is married and then systematically killed off in a limousine crash.

You'd think that after a tragedy is thrown in at the first fifty page or so, that the emotional pacing of the book would change. It doesn't. Instead of grief, anguish, and the other strong emotions that come with an unexpected loss at a time of great hope, the book plows forward with the same attention to the details of architecture, local history, the weather.

It was so ponderous and dull with no hope of improvement as soon through skimming and later skipping ahead, that I just had to stop. It's a boring book with boring characters who can't even be bothered to grieve.

One star

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