Book Review - The Year of the Flood

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood - author of the Alchemist's Daughter

This book was a fantastic read, eventually. I will say it was a slow start and I did put it down for a month, checked it out from the library again and actually moved through it pretty fast once I was in a little ways. I think I was confused by thinking it was a biblical story. After all, she wrong historical fiction before.

This is a book about a very bleak future if humanity doesn’t get it’s poop in gear and change. In this future we have genetically modified and eaten so much that nothing is left. A very “out there” group called the gardeners is the only group of people that avoid all the processing and eat only the plant based diet they grow on their roof-top gardens. It helps that they were scientists that knew a plague of biblical proportions was coming.

Very few people survive, but mainly in this book we are concerned with Toby a woman from before things in the world degenerated and watched her parents destroyed by the changes. She sort of fell in with the gardeners because they saved her, she never truly believed. Funny thing was Adam One didn’t care, he felt that actions were more important than faith.

Ren was a very young girl when her mother ran away with a man who was with the gardeners. I think this man was Adam Six…and left the gardeners when her mother went back home. She became a high paid legal prostitute when her mother gave her the boot when she remarried.

You need to read about their journeys and also the sermons from Adam One are breathtaking and a little scary. Some of the things in this book are already happening, and seeing our people continue on this route is all to probable. This is not a happy book. So if you like the end of the world, dark future stories, you’ll love this. If you like happy stories that make you feel good, keep looking.

I was not paid or asked for this review. If you click on the links to amazon, I will recieve a commission...I think.

The Monday Melee « fracas

The Monday Melee « fracas
I must write - so here's a new Monday Melee from Fracas - who has an amazing blog by the way.

1. The Magnificent: Name someone you absolutely adore, and tell us why. My son CW. He's 4 now and getting to be so big and self efficient. Today I made him put on his own socks and shoes and said he had to at least try zipping his coat. When he did it - he yelled "Look! I don't need Mama or Daddy anymore!" Which of course cuts like a knife, but he was so excited to do something on his own. He's also full of generosity. Anytime we buy something he wants to buy it for Andrew and Austin as well, older boys who live next door. If we have dinner, he invites them in too. I love this trait, so I think I should start cooking bigger dinners. lol

2. The Muddy: Tell us something about life you just don’t “get”. Why it's so hard to do something off the normal path. I quit working to raise my boys, and my loving husband agreed. But here we are with never enough money. And so many people who blame me. What the hell am I doing sitting on my ass without a job? Well the economy sucks, so that is part of it. But mostly, I freeze up at the thought of putting my boys in daycare. It scares the hell out of me to put them in someone else's hands. I don't know those people...not really. School will be hard for me. But what I don't "get" is why it all has to be such a battle to raise my kids the way my husband and I want to.

3. The Magnetic: Name something or someone good (or bad) you’re drawn to and you just can’t help it. Tell us if you want to change this or not. The Sims 3...or the Sims in general. I love it, it's a waste of my life but I just love it. I can play that for hours...and I did when I was single with no kids. lol I guess I wish it wasn't such a draw for me, after all what do I really get from it but losing more time?

4. The Mainstay: Who or what is something you just can’t live without? Why? I cannot live without the Andersons. They are the best family we have. Always there for us, no matter what. And without judgement. Not to say they don't have their opinions and express them, but they support what we chose to do no matter what. They help us, financially and emotionally. And most of all, they show me traits that I aspire to.

5. The Masquerade: Tell us something about yourself we wouldn’t already know. I can comfortablye wear little boy shoes size 5. I mean they really fit me well. When I buy sandals or boots, I look there first. Just wait until you see me stylin' in my new light-up Power Rangers! lol

6. The Mettle: Tell us about a time you showed courage in yourself, or tell us what you wish you had the courage to do. To continue to learn software developing on my own. It will take a lot of time, effor and courage. I'm stuck because of fear I know that much. Is it something I can learn on my own, who can I get mentoring from, who can tell me where to start? I'm afraid that I'll be frozen by fear and just wittle away my life as the boys grow.