The book 1984, by George Orwell, is an incredibly depressing dystopia about what it is like to live under a totalitarian government that wants to control absolutely everything – including people’s thoughts. Written in 1949, the book describes a bleak, hopeless, future.
The reader views it all through the eyes of the main character, Winston Smith. It is the book where the phrase “Big Brother is watching you” originated.
The first time I read this book was when I was in high school. It was assigned reading for one of my English classes. If I had to guess, I think this assignment was given when I was a Junior, so that would put the actual year at around 1989 or 1990.
Haweswater starts with a violent birth, includes a flood, and ends not long after an explosion. Yet, it is not a book that fits into the adventure genre. The story takes place in, and around, the town of Mardale, which really did exist. So did the Haweswater dam, a structure that takes on epic proportions in the story. Yet, this book could not truly be described as historical fiction.
The Chosen by Chaim Potok is a book that my brother recommended I read. There are very few books that he likes enough to recommend them to me. So far, each of the books he has suggested to me, over the years, have been incredibly compelling.
The Gun Seller is a novel written by Hugh Laurie. The cover describes him as “star of the FOX-TV series House.” Those who have watched the show would recognize Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House, the disgruntled, dysfunctional, yet brilliant, man that the other characters both loved and hated.
Fallen is a book that I fell in love with almost immediately. It is a story that takes place in an apocalyptic world, not too far in the future. I tend to gravitate towards these types of stories. Either I am fascinated by the differences between the world I live in and the “alternate universe” one presented in a post-apocolyptic story, or some part of me just wants to “watch the world burn”. Either way, I found Fallen to be completely captivating.
Three very strong main characters live what appears to be completely separate lives. Over the course of this story, their lives become intertwined in dramatic and tragic ways. What’s the connection? In short, it has something to do with organ donation.
The full title of this book is: Scent of the Missing: Love & Partnership with a Search-And-Rescue Dog. It is a non-fiction book that gives readers a detailed look into what it is like to be a person who works with a dog for the purpose of Search and Rescue. I’ve read this book twice now, and highly recommend it.
In general, I make an effort to read a book before I watch the movie that is based upon it. Often, this makes the movie more interesting, as I already have become familiar with who the main characters are and how they are connected to each other.
The Cove starts with a mystery. A man has been hired by the government to drive out and notify residents that the area they live in was going to be intentionally flooded, and also to evict them. He goes into a place called “the cove”, happy that there is no one living there anymore.
When I first picked up Three Cups of Tea, I knew very little about it, other than it was a non-fiction book about a man who built schools for girls somewhere in the Middle East. I wasn’t sure how the tea fit into the story, or why there were three cups of it.