Readings

   I've read several books over the past few weeks, in the hopes that I would make my google spreadsheet a nice long list. I've made it quite the list, but sadly it's not as long as I thought it would be. Alas, I'll just keep reading, and here's what I read on Saturday.

   This past Saturday I spent a lot of time in the car with 6 of my nephews, Robby and Sara were off getting Santa's shopping done, and I brought along Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

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   Across the Universe has got to be one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's starts off in 2036 with Amy and her parents at a lab to get frozen for a journey to a new earth like planet that will take 300 years. Personally, I would have told them to keep their new planet because the idea of being frozen, while I'm still kicking, makes me feel icky or icy(ha!). The first chapter is the freezing process for Amy's parents and her last. If anyone can make it through the first chapter, then the rest of the book is worth it. I thought that the first chapter was rough, not because it was written poorly or because it was terrible, but because Beth Revis makes it seem so plausible. The believability of the book is what makes the story. In the next chapter, it's some 200 years later on board the ship Godspeed, and Elder (the chapters go from Amy to Elder's point of view), is having his leadership lessons as he's next in line to be Eldest the ship's leader when he learns about the bottom part of the ship where the icy cargo is stored. And not long after he discovers it, someone unplugs Amy's icy coffin with the supposed intent to murder her. Amy is saved and she learns all about life on the ship, and how she's been woken up 50 years too soon and cannot be refrozen. The people on the ship are mono-ethnic, have never been anywhere but onboard the ship, and all have the utmost respect for Eldest. As the book goes on, it starts to seems like an outer space combination of Brave New World (the people on the ship have strange mating practices) and 1984 (it's very dystopian). The story doesn't really have a good ending, but this is the first book of the trilogy, so I'm eager to see what happens next!