Boom! by Mark Haddon

Last summer I read Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and I was really struck by his writing style. (Great book by the way.) So when I came across Boom! on my local library's ebook list I figured I was guaranteed to enjoy it.

Now it was a fun read - however, I found myself to be completely caught off guard when I discovered that it wasn't just a story of fiction, but science-fiction. I'm still not convinced that I had any warning of this. The description of the book on my library site seemed to be from the author explaining that this was the revised edition and that the original had been titled differently and something to do with it being a bad title because no one would buy it due to the fact that they didn't know what the title meant....

Well, anyway, here's the description I felt I missed: Boom! is a novel about a boy that doesn't pay enough attention in class. He and his best friend, that to just might be boarder line child prodigy, overhear two of their teachers speaking in some kind of code after bugging the teacher's lounge to listen in on the weekly meeting to find out if he's getting suspended. The boys start an investigation into this code and the two teachers that unpacks quite a crazy chain of events that just might end up getting the whole world blown to smithereens.

Now this definitely isn't Haddon's best work, but it's fun none the less.

Wool (1-5) by Hugh Howey

This stuff is sci-fi at it's best. Hugh Howey takes some seemingly ordinary characters-a sheriff, a mayor, and a mechanic-and alters everything you already can already assume about them and flips it in a way you would never expect.

What if just talking about leaving the community you live in was a crime punishable by death? This is the world the citizens of the silo live in. The mere words "I want to go outside," just might get you what you want.

This series is an incredible study on the human condition. With an intense focuses on individual cause and effect. There is a mystery here that continually unfolds as you flip (scroll) through the pages of Wool.

What will happen to us if we continue on the power, fuel hungry path we as Americans live today. Are the choices we are making now to curb our consumption and abuse of the earth's natural resources enough? What if it's not? Is a world like the one portrayed in Wool what we have to look forward to? Do we as mere citizens have any real control over our future? These are not necessarily questions discussed in Wool but were certainly questions I contemplated on completion of the series.

Wool takes it's name from the piece of cloth the convicted "criminals" use to perform their final duty to the silo during their sentence of cleaning the lenses to the cameras that allow the citizens a view to the outside world. But the un-asked and un-answered question is, what drives them to do it? Why do they always go through with the cleaning?

Listening to... Band of Horses: Cease to Begin

The guitars introduce the whole album's ongoing atmosphere breaking into the quicker drums and more rocky aspects of the album that reappear throughout. There's a sweet romanticism to the lyrics and an ethereal quality to Ben Bridwell's voice, especially during the oohs and ahhs. And there's so many of those nice oohs and ahhs. There's a hint of folk rock under all the indie rock. Although some might debate that the reverb sound is over-used, I feel that it's what gives this album it's unmistakeable lullaby-like sound. The perfect soundtrack to a night full of comfortable, warm dreams.

Kindle Touch

I am excited to say, and embarrassed to admit, that I bought myself a Kindle Touch, and I'm so in love with it. I can borrow books from the Amazon Prime lending library, and from my local library and it downloads immediately onto the device. This thing is amazing. I read a lot. And I collect books. Many of which I don't need to own, and would prefer not to. However, no matter how unattached I am to a story, once it's in my personal library, it is next to impossible for me to get rid of. Of course there are those books out there that I have to own. Like my Harry Potter series, and the Song of Ice and Fire series. They belong as physical copy in my library. Also most reference books, like garden books and cook books have to be in the flesh. But the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse series? I don't need to own that. I enjoyed reading it, but to take up space on my bookshelves? No.

The first book I read on the Kindle was The Hunger Games, and although at first I worried it would, it in no way impeded my reading experience. I would say, it is definitely an unnecessary luxury, but I'm glad I now have it.

The Hunger Games Trilogy & Film

I'd never heard of Suzanne Collins before this series. However, I find myself thinking "I have to keep track of this author," after reading The Hunger Games,  Catching Fire and  Mockingjay.

This series reminded me at first of a strange cult film Josh and I came across a few years ago by accident called Battle Royale. It's a crazy Japanese film where students are forced by the government to participate in a deadly game where they must kill each other to win.

In The Hunger Games, two children, one boy and one girl, from each of twelve districts of Panem, are forced to compete annually to be the sole survivor of this game celebrated only by the Capitol, where, out of all of Panem, the rich and fortunate reside, safe from the dangers and sufferings of the districts. The Hunger Games is punishment for the uprising of district 13 (now demolished) that occurred 74 years ago.

Tributes to the Games are taken to the Capitol where they are beautified, lavishly fed, pranced before the citizens of the Capitol, and trained to become deadly, fighting pawns for the Capitol's entertainment. The entire event is publicized where the members of each district are forced to watch this demonstration of the Capitol's power and control over them.

Katniss Everdeen is the lead role in this captivating story. You are immediately drawn to root for Katniss and her group of family and friends that are stuck under the thumb of this cruel and punishing government. I found this series to be impossible to put down. I literally started and completed the first of the series in less then 24hrs. When I heard that the film was out I was so excited to see it. Of course I had to finish the series first. Josh and I went to the Latchis Theater with our close friend Chris to see the film.

Although the movie was both visually enticing and somewhat accurate on some levels to the written series, I was ultimately disappointed by the choices made to keep it at a viewable length. The film's portrayal of the Capitol citizens was amazing. They were over-the-top fantastical, exactly what they should be. The choice to use Owen Wilson as the former District 12 tribute victor and current District 12 tribute mentor was both completely unexpected and extremely delightful. Artifacts and character histories were disconcertingly inaccurate in my opinion. For example, Katniss's family dynamics are key to understanding why she makes the decisions she makes and these are barely even referred to in the film. Also, the first scene in the film shows her walking under the electric fence to go hunting, there's no explanation to the fact that the power is off or that what she's doing is completely illegal and she would have her tongue cut out and be enslaved if caught. Also, Gale, her best friend, is portrayed as a love interest from the very beginning of the movie, where in the series their friendship is strictly platonic until she is taken away from the district.

