nomadreader

The backstory: The Last Days of California  is Mary Miller's debut novel. The basics: Jess is fifteen and on a road trip from Montgomery, Alabama with her pregnant seventeen-year-old sister Elise, her evangelical father, and her mother. The family is heading to California because the rapture is coming in a matter of days. My thoughts: The thought of being fifteen on a road trip with my older sister and parents is enough to make me feel claustrophobic in reminiscence (I'm sort of kidding--I don't have an older sister.) It's not a situation I would necessarily choose to immerse myself in, but from the moment I started The Last Days of California , I was hooked and didn't want to leave this journey. Miller is an intriguing writer. This novel has dark humor in some unexpected places: "Molly Ringwald was never pretty enough to be a leading lady, but the eighties were a dream world in which the captain of the football team would leave the homecoming queen for...

The backstory: Lamb  was longlisted for the 2013 Orange Prize  (soon-to-be-Bailey's) Women's Prize for Fiction and won the 2011 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize . The basics: Lamb  takes its title from David Lamb, a middle-aged man struggling with the end of his marriage and the death of his father. When he meets 11-year-old Tommie, an unpopular girl, the two strike up an unlikely friendship of sorts and embark on a road trip from Chicago to the Rocky Mountains. Tommie goes willingly, but she does not tell anyone when she does. My thoughts: Throughout Lamb , there is certainly an element of creepiness. It's more overt at some times than others, but the tension of innocence also permeates the novel. There are essentially four versions of the events in the novel: how Lamb sees things, how Tommie sees things, how Lamb explains  things to Tommie, and, lastly, how the reader combines all three of these narratives. The reader also gets glimpses from the omniscient n...

The backstory: Heidenkind thoughtfully reviewed this graphic novel the month before the read-a-thon , and I opted to start my read-a-thon with it. Bryan Lee O'Malley also wrote the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel. The basics: Lost at Sea  is the story of Raleigh, a young girl on a road trip from California back to Canada. My thoughts: Looking for a graphic novel to read during the next read-a-thon? This one is perfect. First of all, it's about a road trip, which is a favorite theme of mine. Second, it's quite short (I read it in less than an hour, which was an excellent 8 a.m. boost.) Third, although I found the end bizarre, I really liked the experience of reading it and thoroughly enjoyed most of the book. I won't spoil the ending, although it's not an ending with a shocking twist or surprising turn. It's more of an odd and unexpected turn. The rest of the story, however, is fascinating. The reader begins the novel on the road trip and slowly pieces toget...