I'm so excited to do these next several postings. Why? Because it means I finished all 35 Whitney finalists. Truthfully, it should say 33 books because I'd read three of the books before the finalists were announced and I had to squeeze an unrelated book in there because I was participating in a book review blog tour.
That's a lot of reading. My family can attest to that. It helped that I have a Kindle and can take it pretty much anywhere I go. It also helped that I could read on the treadmill as I did my training. That gave me a lot of reading hours. I'm excited now to read a few other things, including Death of a Disco Dance (a book I've heard a lot about as some have complained it wasn't a finalist) and The Road (a book my daughter just sobbed through for her AP Lit class and wants me to read so we can talk about it.) I can also focus on class preparations for my youth summer writing camp and write.
But I'm happy to say, I've read them all. It definitely had its ups and downs. There were some I really, really liked. Loved even. There were a few that were harder for me to get into and I had to force myself to finish them before moving on to others I was looking forward to. There were some delightful surprises, a couple that really touched my heart and a few that were really entertaining. I'm not going to rate each of them. I'm just going to list the category and the finalists and tell you what the highlights of that category were for me.
I didn't read each category in its entirety before reading other things, so that's why I had to finish them all before starting these posts.
So here goes: Historical Fiction
The finalists were:
Daughter of Helaman by Misty Moncur
Fires of Jerusalem by Marilyn Brown
Isabelle Webb: The Pharaoh's Daughter by N.C. Allen
Letters in the Jade Dragon Box by Gale Sears
Miss Delacourt Has Her Day by Heidi Ashworth
My favorite book in this category was a runaway. It isn't that I disliked the others, but Letters in the Jade Dragon Box surprised me in the best possible way. Perhaps it's because my son is on a mission in Taiwan (mentioned in the book as part of the first Asian Mission that is a central part of the story) or the beautiful writing. Or maybe it's the sweet and endearing characters or the fascinating historical setting, but whatever it was, I loved this book and even though I've read others since this one, my mind wanders to this story again and again. I highly recommend it.
If you've read any of these, feel free to share your thoughts about them.
Up Next: Romance
That's a lot of reading. My family can attest to that. It helped that I have a Kindle and can take it pretty much anywhere I go. It also helped that I could read on the treadmill as I did my training. That gave me a lot of reading hours. I'm excited now to read a few other things, including Death of a Disco Dance (a book I've heard a lot about as some have complained it wasn't a finalist) and The Road (a book my daughter just sobbed through for her AP Lit class and wants me to read so we can talk about it.) I can also focus on class preparations for my youth summer writing camp and write.
But I'm happy to say, I've read them all. It definitely had its ups and downs. There were some I really, really liked. Loved even. There were a few that were harder for me to get into and I had to force myself to finish them before moving on to others I was looking forward to. There were some delightful surprises, a couple that really touched my heart and a few that were really entertaining. I'm not going to rate each of them. I'm just going to list the category and the finalists and tell you what the highlights of that category were for me.
I didn't read each category in its entirety before reading other things, so that's why I had to finish them all before starting these posts.
So here goes: Historical Fiction
The finalists were:
Daughter of Helaman by Misty Moncur
Fires of Jerusalem by Marilyn Brown
Isabelle Webb: The Pharaoh's Daughter by N.C. Allen
Letters in the Jade Dragon Box by Gale Sears
Miss Delacourt Has Her Day by Heidi Ashworth
My favorite book in this category was a runaway. It isn't that I disliked the others, but Letters in the Jade Dragon Box surprised me in the best possible way. Perhaps it's because my son is on a mission in Taiwan (mentioned in the book as part of the first Asian Mission that is a central part of the story) or the beautiful writing. Or maybe it's the sweet and endearing characters or the fascinating historical setting, but whatever it was, I loved this book and even though I've read others since this one, my mind wanders to this story again and again. I highly recommend it.
If you've read any of these, feel free to share your thoughts about them.
Up Next: Romance
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