Son by Lois Lowry | Audiobook Review

Son is the fourth book in the Giver Quartet, so this review will contain spoilers for the first three books. You've been warned.

This is such a neat quartet of books!  You really need to read all four to get the best appreciation, but each one could also be a standalone.  That really impresses me, that Lois Lowry pulled that off.  If you read The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger you are in for a real treat in Son:  the main characters from the previous three books are all present and accounted for in it!  The Giver isn't mentioned in Gathering Blue or Messenger, but he's brought back into play in Son.  Remember Jonas, who was being trained to be the next Giver?  At the beginning of Son, he's just a boy.  And no, he's not the titular son.  I really just cannot gush enough about how COOL it was to see the whole story from the first three books brought full circle in this fourth book!

Son is told in three parts, with multiple chapters in each part.  There is Before, Between, and Beyond.  In the first part, Before, we meet Claire.  She's a young girl, 13 years old, and is at her first work assignment in her community.  She is a Vessel.  Come to find out, Vessels are young girls (13-16 years old), and their "job" is to produce Products.  Products being babies.  Older girls, who have already Produced one or two Products tell Claire what to expect.  There will be a little bit of pain, and she'll be blindfolded, and then it will be over and she'll get to rest for 6 months before Producing again.  Are you weirded out yet?  I sure was!  Anyway, it gets worse:  when it comes time for Claire to Produce, something goes wrong.  The pain is intense.  She ends up undergoing a c-section, although it's not called that in the book.  Because of this, Claire is allowed a little time to recover and then released from being a Vessel and reassigned to the fish hatchery.  In her society, everyone takes "vitamins" every day, and the vitamins damp down feelings.  There's a clerical error or something and Claire ends up not taking the vitamins, even after being reassigned to the fish hatchery.  She finds reasons to visit the infant care center, and ends up discovering which baby she produced.  No surprise here:  she loves the baby, Product 36, and daydreams of taking him and raising him herself.  Of course that can't happen.  She ends up sort of befriending a nursery worker guy, who is taking extra special care of Product 36.  I say sort of befriending because even though he and Claire talk nearly every day, she never bothers to ask his name.  Seriously.  There's a few places where Lowry asks for suspension of disbelief.  

So that's Before.  And I feel like there'd be spoilers if I went into too much detail with Between and Beyond.  Lets see... so in the official back-of-book description it does say that there's a culmination to the battle between good and evil.  So you know that's coming.  And you know from the back of the book that Claire will stop at nothing to get her son back.  And I mean nothing.  Claire has to work long and hard, like, for years, to get back to her son.  She also ends up having to make a pretty huge sacrifice.  I'm an adult reading this book and I got all kinds of emotionally invested and my heart just broke for Claire.  I was so rooting for her!

I've already gushed about how much I loved the whole tying-it-all-togetherness.  Now for the small gripe: Lowry kind of asks a lot of the reader in making come connection leaps over a few plot potholes.  Like, at one point Claire is in a village where the men all fish, in boats, yet the only way to leave the village is to scale a cliff.  What about the boat, Lowry?  Why can't anyone sail around the cliff?  Just a few little things like that.  I wouldn't say it's enough to knock any stars off my rating.  

I listened to this book on CD and loved it.  I thought the narrator did a great job.  The pacing was great and the narrator kept me engaged and focused.  There were a few times I was tempted to sit in my car in the parking lot and just keep listening.  

This book would be 4 of 5 stars as a standalone and 5 of 5 stars as a series finale!

*I checked out my copy of Son from my public library.

Top Ten Tuesday

This is a neat weekly feature over at a blog I really enjoy, The Broke and the Bookish.  They read books similar to some that I've been reviewing, and they're fun and they write well.  Totally worth checking out!

Top Ten Books I Really Want to Read But Don't Own Yet

I don't actually buy that many books.  I use my library pretty heavily, and leave the book-buying for books that I know will stand the test of time, or buy books that I then give away as gifts.  So I'm going to change this week's topic slightly to:

Top Five Books I Really Want to Read But Don't Have in 

My Possession Yet

Whether it be through library request, ARC, or purchase, these are the top five books I can't wait to get my hands on!  (I'm pretty busy this week and could only think of five off the top of my head.)

1. Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good by Jan Karon.  I feel like I've been waiting for this for a decade!  Oh wait... I have actually been waiting 10 years... Jan Karon, why did you make us wait so long???

2. A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd.  Love, love, love The Madman's Daughter trilogy, and can't wait to see how it wraps up!  I own the second book in the trilogy, Her Dark Curiosity, but I am waiting for a sale to buy myself The Madman's Daughter.  I do actually plan to purchase A Cold Legacy since I own the first two.

3. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.  I'm breaking all the Top Ten guidelines, aren't I?  I've already read and reviewed this one.  I loved it!  And I already own The Shining so I'd like to own Doctor Sleep too.

4. Daring by James Elliott.  I'm on the holds list for this at my library.  Charming was my first ever urban fantasy novel and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it.  Super excited for the second book in the series!

