Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery

This book was recommended by a friend, but I didn't think it was going to be of interest to me.  Then I saw it on GoodReads list for best books of 2014 and I decided I should give it a chance.  It did start a bit slow, but then I got into it.

Terribly abused by her husband for decades, when Emma Gatewood was 67 she decided to do something for herself.  Take a walk.  She didn't let her children know where she was going until much later, she started in Georgia and hiked the entire Appalachian Trail through to the end in Maine.  She then hiked it again in its entirety.  She traveled light and depended on others for much of her food and shelter along the way  She didn't use any fancy gear and didn't spend much money in the 5 months it took her to complete.  Emma became the first woman to hike the entire trail.  As she gained national attention she was able to call attention to much needed improvements for the AT.  Trails were not clearly marked, shelters were is disrepair and/or filthy.

She hiked the trail a 3rd time in portions and later walked the 2,000 mile Oregon Trail.  Today there is a 6 mile trail in her home state of Ohio named after her and people gather once a year to hike together in her memory. 

When I was reading this book, I could picture the beautiful scenery and wished that I was also on the AT experiencing the nature and solitude.  Several years ago I read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and I also daydreamed of hiking the trail.  We've hiked a small portion of the AT in North Carolina a few years ago when on vacation.  As a family we have always enjoyed day hikes when we lived up in CT.  Lately my older children have expressed an interest in hiking a longer portion of the trail so we are planning to do that when our grandbaby is old enough to go with us. 

I definitely recommend picking up this book and getting to know this strong woman who isn't as well known anymore.  I'm glad I got to know her.

Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

I saw this book featured on a bookish website.  I think it may have been Book Riot.  I checked it out on Amazon and saw the mixed reviews and worried about buying it.  Luckily my (very small) library had a copy and so I put it on hold and it came in quickly.  I had never read anything by Amy Bloom before.

The first two lines were great:  "My father's wife died.  My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us."

In my mind I said "Oh, this sounds good.  All those people were wrong,  it's going to be a good book."

Um, nope.  After the first couple of chapters the story gets a little odd and becomes mainly about the older sister's sexuality and her issues with other women.  She is not a likeable character.  In fact there are only a few characters I could stand.  The writing style was very odd.  There were many times I didn't know who was thinking or talking and would have to go back and reread.  Quite a bit of the book is told through letters that only go one way.

Set mostly in the 1940's the characters have a string of bad luck brought on mostly by their own choices or the people they've let into their lives. Eva is abandoned by her mother without a goodbye or explanation and left to live with a father she doesn't know well and a sister she has never met. Their father is a mess:  a liar, theif, con man and coward, just to name a few of his faults. Iris' actions are criminal and abusive. Eva seems to try to do her best to keep things going and pick up the mess everyone creates. I kept hoping things would turn around but it took until the end of the book for a glimmer of future hope.  I also thought the end was abrupt and the final page I was just like "whaaaat?"  That didn't really go with the entire book in my opinion, but ok. The whole book just felt like a train veering off the tracks and never righted itself. 

To sum up:  Nice cover art, great opening lines, crappy mixed up story written badly and ended abruptly.  It could have been a much better story.  Thankfully I saved my money and used the library.
2/5 Stars

Challenge Wrap-up...quite a bit late

I finished my challenge on August 15, 2014 and sadly I did not make my goal.  In all I read 147 books.  At the time I felt good about having read so much, but looking back I wish I would have made my goal.  It's very hard to read so much when you have a family though.  I homeschool my children so a good chunk of my days are taken up. 

Soon after I finished my challenge I became a Mimi, which is why I haven't been blogging, not that I was keeping up with it well in the first place.  My new grandson is such a sweetie and a lot of my days are spent holding him, but I am surprised I'm still finding time to read.

I am actually re-reading Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, which is the book that inspired me to try and read 200 books in one year.  The author actually reads a book a day, which I knew I wouldn't be able to do.

I'm going to use this blog to try and keep track of what I'm reading.  I do that religiously on Goodreads, but I would like to try to write a little something about what I'm reading.  We'll see if I can keep up with it somewhat.  I feel like I used to be able to write better than I can now.  The older I get the mushier my brain becomes. I blame the kids. Maybe if I start and keep at it I'll get better at it.