The Heart Goes Last

The Heart Goes Last Margaret Atwood 4/5	Published September 29th, 2015 First Sentence "Sleeping in the car is cramped."
Publisher's Description: Living in their car, surviving on tips, Charmaine and Stan are in a desperate state. So, when they see an advertisement for Consilience, a ‘social experiment’ offering stable jobs and a home of their own, they sign up immediately. All they have to do in return for suburban paradise is give up their freedom every second month – swapping their home for a prison cell. At first, all is well. But then, unknown to each other, Stan and Charmaine develop passionate obsessions with their ‘Alternates,’ the couple that occupy their house when they are in prison. Soon the pressures of conformity, mistrust, guilt and sexual desire begin to take over.
Dear Reader, The Heart Goes Last starts off with the destruction of the middle class, the rise of the upper class and the end of all comfort we know of (unless you happen to be rich, of course). While the rich get richer, the middle class is dried up like a prune and left to rot without a job, money or anywhere to turn to. Complete hopelessness. What do you do? I love the way Atwood touches on the future, which is so probable you can taste it... truly terrifying. Right from the start you can relate to Charmaine and Stan, both losing their jobs and knowing how hard it will be to find a new one. Since the world changes and changes quickly, they lose the house and are forced to live out of their car. You can only feel pity for this couple. But wait! Did you hear? There is a solution (says a commercial on TV one day). Come sign up and live in Positron, we will take care of you completely! Thinking it must be too good to be true, but also hard to pass up, they decide to try it out - which leads them to find out that this town is balanced between living free and working in a prison. Everyone does "time" and then switches out to live "life" on a monthly basis. This part was a little hokey for me and I didn't understand why Atwood used it when I found it didn't strengthen any of her messages. Without going much further into the plot (plenty left), I can say that Atwood punches you in the face with some eye opening themes of greed, violence, death, survival and so much more. The title of the book is mentioned within the plot and is hard to miss but I did appreciate the connection. The ending was the saving grace of the book, taking away all of the dull middle section and giving the readers something to gasp about. Let me just be frank, this ending is fraked up. You'll have to read it for yourself to find out why. ;) Happy Reading, AmberBug

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The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home

The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home Margaret Atwood & Naomi Alderman 3.5 / 5	Published 2012 First Sentences "Sometimes it's difficult to do the right thing. But Okie and I tried; we did everything humanly possible."
Publisher's Description: Okie's fifteen. She lives in New York. She's got a few problems: she's failing geography, her dad's a wimp, and her mother, Sumatra, is a stone cold bitch. But things get a lot worse when Sumatra turns into a zombie and eats Okie's dad. Clio, Okie's grandmother, lives in Toronto; but since the zombie apocalypse, Toronto's a lot further away than it used to be. Clio suggests that Okie transport Sumatra across the border, because family is family. But coaching Okie by cellphone isn't easy, and Clio has some zombies of her own to contend with. Luckily she has some garden tools. Naomi Alderman and Margaret Atwood team up for this unusual two-hander. Encompassing love, death, sex, and the meaning of family, The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home will surprise, delight, and convince you of the vital importance of keeping ready supplies of rhubarb and mini-wieners in your freezer at all times. (Description from Wattpad)
Dear Reader, This was a super quick read (although let's ignore that I read it in such little chunks that it took me a couple of weeks to get through! haha). It is available ONLY on Wattpad, so don't look for it in any other format (believe me, I tried!). It must be read either in a browser or using the Wattpad app (which is available for Android or iOS). NB: All reading options are free! In any case, this was a lighthearted and interesting take on the whole zombie apocalypse. I know, I know, it's been done 2,000 times already. But this story takes a different tack, and I really liked its ideas. For one thing, it posits the possibility of somewhere (NYC, in this instance) being able to build back up post apocalypse. This means that there are "safe zones" which are relatively "back to normal" (albeit with a bit more awareness & caution - mostly) and then the kind of no-mans-lands which exist outside of the city's gates. Life still goes on relatively normally within the safe zones: people go to school, "normal life" has returned. However, many choose to remain outside of the walls, but they know that they do so at their own risk. Clio, a fairly cool grandmother who resides in her marital home in Toronto, is one of those. She knows how to be safe with the wild creatures outside her garden walls. And she is an especially interesting character, because her late husband is perhaps the cause of the zombie plague! (Another thing I love: how the authors imply that it could be overconsumption of a fictitious energy drink which could have caused humans to turn into zombies.) So when her granddaughter calls with the news that "mom ate dad" (with the grandmother initially misunderstanding in a hilarious way), Clio tells Okie that she ought to hire a "Z-Liner" to transport both the kid & zombie mom to her place in Canada. The book isn't long so I don't want to give too much away, but I will restate how I enjoyed the light (but not silly) take on the zombie situation in this book. It was sweet and would be easy to gobble up in an afternoon (no pun intended!). I certainly recommend this for any zombie fans out there, particularly if you are of the belief that zombie behavior can be interpreted in various ways. This being just one humorous take. Yours, Arianna

