The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

I found The Girl Who Drank the Moon by happy accident. I was in my local bookstore one evening and just perusing the shelves when I saw the beautiful cover. I read the title and was intrigued and after reading the summary on the inside of the jacket, I was sold. It was surprising that I had never heard of the book before since it has won the John Newbery Medal. In any case, the book found its way to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is a special book. It has magic and a small dragon and other beautiful elements. The focus is on a town that sacrifices a baby every year to the evil witch who lives in the woods. It begins with a woman whose baby is the chosen one that year. She goes mad with loss and grief. The witch, whose name is Xan, actually has no idea about this sacrifice. All that she knows is that every year a village leaves a child out to die. So she rescues each child and gives it to a family in other towns who will care and love for it. On her journeys she feeds the children starlight, but this particular baby she accidentally feeds moonlight to. The result is that this baby, who is then named Luna, is enmagicked. Xan decides then and there that she must keep the child and love and care for her and teach her magic. But Luna's magic is very strong and she cannot control it, so Xan has to put her in a coma of sorts and block magic from her until Luna is thirteen. Once Luna turns thirteen and her magic is unleashed, Xan will die. So the book follows Luna as she grows up, while also following her mother "the madwoman" who has been locked up. There is a third character named Antain who lives in the village and his life is followed as well. I don't want to give away anymore as I enjoyed the twists and turns, but that is the gist of the story.

This was a delightful novel. It did not have quite the feel that I expected but I enjoyed the journey anyway. It felt like there were a lot of allegories in it for my own life and that personal aspect is what made me really feel connected to the story, more so than I probably would have. Luna was my favorite character by far but I also liked Glerk, the swamp monster. I especially loved the descriptions of magic in this novel.

Overall, The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a novel I would recommend only for those who enjoy young adult novels. I feel that if you are a reader who does not often delve into YA, then you would not get much from this book. But for me, it was filled with love and magic and wonder. I don't know if I will reread it alone, but when I have kids I will definitely read it to them. 

1984 by George Orwell **spoiler warning**

Painting found on Pinterest. Artist unknown.

1984 was always one of those novels that I heard a lot about, but somehow never read. Its not that it did not interest me, I think it is more that I was just waiting for when the time felt right. Granted, when I did decide to read it, I did not have that moment of saying: "Oh, now is definitely the time to read this book". But I think that somewhere in my subconscious I knew it would be prudent. It is a novel many today are referencing,  and in the current political climate I try to be informed and knowledgeable. Thus, when our March Audible came around, I decided to listen to 1984.

Listening to this book gave it even more of a horrific air, I felt. Although I do wish to someday reread this book and actually hold the novel and take notes and so on. But I am glad that I decided to listen to it because the narrator did an amazing job. The inflections and tones were all perfect and I think George Orwell would have been proud. It gave me the chance to work through the book more quickly, as well. I happened to have a lot of driving to do in the past couple of weeks so I would just connect my phone and listen to the book.

This novel is profound. It is part philosophy, part political theory, and part essay on the human condition and what it can handle. There is so much packed into it that I know I missed things. The general basis of the story is that all of Britain, which is now Oceania, is ruled by INGSOC or English Socialism. INGSOC is headed by Big Brother, who has a religious and cult like reverence about him, and has four main ministries. The Ministry of Love, which ironically focuses on hate and keeping up with "the two-minutes hate" and "hate week", moments where everyone is required to watch films of the "enemy" Goldstein and scream at the tele-screens and just get into a general state of mania. The Ministry of Truth, which focuses on changing the past via rewriting news articles and stories. The main character of Winston Smith works at this ministry. The Ministry of Peace, which deals with war and the military. And the Ministry of Plenty, which deals with economics, or rather, creating scarcity. There are also three main parties: Inner Party, those who are at the top of the top economically and politically, the Outer Party which contains those who work in the ministries, and the Proles who are the bottom 85% of the population. This is just a brief summary of the main political themes within the story. There is also the detail that everyone is always watched via the tele-screens that litter the streets and are in every office and every home. There is the fear of being arrested by the "thought-police" for something as small as a wrong facial expression. There is a language called "new-speak" the main goal of which is to do away eventually with all language and thought. Overall, it is a terrifying climate.

Winston begins the novel beginning a diary. He knows that just by buying the journal he could be arrested and by further writing in it he is sure to die, but something in him propels him to write down his thoughts. His thoughts are even worse for he hates Big Brother and wants to have sex and wants to think. However, he is able to get away with his secret diary for quite some time. The novel mainly follows him in his day to day life and through his thoughts about any and every thing. Eventually he begins an affair with someone he works with, Julia, and they are even able to keep this a secret. But of course, they are caught. There are moments where I thought they would not be, that maybe they would get away and they would be able to change the world, but it was not to be. The entire third part of the novel deals with Winston being arrested and tortured and essentially brainwashed. By the end, he loves Big Brother and his whole thought process has changed, and then he is shot.

