This book came highly recommended by Aunt Becky, and when I saw it in the library here, I figured why not. Aunt Becky said it was about a young teen girl who was murdered and kinda sticks around, watching her family and noting the progress made on her case. Intriguing. The sort of blunt, matter of fact manner in which the main character, Susie, tells the story seems to juxtapose the emotion-laden essence of the story. Her death is very shortly described, mundane, almost though in her killer’s case, the act IS mundane to him; he’s done it several times before.
It’s an interesting concept, the description of heaven or whatever they call it is one that modifies with personality and desire – her heaven resembled a place with a senior high school with a good sports field, and a maternal figure. The maternal figure’s heaven was one that she got to help people. Her surviving family didn’t really triumph nor break apart, though leaned towards both ends at times. I hear it’s being made into a movie. It was worth reading; a little creepy, but worth it.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
City of Ember/ People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau
I read these books per recommendation of Librarian Lorrie. We were talking books and she said it was her favorite. I started reading it and enjoyed the concept – a people secluded and orderly, where jobs are pulled out of a hat and school ends at adolescence. The city is lit by a huge generator, nothing more, and power goes off from 9 to 6 every night. The generator is dying, food supplies are running out and the city needs a plan. Lina and Doon are the main characters, new to their jobs of Messenger and Pipeworker. They discover their mayor is shady and they eventually discover the instructions to deliver their city to safety, and a new life – above ground. We learn that they had been underground for hundreds of years.
It is definitely young adults’ book, though well-written. A good, stimulating plot, too. It is good for a teen to read and think about things – the future, the nature of people, our environment. Reminds me of The Giver and Anthem. The mystery in the book (deciphering a destroyed paper with instructions out of the city) was intriguing and the kids were good characters.
The second book tells about what happens after the City is led out of the ground. Due to the Three Disasters – war, disease and animosity - the population had greatly dwindled on Earth. They come to learn Ember is the product of a movement to ensure the continuation of the human race, before all the destruction happened. People HAD survived, though, and the people of Sparks tries to accommodate the City of Ember, though with much friction and problems to work out. Again, a good message to send to kids about our relationships with each other, and the struggles to do the right thing. There were more conflicts than happy parts in the story – the characters were always on edge – but the resolution was good.
It is a mature topic, but I think overall, it was expressed well for young adults. There is a third book Prophet of Yonwood, but I haven’t read it yet.
It is definitely young adults’ book, though well-written. A good, stimulating plot, too. It is good for a teen to read and think about things – the future, the nature of people, our environment. Reminds me of The Giver and Anthem. The mystery in the book (deciphering a destroyed paper with instructions out of the city) was intriguing and the kids were good characters.
The second book tells about what happens after the City is led out of the ground. Due to the Three Disasters – war, disease and animosity - the population had greatly dwindled on Earth. They come to learn Ember is the product of a movement to ensure the continuation of the human race, before all the destruction happened. People HAD survived, though, and the people of Sparks tries to accommodate the City of Ember, though with much friction and problems to work out. Again, a good message to send to kids about our relationships with each other, and the struggles to do the right thing. There were more conflicts than happy parts in the story – the characters were always on edge – but the resolution was good.
It is a mature topic, but I think overall, it was expressed well for young adults. There is a third book Prophet of Yonwood, but I haven’t read it yet.
Confessions of a PCV:
Since I know these two years will be probably the most important, character-building, growth inspiring years of my life, I have no desire to bow out of them. BUT – I do wish they would pass quickly. As in, already be over, done my time, grown and am better for it and can move onto bigger and better things. I wish these two years were over.
Sometimes it seems easy to sit still for two years, work at a school and a library, be friendly with my neighbors and let the time pass as I read, listen to music and swing in my hammock. Other times, it seems like an eternity – a sentence to be served where expectations are all over and the threat hanging of not living up to those expectations.
Sometimes I understand every day doesn’t have to be momentous, that the days and weeks WILL easily add up, and that time can be the best way to get to know people and my community. Sometimes, though, I fear there are unspoken (or maybe they are spoken) deadlines that I may be failing to meet. People I am failing to connect with. Research or preparations I am failing to work at. I don’t just want to revel at being a Peace Corps Volunteer, I want to be a good and effective Peace Corps Volunteer. Well, part of me does.
