Super Sad True Love Story

This was the second book that surprised me this year. I have to admit I have not read his earlier work so when this started making headlines I thought, “what's up with all the fuss over a love story?’ Of course this is not to knock love stories. There is some that blew me away. The time travelers wife is one.
Super Sad Love Story is a dystopian novel set about 50 years into the future. People get nanotechnology to prevent them from getting old and dying. I thought this bit was a good play on Americans fear of getting old. I mean think about it. We eat a certain way to avoid looking old, we buy special creams at ridiculous prices to reduce signs  of aging and a host of other stuff. This play in the book only illustrates the heights that people will go to to avoid becoming or looking old.
In the book there is also a war in Venezuela that can be read to mean the current war in Afaganstain. The war is becoming increasingly more expensive to pay for and the soldiers don't always get paid. The not getting paid part is also an excellent way of foreshadowing what might happen. I am not saying that he has a  political axe to grind but it is a brilliant artistic way to show what fiscal responsibility  and wayward cost of war can do.
The most brilliant part or should I say disheartening is the way he portrays America at the edge of fiscal collapse and the world that ensues. People carry these things that sound like a Smartphone but buy the descriptions in the book are more..smartphoney. People can stream their lives and get ratings in everything from Fuckablity to hotness. Which is not so far fetched idea. We are getting close to that now with face book and such.
The author dose a fantastic job of world  building. He constructs things is such a way that it is not to hard to imagine this is what America could look like in the near future. He had the uncanny ability to even make the financial collapse in the book look like it may happen in the next 50 years.
Then there is the love story.
As love stories go this one is not that bad. It just so predictable. When he introduced to characters in the book i could tell what was going to happen. I don't profess to ne an expert on love stories but when you built the rest of the book up brilliantly at least have a little more substance to the love story or rather love triangle that ensues.
The ending was also a bit of a let down after the rest of the book.
It all ended in a predictable way. I felt that with the build up of the rest of the book it could went out with a bang. It didn't
Overall this was a book I LOVED. it had it’s short comings but I think all books do.

Sunday Salon

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was good. I came to visit family in Kentucky. Since they are Sarah Palin endorsers and I am a bleeding heart Liberal I took some Klopopion and instead of my blood boiling when politics and the supposed North Korea “attacks” I found it all kind of amusing.

I signed up for the Thankfully Reading challenge on beth fish reads. I finished reading Super Sad True Love Story and Am now reading Buddha by Chopra. Buddha is taking me longer to read it because I have to stop and digest what it is really teaching.

This week will be spent getting Library books read so I can take out my next big batch!

Thankfully Reading Post Two

Well since I am at my parents house for Thanksgiving I will have to take a picture of the books I still have here. This is just two shelves there are many many more books than this. I have to sort them all out and decided which ones I want to keep and which ones to wild release for Bookcrossing.

Thankfully Reading

To make up for my horrible outcome on the Readathon last October I am joining in Thankfully Reading. I think this will go better as I am at my parents house and I will not have to do anything chore-wise. So lets see how this read a long goes. Wish me Luck!

 

Below is a picture that I took of the books I hope to get through this weekend.

Body Clutter

I have to admit I am a big fan of Flylady. I have heard about  the books and have read From pigpen to paradise and loved it. I follow all her routines and everything. Even a slob such as me can make my apartment look pretty.

Body clutter is all about loving yourself enough to start exercising (blessing your heart) to eating nutritionally sound food. While this may not be new advice they present it in such a way that it comes less about meeting a number goal and more about loving yourself enough to be healthy.

I have to admit that I liked this book more than most others books on losing weight. Other books tell the tale of somebody being a few pounds overweight then they lose a few pounds and tout their way to everyone. While this book does not endorse a certain weight loss plan it only tells the reason why so many of us find it so hard to lose weight. It explains the “mental blocks”. I think the mental blocks are a much bigger hurdle to get through.

It also explains how not to let your routines that you have picked up fall by the wayside but rather incorporate new things into your existing routines.

If you are a fan of flylady you will enjoy this book.

Bitch in the House

This is an anthology with 26 well known woman writers who discuss about motherhood and marriage and one was on weight.
Feminist lit has come a long way than when it was still in its infancy. The woman have almost everything feminist has fought for and yet they still seem to be missing something. They fell out of touch with what feminism is today. That is not to say this is a sad book. It is not. Far from it. There are undercurrents of anger spread through out the book. All of us are like that right?
I found it refreshing to see woman talk so honestly and candidly about the “bitch” that often emerges in motherhood. All to often we hold this part hidden because “good” mothers are not supposed to feel this way. Which itself is a ridiculous notion because really, when you have a crying baby and are trying to handle a demanding job who is ever going to feel “good enough”? This book explores that concepts well. I agree with what a lot of the woman say, just cause you have it all, does not mean you feel like you have it all. This is an example of how some woman have come to feel disjointed by today's feminism.
It also explores how in the coming days of a major event a wedding or a baby the couple believes such things like housework to be split evenly. However once the big day arrives it is usually the woman who gets the brunt of doing housework on top of everything else. This is seems to be a source of pride, sort of like super wife or super mom. Again not every woman will feel this way but it is a recurring theme. I also found it refreshing to hear some of the woman talk about taboo subjects. For example a few of the woman were mistresses. That is not something that media talks about openly.
This book was well written especially since it is an anthology. The woman who put all the stories together did well in making all the different stories flow into one another. It did not read as 26 separate stories but rather as a continuum from one story to the next.
This maybe me digging into the symbolism a little to deep but I also feel that this book encompasses the idea that we all are different with our own unique experience but that we can come together as woman and make a beautiful whole, just like this book.

Sunday Salon

Many people are writing what books they are thankful for, as for me I am thankful to be able to read.Earlier this year my mind started racing and I couldn't keep track of a single thought. It was as if words whizzed right by my comprehension. All was corrected in OCT and ever since I have been grateful.

I have decided to post  on Mondays. Wensday and Fridays and of course Sunday. I may post more but I feel I need to get into a schedule so maybe this will help.

I decided to sign up for Formspring. Sometimes I run out of Ideas of what to talk about so am hoping you can ask anything and it will jump start my creativity. Click to go to the link.

At the moment I am reading Super Sad true love story and it lives up to its hype. I am loving it. I hope to finish it today.

What are you reading today?