Tag: reading

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
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The Last Lecture is Randy Pausch’s last hurrah- a final note to the world and his family about how to live, love and let go. It is beautiful.

I think that we’re all here for a reason and have stories to tell. How fortunate for us all that Randy had the time and ability to tell his particular story.

I recommend this book for fans of memoirs, computer engineering and heart-felt narratives. I listened to the audiobook and it was excellent.

Then, once I finished the book, I looked up Randy’s actual last lecture on YouTube. Bring your kleenexes, friends.

See it yourself: 

Thanks for reading!

The Quick by Lauren Owen

The Quick by Lauren Owen

The Quick is a love-it or hate-it book. I fell into the “I loved this” camp. But, when I pushed it onto my mother and sisters, they didn’t like it. They all wondered why I had insisted that they read it and waxed poetic about its story. I was truly surprised.

At first, it reads like a classic English, historical fiction novel. Think along the lines of Dickens or Austen. And then… it changes very quickly into something else, something more like urban fantasy. I can’t say enough how masterful the first part of this novel is without giving too much away. It hooked me quickly and I was enthralled.

I loved how multiple genres collide in the story. I also adored the understated, “British” narrative style.

For a novel of over 500 pages, I went through this very quickly. It’s a wonderful book to lose hours reading in, what feels like, a few minutes. This would be a great book to carry on the subway or train. You’d be entertained for almost the entire trip.

I would have given The Quick five stars but the end bit dragged. Also, I disliked the way that the author developed a couple of the main characters. What can I say- I’m picky when it comes to handing out those five-star reviews.

I also think that book clubs will lose their minds over The Quick. As I mentioned before, there was disagreement within my own family if this was an enjoyable read or not. My mother thought that the writing style showed the author’s inexperience. I thought it was unique and captivating. We could have gone back and forth about it for hours, but who has time for that with all of the books that are waiting to be read.

I’d be interested to know your opinion on it.

As for me, I think this was an amazing debut novel. I look forward to more from Lauren Owen in, hopefully, the near-future.

I received a free advance reader copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. Thanks for reading!

1984 by George Orwell

1984 by George Orwell
1984

Spoiler warning at the end of this review. Please do not read the last paragraphs if you haven’t had the chance to read this classic dystopian.

In 1984 or thereabouts, Winston Smith is a hard-working member of the Party. There is only one Party and it rules with an iron fist. It is divided into divisions that specialize in different areas on the surface, but actually occupy themselves with maintaining power.

The country, an amalgamation of the countries we know now, is always at war with one or another of the two other world powers.

Winston works in a literary branch of the government. He is responsible for making changes to printed literature to make the past in-line with current party sentiment. “As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of the Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead.” pg 39.

In the course of his job, he notices things changing. For instance, he knows that at one time, they were at war with someone different than the enemy they fight now. “Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains.” pg 155.

But this is not knowledge that he can share. The Party exerts control over everyone at all times through screens built into the wall of every home. You can see the state-sponsored programs like a regular television but they can look out through the screen and see you too.“The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought. There are therefore two great problems which the Party is concerned to solve. One is how to discover, against his will, what another human being is thinking, and the other is how to kill several hundred million people in a few seconds without giving warning beforehand.” pg 193.

The Thought Police drag away any trouble makers or those whose thoughts aren’t acceptable to the Party. That could be anyone. Winston knows that one day it will be him. But not just yet.

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. … You had to live- did live, from habit that became instinct- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.” pg 3.

The absolute powerlessness of Winston’s situation is terrifying. And then, he falls in love with a girl named Julia who works in his building. “He wondered vaguely how many others like her there might be in the younger generation- people who had grown up in the world of the Revolution, knowing nothing else, accepting the Party as something unalterable, like the sky, not rebelling against its authority but simply evading it, as a rabbit dodges a dog.” pg 131.

