Lots of catching up to do

I'm still here! Gawwd I don't even know where to start! I've been reading great books lately and I can't wait to share my thoughts about them, but first I'll try to do a very speedy weedy catching up cause I can't bare to not say something about some of my favourite reads of the year. I wont' even pretend to post proper reviews, just residual impressions on stuff I've read up to 3 months ago...

I'll start with The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
It's just every bit as good as everyone is saying. I started reading it on the plane to Sicily, and those two and a half hours passed completely unnoticed! This rarely happens. I'm nervous at every shake, and can't wait to get down. This time though, it went so smooth, I kinda wanted it to last a bit more so I could keep reading! It wasn't just about the story. The writing was just as captivating. So clever. And so heartbreaking. The movie didn't completely do justice to it, but it could have been much worse!




Next is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Another book that, if you haven't read, you probably are tired of hearing about. Gripping it was. Exciting, fast and moving, too. The only thing it wasn't was being unpredictable. You can pretty much guess the ending, although this won't stop you from frantically keep turning those pages. Catching Fire was just as exciting. I probably enjoyed it a bit more because I knew the characters and cared for them. And I honestly didn't know where it was going. I'm definitely looking forward to the third one, because the ending left it veeeery open to anything!





Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I'm so not ready to talk about this book now. All I can say is that it was beautifully written and I didn't expect that. Also I don't think I understood it completely, especially the final part. It was bleak, melancholic, suffocating, but lyrical too. I think I should read it again one day, when I'm ready to take everything in.






This summer I've started reading a (kind of ) new author to me, Sandra Scoppettone. I read a couple of her young adult books when I was younger, but nothing more. She's more well known for her series centred around the lesbian detective Lauren Laurano and that's what I've been reading. Unfortunately the Italian publisher hasn't released them in the proper chronological order, so I didn't follow the time line, but even then, I completely enjoyed them. There's something about the summer+beach+crime fiction combination that I can't explain, but that just works so well for me. These books were especially easy to enjoy in the sun, although they deal with tough subject such as rape, aids and violence against women. They are always socially conscious, but also ironic and funny. The writing style wasn't very polished, but it didn't matter much. I loved reading about Lauren and her love of her life Kit. In the first book I read, Everything You Have Is Mine, they had been together for 11 years and still rocking it. It's not usual to find such attraction and intimacy in a long-term relationship, not even in fiction. I loved their relationship so much that the mystery didn't even matter that much in the end. In the second book I read, Let's face the music and die, the mystery was an utter disappointment because I guessed it from the start. But Lauren's personal story made it worth reading. There was so much tension, what with her dealing with the man who raped her years before, and at the same time dealing with her growing attraction toward a much younger woman, while Kip is away. I think Sandra Scoppettone put so much into these story-lines that forgot to put some mystery into the mystery itself!

In the first story, I loved seeing Lauren trying to come to terms with computers and technology. The book has been written during the early days of internet, and I have to say the word "bulletin board" didn't mean anything to me, but it has a central role in the story so I had to look it up. Seriously prehistoric internet stuff! She becomes an internet junkie later on, and with that I can relate:P

I recommend these books as a light read with some edge and some good gay romance. Unfortunately they're not easy to find in the shops, but maybe libraries still stock them?

OK, I'll finish here, cause I'm tired. I hope I'll manage to finish the catching up part soon, so that I can talk extensively about the latest amazing reads!

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Sometimes, when I read dystopian fiction I try to distance myself from it, thinking it's only fiction, that it might happen, but Thank God it hasn't. In the case of this book, truth is, it has. Maybe not in my country, or in yours, but somewhere in the world, in the past ,or even now, those things have happened or are happening. This is what makes it not just scary or disturbing, but profoundly sad.
Everything that the regime does in The Handmaid's Tale has being done before, and if this doesn't give you the shivers, I don't know what can.

