Matched
Posted: December 30, 2012 Filed under: Book of Sand Leave a commentby Ally Condie | 384 pgs, published 2010
In the Society, everything is run by analyzing probabilities. People are matched with the best jobs for them, given the specific amount and types of food they need, and told who they will marry based on statistics of who’ll be the best matches. The main character here is Cassia, a teenager who is matched to her best friend Xander. But when she goes to review the data provided by the Society on Xander, it shows her someone else – someone considered an Aberration.
Of course, Cassia begins to see how things aren’t perfect in the Society, and she begins to fall for the other guy. Even though Xander seems pretty great. Soon more problems begin to present themselves and it becomes clear (to Cassia, at least) that there are a lot of secrets and shady dealings going on in the supposedly-perfect world she lives in.
Maybe some spoilers here. If you plan to read the book, don’t keep reading this review.
Matched was a quick read, but it didn’t captivate me the way some other dystopian books have recently. I think it was because the main story was a romance-ish thing, and the flaws in the Society were mostly there to drive the love interest. Also, I always have a problem when the girl falls for the mysterious stranger instead of her steady, solid best friend (Anne almost getting engaged to Roy Gardner after she rejects Gilbert – fortunately things got worked out; Jo turning down Laurie, which I still have trouble accepting; am I drawing too many parallels to my own life?). It doesn’t make sense to me – but then, I’m not a teenager anymore. And it’s hard to empathize with a teenage girl who’s doing enormously risky and dangerous things “for love” because . . . well . . . how much of teenage love is lasting? (We’ll get into my teenage relationship with Jarom some other time.)
At any rate, the love story was just not convincing or interesting enough for me. I am curious to see where the other storylines will go, but I’m not quite curious enough to read the next two books in the trilogy.
End spoilers. Summary: pick a different dystopian book. Then again, this is well-reviewed by a lot of other people, so I guess it depends who you decide to listen to.
Setback
Posted: December 28, 2012 Filed under: All's Well That Ends Well Leave a commentOne downside of spending lots of holiday time with extended family is that there are so many opportunities to share germs.
People started getting the stomach flu last Saturday, and Evan threw up Sunday morning – though fortunately he was only sick once and aside from taking a long nap was pretty easy to handle. The bug spread from one relative to the next, though our little family was fortunate in making it through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day unscathed. Jarom went in to work on Thursday to catch up on a few things, but he came home after only a few hours – he’d come down with the bug too! He was definitely out of commission all day yesterday, and stayed home to rest today. I was glad that he felt up for watching the kids while I went to the grocery store, and thrilled when he offered to make dinner for us.
In the middle of dinner, June threw up.
I’m still not sure if she put too much food in her mouth and gagged, or if she had the stomach flu. We washed her off, cleaned up, and by the time she was done with a bath, she was running around like nothing had happened. She and Evan played tigers/pirates/dinosaurs/cavemen for a few hours until I finally put them in bed.
So maybe this is the end of it?
For now I’m hoping that June doesn’t get sick again during the night, and that I manage to avoid coming down with anything. And in the meantime, please forgive this very late post! See you again on Monday?
Deliberate
Posted: December 27, 2012 Filed under: Dangerous Book for Boys, Little Women Leave a commentI’ve tried my best to eliminate fussy demands in my house (from the kids, at least). From the time Evan was little, Jarom and I have maintained that we can’t understand him if he fusses when he talks. Consistency has paid off, and it makes my life a little easier by giving me a go-to response to whining.
On top of the “I can’t understand you” approach, we’ve tried to encourage language development by having Evan ask for things in whole sentences as early as possible. It forces him to think about what he’s saying and avoid that annoying “I want a sandwiiiiiiiiiich” sort of fussing. The funny thing is, when we started asking Evan to use a whole sentence when he made a request, he’d speak very slowly and deliberately, clapping his hands once for each syllable. It turned into a rather robotic-sounding sentence, with the exception of a drop in tone at the end (as with a statement) instead of a rise (as with a question). (Surely there is a linguistic term for these tonal changes. Please share if you know what it is.)
The extra funny thing is that with June talking more and more, she perfectly mimics Evan’s robotic and deliberate tone when I remind her to ask nicely for something. I don’t think I’ve done much in the way of asking for whole sentences from her, and I’m usually just looking for a “please,” so the fact that she so accurately copies Evan amuses me. June normally uses decent grammar for her age, but it gets choppy when she switches to the slow-deliberate-robot sentences: “Please… can… have… more… milk!” Interestingly, June’s sentences most often end with exclamation points.
Aside from a few small-scale incidents, the kids have been on much better behavior for the past few days. Evan did earn his stocking back and his enthusiasm made Christmas lovely (more on that tomorrow). Today, I’m enjoying my robot kids and their funny mannerisms.
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 