Blindness, by José Saramago

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A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers--among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears--through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. 

I don't know if it would be freakier to listen to this book (which I did) or to read the novel.

I am so disturbed by this story because of how real it seems; knowing that something like this could happen. Maybe not the "white sickness," but how the government reacts; how people treat each other; and how civilized society morphs into a world full of horror.

Now, I love dystopian fiction. 1984. Brave New World. The Hunger Games. The Handmaid's Tale. But this book freaked me out more than any of the others:

• The story opens with a normal day: driving; walking; going home; seeing the doctor. Within a matter of a week, life has changed across the board. 
• There are no names, ages, or physical descriptions to define people. It could be you or me or anyone.
• The actions in Left Side, Ward Three? Horrifying.
• A sickness so contagious that all you have to do is look at an infected person.

There is some hope, however:

• The Doctor's Wife, who never loses her sight. Though she does have her own horrors to live through, there is no doubt in my mind that she is the reason that what remains of her group is still functioning at the end. 
• For every person who takes advantage of the situation to harm people, there are a dozen who do know right from wrong and still try to make their own areas of this new world civilized.
• People can adapt to new struggles. It's not easy, but it can be done.

This book is going to stay with me for a long time. I'm really glad that I already have a physical copy of this on my bookshelves.

But man, I need something light and fluffy to read now.

Perla, by Carolina De Robertis

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A coming-of-age story, based on a recent shocking chapter of Argentine history, about a young woman who makes a devastating discovery about her origins with the help of an enigmatic houseguest.

Perla Correa grew up a privileged only child in Buenos Aires, with a cold, polished mother and a straitlaced naval officer father, whose profession she learned early on not to disclose in a country still reeling from the abuses perpetrated by the deposed military dictatorship. Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of the conflict, but her love for her papá is unconditional. But when Perla is startled by an uninvited visitor, she begins a journey that will force her to confront the unease she has suppressed all her life, and to make a wrenching decision about who she is, and who she will become.

**I won this book from Goodreads as a First Reads giveaway**

3.5 stars.

Previous knowledge of Argentine history: There was once a woman named Eva Peron who did something or other. Madonna played her in a movie.

This book is great. Based on a culmination of true stories, it tells the story of a young woman whose parents were involved in the Dirty War of 1976-1983. Now, as an adult, she learns that her whole life was based on a lie.

I love the writing, though it seemed too flowery in some areas. I'm usually annoyed by writing styles that don't include "proper" punctuation, but it works in this novel. Perla, the narrator and protagonist, is confused and jumbled, so it makes sense that her thoughts are written as such.

New knowledge of Argentine history: El Proceso, the Dirty War, 30,000 forced disappearances of "subversive" leftist individuals. And Eva Peron was the first wife of President Peron, who was much loved by the Argentine people for her humanity and work with the under-privileged.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

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Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix-tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

But Charlie can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. 


Well, I certainly didn't see THAT plot point coming at the end; totally bumped it up from 3.5 stars to 4 stars.

I was annoyed by the incorrect use of adverbs (as in, the complete lack of them...grrr) and kept correcting the narrator in my head. 

Other than that, it's a great coming-of-age novel with a great message: Live in the moment. YOUR moment.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks

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The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”


I love this book. I'm so glad that I listened to the audiobook rather than reading it. It helped to hear all of the different voices and hear their stories.

Talk about your parable for current events, though. It may be fiction, but it reads like a non-fiction novel. And there were times I had to remind myself that this is a Zombie novel, not a recent or current war.

Totally freaky, but in a good way. I need to update my Zombie Apocalypse Plan!

Shelter: A Novel, by Frances Greenslade

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For sisters Maggie and Jenny growing up in the Pacific mountains in the early 1970s, life felt nearly perfect. Seasons in their tiny rustic home were peppered with wilderness hikes, building shelters from pine boughs and telling stories by the fire with their doting father and beautiful, adventurous mother.

But at night, Maggie—a born worrier—would count the freckles on her father’s weathered arms, listening for the peal of her mother’s laughter in the kitchen, and never stop praying to keep them all safe from harm. 

Then her worst fears come true: Not long after Maggie’s tenth birthday, their father is killed in a logging accident, and a few months later, their mother abruptly drops the girls at a neighbor’s house, promising to return. She never does. 

With deep compassion and sparkling prose, Frances Greenslade’s mesmerizing debut takes us inside the devastation and extraordinary strength of these two girls as they are propelled from the quiet, natural freedom in which they were raised to a world they can’t begin to fathom. Even as the sisters struggle to understand how their mother could abandon them, they keep alive the hope that she is fighting her way back to the daughters who adore her and who need her so desperately.


**I won this book from Goodreads as a First Reads giveaway**

3.5 stars.

I liked this book, though it didn't hook me right from the start. I knew what was coming--the father's death, the mother's abandonment, and a crisis--and I kept waiting to get to said crisis. Since the book's blurb gives away so much, I felt certain that the "good stuff" would happen pretty much immediately.

It wasn't until 2/3 of the way through the book that Maggie goes out in search of her mother and we get to the meat of the story. Once that happened, I breezed through the rest of the book and was completely captivated.

Hex Hall (Hex Hall #1), by Rachel Hawkins

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Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters. 


By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect. 

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.


This was a decent book, but just "meh" compared to other books I've read recently. There is a lot of hype surrounding this trilogy, and I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.  

I won't be continuing with the series.

Catalyst, by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Meet Kate Malone--straight-A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, new girlfriend (to Mitchell "Early Decision Harvard" Pangborn III), unwilling family caretaker, and emotional avoidance champion. 

Kate manages her life by organizing it as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all--or so she thinks. Then, things change as suddenly as a string of chemical reactions; first, the Malones' neighbors get burned out of their own home and move in. Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri's little brother. The days are ticking down and she's still waiting to hear from the only college she applied to: MIT. 

Kate feels that her life is spinning out of her control-and then, something happens that truly blows it all apart. Set in the same community as the remarkable Speak, Catalyst is a novel that will change the way you look at the world.


I absolutely love Laurie Halse Anderson and am catching up on all of her YA books. Catalyst is set in the same community as Speak and a couple of the characters overlap.

I remember what it was like to be a senior in high school, stressing out about hearing back from the college that you absolutely HAD to go to. Pile on the AP classes, the extracurricular activities, and stress at home, and you're prepared for a nervous breakdown. Then that one final thing happens, and you completely lose it. You know that's what's happening to Kate Malone. But that one final thing? The one that pushed her over the edge and into a meltdown? I didn't see that one coming.