Thoughts 
by Kawai Strong Washburn, MCD 2020, 376 pages
MOTIVATION for READING: TOB. For some reason, I don’t seem to find the motivation or timing to participate in Summer Camps. I want to! But the cards just don’t get dealt that way. I find that my reading has seasons and this just isn’t my kind of summer reading weather. But I’m glad to get a jump on it while we await the long list. Where IS that by the way? [Wrote this but hadn’t yet pub’d; which reminded me when TOB did send it out finally that this post was likely ready, too. So, HERE WE ARE. The long list!] My goodreads 2021-Rooster list is here
WHAT’s it ABOUT: Family. Legends. Destiny. The middle child is favored – favored by the gods, favored by mom and dad. The family struggles financially while encouraging all the gifts of skill and intelligence within the children. Unfortunately, all carry these burdens as too-much-burden, trapped in comparisons and never articulated, explored, brought to light but left to fester in the dark. Success and the subsequent trappings, wrapped up in ‘a ticket OUT’ betray the rewards of excelling on merits and opportunities. So. much. heartache and misunderstanding and allowing the aggravations and frustrations to get the better of them!
I yearned for Dean the eldest and he got lost, missed a step and couldn’t get his mojo back, he misunderstood what his mojo really was? Or did he find it… And baby sister had such a bright future! She was so freaking smart and kicking ass as an engineering student in college — but youth and distractions and the tilt-a-whirl of that youth, the constant obsessing “is this love? what IS this” kept getting in the way. The middle kid? Just fate or bad luck – such pain. So much pain.
Noa might be the main character but he was the star that they all rotated around and never quite connected to.
Yet, I felt for them all and tried to understand. The magical realism was an illusion just beyond reach. But love was there. Love couldn’t quite overcome but love was there and the ending offers hope.
THOUGHTS: Did I enjoy this or was I moved by, caught up in? the hope that love would win?
RATING: Five slices of pie. No pie mentioned.
Care's Books and Pie 
That’s a long list of TOB books! Guess it’s good to get a headstart on it with a 5-slice read!
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez was really good, I thought, and very short, too!
Yay for short! Someone in the gr group made a list of the shorter ones and noted the longest one is under 500. Which means no chunksters like The Mirror and the Light. DOUBLE YAY
I’ve read a decent number of books on the longlist (11) and I have several on my library list, plus two two that I own. I am very good at picking books to read that don’t end up on the shortlist, so we shall see. Haven’t read this one yet, but I’m on the library list for it.
I always think about participating in the summer TOB but then never do. I think the format doesn’t excite me as much, so I’m less motivated to do the reading at the right time.
Yea, when the summer TOB camp is presented, it always sounds so DOABLE and I get excited about the books, but I don’t even seem to get them purchased/libraried, or whatever. Shrug.
I’m enjoying We Ride Upon Sticks – probably because it is worlds away being set in the late 80s. And it’s bitingly funny. – at least to me. I’m finding quite chuckle-worthy.