April Morning by Howard Fast

This is my 4th book for the Revolutionary War Reading Challenge I've been participating in this year.  And since my goal was to read between 4 and 10 books, I met my goal, which is more than I can say for the Sketchbook Challenge - I haven't been sketching much at all lately.  But that's a different subject altogether.

April Morning takes place on April 19, 1775, at the Battle of Lexington.  As the story opens, Adam Cooper, 15, is tired of hearing only criticism from his father Moses.  He wants nothing more than his father's approval, but he believes he never lives up to his father's expectations.  When a horseman comes through to let the town know that the British are on the march, Adam signs the muster book and joins the battle.  He must grow up literally overnight.  The book is very well written and I rate it 4 out of 5.

Books

When I first started writing about books on my blog, I never intended to write complete reviews.  I just wanted to keep track of the books I read and write a little something about them.  Now I find myself falling behind, and it is becoming more of a burden than I intended.  In addition, I have been keeping track of my books on Goodreads, so writing about the books here is becoming superfluous.  Therefore, I will only write about books occasionally, probably when I read a really extraordinary book that I feel I have to share.  So while I thoroughly enjoyed the last two books I read (A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons and The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott), and I rated them both 4 out of 5, I don't really have anything special to say about either of them.

A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House

According to Amazon, "Set in 1917, A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES tells the story of Vine, a beautiful Cherokee woman who marries a white man, forsaking her family and their homeland to settle in with his people and make a home in the heart of the mountains. Her mother has strange forebodings that all will not go well, and she's right. Vine is viewed as an outsider, treated with contempt by other townspeople. Add to that her brother-in-law's fixation on her, and Vine's life becomes more complicated than she could have ever imagined. In the violent turn of events that ensues, she learns what it means to forgive others and, most important, how to forgive herself."  I thought this book was well written and I rated it 4 out of 5.