Happy June! I have finally read my first historical fiction book, only 4 more to meet my 2012 goal. (I am a bit behind schedule to say the least.) A co-worker gave me A Northern Light as a Christmas gift and I was bound and determined to read it. There were just so many other wonderful thing to read these past few months.
Mattie Gokey lives in the North Woods (Adirondacks) at the beginning of the 20th century, this story takes place in 1906. She loves words and dreams of becoming a writer. Her mother dies and her brother runs away and so Mattie is left to raising her three sisters and helping her pa on the less-than-prosperous family farm. Unlike her peers, Mattie wants to get her high school diploma and go on to college. However, her future is uncertain because she doesn't have the money or family support to leave. Mattie, now 17 years old, wants more than her poor farm life, but the neighbor boy asks her to marry him and pa and her sisters need her. Now she has to decide to stay or go.
I enjoyed this book; it is historical fiction with a bit of romance and mystery. It really sucked me in. I read a good portion of this book (well over half) in one fabulous day off from work. Mattie is a strong, young lady and I always enjoy a book with a strong female protagonist. There was enough dialect to make it believable, but not too much to throw me off. I really dislike reading in dialect, I may have mentioned this. I was initially distracted by all the flashbacks in the narrative, but I got used to it. I definitely see why it is a Printz book, it has all the elements of a prize winning book, mainly something adults think teens would like.
Next up, I have to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I may be the only person left that has not read it. I mean, even my husband had read it and he is not a reader (he listens to audio books when he travels for work, sometimes). The whole reason why I started reading A Northern Light more regularly was because I was avoiding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I am not sure why I have an aversion to reading it. I have heard good things; I just don't want to read it. Yet, I feel I should, being a librarian and all, and this book being so popular. Well, anyway, I need to get it read for book club next Wednesday so I definitely need to get cracking. But it is so hard when I have Underworld by Meg Cabot (love her) already for me to read.
What are you reading or waiting to read? Have you read any of these books?
Mattie Gokey lives in the North Woods (Adirondacks) at the beginning of the 20th century, this story takes place in 1906. She loves words and dreams of becoming a writer. Her mother dies and her brother runs away and so Mattie is left to raising her three sisters and helping her pa on the less-than-prosperous family farm. Unlike her peers, Mattie wants to get her high school diploma and go on to college. However, her future is uncertain because she doesn't have the money or family support to leave. Mattie, now 17 years old, wants more than her poor farm life, but the neighbor boy asks her to marry him and pa and her sisters need her. Now she has to decide to stay or go.
I enjoyed this book; it is historical fiction with a bit of romance and mystery. It really sucked me in. I read a good portion of this book (well over half) in one fabulous day off from work. Mattie is a strong, young lady and I always enjoy a book with a strong female protagonist. There was enough dialect to make it believable, but not too much to throw me off. I really dislike reading in dialect, I may have mentioned this. I was initially distracted by all the flashbacks in the narrative, but I got used to it. I definitely see why it is a Printz book, it has all the elements of a prize winning book, mainly something adults think teens would like.
Next up, I have to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I may be the only person left that has not read it. I mean, even my husband had read it and he is not a reader (he listens to audio books when he travels for work, sometimes). The whole reason why I started reading A Northern Light more regularly was because I was avoiding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I am not sure why I have an aversion to reading it. I have heard good things; I just don't want to read it. Yet, I feel I should, being a librarian and all, and this book being so popular. Well, anyway, I need to get it read for book club next Wednesday so I definitely need to get cracking. But it is so hard when I have Underworld by Meg Cabot (love her) already for me to read.
What are you reading or waiting to read? Have you read any of these books?
I haven't read "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," yet, either. I've checked it out countless times, but I just can't push past the first few chapters without being distracted by another shiny book. :)
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