Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi
Rating: 5 stars+

There's so much to say about this book, and overall it will definitely be going down in history as one of my favorite books of all time. I read a lot of dystopian, and this one stands out for a major reason: the "horrifying" aspects of society (they don't value books, they are addicted to their technology, etc.) are not only things that are so clearly happening now, they have also been caused by the gradual decay of society more than any one totalitarian regime.
Most modern dystopian novels present a dreary future that has been largely brought about by some kind of power play that may or may not exploit the current cultural atmosphere (it's certainly easier to take over when your propaganda plays into how many people already feel.) This book, though, reminds me that the heart of our issues is not some kind of big, bad brother but the nature of humanity itself. This is a classic theme in literature that I don't think is brought up quite enough. We love to blame our problems on other people -- whether it's another person/group or the government. But really, the very core of all humans is selfishness and greed. Our problems are natural and we have to constantly struggle to make things peaceful.
In Fahrenheit 451, the people have largely willingly given up books because it makes them happier. They don't like feeling emotionally or mentally agitated. It's a hedonistic culture, and they are so drowning in their pleasures that they don't care about the world around them or about the fact that are shallow, useless people. This is certainly happening today, although I don't actually believe that books will ever really become this hated. I could be wrong though. My circle is almost entirely composed of people who LOVE books. Authors, readers, editors, etc. That's the one weakness I think of this book is that I honestly can't imagine how a culture could decay so much that they don't want books. YES they stir things inside you, but that's precisely why they are wonderful. They help us understand ourselves and the world better. They may make us sad and upset on one page, but then they will lift us up and make us laugh and nod our heads on the next page. I actually cannot fathom HOW people couldn't see their value. I was very surprised one day when I was talking to a friend about my lifelong goal of owning a bookstore. He said it was a stupid idea and that books are becoming obsolete. It's a tragic thought and truly unbelievable to me personally, but I hope I least don't see that happen in my lifetime. 
Anyway, I love not only the story but also the writing style of Bradbury. It's somewhat whimsical and witty, but also full of profound truths. I think Beatty's character was absolutely fascinating although he was the antagonist. His commentary on how the firemen came to be is thought provoking. Bradbury's social commentary is very subtle, which I appreciate, and it transcends labels or party lines. He himself said that he didn't ever wish to identify as a Democrat or Republican, Communist or Socialist.
The version that I read is the 60th Anniversary Edition with an introduction by Neil Gaiman. About a third of the book is additional commentary on the book itself -- a history of how the story came to be and introductions and reviews written by notable people throughout the years. I would recommend this specific version to anyone interested in the book because the extras made the experience only that much better.
There's so much to say about this book! I loved it and think everyone should read it at least once in their lifetime. I also plan to get an audiobook version because the story is simply beautifully told. This is one I will definitely reread (and I rarely reread books actually) I will be adding as many of Bradbury's books to my bookshelf as possible. <3  

Purchase the book here.

Containment by Virginia Johnson

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi
Rating: 3.5 stars

I really love dystopian/sci-fi, and Virginia Johnson's books are always very interesting, so I jumped at the chance to read this one. First of all, the premise is really wonderful. There are an unknown number of subjects in some sort of biodome that appears to be run entirely by AI. They wake every day with an objective/choice and have the entire place to themselves. There are different environments within the biodome, and everything appears to be self sustaining, but the subjects can presumably be as involved as they want with taking care of plants and animals. It is mentioned a few times that procreation is one of the goals of this setup, although the subjects in the book do not encounter each other within the biodome (so maybe it's based on insemination?). They are humanity's last hope, and the Kepler project (which is written about in another great book by Ms. Johnson) is mentioned to have failed.
There were a few things that I was very confused about that made it difficult to fully appreciate this book.
SPOILERS
.
.
.
The torture scenes specifically were confusing. The story starts out with the main character (John) performing some sort of gruesome surgery on a woman (she ends up being the other main character Jane). There is never any reasoning behind this. It's kind of a cruel and seemingly useless surgery, and the AI or whoever is running the place brings the woman back to life day after day to be tortured again. The subjects are apparently essentially immortal, so John tries to kill himself over and over. Then at the end, he is doing surgery and actually ends up doing an abortion on the woman's baby, even though there was never any indication she was pregnant. Then somehow he believes it was just a trick at the end. I really just don't understand the purpose. Also, one of the things I was having a hard time understanding was this "choice" they kept talking about. At first I thought it was the choice to procreate. I couldn't tell if John had resisted for 97 days, and that was why they were still there, or if he agreed and he was still confined. It was more clear that Jane said "yes" to whatever question was being asked, but her conditions of captivity were the same, except that she was the one being tortured in the evenings. I was a little frustrated that those basic elements of the book never really came together and made sense to me. SPOILERS END
.
.
.
This book has such a promising setup, and the worldbuilding is excellent. I wonder if I got an unedited copy though. If some of the basic story elements were a little clearer, I would have enjoyed it more. I will probably still read book two because I am hoping some of my questions will be answered.