Sometimes it seems easy to sit still for two years, work at a school and a library, be friendly with my neighbors and let the time pass as I read, listen to music and swing in my hammock. Other times, it seems like an eternity – a sentence to be served where expectations are all over and the threat hanging of not living up to those expectations.
Sometimes I understand every day doesn’t have to be momentous, that the days and weeks WILL easily add up, and that time can be the best way to get to know people and my community. Sometimes, though, I fear there are unspoken (or maybe they are spoken) deadlines that I may be failing to meet. People I am failing to connect with. Research or preparations I am failing to work at. I don’t just want to revel at being a Peace Corps Volunteer, I want to be a good and effective Peace Corps Volunteer. Well, part of me does.
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Elder Gods, David and Leigh Eddings
I picked this up in the PC lounge, figuring that with all the heavy books I was borrowing, I should get an easier, entertaining read. I like mythological stories, and right there in the title was talk of gods, so why not? Well, it’s certainly an EASY read. A fluff book, to be completely honest. It amazes me they filled 500 pages with that lack of a story. It’s what I’d call an airplane book; something you buy at the airport and read while you’re in transit. Something to occupy your brain, bur nothing too stimulating.
The story was just too easy. The characters seemed more like demi-gods, the lines were cheesy, the conflict not believable as well as too weak. Stories, lines and situations repeated themselves and despite the long flowing paragraphs, not much seemed to happen.
It IS a concrete/ complete story, regardless, which I give credit for, it just seems like it was done by an amateur. It’d e an impressive first novel for a high school guy. It’s hard to believe they stretched the story into at trilogy. I wouldn’t be opposed to finding out how the rest goes, though I don’t plan on being impressed or literarily fulfilled.
The story was just too easy. The characters seemed more like demi-gods, the lines were cheesy, the conflict not believable as well as too weak. Stories, lines and situations repeated themselves and despite the long flowing paragraphs, not much seemed to happen.
It IS a concrete/ complete story, regardless, which I give credit for, it just seems like it was done by an amateur. It’d e an impressive first novel for a high school guy. It’s hard to believe they stretched the story into at trilogy. I wouldn’t be opposed to finding out how the rest goes, though I don’t plan on being impressed or literarily fulfilled.
Friday, August 8, 2008
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
An intimidating author, an intimidating-sized book and a very slow beginning. I was wary to go on, but I wanted to start reading classics, and Steinbeck certainly is a classic author. I feared the long descriptions of the geographical and natural area of the Salinas Valley would be too flowery and pretentious for me, but as I read on, it became less flowery and more movingly artistic. This, just like The Stone Diaries, is a multi-generational piece, though the focus is on a few characters, namely one though, Adam Trask. His life is followed completely in it, the book ending with his word, the symbolic “timshel.”
As the title suggests, the concept of fall from grace (more of mankind’s natural tendency to make wrong decisions) is strong. The plot of the entire book is practically summed up by one philosophical chat between Adam, Samuel, the other main character, and Lee, a major character as well. The struggle among siblings, especially brothers, is a patterned problem in the book, and in this part the three men were discussing the story of Cain and Abel. How one kills the other out of jealousy, though still has the power to overcome sin. Lee describes years spent studying those Bible chapters – even learning Hebrew to best comprehend it – the mere fact that these characters would spend such a long while on such a task is so charming. It adds to the believability of the story – and what it comes down to it is one word – timshel – thou mayest.
Lee passionately says “But ‘thou mayest!’ Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice.” Lee goes on to say further, “But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there.” Now, I don’t know if I like the reference to “gods” or “godliness,” though I think Steinbeck means to simply emphasize the magnificence of man’s potential. Lee, in the story, is a proclaimed atheist, though I’m not sure about Steinbeck.
As there were triumphs over evil in varying degrees, there too was the devilish character in the book, Cathy. While redemption would have been cinematographically satisfying, this did not happen with her. In the end, she simply surrendered. Which brings me to another satisfying quote in the book: “We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in our selves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.” The “evil” of Cathy was vanquished and Steinbeck portrays this as the virtue remaining immortal, while triumphing over evil, but also as sobering that this was but one victory, evil will come again in other ways.
