Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m posting one book a day from my massive collection. No description, no reason for why I want to read it (some I‘ve had so long I don‘t even remember why!). Feel free to join in!

#ABookADay2024

A weird one, this. Premise is intriguing, but it didn't achieve its full potential. In fact, I'm not too sure what it was doing and why. Something profound is going down, that's for sure, it just seems to be passing me by! Writing is obviously that of an accomplished author, but I found it staid & stilted. The ending went off on a preachy religious tangent. Mildly engaging with moments of both "meh" and "eh?" and a touch of depressing dystopia.

Today's date. It's weird to read a book set in the future when that future is actually in the past!

Set in 2021, the world has undergone final infertility and the last generation is called the Omegas. The narrator spends the first half of this book, writing diary entries about his connection to the Supreme Leader, his cousin, Xan. If you like books about dystopian futures, you'll like this one. A theme in the story, is the idea of control and secrecy, as our narrator attempts to figure out what is truly going on.

My #speculativespringswap package was waiting for me when I got home from work today! Thanks @peanutnine

First off: VERY different from the movie (which I seem to remember more than I realized). The narration jumps between diary entries and third person, which is jarring. The ending is ambiguous. It‘s hard to get any real sense of the characters (I think Miriam is the most developed). It‘s interesting, and thought-provoking, but I don‘t think I really liked it. But I‘m glad I read it.

Heading into the Forest of Dean - isn‘t that where Hermione Apparates the trio to, when they almost get caught at Grimauld Place in The Deathly Hallows?

Up next. Not sure if Danny approves.

“I didn‘t know then and still don‘t know how much he cared for Woolcombe. It‘s still used as a nursing-and-retirement home for the privileged few - relations and friends of the Council, members of the Regional, District and Local Councils, people who are considered to have given some service to the State. Until my mother died Helena and I made our regular duty visits. I can still picture the two sisters sitting together on the terrace...”

“‘Oh, I don‘t think you can possibly be too pessimistic. I can‘t think why you all seem so surprised at Omega. After all, of the four billion life forms which have existed on this planet, three billion, nine hundred and sixty million are now extinct. We don‘t know why. Some by wanton extinction, some through natural catastrophe, some destroyed by meteorites and asteroids...‘”

Went to my first farmers‘ market since 2019 and with it, my first library book sale since 2019. Definitely had to stock up! #bookhaul

I try to judges book by when it was written. Such an interesting concept, that humans would become infertile and how individuals would act.
The book itself is unbalanced and the narration is so unemotional it is a bit odd. All of the action is pushed towards the end. But even this action feels unemotional.
I think this is my first PD James. I might read her for her concepts if not her actual writing.

2021. I didn't realize the book was set for this year. I guess I am glad I waited 5+ years with it on my shelf to pick it up!

It is always interesting to see what people envision for a year decades away, and to compare it to the actual time.

Definitely a chilling dystopia, but as good as the writing is, I found it difficult to connect with the MC. Released in 91, it was a shock for the first chapter to be dated “January-March 2021”!
It‘s an interesting(though not original) premise of a fertility challenged world, executed well, but dare I say, I preferred the Alfonso Cuaron movie (that made some story changes). A film I watched a very long time ago, but has stayed with me. 🌟🌟🌟1/2

I might be a little biased here because I absolutely love Cuarón‘s adaptation, but this wasn‘t quite as exciting as I wanted it to be (except for parts of the second half, which moves along at a faster pace). In fact, it made me appreciate the movie even more, for picking exactly the right plot beats to tell a more engaging story.

It starts slow and the idea of an extinction event sparked by mass infertility can be found elsewhere but this is still a chilling, fascinating story. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

I suppose 2020 would have been even more appropriate, but still...

? Blessed Sunday ?

"We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.” The Children of Men. P.D. James.

Inspired by @jenniferw88 I‘m planning already! As we all say... it‘s almost as fun as the reading! 😂

Here‘s #Winter... picked from my shelves....
#booked2021

@Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft

#quotsynov20 #false @TK-421

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description or reason for wanting to read the book. Some are old, some will be new. Don't judge me - I have a lot of books.

Day 5 #tbrpile

Here's hoping that #BookSpin keeps me accountable for reading something from my TBR! Most are books on my shelves at home but I added a couple that I want from my library too :)
@TheAromaofBooks

#bookmail today made my day! Thank you @TheLibrarian so much for the books! And the bubble wrap and box made my kiddo ecstatic as well (I think she might actually be a cat).

Currently reading. #weekendreads

Anyone else following the Clarke Shadow jury hosted by the Anglia Ruskin Centre for Science Fiction & Fantasy?

http://csff-anglia.co.uk/category/clarke-shadow-jury/

Wow!!! Amazing goodwill find today!! 🎉🎉👍👍🏆🤓👑💥🔥🔥🔥 hahahahah

$3 for this bad boy! The original price tag of $70 is still on the back! Hahahahah

Currently reading....

It is the future and humans haven't been able to reproduce for about 25 years. Government (England) is being run by a council of 5. The cousin of the lead is a professor who has been just existing. Then a group contacts him to bring their demands to his cousin. He is unimpressed by the demands but does find a connection with one of the group. This connection wakes him up. Loved the set up but felt the end was off.

Day #25 Of #NovemberbytheNumbers. Two very different books, which I love for very different reasons, that were both published in 1992. 📚

#YA #fantasy #dystopian

If you like the movie you'll enjoy the book. The plot lines are similar until the end. The movie is very Hollywood and the book is not, but the character transformation in the book is beautiful.

Wow. This is not like any P.D. James I'd read before. Not a mystery, but a dystopian novel. While some things are dated it still carries a punch. Written with James' clear skillful prose.

There was some dignity and much safety in the self-selected role of spectator, but, faced with some abominations, a man had no option but to step on the stage. #resist

When two of your library holds arrive on the same day, right after you started a new book from your shelf. #2017reads

Library book haul tonight. Biography on one of my favorite artists, the great George Harrison. True crime book on one of my favorite film noir movies, Double Indemnity. (Film has Barbara Stanwick, Edward G. Robinson, and Fred McMurray) The Children of Men is one of the 12 distopian society books that I am trying to read this year.

I love this movie so much. I'm wondering if the book can be better. It doesn't seem possible.

This novel is dystopian but the quote is quite Zen-like.

Just started this today 😊

Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years, two months and twelve days.

Reading this for my Afterlife of Things class as well. So far I like it, but the movie version of Jasper is better!

Beautiful prose and a realistic depiction of a hopeless society fill every page of this superb novel. Those coming from the film adaptation as I did have a story that's only similar to that of the film. Both are brilliant, though, and I'm thrilled that I finally took the journey through the book.

We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.

Timely dystopian fiction that asks the question, how should we live when the world is dying? Is it worthwhile to pursue justice if we're all gonna die anyway? http://cannonballread.com/2016/07/how-should-we-live-when-the-world-is-dying/