Here's the challenge: commit to reading 50 books and watching 50 movies in the next year! (Find out more...)

Here's the challenge: commit to reading 50 books and watching 50 movies in the next year! (Find out more...)
The good news is, there are no real rules. We do have a few suggestion though! (Find out more...)
Doing things together is the best isn't it? Come sign up with us and then we can cheer each other on! (Find out more...)
You can win the power of self edification. You can win bragging rights. You can win over your soul mate! Or you could just not win anything. (Find out more...)
Kick the challenge up a notch by picking a themed major and minor for your movies and books. Can we suggest a few? (Find out more...)
"One notable difference with going with others - spouse, lover, friends, or family - is that with company there is always some DISCUSSION. First there is the pre-movie discussion followed by the post-movie discussion. Everyone is fully armed with sharply pointed opinions, judgments, theories, beliefs, criticisms, praise, hype, comparisons, which often lead to HEATED discussions and even arguments. She is totally miscast! There’s no payoff! The plot’s all over the place! By the end of the evening whatever small pleasure you may have derived from the film has been undone."
-The Pleasures of Going Alone: What Solo Moviegoing Teaches Us-
Courtesy of Bibliotechnicienne | bibliotechnicienne.wordpress.com | Originally posted 8.18.2012
Part sci-fi, part fantasy, part computery, Alif the Unseen takes place in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. The main character is Alif (his online name, not his given name) a young man who lives his life online, providing digital protection to rebels, dissidents and hackers alike. He’s not picky about his clients.
Scorned by the woman he loves, he reacts…poorly. In no way can this be viewed as an overreaction (read: he overreacts big time) he creates a computer program that will detect his former lady loves presence online and when it does, it will erase all traces of him, making him invisible and uncontactable. I know that’s not a word, but wait, there’s more craziness ahead.
Said computer program causes a few…problems in the real world. This is an understatement. An ancient book is thrown into the mix, and suddenly Alif finds himself on the run from the State with his neighbour Dina in tow, seeking the protection of a jinn and the spiritual world. For some reason in North America, we stick a D in front of djinn. This is mentioned in the story, but not explained.
At this point, think Aladdin without Robin Williams. Also nix the singing.
I started reading this as a foil for Emma. I found the first bit a bit slow, but I really got into it about halfway through. I also couldn’t decide right away whether it was YA or not. Which isn’t a criticism, it just had that feel. I think it was when the book got into *ahem* adult situations that I decided that it’s not.
There’s a romantic subplot, but it’s different from your typical one. There are a lot of longing glances and coveting of ankle glimpses [which seems to contradict the above paragraph, but they're both right] I guess it’s not that much different than Emma after all.
Some books I find hard to recap with the right balance of telling enough to get someone interested, but not telling too much, and divulging the whole book. This is one of them. I already feel like I’ve said too much. But trust me, there’s a whole pile of stuff I haven’t touched on.
It’s a bit of a departure from my typical reads, but it’s a good one. I say "Read Me!"
Book 30 for fiftyfiftyme.
Courtesy of Amodini | Friday Nirvana | Originally posted 6.25.2012
Lately I’ve been reading books which I would normally have not read - you think the book is of a particular genre but it turns out to be quite something else. I’m glad though for having been able to read these different genres - they are great books and I’m the richer for having read them. There was Exogene by T.C. McCarthy which seemed like a sci-fi adventure set in a genetically-modified future, but which read like a war-novel instead. And then there is Age of Miracles which I requested via NetGalley because of its astounding sci-fi premise. As it turns out, sci-fi is but a backdrop for this wonderful coming-of-age novel.
As I write this, in today’s world, we face a number of environmental challenges. The earth’s climactic patterns are changing, some say due to man’s ill-treatment of the earth. Global warming is on the rise, human waste is piling up, polluting the land and choking natural water systems. Imagine that in addition to all these slow changes there is one sudden, totally unanticipated change - a shift in the earth’s rotation causing our days to no longer be sunlit and our nights to no longer be starry. This is the world this novel is set in.
Julia, the heroine of this novel, is an 11 year old middle-schooler negotiating her schooldays with the help of best friend Hanna. It is during this time that the rotation of the earth changes leading to an influx of minutes into a regular day. The days get larger, initially by a few minutes each day, but the cumulative effect causes the traditional day length of 24 hours to increase by hours, by days and then by weeks.
"At the beginning, people stood on street corners and shouted about the end of the world. Counselors came to talk to us at school. I remember watching Mr. Valencia next door fill up his garage with stacks of canned food and bottles water, as if preparing, it now seems to me, for a disaster much more minor."Initially befuddled, governments and government agencies - schools, offices, hospitals etc. decide to stick to “clock-time”, i.e.; a 24 hour time cycle even though the sun could now set in the middle of the “night” and “dawn” could be dark. Some people, the “real-timers”, decide to go by the sun, but are gradually shunned, leading them to migrate to communes. The sun’s changing rhythms have an effect on most earthly things - the earth’s protective atmosphere burns up, global warming increases, animals change migratory patterns and die mysteriously; there is societal unrest and unforeseen sicknesses. Most people worried, start anticipating the worst; they stockpile supplies, rebuild shelters to guard against the end of civilization, and migrate to be close to families and religious houses. Julia’s own hyper-paranoid mother stocks up, “a rising tide of condensed milk and canned peas” in their cupboards. In between all this, Julia must negotiate her way through fragile friendships, loneliness, death, nascent love and exhilaration.
"It was that time of life: talents were rising to the surface, weaknesses were beginning to show through, we were finding out what kind of people we would be. Some would turn out beautiful, some funny, some shy. Some would be smart, others smarter. The chubby ones would likely always be chubby. The beloved, I sensed, would be beloved for life. And I worried that loneliness might work that way, too. Maybe loneliness was imprinted in my genes, lying dormant for years but now coming into full bloom."Julia herself, is a very sympathetic character, an introvert who just wishes to meld into the background and remain there in peace; you like her very easily. Julia’s story is the story of her family - her parents and grandfather, her friends - Hanna and Seth Moreno, the boy she secretly adores, her neighbors with their peculiar idiosyncrasies, and her schoolmates with their careless callousness. This is the story of her struggle to stay grounded amid the upheaval they bring, in an uncertain world.
Title : The Age of Miracles
Author : Karen Thompson Walker
Genre : Dystopian/Sci-fi
Publisher : Random House
Pages : 289
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 4.5/5