HMB’s Book Club {July Review & August Voting}

July is over already!  How?  We both struggled with this book.  Not so much for content…but it’s summer time.  Here’s the reviews.

HMB Book Club

>> Warning :: Reviews may contain spoilers! <<

:: Bre ::

I totally spaced on what this book was about.  Honestly, I know if I liked the synopsis and the author {hello! it’s Judy Blume} it’s going on my TBR {to be read} and I just start reading.  So I was a little shocked when the second plane crashed in the story.  I just knew there couldn’t be a third but OMG.  At one point I was on Wikipedia to see if this was real or if I had the wrong perception of Judy Blume.  In the Afterword, she notes she grew up in New Jersey, and it was in fact real that there were three plane crashes in a short time span.

From time to time I like to read books that take place before cell phones and email, but the 50’s were not exciting to me.  The 60’s I can do, because of Don Draper.  So my feminism and attention span were kind of bored with the talk of parties in basements and orphanages, but I get it.  I get that’s what the time was and you really had to worry about Commies and the newspaper was your main source of information.

I really liked Miri’s character and most of her family.  Other than them, it just felt like too many characters.  I get they were all affected different and each had a piece of story to tell – but so, so many of them.  And then sometimes you’d meet one and then they’d die in a crash at the end of the chapter.  It took me awhile to get what was going on with Natalie/Steve/Dr. O’s family.  And I never quite got the deal with Daisy.

But it was an interesting read.  For the time period.  For the uncertainty of the small town people.  For the prospect of the scandal with Rusty.  And especially for the relationship with Miri and Mason.

I still might stick to my…I mean Addy’s…Superfudge and Ramona Judy Blume though.

:: Heather ::

I like the concept of this book.  A major tragedy brings some people together and tears others apart.  I enjoyed the second half of the book most because by that point, I’d figured out who each character was.  Which brings me to my next point…

It took me a really long time to figure out who the characters were.  The book was so segmented and jumped between characters so often that I had trouble remembering who was who.  For that reason, it took me a long time to get into this book

This definitely wasn’t my favorite Judy Blume book, but I did enjoy the author’s notes at the end of the book when she shared that she grew up in Elizabeth, NJ and experienced the plan crashes herself.

We both give it a solid 3 sippy cups. Not the perfect summer read, but not a bad read either.

Chime in, Houston!  What are your thoughts on In the Unlikely Event?

Once you’ve shared your thoughts on last month’s book, take a minute to vote for the final book of the summer!  As always, you – our fellow readers – get to take control and choose our next book club read.  We’ve left the links below so you can do a little research, then cast your vote!  We are going for some “classics” for our last month this year.

August Options…

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. 277 pages.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. 256 pages.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. 213 pages.

Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. 149 pages.

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You can connect with the HMB book club at any time!

Heather :: Twitter | Goodreads

Bre :: Twitter | Goodreads

HMB :: Twitter | Facebook

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Breonna B
Breonna was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She is recently married to Tyrone, a graphic designer. They currently reside on the West Side of this great city. A big fan of movies, books, photography, and Starbucks, she currently finds herself knee-deep in the throes of being a mommy to Addy {Feb 2011}. Breonna spends the typical 9-5 doing yadda yadda yadda at her job {yes, it’s that nondescript and uninteresting}. She started blogging as a way to do movie reviews, but that gave way to pregnancy blogging. She eventually landed her own space of the internet on BreWrites as well as on Twitter and Instagram {@brewrites} where she talks about everything from the sassiness of her child, to the most recent concert tickets she got her hands on, to the occasional piece of short fiction.

3 COMMENTS

  1. I definitely enjoyed this book more this last months. However, I do agree there were way too many characters! I also felt that the end wad just a tie up of a bunch of lose end. Overall I found the book to be a fairly easy read.

  2. Just a suggestion: It would be helpful to have the name and author of this book in the title or top of the post, for those of us not familiar with this series. I see that it is by Judy Blume, but I’d have to do some work to know the title. As far as I can tell it isn’t mentioned once here.

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