Megan’s Comments (group member since Jun 23, 2013)

Megan’s comments from the Reading Buddy Style group.

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his
distress...

Huxley's ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of 1967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Praveen- you can make suggestions on this thread or send her a private message. Go to her profile page and you should be able to view her to-read list. Usually, partners suggest books that they have previously read and enjoyed. In the case, that the two of you do not have any books in common, you can choose a book that you have heard good reviews about, or one that sounds interesting to you.

I'm in!

Partners will be randomly assigned. Each partner will chose a book from their partner's to-read shelf (or any other shelf you choose, such as "owned", "ebooks", etc.,) to read for the month.

If you wish to participate for April, please comment below. Partners will be announced on or around March 20.

Please add nominations for the May group read.

Books can be any genre, you may nominate as many books as you wish, or second (or third, etc) any nominations.

Please check the group's bookshelf to make sure you are not nominating a book that has been a previous group read.

All book suggestions will added to a poll around March 20 and members will be able to vote for the book they wish to read until the poll closes on March 31.

I recently finished listening to this. I really enjoyed it despite the depressing subject matter. It really makes one think about how desperate people can become when faced with tragedy and loss and how they can find ways to live on and survive after plague destroys the only life you knew.

Praveen- was this comment meant to be a book suggestion for a group read? If so, I'm sorry I missed it for this month, I can add it to May's group read suggestions.

Karin and Meredith- I sent you both some suggestions. It's up to you if you'd like to select one book out of both partners' suggestions, or tackle 2 books this month, one from each!
I'm up for 2 books for March. I'll be reading Me Before You a suggestion from Karin and waiting to hear what Meredith chooses for me!

I'm still waiting to get my hands on this...

Partners are:

Arena and Praveen
Meredith, Megan and Karin

Please contact your partner(s) with your book choice. Comment below on which book you are reading and how you like it.

me too!

Room

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

The Night Circus

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

Year of Wonders

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated mountain village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges an as unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the plague year, 1666, as her fellow villagers make an extraordinary choice: convinced by a visionary young minister they elect to quarantine themselves within the village boundaries to arrest the spread of the disease. But as death reaches into every household, faith frays. When villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must contront the deaths of family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of illicit love. The New Yorker: "A deep imaginative engagement with how people are changed by catastrophe." New York Times Book Review: "A glimpse into the strangeness of history that simultaneously enables us to see a reflection of ourselves." People: "Brooks proves a gifted storyteller as she subtly reveals how ignorance, hatred and mistrust can be as deadly as any virus... Year of Wonders is itself a wonder."

I could not put this book down and my stomach was in knots of anticipation. I hope you all enjoy it also!

Partners will be randomly assigned. Each partner will chose a book from their partner's to-read shelf (or any other shelf you choose, such as "owned", "ebooks", etc.,) to read for the month.

If you wish to participate for March, please comment below. Partners will be announced on or around February 20.

Partners are:
Hassam and Hannah
Nea and Arena
Jess and Megan
Karin and Gabriella

Please contact your partner with your book choice for them for the month of February. Post your book choice and any comments on this thread please.

Please add nominations for the April group read.

Books can be any genre, you may nominate as many books as you wish, or second (or third, etc) any nominations.

Please check the group's bookshelf to make sure you are not nominating a book that has been a previous group read.

Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.