The Girls of Pearl Harbor

I won't give this book a rating because I didn't read enough to make a fair judgement. So let me just say, it didn't suit my taste well enough to get past the first few chapters.  I even tried skipping to the gory stuff--it's about nurses in Pearl Harbor after the bombing--and still didn't get interested. Too bad--I think it has great promise.

There are some serious writing issues, at least in the early chapters. Such as:
Poppy had lost interest and was taking her sunglasses from her bag, the big white-framed fashion statements pushed high on her nose.

Huh?  And
...although April was taller than her and not quite as petite.
Actually, that's using the definition of "petite"  that says "fairly short and of slim build".  But when I read it, I thought of the other definition, "short".

Yes, I am being picky. But it doesn't take too many forced rereads of a sentence to make the whole flow go sticky.

Still, I think the author has a great subject and should try again, maybe with a better editor?  And she should create some characters I really care to hang out with for the duration.

Only When I Step On It

by Peter Conti


Quite a feat! To hike the Appalachian trail and have good enough notes to write a detailed book about it. It almost felt like he described every day of hiking, but I'm sure that wasn't true. Still, he has a lot to say.

And a lot of it is very, very enjoyable. The only issue I had was that the constant mention of his leg and foot pain, and the very frequent seques into paragraphs of description of his issues, treatments, and episodes of pain, got really tiresome.  I expected his story to be mostly chronological--it started off that way. But then he'll be sidelined with pain and all of a sudden be jumping back to talk about failed treatments from months and months earlier. As I said, that got really old. And, I confess, I started skipping the boring parts.

But the base story and the way he learned to deal with his optimistic plan--if I make it all the way to Mt, Kahadin, I'll have to be healed!--was great stuff. I enjoyed it very much. With omissions.