"Uglies", "Pretties", and "Specials"

I just read a trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. The books are entitled: "Uglies", "Pretties", and "Specials". After reading "East of Eden", these books will definitely be classified as "Brain Candy". They were a very easy, and quite enjoyable read. The story takes place in the future after the "Rusties" have all died off--- Rusties meaning us. In this world, when you are younger than 12 years old you are called 'littlies' and you live with your parents. When you turn 12 you move to dorms-like places--- at least that is what I compared it to--- where you live with people your age and are called 'uglies'. You are an 'ugly' until you turn 16 years old. On your 16th birthday, everyone is given an operation which makes you beautiful and you live on the 'pretty' side of town and get to party all the time. Tally is the main character and she is just about to turn 16 when she meets Shay. Shay tells her about a whole new world where people have run away before their 16th birthday and live in a place called "The Smoke" to avoid the operation. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't give any more details about the story line. I really enjoyed these books and would highly recommend them. However, just as a warning, there is bit of environmental stuff in the books, but unless you are pretty touchy I don't think it will bother you.

Also, there is a fourth book in the series that takes place a few years later. The main characters in the first three aren't the main characters in the last one, but they are still part of the book. The fourth one was my least my favorite, but it was still a good read.

My first Book Review!

I have seen a couple of blogs where people wrote up Book Reviews for books they read in 2008. I thought it was a really good idea and I really enjoyed reading them so I decided to do something similar. However, instead of waiting until the end of the year I decided I would do it as I go along. Maybe it will make me blog more often!

The first book I read this year is "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck. It took me FOREVER to read. I made a goal to read more Classics and more non-fiction books this year and this was the first attempt at my goal. I chose it because my brother Sam kept telling me how great a book it was and kept asking if I had read it yet. I would tell you what it is about- but it is really complicated. It takes place before and during World War 1 and most of the story takes place in Salinas, California. I can't tell you if whether or not I liked the book because honestly, I don't know. While I was reading it I was really frustrated because it was depressing and I hate depressing books! But now that I look back it is interesting to think about the characters and what Steinbeck was trying to do. My favorite character was probably Cal even though he was the "bad" twin. One of his struggles in life was that he felt he was bad because his mom was bad and it had carried on to him. He didn't want to be bad, but he just was. It took a lot of effort for him to be "good" and sometimes he gave into his "bad" instincts. His character is probably the one I related to most because I think we all have "bad" in us that we have to overcome and even though it is hard and sometimes seems unfair, we can still do it. Aron on the other hand was the "good" twin that everybody liked. It was interesting how, in my opinion, Steinbeck made the reader like Cal better than Aron. Maybe it was because more of the book was from Cal's point of view rather than Aron's. But even in the book, Aron's own girlfriend didn't like him much because he was too good, or at least he thought he was, and he expected everybody else and everything in his life to be the same.

Anyway, I would recommend this book if you are a fan of Classics and like to analyze books or find a deeper meaning. It definitely wasn't "brain candy" as Debbie would say, but not many Classics are. It took me awhile to read--- it is about 600 hundred pages I think. In 1981 they made an 8 hour mini TV series that I would like to get my hands on, but I haven't had the opportunity yet.

So there is my first book review. A little long and kind of boring I know. But at least I have a new blog!