This was the first time I ever read 1984. I was still convinced, until a few pages before the end, that it was going to have a happy ending. The rat-mask part had me doubting but then, I still considered the possibility that Winston was faking his conversation. But, after he spoke to Julia one last time, I finally abandoned that theory too.

He lived through his ordeal, but at what cost? He lost everything- even his ability to think. I found it to be incredibly bleak, but worth the time, if only for the warnings that it contains.

Thanks for reading!

The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Jenna Fox Chronicles, #1) by Mary E. Pearson

The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Jenna Fox Chronicles, #1) by Mary E. Pearson
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Warning: minor spoilers ahead if you are not familiar with the topic of this book.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox fits nicely into a science fiction/medical category that includes films like Gattaca or books like Starters. As medicine advances, ethical questions begin to develop about treatment, life and death and humanity needs to answer them. But, one thing that remains the same throughout all of these technical changes, is the power of the love that parents have for their child.

Even now, people sign do not resuscitate orders so that medicine won’t keep them in a vegetative state for indeterminate periods of time. The occurrence of near-death experiences has exploded since CPR and other life-saving techniques have developed.

Imagine sometime in the near future, when bio-implants can be used to stop or even reverse internal damage. What if we figure out how to turn the aging gene off? How then will we handle death with dignity? Or will we even be able to accept death at all?

I listened to an interview with the author in which she said that she wrote this book because her own teenager was diagnosed with cancer. She went through the terror and did whatever was necessary to save her child. Along the way, she ran into parents whose children were terminally ill but had no viable treatment options. Pearson realized how lucky she and her daughter were and it sparked her imagination.

It’s a worthy a question: how far would you go to save someone you love? I recommend this book to anyone who wants to consider the possible answer.

Thanks for reading!

The Keys to the Temple: Unlocking Dion Fortune’s Mystical Qabalah Through Her Occult Novels by Penny Billington, Ian Rees

The Keys to the Temple: Unlocking Dion Fortune’s Mystical Qabalah Through Her Occult Novels by Penny Billington, Ian Rees
keystothetemple

I’d recommend The Keys to the Temple for mid-level to advanced students of the Qabalah. As simple as the authors have made it, they still assume that you know the worlds, paths and general theory. If you haven’t studied The Mystical Qabalah, this won’t make any sense at all.

If you have the background and the interest, The Keys to the Temple may be of great interest to you. This book contains one of the clearest explanations of the path of the spiritual journey that I have ever read.

Let’s start from the top. What is the Qabalah? “The Qabalah is a spiritual system that has been practiced secretly in Europe since at least the 12th century though it draws on deep roots within Judeo Christian tradition. loc 3117.

The Mystical Qabalah and Israel Regardie’s classic A Garden of Pomegranates: Skrying on the Tree of Life were my stepping stones into another way of viewing reality.

I have read criticisms of the books, that they’re too cerebral or dry theory. “However when most people encounter the book they are confronted by a dense-seeming text with long lists of apparently unrelated facts: the idea that this is linked with the vivid imagery and dynamism of the novels can be difficult to understand.” loc 172. I agree that it is “dense” but since it was my introduction to the stuff, I didn’t know any better.

Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com

Dion Fortune went a step further and wrote fictional novels to put Qabalistic theory into the real world. The Keys to the Temple takes these books apart by plot, character, theory and then gives practical exercises for personal meditation on the works.

That last part, the practical exercises, is the most important in my mind. It’s like learning to ride a bike. You can read books about it and watch other people riding bikes or talk about riding bikes. But, it’s not until you ride yourself that you get the experience and thrill of it.

With this book, the authors have handed you a bike and shown you the door of the garage. It’s just up to you to ride out there. “Anyone can read this book, but only those who do the work will gain anything from it. The secret of magic is that it is experiential.” loc 2374.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Fortune was also deep into Jungian psychology. “She came to significant conclusions when contrasting psychological and magical approaches in prompting change. Fortune was a forward thinker, and the first to acknowledge that ideas and theories could develop for the better. Her stories seem almost to anticipate the direction psychology would travel, into area that might now be described as spiritual psychology.” loc 3117. And this was in the early part of the 19th century. She truly was a woman ahead of her time.

