Wendy's Challenge List

November 5, 2007 - I COMPLETED THIS CHALLENGE!!! To read my challenge wrap up, go here. THANK YOU, Lisa for sponsoring this wonderful challenge.

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Here are my books for this challenge:

1. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell (Completed 4/18/2007; read a review here.)
2. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (Completed 5/17/2007; read a review here.)
3. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood (Completed 11/5/2007; read a review here.)
4. In the Country of Last Things, by Paul Auster (Completed 9/23/2007; read a review here.)

I can't wait to see what the rest of you are reading and to read your reviews. Dystopian literature is new to me, and so far I'm really enjoying it!

Time's up, Readers!

Today is the end of the challenge. How'd you do? Did you read everything on your list? Did you discover any new authors you love? Authors you'd never read again? Did you read more than you planned because it was just that interesting?

I know a couple of you have already posted wrap-ups, thanks! Any final thoughts?

As for me, I did not finish my own challenge. I still plan to read most of what was on my list, it's just going to have to wait for a better time.

Thanks to everyone who participated, even though I did not finish, it was a lot of fun.

The Road, reviewed by raidergirl3 and CompletedWrap Up

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road finishes up the dystopian challenge for me. It was a bleak book, but a good read. The prose was perfect for this post apocaolypse tale, of a father and son walking across America. It was dark, and bleak, and depressing and how could a person survive this life? And would you want to? And it is also a book about surviving and hope and love, because those will always be there in life as well.

My full review is at my blog: here

To finish up this challenge, and with only a few weeks to go, here is the list I originally committed to:

Books I plan to read:
1. The Giver by Lois Lowry (banned book challenge as well)
2. Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
4. Brave New World by Huxley
5. either The Road by Cormac McCarthy or Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (recced by laura)

I read all five, but not Cloud Atlas, plus I also read We by Yvengy Zamyatin and Uglies by Scott Westerfield.
Favorite Book: Never Let Me Go, The Giver and The Road

I really enjoyed this challenge, and the books I found. This is a genre I would not have thought I would like, but I have had to revise this opinion, because I have a stack of new books I still want to read, including Pretties, Specials, Oryx and Cake, Children of Men.
Thanks for the challenge.

Pamela - Dystopian Challenge Completed

I have successfully completed my 3rd challenge. I really enjoyed this challenge as 4 out of the 5 books I read I rated with an 8 or higher.

1984 by George Orwell [completed May 18th, 2007]
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley [completed August 26th, 2007]
The Giver by Lois Lowry [completed April 28th, 2007]
The Road by Cormac McCarthy [completed July 4th, 2007]
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood [completed September 17th, 2007]

In The Country of Last Things - Wendy's Book Review

You would think that sooner or later it would all come to an end. Things fall apart and vanish, and nothing new is made. People die, and babies refuse to be born. In all the years I have been here, I can't remember seeing a single newborn child. And yet, there are always new people to replace the ones who have vanished. -From In the Country of Last Things, page 7-

Anna Blume arrives in an unnamed city to search for her brother - a journalist who has vanished without a trace. The city is one of unspeakable destruction and horror, where dead people lie in the street (either by their own hand, or from hired assassins, or from starvation or violence). Things disappear daily along with memories. To survive, Anna becomes an object scavenger, gathering up things from the past to sell for food and shelter. Who and what can survive in this bleak and desolate city? Paul Auster's novel is written from Anna's point of view - and presented in a letter she writes to someone in her past. For Anna, there is no going back "home."

In spite of what you would suppose, the facts are not reversible. Just because you are able to get in, that does not mean you will be able to get out. Entrances do not become exits, and there is nothing to guarantee that the door you walked through a moment ago will still be there when you turn around to look for it again. That is how it works in the city. Every time you think you know the answer to a question, you discover that the question makes no sense.
- From In The Country of Last Things, page 85-

Unable to go back, and uncertain about going forward, the reader learns how Anna survives and what she finds in a place where everything seems to be lost. The novel is not particularly hopeful - the characters not only lose the past, but also their faith.

"I don't believe in God anymore, if that's what you mean," I said. "I gave all that up when I was a little girl."
"It's difficult not to," the Rabbi said. "When you consider the evidence, there's a good reason why so many think as you do."
"You're not going to tell me that you believe in God," I said.
"We talk to him. But whether or not he hears us is another matter."
-From In the Country of Last Things, page 96-

The novel is well written and I found myself turning the pages seeking the same answers that Anna seeks. Auster offers a glimmer of promise - but, ultimately I finished the book with a feeling of disappointment.

Mercy's Maid's Book List

Here is my list of books I would like to complete for this challenge:

1. 1984 by George Orwell * Completed
2. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
3. Animal Farm by George Orwell * Completed
4. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
5. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld * Completed
6. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld * Completed
7. Specials by Scott Westerfeld * Completed

**I keep adding to my list, but I don't seem to be speeding up my reading of this genre.

raidergirl3 update

Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro

Awesome book, suspenseful, best dystopian novel I've read. His prose is wonderful and the way he weaves the memoirish story, kept me reading continuously. Not as over the top dystopian as the others I've read, which is why this world was so possible.

full review here

One of the first dystopian novels, written in the early 1920s and translated from Russian, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is pretty good. This is a creepy preview of Stalinist Russian, where logic and mathematics rule the society, and the group (we) is more important than the individual. Our main character, D-503, loves his world, but an encounter with I-330, a rebel female, turns his thoughts and world around.

I loved how he used math references for everything, to make sense of what was hapening to him. full review here

I just have The Road left to read, and I'm waiting in line at the library for it now.