10 points extra credit for students who comment on this topic. What fiction book(s) are you reading right now? Why did you choose the and what is it about? If you come back when you are done with the book to share a review you can earn another 10 points extra credit. If you can get your parents to share what they are reading, you can earn some more points! Students have to share first before they can earn points for parents sharing! HAPPY READING!
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January 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
My book is entitles “Brave New World,” but I’m sure that you’ve heard of it. It’s by Aldous Huxley (who actually wrote quite a few Utopian future books like the “Island,” I think…). I had heard this book was quite a good book which is why I decided to read it. I also had heard that it was somewhat “creepy” in its description of the future which interested me. So far, the book is mostly just describing the future society. You see, the whole act of reproduction had been changed drastically: people are made from chemicals and placed in bottle-like capsules. One aspects I find most interesting about the this future society is that all of the castes for the various “fetuses” are decided before they are even completely formed. The way the society is set up, everyone should theoretically be happy: the people of the lower castes are significantly less intelligent (due to alcohol being dumped into their container) and therefore do not realize how pathetic their oversimplified lives are while the more intelligent “alpha” and “beta” groups realize that they are more lucky where they are with their jobs that require actual thinking and with much more freedom to make their own decisions. Everyone is actually being brainwashed. Everyday starting out when they were just babies, all of the people in this society are brainwashed to believe certain things (mostly good things about the state and the different rules of the various castes). People’s lives are completely controlled until they are around twenty. This is actually a pretty easy thing to do since the whole idea of a “mother” or “father” or “family” are almost completely foreign, and the few who know about these things consider them highly vulgar. Lenina and Benard are the main characters in the story at this point I’d say. While they are both Alphas, they couldn’t be more different: Bernard always thinks about things deeply while Lenina doesn’t quite as much, Bernard refuses to take “soma” (the alcohol-substitute for the future that basically works the same way except it’s a pill and it doesn’t give you a nasty headache) while Lenina takes it whenever it was brainwashingly recommended, Lenina also has no problem with their “constant sex” society (in their society, having sex is something that EVERYONE does with EVERYBODY just for fun and because everyone else is doing it) while Benard always feels weird about it, Bernard also looks more like a Gamma plus since he is rather short while Lenina (as far as I can tell) fits alpha description and is considered pretty. Right now, Bernard has actually gotten Lenina to go with him to a Savage Reservation with him one weekend.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
This is Jim Barton, Audra Barton’s dad. I am reading “Jacob Have I Loved” by Katherine Paterson. I fell in love with Katherine Paterson’s work after seeing the movie “Bridge to Terabithia,” based on her book of the same name. The story was so good that I went to the library and checked out “The Great Gilly Hopkins” and read it to Audra and Michelle (Audra’s little sister). That story was fabulous and the character development was superb. So this year, my wife and I bought “Jacob” for Michelle to read, but I seem to be the one reading it first. It’s the story of a teenage girl growing up on a remote Chesapeake Bay island. I’m only in the second chapter right now, but already I love the way the author is developing the main characters. I was reading in bed last night and laughing out loud at some of the dialog between funny, articulate Louise and her dull friend McCall. I’m already willing to go out on a limb and recommend the book. http://www.amazon.com/Jacob-Have-Loved-Katherine-Paterson/dp/B001I7SULU
January 28th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
The book I am reading is called “Kill Your Friends”. It is be John Niven. I borrowed this book from my friend Will. He read it for an English assignment and I decided to give it a try. The book is about the music industry and I am very interested in music. That is probably my biggest reason for choosing it. I am about sixty or seventy pages into the book and I am enjoying it a great deal so far. So far, it is about an A&R rep for a British record label who hates almost everyone he knows. He really doesn’t enjoy interacting with people. Every time a new character is introduced he gives a brief description about them where he basically makes fun of them and tears them down. That is all I know about the book so far.