I loved the end of the book. Well, not because Winston died, but because Orwell did not give the book a cheap finale. He stuck to his guns about the philosophy and the power of Oceania and Big Brother and so it was more believable of an end. The finality of it was perfection. There is no escaping or changing Big Brother.

I have a thousand thoughts about the philosophy and politics in the book, but this is a book blog and not a political blog so I don't want to take this post there. Just know that 1984 will make you think but it will also terrify you. I did not love any of the main characters but I don't think that as the point anyway. I think the characters served as vessels for the philosophy to be written out. The point of the novel was not Winston Smith, it was INGSOC. And that is why it remains such a poignant and relevant novel sixty-eight years later.

In conclusion, 1984 is quite the novel. My husband and I joked that it should be required reading before people are allowed to vote. (Of course we don't mean this.) But the meaning behind the joke is that there is a lot to process from the novel. It talks so much about the consequences of not thinking for oneself and what that can do. Or even the consequences of putting total trust in the government. Even if you don't care about all of the politics, it is still interesting because it keeps you on the edge of your seat. The whole book is filled with the threat of Big Brother and the thought-police. So if you just want a good thriller of sorts, 1984 would fill that criteria. Whatever the reason for you deciding to read this book, do so soon. It is a novel that speaks a lot about current times and serves as a warning to us all. 

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

The actual 1 year anniversary was actually March 11, but since I try to post every Friday I decided to wait until today to write a small piece.

First of all, I want to say thank you so much to all of you who have stuck with me through this past year. Thank you for caring what I think about what I read. Thank you for sharing my posts with your friends. Thank you for being here!

Second, this is a huge achievement for me. I have tried in the past to keep blogs and write consistently but it always fails. Some of these include random personal blogs, music blogs, and more. I guess it makes sense that a book review blog would be the one I stick with, but it just astounds me since this past year was the hardest of my life. Yet I still was able to keep up with reading and reviewing.

Lastly, I wanted to share a few fun statistics! The most viewed review was Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds at 256 views. The least viewed review was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling at 21 views. (This made me a bit sad as my favorite reviews were all of my Harry Potter reviews). My facebook page has 63 likes, which makes sense since I get an average of 50-60 views per review. Overall, I have reviewed 31 books on this blog.

I intend to keep reading and reviewing as much as possible! This year I want to involve my readers more and hopefully see more engagement and sharing. If you have suggestions or requests for things you would like to see, please comment below! And if you have ever enjoyed any of my reviews, please share my blog with others, I would appreciate it so much.

 Look for my review of 1984 by George Orwell next Friday and have a lovely evening!!

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams **Spoiler Alert**

Snapshot of one of my afternoons this week.

This book was one of two gifted to me for my twenty-third birthday this year. I had not heard of it before but was eager to dive in since A Certain Age is set in the 1920s, one of my favorite time periods. I had also not heard of Beatriz Williams, although after reading this book I am looking forward to reading her other novels. Thus, I went into this book knowing very little about it which is what made it such a delight to read. And I did read it very quickly.

A Certain Age begins as a story about love and adultery but turns into a story about secrets and murder. The easy way with which it picks up the pace was admirable. I loved that one minute I was engrossed in the love affair between Theresa and Octavian, and the next minute I was dying to know all of the details of the murder of Mrs. Faninal. The novel reminded me very much of The Great Gatsby for this reason, although TGG starts out with a touch of mystery.

There were other similarities as well between A Certain Age and The Great Gatsby such as the tension between old and new money and the struggles of love in that type of society. Both of these novels ended with gunshots as well. Although the end of A Certain Age was less of a relief because I was left heartbroken for Theresa and her baby, which Octavian never finds out about. At least at the end of TGG I know that Gatsby is out of his misery.

I deeply appreciated that the author did not tie up the ending and left much to be thought about and considered. It proved to me just how much I cared about Theresa and what happened to her in the end. I never cared much about Sophie and I think part of it had to do with the fact that Sophie's sections are told in third person, whereas Theresa's sections are told in first person. The book just felt more about Theresa overall.

In conclusion, I enjoyed A Certain Age. I am not sure if it is a book I will reread, but it is one I know I will think about often. It was a nice book to have with me through this past week and I was constantly waiting to get back to the story when I was away from it. I would recommend this book, especially if you love mystery or the 1920s or love affairs or all of the above.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

I am not going to go on my Neil Gaiman spiel for the umpteenth time. If you are a new reader please feel free to click on the "NeilGaiman" tag and that will take you to previous posts! What I will say is that when I found out he was coming out with his own retelling of his favorite myths, I was very excited and also unsure of what to expect.

