O Pioneers! - Summer 2010 - Genre: Western

Genre #13 - Western
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
read 7/16/10 - 7/17/10

This was a fantastic book. It follows the lives of a family battling the hardships of the prairie as well as struggling through their own internal battles. This book has great descriptive elements to it, really helping the reader to visualize what life was like for the pioneers. Probably the greatest thing that endeared me to this book was the characterizations. The characters in this book are multi-faceted. The heroes have flaws, and the villains have redeeming qualities. Because of the excellent characterization and descriptive voice, O Pioneers! has a distinctly realistic and endearing tone.

This book was part of my 2010 summer reading program.

Library Summer Reading Program 2010

I first began participating in my library's summer reading program in 2010. That was actually my most "prolific" year to date. (It was before I had kids; need I say more?)

I really enjoyed the format of the 2010 summer reading program. The library selected 15 genres, dividing them into 5 groups. So, each little group had 3 genres. The goal was to choose 1 of the 3 genres in each of those 5 groups (thus, reading 5 books by the end of the summer). Well, since I've always been an over-achiever, I decided I wanted to read all 15 genres. It was such fun! The library gave recommendations of books and authors in each of the genres.

I originally posted my reviews on Facebook, but now that I have a blog, I'll also post them here.

Here are the 15 genres:
Fantasy (I actually read 2 for this one)
Historical
Horror
Literary
Mystery
Adventure
Thriller
Gentle Reads
Women's Lives
Suspense
Romance
Sci Fi
Western
Inspirational
Crime

Hope you enjoy the reviews! What's your favorite genre to read?