I read The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.
In her stunningly original and haunting debut novel, Amanda Coplin evokes a powerful sense of place, mixing tenderness and violence as she spins an engrossing tale of a solitary orchardist who provides shelter to two runaway teenage girls in the untamed American West, and the dramatic consequences of his actions.- from Amazon
It is getting a lot of buzz in my current home state of Washington because it is set in Eastern Washington. This book kept me reading. I am not sure if I liked the ending. I am not sure anything was really resolved and that left me feeling cheated out of the ending I thought it deserved. The writing was beautiful.
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline was another book I read. I thought it was really enjoyable and not a difficult read. IT even made me cry. The conditions orphans faced back in the day were truly awful. Orphans were treated as indentured servants and not children.
Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse...
As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both. - Amazon
The orphan trains are fascinating bit of history as well. My book contained some historical perspective about the trains in the back of the book.This also hit near home because of the Hanna Williams case where an adopted child was starved to death. Her adopted parents are awaiting sentencing this week on Tuesday. This happened in the next county over. Have we come that far? Ophans still don't seem to have many protections.
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough - To be quite honest, I am not real sure why I picked this book to read. The sub title is Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. Lots of thought provoking information in the book. I found some of the statistics in the book interesting. Like a high GPA is the most likely to indicate success in college rather than IQ. That the US has the one of the highest rates of sending kids to college but one of the lowest completion rates. That a poor fit for college, as in not challenging enough, is one of the main reasons kids drop out of college. The book talked a lot about how it is important to have motivation and volition to be successful. That teaching character is challenging to kids. I do have a new quote and it applies more to me than my children - " You have to motivation and volition. You can have all the motivation in the world but if you don't have the will power. You won't be successful.
Thanks for being such a loyal participant in Booking It!
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