The Great Alone
Book - 2018
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St. Tammany Parish Library’s Favorite Books of 2018
This time of year we are inundated with articles looking back at the year in review. But here at the library, we are more interested in the year in books. These are the titles that were checked out the most in 2018. Did any of your favorites make the list? 1. The Rooster Bar 2. The Great Alone 3. The Fallen 4. The Midnight Line 5. Camino Island 6. Fifty Fifty 7. Origin 8. The 17th Suspe... (more)
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Meeting on Monday, July 8, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.
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LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“All at once, it seemed, the leaves of cottonwood trees around the cabin turned golden and whispered to themselves, then curled into black flutes and floated to the ground in crispy, lacy heaps.”
LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“And the books! She’d never seen so many. They whispered to her of unexplored worlds and unmet friends and she realized that she wasn’t alone in this new world. Her friends were here, spine out, waiting for her as they always had.”
LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“You don’t stop loving a person when they’re hurt. You get stronger so they can lean on you.”
LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“He taught her something new about friendship: it picked right back up where you’d left off, as if you hadn’t been apart at all.”
LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“like all fairy tales, theirs was filled with thickets and dark places and broken dreams, and runaway girls.”
LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“Alaska isn't about who you were when you headed this way. It's about who you become.”
LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“... home was not just a cabin in a deep woods that overlooked a placid cove. Home was a state of mind, the peace that came from being who you were and living an honest life.”
LCPL_Krystyna
Oct 28, 2020
“Love and fear. The most destructive forces on earth. Fear had turned her inside out, love had made her stupid.”
Summary
Add a SummaryThis book is every bit as good as Nightingale. I got so involved with the characters that, at times, I had to put the book down because it made me so anxious and nervous about what was going to happen to them. I can't wait to read another of Kristin's books. 5 star rating from me!
This story of life in Alaska evolves around a family (the Allbrights') Ernst, his wife, and Leni, their Daughter who move up to Alaska after Ernst is left the property by a friend he knew during the Vietnam War. Ernst suffered from PTSD and creates havoc and fear whereever he goes. I was unable to put the book down; an excellent read and well recommended.
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Add a CommentHow many people, in 2018, allowed a thin white woman to create a “magical negro”/ “mammy” trope character AND call her “LARGE MARGE”??!! I couldn’t pick my jaw up from the floor when she had the audacity to DESCRIBE HER HAIR at one point calling it “etch-a-sketch shavings GLUED TO HER HEAD” and constantly described her size and the furniture “groaning in complaint against her weight”. Disgusting. Do. BETTER.
Additionally, the story has about 3 too many tragedies, it would have been more poignant, and drawn a stronger thematic metaphor between the characters and the terrain they inhabit if the book had ended after the “main event” you see coming the whole way. It also felt really regressive AND lazy to have forced, unplanned, trauma-born motherhood as a “redemption” plot. Booo.
I loved the setting and imagining living there, but beyond that you can tell she’s a commercial novelist. Will NOT give her any support/money again. She needs to educate herself.
Wow. Just wow. This book was INTENSE and WILD and RIVETING. I highly recommend. There is immense pain, but also unbelievable strength and resilience. The reader experiences incredible love, heartbreaking loss, and the power that lies in surviving another day.
This was, at best, a 3.5 star book. I was expecting big things after all the hype and this book just dragged. I think it suffered from previous-book-fame wherein the editors in charge of the next book overlook a myriad of issues because they know it will sell anyway. What was so wrong you ask? It was just overlong, by at least a hundred pages. The pace was too slow and there were lost opportunities for show don't tell. The entire first part of the book would have been better served as a series of select flashbacks. I spent 300 pages waiting for the big 'something' to happen. Once it did, the book hummed along at a good pace but until then it was a slogfest.
A well written adventure with intense situations.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah is a hard-hitting historical fiction that is set in Alaska. It's a survival story, but the characters are trying to endure more than just the weather. The father in the story has PTSD from the Vietnam war, and he becomes very toxic and abusive to everyone around him. The story mainly follows Leni, his daughter, and the struggles she goes through while living in Alaska with what seems like no escape...until she meets Matthew Walker. I really enjoyed it, but I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. There are many content warnings, so proceed with caution when picking this up.
I loved Kristin Hannah's Nightingale, and this one was equally as awesome. It had adventure, romance, strong women (and one weak link), and huge insight into life living in Alaska. One also got a inside look at domestic abuse. I love fiction with a dose of education. Terrific read!
This was a very good life adventure story and although the abusive and social issues were near the forefront of the story, they did not overpower the whole. I appreciate that. Thanks for a good read.
I loved this book so much! I'm having a hard time deciding whether I liked this one or Hannah's other book, The Nightingale, more. It is that good! The story never lagged and there were times that I was anxious reading it because I knew something pivotal was on the horizon. Reading it during the winter when snow is on the ground is an extra treat to being transported to the harshness and beauty that is Alaska.
I highly recommend this book. If you are looking for a book that tells you about the place: Alaska, maybe this book is not for you. But if you want to read about a life journey of someone's, this is very interesting and a good story line. (I think.) A lot of subjects are not easy to handle but I believe all those subjects are happens everywhere around the world.
I am looking forward to reading more of Hannah's books.
If you would like to read about an alcoholic, abusive man, his co-dependent wife and the daughter that has to live with them then this is for you. It is not about Alaska. It is written in a mediocre style for a young adult. Very disappointing!