Dicey awoke the next morning with the sense that she was ready to solve problems, the way you often do, as if the time of sleep were a long journey to a distant country where alterations in geographical formations, in light, in ways of living, in language even, enable you to see your own world more clearly.
The rest of them were pretty sure they understood things, and that made them bad listeners.
so-so3/5⭐ Better than the last few books, but still nowhere near as good as the first 3. There was so much space wasted on landscape descriptions, & the themes or lessons throughout seemed thin and stretched just to make a buck—I mean book. The ending did not at all have the satisfying weight of finishing a series. What I liked most were the side character dynamics with Sammy, Maybeth, & Gram, though Sammy & Maybeth's subplots were unfinished.
Catching up with my bookkeeping (haha), I realized the tagged book completed my #COVID19challenge - number in the title. Also gave me my third bingo on the social distancing bingo card - only five spaces left! I‘m also 2/3 through my fourth book of #bookspinbonanza and am hoping to devote more time to #nutsinMay this week. Whew!
pick3/20 in the #bookspinbonanza done! Still not on par with the first two Tillerman books, but good. Dicey (who, contrary to the illustration, has dark hair) opens her boatbuilding business, then proceeds to make every mistake imaginable. (After working for Millie for years, essentially running that business, she doesn‘t know she needs insurance?) Not much of an ending, but worth it.
pickA low pick, but still solid. James talks Sammy into helping him search for their father, or for information about him. We learn about the brothers six years after their arrival on their Gram‘s doorstep.
Second completion of #24B4Monday
bailed1.5/5⭐ Hard to believe it's the same author who wrote the masterpiece A Solitary Blue. James is a whiny emo inconsistent uncommunicative teenager, which sounds accurate but Voigt's other teenage characters seemed authentic without being irritating to the max.
I forced myself through Bullet's racism in The Runner because at least Voigt attempted to deal with that issue, but I'm not doing it again with James' unchallenged fatphobia & misogyny.
Light shone from a blue sky that wasn‘t dark at all, just deep, pale blue. Light glowed over the land. It was almost as if it was the earth giving off the light, the air was so full of soft brightness. Sammy felt at home in spring—his whole body felt like one of those sprouts, swelling up & pushing out to be...whatever he wanted.
Surprisingly, I‘m right on track for my goal of ten hours for #24B4Monday and halfway through the tagged book.
I‘m struggling a bit with this one because I‘ve never liked James, and all his character flaws are bigger here than ever before. I do like Sammy pretty well, and I‘m liking the snapshots of the rest of the family. But it‘s no Homecoming or Dicey‘s Song.