Needless to say I recommend the series as a can't-miss-reading-experience where the film is a definite do-with-out.

Abigail Thomas' Three Dog Life

This is a beautiful memoir of Abigail's life after her husband is in a terrible accident and is left with severe brain damage.

Abigail's husband Rich is out walking the dog one night in NYC and the dog takes off into the street. Rich goes after the dog and gets hit by a car. He is left with severe brain damage. He is in and out of the hospital to institutions and one very unsuccessful stint back at home where he is convinced that Abigail has moved and somehow recreated their previous apartment almost perfectly. He has lost all short term memory, anything that has happened after the accident doesn't seem to stick. He speaks in riddles, "has difficulty completing tasks," goes through phases of good and very bad moods.

Abigail eloquently tells her tale of strife and heartache. She comes out a wonderfully independent person that learns to let go of all life's nonsense that is handed to her. Her dogs are her comfort and she is Rich's. She moves out of her longtime New York City apartment to a small town to be closer to her husband in his new permanent home. She prescribes to "nap therapy" both with Rich and with the dogs. She has to separate the Rich before the accident from the Rich after.

Three Dog Life was an incredible read. I'll be passing this one on to my mother, who will sarcastically thank me while choking on her tears.

VPR, NPR, Podcasts... Music, News, Stories

Every weekday morning Josh and I wake up to Vermont Public Radio. He gets up instantly. I tend to hit the snooze a few more times before slowly lying in bed, waking up to the news or weather forecast. It's a routine I really enjoy. Sometimes we'll turn it off and move out to the rest of the house continuing our morning routine with music off his iPod, or decide that we want to continue to listen to the broadcast and then I'll plug my iPod in and stream VPR through our stereo system.

NPR stations have always been part of my life. Everywhere I've lived I've sought out the local station and been sure to at least tune my clock radio in. I've always enjoyed the programing brought to the local stations from NPR. Like Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me or  This American Life hosted by Ira Glass. But mostly I had just happened upon them when they were being broadcast.

A few years ago Josh and I had a short stint of hosting a music radio show through out local community radio station (not Public Radio). It was really the remainders of a show Josh had started with a good friend of his (and mine), Carson, that I started helping him with after Carson had stopped co-hosting, for reasons I have never known or understood. It had been a really great show when the two of them had hosted it together. Afterword, I think Josh just felt like he had to carry the torch, and I was game to accompany him, although very hesitant to speak on air.

Soon, Josh's lust in introducing new music started to falter. I was inspired to pick up some of the slack. I started to do online searches for anything that seemed interesting and would make playlists for Josh to include in the show. Somehow my sister started listening and would email me or call me from time to time to let me know that she had heard the last episode online. At one point I expressed to her that I was having difficulty finding new music. Well, like any great "big" sis would do, she gave me a few new resources to find more new music. Amongst them was a Kansas City radio station that I have since forgotten the name of and NPR's All Song Considered hosted by Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton.

Well, it's been a long time since Josh and I hosted that show... maybe 4 years. And it didn't last long. I had since stopped listening to the podcast of All Songs Considered, but recently, in a very uncharacteristic way, I opened my iTunes and perused through my old podcasts that haven't been updated in over a year and decided to start listening to all those shows again: All Songs Considered, This American Life, as well as other shows such as the NPR Pop Culture podcast.

I really love listening to these shows. I love being able to select the episodes I want to listen to and then, as if an addiction, I have to listen to the next and then the next until I run out of unheard episodes and move on to the next show.

A Dance With Dragons

I definitely hyped this one up way too much for myself. All Ice and Fire fans simply waited too long for this one. When an author gives that much time in between books it's just too late. We've all already developed the plots and characters ourselves. There's just no winning that game.

I will say that I am looking forward to not only the next in the series, but also rereading Dance again in the future.

I felt that Martin was too easy on the characters this time, seemingly uncharacteristic. As a reader and a fan, you don't want your favorite characters to die or suffer too much. However that is exactly what made Martin such a strong writer in the previous books, his ability to kill someone off so easily and sometimes so unfairly - that is what made it so easy to get sucked in and what made the story so believable. His writing style feels so much more like a historical novel. However Dance didn't carry that atmosphere as much as the others. Maybe Martin has just gone soft in his old age.

I did have moments with the story this time that can only be described as nostalgic relief. For example, there's a clear point in the book where Martin has moved on from the sequel to Crows to continue the story where the characters that have been excluded start up again. At that point I had to stop and take a sweet moment to reminisce over the histories of the characters I've grown to love so much.

Over all I would say that Dance is the weakest part of the series thus far. I hope that it doesn't continue on his route but it won't stop me from continuing to follow the tale.

A Feast for Crows

The forth of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and where he left us waiting for six years. Crows was what Martin gave us when he had been working on the next piece after Swords and it just kept getting longer and longer. According to the last words he left us with in Crows, the forth was only half of what it was going to be.

Of course it was amazing. Martin takes the characters we feel we know so well and transforms them into something even better than we ever could have imagined them to be. Jaimie is a prime example where he once was the golden shining self- centered and narcissistic Lannister Lion, all aspects of that is lost to him, he is forced to recreate himself while never escaping the judgement that went along with what he once was.

Although constantly overwhelmed with all the twists and turns and keeping everything in order as to what really is going on everyone is not accounted for. That is where Martin left us for six years longing for Daenerys, John, Tyrion, Davos, and Bran. And that's why tomorrow I'm going to Everone's Books to get me a Copy of A Dance with Dragons.