Oh Gerogie

Orwell, Orwell, I love Orwell. What man is able to make a joke out of such a horrid thing? But that's what war is, it's man's big joke to man. Such a joke.

You can't read his account and ever think war is noble or necessary. And yet, he never withdraws. He never decides to go back to England and live the good life (and wait for WWII to arrive). Which just goes to prove war is noble and is needed. How can you change the world without killing a fascist?

I didn't get the politics, at all! But I loved the war story accounts. Genius mind, Orwell truly had a genius mind. The world will never be a good place, until guys like him decide to actually become politicians. But that will never work. So human beings will continue to misbehave and the world will continue to fall apart. Even Orwell himself knew that was the case. He stood by his political views, even when he proved them impossible.

It's been so long

I've only read one YA novel since Breaking Dawn last year. I think that says something about that series. Anyway, it's nice to finally be back into a genre I love. This was a good one to break me back in. The whole communist movement in China truly fascinates me. I feel like this is a good introductory course for teens. I would definitely want my child to read it, I'd say at about 6th grade.

Basically, Ying watches as her country destroys the brilliance her parents have worked so hard to obtain. That is what is so fascinating to me. How can a country purposefully attack all the educated members of society? Do you not see how self destructive that is? Making people equal isn't about making the upper class lower, it's about bringing the lower classes up. Seriously, Mao was intentionally destroying a country of 1 billion people. And the rest of the world just sat back and ignored it.

Fascinating.

So popular right now

Holocaust fiction seems to be the guaranteed sale right now. Apparently though, Abe Lincoln is the most written about subject in the world. Pretty interesting, I'd have guessed WWII. But I guess that's just my reading trend.

So this one, I wouldn't recommend it . . . unless you read and were comfortable with A Thousand Splendid Suns. It is similar in graphic content. Which makes sense if you think about it. Both women basically had to place their hands in the lives of gross military leaders. So the icky sex stuff makes sense. I just wish she hadn't been so detailed.

The story line is really good though. I particularly liked the ending. I liked the idea that the main character (whose name has already escaped me two weeks later) Anna! It's Anna, I like that she didn't want to take credit for those she saved, since she'd lived her whole life suffering over the ones she couldn't save. I don't know, I'm not making it sound right, but it just made sense that if she refused for 40 years to talk about the bad stuff, she'd also refuse to talk about the good when faced with it. Almost like refusing to take credit for the good she did was a way to pay penance for the bad. I don't know, I thought that was an interesting concept.

I have to wonder how many people there are in this world who really have no idea who they really are. I'd imagine quite a few. The common theme I find in all the contemporary WWII stuff is simply that, that people really have no idea who they are, because their parents worked so hard (for good or bad) to cover it up and avoid ever having to talk about it.

A true classic

Ummm, such a good one. I seriously love it more and more each time I read it. I don't even think this book ever has to compete to make it onto top 50 lists. Romantically timeless, wonderfully witty writing: Jane Austen was brilliant. Anyone who hasn't read this is seriously missing out. There is a reason hundreds of movies and books have been written based on this story.

Darcy really is such a dream. Elizabeth gets a little more annoying with each read, but she'll never reach the pains of Emma. Ughhhh, I think I need to try Sense and Sensibility or Mansfield Park. I don't doubt Austen deserves two slots on my final list, but Emma will not be the one to do it.

Anyway, I should say more about this one, but I really can't. It's perfect. In all ways it is perfect. That's all that can be said. It only took me about three sittings in less than a week to get through this. Such a perfect little pleasure.

Life is a farm

I love love love teaching this. All my students got into this. Even the ones with the lowest reading level. It isn't my personal favorite, but as far as teaching goes, I think I would dub it fav.

This book brings up the richest discussion topics. Students become so invested in the characters I think they forget they are animals. Which, is part of the brilliant point. I can really say with confidence, that I think Orwell is one of the greatest writers of all time. I hate to say he, Dickens, and Tolstoy are the top three (all white, all male, pretty lame), but that's truly how I feel.

The most striking part, when Pilkington congratulates Napoleon for having his lowest animals work the hardest and receive the least amount of food. Sweet Miko pointed out that this political theory is how the good ol USofA was built. We are a nation built on that exact same concept.

Pigs.

End of the Game

Ender's Game took me way to long to get through. I started it this summer by the pool, and just finished it at the new year. I just didn't see anything valuable or exciting at the beginning, but once I got to about page 70 I was at least curious to know how it ended.

Why though?
1st - I knew Ender would some how win
2nd - I figured the racism wouldn't let up and it was super annoying me
3rd - I don't really like Sci Fi
4th - I hear Card is a homosexual hater, go figure since his book talks about naked boys every ten pages. Really, I'd guess he was gay if I didn't know better. So the homophobia totally makes sense.

There is a religious plug, but it connects in no way to the LDS Church. I knew a boy who served in Card's ward while on a mission and he said he was "disappointed."

I'd imagine Card is a weirdo, super conservative, recluse. I wish he'd go back and take out the racism (as it adds nothing to the book) and fix the typos and TERRIBLE grammar. And as others say, he spends a ton of time on the middle portion of the story and not enough on the ending. Just felt a little backwards. Plus, the ending ending isn't really needed at all. I felt very much like he was just setting up the story for a series. Which is lame.

Okay, enough complaining. I still manage to give it a couple stars. It wasn't like I wish I'd never read it, I'd just never read it again, nor will I ever recommend it to someone (or tell my friends he is LDS).

Sensing a theme

So I must read things in pairs. Of my last 7 books, two were from the Great Depression Era, two about slavery in the early Americas, and three fictions from WWII aftermath.










I've been wanting to read these two for like 12 years now. I love love love Night. I think it is one of the greatest novels ever, and since the three are a series I figured these two would also be memoirs. Turns out they are not, which is kind of weird. But the author's note on Dawn mentions he always wondered if he had left the camps and went to Palestine instead of France, this would have happened. Which is why the books are fascinating. I always read stuff about the Holocaust but you never really get to look into how the survivors lives after the Holocaust were affected.

The philosophy he explores is pretty fascinating. I don't think I fully understood it, as I'm sure it's impossible for anyone to fully understand what a Holocaust survivor who feels responsible for letting his father die just two days before freedom can feel.

Apparently many of the details in Day are factual. Which I love because it makes me think he and his wife had such a fantastic relationship and after you spend so much time not being able to love yourself, you deserve someone who loves you like she did. Her recent translation of Night is my personal favorite. Partly, just because I think it is endearing that she bothered to translate it at all. What's strange to me is that he never translated them (or, why he'd write them in French anyway . . . he speaks fine English).

Anyway, I'm not really discussing the books much here, cause as I said I didn't really get them. Plus I read them almost two weeks ago and they are so short I just whizzed through them. They are worth reading. I just don't really see how they are a series though.