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Showing posts from April, 2016

Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)

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Beloved by Toni Morrison                 Beloved. That’s what the pinkish headstone said. Beloved was what Sethe put on the headstone of her little girl. The little ghost that haunted 124 causing ruckus in its need to be loved. The woman came 18 years after Sethe’s daughter was put in the ground. Sethe, Denver and Paul D. found her laying outside the house when they came home from the carnival. She was looking for Sethe. Sethe was the one she loved the most. Denver was the one who loved her most. Paul D. was the one who feared her most. She said her name was Beloved.                 I am not going to lie. Beloved may be the one novel I was most apprehensive about reading as part of my theme this year. I guess I was scared from the movie version of the film. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I started this with a somewhat open mind and found the writing to be really amazing. The characters had deep and painful stories to tell. The unfolding and unearthing of the past was done

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom (1986)

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Forrest Gump by Winston Groom                 For years I had no idea that Forrest Gump was a novel. I just assumed that it was an amazing movie and left it at that. So imagine my surprise, when researching this year’s theme of reading a book from every year I have been alive, that this was indeed a book published in 1986. Sweet. Let the reading begin. Forrest Gump is the story of a man named Forrest Gump who honestly refers to himself as an idiot because of his low IQ score. He has struggled with the most basic things his entire life and yet he would eventually be a college football star, go to space, get arrested a few times, run a successful business and fall in love. It is more than a coming of age story. It’s a life story told in a simple way by a simple man.                 I went in to reading this novel knowing full well that I would have to separate it completely from the movie, which I know like the back of my hand. It was pretty simple to do. It’s very obviou

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

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Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel Pieces of a giant mechanical being, thousands of years old, are buried around the world. The pieces are slowly being discovered and pieced together. The technology is light years ahead of what humans are capable of. There is one man behind seemingly every decision. He is almost omnipresent throughout the story and yet no one even knows his name. There is a woman who has been affected by the presence of these giants since she was a child and is now the scientist heading the operation. There is a hotheaded pilot whose helicopter was brought down by one of the pieces. She is now inexplicably tied to the project. Then there’s the linguist brought in to solve the code. What does any of this mean and where will it all lead?                 I am so torn when it comes to this novel. I found the whole concept of extraterrestrials possibly burying objects that would be discovered once humans had evolved to a certain degree extremely fascinating. I di

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter

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The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter                 The Civil War is over. The Union has won. The slaves are free. President Lincoln was shot but survived. The Washington Monument is under way in Washington City and there is a trial underway to impeach President Lincoln. The Senate is trying to impeach on four separate counts. It is believed that the Radicals in Lincoln’s own Republican Party are behind the proceedings. Not enough has been done to the curb the attitude of the southerners. The Ku Klux runs wild and unchecked. The radicals believe that even though the President supports the Civil Rights Act, enforcing it is entirely different issue that he is failing at. Abigail Canner is the new clerk hired by Dennard and McShane, the law firm representing Mr. Lincoln. She is a young black graduate from Oberlin hoping to one day be a lawyer. She is part of a family that has been free for three generations and heralds Lincoln as something of a hero. Jonathan

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

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The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins                 Carolyn and the other eleven librarians have been living with Father since they were children. All orphaned with nowhere to go after a tragic event, Father brought them into his home and assigned them each a catalog. They would become masters of their catalog and were not allowed to study anyone else’s. War, languages, medicine, animals, the ways of the world would be theirs. Two decades later Father goes missing and none of the librarians can enter the library. They’re stuck in America a world they no longer know and they have to find Father, who they believe may be God, and get back into the library.                 Well, this was just all around a good time. Carolyn has committed a murder. Father is missing. Steve is being framed. David is running around in a tutu. Jennifer is high. Margaret stinks. Michael didn’t tell anyone that Nobununga was a tiger. He thought everyone knew. What Hawkins did with this novel