Cheryl Achterberg

Based on impact over time, I rate this five stars. I read this book as a teenager and it has stayed with me more than 50 years. It captures the angst of the young, striving against the odds to make their way in a world they think does not want them. I don't know if I read it today if I would react the same way, but at the time, London captured the raw emotions I felt growing up.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is stupendous accomplishment. Doerr braids three stories across time and space yet makes every character believable and memorable. A big book that read much faster than I anticipated. The prose is glorious. There are multiple themes, but I enjoyed seeing how far one would go to find the happiness they want as well as the strength of young and diverse people. I highly recommend it.

This is an outstanding book, plummeting the depths of human relationship with ourselves and others while traversing some of the most dangerous and beautiful landscapes in America. Alternately uplifting and sobering, it is always honest. The story will stay with you a long, long time -- perhaps forever!