I’m excited about this book and its potential. The Western Mystery tradition never gets its own shelf in the book stores. The new textbooks, what few there are, are mixed in with the New Age/New Thought works. But, that’s not quite right. It’s truly a category all of its own.

I think the time has come for these practices to be re-introduced to the world. The Keys to the Temple is a step in the right direction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Llewellyn Publications for a free digital copy of this book.

Thanks for reading!

Spectrum 12: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy Fenner, Arnie Fenner

Spectrum 12: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy Fenner, Arnie Fenner

spectrum12Weird, wild and wonderful. This is a collection of the best in science fiction and fantasy art from 2004. From giant robots in apocalyptic landscapes to hooded figures seated on thrones of skulls, to a normal looking boy encountering a monster in the forest and an ice skating rabbit watching pixies fly away with treasures- the art is beyond description in most cases.

My favorites were the pages in which Dave DeVries took a child’s drawing and brought it to life through his mastery. See “Old Scratch and the Fish,” by Dave DeVries and Kimberly (age 7) on pg 119 or “Big Fat Footie,” by Dave Devries and Chelsea (age 7) on page 158. It makes me want to take some of my child’s drawings and hire an artist to do the same.

There is fear and love in these pages, beauty and grotesqueness. Some of the images are scary, others are compellingly beautiful.

I loved trying to find the reason for the title of each piece. Some weren’t readily apparent. For example, I thought at first that “The Trophy” by Charles Keegan on page 178 was referring to the beautiful naked woman in the light but then I looked closer and discovered… a surprise 🙂 No spoilers. Go find out for yourself.

Because of the nudity and disturbing nature of some of these images, parental discretion is advised. Personally, I think that this collection would be acceptable for +18, maybe as young as 16 if the teen is mature.

Thanks for reading!

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) by Marissa Meyer

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) by Marissa Meyer

winterWarning: There are spoilers in this review. Please do not read further if you have not read this book.

Winter is the disappointing final installment of the promising Lunar Chronicles. Coming in at over 800 pages, I thought that this was going to be an epic conclusion. Sadly, I found it to be uninspired and far too repetitive.

Cress was my favorite of this series. In it, Meyer is at her best. Her fairy tale re-telling of Rapunzel was brilliant. She took the elements of the classic tale and gave it a science fiction twist. There’s adventure, danger and an inspiring heroine.

Winter reaches for that mix with the re-telling of Snow White, but it never makes it.

I started going through the stages of mourning with the ending of this series.

First, I was in denial. This couldn’t be the last of it. That’s not how the story ends… it can’t be!

Then, I was angry. These were characters I cared about. They deserved inventive and unique endings and not necessarily all perfectly happy ones wrapped in a bow. I know this isn’t a popular opinion but, sometimes there isn’t a happily ever after. Every single one of the protagonists ends up together. How predictable and trite.

On to bargaining. I thought that maybe if I waited to write my review, that I’d like it more. Perhaps time passing would blunt the edges of my disappointment. Perhaps I needed to accept that this book was written for the young adult audience and look at it from that point of view.

Then depression. So many readers loved this series, maybe my opinion was just wrong. Maybe I wouldn’t know what a good story was if it punched me in the face. Maybe I disliked this series just to be contrary to popular opinion.

Finally, acceptance. I did not like Winter. I didn’t like its emphasis on physical appearance and connecting that to internal characteristics. How many times did we have to hear how ugly Levana was under her glamour? And don’t we find out in this book that it wasn’t her fault? That she was physically abused and then taunted because of her appearance? So, yeah, let’s talk more about how repulsive she is.

I didn’t like how the worst thing that Meyer could think to write of her antagonists was “He/she was INSANE.” We get it.

I didn’t like how the characters would turn to each other and talk through obvious motivations. Do you think she/he did that/this because she knows we’re coming/going/trying to escape? Yeah, I do! Now stop talking and go face your destiny. We could have saved almost 200 pages if the characters would have acted instead of talked endlessly about acting.

