Tuesday, November 24, 2009


I received this book as an ARC from Library Thing and at first put off reading it as I was into about 3 other books at the time.I picked it up on Friday and finished it Sunday. It is fast paced and a very believeable read.
The book deals with an Iraq vet and his daughter who are homeless and what the system of govt tries to do for them believing they know best. It truly makes you think about what home really is and family and that sometimes in trying to do good the system actually does harm when it separates families who are only guilty of poverty. The book is loosely based on actual events that took place here in Portland in 2004 I believe.The city in the story is actually Portland and the Park is Forest Park in Portland. There is another book based on this event called My Abandonment which is a good book to read along this with this one. I found at the end of the story wondering what actually happened to the girl in the real story.
I feel that Jennie Shortridge who is from the Seattle area also gets the culture of the Northwest and Oregon down to a T. This is the first book of hers that I have read but will read more.
. Here is a link to the actual story from the newspaper .

3 comments:

Connie said...

I have found your book recommendations to be excellent! We read molokai'i for our book club and everyone loved it. It also had everyone scrambling to do research on the topics in the book :) I am such a slouch on goodreads I just can't seem to keep up!

Yolanda said...

Thanks so much and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Paula said...

Yolanda ~ this one sounds so good. I love that it's based on fact and set in the Pacific Northwest. Adding it to my list for sure.