The Handmaid is a woman who's telling the tale, but she never says her real name. She's only known through the patronymic Offred (of Fred), referring to the Commander who she belongs to. She's living in a future America, called Gilead, where a religious fundamentalist organization has taken power, and has stripped women of their freedom, so painfully earned in centuries of struggles.
Now fertile women who have been living a non orthodox life (in non married relationships, or divorced for example) have a "choice" to either become Handmaids or to go to the colonies and be condemned to a slow death through toxic exposures to radioactive waste.
Every handmaid has to wear a long concealing red habit and a white headgear similar to this (sorry, didn't find a better picture).This doesn't allow for much conversation. In fact is specifically designed to discourage conversations and to deprive women of a free view of the surrounding world, as well as to keep their faces hidden.
The Wives have a little more freedom, but they too are required to wear a blue habit, and to accept the presence of handmaids in the house.
In this future, fertility is The Problem. Pollution and nuclear radioactivity have crippled the humans' ability to procreate, so now women are regarded as an instrument, a container, whose only purpose is to bear children.

There is so much to be outraged about this regime, I don't even know where to begin. The saddest thing, though, is that something the Aunts (women who train and control the handmaids) said in the book reminded me of what I have read about women living in fundamentalist Islamic societies. In an interview, a woman claimed to be happy to wear the hijab, because it gave her freedom. It allowed her not to be looked at, not to be showcased, not to be whistled at in the streets, to be regarded for her personality and not for her beauty.
This mentality is exactly what the Aunts meant when they were saying that women now had another kind of freedom. Instead of being free TO, they were free FROM.
It also shows that for women brought up within this mentality, their condition will become normal, even liberating. They won't miss what they never had.
I'm not aware of the women's liberation movement in theocratic societies (not to self: research!), but I can draw a parallel with what Marjane Satrapi says in Persepolis. Women hated the hijab at first and would take it off as soon as they could.
I've only talked about Islamic fundamentalism because that's the only direct contemporary example that I can think of. But it must be said that Atwood was thinking more about the early Puritans who came to America, and in fairness the existence of such people is equally scary. But I don't want to dip too much into that or I'll start shaking with rage.
Let me talk more about the book instead. Far from being an essay on women's condition in totalitarian regimes, this is firstly the story of a woman, which I found totally compelling. It was the kind of book that I couldn't stop reading. At bus stops, on bus, walking to work. Everywhere. I found the writing absolutely beautiful, and thought-provoking. I especially appreciated the way the narrator expressed the sense of emptiness that her new life gave her now. I've always thought that if I ever had to go to prison, as long as I could have books and that I could write, it shouldn't be too bad. But Offred is not allowed to read, nor write. Worse than prison, this is Hell!
Her days are made of empty hours waiting for the little events of the day: lunch, shopping, dinner. And the Ceremony once a month. The reproductive activity with the Commander and her wife, which is hard to call sex.
Mostly, her days are spent waiting, thinking about little things like the ray of light that comes through the window, the possible meanings of the word "chair", the geography of an eggshell.
If reading is forbidden, then a single sentence in Latin, engraved in the cupboard, by the previous handmaid, becomes en enormous transgression. A mantra to hang on to.
But probably the fact that she has been torn away from her life, her husband, her baby daughter, is what alienates her the most. Her body doesn't belong to her anymore. She's not entitled to feel pleasure, to be held just for the sake of it.

Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it, I too am disembodied. I can listen to my own heartbeat against the bedsprings, I can stroke myself, under the dry white sheets, in the dark, but I too am dry and white, hard, granular; it's like running my hand over a plateful of dry rice; it's like snow. There's something dead about it, something deserted. I am like a room where things once happened and now nothing does, except the pollen of the weeds that grow up outside the window blowing in as dust across the floor.

There'd be so much more to say about it, but I've blabbed long enough.
The very last thing, only, is about the ending. I was like "WHAT?". Open ending, no conclusion. I still loved it, but I wouldn't have minded to know what happens to her.

There was an interview to the author at the end. When asked if this is science fiction, she firmly denies it:
Science fiction is filled with martians and space travel to other planets and things like that...The Handmaid's tale is speculative fiction in the genre of Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-four.

But I choose to regard speculative fiction as a branch of science fiction, so it still counts for my Sci-Fi Experience!

other blog reviews:
Life and Times of a New New Yorker
In Spring it is the Dawn
Reading Reflections
Under the Dresser
Bold.Blue.Adventure
Care's Online Bookclub
Just What You Want
Book-a-Rama
Things mean a lot
Melody's reading corner
Rebecca Reads
The Bluestocking Society
A guy's moleskine notebook

Did I miss yours?