5. Batter Off Dead and The Death of Pie by Tamar Myers.  These are books 17 and 19 from her Pennsylvania Dutch mystery series.  I started reading this cozy mystery series when I was a young teen and Tamar Myers was the first author I ever met.  I've tried to keep up with the series ever since.  Somehow I skipped book 17 and read book 18.  I own all of the others in the series, so I'll probably try to get a good Amazon deal on these two too.

What about you?  What are the next ten books you want to buy and read?

Messenger by Lois Lowry | Audiobook Review

Messenger: so imagine you're taking a stroll through the woods and all is fine.  I mean, you have a kid with you who is a little whiny at times because he wants candy, but other than that it's fine.  You live in a great utopian society where everyone helps each other and no one cares if you're physically disabled.  Then all of a sudden: WHAM!  The ground opens up under your feet and you fall into a neverending pit of despair.  That's what this book did to me.

Ok.  I don't want to give away spoilers, so you'll just have to know that you were warned of the pit but you'll have to be ok with me not telling you what the pit is.  Messenger follows Gathering Blue in the Giver Quartet, and it follows it very closely timeline-wise.  In Messenger we get Mattie's point of view.  He's now living in Village with Kira's father, who is known as Seer.  (An aside: is it just me, or is it a little cruel/twisted that everyone in the village calls the blind man "Seer"?)  Village is very much a stereotypical utopian place:  everyone has something that they are good at, and they share that talent with everyone else.  It's a barter community, and a little communal.  For instance, there's a man known as "Mentor."  Mentor teaches the school-age children.  Another man, Leader, is sort of like the mayor.  

Unfortunately, something is starting to "sicken" in Village.  The thing that Mattie focuses on is the fact that his friend Ramon's family received a gaming machine.  He wants one too!  The machine is very appealing; pull a handle and watch to see if all three pictures in the window on the front will line up.  If they all match, the machine gives you a piece of candy.  However, Mattie has been unable to go play with the machine for a few days because Ramon and his family have fallen ill.  Mattie fails to see the connection between the gaming machine and the illness, but Seer doesn't.  Seer also feels the unrest in the society.  Many people are calling for the borders to Village to be closed; no new residents/refugees from other societies would be accepted in.  Seer is worried that the border will be closed before Kira arrives, and sends Mattie to go get her.

Thus begins a dangerous, long journey through the forest for Mattie....

This was a relatively short audiobook, only 4 CDs, but it packs a PUNCH.  It is quite a treatise on how things can go wrong, even in the most idyllic of societies.  The book is slightly richer if you've read the previous books, The Giver and Gathering Blue, but Messenger could also stand on it's own.

*I received my copy from my public library.

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Team Tynga's Reviews.  You can find their blog here:  www.tyngasreviews.com.  This weekly meme, which Tynga's team posts on Saturdays, is all about sharing the books that you received or purchased over the previous week.  Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your own Stack!  My Stacking the Shelves posts have been so short lately because I'm trying to get caught up on my TBR pile.  Here's what I couldn't resist picking up this week:

Library:
(Who doesn't love free books?  Go use your local library!)

The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community by Marc J. Dunkelman--we moved into a new house a year ago, and I still barely know any neighbors.  I'm feeling a little bad about that.  What's wrong with us that no one wants to come say hi and introduce themselves?  So I'm hoping that this book will reassure me that it's not me; it's them.  All of them.  All across America people are no longer neighborly.

My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking & Going With Your Gut by Hannah Hart--This looked hilarious, and I do often cook with a glass of wine in hand.  I'm a little more than halfway through, though, and getting more skeptical by the page.  It's not what I thought it was... Also, turns out the basis for this book is a YouTube channel started by the author.  So I think I need to do some "research" and watch some of the shows.

Climate Changed: A Personal Journey Through the Science by Philippe Squarzoni--haven't started this one yet, but it's HUGE.  So much larger than your average graphic novel.  Still a graphic novel, so it'll still be a quick read, but I'll get a little bicep workout holding the book!  My aunt recommended this one to me, so I'm already pretty confident that it'll be good.

Divergent-also from the library.  Woo hoo for free movies!  I'm including this in Stacking the Shelves because it's based on a book.  :)  After watching The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and The Fault in Our Stars the hubby thinks he's done watching YA movie adaptations.  That is incorrect.  We will watch all the YA movie adaptations!  

What did ya'll haul in this week?  Leave a link; I love to see what others are reading!

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry | Audiobook Review

I loved Gathering Blue!  I think I liked it even more than The Giver, the first book in this quartet!  (This is the second book.)  I listened to it on CD, and I liked the narration ok too.

Gathering Blue takes place in a future dystopian world where physically flawed people are shunned and discarded.  Kira, the main character, has a disfigured leg but has been allowed to live because her mother and grandfather fought for her, and because as she grows and trains in the weavers' hut it is discovered that she has great talent for dying threads and creating intricate, beautiful weaving patterns.  Sadly, Kira's mother passes away while she is still rather young, and she finds herself in court, fighting once more for her right to live.  Once again, her talent for dying and weaving and embroidering saves her.  As the story progresses, Kira struggles with an ever-increasing knowledge of how her society is held together, and what that means for her future.

