Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Thoughts on Lois Lowry's The Giver #Review


Warning: Potential spoilers

This is the book that will make you very thankful for everything you experience, for everything you have, in life. The pleasure, the happiness, along with the pain and suffering.

What would life be like if everyone and everything were the same? The "sameness" in The Giver means there are none of the things I love...books, pets, holidays (Christmas), individuality, solitude, and the one thing which made me sob amidst the pages...family. Yes, there are "family units," but the parents are no longer involved in the lives of their children once they are grown. So, no grandparents being able to share the love of grandchildren. I can't even fathom it. I can't imagine my parents not being present in my whole life.

The Giver makes you think about what we sacrifice for sameness. Do we want to live in a society with no color, no individual freedoms? A society free of hunger, war, pain, yes...but at what cost? Never knowing joy, or true feelings of love for a child, or a significant other. This is a Dystopian society which seems not so bad, perhaps even ideal, on the surface, but the implications are far more concerning.

Once again, I saw the film (several years back) before reading this, and once again, the book is better. In Lowry's introduction, she mentioned receiving letters/emails from people stating the book was life changing. It is that. This is a book which needs to be picked up every so often to remind us of how precious our freedoms, and the lives we lead, really are, and to hold on to them at all cost.

Book One in The Giver Quartet

Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce new children, who is assigned to appropriate family units; one male, one female, to each. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. Then community is a precisely choreographed world without conflict, inequality, divorce, unemployment, injustice.. or choice.

Everyone is the same.
Except Jonas.

At the Ceremony of Twelve, the community's twelve-year-olds eagerly accept their predetermined Life Assignments. But Jonas is chosen for something special. He begins instruction in his life's work with a mysterious old man known only as The Giver. Gradually Jonas learns that power lies in feelings. But when his own power is put to the test - when he must try to save someone he loves - he may not be ready. Is it too soon? Or too late?



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Thursday, April 25, 2019

#CatThursday - The eyes have it #cats


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.







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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

The wheel of fortune landed on...19 #ccspin


The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.

But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.

I was thrilled when the Classics Club spin landed on #19 because this was one of the books I was hoping to get. I read this years and years ago. I was probably middle grade age. I'm not 100 percent sure of what age I was, but I do remember loving the book. I've always wanted to read it again. It's also a shorter book which is a plus right now. I'll start reading it after I finish my April reading. I should have no problem finishing by May 31st. 

I'm working on revising my Classics Club list. Many of the books on my list were added when I still lived in the apartment and my books were accessible. Now that we live with my mom, and though I do have all my books, some of them are difficult to access because of the placement of some of my shelves. So, large sections of the alphabet (my fiction books are organized by author's last name, alphabetically) are inaccessible. I'll have my updated list ready for my next Reading Life post.



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Friday, April 19, 2019

Classics Club Spin 20 #ccspin

Maybe this time will be the charm...I've only completed one spin, I think. We shall see what happens this time around. I picked my 20 using Random.org.

  1. Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott
  2. Orlando, Virginia Woolf
  3. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
  4. The Collector, John Fowles
  5. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe
  7. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
  8. Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot
  9. Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
  10. The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank 
  11. A Woman of No Importance, Oscar Wilde
  12. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
  13. The Sylph, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
  14. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
  15. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
  16. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
  17. Cheri (with The Last of Cheri), Colette
  18. Roxana, Daniel Defoe
  19. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
  20. The Painted Veil, W. Somerset Maugham



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Thursday, April 18, 2019

#CatThursday - Ever considerate #cats


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.







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Thursday, April 11, 2019

#CatThursday - #Authors and #Cats (83) Damien Broderick


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author with their cat(s), pictured with a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.



Damien Francis Broderick (born 22 April 1944) is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of some 70 books. His science fiction novel The Dreaming Dragons (1980) introduced the trope of the generation time machine, his The Judas Mandala (1982) contains the first appearance of the term "virtual reality" in science fiction, and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the technological singularity in detail. (from Wikipedia)




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Saturday, April 6, 2019

A Reading Life (52) - April #reading plans, #readathons and short #reviews


April already and it's readathon time! My Spring into Horror Readathon (at Seasons of Reading) is in full swing, going on the whole month of April, and today it's time for Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon. Last time I participated in October, I didn't have any plans on Saturday so I was able to do the whole 24 hours (well, I stayed home anyway...I didn't manage to read for 24 hours). This time is a different story because I'm going to see Pet Sematary. So excited! I still should be able to get some good reading time in though.

Before I get to my readathon reading plans, let me share what I read in March. I managed to read three full books! Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (audio), and The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. I'm still working on Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.

My brief thoughts on my March reads...


Joy in the Morning

My mom told me many years ago I needed to read this. Can't believe I waited so long. Wonderful book. Annie was such a great character. A lot of her traits reminded me of myself. The way her mind worked; her sense of optimism, and she was a book lover and writer. This book was just a comfort to read, and though it wasn't a "can't put down" thriller type of book, I still found myself wanting to keep reading each time I picked it up.

Challenges read for:
Book Challenge by Erin 10.0


Northanger Abbey

Not my favorite Austen, but definitely worth a read for any Austen fan. Austen had a knack for writing duplicitous characters. Isabella Thorpe, I'm looking at you. I loved all the references to the Gothic novels of the time.

Challenges read for:
Book Challenge by Erin 10.0
The Classics Club


The Miniaturist

If you're a reader who often finds yourself unable to read the book before the movie (or series) is released, take my advice. Never ever let yourself be satisfied with just watching the movie (or series), as excellent as it may be. There's a chance you will miss out if you do. I'm sure many already know this, but it bears repeating. The BBC limited series based on this book was indeed excellent. Yet the book was so much more. The writing brought vividly to mind the scenes, and the characters had so much depth. Based on the real Petronella Oortman (Brandt), the story was fictional, but the large cabinet/doll's house portrayed in the story was one the real Petronella possessed, and one she lavished much money and attention upon. The dollhouse has been on display in the Rijksmuseum Museum in Amsterdam since 1875 (image below). This will always be a memorable historical fiction read for me.


Challenges Read for:
Book Challenge by Erin 10.0

April Reading/Readathon Plans

The #Bookjar and Random Reading Projects are again on hold this month because I'm in the final stretch of  Book Challenge by Erin 10.0 which ends on April 30. I have five books to read to complete the challenge. With the readathons going on, I think I can do it. I hope!

Horror/scary reads for Spring into Horror

Necroscope by Brian Lumley
Florence and Giles by John Harding
The King of Bones and Ashes by J.D. Horn (currently reading)
Good Omens by Gaiman/Pratchett (audio - currently listening)
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Non-scary

The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier (April selection for True Book Talk)
The Twelve Caesars (continue on with)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (continue on with) 


What's going on in your reading life?



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Thursday, April 4, 2019

#CatThursday - Plotting #Cats Part Two


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.









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- See more at: http://www.techtrickhome.com/2013/02/show-comment-box-above-comments-on.html#sthash.TjHz2Px9.dpuf