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Must Read Sci Fi and Fantasy Novels - the "Guardian" list

I've seen this at Carl's and thought I'd give it a try. The complete list is on The Guardian's website.
In bold are those I have read and in italics those that I own waiting to be read.
Many of these I wouldn't have classified as fantasy or sci-fi. (Beloved?)
Also where's Ursula Le Guin? Or Tolkien? Or Pullman? Or Charles de Lint? Or Michael Ende?
But of course is one of those lists, take it or leave it. And since I love lists, I had to post it.


1. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)

2. Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)

3. Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)

4. Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin (2000)

5. Paul Auster: In the Country of Last Things (1987)

6. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory (1984)

7. Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas (1987)

8. Clive Barker: Weaveworld (1987)

9. Nicola Barker: Darkmans (2007)

10. Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships (1995)

11. Greg Bear: Darwin’s Radio (1999)

12. Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)

13. Poppy Z Brite: Lost Souls (1992)

14. Algis Budrys: Rogue Moon (1960)

15. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1966) (Kind of. Never got to finish it ,but it was great and one day I will re-read it and finish it!)

16. Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (1871)

17. Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)

18. Anthony Burgess: The End of the World News (1982)

19. Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)

20. William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)

21. Octavia Butler: Kindred (1979)

22. Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)

23. Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees (1957)

24. Ramsey Campbell: The Influence (1988)

25. Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

26. Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)

27. Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984)

28. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)

29. Arthur C Clarke: Childhood’s End (1953)

30. GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)

31. Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004)

32. Michael G Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975)

33. Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)

34. Mark Danielewski: House of Leaves (2000)

35. Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales (1996)

36. Samuel R Delaney: The Einstein Intersection (1967)

37. Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)

38. Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)

39. Umberto Eco: Foucault’s Pendulum (1988)

40. Michel Faber: Under the Skin (2000)

41. John Fowles: The Magus (1966)

42. Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)

43. Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)

44. William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)

45. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)

46. William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)

47. Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)

48. M John Harrison: Light (2002)

49. Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

50. Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)

51. Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)

52. Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker (1980)

53. James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)

54. Michel Houellebecq: Atomised (1998)

55. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)

56. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)

57. Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)

58. Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898)

59. PD James: The Children of Men (1992)

60. Richard Jefferies: After London; Or, Wild England (1885)

61. Gwyneth Jones: Bold as Love (2001)

62. Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)

63. Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)

64. Stephen King: The Shining (1977)

65. Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953)

66. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Uncle Silas (1864)

67. Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)

68. Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)

69. David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)

70. Ken MacLeod: The Night Sessions (2008)

71. Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (2005)

72. Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward (1994)

73. Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)

74. Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)

75. Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)

76. Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)

77. Jed Mercurio: Ascent (2007)

78. China Miéville: The Scar (2002)

79. Andrew Miller: Ingenious Pain (1997)

80. Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)

81. David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas (2004)

82. Michael Moorcock: Mother London (1988)

83. William Morris: News From Nowhere (1890)

84. Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)

85. Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)

86. Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor (1969)

87. Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003)

88. Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)

89. Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993)

90. Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)

91. Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)

92. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996)

93. Thomas Love Peacock: Nightmare Abbey (1818)

94. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946)

95. John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance (1932)

96. Christopher Priest: The Prestige (1995)

97. François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34)

98. Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)

99. Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (2000)

100. Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)

101. JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)

102. Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988)

103. Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)

104. José Saramago: Blindness (1995)

105. Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000)

106. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)

107. Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989)

108. Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker (1937)

109. Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)

110. Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)

111. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)

112. Rupert Thomson: The Insult (1996)

113. Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court (1889)

114. Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)

115. Robert Walser: Institute Benjamenta (1909)

116. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes (1926)

117. Sarah Waters: Affinity (1999)

118. HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)

119. HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)

120. TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)

121. Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83)

122. John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)

123. John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)

124. Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924)

Hmm not so well! Maybe on the list are on my wishlist, some are on the tbr pile, and some are those books that you know you're meant to read them but never did (see Dracula or Frankestein, or Through the looking glass. And I'm not sure I feel like reading them.

What about you?

Other participants:

1. John DeNardo
2. Ian Sales
3. Puss Reboots
4. Debi
5. Stormfilled
6. Phil
7. Moo
8. Quixotic
9. Carl

ETA: The Updated List!

