Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this had interesting concepts about an alien invasion and I even liked the inversion of time, memory, and religion, but I didn't think it was executed all that well.

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Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein

Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This reads like a draft by an exceptionally interesting though potentially dangerous teenage boy.

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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I did not like this book at all. I read the whole thing anyway, probably because I'm genetically programmed to torture myself by finishing books I don't like. At least I'm not as bad as Emiko. By the way, Emiko was the only character in this book I liked even a little. It felt like way too much of it was not about her, and when it was about her, TERRIBLE things were happening to her and she wanted to die.

Rough. Do not recommend.

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My last read for the spring Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon. A perfect children's book that's exciting and fun for adults too. It's about bravery, loyalty, family, and love. A classic! Can't wait until James (and then Miranda) is old enough to read it and appreciate it.

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Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe 3.5 but I like to round up. Interesting world and entertaining story, but some of it was weird in a bad way (head and legs only prostitutes). Also, very violent.

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I reread this as part of my "Bannon-Trump-resist" reading list. I only read it before it in middle school and I'm not sure what I got from it at the time except maybe that tyranny, and tyranny of ideas, is dangerous.

It has a peculiar effect on me this time around. I've been reading fast and furiously for about a year, trying to make up for lost time (all the time I spent not reading very much while I was working a lot). The more I read, the more I become aware of all the books that are necessary to read; the books I have yet to read. And in this frame of mind, the single scariest sentence in the book is: "Remember the firemen are rarely necessary. The public stopped reading of its own accord. You firemen provide a circus now and then at which buildings are set off and crowds gather for the pretty blaze, but it's a small sideshow indeed, and hardly necessary to keep things in line."

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The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know. It's well-written. It's an eloquent and complete answer to Ayn Rand about the possibilities of cooperation- not perfect even if set-up perfectly, but better than greed and selfishness. At the same time, the characters are real and moving people. This isn't an empty allegory.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot I actually enjoyed in this book. I more or less just powered through it.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3) by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(#3) This one is much better than the second one. It has a lot of moving parts and interesting and developed new characters. I recently reread this and seeing Snape's intentions in the correct light is really interesting.

Favorite parts: discussions about Hogsmeade, Lupin, Scabbers, Sirius Black, Hermoine's school schedule, the introduction of Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang, the Hippogryph, and of course the map!

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Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I read this for school, I was exceptionally young. Sometime in middle school for sure. I barely knew anything about communist and socialist revolutions around the world, and wouldn't for many years. (We didn't even make it to the Kennedy years in History Class, possibly something to do with the years the AP exam focused on.) Years after reading the book, I recalled its contents and just sort of assumed it was anti-communist.

But I reread it recently and it's not that simple. The previous system, where the animals are slaves under the farmer, is only better in terms of animal feed and a lack of hypocrisy about the evils being committed. The ruling elite are pigs either way- whether they are the humans or the literal pigs.

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