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Happy Birthday Margaret Atwood!

Happy Birthday Margaret Atwood! 75 years young and still typing up literary gifts. To celebrate, ShelfNotes has selected a few favorite quotes and links to past reviews posted of her work.

   

“I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.”

“What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.”


“Old lovers go the way of old photographs, bleaching out gradually as in a slow bath of acid: first the moles and pimples, then the shadings. Then the faces themselves, until nothing remains but the general outlines.”


“All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.”

"The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for love." [from Surfacing, 1972]

“Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise." [from Cat's Eye, 1988]

"Nolite te bastardes carbonundorum." (translation: Don't let the bastards grind you down.) [from The Handmaid's Tale, 1985]

On writing: 
"After a year or two of keeping my head down and trying to pass myself off as a normal person, I made contact with the five other people at my university who were interested in writing; and through them, and some of my teachers, I discovered that there was a whole subterranean Wonderland of Canadian writing that was going on just out of general earshot and sight."
and
"Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well."

And a poem:

Your righteous eyes, your laconic
trigger-fingers people the streets with villains:
as you move, the air in front of you
blossoms with targets

and you leave behind you a heroic
trail of desolation:
beer bottles
slaughtered by the side
of the road, bird-
skulls bleaching in the sunset.

--"Backdrop addresses cowboy" (1974)

Margaret Atwood Books Reviewed by ShelfNotes

Oryx & Crake

Year of the Flood

Stone Mattress

Stone Mattress

Stone Mattress Margaret Atwood 5/5	Publication Date: September 16th, 2014 First Sentence "The freezing rain sifts down, handfuls of shining rice thrown by some unseen celebrant."
Publisher's Description: A collection of highly imaginative short pieces that speak to our times with deadly accuracy. Vintage Atwood creativity, intelligence, and humor: think Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her award-winning 1996 novel, Alias Grace. A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in "Alphinland," the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists. In "The Freeze-Dried Bridegroom," a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise. In "Lusus Naturae," a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In "Torching the Dusties," an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. And in "Stone Mattress," a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.
Dear Reader, Atwood has my heart, she is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. Remember how I said short stories aren't usually my thing? Atwood can give me short stories ANYDAY and I'd gobble them up. This grouping was surprisingly dark and gothic which always tickle my fancy. I'm also very partial to story collections that have central themes and this one had two big, fat themes; mortality and revenge. Both of those topics can be seductive and macabre at the same time. The first three stories relate by interconnecting characters, each one centralizing around the idea of growing older and leaving behind (or NOT leaving behind) old grudges. I loved how most of collection revolved around Authors, and I wonder if any of the stories speak a little about Atwood on a personal level. I have my favorites from this collections, like the story of an uprising younger generation bent on "taking care" of the elderly, and by "taking care" I don't mean feeding, clothing and sheltering them. The idea is this: the next generation of kids will hate us for what we've done to the world and the state we have left it in. Surprisingly, this exact theme is touched upon in David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks which I was reading consecutively. Is this something we should be worried about? Apparently some of the great minds in literature have been tossing around this theme and maybe we should pay a little more attention to it?! I have to commend Atwood for having given me a story collection to read that had me interested throughout the entire thing. Often, I find myself wondering if I should 'skip' to the next story (if I'm not quite fancying the one I'm reading). I NEVER did that with Stone Mattress, each story had me enchanted enough to keep my interest. I did have favorites but I can honestly say that I didn't dislike/hate any of them. I found something useful and interesting with every single one. I would highly recommend this collection to anyone who loves short stories and especially to those skeptics, this one might change your mind. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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AmberBug has a Goal for Bout of Books 11.0