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Non-Stop by Brian W Aldiss
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
The Drowned World by JG Ballard
Crash by JG Ballard
Millennium People by JG Ballard
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
Vathek by William Beckford
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite
Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (but must re-read to get to the end...)
The Coming Race by EGEL Bulwer-Lytton
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The End of the World News by Anthony Burgess
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
The Influence by Ramsey Campbell
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (should re-read)
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G Coney
Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delaney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
Camp Concentration by Thomas M Disch
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
The Magus by John Fowles
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Red Shift by Alan Garner
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Light by M John Harrison
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
Dune by Frank L Herbert
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Children of Men by PD James
After London; or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Shining by Stephen King
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The Earthsea Series by Ursula Le Guin (NOW WE'RE TALKING!)
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis (Only read Lion, The witch and the wardrobe)
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
The Night Sessions by Ken Macleod
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Ascent by Jed Mercurio
The Scar by China Mieville
Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Mother London by Michael Moorcock
News from Nowhere by William Morris
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Vurt by Jeff Noon
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth
A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett (I WILL!)
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (YEAH!)
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling (Should be the whole series)
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Air by Geoff Ryman
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Blindness by Jose Saramago
How the Dead Live by Will Self
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Institute Benjamenta by Robert Walser
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Affinity by Sarah Waters
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
The Sword in the Stone by TH White
The Old Men at the Zoo by Angus Wilson
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams

I enjoyed this even more than the first in the series The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Probably because I had read it right after I watched the movie, which I enjoyed immensely, and ended up comparing the two all the time, and finally I spoiled the whole reading experience. Just like it happened for Bridge to Terabithia.
With Restaurant at the end...nothing of the sort happened. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I will try not too put too much time in between reading the next so that I will still feel close to the story and its characters. Sometimes I have troubles warming up to sequels that I left unread for too long.
But I better say something about this one first! It starts with the Vogons about to destroy the Heart of Gold and all its passengers (Zaphod, Ford, Arthur, Trillian and the most adorable paranoid android, Marvin). The Vogons' purpose is made even easier by the fact that Arthur has inadvertently caused the whole ship computer system to freeze when he asked the Nutri-Matic to produce a proper cup of tea. The Nutri-Matic had asked Computer for advise and the whole ship had become unusable.
But I won't go further into the plot, because:
1) if you haven't read these books you need to start from the first.
2) the plot is not the main reason why you should read these books.
3) it doesn't make much sense, anyway.

It's enough to say that they're a work of comic genius. They follow a perfectly absurd logic and they're completely unpredictable, but they are also seriously funny and seriously smart.
They're not so much about a story as about ideas. That's why it's very hard to explain what actually happens!It's a series of crazy events with incredibly funny situations and some pretty mad ideas, like existentialist lifts, a restaurant that shows the end of the universe as a special feature show, the Total Perspective Vortex and much much more!

My only complaint is that Trillian as a character doesn't have much space. She only has few lines and doesn't seem to be much use to the story. Perhaps she will become more important later on. I hope so.
The ending left me also wondering about poor Marvin, my absolutely favourite character. What happened to him? Will he be alright? I need to read the rest of the series!!

other blog reviews:
Once upon a bookshelf
The wasteland
Adamduckworth
I can't stop reading

The Sci-Fi Experience

Science Fiction is a genre I need to explore more. Anytime I read some sci-fi I'm fascinated, but then never actually try to dig deeper into it. To be honest, I've read almost solely dystopian sci-fi, more than the robot/space ships type of thing. But I'm willing to try anything.
That's why Carl's Sci-Fi experience comes in handy.
As it happens, I have three books on my tbr shelf that should fit perfectly.
The left hand of darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I've wanted to read this for ages now, and although I've read quite a few negative reviews I want to judge for myself.
The Restaurant at the end of the Universe by Douglas Adams. The second book in the Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy, which I loved.
The Handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood. I expect to love this!

any more suggestions, even for the future?

