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15 reviews for:
Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West
Grace Ly, Marty Ohlhaut, Marty Ohlhaut
3.94 AVERAGE
15 reviews for:
Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West
Grace Ly, Marty Ohlhaut, Marty Ohlhaut
3.94 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
I just loved this! The story of this family of seven's "vacation from hell" was funny, endearing and really enjoyable to listen to. It was written in a way that was reminiscent of sitting around with a group of friends having a couple of drinks and hearing about each other's vacation adventures. It reminded me a little bit of Dear Bob and Sue by Matt and Karen Smith. Not a book you turn to in order to plan a vacation to the destinations they ventured to but a great way to get a feel for an area. I highly recommend this to anyone who has ever traveled with kids and enjoys the great outdoors.
I enjoyed this ... the author's note at the beginning is enlightening. It tells how the author/Father sat down at the computer and wrote out the events after they returned. Not writing a book, just getting the memories down on paper. Also writing up some other memories from previous ventures. Then after the daughter found the notes, she and her father wrote them up into this book. As I write up journaling for scrapbook pages, and family blog posts, and we have life histories written by ancestors ... at what point does a personal experience translate into a book? What memories may be interesting to family/ancestors, and what of interest to the world at large?
Here - the title story of the family camping trip is broken up with lots of memories of earlier events. This was a little hard for me to stay on top of. I was going with the audio ... I think maybe it's a bit more clear in print? Starting off, it's the story of bear encounter. Is this with his family? Who is Mel? One of the kids? The guys ... now I know lots of people don't read the Author's Notes/Introductions to even realize that there are other recollections in addition to the family experience. It's not until the end of that section (several paragraphs) that it's indicated that was 1972. The second section (still chapter one) then starts off with "two decades later" ... I know the excitement of starting right off with the BEAR, but I can't help but wonder if the date at the start would have helped, me anyway. At the end of that chapter, we get a list of the kids (Julie, Grace, Mollie, Max and Angela). Back when Mel (one of the buddies from the earlier trip) was mentioned, I wondered if we'd get a list of names.
Chapter two starts with the family vacation ... and then has a shift to the 1972 memory. Again (in audio) I was a little confused, when van issues and costs were being mentioned, I wasn't positive which timeline we were in. I had to stop the audio and shift to the Kindle copy (text was available in KU, and audio was on Hoopla) to reread and clarify. One moment it was talking about how Woody ended up in the hospital, followed by "our vehicle was operational, we weren't broke and no one was in the hospital. Yet." There HAD been a slight pause in audio, but maybe not enough. In print,, there was a *** to create more of a distinction (and instead of asterisks, they were cute little bear paw prints). I think after that, I really paid attention to any slight pause in the audio, listening for any indication of timeline changes. The pie situation ... I honestly can't remember which timeline that took place in.
Nonfiction can be a bit of a challenge, because it doesn't always have the characters and story arc that fiction does. Here, I did like the "characters" (the family) ... if this wasn't labeled non-fiction and was being told it was true, I'd shake my head and say one family couldn't possibly have this much bad luck happen to them like this! Again... with fiction, I can say "well at least that was just imagined" so it almost makes it too hard to read (even when written with humor, never laugh out loud presentation for me, but ...) if this indeed really did happen. Horrible really! I do have to wonder just a little bit about the "angels" ... magically appearing and helping.
Written in 1st person, from Marty's POV, past tense. There were 23 chapters, each with a heading. Reading back over them, they didn't totally trigger memories of what happened in those particular chapters as headers often can do for me.
Some pictures included in the Kindle copy.
Completely clean (although discussion of a nude beach, and a picture from the back of a bare bum in Kindle).
Here - the title story of the family camping trip is broken up with lots of memories of earlier events. This was a little hard for me to stay on top of. I was going with the audio ... I think maybe it's a bit more clear in print? Starting off, it's the story of bear encounter. Is this with his family? Who is Mel? One of the kids? The guys ... now I know lots of people don't read the Author's Notes/Introductions to even realize that there are other recollections in addition to the family experience. It's not until the end of that section (several paragraphs) that it's indicated that was 1972. The second section (still chapter one) then starts off with "two decades later" ... I know the excitement of starting right off with the BEAR, but I can't help but wonder if the date at the start would have helped, me anyway. At the end of that chapter, we get a list of the kids (Julie, Grace, Mollie, Max and Angela). Back when Mel (one of the buddies from the earlier trip) was mentioned, I wondered if we'd get a list of names.
