The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

I have fallen in love with a new author and his name is Benjamin Percy.  He has written this awesome book about the Lewis and Clark expedition that has been re-imagined, 150 years into the future in a post-apocalyptic America.

The Dead Lands is a place that exists outside the wall that surrounds St. Louis.  There are giant spiders that feed on criminals, and creatures morphed by the nuclear fallout.  There is disease and famine and a lack of water and resources.  People are forbidden to travel outside the wall unless you are one of the guard.  Mina Clark is one of the guard who longs to leave St. Louis and find a better place.  A place with fresh water and green grass and opportunities for a better life.

Inside the wall, St. Louis is called The Sanctuary.  The Sanctuary is stifled and repressed by Lewis Meriweather's former friend Thomas, whom is a selfish leader who indulges himself at the expense of his people. Lewis is the museum curator and keeper of knowledge.  He is odd and people tend to leave him alone.  Some think he has magical powers.

One day, a strange young girl named Gawea approaches the wall on horseback.  She has a unique appearance, with tanned skin and large dark pupils.  The guards on the wall are afraid and shoot at her and she is gravely injured.  She carries a secret message for Lewis.  Clark tries to protect her and plans to save her from impending death, because Thomas wants her hung in public as an example of the dangers outside of the wall.

Lewis and Clark with Gawea as their guide escape The Sanctuary and head West into the unknown.

The Dead Lands is a history teacher's dream, an odyssey of history and culture of a new America.  I kept comparing what happened in the 1800's to the futuristic America portrayed in the pages of The Dead Lands.  And it works.  The journey of Lewis and Clark is a quest of epic proportions that will keep you turning the pages late into the night.

Like all great Odyssey stories there are monsters to fight and weather storms to battle and beautiful, dangerous women to lead the party astray.  There is slavery and violence and environmental concerns and mutant creatures and people eating polar bears, oh my.  I love Odyssey stories or stories of the hero's journey.  I love, love, love, The Dead Lands.  I was riveted to the page and enjoyed the fantastical elements as well as the historical ones.

Percy has created a cast of creative characters that parallel history for a modern era. I loved that Clark is a woman and Lewis has magical powers.  I loved all the characters, they are flawed and lovable. Reading this book was so much fun for me.  If you know your history there are secret messages and historical tidbits in The Dead Lands for you to uncover.

Dare to enter The Dead Lands and travel on the wild side with Lewis and Clark.

The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer

The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer

The United States lost the Revolutionary War and Britiannia (The Empire) now rules with an iron fist.  After the war, all signers of the Declaration of Independence were promptly hung. Charlotte's parents fight underground for the resistance and she has been in hiding with her brother, Ashley, for most of their lives for their own protection. They live in the catacombs, a series of caves hidden behind a waterfall. One day out in the woods, Charlotte finds a little boy about to be captured by the rotpots and she brings him to the catacombs.  He doesn't remember his name and seems to have lost all his memories. They need to discover who this strange boy is and develop a plan to enter society life in the Floating City and meet with the Resistance.

The Inventor's Secret falls in the Steampunk genre.  Steampunk is a mixture of history and science fiction/fantasy which incorporates technology.  The technology in The Inventor's
Secret is so awesome.  I loved it.  Mechanical rats, rotpots, a dragonfly plane, mouse bombs, a floating city, and so much more. Futuristic technology placed in the past within high society and culture. So cool.

The Inventor's Secret is creative, daring and fun.  Cremer is a clever author.  She tales an unlikely heroine, who best friend is a gun, and puts her in a dress and sends her into high society.  The reader gets to experience everything right along with Charlotte as she enters the Floating city for the first time and experiences the world.  Charlotte is awakened and so is the reader.

This is a fairly new gene for me as I don't read a lot of steampunk.  I'm currently a U.S. history teacher so it was super fun to re-imagine history in a unique context. I've discovered I need to read a lot more Steampunk.

The Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

On a mission to Mars, six astronauts were assigned to Ares 3 for 30 days.  On the 6th day or sol, a storm interrupted their mission and they had to abort.  Running for the transport Mark Watney is hit by debris and left behind because his crew believed he was dead. He should be dead but he is not.  He is very much alive and all alone on the planet Mars.

The Martian is Mark Watney's survival log and NASA's attempt to get Mark home to earth.

Mark Watney is pretty much screwed.  There is not enough food to last so it is a very real possibility that Mark will starve.  Rescue opportunities are limited since his crew and the entire world think he is dead.  Water is scarce, oxygen is well, non-existent on Mars so he is hoping his equipment doesn't fail.  Luckily Mark is a botanist and an engineer so he has some skills to fall back on for survival.

Mark Watney is a cool character.  He taught me survival skills, ingenuity, botany, chemistry, engineering, technology, space speak and so much more.  This is a character to admire and he is like the Energizer Bunny, so full of energy and ingenuity that the reader is constantly kept on the edge waiting to see if Mark will survive the latest turn of events.  Quite simply, The Martian is a page turning thrill ride in outer space.  I have never read anything like it.  It was like Gravity meets Apollo 13.

Have you ever read a book you couldn't wait to share with your friends?  The Martian is this type of book.  I could not put The Martian down.  It was all I thought about for a week straight and I verbally praised it up and down.  My 16 year old son, (who hates to read by the way) read the first page and was hooked, so he plans to read it for FUN!  He never reads for fun.  Many of the teachers I work with want to read it and I know my retired mother will also love it because it has something for everyone in it.

Did I mention they are making a movie?

This book is seriously super awesome!  It easily made my top ten favorite reads of 2014.
I give it 5 starts and all ten fingers pointed straight to Mars.  I can't wait to see what Andy Weir is writing next.

Disclosure:  I received The Martian from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters


In the Shadow of Blackbirds takes place in 1918. 1918 is a momentous year.  It is the last year of World War I, and the Spanish Influenza is killing more people worldwide than the war. People are living in grief and no family is untouched by death. Spiritualism is all the rage because people want evidence their loved ones are on the other side and that there is a reason for all the madness.

The main character is named Mary Shelley Black after the author of Frankenstein. She is 16 and doesn't believe in ghosts or spirits until her true love joins the war and ends up dying.  Her boyfriend's brother, Julius, is a spirit photographer and Mary doesn't trust him.  She knows something is not right and that Stephen is haunted by blackbirds because his spirit visits her in the night.

This is a awesome, page turning ghost story and historical novel about WWI and the flu epidemic. It is a very enjoyable and totally creepy at the same time.  Winters does an excellent job of portraying this historical period.

While I was reading this, I kept thinking about my grandparents who were babies in 1918.  Their parents (my great-grandparents) must of been worried about them getting sick from the flu.  I am so glad we have never had a health crisis of this magnitude since then.  The widespread panic and health crisis is well written as is the descriptions faced by soldiers during the war and after.  Winters presents the social issues of 1918 in a way that you will never forget.  As a history teacher, I thought the history presented in the book was excellent and since I also enjoy a good ghost story, the two mixed together was just plain fun to read.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Aliens have taken up residence in the sky right above us.  No one knows what they look like or what they want.  People are hopeful for peaceful coexistence but that is not the plan.  Possession of earth comes in waves.

The 1st wave is Lights Out.  Goodbye electricity and anything battery operated.

The 2nd wave is Surf's Up.  A giant wave takes out the coasts and all the people who live there.

The 3rd wave is a Pestilence and disease spreads like wildfire.  No family is untouched.

The 4th wave is a Silencer.  A silencer is a sharpshooter who shoots to kill.

The 5th Wave is what you least expect.
It is action packed, full of courageous characters in the midst of an alien attack.  You won't know what hit you and that is just what the aliens want.