The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Mary E. Pearson

I read this thanks to all the bloggers who mentioned it as one of the best reads of the year. I *had* to get it!
The verdict: a stunning book.
It was so perfect in the writing, using short, incisive sentences that went straight to the essence of the emotions.
The story is the kind that would hook me anyway, but the writing was what made it so special.
I love when I find these gems in YA fiction.
The fact that it's sci-fi it's an added bonus for me.
The search for identity, the questions of what is (or where is) the soul, of what makes a human being human, of what is ethical and what isn't, of how far science can go...they are all subjects that fascinate me, ever since I watched "Ghost in the Shell" and "Blade Runner".
But this is not your usual sci-fi novel. I just hinted at the fact that this is something unique. We get to know Jenna very slowly. She has just woke from a long coma, and at first she doesn't remember anything. Not even her parents, or herself. Not even how to smile. Then she starts regaining bits of information, but some of her memories are too vivid, and some should simply be impossible for her to remember. All the answers will come, but they will be given gradually, a surprise after the other. Just when you think you had a huge shock, another chilling thing is revealed, and then another and another. If you're anything like me, it'll be very hard for you to stop reading, you'll just drink it in one go.

Jenna's search for meaning and truth also bring up questions about spirituality, about its place in a world where science can do almost everything. But to talk about how it is dealt, it would inevitably bring up details about the plot that I don't want to spoil. I just need to say that it creates an interesting ground for debate. Was it right, was it wrong? Should we? What would you...? And what about God?
What I loved about the book is that it doesn't try to take sides or give straight answers. It just lays down the questions, because they need to be asked. Than it leaves it up to you.
The ending was what made me think this. I wouldn't have expected it, and it shows how you could never have just one-side opinion about it.

I couldn't agree more with those who recommended this book as the must read of the year. Definitely one of the best YA I came across.

other reviews:
Dewey
Maw Books Blog
The Compulsive Reader
Eva's Book Addiction (contains spoilers)
I heart reading
Karin's Book Nook
Bookworm 4 life (contains spoilers in the quotes)
Book Obsession
Savvy verse and wit
Becky
Suey
Melissa
Em
Book Addiction
Kelsey at Reading Keeps You Sane

got any more? Please let me know!

The Declaration - Gemma Malley

In the year 2140 humanity has found the secret to immortality. Thanks to a mix of drugs and cell renewals, Death for illness or old age is only a memory. But if nobody dies anymore, new births are a danger, a luxury that earth can’t afford. That’s why each person who decides to take Longevity, the cure for eternal life, has to sign a Declaration and swear never to bear a child.
Of course, though, not everybody agrees, and the children of those who disobey are labelled as Surplus. In some countries Surplus are simply put to death as soon as they’re found out. In civilised Britain, Surplus children are sent to Grange Hall, where they are taught to hate their parents for being selfish and learn how to be Valuable Assets for their society.

Anna is a Surplus. She shouldn’t exist, but she does. She was brought to Grange Hall when she was two and a half, and since then she’s known that there was no place for her in the world. She has been told that in order to repay Mother Nature for her parent’s sins, she has to become Useful, and learn how to be submissive and dutiful, so that in the future she could be a good housekeeper the Legals.Now she’s almost fifteen and a Pending, meaning that soon she will be sent away to become a house servant. She’s worked hard to be good and learn her place in the world.

But one day Peter arrives and changes everything. He insists on calling her Anna Covey and on telling her that her parents love her. Anna at first is angry at him for challenging everything that she believes in, for not showing respect for the Legals and not Knowing His Place. But secretly she’s fascinated by his talks of the Outside and of the underground movement. And then one day Peter is taken away and her world is turned upside down.

The first thing I need to say before discussing it, is that this was an incredibly gripping novel. I found myself reading while walking on the street, and it doesn’t happen often! Last time I tried, it was with the Thirteenth Tale but after few steps I stopped. I didn’t stop with this, probably because it’s an easier read, or maybe just because the prints is bigger and easier to follow!
I also cried, suddenly, at the end, during an extremely moving scene, for which I challenge anybody here to remain unmoved.

