Week 4 Wrap Up

This past week I've finished two books.


I finally finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. At 771 pages, it took me almost 2 weeks to read. The writing is beautiful if dense and overly wordy. I liked the character development and the plot, though it took awhile to get to the actual plot. The book was slow, had unnecessary details, but kept me intrigued because of the complicated characters. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Then I finished Heartland by Sarah Smarsh. This book was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a look into poverty on the grander scale, buoyed by her personal experiences growing up poor. However, this book isn't exactly a memoir- it focuses a little on the author's life but more on her relatives' experiences. It does contain some factual statements about poverty and how it can later affect things. But it was disorganized, jumping around in ways that just didn't make sense. Additionally, the whole book she is addressing the book to the child she never had. While this would have been clever for a chapter- especially the one focusing on her family's cycle of teenage motherhood- it starts to feel gimmicky and annoying when she switches between second and third person. Overall, not worth the read. I gave it 2 stars.