Showing posts with label society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label society. Show all posts

Thursday, May 30, 2013

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? - Jared Diamond 2012 481 pages

It may be hard to believe, but the modern experts who tell us how to live life, may not be totally correct.
The aborigines from New Guinea let toddlers play with any sharp object they can pick up. They let the little ones play in and near the fire. These are all things that would get you or I hot-lined and possibly jailed. Yet the New Gueineans live lives that are just as satisfying as ours.

In many parts of the third world, children make their own toys. How sad. Our children get the newest and most high-tech we can afford. Yet the children in the third world exercise creativity and resourcefulness that our children do not learn with high-tech toys. Third world children play in groups and build life-long social skills, our children...
Hmmmmmm, wait a minute....

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede

Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede - 288 pages

Former street thief Kim has been living as a magician's apprentice and ward to Mairelon for a year when they return to London during the Season.  Suddenly Kim finds herself having to make morning calls, attend nightly parties, and make her debut at her coming out ball.  Amidst all this, Mairelon is attacked and loses his magic.  It seems that the root of the attack is coming from Kim's former life.  Now she must not only navigate London Society but also her former street world.
I liked this sequel better than their first book -- Mairelon the Magician -- probably because I already knew the characters.  There also seemed to be more humor in this book -- mainly in Kim's dealings with Society.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Zoo by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge 395 pgs                            This was a very unusual novel by James Patterson. I don't think I have ever read a novel where the main characters were animals.  It was to me just a very strange story.  Jackson Oz is a bioligist who has a theory that animals will someday take over the world.   After some strange animal attacks on humans, Jackson ends up marrying Chloe and having a son.  Fast forward into the future, more animals brutally attack humans including Jackson's pet monkey who is behind many attacks on humans.  It is soon discovered  the reason animals are going crazy is because of pheromones humans are emitting into the atmosphere.  The animals go back to normal for a few days when humans give up electricity and cell phones, but this is short lived and dooms mankind.        
 
 

 
 

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

She Walks In Beauty by Siri Mitchell

"She Walks In Beauty" by Siri Mitchell - 398 pages


Have you ever wondered what society life was really like in the late 1800s? From tight corsets to crazy ideals on beauty,  "She Walks in Beauty" immerses the reader in the center of 19th century America among the elite. Our view is through the eyes of 17 year old Clara, daughter of a wealthy doctor with a hidden past. Clara is being groomed to be the "belle of the ball" and secure the affections of the most eligible bachelor. With her well-educated mind, Clara wishes to be more than just a wife in high society but must sacrifice her wants to support her father and aunt's agenda. The task becomes much harder when Clara meets a man that appreciates her for who she really is. True colors are displayed when the past her father and aunt have carefully buried comes to light.