I've decided to play along with a blogging "read-a-thon" happening Aug 18th thru Aug 24th, hosted by Bout of Books (another great book blog). 

So the plan is to read, lots. I'm hoping to read everyday (which I already do) but hopefully punch it up a bit on the weekend. During the week I think I've maxed out all my reading opportunities already, so this should be interesting. So, goal... I'm hoping to at least read 3 books in those two weeks. If I surpass that, I'll have to celebrate with cupcakes. I've been averaging a book a week, and the books that are on my "to-read" next aren't all that "small". So, one can only hope, right?

Below is a list of the books I'm planning on finishing and potentially reading for the read-a-thon. Come back during the week to see the progress I've made, and join up with us... this should be fun. :)

Goal #1: Finish this book: The Dialogue of Dogs (I've been working on this for quite some time now).

Goal #2: Devour this book of stories (re-told tales) - sent to me by the publisher. Can we just talk about how awesome that cover is?!

Goal #3: Last but not least... I'm hoping to at least start and ANOTHER short story collection (I feel swimming in these lately) but this one is super special, Margaret Atwood's "Stone Mattress", coming out this Fall. Who doesn't love a little Atwood?!

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam Trilogy #2)

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam Trilogy #2) Margaret Atwood 4.5/5	Published 2009 First Sentence "In the early morning Toby climbs up to the rooftop to watch the sunrise."
Publisher's Description: The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. "The Year of the Flood" is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners--a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life--has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life.  Two women have survived: Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible.   Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers . . . Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move. They can't stay locked away . . .  By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasily hilarious, "The Year of the Flood" is Atwood at her most brilliant and inventive.
Dear Reader, First things first, check out my review of Oryx & Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy #1. The Year of the Flood is another smash hit for me, bringing Atwood one step closer to my heart. This book isn't really a "sequel" to Oryx & Crake but more of a linear story that helps build this strange world Atwood has imagined. I would say that you don't HAVE to read Oryx & Crake before picking this one up since the book is made up of entirely different characters. On the other hand I would suggest you read Oryx & Crake first because of the few crossovers and you'd definitely be missing out on some interesting plot points and the overall story Atwood is trying to tell. Even though this book might stand alone, the third book (from what I hear) brings both books together. I don't want to give away any spoilers but I think it's safe to say that reading this review won't ruin the first book for you (if you haven't read it). This book introduces a whole new cast of characters but set in the same world as Oryx & Crake. We meet the Gardeners, who worship life (animals, plants, even insects) and have taken a vow not to hurt anything that falls into the category of "life". The Gardeners live in the pleebs, what could be closest described to slums in this dystopia. The big Corps ignore The Gardeners and most groups/tribes like them, figuring the people won't be doing any harm to their perfectly controlled system/environment the "rich" live in. The story moves back and forward in time (just like Oryx & Crake did), the time span ranges from Year One to Year 25 (the year of the water-less "flood"). The characters of Ren and Toby take center stage in this book, we learn about almost everything just from their perspective. I think more people would relate to the characters in this book, there seems to be a nice balance between activism and self preservation (something I believe all humans possess). I found myself constantly pondering over the question of "what would I do in this situation?". Ultimately, I'd like to think that I'd fight for my rights and for the rights of those around me. In reality? I might succumb to self preservation but it's very interesting to think about. Atwood is fast becoming a favorite Author of mine and I can't wait to see where this story ends up. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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Oryx & Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy #1)

