Thursday, May 30, 2024

Fifty States Challenge

 

Fifty States Master Post


 

Thanks to Moonlight Reader for this delightful challenge and summer reading project.

I've promised myself that for this challenge no re-reads permitted and nothing from MR's reading list (no matter how attractive it looks; it will just have to go on my wish list for another time).

The plan. I'm starting in New England, where I live, and will work my way through the founding colonies and then westward to the Pacific Coast. So far, I have been depending on GoodReads lists for finding books but after two somewhat duds, I am going to have to expand the search parameters. Finding the books can prove as time consuming as reading them and writing about them.

Let the reading begin!

MAINE -- It was tough to find a book to read for Maine considering that I am not a fan of horror (Stephen King) and I have already read The Cider House Rules. I tried and immediately put down a title by Sarah Orne Jewett; it was cold, bleak and boring. I ended up with a true vacation read. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/10620.Books_Set_in_Maine

Murder on Parade by Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain, part of the Murder, She Wrote series

I never watched the TV show but I was desperate to find something of interest to read. If nothing else, I found some tolerable reading for when only "necessary roughage" will do. I loved the residents of Cabot Cove; they were so New England caricature and the mystery was solid enough to sustain interest.
3 stars (would have been 3.25 if it weren't for the lousy narrator)

NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Equally as difficult to find a title, even though there are some good choices at the top of the list -- A Separate Peace, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Our Town, Jodi Picoult, Anita Shreve -- I eventually settled on a real dud. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16516.Books_Set_in_New_Hampshire

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern

There is just so much wrong with this book, so much unrealized potential. I can believe I read it all the way to the end. Show us,don't tell us! By the end, it was a car running out of gas, sputtering to a halt when it still had ground to cover.
2 stars