Book For The Week - 10/31/11

Far Away Home by Susan Denning

In between purchases on my Kindle I try to read two to three free books.  Last night I finished a novel that I obtained off of Amazon's free list shortly after I received my kindle for my birthday.  It appealed to me because it is an historical novel.  It starts out with an Irish Catholic Immigrant community in NYC and follows some of it's young people west.  I really enjoyed the book.  I have to admit I am a sucker for books with wagon trains.   I probably should not admit this on the web but anyone who knows me knows this story.   When I was in the fourth grade I stayed in trouble.  My mother kept me grounded trying to obtain some control over me.  Most of my fourth grade year I had to go straight to my room after school,  I was allowed to come down to the table and eat with the family and then I had to go straight back to my room.  As a result I would ask my fourth grade teacher if I could bring some of the books home from the classroom to read.  When I explained why I wanted them I think she felt sorry for me because she sent me home every night I was grounded arms full of the most wonderful books.   As a result I really learned to read well.  My favorite books were about the families that were traveling in wagon trains on the Oregon Trail.  So once this book Far Away Home  got to the point that two of the young people decided to join a wagon train rather than ride the rails on the passenger trains out west I was thrilled.   Here is a video of the author learning to drive a wagon as research for her writing the book.  As always click on the title and the author's name to follow links to learn more.