Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I was struggling to come up with a title for tonight’s post and the above was my 15-year-old’s suggestion; she says it will pique my readers’ interest. (Or should I say my reader’s interest? Because let’s be honest here…) Whether it does or not, I’m going with it!

Part of me is thrilled to be writing this review, you understand, because I finished listening to Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth last night, and I am SO happy to be done. For whatever reason, I kept losing the story threads when I tried to up the speed past 1.25, so it took longer than audiobooks usually do; it’s also less my thing. The American southwest (and its reflecting world counterpart) is not a setting I relate to well, and the author’s writing style is not–something. Not my thing? I think I’d prefer to hear a story told in her style rather than read one. I did enjoy it more once the two worlds represented in the book collided with each other, but that took longer than I wanted it to. (Part of my problem was audiobook speed, and that is definitely my own personal problem, but the plot pacing also felt slow for the first half of the book.) Nina and her family’s story makes for an interesting tale, and I was much more engaged in the last third of the book–the climax is, in its own way, pretty fabulous. I actually think I would have preferred more of the book to be from Nina’s point of view, although Oli is lovable; ultimately, I’m going to go with it’s a good story, but the structure and style is problematic for me in written form. Bottom line? I wouldn’t have read it if it weren’t a Newbery Honor book, and I would have been okay with not reading it, but I’m not sorry I read it. If you read it, let me know what YOU think!

Also, sorry for the long silence–we all have our struggles, right? My 7th grader had a band concert on the 16th (not to mention her almost daily and ever-lengthening play rehearsals) and I helped my friend Britt with her birthday party planning and execution last week (my 7th grader being one of the guests). I’m currently playing laundry catchup–we all know what a blast THAT is–and, well, life. I’ll try and do better!