Books of 2017

I read 45 books in 2017! Part of me can't believe it. I've been so busy lately. I'm reading Stephen King's It right now. I had hoped to be done before the end of the year, but nope. I read a surprising amount of Romance this year. It is a genre I used to steer away from. I thoroughly enjoyed each of those stories, which I plan on posting about soon.

The best book I read this year might have been The Shadow Land. I was surprised by how much I loved it. I won it from Goodreads and I honestly don't know if I would have picked it up this year if not for the win. I loved everything about it. The characters were engaging. There was a really interesting mystery. A large part of the book took place in a time and place I wasn't very familiar with, but I ended up learning so much.

Actually, The Shadow Land might be tied with Unless for best book of the year. I loved Carol Shields' novel. I plan on reading it again. I just connected so much with the main character and felt so much for her daughter.

I read a few books from series by Sarah J. Maas. She is one of my favourite authors now. I am eagerly awaiting the next books in the Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass series.

King's Cage did not disappoint. I had been looking forward to Victoria Aveyard's latest and was beyond excited to read every word.

I started some great graphic novel series, Avengers Assemble, Wonder Woman: The New 52, Lumberjanes, and X-Men '92. I have more books from all of those series. I might take a break from It to read some of them.

The Rules of Magic and Anne of Green Gables both made me cry. 

Brave New World freaked me out.

A Study In Scarlet hooked me on Sherlock Holmes.

I'm really happy with the books I read this year. They called to different parts of me. There was love and magic, family and friends, parents and children. Looking at the image, I would read each of these books again (except one). I might read them all again sometime in the future. 

Plans for 2018? I'm going to finish the Queen of the Tearling series. I got my hands on the 2nd and 3rd books. I'll read more graphic novels. I might start the Ms. Marvel series. I might read something else from Carol Shields. I'm pretty sure I have The Stone Diaries. I will read more Romance, especially the books by Melissa Foster. I'll read some more Captain Underpants with my son. Looking again at the image, I realize I didn't ready any Margaret Atwood in 2017! Last month I got a copy of The Heart Goes Last, so that's definitely on the list too. 

So many reading plans, so little time....and it is only January 1st!

I hope everyone was happy with what they read in 2017 and that they have great books to look forward to in 2018!

Happy New Year!

Brave New World

I can't believe that ending. I mean, I can, but I don't want to. Building up to the end, I was getting the same feeling I had when I was reading 1984 I just wanted things to work our for John. I wanted him to find his place in the world. I wanted John to escape and be happy. I was talking to my Hubby about the book, but I didn't want to tell him what made me so anxious and sad about the ending, in case he wanted to read it one day. He said that he didn't know if you could spoil a book that was almost 100 years old. I told him that I didn't know how it ended before I read it. I barely knew what it was about, not at all familiar with the plot. Of course, I'd heard the title many times, of course I had heard of Aldous Huxley, but I couldn't have told you what the book was about except it being dystopion. I didn't know about "Our Ford" or "decanting". I don't know how Brave New World flew under my radar for so long, but I'm glad I finally read it.

Who is the main character of Brave New World? I think it is the world itself. We look at the world through Lenina's eyes, a slightly quirky, but conforming woman. Bernard Marx, a misfit in his world. John "the Savage", an outsider, an experiment. I thought Lenina, being slightly eccentric for a woman of her cast, might break free and see things in a new way. I thought Bernard might learn some kind of truth and show others (possibly through Lenina, who is more accepted than he is). I thought John might teach this New World something, something about themselves, something that they've lost. Brave New World is brilliantly sad. Maybe I just want hopeful endings.

There were some parts of the novel I found strange. Firstly, how sexually free everyone is, "everyone belongs to everyone else". There is no more marriage, being with only one person for your whole life. The characters in the book talk about "having" each other. They talk to their friends about who they have and haven't had, if they've had the same person, what they thought about them, if they were "pneumatic". I thought this overt sexuality was strange for for a book written so long ago. After talking it through a bit, and reading more about Huxley, I realized why. It was written in 1931, the end of the Roaring Twenties. There was a growing freedom with sexuality (that was eventually stifled for a while). Huxley took this behaviour to the extreme, in a way that would contribute to the stability of Brave New World.

Though, we learn what happens to John, I'm left wonder about Bernard, Helmholtz, and Lenina. Does Lenina forget Bernard and John, and go on with her life, or does the experience change her. Where do Bernard and Helmholtz end up? Helmholtz requested going to the Falkland Islands, but is Bernard with him? Huxley later wrote a book called Island and I think it might be something I have to read. I hope to learn what happened to these characters after they were separated by Mustapha Mond.

As I was thinking about the story and writing this, I though about Lenina's character... then Aldous Huxley.... which led me to Lenina Huxley. I did not realize that the character, Lenina Huxley, played by Sandra Bulluck in Demolition Man was named for the character and author of Brave New World. Then I started to really think about it, about the Feelies and the headset that Lenina Huxley gives John Spartan to wear. How John Spartan is like John the Savage, coming into San Angeles and the "happy joy joy" lifestyle of contentment and conditioning. Maybe I'm a little late here, but I watched Demolition Man  way back in my early teens, long before I ever had a desire to read Brave New World and long before I would make these kind of connections. It's interesting how an action movie can be full of all these interesting ideas, getting a bit of inspiration from a book written in 1931.

I think Brave New World is worth a read. It's complex, but not long. It's also only $0.99 right now on iBooks, Kindle and Kobo. I'm glad I read it... and maybe I should re-watch Demolition Man too.