Like The Giver, The Declaration makes you think. A lot. Gemma Malley has taken our modern obsession with youth and the science’s constant attempts to lengthen our lives, and has stretched it to the extreme. What would actually happen if we could really live forever?
The book explores the possible answers on many levels. It focuses on the Surplus, those who are born illegally and don’t have any rights to exist, except for serving the Legals and for doing the jobs nobody else would want to do. They are slaves, cheap labour in the best circumstances, that the system needs to provide comfortable lives for the rest of the population.
I found myself thinking about their conditions a lot and finding many similarities with the people we call clandestine. The illegal immigrants, who would do any kind of job to be accepted into our societies, who don’t have a right to exist until they have a piece of paper that grants them that right.
They are a necessity, they serve the economy, but we regard them as a nuisance, an issue to be solved, a threat.
Surplus reminded me also of the Jews during the Holocaust. Especially since the main character is called Anna, and writes a journal which she hides behind the bath. She was found hidden in an attic just like Anne Frank, and like her, she was deported into a detention centre.
Grange Hall reminds me more of a Magdalene laundry more than Auschwitz. But the idea is the same.
It’s a story that deals with a lot pain and loss, with tough choices and important moral issues. It is not a happy book. It’s depressing to think how these kids wouldn’t have any hope in life, any dreams, to look forward to. It made me really angry and really sad, and also really scared towards the end. It triggered many emotions and many questions. And I loved it for that.

Ma sure to visit the book's website for a preview, interview with author and more.
I’m pleased to know that Gemma Malley is already working on the sequel. The bloomsbury website say the title would be "Longevity+".
But some other sources say it will be called "The Resistance".
I much prefer the second one. Sounds really promising. I can’t wait!

http://www.thesurplusproblem.co.uk/

http://www.rejuvenille.com/

other blog reviews:
Reader Rabbit
Bookwyrm Chrysalis

The Giver - Lois Lowry

I'm so grateful to the "Something about me" challenge because it gave me the chance to discover some of the best books I've read this year and maybe ever. "The Giver" is one of these.
I don't know about "Brave new world" or the film "Pleasentville" and I've never read "1984" by George Orwell, only excerpts in school. But as far as children's literature is concerned this is an extraordinary book. It kept me glued to it for hours. I had to know how this world worked, what were its secrets, what would happen to its protagonist. It was a real page-turner. It wasn't a simple read though, like others have said. It was quick, but it made me think about it for days. It was scary in a deep, subtle way. It raised strong, elementary emotions, and it made me shiver trying to imagine how a world like that would be possible.
The story is set in an indefinite far future, where society is organised in small communities, all designed with the same scheme: everything and everyone have to be up to the standards of the community. Everything is regulated by fixed and almost unchangeable laws. Individuality is not an option and neither is free will. This is the price that humanity have chosen to pay to avoid hunger and violence and war.
Families, called family units, are not decided by love or anything else but a Community Council which finds the right match for every person, thus creating the perfect harmony in the unit. Children are also regulated by a scheme: one boy and one girl, born by a group of birth-mothers, are allocated to one family who requests them.
At first this system seems to be the most organised way of living. There's no struggle for survival because everything is provided, everyone is kind and equal, though some "assignments"( not jobs) are less honourable than others. Everything is tidy, and quiet and peaceful. But there's something eerie is this peacefulness.
You can feel that something is not quite right. Hints are given here and there: people being mysteriously "released" (and you can guess pretty quickly what that means), an impersonal Voice that speaks through a microphone and gives orders and warnings. Even a rule that might sound positive and open-minded, the sharing of dreams in the morning and of feelings in the evening, has something mechanical and disturbing about it.
And then you start asking questions: where are the books, the writers, the artists? Will there be an assignment specifically for them? Because certainly they can't live without them.
"Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all.” said Philip Pullman and so I kept reminding myself.
But it's not till Jonas, the boy who's the main character, has his first wet dream, or the Stirrings, as his parents would call it, that you realise how controlling and de-humanising this society is.
Shortly after Jonas' life changes completely when he is selected as the new Receiver of Memory. And here I stop. I've already said too much. I'll leave it to you to find out what that means. If you've never heard of it, like me before, then you shouldn't be spoiled with more informations. If you've read it, I'll like to discuss it with you in the comments!
Thanks to Sarah Miller for choosing it. Here she says why. I think I would relate to her very well. Like her I was amazed by it and somehow shocked, and I also believe in happy endings, always:)

other blog reviews:
Jill at The well-read child
Kristi at Passion for the page
Stephanie's confessions of a book-a-holic