Prepared for the Zombie Apocolypse

This style of writing or story content may not be for everybody but I feel that Max Brooks is quite clever.  I loved how Brooks presents his epistolary novel with a straight face as opposed to making it a joke.  For the reader, it made me wonder, "What if this actually happened?  Would I be prepared?"  I knew it was a work of fiction but Brooks did well making me feel as if it a zombie outbreak was completely possible. 

An interesting aspect of the book that I enjoyed was the "quislings".  It was fascinating how some humans broke down psychologically and simply "gave up".  I tried to empathize how civilians felt after being attacked only to find out moments later that it was a quisling attack.  Terrifying!  The evolution of animals was interesting as well.  House cats evolving into the size of dogs with killer instincts is ridiculously scary. 

Keep an eye out for the movie on "The Battle of Yonkers"!  Brad Pitt is going to be in the movie and nobody can hate him

To Kill a Mockingbird revisited

The third time reading this novel and I never tire of it.  To quote Cameron Crowe's film "Almost Famous" in reference to Atticus Finch: "He's honest.  He stands up for the right thing.  And he's a good father."  Therefore I award Atticus Finch a mockingbird because in the novel Miss Maudie considered killing a mockingbird a sin.  A sin due to a mockingbird never hurt anything, only singing it's heart out.  The title "To Kill a Mockingbird" must be taking literally because throughout the book, the reader is presented with characters that embody "mockingbirds" such as Atticus and Boo Radley.  Their good nature is corrupted by external evils.  This encompassing theme was made evident by the aforementioned quotation from Miss Maudie. 

Atticus Finch = Gregory Peck.

Time Travel? Thanks for the curveball Kindred.

This novel was far more scintillating than I assumed when I first picked it up.  The aspect of the novel that intrigued me the most was the two periods in time.  This was a style of writing I was unfamiliar with but it was very refreshing.  A graduate student studying for her master's described Butler's writing as a palimpsest for her thesis and I am starting to agree with her.  Some would consider "Kindred" a science fiction novel but I feel as if this novel cannot be contained within one genre.  A palimpsest described from dictionary.com states "a manuscript on which two or more successive texts have been written, each one being erased to make room for the next."  In the case of "Kindred" the 1976 would be the bottom layer and 1815 would be the top layer.  Each layer being carefully interwoven with each other.  After hearing this, I believe this novel cannot simply be read for face value.  There are countless points of interest to discuss within this novel such as the aforementioned genre or even how the novel mirror's Frederick Douglass' own narrative.  In short, this novel is certainly intriguing due to the successful blending of history, science fiction, and fantasy.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

I have always been apprehensive about picking up this book in the past.  I can finally say I was glad to have read it.  It was an engrossing book about the trials and tribulations of Marguerite.  Angelou was quite detailed in her writing but I felt as if the last 20 pages were rushed.  Marguerite's parents, Daddy Bailey and Mother Dear, left me with a weird feeling.  I felt as if Daddy Bailey was a poor example of a father and there was something amiss with Mother Dear.  I kept thinking she was going to drop a bombshell on Bailey Junior and Marguerite.  There character of Momma really made the novel for me.  A strong independent woman for Marguerite to look up to is something to be admired.