What I'm Reading (07/17/10)

Yesterday, I bought a new book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. It is about a village in a futuristic, post apocalyptic world. This village is located in a forest, enclosed by a fence. The fence is meant to protect the villagers from what lives in the forest: the Unconsecrated, a.k.a. zombies! I have just started this book, but I'm already loving it. Here's the synopsis from the publisher:

In Mary's world there are simple truths.

The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future-between the one she loves and the one who loves her.

This is the first book of a trilogy. I hope that I will enjoy this book, and write a review for it.

The Pox Party: 18th Century Meets Evil Scientists

As I mentioned in the last post, I have recently finished The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: Pox Party by M.T. Anderson. This book has won numerous awards, including The National Book Award, The Printz Honor, and dozens of smaller awards. Due to the large amount of awards given to this novel, I knew I had to read it the moment I saw it. And here I am, I have finished The Pox Party, and it was nothing like I would've expected.

Many reviewers that have read this book claim that this novel is hard to get through. Many see this book as too provocative for the age group. In fact the majority of the readers (as seen through reviews), are adults. This Gothic lit follows the the first sixteen years of Octavian Gitney's life. He was a Prince of a far away, African nation. His mother, while pregnant with him, was exiled from the island, and was sold to the Novanglian College of Lucidity. This "college" was a house of philosophers and scientists. All the members of the house performed experiments, the results of which, were supposed to benefit mankind. The experiments were often vile, horrid, and cruel. It was not until one day, years after Octavian was born, did he realize that he, himself was one of the college's experiments.

The experiment was if an African child could thrive, as well as an English child, if he was raised with the same benefits. Throughout his life, Octavian was put through several tests, required to do strange things (including having his food, and his feces weighed), and was given a very rigorous education. Upon discovering this horrifying fact, that he was no more than an experiment, Octavian started rebelling.

One day, the college had decided to inject a form of small pox into themselves, the slaves (including Octavian and his mother), and other persons of high society. These injections were happening because, the small pox were starting to spread through the thirteen colonies, and instead of catching a fatal form of the small pox through the air, the injected were receiving a less harmful dose, and would be kept in a secure house. The college was doing this for experimental purposes, also. The members recorded, in detail, the sufferings of the people, including Octavian's mother. And when something unforgettable happens, Octavian runs away from the horrible wrath of the college. From that point of the story, Octavian starts living life on his own, questioning the differences between good and evil, and liberty and property.

I found this book very thought-provoking. It's not the kind of book to read, when you want to be happy. Honestly, not one happy thing happens in this Gothic novel. This book does discuss some major motifs: racism, good/evil, tyranny, Biblical allusions, and social class.

One other thing that may keep you away from this award winner, is the language. While not foul, it does contain some big, confusing, 18th century terms (novanglian and lucidity, for starters). However, don't let this keep you away. Give it a try. :)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

End of the Week Update

The "Books Ends" book club has decided on the next book we'll be reading, and it's The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I have already read this book (I was the one who recommended it), and it's one of the best books I've ever read. Here's the publisher's synopsis:

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlaying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one girl and one boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has also resolved to outwit the creators of the games. To do that she will have to be the last person standing at the end of the deadly ordeal, and that will take every ounce of strength and cunning she has.

The sequel, Catching Fire, is also excellent. And one of the summer's most anticipated books of the summer is the last book in the trilogy, Mockingjay.

On another note: I took a break from Three Cups of Tea. Maybe it's because this book is nonfiction, but I found it very dull, and hard to immerse myself in the text. So, I've been reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party (I know, it's a looooonnnnng title). I just finished it (about three hours ago), and will write a review for it tomorrow or Monday.

I think that's all I have to say in this End of the Week update. I plan to write these updates on weeks when I don't have enough time, or simply, forget, to update.

Look forward to a review, and possibly a poll coming soon!

