Gathering Blue

Ok, so I know that I am super late in posting this blog, but what can I say... life happens. I did not get any reading done the second week of January on account of my not doing a single thing that week, for reasons that will remain unnamed in this blog. So here I am in the 4th week of January, officially one book behind and one week late in posting a blog, but I'm here (and I think I can make up that book over spring break)...

I know that I said my second book would be a non-fiction, but in the light of life circumstances, I needed an escape. I was flipping through the large stack of books on the floor in my room and I found Lois Lowry's "Gathering Blue." I had read her book "The Giver" back in junior high and I loved it, so when I heard that it had a companion, I knew that reading it was a must. I stumbled across the copy that I own in a used bookstore in Seattle, and have been meaning to read it ever since. Last week seemed to me, to be the perfect opportunity.

In "Gathering Blue" Lois Lowry creates a futuristic society, much like she does in "The Giver," but the difference in this futuristic society is that it has gone backwards in time. To be completely honest, for a little while, I felt like I was watching M. Knight Shyamalan's The Village. The story follows a young girl named Kira who is crippled and thought to be useless in the village, but has a talent for embroidery. The village elders see this talent and the young girls potential and save her from being cast out so that she can do their work.

I had a number of the same thoughts and feelings that I had when reading "The Giver." You know, sometimes I think life would be so much easier if there were people that just laid everything out for us, like in the villages Lowry created. My life would be so much simpler if someone had just said to me, "Ali, you will now go to school and prepare to do (whatever task) for the rest of your working life" or "Ali, this is so-and-so, the two of you are now mates and will raise a family." However, if this is how things were, would anyone be truly happy? Would we ever learn to think for ourselves and enjoy the beauty of life even with its mistakes?

As Utopian as a society like the one laid out in "The Giver" or "Gathering Blue" may seem, I don't think that anything like that could ever truly exist and be populated by people who are happy. There are always going to be individuals that do not fit into the perfect mold, or find themselves unhappy in the place the have been stationed. We can't just throw these individuals away. We need to learn how to love, accept and appreciate one another for the individuals that we are, and encourage one another to grow and develop our talents and find out what makes us each truly happy in life, and then respect that in one another. That would be the key to a Utopian society, but that's just my opinion, which really only matters to me...

The Lovely Bones

Hey! So, last time I wrote I told you that I was reading The Lovely Bones. What a read! I absolutely loved it and read the entire thing in 2 days. If you don't know anything about it I'll give a brief synopsis. The story is about the murder of a young girl and her journey through the afterlife, as well as her family's journey to find her killer and life without their eldest child.

To be 100% honest with you, the only reason I picked this book up was because there is going to be a movie adaptation released on Friday. Now, I will tell you that numerous people recommended this book to me, and that I even picked up a hard cover copy of it on clearance at Barns & Noble, but it had ben sitting on my bookshelf and probably would have continued to sit there had a movie not been made.

It wasn't the best written piece of fiction that I have ever read, but it was definitely entertaining and held me captive the entire time I read it. It also made me think. As I read, I began to ponder what it would be like to sit in "my" heaven and watch my family and the people that I love here on earth. Would I find joy in watching everyone learn how to go on with life without me, or would I be tormented to watch the people I love and not be able to communicate with them? I also began to think about what would be in my heaven. Would there be an ideal Trinity where I could study everything that interested me without the worry of tests and papers? Would Shadow and William (my dogs) be there? What about Chass and Grandpa? Then I started to think about the people that I have loved that are no longer here on earth. Chass, my grandpa, my great grandparents, and that made me think about what things are like in heaven for them. Do they have a window to the things going on down here? Do they see me and the other people that they knew and loved here on earth? Do they stand at our sides through the trials and milestones in our lives? What about other people, do they make friends with other people in heaven or know the people that they knew here on earth?

I don't have the answers to any of these questions, but I love that a book made me ponder them, I think that is the mark of a good book, something that captivates you and makes you think. I am now onto book number 2 and later this week I will be blogging all about it!

The mission

If there is one thing in this world I couldn't live without, it would be books. I have been a reader for as long as I can remember, I guess I have my mom to thank for that. Somewhere, buried deep on a shelf is a home video of me when I was 3 and my mom decided it was time I learn to read. She set me up on the floor with homemade flash cards and one by one I would sound out the words on each card: watermelon, star; I sat there for what seemed like hours frustrated beyond reason until I got each word right. I also remember my mom going to school for her special ed credential around the same time. She always read her text books in the evening before going to bed and I can remember lying on her back so that I could look at the book over her shoulder and follow her finger as she read and every time she passed a word I knew I would read it out loud. I was hooked, and I have been a reader ever since.

Every year I resolve to do something new. Last year I decided to keep a journal of all the books I read and what I had thought about them so that I would be ready with recommendations whenever a friend was looking for something good to read. This went really well, and by the end of February I had read 12 books! Then I got busy with life, and didn't pick up another book all year, or I didn't finish another book all year ( I think I started about 10).

So why does any of this matter you may ask? Well, this year I have decided that I am going to try and read a book every week and then, I am going to blog about it. Don't worry, it's not going to be a book critique, at least that's not the plan, but I do hope to find a way to relate to each story that I read. I don't know what all 52 books will be yet, but I am looking forward to diving into books that friends and family recommend, and books that just seem interesting when I stumble across them at Borders, whether they be classic literature, popular novels, non-fiction, or whatever else. So help me out and send a recommendation my way!! I'll blog about book one, The Lovely Bones, tomorrow :)