The Chosen by Chaim Potok. An amazing book about fathers and sons and friendship and tradition and the pull of change. What really drew me into the story was the authentic detail about Jewish and Hassidic life and belief. I loved it so much that I had to find the sequel and read it next.

The Promise by Chaim Potok. A worthy follow-up to a great novel.

Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli. Semicolon review here.

Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez. Semicolon review here.

The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac. Semicolon review here.

Family Reminders by Julie Danneberg. Semicolon review here.

Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem. Semicolon review here.

Things Change by Patrick Jones. Semicolon review here.

The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill. Semicolon review here.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation:
Volume 1: The Pox Party
Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves
by M.T. Anderson. Semicolon review here.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley. Semicolon review here.

Singin’ Texas by Edward Abernethy Francis. I really sort of skimmed this one, still doing research for my Texas history/literature class in the fall.

Abide With Me: The World of VIctorian Hymns by Ian C. Bradley.

Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen. Too many implausible coincidences and unreasonable acts made this novel difficult to finish. I did enjoy the period details, but the story and characters were not believable and therefore not very enjoyable.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Great story. Way, way too much graphic, violent, gratuitous sexual details. Mr. Follett seemed at times to be obsessed with the subject of rape —or maybe I just have a low tolerance for reading about the details of such a crime. I finished the whole 973 page epic, but had they asked me to edit, I could have taken it down to about 800 pages without losing anything significant.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin. Semicolon review here.

Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. This book raises interesting questions about memory and the role it plays in our lives and in our survival. In it, a Russian survivor of the siege of Leningrad (WW2) uses her memories to cope with her incipient Alzheimer’s in ways that her children cannot understand.

101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.

101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.

Then Sings My Soul by Robert Morgan.

Hymn research and reading for the 48-hour Book Challenge shaped a lot of my reading this month. The best adult fiction I read was, hands down, The Chosen by Chaim Potok. The best of the children’s/young adult fiction: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation.