Being Unwound – And The Rest Of The Story

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I wasn’t quite sure, as I was getting towards the back half of “Unwind”, if the author was actually going to unwind one of his characters.

Well, he did.

I have to say, there was no talk of blood, cutting, what body parts were being taken, how they were being taken, or anything else graphic. And it literally made me feel sick to my stomach. Literally. (I stopped reading it at one point to focus on something else for a few moments to make sure I was OK).

By using nothing more than words, and planting ideas in my head throughout the story, the author successfully had me experiencing exactly what was going on; as if I were really there.

I am not sure what did it. I have certainly read horror stories that detailed much worse things than this one section ever even touched on. Maybe it was an emotional attachment I had made with the subject. He wasn’t a central character, but I knew him, none-the-less, from this story. I knew he was mean, and conniving, and ruthless, and it was still unbearable to visualize, in my mind, him being unwound.

So Kudos to Neal Shusterman on the writing of this story. I have been scared by books before, emotionally brought to my knees because of books, sobbed uncontrollably because of books, and cheered for the hero, because of books. But to feel sick to my stomach without the graphic detail of blood and gore; well done Mr. Shusterman; well done.

It looks like I can get this book wrapped and under the tree, and on to book #2, Unwholly. Having a whole lot of free time until the New Year should make fast reading of this book, as well as the third one.

Do you have a book that scared you beyond belief?

The Graveyard, The Admiral, and Happy Jack Harvest Camp – Unwind Update

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So I haven’t talked about the graveyard yet. It’s not as bad as it sounds (when did “graveyard” ever sound good?) Or the Admiral for that matter. Both good things in a bad situation. The Admiral runs the graveyard, which is in fact a graveyard for aircraft that are out of commission (these really do exist) but still have salvageable parts, or some can even be sold outright as complete, working aircraft. Most are pieced out and used for repair parts to keep other planes flying.

Anyhow, the Admiral is ex-military, with a history that ties him throughout this story, but this is slowly revealed. So I won’t reveal any of it here. The graveyard is where he sends the runaway Unwinds, to keep them safe, and deliver them for jobs they can do until they turn 18 and are officially safe and no longer qualify to be unwound.

Most are happy with the situation, and cooperate, but of course there always has to be at least one person who has to mess it up for everyone, right? Hey, if there wasn’t, this book would have been over already.

pssstttt.... I'm really glad it isn't over yet!
pssstttt…. I’m really glad it isn’t over yet!

So the Admiral finds himself in a bind, with Risa coming to his rescue; Conner confronts the bully of the graveyard, who long has it coming; and Lev manages to make it to the Graveyard, only for them all to end up at one of the many Harvest Camps. Previously known as Unwinding Facilities; but who wants to call them that, it seems like they have no soul to them, and these are good places, right?

Listen up boys and girls, this isn’t your ordinary 5 day summer camp with paddle boats and s’mores. You don’t get to come home from this camp.

Conner seems to buy himself some more time because he is the perceived “Hero” everyone has been talking about; Risa buys herself some more time because she is a concert pianist and they need a piano player for the band that plays music on the roof of the building the Unwinds enter for “harvesting”; Lev is not sure how much time he may have left, and Conner and Risa don’t know he’s back to being a tithe, grouped up with all of the other tithes.

I know I said I would update when I finished, but this story is just too good to keep to myself. I wonder how fast I can get through Book 2, Unwholly, in order to get it wrapped and under the Christmas tree?

Update To “Unwind”

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This is a very good book so far; I think I am a bit more than halfway done. Things are getting very interesting for Conner, Risa, and Lev.

Now on the run, all 3 manage to pick up a storked baby (a baby that was not wanted; it can be placed on anyone’s doorstep, those people have to keep that baby). I mean, the cops aren’t looking for 3 teenagers with a baby, right?

Risa and Conner have no idea, but Lev is still determined to get back to his parents, and be the tithe he was groomed to be for the last 13 years. So at first opportunity, he makes a run for it, as well as revealing where Conner and Risa are hiding. Of course he realizes after the fact that this probably was not his smartest move.

Conner and Risa end up turning the baby over to a teacher who helps them escape, and Lev ends up on the run on his own, while meeting another teen, known as CyFi. CyFi has his own set of problems since he has part of a brain that belonged to a thief.

It all sounds strange, I know 🙂 But after reading any science fiction books, or any Stephen King books for that matter, I think you may very well get absorbed by this book.

I will update when I have it finished, which hopefully will be within a day or two. I need to get it wrapped and under the tree for my daughter!

One of many interesting things I have read so far:

“Which was worse, Risa often wondered-to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted, or to silently make them go away before they were even born? On different days Risa had different answers” (Shusterman, N. 2007, pg 115).

What are you reading that you can’t put down?

 

My Favorite thing To Do Besides Reading?

Angela2 Comments

Puzzles. I love puzzles, so do my girls; it’s a great opportunity for us to talk as well 🙂 What’s even better? Puzzles of books and libraries! Yep, there is such a thing!

I completed a 1000 piece one last year, framed it, and before I could hang it on my wall one of my girls had already swiped it and put it in their room!

So I bought that same puzzle, again. As well as another one that seems to be a matching set. Also a 500 piece one called “Bizarre Bookstore”, and it really is.

This bookstore really is bizarre, lots of weird things lying on the shelves, and all the titles are puns on classic stories!
This bookstore really is bizarre, lots of weird things lying on the shelves, and all the titles are puns on classic stories!

These puzzles are made by Ravensburger, and they are the best puzzles I have ever seen (and I have finished a lot of puzzles). The pieces are heavy, fit together good, and don’t fall apart.

Do you love puzzles, or hate them? I always hear people respond in one extreme or the other.

“Unwind” by Neil Shusterman

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For only just starting this book, it seems really interesting. The goal today is to stay awake long enough to actually remember what I read so I don’t have to go back and re-read anything 🙂 The joys of being a shift-worker and trying to stay on schedule! I got so much sleep last night my sleep schedule will be messed up the rest of the weekend. Ginormous Monster to the rescue, once again 🙂

Anyhow……

From the opening pages of “Unwind”:

The Bill Of Life:

The Second Civil War, also known as “The Heartland War”, was a long and bloody conflict fought over a single issue.

To end the war, a set of constitutional amendments known as “The Bill of Life” was passed.

It satisfied both the Pro-life and Pro-choice armies.

The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until the child reaches the age of thirteen.

However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively “abort” a child…

…on the condition that the child’s life doesn’t “technically” end.

The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called “unwinding.”

Unwinding is now a common and accepted practice in society. (Unwind, Shusterman, N. 2009).

I have so far read about the 3 teens who are set to go through the “unwinding” process. Conner found out his parents signed the contract to have him unwound when he found 3 airline tickets to Jamaica; one each for his parents and younger brother, departing the day before his unwinding. Conner makes a run for it.

Risa has spent her entire life in what we would call foster care. She is now 15, and after two years of training to become a concert pianist, she is told she is not good enough and will be unwound. No, she cannot train to be anything else. That was her decision. They have to make room for all the other unwanted babies, right? And funds are tight. If you can’t become a success at something, you are unwound.

Lev is from an affluent family, and we meet him at his 13th birthday party. Extravagant beyond belief, celebrating the fact that he is about to be unwound. Why? It is his parent’s tithe to their God and all of his blessings. They have 10 children.

I hope to be a lot further in this book by tomorrow, but so far it has been great reading. As a note, I am strictly reading this book to make sure it is suitable for my daughter to read, and to review it. I am not discussing pro-life or pro-choice here. I have my own opinions on that and they are strictly that; “my own opinions.”

It is not my intention here to write anything that is going to offend anyone, but I will be giving an honest review of this book, and the two others that follow!

Have you read this book, and what did you think of it?

 

 

Happy Friday !!

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It is snowing and freezing cold out, again! Another weekend off for me means another weekend of no sleep. Hopefully I can turn that into a lot of reading and homework completed! I bought a series of books for one of my girls for Christmas, but am planning to at least get the first one read before I wrap them 🙂 I mean, I have to make sure there is nothing inappropriate, right?

These books are the “Unwind” series by author Neal Shusterman. There is the 1st book, “Unwind”, then Unwholly”, and finally “Unsouled”. (Yes, Unwholly is spelled like that; my computer doesn’t like it either!)

Book 1
Book 1

The premise of this series is that there has been a second Civil War, over reproductive rights. Children are safe until the age of thirteen, and then, from 13 to 18, the parents have the option to have their child “unwound”, meaning putting all of their organs into different donors, thereby not technically ending their life.

If a child is misbehaving, he can be unwound. Rebellious? Unwound. Doesn’t fit in with social standards? Unwound. You get the idea. Yes, this seems a bit “Hunger Games” meets “Gone” meets Stephen King.

I got a deal on the books, what can I say? Barnes and Nobles really, really needs to stop sending me coupons!