Cassie just might be the last human walking around on earth.  She trusts no one and her mission in life is to rescue her little brother, Sammie, who has been taken to the nearest army base with other children.  Her parents are dead.  Cassie has never seen an alien and has no idea what they look like.  The world is over as she knows it and she shoots to kill.  Then she meets Evan Walker and Cassie doesn't know what to think or do and life is not so black and white anymore.

When I started The 5th Wave, I didn't realize what I was getting sucked into but I was reading as fast as possible because this plot is a rollar coaster ride and I couldn't let go.   In many ways I was reminded of The Walking Dead TV series but there are no vampires, just aliens and you don't know what they look like.  It is a very interesting story when you have no idea who the enemy is.

I normally don't worry about 2nd books or movies but in this case, I will be first in line for the 2nd book, come Sept. 2014 and I will definitely be seeing the movie. OMG, if you like science fiction this alien attack will blow your mind.The characters are awesome and strong and I really feel like this series is soon going to be all the rage.  Move over, Twilight and Hunger Games and make room for The 5th Wave.

Book A Day, Books 8-10 with Mini Reviews

Book A Day, Books 8-10 with Mini Reviews

This week I fell behind my on #Book A Day summer goal because I went to Maryland for National History Day and was super busy.  Up early and into bed late, left little time for reading.   My student competed in the senior division, paper category and on Thursday, June 19th, they announced that she had won first place!!  First place in the Nation!!  OMG, it was so emotional and wonderful to see her achieve that level of success.  Next week we will be interviewed on two local radio programs in Minneapolis.

Day #9, Book 8
Satchel Paige. Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm
Graphic Novel

This is an awesome graphic novel about the baseball legend Satchel Paige.  Satchel Paige was an amazing baseball pitcher. His career spanned 6 decades. He was the most famous African American baseball player alongside Jackie Robinson. This graphic novel highlights the barriers Paige faced and the amazing ability and character he displayed when playing ball. Super good and sure to be enjoyed by anyone interested in sports history.

Day #10, Book 9
Sleep Donation by Karen Russell
Novella

This little book is packed full of interesting science fiction.  Can you imagine what the world would be like if insomnia were an epidemic?  Sleep deprivation and insomnia is killing people and many need a sleep transfusion. There is a sleep bank set up and people donate their sleep to save lives. I can't stop thinking about this book.  What if?

Day #11, Book 10
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Audio Book
Narrated by Wil Wheaton
15 hours and 46 minutes


Listened to the audiobook of Ready Player One. Wil Wheaton is a fabulous narrator. Seriously listen to this on audio. Ready Player One is an ode to the decade of the 1980's with a ton of pop culture references. It was an awesome trip down memory lane and a nod to video game culture.  The year is 2044 and there is an egg worth millions of dollars hidden inside the Oasis, a massive online video world.  Wade, a high school student may have found the door to the first gate and from there it is a race to the finish.  Really, really good on audio.

Two Great Audiobooks

Two Great Audiobooks.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Narrated by Dan Stevens
Length: 8 Hours and 35 minutes.

I started Frankenstein twice.  The first time, I just couldn't get into it, I couldn't follow it and so I quit.  Which I then regretted and so I tried again and I'm so glad I did.  Once the slow beginning was over and I got over my confusion, the story picked up.  Frankenstein was creepy and awesome and addressed all kinds of questions about what it means to be human.  The narrator was great, expressive and after I got used to him, easy to follow.  I cannot believe that Mary Shelley wrote this when she was just 17.  That is incredible!

Rotters by Daniel Kraus
Narrated By Kirby Heyborne
Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins

Rotters was paired with Frankenstein by AudioBook Sync when they gave away both audiobooks last summer for a week for free.  Score!  This was the first I had heard of Rotters and it was a perfect pairing.

If Frankenstein was creepy and awesome, Rotters was more creepy and freaky and also awesome.  Wow, what a great story about a father and son grave robbing team and their assortment of colleagues.  I was blown away by the creative aspects of the story and just the right amount of ick inserted where needed.  The narrator was superb and added to the creepiness of the story. Highly recommend!