None of the characters followed an archetype of good or evil, none established a mold and stuck with it. What came out of the characters mouths couldn’t always be predicted, but as soon as they said it, it was fitting. In writing such a complete story, Steinbeck certainly didn’t lead the story any which way; the story seemed to lead him. I am eager to read more of his and I know I can pick this up again in a few years and be delighted once more.
As the title suggests, the concept of fall from grace (more of mankind’s natural tendency to make wrong decisions) is strong. The plot of the entire book is practically summed up by one philosophical chat between Adam, Samuel, the other main character, and Lee, a major character as well. The struggle among siblings, especially brothers, is a patterned problem in the book, and in this part the three men were discussing the story of Cain and Abel. How one kills the other out of jealousy, though still has the power to overcome sin. Lee describes years spent studying those Bible chapters – even learning Hebrew to best comprehend it – the mere fact that these characters would spend such a long while on such a task is so charming. It adds to the believability of the story – and what it comes down to it is one word – timshel – thou mayest.
Lee passionately says “But ‘thou mayest!’ Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice.” Lee goes on to say further, “But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there.” Now, I don’t know if I like the reference to “gods” or “godliness,” though I think Steinbeck means to simply emphasize the magnificence of man’s potential. Lee, in the story, is a proclaimed atheist, though I’m not sure about Steinbeck.
As there were triumphs over evil in varying degrees, there too was the devilish character in the book, Cathy. While redemption would have been cinematographically satisfying, this did not happen with her. In the end, she simply surrendered. Which brings me to another satisfying quote in the book: “We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in our selves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.” The “evil” of Cathy was vanquished and Steinbeck portrays this as the virtue remaining immortal, while triumphing over evil, but also as sobering that this was but one victory, evil will come again in other ways.
None of the characters followed an archetype of good or evil, none established a mold and stuck with it. What came out of the characters mouths couldn’t always be predicted, but as soon as they said it, it was fitting. In writing such a complete story, Steinbeck certainly didn’t lead the story any which way; the story seemed to lead him. I am eager to read more of his and I know I can pick this up again in a few years and be delighted once more.
Friday, August 1, 2008
The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields
I enjoyed this book; it reminded me of A Woman of Independent Means, by Elizabeth Hailey, in that it mainly revolved around the long life of one woman. Daisy, the leading lady, certainly wasn’t very lovable, but likeable because she was a regular woman. There were no explicit heroes or good guys; each character had its ups and downs. I loved how Daisy’s father, Cuyler, was such a quiet, plain man who lived such a life until he saw something that sparked in him and he went for it. He made his own happiness, he discovered it and held onto it. After his wife (his spark) died, he started building a tower around her grave and it grew to be a magnificent attraction for the area. It unknowingly paved the rest of his life.
Another enjoyable character development was defined during a monologue of one of Daisy’s daughters, Alice. All her life, she’d lived in the same room and stared up at the same crack in the ceiling. Its persistence got to her. So one morning, she got a ladder, some putty, sanded it, painted over it and erased it. She says, “In one day, I had altered my life: my life, therefore, was alterable. This simple action did not cry out for exegesis; no, it entered my bloodstream directly, as powerful as heroin. I could feel it pump and surge, the way it brightened my veins to a kind of glass. I had wakened that morning to narrowness and predestination and now I was falling asleep in the storm of my own free will.” Lovely. What’s great about this book is that it is humble. An easy read, enjoyable, too.
Another enjoyable character development was defined during a monologue of one of Daisy’s daughters, Alice. All her life, she’d lived in the same room and stared up at the same crack in the ceiling. Its persistence got to her. So one morning, she got a ladder, some putty, sanded it, painted over it and erased it. She says, “In one day, I had altered my life: my life, therefore, was alterable. This simple action did not cry out for exegesis; no, it entered my bloodstream directly, as powerful as heroin. I could feel it pump and surge, the way it brightened my veins to a kind of glass. I had wakened that morning to narrowness and predestination and now I was falling asleep in the storm of my own free will.” Lovely. What’s great about this book is that it is humble. An easy read, enjoyable, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
