Book Reviews @ MindSay 
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I finished this novel last night. It's a very well written but heartbreaking story.The book was engulfing and character driven. I ended up really caring deeply for these people.
The story is about two boys (one white one black) who are as close as brothers. After the mother of the black child (Tommy or "Lucky", who has a birth defect that makes him small and weak) dies he is taken away by his biological father. He ends up dropping out of school, being involved with a gang, being shot and raped multiple times, going to jail, living off the street and becoming a fugitive (and all of that isn't even the half of it).
The white boy has a better life but is still in many ways tragic. He has a child out of wedlock and stays with the mother of his child even though he knows that he doesn't and will never love her. He is kicked out of his fathers house because of all of this.
I think at it's core the book is a fable about fate and how we have a fate set for us and life will do everything it can to prevent us from achieving what we were meant to do.
The ending was a bit of a downer. No, it is a bit open. There is a lot of redemption up until the last chapter. The author sort of teases that the story will have a clean peachy ending and then he adds one last twist.
I think that the ending is meant to be up to the reader's interpretations. Or it is symbolic of life.
To be honest the ending was kind of upsetting to me. Like I said, I cared deeply for these characters. I wanted it to end well for Tommy who has lived a life I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I wanted it to end well for everyone and it almost does but the author yanks it out from under us.
If the ending shows one thing it is that we all are connected in one way or another. The choices we make can directly effect the people we love and when it does they often have to make decisions that they would regret otherwise.
I did enjoy this tragedy of a tale. The good and the bad. I just wish it had had the ending I was hoping for, but life and fate are never like we want them to be, I guess.
The plot stars Peter and Kate, a couple of 12-year-olds from England in the present time, who are accidentally hurled back into the year 1763, and are befriended by Gideon Seymour, "cutpurse and gentleman." (For the uninitiated, a cutpurse was a pickpocket-type who would cut a gentleman's purse and take the money.) This all happens in a very believable manner involving science and NASA, and -- well, I'm trying not to reveal too much of the plot. But while they're in the 18th century, the kids learn a lot about how people lived back then, what they had to endure, and though they miss computer games and TV, they find a lot to intrigue them in the past. But of course their overriding concern is how to get back to their own time, while at the same time trying to survive in 1763.
The characterizations of all characters are excellent - very realistic and believable conversations between Peter and Kate, who had just met each other when their adventure began, very believable interactions between them and the people they meet in the 18th century, and so many ingenious little touches and devices the author inserts....
Suffice it to say that I think that it's just as well that the last Harry Potter book comes out soon, because Linda Buckley-Archer is the new author to watch. The Gideon Seymour trilogy has movie written all over it. This first book in the trilogy has had excellent reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and others. As I said before, I'm enchanted and can highly recommend this book for 5th grade or so on up.
I just wish that I had discovered these books when the third one was released, so I could read them all at once and not have to wait months in between. In my opinion, it's difficult to come up with an original plot for a book such as this - but Linda Buckley-Archer has not only done so, but created memorable characters and suspense as well, with fascinating details about the 18th century thrown in for good measure. I heartily recommend this book.
I think that you can tell a lot about a person by how they spend their vacations. Last Thursday through this morning I took off for a weekend vacation, and while I did some shopping, site-seeing, and ate some good food, the vast majority of my time was spent reading. And not books for classes (though part of me regrets that more the closer I get to class time tomorrow), just books for fun. And the three that I got through (I have at least 6 more that I'll slowly work on over the next couple of months) were all rather enlightening while being entertaining, so I thought that I'd share my reviews with everyone.
Kitty and The Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
This was a hoot that every vampire/werewolf fan should read and enjoy - a blend of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake work and Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan. It was interesting because it incorporated society's currant fascination with talk radio, having the host speaking on something that they supposedly aren't a personal expert on, until she is "outed" as being a werewolf. But be prepared - the ending wasn't RIGHT! I was very dissapointed, but since its clear there's going to be a series (since an excerpt of the next book is included), maybe Vaughn will redeem herself.
Wizards at War by Diane Duane
This is the 8th book in the "Young Wizards" series, and I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys "Harry Potter," or would if it were a little less fantasy and more sci-fi. Duane has addressed a number of moral and ethical dilemmas in her books, while bringing a new kind of magic to bear on practical problems of our currant world. This book specifically raises the timely question of what sorts of things could happen if humans lost hope and anger was the only emotion that could thrive (WWIII), while putting it into a context that adults young and old can grasp and enjoy on multiple levels. Not to mention that the entire series puts an interesting spin on the concept of good verses evil - sort of a religious perspective that's not.
