Sunday, March 29, 2009

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld


This is the second book in the series, after Uglies. They are set several hundred years in the future where everyone gets an operation when the turn sixteen that makes them look perfect, including skin, health, teeth, muscles... everything. Unfortunately, some people find out that the doctors change everyone's brain too, when the have the surgery. And they also wonder if it's really that great to have everyone looking perfectly beautiful. So some of them try to escape the cities and build another life where everyone can be themselves, but they find that it's not easy to mess with the Special Circumstances agents.

Ecological Gardening


This is the old edition of this book, and the one I read. There is a new edition out, but my library didn't have it. I love Marjorie Harris' writing; she is a great gardener and her love of plants and gardening really shows in her writing. I had borrowed her book How to Make a Garden from the library and loved it so much that I actually bought a copy. This one was good too; there is an especially great chapter on composting that is simple enough that I think I will be able to do it.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A Long Fatal Love Chase


This book by Louise May Alcott, is very different from her other books that I have read and reminds me of Jane Eyre, but that might be just because of the attempted bigamy. It was written before Little Women, but was only published in 1995; apparently it was too sensational to be published in the author's lifetime. A Long Fatal Love Chase is about about a girl who was tricked into marrying a man she knows very little about, and after a year she learns about some of his background and secrets, and leaves him. He has never allowed anything he wanted to escape and so he chases her all over Europe. The title does give the ending, but I'll let you read it to find out for whom it was fatal.

It wouldn't be considered sensational today, but certainly is, compared to her other books. A great read.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Black by Ted Dekker


I just finished reading Black by Ted Dekker. It was very interesting, but different for me because I'm not used to reading fantasy. In fact, except for the Chronicles of Narnia and Uglies, I don't think I've read any. This book was about a man, Thomas, who was grazed by a bullet and then alternates between two worlds every time he falls asleep or becomes unconscious. In the other world, he learns about a bioweapon that decimates our world a few weeks in the future so he tries to prevent it. I found an error at the end of chapter 36; "He became a mighty warrior who defended the seven forests against the desert Hoards who marched against them." Ack! It should be Hordes! Anyway, I have now requested (from the library) the next book in the series: Red.