Oops, just a tad late because I was moving servers on this domain - Hopefully everything came out okay, though. If you notice anything missing (images/pages/etc) please let me know so I can get it fixed ASAP. :)
Here are our questions for this month’s books - sectioned off based on the fact that there were three to read, and then there’s a fourth section for the people who read all of them. Please post all discussions/reviews in the category “Worlds of Lois Lowry.”
The Giver
- In The Giver, each family has two parents, a son, and a daughter. The relationships are not biological but are developed through observation and a careful handling of personality. In our own society, the makeup of family is under discussion. How are families defined? Are families the foundations of a society, or are they continually open for new definitions?
- In Jonas’s community, every person and his or her experience are precisely the same. The climate is controlled, and competition has been eliminated in favor of a community in which everyone works only for the common good. What advantages might “Sameness” yield for contemporary communities? Is the loss of diversity worthwhile?
- Why is the relationship between Jonas and The Giver dangerous, and what does this danger suggest about the nature of love?
Gathering Blue
- What kinds of catastrophes, natural or man-made, could have brought about the destruction of an entire civilization, sending it back to a primitive state, like that of Gathering Blue?
- Why might Kira’s village remain in ruin, never regaining the glory and sophistication it once seemed to enjoy?
- When did you begin to suspect that Kira’s mom did not die of a disease? When did you begin to suspect that her father is not killed by beasts? What clues are there?
Messenger
If anyone read Messenger and has some discussion questions to share, please do! My usual resource for discussion questions is failing me for this one… Once I finish the trilogy I’ll edit this post with some questions, though. :)
Comparison
The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger are companion novels. Discuss the difference between a companion novel and a sequel. Talk about the similarities and differences in the three novels. Debate whether The Giver and Gathering Blue are companion novels, and Messenger a sequel to the other two books.
Feel free to answer for one book, two books, all books, and/or comparisons, or make your own review. :)
Next month we’ll be reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See so make sure you pick up your copy soon!
So I am a little late with the books. Sorry about that. I hope to catch up soon. Well, what to say about Hitchiker’s. I thought it was a terrible book. It didn’t really engage me at all. It was like man lives on earth, alien rescues man from earth before it’s destroyed, man and alien guy are in space, etc. etc. etc. It was just so boring. That’s why it took me so long to read. I think my favorite character out of the whole book was that depressed robot.
I just saw no point to the book. I am probably not even going to read the sequel. Well, I still have more books to get through. A little late, I know but hey, this book wasn’t that good and I probably won’t even watch the movie.
Eargon - Hev’s Review
Eragon | 
Hev | 
No Comments
Eargon is an interesting book to say the least. I did enjoy the storyline, but I kept feeling that I had read the plots before. As for the family lines in the story, I honestly feel that Eargon is the son of a Dragonrider. As for his mother abandoning him, I believe that she did it to hide him & protect him. I don’t think Eargon could have prevented his uncle’s death. If Eargon was there then he would have been killed too. Eargon’s name is meant as a sign that it is the time for the Dragonrider’s to be reborn. Or at least that is my opinion. I don’t trust the Twins. I honestly believe that they are traitors to the Varden. But then I haven’t read the rest of the series. That is one of the reasons I am going to finish the series.
I know that the review isn’t very long this time, but I haven’t been feeling very well. Sorry, I will do better in July. I am taking June off from the reading part of the club.
Amanda’s Eragon Review
Eragon | Amanda | 1 Comment
I had this written up a couple weeks ago, and I had intended to reread Eragon but I still haven’t found the time to do that so I doubt it will happen any time soon. I am so swamped with life right now (schoolwork, work, housework, bah) that I’m not sure I’ll read the next month’s book either. Anyway, I have read Eragon before and remember it fairly well to give my opinion. I’m not going by the questions though because I had this done before they were posted. I’m sorry.
For Eragon at first I really liked the book. I thought it was unique it just sucked me in to the details and the story. Then once I finished it I started hearing more and more about it and what I heard just put me off… I don’t know why exactly but I sort of ignored it. Then I read the second book and it just dragged on. I could see then why others were critical about it. The gist of what I had heard was that Paloini essentially ripped off the lord of the rings (which I haven’t read so I didn’t really notice much. I’ve only seen the movies but that’s not the same) and the Chronicles of Narnia and anything else he stumbled upon probably. He spent a lot of time on details and dreaming up this world but not so much time on plot or character development. Basically he just took pieces here and there from other fantasy artists and not so cleverly put his own spin on it.