Have you read these books yet? What did you think? Do you think there is an age restriction and what do you feel is too young for these books?

I will post my feedback as I work through this first book.

Abraham Lincoln-His Essential Wisdom

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A book that sits on my desk at work is “Abraham Lincoln~ His Essential Wisdom”, edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi. No, I don’t flip through this book looking for little gems of insight to hand out to my team members should they have questions, issues, complaints, etc. But…. I have read it. It is a wonderful little book that has many known, and unless if you read EVERYTHING about Abe like I do, many unknown quotes.

Mr. Lincoln truly was a funny man, with a sense of humor that some may have found as dry, or even rude, but those close to him knew it as nothing more than his wit and clever thinking.

Sometimes it may have come out at an inappropriate time, or shocked some of his guests or listeners, but I really think no harm was meant by it on Abe’s part. I really think he could do nothing more than just be honest, no matter how much one didn’t want to hear the truth.

So why do I have this book sitting on my desk? I like to look at it. It has a nice portrait of President Lincoln on the cover, and I have a slightly over-zealous obsession of all-things-Lincoln. No, I do not know why. He is not a long-ago branch on my family tree, and I cannot remember the first time I became aware of who our 16th President was. Maybe I did a report on him when I was in Kindergarten?  Maybe we had a school celebration for Presidents day that I was conscious of but too young to remember today?

On My Desk
On My Desk

It’s a book I will take home eventually to put back in my bookcase, maybe replacing it with another book of one type or another. I think I like it on my desk because it is a part of who I am, and a part of what defines me, my feelings, my beliefs, and my love of all comments sarcastic, right-in-your-face, no words minced.

With that being said, I should also say I have a Pop Television Dr. Sheldon Cooper vinyl doll standing in front of this book (but not blocking the portrait!), pictures of my girls all over my cork board, usually a Portals of Prayer book sitting somewhere near-by if I take it out of my purse, and a candy dish that I change with the holidays full of whatever candy happens to be in season. Gingerbread Twix, Hot Cocoa 3 Musketeers, and Cordial Cherry Hershey’s Kisses right now. Yummy!

You Cannot Help But Love This Guy! Unintentional sarcasm at its best!
You Cannot Help But Love This Guy! Unintentional sarcasm at its best!

I spend 50-60 hours a week at work, sometimes more. I spend a lot of that working on a computer. So having my desk feel a little bit like home makes it not-so-bad to be at work so much. Oh. And loving my job helps too!

“An Irish Country Christmas” by Patrick Taylor

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A great, feel-good story!
A great, feel-good story!

If you are looking for a feel-good book to read to get you in the Christmas spirit, and you want something a little more cheerful than “A Christmas Carol”, this is the book for you!

It was by chance that I happened upon one of Patrick Taylor’s Irish Country books. Being Irish, if it has anything to do with it, I am reading it! I was glad to find these books, they are a fun read, while interesting, and the descriptions have you feeling like you are sitting in the same room as the characters.

The series revolves around an Irish town Doctor of long-standing, and his newly hired Doctor, who is learning his senior partners’ ways, usually with laughs. They share a house with a housekeeper who keeps you chuckling as well, and the practice is actually ran out of said house. (Don’t you wish it was still like that?)

They are in the county of Ballybucklebo, and Barry is excited to spend his first Christmas in the village, if his fiancé cooperates, that is. A new Doctor in town is proving to be stiff competition as well, practicing medicine in a “new” way that the other two gentlemen don’t favor. This “new” type of medicine is the basic way we are treated by doctors. Not new to us, but new to the setting this story takes place in.

As Fingal tries to figure out his love-life, and Barry tries to salvage his, they also take it upon themselves to help a young single mother who is struggling with her sick son. The story is not overly romantic (I certainly wouldn’t put a Harlequin stamp on it) but definitely gives you an idea of what these two somewhat attached men struggle through with the respective women in their lives.

There is enough drama and emotional attachment to this little sick boy, his mother, and the doctor’s themselves that will keep you turning the pages on this book until you realize you are at the end and looking for another of Patrick Taylor’s Irish Country stories. This is a great read, a feel good story, that will have you laughing as well as rooting for the characters in the story.

For your own information, some other Irish Country books by Patrick Taylor are, “An Irish Country Doctor, An Irish Country Girl (about their wonderful housekeeper in her younger days), and An Irish Country Wedding.”

Have you been lucky enough to read one of these books? Did you enjoy them as much as I have?