The Center of Everything

 

The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

Pages: 252

4 out of 5 stars

Set in small town, Kerrville, Kansas, this novel is told by Evelyn Bucknow. Evelyn is a young girl, when we met her, her mom, Grandma and the neighbors in their ran-down apartment building. You share Evelyn's life and thoughts as she grows up - up to the point where she is ready to leave home for college. The people of Kerrville are in the center of the United States, but to Evelyn it might as well be the middle of nowhere. Evelyn's voice is authentic as a young girl and later teen, growing up in rural America in the 1980s during the Reagan years. 

Wisp of a Thing by Alex Bledsoe

Rob Quillen recieves a mysterious message to come to Cloud County Tennessee to find a song guaranteed to soothe his broken heart. The second Tufa novel is just as good as the first, with more lore of the fae, long lost poetry on forgotten tombstones, and well-developed characters.

This is a great fantasy series!

349 pages

The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

Bronwyn is a Iraqi War hero back in her Tennessee mountainous hometown after two years. Her body and mind broken, she is slowly feeling her way back into her community, relearning the magic and music of her heritage. Oh my goodness, this book was amazing. Definitely planning on reading the rest of the series. Bledsoe is an amazing storyteller, and the idea of Appalachian fairies makes for original fantasy. I'm excited to read the rest of the series!

I would highly recommended this novel for fantasy lovers.

349 pages

Read Harder Challenge Task #10

Bleachers

 Bleachers
by John Grisham
Pages: 229
Rating: 4 out of 5

This is a story about a football in a small town, about how one man can affect a whole county for the better and for the worse and how in the end all that really matters isn't how you played the game, but who you are and can you forgive?

A quick read, with a deeper story than I expected from a "small town football tale." One of Grisham's strengths as a writer is challenging the reader to think about the issues in the lives of his characters and how these issues are something similar affects them. A worthwhile read even if you are not a sports fan or from a small town, though I think those from more rural areas will be able to relate more to the characters.

A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller

A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This intricate mystery set in rural West Virginia is beautiful written.  Julia Keller asks the reader to consider whether it is best to leave a painful past behind or the return to your birthplace in order to try to make it better for others. 384 pages.