"Sigh" Update on 52 books

Unfourtunetly my reading is going very slow even with school out. I will try to get a review of a book up before the end of this week. However do not expect anything next week as I am at camp for a week. Hopefully by mid July I can work everything out and have a posting of book rankings up.
Hope for the best and keep reading.

Stand Alones: Little Brother by Cory Doctrow

Little Brother is a book that got to me so much that I put it down as one of my favorite books on a list when asked for my favorite books. It was a very limited list and it included only books I truly could or have read again and again. By the way there is absolutely no excuse to not read this book as it is available for FREE download on the author's site. http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/ (link for downloads)

 Book Summary:
Take the fear and panic of the post 9/11 world. Add teenagers who happen to be caught in the middle of a second attack. And finally after being released by Homeland Security one of them is not released and still imprisoned. You have the very basic set up for Little Brother. That is a generalized version of the first 80 pages or so. That being said I will not say much about the other 300 pages that follow only that it is a high computer science based story with themes of privacy, rebellion, terrorism, and much more.

Why Stand Alone:
 This book works very well as a stand alone. The book starts right where it needs too, right before a 9/11 type attack, and continues on to give a great amount of character building and plot that revolves around the themes of the book. Like most stand alone books to add a sequel would be riddiculus.

 Prequel/Sequel:
 A prequel or sequel would not work as the book starts at the right place and ends with a nice summarization of the themes. However I think that companion books would work. These could show other places in the United States after the attacks. While I don't think it will happen and don't particularly want it to happen if it did I would at least give it a chance if the author decided to write them. 






Adaptatation: 
Their is no movie or definitive movie plans. The movie rights have been optioned and there is a play adaptation of this novel. 


Recommendation: As I said before this is among my favorite books. However while I think everyone should read it a warning to all before attempting. This is a very very "hard" science fiction book. By that I mean that science takes a primary role in the story and is very detailed. While I found the pages of detailed science in the story amazing some may not. If you think you can stand the science or if you like the science read this book. If you can enjoy the characters and don't mind dealing with the science read this book. However if the science descriptions will bore you and you will give up and skip over them, skip this book. Read something else instead. 


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1984 Review

Oceania is at war with Eurasia, The Party has always been at war with Eurasia.

 1984 is a classic book. The ideas established in 1984 are subject of many literary studies. I found the book to be interesting but over all a bit dry in places. The book is not bad but its not great either. It drags a little bit in the middle but nothing that can't be overcome. The book has so many concepts to take in, the biggest being Big Brother. The phrase Big Brother is watching has become a part of the venacular due to this book. The scary truth is we are proabally not far off from Big Brother at this point in time. Think of all the cameras in a public place, the ability to trace and listen to phone calls, did you use a credit or debit card today? I bet you did and that can be traced. Right now just by typing this on to the internet you can trace me. By you reading this you could be traced. The fact is that Big Brother is not fiction or not fully. If you have not seen the show Big Brother it is well worth watching an episode to understand the principle of Big Brother. As is reading the book Little Brother by Cory Doctrow which also explores the topic ( this is a great Stand Alone and is my next book for that expect a post soon). There is other things which intrested me. One in particular is interesting that I may make a parallel with in another book. Overall this book gets a B from me.


 Remember Oceania is at war with Eastasia, The Party has always been at war with Eastasia.



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Stand Alones: Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

The First of my Stand Alone segment is Thirteen Reasons why ( the title shows the covers spelling with the numbers) by Jay Asher. This is an ambitious first novel by Asher (which is out in paperback today so pick it up) that I loved.

Book Summary: Clay just got a package that is a shoebox with 7 tapes, he finds out after opening the package the tapes were recorded by Hannah his former crush. If it is not strange enough already Hannah is dead, she just recently committed suicide. He plays the tapes which are revealed to be a sort of suicide note, the tapes contain the thirteen reasons that Hannah killed herself. Each of the people who are part of the reasons is being sent the tapes and they must listen and pass them on to whoever had the next story. If they don't the person who Hannah intrusted in keeping an eye on them will make public a second copy of the tapes. We follow as Hannah and Clay narrate a story of why she killed herself as well as much more including Clay having to come to terms that eventually he will be on the tapes and he has something to do with her death.

Why Stand Alone?- First off the fact that one of the two narrators is dead makes it nearly impossible to have a sequel. In addition going back in time for a prequel makes this book unneeded. So a stand alone is truly the only good way to do this. This books feel is very much so that there will be no sequels and as the book tells the back stories, no prequels.

Movie- No movie yet but it is in the works with Selena Gomez as Hannah. How this will transition into a movie should be interesting to say the least. There is a few ways they could do it. They could just show Clay and play the tapes over top. They could play the tapes with flash backs of the scene. Whatever they decide I will at least give it a chance.

Prequel/Sequel- As said before their is no possible way to continue this story. In a way I like that it gives me confidence that  the author will not try to make a quick buck off a halfhearted book.


Recommendation- READ THIS BOOK! It is probably in my top 30 or 40 books ( I have probably read close to 150). The character development of Hannah and Clay and everyone else is fantastic. There is no reason not to pick this one up in paperback. EDIT 7/29: No I am not editing saying not to read this book but to add to my comments. After having re read the book I am positive that it is not top 30 but top 20. This book is very powerful and needs to be read by anyone who gossips or has heard gossip. It shows how it can snow ball into something huge and cause something horrible to happen.

Thats all for now Keep Reading!

My Plans for the blog for the summer/year/next year and A NEW BLOG SEGMENT

Hi Everyone.

School is over and all I have left is tests so expect this blog to become a whole lot better. While I do not have a review today I do have a bit of info on my plans for the blog.

1.  Before June 30th I hope to have 26 reviews up.
2. Reviews should be at a regular place throughout the summer.
3. Hopefully in the fall this will be the same.
4. I don't know if this blog will continue next year I hope it will but lets wait and see.

Now for the new blog segment ( I do not think that segment is the right word but it is what I am going to use for now.)

 The point of these blog posts (first will be up latter today) is to talk about other books I have read without giving them full reviews. However their is a rule to this, all the books are stand alones. What this means is they are not part of a series, they are not a prequel or a sequel to another book or have either of these. The author has decided to write the story to be self containing. Now I will also try to use mostly Contemparary Fiction rather than classics many of which are stand alones. The reason is so many books are the sequel to this or prequel to that it is getting tiring. While sometimes the author does not plan a sequel and it just comes naturally, I can handle this. It is when we get planed series after series, I AM TIRED OF IT! Each post will consist of a few parts:
1. Book Summary- Basic about the book section.
2. Why it works as a stand alone- Why the story is contained well in this one book.
3. Movie/Movie plans- This is kinda just to explore Movie/book adaptations a bit which I have not done to much of yet(maybe more coming in the future?!?)
4. Prequel/Sequel- How could they work and how could they not.
5. Recommendation- Do I recommend it or not find out here. 

Like I said the first of these will be up today. I will hope to get about 2-3 a week of these up.

Keep Reading!