Celestial Land and Sea, by Amy McLean

Received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in March 2015.

The description of this book intrigued me. I'm a fan of London, time travel, pirates, romance, and adventure, so I was hoping to be a fan of this book. While the broad strokes of the plot had promise, the details of the story left me wishing the book had gone through a few more rounds of editing before being published. There was a lot going on, and yet nothing really happened. The transitions between past and present were handled well, but I never felt that Grace, whether she was Grace or Gráinne, was fully engaged in either; neither was I, for that matter. Perhaps a younger reader would have more patience for the story. I can't fathom why Grace, a young woman with her whole career ahead of her, would want to keep a job she hates even after gaining the self-confidence she needs to get out of there. Because of a guy? Was that supposed to be her happy ending?

Happy International BookCrossing Day!

I adopted a seemingly abandoned but nonetheless official Little Free Library at a local park last year. It's not quite weatherproof, so I "closed" it for the winter months and decided today—International BookCrossing Day—would be the perfect day for its Grand Reopening. I left 30 books there—a mixture of children's and adults'—and am keeping my fingers crossed for catches and journal entries.

Catch #246!

It was a nice surprise to hear from "Sarah, Plain and Tall," which I released at Point State Park in Pittsburgh a little over four months ago. Sarah was caught and journalled by new member j3nny16, who says, "Such a wonderful little book. Read it when I was 7- and saw the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie with Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. Fun to read again at age 32." Thanks, and welcome to BookCrossing, j3nny16!

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce

Several things made me read "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry": 1) Mom's book club's recommendation, 2) a Facebook post about most overlooked/underrated books of 2014, which led to 3) marking the bottom right-hand corner on my "2015 Reading BINGO" card, and 4) it was just $1.99 for the Kindle version through amazon.com.

Rachel Joyce has a way with words. There is some truly lovely language in this book and a few highlight-worthy lines, including my favorites: "She's a Jane Austen fan; she's seen all her movies," and "I should have raged." I enjoyed every step of Harold Fry's journey, even when it got a little "Forrest Gump"-y for a few chapters. I also enjoyed the interview with the author at the end; it was quite interesting.