And Iko’s happy ending was that she got a bunch of dresses and color-changing eyes? That was the final straw for me. She was my favorite character and she deserved an ending that matched her unflagging spirit, loyalty and optimism.

I listened to this entire series on audiobook. Was it worth the hours of my time? I guess that depends on what which book we’re talking about. If this series had ended on a book the quality of Cress, this would be a very different review.

My apologies if this is your favorite series. No book appeals to every reader. Winter just wasn’t for me.

Thanks for reading!

The Collector of Lost Things by Jeremy Page

The Collector of Lost Things by Jeremy Page

thecollectoroflostthingsWhen I picked up The Collector of Lost Things, I expected an adventure-filled historical fiction. The audiobook delivered a heavy-handed treatment of man vs. nature with some truly disturbing scenes of mass animal slaughter. Not for the faint of heart or stomach.

The story beyond these stomach churning scenes was nothing to write home about. I was very disappointed.

I found myself drawing parallels between The Collector of Lost Things and James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, particularly the book, The Pioneers.

In The Pioneers, Chapter 3 depicts settlers shooting a cloud of pigeons so vast that it nearly blocks out the sky. They fire repeatedly into the flock, killing far beyond what they’ll need or consume. The mindless slaughter is categorized as sport.

The hero of the story, Natty Bumppo, expresses disgust at the behavior. The reader understands the author’s point and the story moves on.

In this book, not only is there an homage to the pigeon scene, but the reader has to endure the repeated abuse of whales, walruses (walrii?), seals, and the possible extinction of an entire species of bird. I felt like the point wasn’t just driven home- it smashed me in the face.

My stomach was so turned by the slaughter that I couldn’t enjoy the book anymore. It was a shame because the prose used to describe the arctic scenery was some of the most expressive and beautiful that I have ever read. It puts you there, but then it drowns you in seas of blood.

If you enjoyed this book, you should read James Fenimore Cooper. The topic is the same, but the treatment in Cooper’s novels is far superior.

Thanks for reading!

The Circle (The Engelsfors Trilogy, #1) by Mats Strandberg. Translated by Sara Bergmark Elfgren

The Circle (The Engelsfors Trilogy, #1) by Mats Strandberg. Translated by Sara Bergmark Elfgren

thecircleThe Circle was an excellent and gritty urban fantasy. It was dark enough that I would hesitate to classify it as young adult. It is about a group of close friends and magic.

It reminded me of that 1996 film, The Craft, which, as you will recall, is about a group of angst-y high school friends who find out that they’re witches and have to deal with all of the issues that go along with that. There’s drama, danger and magic… oh my!

For such a large cast of characters, Strandberg does an amazing job fleshing them all out. Each has their own unique feel, story, and interests. At first, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to tell Vanessa from Linnea from Minoo but that never happened.

Strandberg also deftly captures the high school girls’ attitudes and hang ups. He makes you love each one of them with their failures and unrealized potential. I believed in the characters and was cheering for them the whole time. It takes talent to create that level of emotional bonding with a cast of protagonists. Strandberg nails it.

There’s a lot of surprises in store for the readers who pick this up. Not to spoil anything, but you may want to have some tissues around if you’re a sensitive type.

I think that the best part about this trilogy is that all three books have already been published. They were originally written in Swedish. It took a couple years to be translated into English, but aren’t we lucky?

Also, in early 2015, this book was made into a film so there’s no waiting on that either. Awesome.

For people with triggers or appropriate reading material concerns, there’s some intense murder and cutting scenes, bullying, language, a near rape and a bunch of underage sex (but not overly graphic like Paper Princess). Mature young adults could probably handle it, probably 16+. It’s up to the parents, but read responsibly.

If you enjoyed The Circle, you may enjoy The Magicians by Lev Grossman or Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis.

I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads. FTC guidelines: check!

And, thanks for reading!