True Grit in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 18, 2015 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, historical-fiction, west, the-classics-club

How long have people been recommending True Grit to me? How many times have I seen it on Must-Read lists and how many times have I passed it up, not eager to read what I anticipated would be a shoot-’em-up story?

Listen to me: You want to read this story. I don’t know how Charles Portis got into the head of a magnificent fourteen-year-old girl who heads off to avenge her father’s death, but he does. I don’t know how Charles Portis was able to transport us all back a hundred and fifty years into t ...more

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Jun 25, 2024 Linda Martin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, june-on-the-range, western, 2024, geo-arkansas

This book is awesome. I love the writing style. I love the story. I love just about everything about this book, except evil outlaws and a bit of violence, no matter how necessary.

Mattie Ross, age 14, is the main character. The story is told from her point of view, and she's such a forceful and driven character, it is hard not to love her.

I don't want to give any spoilers on this book. Let's just say she is from Arkansas and will go to great lengths to achieve her goals.

I recommend this book.

10 ...more

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Apr 19, 2020 Ren Risi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favoritos

I devoured this amazing story in just three reading sessions and I know it will be a novel that I return to many times in the future. It's a rare thing now to become so completely engrossed in a story that I literally cannot put it down, and it reminded me of being a young reader - wiling away many hours on the couch or in bed, face pressed close to the action coming alive on the pages, absorbing the words and the strangely intoxicating scent of an old book. This book cast that spell over me wit ...more

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Jan 06, 2014 Kent Winward rated it liked it

The strength in this book is the phenomenal narrative voice created by Portis for his young female protagonist. Her hard, unyielding character shines through and it is a character as hard as the men and the land she encounters. The most recent film adaptation actually adheres quite well to the book (or you might say that Portis adhered to Hollywood Western conventions in the book).

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May 22, 2016 Kathleen Valentine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Mattie Ross is one of the strongest and most pure voices in American literature. She has grit and gumption and, yet, is sweetly vulnerable at the same time. I had read this book some years back but when I learned that Donna Tartt performed an audio version of it I was eager to hear it. Tartt did such a wonderful job of narrating her own books that I was sure this would be wonderful and it was.

There's nothing I can say about Mattie that hasn't been said a hundred times before. She is, as Tartt po ...more

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