Two Books Finished

As usual I’m behind on reviews and I’ve actually finished more than two books recently but here’s some thoughts on two of my recent reads.

I know I mentioned Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goodman before. It’s a story about a young boy whose mother had him when she was thirteen (yes, thirteen) and how he grows up in the projects. While the story was a bit grim at times, I found it very empowering really. Abraham is such a great character and is surrounded by love from his family, even when things aren’t going so well for them.

What I liked best was the prose, it was so descriptive. Here for example is how he describes one of the characters (one of my favorite characters actually): “He was the type of humble southern man who had come north to do two things: fight in Madison Square Garden and find his queen.”

So, if want a good story with strong characters then I recommend this one. Here’s my full review.

Now my next book, Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand, is one of those books where I think I went in with the wrong expectations. I kept thinking it was going to be one of those settings where all the townspeople are charming, lots of cute scenes, warm and fuzzy feelings at the end but none of that happened.

Three women decide spend the summer in Nantucket to escape from their lives and problems. Being away is supposed to be a balm for the soul but when I finished the book I didn’t think the characters had changed much. If you see the reviews of her books though it sounds like a lot of people love ’em. So maybe I’ll try another one of these days but who knows. Anyway, here’s my full review.

So, off to continue with my current reads I mentioned yesterday.