What audiobooks are you listening too?

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas is a uniquely written book.  It tells the stories of six individuals in different time periods from the 1850 to far into the future.  Each story is loosely connected to the others and each story has an element of it that survives for another to find.  It is probably the most unique and original book I have ever read.  The stories of the novel end abruptly and reach a crescendo in the middle of the book and then the individual stories are finished in reverse order.  Ending the book with the same of the same individual whose story started Cloud Atlas.  It's kind of hard to explain so I hope it makes sense.

David Mitchell plays around in Cloud Atlas with style and genre as well as with the language and characters.  This may frustrate some readers but its effect is dazzling and interesting.  The movie of Cloud Atlas enhanced the book for me and I was able to make more connections.  Cloud Atlas is a literary puzzle and you the reader must put it together in your mind.

I've had Cloud Atlas sitting on my shelf for about 9 years because I bought it when it came out in paperback.  I finally made the attempt to read and finish this unique and puzzling book this winter.  I read this book slowly in big chunks and took several 2 week breaks from it.  I'm not sure there is a right or wrong way to read this book because it is not super easy to read.  There are different dialects and language that cause you to pause and read slower.  I found the text challenging but well worth the time and effort I put into it.

Cloud Atlas is a literary tour de force!

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Todd is the youngest boy in a colony of men called Prentisstown.  During the war with the Spackle, all the women died of a disease released by the Spackle, which spurred the Noise that Todd hears in his head.  The Noise is a culmination of all the thoughts and words of the men in Prentisstown including the animals.    It is a never-ending stream of noise that invade your thoughts and consciousness and it is impossible to escape.  The voices of the men of Prentisstown are lonely, depressed and negative and are constantly replaying their stream in the Noise.

 In this world, all animals can talk.  Todd has a dog called Manchee who is constantly talking about squirrels and calling Todd's name.  Todd?

Todd has no memory of what life was like when women were alive.  He believes Prentisstown is the only colony in his world and beyond the swamp there is a vast nothingness.  He is basically illiterate and is about a month shy of turning 13 and becoming a man.

One day while Todd is exploring the swamp, getting a break from the Noise and looking for apples.  He stumbles upon a imposing silence and wonders at the hole in the Noise.  He runs home and tries to hide his thoughts so know one in the town would know about the quiet space, yet as soon as he arrives home the sheriff arrives.  Ben and Cillian, the men who raised him, hand him a map, a backpark with provisions and his mother's book and tell him to leave and never come back.  Todd isn't sure why but he is running for his life with Manchee by his side, when he stumbles upon the hole in the Noise.  The hole turns out to be a girl, a silent girl.  Viola.  Todd and Voila begin a life changing journey together and begin to count on each other in ways they didn't expect.

Patrick Ness is a very creative writer and he has crafted a unique science fiction world in The Knife of Never Letting Go.  The knife is a central character in the book as Todd clings to it for many reasons.  As Todd and Voila journey through New World, each colony they encounter is varied, by landscape, the people and their culture and customs as well as the animals native to the area.  One thing is certain, no one likes the men from Prentisstown.  There are strong themes of war, discrimination, racism, coming of age, abuse, sexism and so much more.

I alternately read The Knife of Never Letting Go in paperback and listened to it on audio. Which is an experience I would recommend.  The text itself is unique because it has to illustrate the noise and also because Todd doesn't know how to spell, so words are misspelled and bolded.  He also swears a bit due to his low vocabulary.  Reading the book is an interesting experience unto itself.  Listening to it, you get to hear the animals talk and the unique words and sounds they make.  Plus the audio gives Todd an accent and the journey, including the intense scenes when they are being chased and hunted down, gives you an errie sort of nervous feeling that I didn't get while reading the paperback.  Although one particular character got on my nerves and was kinda scary,  frankly I thought Aaron would never die because he kept reappearing, like Jason in all the Friday 13th movies.  

