Portal Time: Your Turn (Julie)

Alright readers, let's have some fun. If books were portals, which book would you love to be sucked in to for a day? 

Are you a sci-fi geek and want to end up in a story like Ender's Game or War of the Worlds entrenched in high tech gadgets or fighting aliens?

Maybe you prefer the fantasy realm? Learning magic at Hogwarts, live in an underwater community, setting foot in Hobbiton, or hanging out with the fairy tale characters we all know and love?

Or perhaps you want to experience our world in the future like in Scythe or The Hunger Games?

This is a momentously hard question for me to answer. One book for one day?? Right now it's a tie between Harry Potter and Fablehaven. Two of my favorite series. I mean who wouldn't want to roam around Hogwarts and sit in on Professor McGonagall's class? Or learn how to fly a broomstick? Then again, who wouldn't want to visit a magical creatures's preserve and meet all those exciting magic beings? Both would be jammed packed with adventures and cool characters. 

But then again to travel over Middle Earth!!! *Sigh* too many. But now that I've had to chose, what about you? What book calls to you?

Going Deep (Julie)

I'm a sucker for stories with happy endings and don't particularly dig books with deep, thought-provoking themes. I'd rather read to escape reality. However, recently I found myself reading Neal Shusterman's Scythe, because it received high praise from several friends. Writers are supposed to branch out after all. Well, I am now reading book two in the series.

If you want the synopsis, check out Jill's post here.

What fascinates me about this book is actually the deep, thought-provoking message (shocking!). In a world where humans are now immortal with no more diseases or pain, there's also a stagnation. Everything has been achieved so there's nothing left to work toward. No goals, no aspirations, no discoveries. Since humans can't die, except by fire, they have employed Scythes to keep the world's population from becoming too excessive. Yet, in such a perfect world, is it perfect after all?

I started reading the series right after I joined a book discussion at my school on helping students understand the process of thinking. While reading the book, it got me to thinking, among other teacherish things, just how powerful a book can be. Shusterman's book has you wondering about what life would look like if we did actually conquer our "problems". Could pain and hardship be a good thing after all? If we had no problems, we'd never grow and learn and so forth.

As Sean Connery said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Books, if done right, can be amazing tools for helping us think and understand the world around us. Writers have the power to change lives!

Those are my deep thoughts for today. Are you reading any books currently or in the past that got you to think beyond the surface into the profound mysteries of life?

What We're Reading: Scythe (Jill)

Humanity has come a long way. War, hunger, misery, disease, and aging have been eradicated. Now that age really is just a number, death doesn't occur either. Which isn't a problem, except for the over-population issue. So in order to control the population, scythes have the non-enviable profession of "gleaning," choosing and then killing individuals.

When Scythe Faraday stops by Citra Terranova's house, it's not for a gleaning; it's for supper. And when Rowan Damisch offers compassion to a fellow student picked to be gleaned, his high school experience becomes unbearable. Citra and Rowan's lives intersect when both are chosen to become scythe apprentices. Although each considers refusing, their families don't protest the opportunity -- they're given immunity from gleaning as long as that family member is a scythe.

 The plan is for Citra and Rowan to be tested against each other at the Winter Conclave. Whoever does best will become a scythe while the other will go back to their "regular" life. So for the next year, the two learn the profession of bringing death. They struggle with the moral issues of living and dying, and they learn various ways to end a life. They learn Bokator, a martial art, and become acquainted with toxic chemicals. At the Vernal Conclave, they're both tested (and do poorly). Afterward, Scythe Goddard mentions his displeasure with Scythe Faraday mentoring two apprentices. Goddard's wicked solution creates higher stakes for Citra and Rowan, and exposes cracks in the political system.
When their master chooses to glean himself, Citra and Rowan are separated, sent to other scythes to continue their apprenticeships.  They learn not all scythes are created equal, and their training diverges.

Scythe by Neil Shusterman is one of the most thought-provoking YA fantasies I've read in a long time. Despite the morbid subject matter, the violence wasn't gratuitous and moved the plot forward. Although our culture's always looking to turn back the clock, this read had me considering the wisdom of living forever. The world building, a look at what our world might become, was fascinating -- I enjoyed the touches Shusterman added to show how our world had changed and not all of the modifications were for the better.

As mentioned before, there is some blood and violence, so I wouldn't recommend it for younger YA readers. But for the older set, it could open up interesting conversations about what it means to grow older, how our culture treats death and dying, and how our faith changes our outlook on such issues. Scythe is part of a series, and the next book will be released in January 2018.