Janet Nichols Lynch

Evan is in his senior year of high school and has his future all mapped out. He’ll go to college with his girlfriend, become a doctor, and live happily ever after. However his love for bicycling causes his life to take new and unexpected turns.

Read the rest of my review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/racing-california-janet-nicho...… (altro)

I really enjoyed this book and the author’s ability to bring me into the '60's without handing out the same old canned psychedelic drugs and crazy clothes. As the story unfolds, it is a very sweet coming of age journey which happens to take place near the Haight-Ashbury district of the early 1960's as it blossoms from a working middle-class San Francisco neighborhood into the hot-bed of hippie culture, which fades almost as quickly as a high school crush. The real discovery here for readers is that the characters typify the 1960’s in a way that feels real. The older generation with its 1950’s traditional values and expectations within society’s norms, women just beginning to see the power of education and equal rights in the workplace (and the bedroom), the emergence of folk rock music, 1960’s politics and the Civil Rights Movement and assassinations, the conflict in Vietnam as it looms over the young men and women in the story who must consider its impact as they make their first adult decisions in life, and our narrator who finds herself in the middle of it – too young to experience everything but too old not to want to try. And of course, how can she resist the free love of a beautiful hippie?!

The book is well-written and the setting of San Francisco is fully explored with the detail of a local eye which gives the reader a feel for the city that is authentic and leaves an imprint in the mind. The themes and content are mature and the language complexity is a good UG level. It’s a great high and I would recommend it for YA readers age 14 and over. I would also recommend this book to any adult longing for an innocent trip back in time. It was a fun trip for me!… (altro)