Category: books

I do not plan to continue reading the books in the series. The writing is not nearly as tight, polished, and thoughtful as Veronica Roth’s writing in the Divergent series.

When and why I read The Darkest Minds

I am reading this because I saw the 2018 movie.

Genre: fiction (young-adult fantasy/dystopia)
Date started / date finished:  30-Nov-18 to 03-Dec-18
Length: 518
ISBN: 9781786540249
Originally published in: 2012
Amazon link: The Darkest Minds

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was not very fast-paced for a thriller. For many pages, the journalist character conversed with his ageing employer or sat in a cabin reading documents about an old, unsolved case. The girl is an interesting character. I don’t really want to read any of the other books about her, though. This one had too much sex, violence, and violent sex for my taste. I mean, I like George Martin’s Ice and Fire series, but his characters live in a separate, fictional world, whereas I’m fairly convinced, never having been there, that Sweden is a real place.

When and why I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I have finished my book club reading for the year so now I can read stuff that’s just sitting on the shelf…

Genre: fiction (thriller)
Date started / date finished:  26-Nov-18 to 30-Nov-18
Length: 554
ISBN: 9781847246929
Originally published in: 2005/2008
Amazon link: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

What does “free-market” mean? Does it mean everything is for sale to everyone all the time, for whatever price a buyer and seller can agree on? Maybe not. There are cases where everyone involved benefits from a common set of rules, whether those rules are created by a government, a financial exchange board, a consortium of private hospitals, or a professional association of lawyers and judges.

This book was cheerful, interesting, and accessible. If anything, I found it too accessible; I felt I didn’t need quite so much explanation and exemplification of the relevant concepts. Still, the sections on the “market” for kidneys alone make the book worth reading: markets among large groups of cooperating participants don’t just provide us with a variety of pleasant goods and services, they save lives. With highly trained, specialized minds like Roth’s working on improving methods of organ exchange, we have reason to hope for even better results in the future.

When and why I read Who Gets What and Why

From the title, I would have imagined a law book about wills, but it’s an economics book about markets.

Genre: non-fiction (popular economics)
Date started / date finished:  17-Nov-18 to 25-Nov-18
Length: 231
ISBN: 9780544291133
Originally published in: 2015
Amazon link: Who Gets What and Why

The structure of Station Eleven is undeniably clever. (The skill that must have been required is comparable to Toni Morrison’s when she crafted the story of Beloved.) Only gradually do readers piece together the relationships between the characters as Station Eleven skips around in time. Some slivers of story are from the time when a global plague first hits, and some are from the empty, bleak years following the deaths of most of the Earth’s people.

I found the story depressing. I tend to dislike stories about epidemics; they make me feel both disgusted and powerless. Add to my distaste for unstoppable illness the inevitable collapse of civilized society, which gives rise to the spread of lawlessness and dangerous cults, and you have a recipe for misery. The faint glimmer of hope tacked on at the end failed to console me in the slightest.

When and why I read Station Eleven

I keep hearing about this book.

Genre: fiction (speculative fiction)
Date started / date finished:  13-Nov-18 to 17-Nov-18
Length: 333
ISBN: 9780804172448
Originally published in: 2014
Amazon link: Station Eleven

The Diamond of Darkhold, the fourth and last City of Ember book, is not my favorite in the series. Still, DuPrau on a bad day is a better writer than most folks out there!

Here are three of her ideas I particularly liked.

Trogg had a knack for figuring things out, Doon had to admit it. And yet he did not see Trogg as a truly intelligent person. Trogg seemed to think that he knew everything, but strangely enough, it was exactly this that made him seem stupid to Doon. A person who thought he knew everything simply didn’t understand how much there was to know. (120)

Trogg and his family are ignorant and destructive. They think books are useful—for fuel. Doon is horrified that they don’t believe “figuring out squiggles” (reading) can teach them anything they don’t already know. See pages 139–140.

“I don’t agree that it’s good to speak only when spoken to…. If everyone did that, no one would ever speak at all! What you mean is that people should only speak when you speak to them.” (150)

When and why I read The Diamond of Darkhold

I was reminded of The City of Ember when I read The Ship. I decided to go back and re-read it, and read the two sequels and the prequel. (Previously, I only read City of Ember itself and the first sequel.)

Genre: fiction (children’s fantasy)
Date started / date finished:  10-Nov-18 to 13-Nov-18
Length: 285
ISBN: 9780375855719
Originally published in: 2008
Amazon link: The Diamond of Darkhold

The Prophet of Yonwood, the third and prequel City of Ember book, is the one in the series that people seem to have a tendency of skipping.  Do not make that mistake!

I admit that I put off reading it because I thought it was going to be a didactic mess. From the word “prophet” in the title and the image of a nuclear bomb on the cover, I assumed it would be a finger-wagging book about the human tendency to commit murder on a shockingly large scale for merely political reasons. That is not what it is about.

The book is also not about Ember until you get to the very, very end, so don’t read it thinking you’ll learn much about Lina and Doon’s world. Read it because it contains a fresh and interesting new story.

The story of Nickie, a newcomer to Yonwood, and Grover, a friend she meets there, has important messages to convey about the fraught relationship between morality and authority.

When and why I read The Prophet of Yonwood

I was reminded of The City of Ember when I read The Ship. I decided to go back and re-read it, and read the two sequels and the prequel. (Previously, I only read City of Ember itself and the first sequel.)

Genre: fiction (children’s fantasy)
Date started / date finished:  07-Nov-18 to 10-Nov-18
Length: 289
ISBN: 9780440421245
Originally published in: 2006
Amazon link: The Prophet of Yonwood