Oryx & Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy #1) Margaret Atwood 5/5	Published 2003 First Sentence "Snowman wakes before dawn."
Publisher's Description: Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.
Dear Reader, I loved this book. I stayed up way too late every night reading this book. Lack of sleep didn't stop me from picking up the second book The Year of the Flood the same night I finished Oryx & Crake. Not many books can keep me up like that, let alone wanting me to pick up the sequel directly after. Usually, I'm the type of person that likes to let it digest and even wait a few months to pick up the second book (if at all). Books with series (3 or more) get me anxious (mostly because of the invested time required), I find that I don't usually finish a complete series unless the book rates 4 stars or higher for me. There is just too many books and too little time!  Let me rewind a bit though, I haven't even told you anything about the book yet. Meet Snowman (a.k.a Jimmy), a self absorbed and somewhat dis-likable character who somehow survives this crazy Apocalypse. No, I didn't give anything away that wasn't already given to you by the books description. There are quite a bit of plot twists and surprises and I promise I won't divulge any of those delectable secrets. Atwood brings us back and forward through time using Snowman/Jimmy's eyes. Through Jimmy, we see as he reflects back upon everything that has happened and we meet all the characters that play the part from his perspective. Everything he goes through plays a small part of the impending changes of the future. Since I don't want to give anything away, I think I'll leave it at that.  I like the genre "speculative fiction" and this novel fits perfectly under that category. I really wish I had read this when it came out in 2003. Atwood has taken some scary ideas (most of them could very likely be true) and given us a novel that could very well be the next 1984. I predict that this novel will be looked back upon as a reference for future generations, almost like a warning that wasn't heard (hopefully I'm wrong about this). Wasn't that the same feeling Orwell's 1984 gave us? I obviously wasn't alive when 1984 was published, so I can't say personally but the book has that stigma of predicting the future.  Some of the creepy things we come across in Oryx & Crake include, animal splicing (the Rakunk which is a combination of raccoon and skunk), genetic alterations (chemically injecting food so it won't rot or attract bugs), voyeuristic programming (watching the most taboo of topics on the internet and becoming desensitized by it, like kiddie porn and suicide). Does any of this sound familiar? Atwood definitely gets her inspiration from our own technological advances, she brings the current inventions to a new scary futuristic level. This is a world that you can imagine, a world that could be our future... now THAT is scary! SPOILER!!! Don't Read Below This If You Haven't Read The Book ... (ALSO contains Battlestar Galactica Spoilers, if you've never seen or finished that show *and SHAME on you if you haven't seen the show!!*) I just wanted to talk about the main theme of the book, the Apocalypse. I think what I loved about this book reminded me why I loved Battlestar Galactica so much. Both give us a decaying world filled with crime, overuse of technology, morals gone wrong and pretty much complete disrespect of the land we call home (again, doesn't this sound a bit too familiar!) Also, both BSG and Oryx & Crake reset the world, taking away everything that was destroying it (including the mass population). Neither this book or the show gives us the aftermath but one can only imagine how the world will be rebuilt with the remaining survivors. BSG went one step further pushing the idea that humanity will just make the same mistakes over and over again. To quote from the show "All of this has happened before and will happen again".  I think the idea of resetting and starting anew, making the survivors live with the earth and nothing else, is SO fascinating. I've often thought of what we would do without all the technology we have, would we be able to survive? Would we be able to reset our own way of thinking and go back to scavenging for food and shelter? I actually think it would be kind of wonderful to get a second chance, but I think the same problems would arrive and like BSG showed us... humanity would be in an endless loop, making the same mistakes over and over again.  SPOILER DONE!!! I have nothing else to say but READ this book.  Yours, AmberBug

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