Books Read Week of October 15th

A Good American by Alex George
So good!  This novel followed a German-America family in Beatrice, Missouri for three generations, and was much like real life in that it was sad and satisfying.  The narrator shares the lives of his grandparents and parents before he enters the picture, and then describes all of the exciting events that transpire in his brothers' lives.  Toward the end, I wondered if much of anything would ever happen to the narrator himself and suddenly - plot twist!  
This was my first five star read in quite a while.  I'm particular with my five star ratings!  
Read it - just know that many of your favorite characters will die.  For a novel spanning over 100 years, I guess that is to be expected.

Pair with:  Cajun food!  This book features lots of alcohol, then lots of German food, then lots of Cajun food, and then lots of American food and THEN some Mexican food as the family's bar morphs into different iterations of a restaurant over the years.  The Cajun food sounded the best, and was prepared lovingly by one of my favorite characters (guess his fate.)

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​Infinite in Between by Carolyn Mackler
I flew through this book this weekend.  Infinite in Between follows five teenagers throughout their high school career, month by month.  A set up like that makes for a lot happening quickly, easy on the teen angst - perfect.  The character development was excellent as well, and Ms. Mackler clearly put a lot of work into ensuring that these five teens mature appropriately from 9th grade to 12th grade.  Great book!

These high-schoolers were a lot busier with drugs, alcohol, and "anatomy" than I ever was in high school.  Yet everyone seemed to get excellent grades and was accepted to stellar universities.  I believe YA authors have a tough job on their hands.  They want to push out books that teens will actually want to read (i.e. books that don't preach at them) but those with a conscience don't want to lift up bad choices either.  On the spectrum, this book leans more toward the former.  Thus, I'll be handing this to Veronica in a few years with some sort of parental lecture attached.  Maybe I'll leave little notes in it for her.

Pair with:  Vodka that you're allowed to drink because you're at least 21!  Or forget the drinks and food.   You'll be flipping these pages so quickly you won't want to waste time putting things in your mouth.  (I really just said that.)

NEXT UP:
Next weekend I'm going to a cabin with my mom, sister, and daughter.  What happens at the cabin stays at the cabin but primarily we read books and drink coffee.  Thus, I should have 3 or 4 books finished up this time next week.  Surely I'll have my 600 pager about nuns finished up.  I plan to start Home Is Burning here in about ten minutes.  

​Have a lovely week!

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