See Europe From Your Own Computer

Happy 4th of July!
I knew that my family and friends would want to know every detail from my recent trip to Europe, so I decided to create a slide show with my pictures from the trip. Then I got the idea to talk about my trip on The Bookshelf. However, instead of writing a long, run-on post (remember the last post?), I decided adding the slide show would be a good way to communicate the events of my trips to my readers. Unfortunately, since I won't be there with you, I won't be able to tell you about the places that I visited. There are captions, but you still may not know what the things in the pictures are, so I would be glad to answer any questions from you. If you have a question (or comment), just leave it in the "comment section". I'll try to respond as quickly as possible. Unfortunately (again), the font I had originally used, is not compatible with Blogger, so I had to use a default font. A few other things weren't compatible either, but it doesn't distract from the slide show.

I hope you like this slide show, and enjoy seeing France and Spain through your computer screen.

Long Time, No Post

Hi everyone,
I'm sorry that it has been so long since the last post, but I have been very busy, and very tired the past five days. Since it has been so long since the last post, I have decided to make one big post with everything I've been meaning to tell you. I will number each new topic:

1. My trip to Europe:
As I mentioned in previous posts, I was on a school trip to France and Spain from the 19th to the 28th. While in France, I traveled to Paris and Provence. Provence is located in south France, and is known as a region or department (these are similar to states). Our group then traveled to Barcelona, Spain. I enjoyed visiting all of these places in Europe, and will talk about them more (and add more pictures! :D) in later posts.

2. What I read in Europe:
Nothing. Of course, I read signs, menus, and price tags, but I did not have any time to enjoy a book. Two posts ago, I told you about two books that I was going to read on the trip. Unfortunately, I never picked one of them up, because we were waking up at 6am, and going to sleep at 11pm. With this busy schedule, we were happy if our feet didn't have blisters. We wouldn't know what to do if our tour director told us to take an one-hour break. I'm not saying that we didn't have fun, but there was never a moment when our group had nothing to do.

3. What I've been reading:
Since getting home, I've read Android Karenina, one of the two books mentioned two posts ago. It's the same as Anna Karenina, but with added robots. It's published by the same people who created the Jane Austen mash-ups (remember Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?). I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci fi, and anyone who is skeptical to read the 800+ page, soap opera-like original by Leo Tolstoy.

4. Book Ends:
Recently, my gifted teacher has started a summer enrichment program. One of the options to choose from this program is a book club, called Book Ends. I was unable to attend the first meeting, because I was on my trip, but I plan to attend the next on Tuesday, the 6th. The first book that the club will be reading is His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Click the link to learn more about the book. While I don't think that I'll be able to finish the book by Tuesday (since I only have three days, one of which is a holiday), I will certainly start it, so I know what my classmates are talking about. I will publish another post on Tuesday, after the meeting.

5. What I'm reading next:
A little bit of His Majesty's Dragon, the next Book Ends book, and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

6. Three Cups of Tea:
Published in 2006, this book became a worldwide phenomenon. It tells the story of Greg Mortenson, and how after he made a failed attempt to climb K2 (second highest mountain in the world), found his way into a Pakistan village. He made a promise to come back to that village and build a school for the villagers. After completing that school, Greg went on to build 54 more schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, many for girls. I plan to write a review for this book once I finish it.

7. My messed-up sleeping and eating schedule:
There's a six hour time difference between here and France/Spain. Since returning to the States my sleep and appetite have been very strange. On the first day that I arrived home, I went to sleep at my normal time (10pm,) and woke up at 11am! On the following day I went to sleep at 7pm, and woke up at 3:45am! Since I woke up at 3:45am, that meant I was hungry for breakfast then, and wanted dinner at about 3:30pm. Luckily, after five days, my sleeping and eating schedules are becoming more normal. There still not normal, just more normal. :)

8. Poll results:
You can see them under the "about me" section. There not exactly accurate (read previous post), but they're close enough. Remember that's only the results from "part 2" of Poll #2.

I think that is all I have to say for right now. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting something, but I'll just have to put that in another post. Wow, this is probably the longest post I've ever wrote (2nd being Enter the World of eReaders)! Be on the lookout for posts about my trip to Europe, the Books Ends book club, and Three Cups of Tea.

Thank you for your patience on the length of time between posts!