It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken by Greg Behrendt & Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt
I had heard good things about this and Greg's other book, He's Just Not That Into You, but it was thanks to a great review and some quotes that hit home for me from itsasecret that I finally broke down and got my hands on it, and boy was it worth it. After all of the drama with Jay, this book forced me to face some harsh but meaningful truths. I'm still a firm believer in the power of ice cream to initially deal with issues regarding a significant other, but now I'm also a believer in empowering yourself to get through it - to "turn your breakup into a break-over" (although who knows how long it will be before I can truly take my own advice).
~Ezree
I just finished Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell a couple days ago, and I've taken some time to gather my thoughts and attempt to relate the book to the world. It isn't something someone really wants to do really. It is rather disheartening to observe similarities between our society and one that completely oppresses their people, but they are certainly there. It may not be entirely a fault of our government, but that Orwell created a very realistic alternate universe. Some people believed him to be writing a novel predicting the state of human affairs in 1984. What he was writing, however, was a novel laying out a possibility of the future, should totalitarian government defeat democratic socialism.
Winston is the central character in the book. His is a skeptical sort of person. And, unlike in our society were one can question the government not only in our own mind, but also in voice, print, and any media we choose, Winston cannot do so without being punished eventually. Thinking unconventional thoughts is what is known as a "thoughtcrime." Although it is still impossible to read thoughts in 1984, the very concept of a thoughtcrime keeps people constantly monitoring themselves. He is virtually the only person who questions Big Brother and the ideologies of The Party. He isn't the only person who might feel some dislike of the party, but even they are caught and "cured."
The Party is basically run by an elite upper class called the Inner Party. The Inner Party effectively oppresses all those not in the upper party so there is no chance of a revolution overthrowing the system. It is essentially flawless. The class directly below the Inner Party is known as the Outer Party, and the Outer Party is controlled absolutely. Through a device like the television, called a "telescreen, that also watches back, privacy is effectively destroyed. Behavior is constantly monitored at all times as far as people know. The past is constantly being updated so that the present seems to be constant, except for the fact that things are constantly getting better ever since The Party came into power.
Although the book takes place in the sort of alternate timeline, the world it is set in is very much our own. It is set just far enough in Orwell's future that it seemed like such outcomes as described in the book could form in our own lifetimes, which would be a scary thought. He even mentions how utopian thought went out of style after the first world war, which was true. Up until that point many people thought that it was reasonable to believe that we could lay a path to the perfect society, and some believed we were already on such a path and would eventually evolve into perfection. WWI effectively broke that spirit.
Like in the book, our society has increasingly lost their right to privacy. Security systems are being installed on a daily basis and, although there isn't a connection to some governmental establishment that is always monitoring our behavior, it can be used by law officials at any time they want.. If someone should accuse us of something and officials such as the FBI or the police believe these statements, our property can be searched and seized and searched some more. Various acts are passed into law in times of "need", sometimes never being repealed. Most recently there was the Homeland Security Act, Total Information Awareness, various plans disguised as good, but potentially bad.
Our right to free speech, like in the book, is being adapted all the time in order to ensure that there isn't a revolution. We don't think of it like that, and you are free to believe whatever you wish, but should there ever be a group that would assemble to even contemplate overthrowing the government, it would be denounced as terrorism, treason, and who knows what else even if there was due reason. We have free speech, but hate speech is a crime, slander and libel (defamation) is a crime. While these things can be hurtful to certain reputable people, it is effectively limiting to the expression of ideas, which was in the absolute sense what Newspeak was representing in Nineteen Eighty Four.
Also, our history is always adapted in a degree to make us look better to ourselves. Most people don't hear the whole story in their classes, and in their adult life it isn't important enough to discover for themselves, so whatever is told to us in school becomes the truth as far as most people are concerned. It doesn't happen to the extent in the book, where what was already being written was detroyed and replaced with what the government wants us to read, but it also doesn't matter whether this takes place because, like I mentioned, very few people pursue the whole truth of history outside of what we are told in school. Whether or not old information is destroyed, few people are going to find the old information when the new and updated is available.
Read the book. It was very worthwhile even if some things seem preposterous. We know many things of are past to be farfetched, but they happened. Who would believe that one man could inspire the horrors that took place prior to WWII? There is very little in the world that is impossible, and Orwell placed before us, rather slammed down in front of us a possibility and demanded that we beware of such a future. This book is more frightening than any horror novel because its not wholly unbelievable. Read.
And please, feel free to add your own comments on the book if you've read it. I know a lot of people obviously have since it's currently #4 on Mindsay Top Books.