The Knife of Never Letting Go is currently being made into a movie.  It is also part of a trilogy that is highly recommended by many people. I mean people seriously say this series is amazing so why not open myself up to an amazing reading experience.   I liked this book enough to continue with the series and since Patrick Ness leaves the reader shaking their heads and demanding answers at the end, I need to find out what happens.  I need to decide to go paperback or audio or both.  Tough decision.  

If I could describe this book in five words, I would say; creative, intense, unique, scary, intriguing.

What a mouthful!!

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

A data processor is part of an experiment.  He learns to separate his brain so that the right hemisphere doesn't know what the left hemisphere is doing. Told in alternating chapters the reader is along for a mind blowing experience.  Seriously.

Right Brain-
He enters a elevator in a cold office building in Tokyo.  He walks down a long hallway behind a pleasantly plump 17 year old in pink attire who voice is turned off.  Good thing he knows how to read lips.  He puts on galoshes, goggles and rain gear and enters a dark place with a loud waterfall and is warned to watch out for Inklings.  The bizarre professor meets him halfway and takes him to his office. He notices there are a lot of paperclips on the professors desk. The professor asks him to shuffle data and to be careful because "other" people want to steal this information.

Left brain-
He enters a place known as the End of the World.  Once you enter you can never leave.  The only way to enter the end of the world is to have your shadow cut off and removed.  Shadows are not allowed inside the walled city.  Reluctantly, he agrees to leave is shadow at the gate and enter the city.  Here he sees a herd of beautiful unicorns that enter the city at daybreak and leave at nightfall.  He becomes a dream reader and everyday visits the library where there are no books, only unicorn skulls.  He reads the skulls with the help of the librarian, who he is starting to fall in love with.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is a futuristic thriller with elements of American film culture, set to a Bob Dylan soundtrack.  It's like reading a book loaded with film noir. There are some amazing scenes that read like an action film, where the culture of the West meets the culture of the East.  Some scenes reminded me of The Goonies and Raider's of the Lost Ark and others reminded me of an episode of X-files.

When I started reading this book for book club, I was dreading it.  The cover sucks and is dull, I thought the book would be too and as I kept turning the pages faster and faster, I was left thinking, this book is awesome.  It is so deep and meaningful and the cover doesn't do this book justice.  Hard-boiled wonderland and the End of the World wins the award for the best named book in my world.
The characters are unique, entertaining and a little exaggerated.  You never learn the name of the narrator, or anyone else for that matter.  Their realities are all distorted, and they hide from the "real" world in their own ways.  My favorite character was the shadow.  It is so a creative idea to think of your shadow as a separate being with feelings and a mind of his own.  A shadow trying to save you from yourself.

Murakami is a genius and this book is highly inventive.  I was blown away by the author's creativity.  Hard-boiled wonderland is an instant classic and demands to be talked about and taken apart and examined.  This book doesn't fit neatly into a category.  It is a wild adventure through the two hemispheres of your brain.  It will fire you up, confuse you, leave you stunned and then have you begging for more, more, more.

I am kowtowing to Huruki Murakami.

Distorted reality anyone?

Daynight by Megan Thomason

Daynight by Megan Thomason Book Tour.

Kira joins a group called SCI to help her pay for college.  She plans to work on another planet for a year, return to earth and live her life.  Except people on SCI or Second Chance Institute have other ideas.  Kira has perfect DNT and they want her to stay forever, have babies and help their planet.

SCI is a strict planet where you don't question the rules.  Most choices are in the hands of The Ten who rule.  SCI is the exact polar opposite of Earth.  Where earth is water, SCI is land, and vice versa.  The are entrance and exit portals attached to earth.

Rules:  You must choose a life partner at age 18.  If you mate with someone before you are 18, they will be your life partner.

You must apply for a baby.  Babies are made in-vitro.  If you get pregnant without permission you are exiled.

Never talk to a second chancer about their past.  If you do, you will be exiled.

