Po(sey) Sessions

1. We 2. 1984 3. Anthem 4. The Giver 5. The Declaration 6. Diary of Pelly D 7. The Compound 8. Uglies 9. Little Brother 10. Brave New World What books would make your list?

When we did a comparison contrast between 1984 and excerpts from Thomas Moore's Utopia in my sophomore year of high school my reading life was transformed. I was exposed to reading as a way to explore ideas, philosophy, politics, and the world. until this point I read for pleasure, the enjoyment of the reading experience was the act of doing so. But with reading these two works my desire to read grew into wanting to be engaged by reading. I wanted to explore, change, and think. Though there are are dictionary definitions and encyclopedia entries on utopia, anti-utopia, and dystopia , a lot of the time the distinction really comes down to a matter of judgement in classifying a book. I dent to like the term dystopia , so I use it most commonly as a general classification for a false world or non-historical government controlled society. Now, not having Internet , I was late in finding out about two different YA Dystopian Challenges. One hosted by Bart's Bookshelf and the ot...

I have made very little reading progress this past week. This fills me with with a combination of feelings as frustration and acceptance mingle. I have to remind myself it is okay to take break from reading once in a while. Having a new phone to distract me isn't helping matters. But really I have been reading, just not finishing any books. I did finally finish a book last night. I loved the first book in The 13th Reality series. I don't know why it took me so long to get that last 100 pages done, but I felt relieved to have the book done. I hadn't finished a book in almost a week. I am also working on the audio of Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday . I decided to read this book after finding out it was of particular influence in Cory Doctorow's Little Brother . There is definite style similarities between those two novels. Westerfeld has this masterful way of pausing the story to expand on a moment with factoids. It is part of what I enjoy the most in his writing. Do...

Neal Shusterman personally recommended Everlost to me, so it is disappointing to admit I didn't enjoy it very much. Shusterman did his job with great writing and an interesting storyline. He commented to me t hat adult readers tend to enjoy this story more than some of his others. Maybe I a,m not grown up enough because mostly the book just creeped me out! But School Library Journal writes: “Shusterman has reimagined what happens after death and questions power and the meaning of charity. While all this is going on, he has also managed to write a rip-roaring adventure…” Shusterman is a maser when it comes to creating multi dimensional characters. The villains do things you agree with and the heroes do things you don't. Finding out what happens to each of the characters drove me through the story. But I think overall it was too dark for me to truly enjoy it, though I know a lot of other people will. I decided to specifically read this book right now because the sequel, Everwi...