The Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

Future Home of the Living God

I don’t know what it is about this book, but it was one of the better books I have read in a while. The book follows the story of Cedar, an adopted woman of Native American descent, who finds out she is pregnant. Not only is she pregnant, but she is pregnant while the world is falling apart. We find that the way in which the world is ending is not what we are used to. Not a “normal” apocalypse. I don’t want to give away any specifics about the situation itself, so I will stop there. Future Home of the Living God makes you question who is really there for Cedar and maybe who would be there for you if you were in her situation.

There are not many books that end and leave me so…unsettled. The way Erdrich builds the world in the book is both extremely familiar, but also so different. There is no extreme collapse of the world described (burning buildings, zombie wastelands, etc) but as you read, you can tell the world isn’t right anymore. The author does an amazing job of not jarring the reader into a world that isn’t relatable. The entire time I was reading Cedar’s circumstances I was wondering “could this happen to me?” Obviously every tries to put his or herself into a story, but I feel like I did that a lot more with this book. I really wondered what I would do in the same situation. And honestly, I don’t know what I would do. If the world ended in the manner that it does in this story…well…lets just hope it doesn’t. Nobody wants to end up like Cedar does. At least in my opinion.

I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy apocalypse stories but also those who want realism in those stories as well. I’m happy I got this book through Book of the Month and I think I will have to pick up more of Erdrich’s books in the future.

I give Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich 📖  📖  📖  📖  .5/5.

Long Tuesdays

Long Tuesdays

Sometimes you have to stop and look around. That's what I have to do when I'm wrapped up in a book and forget what time it is. Luckily, the school day is over and hopefully I can sit down and read without a million questions about this and that.

Currently reading: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

#reading #mrsmadonnareads #bookofthemonth #longtuesdays #books #isitfridayyet

The Book of Dust: Vol. 1 La Belle Sauvage

Good afternoon everyone!

For the very first review on this blog, I will be reviewing The Book of Dust: Vol. 1 La Belle Sauvage by Phillip Pullman. This book really brought back the nostalgia I had when I read the His Dark Materials series. If you did not know, La Belle Sauvage is a prequel to the His Dark Materials series. The original series takes place in a world that looks familiar to ours, but with many differences. In my own words, it can be best described as Victorian England with a fantasy twist. It is a world controlled by a strict religious sect (very close to the Catholic Church) where the characters are followed by animal extensions of their souls called daemons. These daemons can change shape up until a certain age where they settle and stay in one form. Without going into too much detail, (I plan on re-reading the series in the near future) we are told the story of the struggle between the church, the rebellion and the search to understand the world. We are also introduced to Lyra who will be the series' center point.

But the rest of this review will focus on La Belle Sauvage, the first in what will hopefully be a new series the tells what happened before Lyra's epic journey through multiple worlds. Sauvage follows the journey of Malcolm Polsted, the son of an innkeeper in Oxford, his daemon Asta and his canoe, La Belle Sauvage. Malcolm finds his way into a secret war between the Church and science by overhearing the conversations of many mysterious figures that visit his father's inn. He becomes a spy for the resistance and finds out that the world is a lot more complicated than he thought. One such conversation involves a baby being protected by nuns at the nearby sanctuary. Lyra is at the center of contention between the Consistorial Court of Discipline (CCD) and a secret group of scientists and historians running counter to the CCD. Think of the CCD in terms of the Inquisition. You follow them or you mysteriously disappear.

Malcolm meets up with a host of characters from the original series as well as Alice, a girl that worked in Malcolm's family kitchen. After a great flood, Alice and Malcolm save Lyra and attempt to take her to her father, from whom she was separated as he was a murderer. We see the two grow as friends as they try their hardest to rescue Lyra.

The journey takes you through a series of emotions and leaves you wondering just what did the children actually see. Fairies? Giants? The Dead? This is one of the things I like about Pullman's work. It just crosses the line between reality and fantasy. Sauvage, while a fantasy book with clear fantasy elements, leaves you feeling like it could be your world. There is enough real-life elements to mingle Malcolm's world with your own. It is beautiful really, though I don't believe it is as powerful as his previous works. Hopefully in the upcoming books we will get a more thorough look into the world of Dust.

I give The Book of Dust: Volume 1 La Belle Sauvage a rating of 📖📖📖📖/5. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves fantasy with a twist of real life. Also, if you liked His Dark Materials or like Phillip Pullman, this book will bring you back to a world you never knew you missed. 

Book of the Month

Hello again!

So I just wanted to promote the website "Book of the Month" (no they aren't paying me to promote it or anything). I love the service because you can often get books before they even are on the shelves yet. Basically how it works is that every month you are given a choice of five books to be mailed to your house to read. They have 1 month, three month and 1 year plans. I have the three month plan and it is roughly $48. The price per book comes to roughly $10 FOR A HARD COVERED, BRAND NEW BOOK. Can't really beat that price. Plus you can add up to two additional books for $9.99 each.

If anyone would like to try it out, check out this link to sign up!

An Introduction

Hello everyone!

This is the first post in what I hope becomes a helpful blog for my fellow readers! I've always admired those people who can read book upon book and be able to write reviews. Honestly, reading book reviews is how I pick the books I read. I know book reviews are only opinions, but I honestly feel that if reviews for a book are mostly negative, the book may not be worth reading. But, as everyone knows, just because people dislike something doesn't mean that it isn't great to someone else. If we all followed the crowd, how would we ever discover something new?

One of my personal philosophies is that I cannot criticise or comment on something if I have not personally experienced it. I've read plenty of books that were unfortunately awful. Because I have read them, I feel as if I can comment on them negatively and not be a "Negative Nancy". I will try to steer clear of writing entirely negative book reviews. There is always SOMETHING redeeming about a book; even if it is difficult to find.

When I rate a book I will give it a number of 📖 (or what I call "Bookies") out of 5 and tell you if I recommend the book or not.

Anyway, I hope someone out there will find my reviews helpful and I hope you find a new book through me!