The Literary Adventures of an Opinionated Bookworm

The conquering of death is a common occurrence in most (if not all) dystopian fiction; but once death is all but a dream, another problem arises in the form of an ever growing population. Each dystopian universe attempts to answer the question of population control, and Scythe  by Neal Shusterman offers a fascinating and unique answer.  Who chooses? Rowan and Citra are both sixteen years old when they are recruited by Scythe Faraday to be apprentices to the schythedom. Neither are particularly excited by the prospect of joining those who glean the population of MidMerica, but they accept the apprenticeship and as a result, they are forced to look beyond their assumptions about what it is to be a scythe.  When I was in high school, I greedily consumed dystopian novels. Something about looking into the future fascinated me, but I eventually fell out of love with this genre for one very simple reason: Love triangles. Why there always had to be two men vying for the affection...

What does feminism look like in the 21st century? Why is feminism popular now? What are the consequences of a visible feminism? These are the questions that Sarah Banet-Weiser answers in her book, Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny, and because of this, I believe this book is an important one.  If you have ever had questions about feminism or misogyny, this is the book for you! Banet-Weiser has an amazing ability to take broad themes from a theoretical, academic level and apply them to everyday examples that make these themes more realistic. Not only did her examples support her idea on how popular feminism and popular misogyny are interconnected, but she was able to weave a complicated web around economics, media, relationships, work and video games, which displayed to her readers just how deeply rooted the themes of feminism and misogyny are in our daily lives.  Please do not look at this book as a textbook or an academic text; although it is thoroughly researc...

The name Ernest Hemingway is one that everyone probably knows in some way or another. You might have read his works in school or heard his name mentioned in popular culture, but the name is mentioned among other authors as one who wrote many classics. I cannot remember when I bought For Whom The Bell Tolls , but I did so thinking that I had to experience one of the greats. Not long after buying the novel, I watched  10 Things I Hate About You , in which Kat Stratford (portrayed by Julia Stiles), proclaims that Hemingway was a misogynist, and his book has sat on my bookshelf unread for several years as a consequence of this characterization.  Years later, I am enrolled in a World Literature class that focuses on the themes of empire and civil war, and For Whom The Bell Tolls is one of the required texts. I have now read the book, and found that I enjoyed most of it. You cannot deny that Hemingway was a talented writer, despite some sexist and racist themes that are present thro...

Whoever would have thought that the entirety of a revolution could be experienced within a hotel? I nominated  A Gentleman in Moscow  by Amor Towles for my work book club because I thought it would be a nice change of pace from our usual sci-fi/fantasy reads. When the book was released I was working in a bookstore, and I witnessed the buzz around the tale and how book clubs absolutely adored the writing and the story. "Why not?" I thought to myself. "Let us see how my coworkers respond." A Gentleman in Moscow Have I ever mentioned that I love Russian Literature? During my time studying in Nottingham, England, I took a Russian history course, and was able to write an essay on how authors such as Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Chekov and Bunin wrote about Russian peasants. In fact, that was my first exposure to the influence of literature on society, and what we might gain from reading such novels; it was also the beginning of my obsession with Russian culture.  In my humble opin...