4 - The Postman by David Brin

I've been meaning to read The Postman for a number of years.  I love post-apocalyptic stories (click here for others I've blogged about).  This one takes place in what was once Oregon, before the Doomwar.  The story is told from the point of view of Gordon Krantz, who was in his twenties when war and plague and famine tore the world apart.  Throughout the story, he travels from town to town dressed as a US Mail Carrier.  The effect his uniform and persona have on the people he meets is fascinating.

My favorite thing about this book might be the circumstances of the apocalypse itself.  There was war, beginning in Eastern Europe.  There were nuclear strikes, and there are still wide swaths of land that "glow".  But the real downfall of society came after, when people in the cities starved and people in the country died of easily prevented or cured plagues, simply because the infrastructure collapsed and people stopped cooperating.  As civilization fell, the survivalists, who were "prepared" and thus lived through the initial onslaughts, began looting, scavenging, pillaging, and enslaving those who were weaker or in need of protection.  Thus in a matter of years the societal structure of North America went from late-twentieth century urban sprawl to a feudal structure more like that of the Dark Ages in Europe.

This book was made into a movie starring Kevin Costner.  I was talking with my movie buff husband about it tonight, and it seems like there were a lot of, shall we say, differences, between the book and the movie.  I'm going to investigate how I might be able to watch it and if I do, I'll come back and post about the differences.

I looked up two words while I was reading this book (I always appreciate books which serve up new words...).  The first word I learned was abatis a defensive obstacle formed by felled trees with sharpened branches facing the enemy.  Like this:

This word comes from a French word meaning to strike down or slaughter, which is exactly what is done to the trees involved.  

The second word I looked up was solipsistic, which basically describes something related to the idea that one is the only person that exists.  In other words, if Gordon dreamed this whole apocalypse, he would be the only thing out of it that really existed, making his dream solipsistic.  I think.  That's a tricky word, grammatically and conceptually.  It's got an interesting etymology, from the Latin solus "alone" and ipse "self" with the lovely English -ism tacked on.  So it kind of means to be alone with oneself, or to believe oneself to be alone.  I like it.  

Page Count: 321
Find it on Amazon!

Christmas Gifts Abound!

I am so blessed to have friends and family who invariably choose wonderful books for me! Not as though I have any trouble choosing books for myself, as you can see by the last part of this list. :) If I read just the books on this list, I will have matched my total for 2010. Wow. I should get on that.

From Mom:
Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
Millenium Falcon by James Luceno
The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking
Jedi Twilight by Michael Reaves

From Mandy:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

From Lindsey:
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stahl

From Sandy:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Other books borrowed, bought, or discovered on shelves:
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Shiver by Maggie Steifvater
Linger by Maggie Steifvater
Paper Towns by John Green
The Meaning of Matthew by Judy Shepard
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Homebody by Orson Scott Card
Welcome to the Ark by Stephanie S Tolan
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
la línea by Ann Jaramillo
The Queen's Governess by Karen Harper
The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch
Fallen by Lauren Kate
Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz
Abyss by Troy Denning
Order 66 by Karen Traviss

18 and 19 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

18 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Oh, my goodness! This book combines all the good things of The Giver, Uglies, and every other dystopian YA novel I've ever read into a completely incredible story! I can't post too much about the plot without ruining everything, but wow. Every year in Panem, a post-future-civil-war North American society, each of 12 districts sends two tributes, a male and a female between the ages of 12 and 18, to the Hunger Games, a required viewing, televised, last man standing battle to the death in a arena filled with mysterious dangers. Armed only with wits, physical prowess, and whatever can be grabbed on the run, each tribute must struggle to survive and eliminate the others. I snagged the second and third books, Catching Fire and Mockingjay in Costco this weekend for $9.79 each, hardback. :)

19 - Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

This is one of the best novels in poem form I have EVER read. Jack's voice has a ring of truth that is so difficult to write. I particularly love the references to well-known poets and their work. Simply wonderful, sweet, and a little heartbreaking. I am going to snag the sequel, Hate That Cat, the next time I take my kids to the media center.

17 - This World We Live In, Susan Beth Pfeffer

I devoured This World We Live In with my usual speed, even though it meant staying up way too late reading on a school (well, work, really) night. I thoroughly enjoyed this series as a whole. It was a frightening glimpse of how our world can change in an instant. I've always enjoyed books with an apocalyptic bent, though.

