Charity's Reading Log

Chance Murphy and the Battle of Morganville by Josh McClary - Although cussing like a sailor and an opening scene in church do not necessarily seem to go together, McClary makes it work and, in the process, provides the reader with some gut-busting laughter to get his novel off to a rip-roaring start.

Chance Murphy has some issues...okay, lots of them...but it's his idiosyncracies and, mostly his down-right crazy hate for all things German (err...Hunn) that make him lovable to me. Growing up in small-town Indiana made this book real for me, and Chance's obession with Bob Knight and Indiana basketball made this book a hands-down winner for me.

Honestly, reading this book made me feel like the author took any one of many of the boys I've taught over the years, cracked his head open, and laid out all his thoughts, uncensored and as real as they get. From Chance's description of his father's girlfriend ("trash") to his detest for his best-friend's girlfriend, it just feels real and unscripted.