I liked the detail in the map. I love a book with a good map in it that I can follow along with. I liked Arya’s character, but not Roran. I liked the old man Brom, but Eragon seemed like a whiny brat. I love Saphira’s name, even though it’s not so original. I just think it sounded pretty in my head. I don’t really like Murtagh either he just irks me.
I also don’t like how they make a big deal out of Paloini’s age. He graduated high school at fifteen, had published Eragon at nineteen. Graduating early may mean you’re smart, but it also deprives you of socializing with peers. This is an essential skill, and is also very useful to a writer. Interacting with different sorts of people provides a wealth of bits that can be used to create dynamic characters. This lack could be used to explain why his characters at times were kind of flat.
I haven’t read the third book yet. I was going to up until I found out that because it was too long, he change it from a trilogy to four books. I’m a little worried that, as with the nature of all middles, this next book will drag on like the second one did. I also haven’t watched the movie yet because the last few movies based off books I’ve seen have been … eh (Inkheart, for one, the Golden Compass and I’m a little leery of watching the City of Ember, but I have it waiting for me).
Eragon: My Review, by Joni
Eragon | Joni | 2 Comments
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
I read this book a few years back. It was recommended to me by, I can’t remember who, because they knew I liked fantasy novels. I admit I was curious about it because I had heard the author began writing this book when he was only fifteen years old.
I don’t know what I expected, but I thought that the fact that this book was published by some semblance of a reputable company meant the book was a superior bit of work given the fact that it was written by such a young author. What I read was a book that was obviously written by a fifteen year old, and I don’t mean that in a good way (please note, there are plenty of fifteen year olds that are perfectly capable of high quality writing…I would not lump Mr. Paolini as one of those). I suppose that just because something gets published does not mean it is high quality work. Lesson learned.
I have two major issues with this book: It was overly long and completely unoriginal.
This book was over 500 pages. There nothing wrong with that if those 500 pages are being used to expand a purposeful plot. Eragon’s plot was quite simplistic and did not require the number of pages to tell it. Put simply, this book dragged and I was bored while reading a lot of it.
As for the unoriginality, this bothered me the most. As I said, I like reading fantasy and have read a significant number of fantasty novels both modern and classic. I bet I could find little (or large) bits of just about all of those fantasy novels in Eragon. Getting inspiration from other works is fine, but doing it so obviously without any glimmer of original thought is a problem. Take, for instance, a dragon hatched out of an egg who can communicate by thought with a human rider…taken straight from the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffery. The plot is basically Star Wars (okay, so not a book, but still a space fantasy movie) and the place is basically Middle Earth, complete with benevolent Elves from across the sea (credit goes to J.R.R. Tolkien). I also noticed certain similarities taken from Ursula K. LeGuin, J.K. Rowling, Terry Brooks, and (so I’ve been told) Robert Jordan. All of these these authors not only did it first but also did it better. Eragon comes off as a pale imitation of superior works, and that’s just…sad. As a lover of good fantasy reading this book was not only painful, but really irritating to say the least.
Before reading this book I was told Eragon was “the next Harry Potter“. I strongly disagree with that statement. My mom also read it after getting a similar strong recommendation like I did, but her feelings on the book were exactly like mine. I would say it might appeal to younger readers who maybe aren’t as familiar with other, far superior, works of fantasy but my son (age 12 at the time) couldn’t get through the first 100 pages without getting bored out of his mind. He didn’t even finish it. I would not recommend this book to anyone really and have repeatedly told other readers to avoid it, instead recommending the better works of fantasy it sadly tries to imitate. I also have no interest whatsoever in reading the sequels.
Next Books!
General | Michelle | 5 Comments
It’s that time again: I’ve chosen the next five months’ worth of books from your recommendations. :) Remember, if your book wasn’t selected this time, it still might be in the future.
June’s book has already been announced - See the Eragon discussion post for information about the worlds of Lois Lowry.
July - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Hev)
August - Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot (Andie)
September - The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde (Amanda)
October - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (Joni)
November - Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (Rae) Note: She recommended the 4th book in the series, but we’ll be reading the first.
Eragon Discussion Post
Eragon | Michelle | No Comments
Remember to post your reviews/responses under the “Eragon” category.
- Eragon’s family is very important to him, although he never knew his parents. Who do you think Eragon’s parents were? Why is his father’s identity a mystery, and why did his mother bring him to her brother to raise and then disappear? Could Eragon have prevented his uncle’s death?