Exiled people are never allowed back inside Garden city.  SCI is a hard place to live and people live their "Day" at night when it is cooler and sleep during the day when it is hot outside.  It gets to be about 150 degrees during the day.  Most people only stay outside 20 minutes in sunlight otherwise it is to
dangerous.

You must read the book to learn the other rules because I'm not giving away all the secrets.

Daynight is a creative alternative world.  It contains a great love triangle and is entertaining and suspenseful.  I love being transported outside my realm of knowledge to new places that exist only between the pages of a book.  Thomason has created believable characters, sexual tension, fast moving plot and dangerous living conditions.

If you love YA and are a fan of dystopian fiction this is a book for you.  Daynight is full of adventure and plot twists and the fact that it is on a mirror planet similar to earth makes it all the more interesting.  Put this book on your radar.

Head over to Laura at Colorimetry to enter the contest.  Scroll down for a lot of great information

about the next book in the series, the contest and more.

Good Luck!!

Promised by Caragh O'Brien

Promised by Caragh O'Brien
(The third book in the Birthmarked series)

Gaia Stone is now the leader of the people of Sylum and she has made the important decision to lead her people to the Promised land.  Sylum is dying because girl's are rarely born into this society.  Gaia Stone believes traveling back to the Enclave and appealing to the rational sensibilities of the Protectorat, also known as Leon's father, will grant them refuge outside the wall.  Gaia believes that here her people will thrive and grow.  Except the Protectorat is not rational or sensible and Gaia has led her people to a place where they will have to fight for their right to live and have fresh drinking water.

Leon and Gaia are in love and have been through a lot as a couple.  They have made plans to wed but first they must wait until the people of Sylum are accepted and are safe.  When they reach the wall of the Enclave, Gaia is immediately arrested.  There is a lot at stake and Gaia has much to lose and thus begins the battle of wills between Gaia, who will do anything for her people, and the Protectorat, who want the children of the Enclave free of hemophilia.

Promised is the third book in the Birthmarked series and it does not disappoint.  It is full of unexpected twists and turns and just when you think you have the story figured out, O'Brien mixes it up.  This series is amazing and it is equally as riveting at The Hunger Games.

O'Brien takes modern day issues like water rights, environmentalism, birth defects, pollution and places them in a science fiction context that is sure to get you thinking.  The books take place in Minnesota near the dried up Lake Superior, called the un-lake in the book.  Gaia is a strong, young, female protagonist.  She heralds women's rights, she's a strong leader, she's a feisty teenager and she's in love with her enemy's son, Leon.  All combine to create a thrilling, page turning, creative work of science fiction.  I love it and you will too!

I can't wait to read what Caragh O'Brien writes next!

Chime by Franny Billingsley

Chime by Franny Billingsley

Everyone knows that witches can't cry and that they write left handed.  Briony doesn't want anyone to know she is a witch because she doesn't want to hang from the gallows, which is what happens to witches in the Swampsea.  Briony's beloved stepmother has recently died, leaving her with promises to protect her twin sister, Rose, and to keep her secret from her father.  "Stepmother was very clear.  She'd told me again and again:  Briony plus the swamp plus the Old Ones is an explosive combination." pg. 29

Briony defies her dead stepmother again and again as she hears the voices of the Old Ones and tries to find her burnt stories and piece together the events of her life.  She meets a wonderful young man named Eldric and they forge a special bond as they run wild through the swamp.  It is hard for Briony to fall in love with Eldric because she has so much self-hatred built up inside of her.  She is literally walking around wounded inside but doesn't know it.

The swamp is an interesting character as it has magical bogs, spirits, witches, ghost-children, the Quicks, the Horrors, the Hot place, a Dead Hand and the Wykes.  You must not travel into the swamps without your Bible ball to protect you because it is a fearsome place yet it draws you in to play.

