Book Reviews

I know I didn’t follow up on my goal for reading 5 books this summer, but I’m improving by reading more this winter. I’ve decided after every book I read, I’ll post something about the book. The last time I did a book report was ages ago and most of the time, I feel others do a better job describing the book so in most cases, I’ll just copy and paste. (shhh)

Hattie Big Sky Kirby Larson
For most of her life, sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks has been shuttled from one distant relative to another. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she summons the courage to leave Iowa and move all by herself to Vida, Montana, to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim.

Under the big sky, Hattie braves hard weather, hard times, a cantankerous cow, and her own hopeless hand at the cookstove on her quest to discover the true meaning of home.

My sister lent me this book for my summer list telling me that I’d like it and it was an easy read. She was right! I started it one evening and almost finished it the same night. It’s geared towards young adults but an easy book now and then doesn’t hurt any of us. I like how it is based in Montana because that’s home to me. I liked to think if I could travel through time, I’d like to live during the “old west” era so I could understand all the hardships people experienced as they were just trying to survive.
Rating: 9/10

Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still Kent Nelson
Set on an alfalfa ranch east of the Black Hills of South Dakota, this novel about three uncommon women explores the nuances of place, character, grief, and renewal. Mattie Remmel has lost her husband in a farm accident, and in her grief discovers a secret about him he had not meant to reveal. Deciding to keep the ranch running, she enlists the help of her daughter, Shelley, an insecure college student, and hires a drifter ranch hand, Dawn, who is optimistic and direct and equally betrayed in love. A fourteen-year-old runaway Native American boy joins the three women, and together they forge an unlikely family, facing whatever life throws them, from the trials of independent hard work to the threats of neighbors to the arrival of a former lover bent on revenge.

I’m still unsure of how I feel about this book. It was okay, but not fantastic. Personally I felt like it was pieced together roughly and not always had meaning to the chapters. As I neared the end of the book I kept thinking, this can’t be over because they haven’t answered all the questions. It wasn’t a mystery so to my surprise it just seemed to end. I was distracted by what was to come and disappointed on what wasn’t discussed.
Rating: 5/10