Author Archives: Goddess in the Stacks

Book Review: The Giver

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thegiver

The Giver
by Lois Lowry
225 pages
Dystopian Fiction
Published 1993

So, I know The Giver has been out for a long time, and I know they made a movie, but somehow I’d never read or watched it. But on the recommendation of a friend, I finally have. What a strange little book! It definitely belongs in the same realm as Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and The Handmaid’s Tale – which are among my favorite books – but the ending was tremendously unsatisfying. It’s the first book in a quartet, though, so I’m hoping the other three, which I have requested from the library, will tie up the loose ends. It definitely feels like it’s only the first installment of a story.

The dystopian society in this book has effectively banished most feelings. But to get rid of hate and war and prejudice, they also had to banish the memories and feelings of individuality and difference. With everyone and everything the same, they’re mostly incapable of feeling true love or happiness. So they all live in peace – but it’s a complacent, uncaring peace. It’s not peace because of love, it’s peace because of the absence of passionate feelings. Whether this is good or not, well, that’s up to the reader to decide for themselves. The actions of the main character, who aims to disrupt that peace, could be seen as good or bad.

I’m not actually sure how I feel about this book. I will probably have a better opinion once I read the next three – Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger (2004), and Son (2012).

From the back cover:

“I have great honor,” The Giver said. “So will you. But you will find that that is not the same as power.”

Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce newchildren, who are assigned to appropriate family units: one male, one female, to each. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. The community is a precisely choreographed world without conflict, inequality, divorce, unemployment, injustice….or choice. 

Everyone is the same.

Except Jonas.

At the Ceremony of Twelve, the community’s twelve-year-olds eagerly accept their predetermined Life Assignments. But Jonas is chosen for something special. He begins instruction in his life’s work with a mysterious old man known only as The Giver. Gradually Jonas learns that power lies in feelings. But when his own power is put to the test – when he must try to save someone he loves – he may not be ready. Is it too soon? Or too late?

#junebookbugs June 24th – Urban Fantasy

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Ooo, urban fantasy. One of my favorite genres. (Seriously, go back through this blog, you’ll see!) I simply took a picture of my shelf. The important thing to note, here, is that this shelf is stacked with paperbacks – three deep! We’re probably going to weed out books next time we move. (That’s going to be a herculean task…) But in this picture we have Patricia Briggs‘ Mercy Thompson series and Alpha and Omega series, which exist in the same universe, as well as When Demons Walk, which is, kind of randomly, the fourth book in a different series. we also have representatives of Jim Butcher‘s two main series, The Dresden Files and The Codex Alera. (The latter is high fantasy, not urban fantasy, though.) Below those, we have one of Kresley Cole‘s urban fantasy romances, and a few from Christine Feehan‘s Leopard series and Witch series. (The Dark-whatever, Carpathian series, and the supernatural soldier series is behind these.) The Ian Douglas books are more hard sci-fi than urban fantasy, but the bookshelf is mostly alphabetized, so that’s where they go! And you can just see one of my many Robert Heinlein books below those, though again, that’s more hard sci-fi.

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You can find my first #junebookbugs post (I started partway through the month), as well as links to the rest of my #junebookbugs posts, here.

#junebookbugs June 23rd – Classics TBR

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So the main classic novel on my To Be Read list is probably Arabian Nights. We bought this beautiful copy from Barnes & Noble some years ago, but we wanted to buy a copy in Arabic as well, so my husband could brush up on the language. We planned to read them together. We’ve never bought an Arabic copy! So it still sits on my shelves, looking beautiful and unread. I might have to hunt down an Arabic copy for his Christmas present. (And yes, I photographed it in front of our language shelf, my husband speaks Arabic, Pashto, Spanish, and a smattering of other languages in addition to our native English. He’s a little crazy. I keep trying to learn something, but my pronunciation is always terrible, and I keep switching between Spanish and Swedish.)

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You can find my first #junebookbugs post (I started partway through the month), as well as links to the rest of my #junebookbugs posts, here.

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June Book Bugs!

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Over on Litsy, there’s a monthly challenge with themes for every day of the month. (If you haven’t joined Litsy, it’s an Android/iPhone social network that feels like the love child of Instagram and Goodreads. It’s fantastic, and you can find me there as crystallinegirl!) Real Life Reads on Litsy posts the thirty day challenge every month, and I thought I’d cross-post it here, and try to cross-post my daily posts for it. I may eventually go back to just doing the daily challenge on Litsy and Facebook, and save this blog for more in-depth reviews, but we’ll see how this goes! This is the challenge for June:

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And since today is June 22nd, (which also happens to be my husband’s birthday, Happy Birthday, Love!) today’s theme is “Teeth.” When I think of Teeth, I immediately think of vampires. (I kind of have a thing for vampires. I spent a lot of time playing Vampire: the Masquerade in high school.)

So I pulled together just a few of my many vampire-related books! Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten is the exception here, it’s about werewolves, but I couldn’t leave it out, with a title like that! (No, I have not seen the TV series yet.) Prince of Many Faces is a nonfiction look at the historical Dracula, and it’s pretty fascinating. Nosferatu is actually a fiction novel from the world of Vampire: the Masquerade, and it was the cover illustration that made me pick it, as opposed to the dozens of other V:tM novels I own. (yes, dozens.) The Vampire Book is just a reference book, and it’s a bit dated at this point, but it’s fun to flip through.

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I’ll come back and add in links to each day’s post as I post them.

June 23 – Classics TBR
June 24 – Urban Fantasy
June 25 – Sweet
June 26 – Published in the 1980s
June 27 – Set in the Southern Hemisphere
June 28 – A Planet in the Title
June 29 – Latest Book Haul
June 30 – Best of June

My To-Read Stack

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I haven’t actually done a lot of reading in the past week. We’ve been pretty busy prepping for the Maryland Renaissance Fair, which kicks off on Saturday! We help a friend out with her booth, so we’ve been going to her house a lot to work on inventory. I do have several books out from the library, though, so I’ll try to give a real quick description of what I’ll be reading soon!

I checked out several books on the history of LGBT rights in the US – Gay America, which I’ve now read, was FANTASTIC. I’ve already turned it back in, though, so it’s a little hard to write up a review. I still have The Gay Revolution: the story of the struggle, by Lillian Faderman, Gay Lives by Robert Aldrich, and Stonewall: the riots that sparked the gay revolution, by David Carter.

I also checked out a batch on the history of Baltimore, our adopted home city. I reviewed Walking Baltimore last week, but I also have The Baltimore Book: new views of local history, by Elizabeth Fee, Linda Shopes, and Linda Zeidman, and Charm City: a walk through Baltimore by Madison Smartt Bell.

In more fun reading, I have Steampunk II, a book of short stories edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, Smoke by Dan Vyleta, and The Young Elites and The Rose Society, both by Marie Lu.

In searching for something else, I stumbled across Eve of a Hundred Midnights by Bill Lascher. It’s “the star-crossed love story of two WWII correspondents and their epic escape across the Pacific.” It sounded interesting, but we’ll see if it holds my attention.

So that’s my current reading list!