#29--They Almost Always Come Home by Cynthia Ruchti

During the summer I always have great aspirations to getting lots of reading done....as is evidenced by the piles of books I pack anytime I go anywhere.  However, life, and this year, the Olympics, gets in the way. 

I finished They Almost Always Come Home several months ago, but never posted it....so, here goes....

The story opens with Libby fretting over whether dead people wear shoes....it seems like a waste since no one will see them, but "no outfit is complete without shoes".  Every time her husband goes away on one of his Canadian wilderness trips, Libby tends to over-dramatize if he is even the tiniest bit late....but Greg has never been this late before, and he has never been in the wilderness alone...

When he doesn't return home within a few days of the anticipated time, Libby files a missing persons report....and waits, and waits, and waits.  Her father-in-law, Frank, and her best friend, Jenika (Jen), are there by her side.  During her agonizing wait for Greg, Libby waffles between wishing she had left Greg before his trip, to wishing he were home again and by her side.  Part of her indecision lies in the fact that their daughter died a few years ago, and then everything changed. 

Jen is convinced that God wants Libby and Jen to find Greg....Libby's not so sure about that.  She is convinced that Greg is either dead or he has found a convenient way to leave her.  The fourth day after filing the missing persons report, Frank announces that he wants to go up to Canada to take a look around...hoping to see something the authorities missed, or to find "his boy".  Much to his chagrin, Libby and Jen insist on tagging along--two inexperienced and anti-outdoors women--to the wilderness of Canada.  And they only have one week to find him.

Along the way, Jen, Libby and Frank come across clues that indicate they are on the right trail....empty sunflower seeds, Greg's paddle that he made in high school wood shop.  And Libby also has one of Greg's journals that she reads at night while questioning God the whole time.

Two-thirds of the way into the book, the perspective switches to Greg's side of the story.  I don't want to give anything away....but I loved his side of the story just as much as Libby's and the ending was fantastic as well. 

Christian fiction can sometimes come across as preachy or trite, but this one doesn't.  Will definitely be checking out her future works.

Happy Reading!!

#17--The Road by Cormac McCarthy

So, I've mentioned before that I have a problem with buying books....Saturday I went to my local library's used book sale, $5 for a bag of books, and walked out with 25 books for $10.  Not too bad in the financial sense, but it just makes my list of books I need to read even longer than before and my bookshelves groan with the thought of more weight....Oh, to be a speed-reader!!!  Fortunately, several of these books will be making the trip to my parents' house over Easter, so they will not all be taking up precious shelf space in my house.

When I posted this picture on Facebook, several friends commented on one title in particular, today's read.  I decided to start  with The Road since it was coming highly recommended.  I started Sunday afternoon and got a little over 1/3 of the way into it before I had to put it down and walk away for a little bit.  I finished it today after school and several hours later, I'm still not sure exactly what I think of it. 

The story takes place in the future after a post-apocalyptic event--that is never really defined--but most of humanity is gone, food and water are scarce--if not impossible to get, the world is covered in ash, and a man and his son (who I'm guessing is around 8-10 years old) are struggling to survive, with the ultimate goal to get to the coast.  The story is very harsh and stark.  One of my complaints is that there are no quotation marks anywhere in the book--and it is often difficult to keep track of who is talking.  I've only read two other books (that I can think of) that utilize the no quotes style, and I didn't really care for either of those books, so maybe it is a style issue I'm having here.  There were also no chapter markers, other than ellipses (...) in between paragraphs, so that also threw me off a little as well.

Some of the descriptions of were graphic, yet stark in their word pictures.  This is definitely an adult book due to these images.  This book was made into a movie starring Viggo Mortensen in 2008, but I haven't seen it in order to comment.  I would be curious to see how it compared and how some of the events were portrayed.  It may have to go into my Netflix cue...

I do think I need to digest this one for a little longer before finally determining whether or not I like it.

Happy Reading!