Thursday, January 17, 2013

Books 23 and 24

Day 16:

Well, it looks like for now I'll work on staying solidly ahead of my goal date. I've been running through books like crazy, mainly because right now I have 26 books checked out from the library. I've been trying to get through some of them before tackling any of the books that I own. Today I had a nice day with my friend Rachel, watching a movie, linner (food between lunch and dinner) and shopping.

Then this evening I settled in with my reading partners, my little men, my Chihuahua-Dachshund mix Scooter and my cat Winnie.

Every night they lay with me, getting progressively closer to the point that I have no room on this small bed for me. Currently as I type this, I'm having to lean my arms over Scooter to get to the keyboard and Winnie is curled up against my hip. Tonight I read two books, both pretty different from one another.  And now, Scooter has his head laying ON the computer, and has been trying to lick it. Silly dog, better hurry up with this, someone obviously wants his Momma to go to bed.

Book 23: Brave New World


Author: Aldous Huxley
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 268
Series: No
Purchased or Borrowed: Borrowed from the library
Date Read: January 16, 2013

3 stars
Okay, so I've been wanting to read this book since I was a senior in high school. In AP English we were given the opportunity to read either 1984 or Brave New World, and I chose 1984. It was totally worth it because I loved it, but I was also curious about this book as well. It is the same vein of genre, with a whole new society. The world has changed in that everyone is created through science, is very sexually liberated and there is a caste system of individuals. Alphas and Betas are top tier and are genetically engineered as such, while Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilon are lower, do menial jobs, and are engineered of lower stature and intelligence. They are created this way before birth and then it is reinforced by messages played on repeat as they sleep, so that they become engrained in their very being. The motto is that everyone belongs to everyone, so there are no partnerships like marriage or relationships, and people physically do not age. Bernard takes his date Lenina out to the Reservations, a place where the people live in the old way as savages, with no premarital sex, marriage and parenthood. On their trip they find a woman, a Beta minus, who was left there by her date, a famous individual in society, after becoming lost. She found herself pregnant and raising her child John as a savage. They return to society and John has a difficult time adjusting to say the least. I really liked the world that Huxley created, but I wasn't thrilled with how the story unfolded. The plot was very hard to follow even though the actual story was not. I feel like I would have liked the book a lot better had it been more tied together.

Book 24: Saving June


Author: Hannah Harrington
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 336
Series: No
Purchased or Borrowed: Borrowed from the library
Date Read: January 16, 2013

4 stars
So I have this thing for road trip books. Maybe it's my fascination with all of the places you can travel and see. I loved Amy and Roger's Epic Detour and Two-Way Street but absolutely HATED On the Road. But this one was intriguing and definitely more depressing. Harper's older sister June committed suicide and now her divorced parents have decided to split her ashes into two separate urns. This doesn't sit right with Harper and so she hatches a plan to drive to California with her best friend Laney to spread June's ashes in the place that she always wanted to go. Jake, a boy that knew June, wants to go with them. Harper doesn't know how they knew each other, but they agree that he can come because he has a van to drive them all in. It isn't just a straight shot drive and they end up stopping several times and there are both funny and heartbreaking times for all of them. On the way Harper falls for Jake. It doesn't make sense, he drives her crazy and is frustrating, but he may just be exactly what she needs. This was a straightforward story about loss and adventure, all of them trying to "save" June, something that they couldn't do for her in life.

Okay, well it's 4:30am and even though I can sleep in tomorrow, it's really time for me to sleep!

xo,
Erin

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