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This Motif (theme) for November is ...

"An Oldie But A Goodie" Read a Historical Fiction book or a book published before 2000.��

Share with us! Which book did you read and what did you think of it?

Challenge complete!
I picked Congo by Michael Crichton, which was first published in 1980. I have seen the 1995 movie adaptation several times, but never actually read the source material. It was a good read in places, but I also found myself skipping lots of pages of scientific technobabble. Given what we know today, it's astounding how massively science has progressed in leaps and bounds since then...

Challenge Complete: Boy's Life by Robert McCammon (published in 1991)

I debated giving the book only three stars, but eventually settled on four. Because I did enjoy the book; the writing was smooth and never dragged. I never looked ahead to see what would happen. And, mostly, I enjoyed the characters, They were fully formed and likable when they were supposed to be, and dislikable when they weren’t. especially Cory and his father, who were central to most of what was going on.

Cory and his friends acted like kids, sometimes to their detriment. But I could go along with that, knowing that kids aren’t the greatest of thinkers. Plus, what horror there was in the book usually revolved around Cory and his friends, though I would say there was more magic in the book than horror.

My problem with the book, and in the scheme of things it was rather minor, was all the things that were happening to the same boy, all in the span of less than a year. It tended to push the bounds of probability. And I wondered why his parents didn’t rein him in, though his father had his own difficulties to work through.

But, as I said, I did enjoy the book, and can easily recommend it.

�� Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
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This is a sublimely cute mish-mash of a story that revolves around several key characters/character groups that live on Cannery Row. Lots of great humour, and comedic mishaps. I simply love Steinbeck.

Read two books, actually.
The first was The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson.
A fairly long slog, but interesting backstory to the World's Fair, that I knew little about. The side story of a mass murderer seemed to need it's own book, but tied together with the fair, so made some sense.

The second book, Farenheit 451 by the amazing Ray Bradbury, was more of a horror book for me. See my review here:/review/show...

CHALLENGE COMPLETE. I cannot say enough about this book! I am not usually one for historical fiction but this one was incredible. Spies, powerful females, emotional attachments to the characters, deep-felt horror at the Nazis - all the feel were there with an exceptional story. Definitely recommend this one.

Challenge Complete!
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. This was published in 2021, but is set in 1985. It's a book about living a hard life, and even then, how some people have it harder. It's also set in Ireland, and touches a bit on the Magdalena Laundries.

Challenge complete: The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner. Historical fiction set in San Francisco around the massive 1906 earthquake.