Uncreated Conscience

Autumn is in full swing in New York City, which means that JJ is approaching hibernation mode. My inherent tendency when the weather grows cool and the days grow shorter is to curl up under the covers with a White-Harp and read, read, read (and occasionally gorge on Indian food). I have about a million things I need to take care of (including grocery shopping), but my first reaction is to snuggle with a fuzzy Harp and never leave the bed. This means that not only errands are pushed to the wayside, but things like blogging and book reviewing are also forgotten.

I need an office

While I was in DC last week visiting Mum, we made a stop by the nearest bookstore for something to read. She wanted something light and funny, so I recommended David Sedaris’ ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY, which I think she’ll enjoy, especially the France sections. Not so sure about the drugs and homosexuality though. Oh well.

I got myself Scott Westerfeld‘s LEVIATHAN, but I will admit it was a close call between that and Joshua Gaylord‘s HUMMINGBIRDS, both of which had co-op at the front of the store. But because I am cheap—and because I love steampunk—I went with LEVIATHAN. (The one advantage to being a lover of YA is that it is significantly cheaper than adult fiction.)

(more…)

So last Christmas I bought my brother UGLIES by Scott Westerfeld (which I don’t think he’s read) as a gift. I read it but never got around to getting my hands on the other books in the series. Yesterday (after a successful venture to H&M for two very cute retro swimsuits), I stopped by a bookstore to get PRETTIES and SPECIALS (as well as GRACELING by Kristin Cashore) so I might find out how this all ends. I’ll gift them to my brother when I return to New York. Hopefully he’ll get around to reading them. (He’s read all of THE HUNGER GAMES in less than a week! I have hope!).

Spoilers for the UGLIES series below.

(more…)

Christmas has come and gone and in the grand tradition of the Jones Family, I gifted my little brother the books I want to read (ah, to be a 13 year old boy). I gave him The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness and Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Being that my brother is more of the video game playing persuasion than the book reading persuasion, I decided to temporarily knick Uglies (which I had been meaning to read for a while) from him because I figured he wouldn’t miss it for an evening.

Review of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

It seems odd that I’m not much for science fiction being as I love science and engineering and “what ifs.” I do have select science fiction authors I do love and I’m a huge fan of space operas like Star Wars (but not Star Trek) and Firefly, but as a whole, I don’t dig through this genre often. That being said, Uglies is highly lauded around the publishing blogosphere and the premise interested me so I willingly entered the world of science fiction.

Simply put, in the distant future, all humans undergo a cosmetic operation at the age of 16 to become Pretty. Science has broken the code defining beauty: symmetrical features, wide eyes, high cheekbones, full lips, etc. and to make everyone “equal” based on how we react to each other biologically (regarding looks). This has broken culture down into distinct groups: the pretties (Late, Middle, and New), the uglies, and the littlies.

(more…)