It's the End of the World as we Know it!

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

What an intriguing pick for Book Club this was. When Lydia announced her book choice, many members moaned, while I rejoiced. I had not heard of this book before, but it sparked my interest. With all of the women of book club being so different, it’s fun to jump into new genres and read books that I would have not known about without one of my fellow book-clubbers pointing it out. After all of that rejoicing I did at book club some months ago, I guess I should just throw it out there and confess that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.

As an oral history of the Zombie war, the entire book was reports of survivors from around the world. These personal stories made up how the audience learned what happened during the war. The issue I had with the way the book was written was that the author/interviewer did not return to the reports from earlier sections. Each section had new people and we did not learn about how stories ended until the last couple of pages. These goodbyes were from some of the survivors that were interviewed in preceding sections and were not enough to appease me.

There were times when the book was a little slow. It did not take me a long time to finish the book, but when I put it down, it was difficult to pick it back up. It was such a depressing subject matter, who wants to read about the end of the world as we know it? I mean the whole earth is decimated by this horde of our loved ones and friends. These monsters aren’t faceless creatures (well unless his face was eaten off by his attacker); these are the neighbors of the victims of this war. Even though the stories do not go into details of people being attacked by someone they knew before they were infected, I can only imagine that it happened, and often.

Overall it was an interesting plot and was executed well. That being said, I had to wonder if the zombies were really some political propaganda instead of the living dead. Like some ploy to get the reader to recycle more or some other world issue that is heavy on the author’s heart. Maybe not, maybe it is actually about the walking dead or Zack. On a completely different note, I will probably not go watch this movie, December 21, 2012; I will probably not be at the movie theater waiting in line for the midnight show to watch Brad Pitt take on the undead. I can use my imagination and picture how this movie will probably be very scary. Even though what I’m about to say is very contradictory to the usual, I could leave my imagination at bay while reading this horror book because this book was about people surviving and not really about zombies. I would usually say that the opposite is true that reading is more alive than screen, but I think actually watching the zombies on the big screen would be too much for me to handle. We’ll see…

I think I’m going to take my friend Josh’s advice and read something happy now. This book was a little depressing. Anyone else read this book? If so, what did you think?

'Tis a Great Book

Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt

First memoir! How exciting. I love being introduced to new genres of literature. It makes my heart happy, especially when I love it. Frank McCourt’s first memoir focuses on his childhood of growing up poor in the lanes of Ireland. He takes us on a heartbreaking journey of growing up in the worst poverty that any middle class American can imagine. I hear of children starving in America because of their parents poor decisions, but this goes beyond a level of poverty and need that I have not seen the intimate details before.

Angela’s Ashes being my first Memoir I had to do a little research about the genre. I needed to know what makes this type of writing different from an autobiography. The closest definition that I found is that a Memoir only talks about a certain span of time in a person’s life written in first person usually and has a beginning and an end. An autobiography is from birth to old age. I absolutely loved McCourt’s insight and writing style. The book was interesting and fun to read from page 1 to page 460 (!).

This was my great friend Claire’s first pick for book club. She chose well and we are thinking that this may be the only book that all members have liked. The library has the next 2 memoirs by McCourt, ‘Tis and Teacher Man. I am going to continue the story. Its ironic how someone can let you into the intimate details of his life and I will never meet him or let him know about me, it’s like a one sided friendship. What avid reader can stop in the middle of the story? I feel as if I know Frankie on such a personal level that I will probably miss him if I don’t continue. I will put it on my long list of books to read!

Have you read a Memoir before? What have you read and did you like the style? Let me know, I’m interested to see if other memoirs are as great as this one. Keep reading my friends!

Hungry in the Dark

Hunger: A Gone Novel by Michael Grant

Three Months later the kids under 15 are stuck in the bubble of the FAYZ and they are out of food. An all day meal may consist of jar of gravy or pickle relish. Not only are the Perdido Beach kids hungry, but the Coates kids are starving too. Caine has been MIA since the Thanksgiving battle and falling deeper in to the Darkness’ web. Sam is under so much pressure that he’s about to crack while keeping it all together. The other kids in “leadership” are trying to see where they fit in to the puzzle of the FAYZ. In short, it’s falling apart.

“Hungry in the Dark” was a dual concept. While I was reading Hunger the characters that had been put under the Darkness’ influence felt his anguish and hunger. Caine, who was totally out of it for 3 months, kept saying the phrase in his comatose state over and over, “Hungry in the Dark.” Then as the Darkness spread his touch, other characters were talking about it. The dual concept comes in when the plan unfolds that the Coates kids want to turn off the power to Perdido Beach. Not only is it going to be dark, but the kids are going hungry and practically out of food.

Two areas of the books have me pondering, first, Little Pete’s dreams. There is some connection between the Darkness and Little Pete and it is not clear yet what that will be. I know more now than I did before that Little Pete is going to be having the biggest role to play in this series. It will have something to do with his dreams and it’s going to be huge (bigger than in Gone, which is big). Second, I am stunned by Lana’s role with the darkness, I know that it has a tight grip on her and even when her plans backfire on her, the audience has to wonder how deep does it go? Will Lana ever be “normal” again? Can she recover from being with the Darkness so many times and so intimately? We’ll see as the series continues.

Some food for thought: Why couldn’t these kids get it together sooner? Why are they unable to think ahead at all? Are all teenagers this thoughtless? Of course when I was under 15 years old, was over 15 years ago now and I’m baffled by how brainless they are. There is no forethought at all, but then I think about the average student we had in our student ministry and I remember how they acted and I keep thinking that Grant has hit the nail on the head. It has absolutely driven me crazy with the absolute mindlessness that these kids are exhibiting and then I remember, oh yeah, they are just kids and can’t think past what’s in front of them. I’m glad that they are starting to grow into some leadership. I’m interested to continue the series and see what happens.

I have no complaints about this series thus far. Grant has put together a good story with interesting characters. Hunger has some better character development than Gone did. I felt the characters strife during the entire book and knew that things were getting worse and how they can see the impending doom. I have bought the third book Lies and I’m very interested to see how the story continues and who will conquer. I am also thinking that there is some type of twist of events in this next book, I can feel a controversy coming. We’ll see, continue reading my friends!