dystopia

Golden State + California Hot Dogs

September 29, 2019 by Megan Leave a Comment

I remember when Golden State was offered up as a Book of the Month selection earlier this year. I didn’t choose it, since my friend Deanna did (and we like to share books), but then I sort of forgot about it again until I saw it on my library’s new releases shelf recently. I scooped it up and asked her if she wanted to do a buddy read. Of course, she immediately said yes. It was the first buddy read experience for both of us, and honestly, it couldn’t have gone better! It also helped that the story was pretty much a page-turner from beginning to end.

Ben H. Winters’s novel takes place in a dystopian future in a California that is now separated from the rest of the country, where residents retreated when lies overtook the world as they knew it. The Golden State is its own nation where truth is valued above all else and the primary functions of society revolve around maintaining the Objectively So. Unlike in the movie The Invention of Lying, lying is definitely possible — it’s just punishable.

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Our Life in the Forest + Roasted Mushrooms with Herbed Quinoa

October 23, 2018 by Megan 1 Comment

I requested Marie Darrieussecq’s novel Our Life in the Forest from NetGalley because the concept was intriguing. Marie -- both the author and the main character, our narrator -- describes for us a future world in which wealthy humans of her generation have “halves,” or breathing but unconscious humans that are available should they need spare body parts. If you’re less fortunate, you’ll have a “jar” instead, holding just a backup heart and pair of lungs.

It’s a bleak future, and it’s one that Marie has decided to escape with several others. They have taken their halves and are hiding in the forest, where the drones can’t spot them through the dense treetops. The story is translated from French (a wonderful translation) and Darrieussecq’s writing style is direct; we are treated to very little extraneous description.

The Oracle Year + Stir-Fried Lotus Root

June 30, 2018 by Megan 1 Comment

In Charles Soule’s first novel The Oracle Year, the comic book writer explores a clever concept about the power of prediction. The main character, Will Dando, is a twenty-something musician who wakes up one morning with 108 predictions about the future. The predictions range from seemingly innocuous to world-changing and extremely specific to frustratingly vague.

While man behind The Oracle is a mystery, his predictions are practically front page news around the globe. As more and more of them come true, he is forced to go to great lengths to remain anonymous for his own safety. It’s a delicate balance between sitting on what he knows and sharing it with the world as he learns whether he has control over their source, or it has control over him.

Top Ten Tuesday - Bookish Worlds I Don't Want to Live In

May 29, 2018 by Megan 10 Comments

Happy Tuesday, everyone! It’s time for another edition of Top Ten Tuesday, a literary list with a new bookish topic every week. Before I jump in, though, I wanted to announce some exciting news - I’ve been nominated for the Unique Blogger Award over at Ginger Mom Reads! If you regularly visit my blog, you’ll know that I combine my passions for reading and cooking in a very unique way, pairing every book I review with a recipe it inspires. A lot of time and effort goes into each and every post, and I would really appreciate your vote! (Voting is open until Friday, June 1.)

Now, onto this week’s topic: Bookish Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In. I loved brainstorming for this week’s list. There are lots of bookish worlds that are warm and inviting (I’m looking at you, Hogwarts and Green Gables) but there are maybe even more that are a bit off-putting and terrifying. It was an interesting exercise to dive into those a little more deeply.

I tend to enjoy dystopias and this topic lends itself nicely to those fictional worlds, weighing the pros and the cons. You’ll see many of them on my list, and those that aren’t tend to come from within the science fiction genre. I think all of these worlds give us something to think about - and in the case of many dystopias, things to watch out for before they become reality in our own world. One thing I’m sure most of us can agree on: they’re all pretty uninviting. [Read more...] about Top Ten Tuesday - Bookish Worlds I Don't Want to Live In

Red Clocks + Green-Chile Scrambled Eggs

January 30, 2018 by Megan 4 Comments

If you visit The Hungry Bookworm often, Leni Zumas’ Red Clocks should be somewhat familiar to you. Despite my disappointment in a similar book late last year, I was super excited to read this upcoming feminist dystopia - I included it on my list of most anticipated books this year and added it as a selection in one of my reading challenges.

In Red Clocks, the United States has granted every unborn child full rights to life, liberty and property, resulting in countrywide bans on abortion, in-vitro fertilization and single parent adoption (because every child deserves to be raised by a traditional mother-father combo). Zumas explores how such laws could affect everyday women as she follows the journeys of the biographer, the mender, the wife and the daughter, with bits about a 19th century female polar explorer peppered throughout.

Top Ten Tuesday - Books I Really Liked But Don't Remember Much/Anything About

January 23, 2018 by Megan 14 Comments

Hi everyone, and happy Tuesday! Welcome to my first Top Ten Tuesday of 2018. This is an original weekly blog meme that was created at The Broke and the Bookish but is now hosted over at The Artsy Reader Girl. I participate about once a month, but each week there is a new, fun bookish topic for bloggers to create literary lists about. If you’d like to know more about it, check it out here.

Today’s list is kind of funny, in that I’m not sure how much I can say about each book on it - I guess we’ll just have to see! To arrive at the 10 Books I Really Liked But Can’t Remember Anything/Much About, I culled through my Goodreads, starting at the highest rating and going down. (Reminder: here’s how I rate.)