The Poisonwood Bible

Book: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (published 1998)
ISBN 13: 9780060786502
Average Goodreads rating: 3.98 (out of 458,251 ratings)
My rating: 4 out of 5 Poisonwood trees
How I found this book: AP English lit booklist

    I finally finished this book! For a girl who usually finishes a book within a week,  taking a month for this one really started to bug me. I'm not sure if I had just been busy lately or this was just a slow read. It was probably a combination of both, but compared to some of the action filled Monument 14 series it really was a slow read. So someone would probably need more patience to appreciate this one.

        My english teacher really loved this book, but on the other hand the leader of my book club (an adult) thought it was 'okay'. My feelings of this book were in between. The story is about a man and his family who travels to the Africa, (more specifically the Congo) to attempt to convert the Congolese people to Christianity. There are a lot of historical references including the controversial death of Patrice Lumumba and who was to blame. I'm not one for history (I think i've said that before) but I wasn't really bothered by it in this book. It is written in multiple perspectives, mostly the four daughters, Rachel, twins Adah and Leah, and Ruth May, and a few small bits from the mother Orleanna. I really liked Kingsolver's use of all of their different views of a situation over time. All the women in the story were so different. If I had to pick a favorite I'd say Adah. I sort of fell in love with her cynicism, plus she was the only one of the characters who actually did something with her life.

      This book may not exactly be life changing, but it definitely changed my view on things. In Africa everyone was always starving. Which is something most Americans already know but to really see what that's like makes you feel like a little bit of an asshole to have so much. The people of Africa had a similar idea. Since to them whenever a neighbor was struggling everyone who had a surplus would share. So they think that America should do the right thing and help the people who are suffering. In America people aren't like that. We can go ten years without even saying hello to a next door neighbor let alone helping them. It's awful how so many people in this world don't realize how lucky they are.

          Some people listen to music and hear a song lyric that describes their life perfectly. Well, that happened to me in this book.
“I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book.” 
I'm seriously considering making that my senior quote for when I finish high school. (Granted that's years away but hey! I shall be prepared) My other contender is also from this book. 
“The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.” 
  I almost never fall in love with a quote from a book! Poetry, yes. But novels not as much. So twice in one book is pretty awesome. Barbara Kingsolver said some beautiful things in this book I'll admit.

I would have given this book 5 stars if it wasn't such a slow read for me. There were a lot of pockets where I felt like nothing was really nothing happening. But I did really like this one, especially if historical fiction is your thing.
 Thanks for Reading!                                                                                    - R
 
     

Savage Drift (Monument 14 part 3)

Book: Savage Drift (Monument 14 book 3) by Emmy Laybourne published 2014

ISBN 13: 9781250036421

How I found This Book: Book Club!

Average Goodreads Rating: 4.07 (out of 1,944 ratings)

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Popsicle sticks 

     Hello blog! I feel like it's been a thousand years since the last post. The book I'm reading is taking me a long time (*spoiler alert* I'm reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver) I like it so far and I think I'll have a post for it in the next few days. However I did get a reprieve from that AP book, for something lighter, yay book club! Anywho! To the conclusion of this trilogy!

      For the third time in a row, I zipped through this book in a single day. This series has so much fast paced action that it's pretty hard to put down. A lot of my comments about this book are things that i've said in the previous two books. Mostly with characters but however... I mean, uh There are similarities of the character traits from previous books; however I did notice further development in the last book. (Sorry about that. My english teacher told me to start using a semi colon to connect sentences with however. It's annoying but i'm trying to break the habit) As I was saying! Astrid still isn't my favorite character of all time but near the end of the series she got more tolerable. Maybe it's just that i'm used to her by now but I think that seeing her actually start to feel emotions made her seem more human and less robotic. 

          

         Dean is more or less the same. I've seen on Emmy Laybourne's blogs that she intended to make Dean come to grips with 'doing the right thing' throughout the series. But honestly I wouldn't have noticed without reading that post. Literary tropes are harder to see in YA literature, since you aren't trying to really analyze them most of the time. Dean also shows more 'fatherly' qualities as Astrid gets closer to having the baby which I found a little cheesy.  

   Niko and Josie! Oh my gosh Niko is such a sweet guy for rescuing her! I love the two of them so much. In fact I found myself wishing they were the two main characters instead of Astrid and Dean. Maybe a spinoff? *nudge nudge Emmy Laybourne* Josie was really traumatized after killing a man in defense of the kids, and I could see the change in her after it happened. I almost didn't even recognize her personality at all, she was so different. But once she started looking after some little kids again and was reunited with Niko we started to see her come back around. 

          The conclusion! The final chapters before we draw all three of these books together. Astrid has the baby, a little boy named Charlie, Sahalia finds her father. Dean and Alex get their parents back and they all live together on Niko's uncle's farm. Happily ever after. Except Jake. The drunk, depressed dad of Astrid's baby. I never liked Jake but sheesh that seemed a little cold. The book ends at such an odd moment though! Right before Dean introduces Astrid his ''future wife'' and ''son''. I just kept wondering how they would react. You don't see your son for a month and suddenly he's engaged to a girl who's just given birth to someone else's kid. That seems kinda surprising don't you think? I don't know, maybe i'm over thinking that part. But overall I thought it was a sweet ending. 

I liked how the series flowed into one whole story instead of three separate bits. The start of book one talks about how he wished he told his mom he loved her before the disaster and the last line of book three had him finding her after it's all over and telling her he loves her.

 

       I thought it was pretty sweet. I'll miss the Monument 14... *sigh* maybe even Astrid. lol 

                                                                                     Thanks for Reading -R