America
By Mike Bonds
Praise for Mike Bond’s Books:
“Bond’s ability to infuse his real-world experiences into a fast-paced story is unequaled.” – CULTURE BUZZ
“One of the 21st Century’s most exciting authors.” – WASHINGTON TIMES
“Grips the reader from the opening chapter and never lets go.” − MIAMI HERALD
Thanks to Meryl Moss Media, NetGalley, and Big City Press for an advance review copy.
For four young people, the Sixties is a decade of promise and freedom. For orphaned Troy, it’s the joy of living with his new family and exploring the world of flight and outer space. For Tara, the girl he loves, the power of song as she evolves into a rock’n roll star. For his new brother, Mick, a football hero and rebel, a time to question everything, including the fast-growing war in Vietnam. And for Daisy, the girl Mick loves, a chance to fight for equality, join the Peace Corps, and expand her study of the human mind.
America is the first of Mike Bond’s seven-volume historical novel series, capturing the victories and heartbreaks of the last 70 years and of our nation’s most profound upheavals since the Civil War – a time that defined the end of the 20th Century and where we are today.
JENA’S REVIEW
America by Mike Bond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“America” by Mike Bond is the first book of an ambitious series that will look at America from the time after the end World War II until the end of the 20th century. Four characters come of age in this book and show us their growing pains and the massive growing pains of their country.
The book begins with Mick and Tara O’Brien, and Troy, all about 10 years old, growing up in rural New Jersey in the 1950’s. This is a time that we now think of as the idyllic “Happy Days” in America. And in some ways it was. For Mick, it was a time to learn to love nature and to tame his free-wheeling style. Troy had a sad past to overcome as he is welcomed into the O’Brien family. Tara, Mick’s sister dreams of a life of music. Mick’s girlfriend Daisy is also part of the story. Life seems safe on their family farm and small town. But as they enter high school they sense that their country is changing-from the joy of peace after a world war, to a darker time of searching for what America should stand for.
The writing of author Mike Bond features lovely descriptions of nature and the scenes in the book. Each of the main characters are well-developed and engaging. Many of the adventures and events in the books are exciting to read about. But, as the story moves from the 1950’s to the incredible 1960’s, there is a lot of thinking and musing about the meaning of life and politics from each of the four main characters that slows the story down.
“America” reminded me of James Michener’s book “The Drifters”. Thanks to NetGalley and Big City Press for an advance digital review copy. This is my honest review.
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Mike Bond
Called “master of the existential thriller” by BBC, “one of America’s best thriller writers” by Culture Buzz, and “one of the 21st century’s most exciting authors” by the Washington Times, Mike Bond is a best-selling novelist, war and human rights journalist, and environmental activist. He has covered guerrilla wars, death squads, and military dictatorships in Latin America and Africa, Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, and ivory poaching and other environmental battles in East Africa and Asia.
His critically acclaimed novels take the reader into intense situations in the world’s most perilous places, into wars, revolutions, dangerous love affairs and political and corporate conspiracies, making “readers sweat with [their] relentless pace.” (Kirkus) and drawing them “into a land and a time I had not known but left me with my senses reeling.” (NetGalley Reviews)
His books have been named among the best of the year by reviewers and readers alike. He speaks multiple languages, has climbed and trekked over 50,000 miles on every continent from the Antarctic to Siberia, and is at home in some of the most primitive and dangerous places on the planet.
About the Author