Chime's narrator is a bit unreliable and confusing and the book took about 100 pages to really hook me.  That being said, Billingsley has built a strangely unique fantasy world and I adored her creative characters.  Chime is full of multiple genres and Era jumping, (What is Era jumping, you say, well here is my definition) where it seems that multiple real Era's or time periods are represented in one inventive time period in the book.  Billingsley is a master of originality and inventiveness and with a strong female lead character like Briony, who can cut her own hand for the love of her sister, she leaves readers gasping for more stories like this.

Chime leaves the reader with much to Muse upon.

If you were a color what would you be?

If you were an animal what would you be?

If you were a historical personage who would you be?

If you were a sport what would it be?

Come and play in the Swampsea with me.

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Hi, my name is Titus and I am a teenager who has a feed in my brain.  I can't live without my feed, it provides me with everything I need, like music, shopping, advertising and messaging.  I don't need to think, talk, read or write because my feed does it all for me.  Like, it is the best thing ever invented.  You seriously need to get one.

I went to the moon for Spring Break and met this awesome girl named Violet.  We went dancing one night and then got hacked from some crazy man.  Our feeds were interrupted and we had to go to the hospital.  It was so unbelievably boring.  Like, we had nothing to do.  We couldn't connect to the feed, it was like total torture for me.

When we got home from the moon, Violet started acting weird.  I mean, I really like her, Unit, but something is not quite right about her.   She got her feed when she was seven, when the everyone I know, got it when we were babies.  And then, we started to get all these like weird lesions on our body.  The world is going off kilter.  Well, I am not going to worry about it because I got my feed and it doesn't let me worry too much.  Oh, Unit, I really like that shirt.  Ordering that up right now.

Hi, my name is Laura (Booksnob) and I just finished reading Feed over my Spring Break.  I wish I was able to travel to the moon like Titus but I stayed home instead.  I can't stop thinking about this book.  It is like Feed is literally stuck in my head and everywhere I look I see people connecting to their hand held devices, their personal feeds.  The characters are not particularly likeable, except for Violet, and the futuristic teen speak is frustrating at times but Feed gets under your skin and into your brain and makes you think. That's right, you have to think while you are reading this book.

Feed takes place in a future not far away from our present reality and that is what makes it so relevant.  Feed tackles important issues like consumerism, environmentalism, beauty, mind control and so much more.  It is a amazing book that will grip you by the throat and leave you gasping.  When you finish, take a look around the world and challenge yourself to find the feed.  It won't take long and you will see the world differently.  The feed is everywhere. 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  The Authorized Adaptation by Tim Hamilton.

Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which books burn.  Guy Montag is a firefighter whose job it is to start fires and burn books.  No longer does the average firefighter put out fires.  In Bradbury's science fiction world, books and reading are banned because if people read, and therefore gain knowledge, they are no longer equal to everyone else in society.  Therefore the people are forbidden to read or own books and television is taking over the minds and entertainment of the people.

Montag figures out that there must be something important in books because he witnesses owners willing to die over the love of their books.  At every fire he begins to steal a book to discover what is so important inside of them.  Clarisse, Montag's neighbor asks him if he is happy and he realizes that he hasn't been happy in a long time.  When Clarisse turns up dead, Montag decides that his life needs to change.

Tim Hamilton has created a splendid visual, graphic novel adaptation of Bradbury's classic book.  The pictures are colorful, interesting, eye-catching and worthwhile.  This is a great way to introduce a young adult to world of Ray Bradbury.  Years ago I watched a film version of Fahrenheit 451, which is weirdly odd but I loved the idea behind this story.  When I saw the graphic novel at the store, I bought it immediately and now it has piqued my interest in the novel and I may actually commit to reading it.

In the introduction to the graphic novel adaptation, Ray Bradbury asks a question of his readers.  Which book would you most want to memorize and protect from any censors or "firemen"?  I don't even have to ponder on this question, I know I would choose my favorite book of all time, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  I would choose this book because it is a masterpiece and contains, history of the Civil War as well as romance, culture, etc.  Gone with the Wind is an iconic part of American culture and deserves to be remembered.

Which book would you choose and why?