Chapter two starts with the family vacation ... and then has a shift to the 1972 memory. Again (in audio) I was a little confused, when van issues and costs were being mentioned, I wasn't positive which timeline we were in. I had to stop the audio and shift to the Kindle copy (text was available in KU, and audio was on Hoopla) to reread and clarify. One moment it was talking about how Woody ended up in the hospital, followed by "our vehicle was operational, we weren't broke and no one was in the hospital. Yet." There HAD been a slight pause in audio, but maybe not enough. In print,, there was a *** to create more of a distinction (and instead of asterisks, they were cute little bear paw prints). I think after that, I really paid attention to any slight pause in the audio, listening for any indication of timeline changes. The pie situation ... I honestly can't remember which timeline that took place in.
Nonfiction can be a bit of a challenge, because it doesn't always have the characters and story arc that fiction does. Here, I did like the "characters" (the family) ... if this wasn't labeled non-fiction and was being told it was true, I'd shake my head and say one family couldn't possibly have this much bad luck happen to them like this! Again... with fiction, I can say "well at least that was just imagined" so it almost makes it too hard to read (even when written with humor, never laugh out loud presentation for me, but ...) if this indeed really did happen. Horrible really! I do have to wonder just a little bit about the "angels" ... magically appearing and helping.
Written in 1st person, from Marty's POV, past tense. There were 23 chapters, each with a heading. Reading back over them, they didn't totally trigger memories of what happened in those particular chapters as headers often can do for me.
Some pictures included in the Kindle copy.
Completely clean (although discussion of a nude beach, and a picture from the back of a bare bum in Kindle).
I feel bad giving this independently published book, which was obviously a labor of love, such a low score. However, this was an aggravating read.
Tent for Seven was a random recommendation on my FB feed. This is a first-person account of a family camping trip gone horrifically wrong. Based on the description, I expected the narrative to revolve around serious injury and/or natural disaster. While there are both in this story, what I found maddening was how truly unprepared this family seemed to be, despite having apparently planned this epic camping trip for approximately two years. The account of their off-the-rails trip is interspersed with tales of trips from decades earlier, when the author was a younger man traveling with his buddies.
In both timelines, the misadventures are presented as sort of zany, what-can-happen-next? misadventures, when nearly everything is the result of either carelessness, or poor planning.
I feel like this is one of those narratives that might hit different for those who know this family personally. They seem like nice people. Given the epilogue, the author and his wife were ultimately successful at raising happy, healthy, adventurous kids into happy, healthy, adventurous adults.
Having said that, as a parent myself, if my kids weren't all at the stage where they could be counted on to follow directions in serious situations, I would hold off on a trip like this until they were. Multiple times, one of the young children does things like: sprints away near mountainous drop-offs even though they've been told to stay close, yells and jokingly runs towards a grizzly bear (!!!) after being told to be quiet and walk away, plays on slick rocks they've been explicitly told to avoid... The latter results in broken teeth and a trip to the hospital. All's well that ends well, but this family is lucky it was just teeth and not a serious skull fracture. This is the second trip to the hospital in this book. The first involves a frightening accident which comes as the result of a nonsensical decision made by the author's wife (I'm glad she came through it okay, but why on earth wouldn't you have sent your daughter to ask the nearby ranger for assistance, rather than attempt to climb out of a glass window?)
A very frustrating read.
Tent for Seven was a random recommendation on my FB feed. This is a first-person account of a family camping trip gone horrifically wrong. Based on the description, I expected the narrative to revolve around serious injury and/or natural disaster. While there are both in this story, what I found maddening was how truly unprepared this family seemed to be, despite having apparently planned this epic camping trip for approximately two years. The account of their off-the-rails trip is interspersed with tales of trips from decades earlier, when the author was a younger man traveling with his buddies.
In both timelines, the misadventures are presented as sort of zany, what-can-happen-next? misadventures, when nearly everything is the result of either carelessness, or poor planning.
I feel like this is one of those narratives that might hit different for those who know this family personally. They seem like nice people. Given the epilogue, the author and his wife were ultimately successful at raising happy, healthy, adventurous kids into happy, healthy, adventurous adults.
Having said that, as a parent myself, if my kids weren't all at the stage where they could be counted on to follow directions in serious situations, I would hold off on a trip like this until they were. Multiple times, one of the young children does things like: sprints away near mountainous drop-offs even though they've been told to stay close, yells and jokingly runs towards a grizzly bear (!!!) after being told to be quiet and walk away, plays on slick rocks they've been explicitly told to avoid... The latter results in broken teeth and a trip to the hospital. All's well that ends well, but this family is lucky it was just teeth and not a serious skull fracture. This is the second trip to the hospital in this book. The first involves a frightening accident which comes as the result of a nonsensical decision made by the author's wife (I'm glad she came through it okay, but why on earth wouldn't you have sent your daughter to ask the nearby ranger for assistance, rather than attempt to climb out of a glass window?)
A very frustrating read.
adventurous
slow-paced
adventurous
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced