Katie Stew

I was given a book for my birthday this year by my aunt. Being that my “to read” pile has been pretty tall lately, I have only just gotten to it. I wish I had picked it up sooner. “One Day” by David Nicholls was a really enjoyable read. At first glance, one might think that it is a romance. But lumping it in that category would be doing it a terrible injustice. “One Day” is more accurately, a story about two people’s lives and how intimately two lives can weave together.

The story follows Emma and Dexter through twenty years. It begins with a fateful night at the end of college where they meet and follows their lives, friendship, and relationships through the next twenty years. These are not easy lives and they are not simple lives. Dexter begins as a young, handsome, wealthy man who has never had to work hard for anything. Everything always came too easy for him. Emma is passionate about changing the world and works hard to make a difference. However, both end up suffering sadness, humiliation, ups and downs and severe disappointment with life. At times they aren’t friends at all, but at other times, they can be more. It is their long friendship that is the base of their lives, despite the fact that they are social and political opposites. Their friendship is the one thing they can always fall back on when times are hard. Dex and Em. Em and Dex.

Have you seen “The Way We Were”? The movie with Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford? Both looking young and beautiful and living through their lives together? Well, it is a similar premise with different details. Oh, and they’re British.

So there you have it. If you like “The Way We Were”, and you don’t mind the idea of the character’s lives being a little grimier and more disillusioned, then you’ll like this book. It was really engaging. The writing was good. The characters had a depth that you rarely come across in many modern novels. By the end, you know Dexter and Emma. You could see them walk into your living room. You feel for their losses and celebrate their triumphs.

These aren’t lives that are always pretty. It isn’t a simple, sweeping romance with a beautiful glowing ending, but these are characters that you will be glad that you took some time to get to know.

It’s one of the better things I’ve read lately. Check it out. It won the Popular Fiction Best Book of the Year award last month at the Galaxy awards.

“The Windup Girl” was written by Paolo Bacigalupi in 2009 and was one of Time magazine’s top ten science fiction books of the year. It has since won the Nebula and Hugo award in science fiction writing. This was a really good book. The best sci-fi I’ve read in awhile.

This book shows a bleak picture of the future of the world. It takes place in the 23rd century. In this story, the Earth is plagued by diseases. We have run out of fossil fuels. Global warming has risen the oceans. Much of the planet has been wiped out. Many countries have dissolved. The cause? Food companies. Food had become bio-engineered. Diseases became bio-engineered. The diseases started to flux and change and food became unsafe and fickle. Food becomes a luxury. Much of the world starves while diseases kill the plant life. In this world, calories are the most important thing. People work and spend their calories in hopes of getting paid with new calories.

This story takes place in Thailand. It is one of the few lands where government survived. The story follows a man who is working undercover for one of the Midwestern calorie companies. Anderson Lake is trying to find if there are any plant species still existing in Thailand that they don’t have in the former US anymore.

The story also follows a windup girl. Windups are bio-engineered people. Part human, part robot who were designed by the Japanese as servants. Emiko struggles to understand what she is and what her purpose is in the world. She was a servant windup who has been abandoned and is now brutally used and abused by her new master.

There are many plots, mysteries, and character story lines in this book and all the characters are interesting and well written. But what is most gripping about the book is the future it portrays and how easy it is to see it happening. Food is getting more and more engineered. The oceans are rising. We are over populated and dependant on fossil fuels. What happens when all this comes crashing down on us?

I love that science fiction shows us possibilities. It shows us what we could be. What we could do. This was a really interesting book that I’m not doing justice by my description. I would highly recommend it. It is weird and interesting and new and that isn’t necessarily something you come across all the time.

I’m going to share something geeky with you. Last night I finished the 13th book in the Wheel of Time series, “Towers of Midnight”. I can’t say that I’m generally a reader of fantasy literature (other than the Discworld series, which is really more of a fantasy parody series) but, I started this a few years ago and became hooked. And you would have to be really hooked to make it as far as I have.

To say the Wheel of Time series is epic would be an understatement. Author Robert Jordan published the first of the series in 1990. It was meant to be a 6 book set and has expanded into a huge journey. With the death of Jordan in 2007, fans were worried that they would never see the conclusion of the story and an end to their characters. However, the mantle was taken up by Brandon Sanderson, who is writing the last three books of the series based off of notes and text left behind by Jordan.

So what is the Wheel of Time series? I’m going to try and describe this with minimal lingo to explain (there is a huge vocabulary created in the book). Generally speaking, it is a fantasy series that follows the adventures of a huge number of characters. The Wheel of Time turns and different ages come to pass. Journeys become legend and legend fades as another turn of the wheel happens. The battle of light and dark happens over and over again. People are reincarnated to fight in this battle over and over in the different ages. It is the One Power that turns the wheel of time and there are people who have the ability to channel the one power to accomplish anything from healing to blowing up mountains. The power can be used for good or evil and those that use it for good battle the Dark One and his followers.

The beginning of the series finds Rand and his friends in a small town far from the worries and politics and wars of the channelers, but they come to learn that they are an important part of the pattern of the world and Rand is the chosen one who will have to defend it and defeat the dark one. The entire series follows him, his friends, and his enemies over a number of years. Rand battles with his fate, not wanting the weight of the world on his shoulders. Think Neo, but as a teenager who isn’t happy at first about being the chosen one. Some of his friends come to lead armies, others become channelers, others monarchs. The pattern of the world pushes them into positions of power before the Last Battle arrives. There are so many different kinds of people with different societies throughout this series that it would make your head spin.

Whew.

So, I just finished book 13 of the series. It was one of my favorites. Maybe because things are wrapping up. Much of the boring politics and maneuvering of earlier books is done. Story lines are wrapping up so that the great climax of the Last Battle can happen in the last book. It was a deeply satisfying read. After so many stories and so much set up, it is awesome to be so close to the end. The final book comes out in 2012. It is unfortunate that I’ll have to wait so long to finish this series, but I will manage. I am looking forward to it though.

And I should point out that these are not small books. According to Wiki, the first 13 books total more than 11,000 pages. So, while I have greatly enjoyed the series, it is with that heads up that I recommend it. There is a reason it has taken more than 20 years for it all to be written. I don’t exaggerate when I say it is an epic series. But, if you want to delve and delve deep into a series of adventure, magic, love, evil, and mystery, then you might want to check it out. The first few in the series are super fun. There were a few in the middle that I thought were pretty heavy, books 8 and 9 I believe. In fact, I have a friend who also read much of the series, but gave up on the books around this point. But, after reading this last few, I think it is all worthwhile.

“A Man Without A Country” is Kurt Vonnegut’s last book. It is not a story as much as a collection of his thoughts toward the end of his life. And I’ll just say, years of experience made him one pessimistic man, or perhaps he was frightfully realistic. Either way, it has also made him a very eloquent man. Just about every sentence from this book is quotable.

So, instead of my more standard synopsis, I’m going to share some selections with you. I found all of these both insightful and amusing.

On politics:

“But now I am eighty-two… The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the planet would be named Bush, Dick, and Colon.”

On the environment:

“The biggest truth to face now- what is probably making me unfunny now for the remainder of my life- is that I don’t think people give a damn whether the planet goes on or not. It seems to me as if everyone is living as members of Alcoholics Anonymous do, day by day. And a few more days will be enough. I know of very few people who are dreaming of a world for their grandchildren.”

On religion:

“For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes be posted anywhere… ‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”

On life:

” ‘Welcome to Earth, young man,’ I said. ‘It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, Joe, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of: Goddamn it, Joe, you’ve got to be kind!’ ”

I recommend this book. Vonnegut has always been an excellent one with words and it is interesting to read him talk about his process in writing and some of his history. His views on politics and the environment are harsh and charming at the same time. He is terribly amusing and it is often dark. He has always found that balance well. I am a fan of his novels and am happy to have read this very personal, straightforward book.

I’ll end the post with my favorite quote of the book.

“How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.”