Reading Challenge 2016 #1

My local library posted a 2016 reading challenge that I just could not resist. There are 12 of them, one for each month. You can do them in any order you'd like but I decided to start from the top and work my way down. I also got a good friend of mine to join in the challenge with me so I'll be posting his reviews as well. If you want to join in, I'll be adding the picture of the challenge to each of these reviews. 

The first challenge was to "Read a book by a Maryland author." This was an easy pick for me since it was already on my to-read list. My friend decided to read the same novel as me. It was interesting to see that we were both struggling to finish it, with me being alone in that feat. 

HIM

I had a hard time with this book.  It is outside of my comfort zone.

It's not that I don't like this book. Quite to the contrary, the descriptive and natural writing instead of inflated storytelling has kept me wanting to move through the pages.

I have seen the world that is depicted in this book. I have known wealthy-at-home immigrants whose reality of being abroad was challenging. This has given me insight into the complexity of that sort of rebirth. Americanah

let me peek through the eyes of those that see America sold as a origami, with folds and creases creating an beautiful prosperous image which originated from a flat, equal sheet. Only to find that it's actually a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. You need to find those matching edges and fit in or risk being lost. No, not just America, but western society. The protagonists in this story find themselves under the vale of social equality and discover the lies, peaks and valleys, grays and in between s of this land of milk and honey.

I don't know if I would call this a love story as much a story of social commentary hidden in a fairy tale.

And that's where Americanah lost me. The highs were too sweet and the lows too shallow for me to suspend reality.

HER

I so badly wanted to give this novel one star. It took me forever to read, bored me senseless, and failed to impress me at all. But this author has a beautiful way of writing. She definitely paints a picture, it's just a picture that I have no interest in. The story is broken down into too many parts and takes forever for the two main characters to reunite. I didn't relate to either of them. They were weird specimens to me. Obviously, I have no experience with being an immigrant but I was hoping to feel something familiar. Only times I were excited while reading was when Baltimore was mentioned. That always gives me a thrill.