Good book. The writing was quick paced and easy to follow along with. I’d definitely recommend this to a friend.

Really likes this book. Covers the history of the 50's and 60's through the life of a farming family. I have to admit I learned a few things which I loved. Only complaint I have was the way he has The boys speak. On on had he has the seam intellectual, but talk like hicks. Other than than that I enjoyed the characters and found the book fascinating.
4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the Author and publisher for a copy of this book. The Opinions expressed are my own.

I enjoyed the character development and different takes/perspectives on the characters all growing up during the 1960's and the tumultuous times. The dialogue was a bit clunky at times and could have added more detail to the story.

Having lived through the times of this novel, I find that there are a few cultural discrepancies. I doubt that teens in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s knew where Vietnam was, to say nothing about whether there was or was about to be a war there. They also would not have known napalm from vasoline! I also find the sexual freedom of the characters a bit ahead of the sexual revolution.
In addition, the transitions in the book were so abrupt that it felt like Mr. Bond just strung together a bunch of related stories. While the characters were, at times, sympathetic, mostly they appeared too self involved to actually care about.
I doubt that I will be reading the rest of this series.

Another tremendous novel from one of my favorite writers. I'm excited to see this momentous new series from Mike Bond. Utilizing the lives and interactions of 4 individuals as a lens, we are given insight into a tumultuous time in the history of the United States. For those of us who lived through those years, it's a fascinating combination of reminiscence and rediscovery.

Really loved this book. This is my first read from this author but will not be my last (and I am truly looking forward to the sequels). The four characters highlighted in this book are interesting, engaging, and likable. The story follows them from childhood to adult and takes the reader through the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War and all of the other iconic events happening around this timeframe. I am looking forward to seeing how the characters’ paths cross in Book 2. I definitely recommend this read for anyone who is interested in thoughtful, well developed characters and plot.. Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy.

Definitely relatable, as I was born in the 50's. Interesting time period for sure.. The book just didn't hold my interest and I ended up skimming a lot of it.. Just too much and too slow for my preference.

Initially, Bond's work pulled me in. Two young boys find out they share a birthday and the story really begins. A great grab, an interesting time period, the start of a long (7 book) series, and an author with accolades--certainly seems like it will be. Unfortunately, midway through the book lost me. The story became headlines and character rants to bullet points of history rather than a flowing narrative that explores a time period's highs and lows. There are other positives,

I am interested to see how the author continues to progress with the story, but I hope he picks a genre--either nonfiction or really write a historical fiction.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

"America" by Mike Bond sounded right up my alley when I read the description. I love historical fiction novels, especially those that span large swaths of time. I was really excited to read this whole series. Unfortunately, however, the book fell flat for me. It book started well enough, but then started to drag and I had a difficult time paying attention to what was going on. I know the author was trying to show the atmosphere of the 1960's, but there was too much sexual content for me to enjoy the book. To me, it seemed like the author just included sex for sex's sake; much of it did not further the story at all. I'm not a prude, but I felt like all the sexual content was just lazy writing. The story did pick up a bit when one of the characters became involved with the civil rights movement, but not enough to redeem the book for me. I didn't connect with any of the characters at all and found myself just skimming the book in order to finish it. I probably will not read any of the future books in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review.

3 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This was an interesting historical fiction that follows four young people as they grow up during the 1960's. Troy is an orphan that is taken in by Mick and Tara's family. Daisy is the girl that Mick loves. As the foursome deal with growing up, the author weaves the turbulent times of the 60's throughout their story. Often the characters bring up what is happening in the country at the time, from the presidential debates, Kennedy's assassination, landing on the moon and the Vietnam war. Sometimes these "history lessons" made sense in the story, but more often than not, they felt forced and stilted.

The book started out ok, but started to really drag in the middle. I found myself skimming parts of it because I started to get bored. Overall, I'm glad I read the book, but am not sure I would read any future books in the series.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Big City Press. All opinions are my own.

Thank you for access to this book. I just couldn’t get into it. I will definitely try again and review when I finish

Having been born in the early 50s, the description of this book sounded very intriguing and I looked forward to reading it. Unfortunately, it just didn’t connect for me. I thought it kind of uninteresting and found myself skimming a lot. The dialog was stilted and simplistic. The story did pick up for me when there were discussions of war and the civil rights movement; that almost earned an additional star rating. I don’t think I will bother with the second (of seven planned) installment when it is published.

America is a very accurate picture of what life may have been like in the 1950s through 1960. The characters shared with us their view of the world at that time. The author did quite a bit of research and/or living through that time period. What I remember of the world was very accurate and I learned some things that I hadn’t known. I did think that the book could have been written without some of the more graphic sexual experiences. I recommend this book to adults and am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Growing up in the Sixties


Although the focus of the book is on the sixties, it opens in the fifties. Mick and Tara live on a small dairy farm in New York state. The farm doesn’t make much money. They’re poor but the children don’t realize it. There’s plenty to eat and the farm offers opportunities for exploration. Troy is an orphan. He runs away from the Catholic home where the priests beat him. He meets Mick by accident. They become fast friends and Mick’s family agrees to take in Troy. Daisy is Mick’s girl friend. He’s devastated when she moves away because her father takes a job in a plant out of the area.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opening of the book. The children were well developed and their concerns were very real. I wasn’t as impressed with the second part of the book where they moved into lives in the sixties. Mick was trying to find himself. Troy went in a different direction joining the Marines because he believed in defending the country. Daisy joined the peace corps, and Tara with a beautiful singing voice became part of the rock and roll scene with emphasis on sex and drugs.

