Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Sold & Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick

Mikey is a big fan of Patricia McCormick so I was excited that we would be reading two of her books this week since he assured me that I would love them. However, after my preview of Sold a few weeks ago, I was very nervous to read this book. Although the topic is interesting, it is also one that leaves me feeling nauseous and deeply disturbed. I'm not sure why, but I have never been able to handle the subject well. I have a lot of difficulty talking about it, let alone reading about it. I am even having trouble right now trying to write about how it makes me feel. Therefore, I found it hard to read and enjoy Sold. I found myself skimming over parts and somewhat rushing through the book to get it done. I regret this since McCormick's style and language is wonderful and I did not slow down to appreciate this. The subject matter got in the way of me enjoying the book.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed Purple Heart.  What I liked most about this book was that it told about the realities of war and its effects on people without hashing out old politics or the news. McCormick does her best to keep her biases out of the way and instead focuses on telling a story about people. Through some research, I found out that McCormick interviewed soldiers from across the United States to help her write this book. The effects of her efforts are evident as I felt like the story was a realistic representation of a war zone. By making me feel as though I was actually in the trenches with the soldiers, I became more engrossed with the book. Furthermore, this sort of reporting and attention to detail reminded me of the books I used to read for my history courses. In that sense, reading this book was kind of like visiting an old friend.

I am looking forward to our discussion about the books tomorrow and am curious to hear which one you enjoyed more.

Also, Mikey has highly recommended two more Patricia McCormick books for us to add to our list. These are Cut and My Brother's Keeper. 

1 comment:

  1. Christina, although I appreciate your sharing with us "Mikey's picks" in this entry, I am left feeling like I know more about why Mikey liked these books than you. Could you spend some time elaborating here on what you felt as you read either Sold or Purple Heart?

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