- What was Eragon’s life like before he found the dragon’s egg? How did his discovery of the egg change his life? Do you think Eragon found the egg or the egg was deliberately sent to him?
- The first line of the story reads: “Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world.” What does this opening tell you about the meaning of destiny in the tale? What does the author mean by “a scent that would change the world”?
- Names are very important in this story. How does it affect Eragon to learn that his name was also the name of the first Dragon Rider? How does he choose Saphira’s name?
- When Eragon finds the stronghold of the Varden, he is confronted by the Twins. Why does Ajihad trust the Twins? Why do they treat Eragon with suspicion?
Bonus
- Angela the fortuneteller says, “To know one’s fate can be a terrible thing.” Would you want to know your future if someone could tell you? Why does Eragon decide to hear her predictions?
There aren’t very many because I think that these require a lot of thought and could bring out some interesting insight from you guys. :)
Next Month’s Book
Next month you can read one or all three of Lois Lowry’s books: Giver, Gathering Blue, and/or Messenger. Note: Remember that not all the books are required for discussion but if you read all three we’ll happily read your discussion post(s) concerning them. :)
Ooh boy, so far it seems like I am the only one that has read this book. LOL that is fine I am used to being the odd person out. Just kidding, everyone. I can see how this book was a hard read, it was quite tough for me. I actually had to start it four times before I could get through the whole thing. I don’t know who recommended this book, but I wanna talk to them, lol.
One Hundred Years Of Solitude was a different book. Did I like it? Not really. Did I understand it? Not at first. Will I read it again? No way. Do I think the title was appropriate? Not really. Honestly, the book started out quite interesting but once the rebellion & the fighting started I lost interest & the book went downhill fast. I honestly do not believe that fighting solves anything. I have never succeeded in any disagreement by fighting.
Overall this book was not one of my favorites, but I can’t say that I regret reading it. I don’t think I have ever really regretted reading anything.
I’ll start off by saying that I had every intention to read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I looked at the reviews on Amazon because I’d never heard of it before and they weren’t all that promising. I was a little bummed that I was going to read a book I probably wouldn’t like. But that’s more than likely a result of reading a lot of books in a short amount of time (well, the last three years actually) that I really didn’t want to read, the joys of being an English major.
Anyway, I decided that I wasn’t going to buy the book because I really thought I would never finish it. I looked it up on the online catalogue for my local library and was surprised that they actually have it. My library is kind of big, but it never seems to have anything I’m looking for. Or they do, but it’s in storage. They seriously need more shelf space, but that’s another matter. I carried the printout around with me for about two weeks, of the book’s information. I just never got around to going to the library. I wasn’t too motivated to be honest.
I was pouting I guess. It’s been so long since I’ve read a book for me that I just wanted to relax with a book. I’ve been stressed lately because of working extra hours some weeks, and not working enough hours other weeks. So I’ve been alternating between being stressed over not having time to get my homework done, and being stressed over not having enough money to pay the bills. Gah!
So I finally gave up last week and read a book. It just wasn’t this book. I read Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke and loved it. It put me in a much better mood to be able to read again. I only had a little time before bed each night, and I stayed up later than usual to find that time, but being tired the next morning was so worth it. I missed reading incredibly, and more so than I realized.
I’ve already read next month’s book, Eragon. And unlike Wicked, the book is still in my possession (my mother-in-law has a whole list of my books buried in her house) so even if I don’t have the time to reread the whole thing, I’m going to try to at least skim it to give it a proper review.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez…yeah…I, er, didn’t read it.
I had never even heard of it until it came up as a selection for this book club and while I do get excited about the prospect of reading a book I have never read before, experience has taught me that picking up a book blind and just reading it without knowing anything beforehand is a usually a bad idea.
Simply put, after reading reviews on Amazon I decided I that this book did not sound interesting to me. Sorry if this sounds like a cop-out, but the fact that this book is on Oprah’s book club list kind of killed it for me. If Oprah likes a book that usually means I will hate it.
So, instead of reading this month’s club selection I continued to read the Hitchhiker’s “trilogy”, which was really fun. I have read the first book many times, but the others I have only read once and I honestly didn’t remember anything about them. They are just as ridiculous as the original, but like I said, it was sure fun to read anyway. I read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (book 2), Life, the Universe, and Everything (book 3), and So Long, and Thanks for the Fish (book 4…of a “trilogy”…heh). Now I am reading Mostly Harmless (book 5) which I don’t think I have read before now anyway. I’m enjoying that, so at least that’s something. And I do promise and write an actual book review for next month’s book, I did read that one!