As I was listening to this audiobook I kept wanting to somehow help rescue Kira!  The poor girl; my heart was ripped out for her.  She is literally the only physically imperfect person she knows.  In her society, even something as small as a broken wrist that isn't set right means that you take a trip to The Field.  Yup.  You just go sit in a field until you die.  They do this to physically imperfect babies too.  How HORRIFIC is that?!?  So Kira, living with a twisted/disfigured leg, is already feeling like the odd man out and then her mom dies.  (Her dad died before she was born.)  One of the other adults in the community actually tries to get the government officials to condemn Kira to The Field.  Kira is a young teen... an adult is essentially trying to kill off a kid.

So that's where the story starts.  But Gathering Blue isn't 100% super depressing, thank goodness.  Kira is tough as nails!  She stands strong in front of the court (literally; she literally forces herself to stand and ignore pain for hours on end in the courtroom) and the court has mercy on her.  She is taken in as a sort of ward of the state.  She gets to live in a pretty nice place with indoor plumbing (no one outside of the government officials lives in anything more than a hut) and learn even more about the art of dying threads and work on embroidering a special robe.  

However, not all is peaches and cream.  As Kira learns her new place in society and tries to figure out how to achieve a blue dye, she also learns about the dark side of her society's government and rules.  What will she do with this knowledge?  What does it mean for future?

The narration: the narration was pretty good.  I didn't have any trouble staying focused, and I feel like the tempo was right on.  However, I spent the entire first two CDs wondering why on earth the one character, a young kid named Matty, was speaking with an Irish accent.  I had just made up my mind that the narrator was crazy and that he was just supposed to sound young when it was finally explained that people from the Fen (like Matty) spoke with a different accent.  So I don't know... maybe other people wouldn't find that distracting but I found it quite distracting.  After that simple observation that people from that area had a different accent it was all smooth sailing.

Oh!  And one last final observation:  even though Gathering Blue is listed most places as "The Giver Quartet Book 2," it is totally doable as a standalone.  There are no character cross-overs and the setting is different.  I'm going to guess that "The Giver Quartet" simply refers to all of Lois Lowry's dystopian novels.

The Giver by Lois Lowry | Book Review

I read The Giver in 2010, but thought I'd post my review here before I review Gathering Blue tomorrow.

Here's the Goodreads summary:  Here every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newberry Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price.

And here's my review:  In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories.  Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy.  With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newberry Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society.  Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price.

The Best Homemade Kids' Lunches on the Planet: Make Lunches Your Kids Will Love With More Than 200 Deliciously Nutritious Meal Ideas by Laura Fuentes | Cookbook Review

Pros:

• All the "recipes" are super-simple and call for only a handful of ingredients that you're likely to have on hand.
• The entire cookbook works from a only a handful of ingredients that you're likely to have on hand.  (No tracking down weird foods/spices that you can only find at a Mediterranean specialty shop, for instance.  I'm looking at you, Martha.)
• I feel like most kids truly will love most all of the meal ideas.
• No bento-boxing.  No tracking down cutesy little cookie cutters to cut your cheese into stars and flowers.  These lunches can be assembled in 10 minutes or less.
• Photographs of about 1/3 of the recipes.  I like photographs so that I can know how things are supposed to turn out.  And a majority of the "recipes" in this book are sandwiches, so you don't really need photos.
• Almost all the meal ideas are nut-free, or could easily be adapted to be nut-free.  I know someone who has to pack nut-free lunches for one of her kids and this might help get her creative juices flowing.

Cons:

• All the recipes are super-simple and kind of no-brainers.  Like, I don't need a cookbook to tell me that putting cream cheese between two slices of blueberry bread would be a delicious sandwich idea.  Also, that peanut butter, honey, and whole fruit slices works.  I already know that.
• Photographs of only about 1/3 of the recipes.  The more photos you put in your cookbook, the higher I'll rate it.  Yes, they're sandwiches and probably don't need photographed, but still I stick to my guns:  photo it all!!!
• I found ONE new-to-me thing to try in the whole frigging book.  Like I said above, I already do most of the sandwich ideas.  And I'm not even stretching my brain when I do them.

The one thing I tried?  Pinwheels.  Puff pastry sheet sprinkled with meat and cheese, rolled up, sliced, and baked.  I actually tried one of the variations on the recipe as written in the book, so I did shredded cheddar and crumbled bacon.  They're pretty tasty!  The hubby had some last night with dinner, and I brought some for my lunch today.  They were also super simple to make, so it's something I could regularly keep around.

So overall, this cookbook was "meh" for me.  I could definitely see how it could help actual moms pack actual kids' lunches (as opposed to this grown up packing a grown up lunch) so I'll give it 3 of 5 stars.

*I received my copy of The Best Homemade Kids' Lunches on the Planet from my local library.