I know very little about Norse mythology. There are bits of it in other Gaiman books and bits of it in the Marvel universe and so on, but that is where the knowledge stops. I have spent more of my life interested in Greek mythology and thus have more knowledge of its tales. So after finishing Norse Mythology, while I enjoyed it, I felt that I would have enjoyed it that much more if I actually knew about the tales he was retelling. Because to me this book just read like any other mythology book, including my favorite Mythology by Edith Hamilton; which is to the book and Neil's credit of course. Sometimes telling a tale simply can be harder than telling it on a grander scale. So I enjoyed seeing Neil work wit this kind of storytelling and excel at it. I am sure his passion for these myths is what helped him do that.

Even though I did not feel a deep connection with this book, I did read it very quickly. And I particularly loved the myth "The Mead of Poets". Each myth had some deep wisdom within it, as well as a touch of Neil Gaiman. So devouring this book came from ease and enjoyment and not from a need to finish it so it could be over.

Norse Mythology is not a book I would recommend as an introduction to Neil Gaiman The Author. Rather, it is a book I would recommend if you love Norse mythology or myths in general, or if you have read other Gaiman books. It is a book I would recommend for you to take on a short trip or read when you need to forget about other things going on in your life. Overall, this book will make you smile and think and want to learn more if you don't already have that knowledge. This book is a beautiful reminder of simpler times and simpler tales and why those tales are so important.

Our Revolution by Bernie Sanders

My cat, Poppet, feeling the bern.

This blog is not about politics, but for this post it will get a bit political. I love Bernie Sanders. I have from the moment I heard about him and his campaign and I supported him throughout. I was heartbroken when he pledged his support for Hillary Clinton last year and I have continued to follow what he does since. Thus, I was very excited when I heard he was coming out with a book outlining his ideas for a better America, titled Our Revolution. I was given the book for my birthday from my in-laws (thank you!) and dove right in.

The book is split into two sections. The first is autobiographical. A little bit about Bernie's life and a lot about his campaign. I loved getting to know more about him and how he got involved in politics. I also enjoyed hearing so much about his campaign trail and all of the moments that touched him. It was a great beginning to the book instead of throwing the reader right into the dense meat of what is wrong with America and how to fix it The second section is about his ideas. What I loved about this section is that he not only says what he thinks needs to be done but he gives plans for how everyone can help make these ideas realities. Bernie backs up everything he says and cites multiple sources for his points. The philosopher/sociology lover in me adored this part of the book. It made me feel hopeful and at times gave me goosebumps, just like when I would watch Bernie's speeches.

There is a lot in Our Revolution. At times I felt hopeful and at others, utterly hopeless. But at the end Bernie really drives home the importance of everyone participating with one another to make these changes. "Transforming America is more than just elections. It's about changing our culture...The future is in your hands. Let's get to work."

Woven throughout his stories and ideologies is Bernie's great sense of humor. I laughed out loud at many points. I love that he is unafraid of what others think and is just straightforward and honest. This also helped the more dense sections feel lighter and accessible.

Overall, I loved this book. It is one I will probably pick up a lot in the next four years and beyond to learn and remind myself of what I can do to be a better citizen. It gave me hope. It reiterated why I love Bernie Sanders so much and it made me love and respect him more. If you are someone who supported at least some of his ideas, read this book. If you disagreed with him but are curious about the details behind his political stance, read this book. If you just want to learn, read this book. I guarantee most of you will feel the bern by the end of it. 

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I just finished reading Neverwhere for the third time. I have not only read the novel but I also own the graphic novel and have listened to the BBC radio version of the tale (which I highly recommend). So all in all I guess this was my fifth time with the story. It is not my number one Gaiman book, but it is in the top five. It is one I cherish because it is full of wonder and mystery and allegories. It is a book I come back to because it is an adventure I love to go on. I don't recommend Neverwhere as someone's first Neil Gaiman book. But I always recommend it as their second or third.

Neverwhere tells the story of London Below, a place like London Above except not. It follows Richard, an ordinary man, and Door and the Marquis de Carabas, not so ordinary people, as they try to find out what happened to Door's family. That is all I will say so as not to ruin the intrigue of the story. The villains are some of the most entertaining I've encountered. And Door is my favorite heroine in any Neil Gaiman novel. I took a silly internet quiz that said she was the Gaiman character I am most like and that made me very happy.

The thing about Neverwhere that, for me, makes it so great is that it is a all of my favorite stories in one book. It is Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz but with a Neil Gaiman twist. The lessons taught throughout the book are archetypal and profound. These elements combined are what showcase Neil Gaiman's talents as a writer and storyteller. This post may have been short and sweet, but don't let that fool you. I just don't want to give away too much about a book that needs to be experienced. Neverwhere is pure Gaiman fairytale and that is why I love it.