Purchase on Amazon here

Loving Your Child Too Much by Tim Clinton and Gary Sibcy

Genre: Christian Parenting
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I'm always eager to read child psychology/discipline books that have a Christian perspective. I picked up this book because I sometimes get the impression from my husband that I am not "hard enough" on our children and that I need to adjust my parenting style a little differently in order to raise healthy children.
The book presents three main types of parenting that can be damaging to children: overprotection, overindulgence, and overcontrol. I was interested to know which of the three categories I fit into (if any). I was surprised to find out that I don't truly fit fully into one category. There are certain things that I do/habits I have gotten into that fall into all three categories in fact. It was helpful to read through the chapters and realize that these attitudes and behaviors were actually forms of overprotection, overindulgence, or overcontrol. I think the best thing this book has done for me is to open my eyes about some of these things. Parenting has us constantly adjusting to how we relate to and deal with our children. It's different for each child, and it differs from day to day.
(My children seem to have very easy temperaments, so we have been very blessed. I want to make sure that some of my behaviors are not going to cause them long-term problems with life and relationships though.)
About half of the book contains more general parenting advice (like how to tell what the temperament of your child is and how to adjust parenting accordingly). There seems to be a good mix of general advice and actual techniques you can use.
My only complaint with this book is that it seems just a little unorganized. I think it would have been better to have divided it up into larger sections and focused on the three O's separately. There were three chapters in middle of the book covering these parenting problems, but the rest of the chapters were all mixtures of things. It jumped around a bit, making a little hard for me to stay focused and really grasp the concepts sometimes.
I do think this book is worth reading for any parent. It has advice for a range of ages (0-18+), so it will be one parents can read a few times throughout the years as their children's needs change.

Purchase here on Amazon

The Death Cure by James Dashner

Genre: Dystopian/Thriller
Rating: 4/5 stars

This entire review contains spoilers, so read at your own risk.
I'm not entirely sure what I think of the way this series ended. First of all, I will begin by saying that I DID really enjoy this book. The entire series has a way of sucking you in. It's compelling and it elicits lots of emotions. This last installment was not nearly as exciting as the Scorch Trials, but I did appreciate that we at least got a resolution.
Of course, there are still things that are not entirely clear to me. I also found it a bit irritating that Thomas never got all of his memories back. It's not that I blame him. I understand that knew getting them back would only be painful, and I also understand that there was no way he was able to trust that they weren't in fact installing new, false memories into his brain instead. But still, I don't know that I could have made the decision to not get the swipe removed. Knowing things and having a good understanding of what it true/real seems too important. He never really seemed interested in conferring with the others about what they learned when the swipe was taken away from them either. Brenda was a potential wealth of information as well, and I feel like Thomas showed an odd lack of interest in speaking with her about things. Again, I can sort of understand that. I suppose it was part of his character development to sort of let go of the need to understand everything (he was very curious in the first book especially.)
I was sad about what happened with Newt, and his death seemed totally meaningless to me. Just another horrible thing that Thomas had to do/endure -- and this time it was not a variable.
I'm so torn about Teresa, and in so many ways I feel like Thomas was not fair to her after she locked him in the gas chamber in the last book. They were friends and grew up together; Thomas knew that was true from his dreams. But he became totally unforgiving toward her and never got over that. I found that truly tragic, and it was one of many frustrating and upsetting things about this book.
The main frustration of this entire series is that I still don't quite understand why this was all done. Of course I get that they were doing research of the subjects' brains and each variable was thoroughly researched and then the responses were studied, but how does that help fight a virus in the brain? Did they subject them to endless cruelty because they believed that mimicked what the virus was doing in their brains--attacking with no mercy? It's something that I will be thinking about for some time I am sure.
I am ultimately left feeling a little unsatisfied, but I will certainly read the other books in this series. I am glad that Thomas, Minho, and some of the others finally got some peace at least. To be honest, I always like Brenda better than Teresa, so I'm happy that they ended up there together. I also appreciated that WICKED was in some small way redeemed in the end. This book seriously will make the reader question everything, and that's such an awesome thing. :-)

Purchase HERE

The King's Warrior by Frost Kay

Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5 stars

We have come a long way with Sage, Tehl, and the others. In this book, Sage has just been rescued from the Scythian warlord Zane. As she, Jasmine, and Blaise recover physically, they must also recover mentally and emotionally. Sage and Tehl are able to connect in a way they never have before, and Sam makes a huge decision regarding his future. Meanwhile, war with Scythia looms, and Sage, Tehl, and King Marq attempt to secure the help of neighboring regions against Scythia.

This is probably my favorite book from Frost Kay so far. The character development in this series is really phenomenal. I didn't really like Sage in the first few books, but this book had me totally engaged the whole way. I am beginning to understand Sage a little better, and I was happy to see her gain a little bit of stability in this book. It's very emotionally driven, and I enjoyed the experience of reading it. I really felt the emotions of the conversations in this book. The best part about this book was the relationship growth of Tehl and Sage. Sage has been through SO much - it's kind of unreal how much she has been abused -- so it has been very interesting to see how that has affected her.
I liked that there were a few more perspectives included in this book (which is weird because normally it kind of bugs me when there are too many POVs).
I'm certainly invested in this series, and I am truly looking forward to seeing how things go in the next book. 


Purchase HERE

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Genre: Dystopian/Thriller/Horror
Rating: 5+ stars

This is one of the best books I have read recently, and I enjoyed it even more than the first book in the series.
It was totally full of action and surprises from the very first page. There was almost never a dull moment, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. If I would have been able to, I would have read this in one sitting (super rare for me to be that interested in a book.) I think the pace, the writing, and the storyline were all more interesting than the first book (and I LOVED the first book!)
I am pretty perplexed by all the negative reviews. I suppose people were disappointed that we didn't get all the answers about WICKED? We did get quite a lot of new information in my opinion, and I didn't have any expectation that this would truly resolve the storyline since it is book two of three in a series. Now, if James Dashner pulls a Lemony Snicket and things don't get resolved, I am going to majorly ticked off. But I am confident things will wrap up well in the Death Cure. I'm more than eager to get started on that one.
I bought a few more books from this author. I love how unique this series is, and I can tell that his writing has improved since the first book. :-)

Purchase HERE