This World We Live In seemed to suffer from what I'm beginning to think of as series-itis. The last book in many series (Inkdeath, Breaking Dawn, and even Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows come to mind) feels rushed and underedited. There is too much fluff as the characters and plot careen toward a conclusion that wraps up all the loose ends and ties them in a nice neat bow. This all happens at the expense of believable character development and realistic dialog and decision-making. I mean, I guess I can believe that Miranda would do the things she did, but in truth her choices seemed much less in character and in keeping with the spirit of the book than they had previously. I don't know...maybe I'm just picky.

12-16 and birthday books

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is the second book in a series about what would happen to the world as we know it if the moon were knocked just a little closer. This installment is set in New York City, where Alex Morales struggles to keep himself and his sisters alive through the first cruel winter. His struggles and experiences are quite different from Miranda's were in the first book. His mother is at work and his father is out of the country when the asteroid strikes the moon, meaning that he is the man of the house. He is able to rely on the Catholic church for awhile, but eventually even that chain of command breaks down and he is launched into a desperate struggle to get out of the dying city. I can't wait to see what the third book brings!

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

Written in classic Conroy style, this story touched on a new topic: homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980's. I saw echoes of Beach Music and The Prince of Tides in the characters and events. In particular the beautiful and damaged heroines with their sibilant names seem as though they could walk in and out of each other's stories: Shyla, Starla, Sheba, and Savannah. Conroy's description of the hurricane which rips through Charleston captivated me and reminded me of the scene from Beach Music in which Shyla and Jack dance in the beach house as the waves tear it apart during a similar storm. It's fascinating to see so many symbols and devices used in so many different ways.

When the Wind Blows by James Patterson

I haven't quite finished this one, but I am enjoying it immensely. It's written in standard Patterson style: short chapters, lots of action and dialog, fast moving story, nice blend of science fact and character-driven morality. Also, I am confused by what I once read, that the Max in this book is not the same Max in the Maximum Ride books. I think that this cannot possibly be true, as she is nearly the same character! The other bird-kids are different, but really in name only. (And I think I prefer their names in this to their names in the YA books.)

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

As usual, this came out right before my birthday and Mom and Daddy gave it to me as a gift. I enjoyed it, although I am getting a little frustrated that the characters (specifically Morelli and Ranger) are completely static at this point. I would like to see them grow and change, as real people do in real life.

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

This is definitively the most amazing book I've read yet this year. It tops Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, although in truth the two are related. In One Second After, an EMP is detonated over the United States, destroying all electronic devices in an instant. The novel, which is set in Black Mountain, North Carolina (a place with which I am reasonably familiar), then describes the efforts of the people there to survive as their world is thrown into chaos. The threat of an EMP is very real in our world today, where people rely increasingly on electronics to complete simple tasks and the generation which knew how to complete those tasks without electronics is dying out. This should be required reading for every American. It's simply terrifying, beautifully written, and compelling.

11 - Life as We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer

This book caught my eye because of the lovely illustration of the moon on the cover. Of course I was hooked when I figured out that the premise is that the moon has been struck by an asteroid and knocked closer to Earth. It is written in the form of a diary narrated by the main character, Miranda, who lives in a small town in Pennsylvania. It chronicles the hardships her family experiences as the Earth reacts to the effects of the moon's strengthened gravity.

As floods, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, clouds of toxic ash, illness, and freezing temperatures wreak havoc on their world, Miranda and her family struggle to survive. Of course, I love stories of the apocalypse. This is an interesting take I've never read before. Pfeffer did a good job of creating empathetic, realistic characters.

I initially thought this would be a good read-aloud choice, but as I read further, I realized that it has an element of evangelism that, even though it doesn't come to anything good for the characters involved, might make some listeners uncomfortable. Also, there are a variety of mentions of personal things, like Miranda's period and her budding relationship with Dan, that don't really lend themselves to whole-group consumption. However, I might read only the passage that describes the initial impact and then have my science students write stories about the effects.

I am currently reading the sequel, The Dead and the Gone, in which Alex Morales struggles to survive and protect his sisters during the same time period in New York City. I am devouring it. Even though yesterday was hugely busy, I read almost two hundred pages. The third book, This World We Live In, brings Alex and Miranda together.