Customer Reviews

July and August: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved reading this book, so much so, that I am getting Nancy Clark's previous two books ASAP. (Side-Plug here for public library summer reading programs; I picked this up because I signed up for ours, and I am SO GLAD I DID!) This is not my usual genre, being an avid mystery fan, but how glad I am that I thought "outside the loop" for once!

I hope there is a sequel, as I want to know what happens to several of Ms. Clark's characters, but particularly, CAM. :-)

If you want action, this is not a book you would enjoy. However, if you enjoy interesting characters dealing with the joys and sorrows of life, you will find this a gem of a story. I especially enjoyed her insightful treatment of the little girls, Sally and Cam.

Another enjoyable story about the Hill clan. I was happy to again spend time with the family. Unlike the first book in the series, this book is largely focused on Cam and Sally with fewer segues into other characters' inner lives. They romp through the summer, while in the background Ginger is dying from cancer and Julie (Little Becky) half heartedly plans a wedding to a groom who may not even exist.

This is a gentle, slow paced story with rich details. Not much happens, yet the reader gets to immerse herself in a fully realized place.

I read this book in June and was completely captivated.

If you're looking for a fast-paced thriller to read by the pool, this is not your book. This is a book to really savor, a character study of the members of the Hill family, best read while rocking in a shady porch swing. "July and August" is funny in a Thornton Wilder kind of way - the characters get themselves into the kind of situations we can all find ourselves in, but with some extra degree of humor, where running a roadside vegetable stand or looking for the perfect wedding dress becomes tinged with a tickling sense of the absurd, but not so absurd that you think, "Oh, that couldn't really happen." Instead you find yourself thinking, "I can totally see that happening to me." My favorite characters were the two little girls, their budding friendship and their attempts to one-up each other in the battle of which is more important to Aunt Lily. Combine that with Ginger's problem and Julie's great mystery and you have a book that will keep you gently hooked until you reach the very last page.

Best of all, Nancy Clark perfectly evokes the sense of a long, hot, lazy New England summer spent with the family, describing every detail with witty tenderness.

By the end of this novel, I felt like the Hill family was my own. Nancy Clark is a very gifted writer. I just loved this book.

I enjoyed the first two books in this series about the Hill family, and this one didn't disappoint. I hope there will be more. The characterization is lovely.

Way too much description for a reader to enjoy the story. Paragraphs almost a page long - I'll pass on this one