Rating: 
Summary: Already been done
Review: This book was a slow read. Although I had read it in a short period, I found myself bored with the story line. It has been done to many times. The young, innocent, farm girl meets the man of her dreams. The book seemed to much like the colour purple. I found myself skipping paragraphs.
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Summary: Laura Ingalls meets Foxfire
Review: I admire Oprah for introducing the average TV watcher to the joy of a good book. However, this is only a so-so book. It is leagues ahead of the 'heaving bosom' genre, but it isn't great literature. The characters were thinly developed and the story line predictable. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books are a better choice for descriptions of pioneering spirit. If you want to learn about hog butchering and hardtimes-read the Foxfire series. These are the true stories gathered from interviews with the residents of the NC/SC/GA border area.
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Summary: Masterful use of language but The Dollmaker is a better book
Review: I love Morgan's words but Julie's life was just too difficult and finally seemed not quite believable to me. I kept expecting some little ray of light to come into this story but it seemed every time life began to get a little better, another tragedy struck. In The Dollmaker there is similar hardship but somehow Arnow's characters are more fully developed and you feel that their strength will enable them to push on through it. I love Morgan's use of language but this was not a very satisfying book.
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Summary: Gap creek
Review: This was a moving story, which vividly potrayed a woman's daily struggles. Her perseverence to overcome so much was inspirational. Once I started reading, I could't put this one down.
Rating: 
Summary: Left wanting more
Review: I read this book in 4 sittings and it would have been 3 if my 2 year old had not got sick with only 45 pages to go. I loved this book and when it was over I wanted to know more of these 2 young people. The description was so clear I could see the house and all of the surrounding farm. I could feel all of Julie's emotions. I also enjoyed all the descriptions of everyday life for these people. It was hard but they had a strong faith in God and that helped them too. It was a joy to see a man in a book get down on his knees and pray for strength and guidence from the Lord. I do hope there is a sequel to this book. There is so much more I want to know about Hank and Julie.
Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable Read
Review: I thouroughly enjoyed Gap Creek, and found it to be an interesting look at the first year of a married couple's life together during the turn of the century. For the most part the story kept me turning pages. Although, there were a few lengthy and tiresome descriptions of various farm chores and animal slaughtering, they reinforced the reality of our heroine's world. I also found the speech patterns to be slightly annoying, but easily tolerable when taken into consideration the time and location in which the story takes place. Julie was a wonderful heroine who teaches her reader about contentment, thankfulness, patience, and perserverance. Overall it was a delightful read that I would recommend to anyone.
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Summary: Gap Creek
Review: I couldnt put it down! Just such a real story of the hard time and times people have. I really think he is a great writer and think good Part 2 is in order!
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Summary: Nothing new.
Review: What strikes me about Gap Creek after finishing it is how forgettable it is. Sure when you are reading it it seems like a nice little story lovingly told, but by the time you finish it you kind of sit back and think okay, what's next? The story that develops from Julie's witnessing her brother's death to her marriage to Hank covers familiar territory. We know it was tough back then - especially for women - and we know that natural disaster can have devastating effects, but what we don't know or could know more about - beliefs, community, marriage - is left unchartered by author Robert Morgan. He introduces religion into the story but never examines its real place or meaning to the people. I wanted to know what gave them such faith! His writing is at times quite beautiful but at other times verges on pedestrian. His use of accent fails dismally and his story repeats itself. I understand that repetition is a literary device that some authors use but here Morgan seems to use it to let the readers know that men do make mistakes too. It's almost as if he realised that perhaps he was going to alienate some readers by introducing Julie's mistake in handing over money and having Hank take his frustrations out on her, so he decided to have Hank do exactly the same thing. This is I admit a "nice" book but one cannot help but wonder what someone with an ability to push boundaries would have done with this material. This is Julie's story that should have been one with an edge, as it is Robert Morgan's Gap Creek is Julie's story that seems to just fade in with every other coming-of-age, marital relationship story ever written.
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Summary: Gap Creek
Review: In my review of Gap Creek, I misspelled the word pestilence. Please correct. Review was posted Feb 22 ThanksJolene Singleterry
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but kind of empty.
Review: I have read all of the "Oprah books" and am usually quite impressed with her selections. But this one, while enjoyable, isn't really anything special at all. The characters are not developed very well and the story isn't terribly creative. It sort of reminded me of an abridged version of the "Little House" novels, except that the characters in those books were incredibly three-dimensional and Laura, while also a hard worker who struggled through tough situations and survived, was twenty times more interesting and inspiring than Gap Creek's heroine, Julie. Julie is a dud. Yeah, she works hard, but most women in those days did. Take that away and there really wasn't anything about her that made her stand out to me. Instead of being inspiring or admirable, she seemed kind of average. Not that I require that characters in a novel be incredible people, but Morgan was obviously trying to make me THINK she was incredible and it just wasn't convincing. The writing is wonderful -- you can tell the author is a poet. But the characters and storyline are flat. It's definitely worth your time, but it's not up to par with some of Oprah's other selections.
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