In the second part of the book the focus is on Mick. Personally, I wanted to know more about what the other children, particularly Daisy, were doing. The other problem I had with the book was the rather pedantic treatment of racism. Sex was also overplayed in my estimation. Those were definite problems in the sixties. I know because that’s when I grew up, but other important things were happening also. It was a time when young people not immersed in the popular culture were also grappling with the changes and trying to find themselves in a less destructive way than sex and drugs. I thought the book was rather one sided.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

Mike Bond’s first installment in what is rumored to be a seven-part series, America brings us into the vantage points of four teens in the early 60’s.

The novel does a fairly good job at exploring the socio-political elements of this time of great change in American values and priorities.

The teens this novel follows are navigating a hugely uncertain and shifting time in America’s mainframe.

While this novel did not provide an earth-shattering perspective, I think it will be a great lit circle option for my students that really get into history.

This book made me sad, and not I think in the way the author intended. We meet the four main characters as preteens, all of them using a hokey rural dialect that felt inauthentic and condescending. Then a mere few years later, they are late adolescents who have lost the crude rural vernacular and speak and think as entirely different people.

And -- even though the book takes a dim view of religion -- there was a whole lot o' preachin' goin' on: The last half of the book was long-winded propaganda. And there are six more volumes scheduled in this series!

Thanks to NetGalley and Big City Press for an advance readers copy.

I was initially excited to read this, mostly because it encompasses the 1960s, a segment of time that I had lived through (although main characters Mick, Troy, Tara, and Daisy have a decade’s head start on me). The story actually begins in the 1950s, when the four are like many other kids at that time, growing up poor but not realizing it at the time of the experience. There is a lot of slang and kid-mangling of adult words, which for me added a bit of humor to the book. The worldview through the eyes of these youngsters was interesting, and I plowed through the pages hungry to reach the sixties and their early adulthood.

Unfortunately, this is when the novel took a downturn for me. The author has filled the book with an extremely narrow view of the 1960s, constantly beating the themes of sex, racism, sex, war/politics, and sex. Actually, the sex began in the mid-50s and was mildly softcore and explored the initial discovery of sexual pleasure. As the characters matured, so did the subject matter…plus it exploded exponentially as sex appeared in Mike Bond’s “America” as a centerpiece rather than just one piece of a subculture.

No pun or reference intended, but the racism was handled in a black and white manner. A character was on either one end of the spectrum or the other, and the nuances that would have reflected the era were missing. Alas, it was the same for war/politics. This was another rich area that should have been mined for content, but the author completely missed these opportunities. At times, it felt like Mr. Bond had axes to grind. While I recognize an author will insert his or her preferences from time to time, I prefer a little finesse rather than the hammer-like efforts displayed in this book.

As I said earlier, the author had me early on but lost me in the skimpy representations of an era that realistically not only had a lot of problems but also contained many positives and solutions. Marching characters that were mostly two-dimensional once they reached adulthood weakened the theme of this series. Some people might like this based upon Mr. Bond’s previous successes. I might have given “America” less stars, but I thought the author displayed some magic while telling the characters’ early years. Three stars.

My thanks to Meryl Moss Media and NetGalley for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

America is the beginning of a multi-part series on the 60s and I am so excited to read the next ones.

The first novel follows the main characters in childhood, into college, through the mid 60s, after the Vietnam War and ending as Johnson is sending more troops into Vietnam. Siblings Mick and Tara live on a farm, in a lower income but happy childhood. Mick comes of age questioning everything, where he fits in and what the future holds. Tara dreams of stardom and music.. Troy, Mick's friend then adoptive brother, joins the family and aspires to explore flight and space with the shadow of Vietnam looming, and Daisy, Mick's first love, focuses on the Peace Corps and civil rights.

America is definitely a can't put-down type novel, and leaves you with more question than answers. Thankfully, the reader is aware this will be a multi-part series of novels, so the question should be resolved in subsequent books. Bond does a great job not completely idolizing the 50s as a perfect society, but letting the 50s show how the 60s came about from the choices made first.

4.5 stars

Do you remember watching “Howdy Doody” and “Lassie” on television? Can you still describe exactly where you were when you heard the news that JFK had been shot? Did you participate in candlelight marches to protest the war in Vietnam? If so, “America” by Mike Bond, will resonate with you!

At the heart of this tale are Mick and Troy, a pair of adventurous 11 year-old boys growing up near Nyack, NY. Mick’s Dad and Mom are doing their best to make a living on their small family farm, as the suburbs of post-war prosperity are fast encroaching on their way of life.
Mick’s feisty younger sister Tara, and Daisy, a neighbor girl, round out the youthful cast in this saga. The story begins in 1954 and follows their adventures, misadventures, and personal growth through the relatively gentle 1950s into the turbulent ‘60s, as they mature, experiment with sex, learn life lessons in and outside of college, explore their idealism and new-found cynicism, and come of age in the context of the politics and cultural revolution of the 1960s in America.

There is plenty of history and political commentary throughout this book. As someone who grew up in precisely this time period, I found it accurate and relevant, especially in its portrayal of college-aged “new” adults, pondering the meaning of a questionable war effort on the other of the world, the violence of the domestic issue of civil rights, and the reflection of these cultural movements in the new raw rock music.

This is the first of a seven-volume series of historical fiction chronicling the American experience from the 50s to the present by well known author and poet Mike Bond. The writing is both factual and also highly descriptive, and a pleasure to read. He really captures the essence of the ‘50s and early ‘60s, and coming of age in that timeframe. I highly recommend this novel, and look forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to Big City Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my unbiased review.

I DNF'd about 40 pages in. I can't get past how the writing is with all the slang English and contractions.