Manhattan high society 1899.Friday, March 14, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
"This is the way the world ends" Part 5
We take so many things for granted. Washing and drying our clothes, calling friends and family around the world on our cell phones, looking something up on the internet, having enough to eat and drink, being warm in the winter and cool in the summer and even going to school seem like things that can't ever go away. In Jericho, a series of bombs cripple the nation and force the characters to work hard for simple survival. In Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, an equally disastrous incident leaves 16 year old Miranda and her family struggling just to stay alive. Written in diary form, Miranda tells of her transition from normal teen to skeletal survivor over a period of a year. Here's a question to make you think about the issues in this book: If you had to survive with no help from anyone (no stores, utility companies, gas stations!) for one year, what would you buy to help you survive? Don't forget the batteries!!
"This is the way the world ends" Part 4
What would the earth look like if every human disappeared tomorrow? That's the gloomy question that Professor Alan Weisman tries to answer in The World Without Us. Within days, the subway pumps would fail in New York City and most buildings (except the skyscrapers) would be under water. Pressures would build up in the oil rigs in Houston and massive explosions would occur. Most materials things would rust or rot away. But plastic would still be around for centuries! Part nonfiction and part guesswork, this book will give science fiction writers of the future plenty to think about.
"This is the way the world ends" Part 3
Deadly chemicals from a government research lab leak into the air and travel by winds across America. Only a handful of survivors are left. Some are called by Mother Abigail to be the army of goodness. Others are recruited by the "traveling man" to finish the job the government started: destroy the world. Can a failed musician, an elderly professor and a simple country boy defeat the forces of the dark side? This battle is The Stand by Stephen King.
"This is the way the world ends" Part 2
In the savage days after a war nearly destroys North America, Gordon Krantz is just trying to survive. He has no hope...nobody does. Roving gangs terrorize the survivors. and Gordon takes to the road, not knowing where he's going. He comes across a car with a dead mail carrier inside. Gordon takes the dead man's jacket because Gordon is cold and the dead don't mind the cold. When he reaches the next group of survivors, they think he is the postman and that things are getting better. They give him letters to deliver to their missing loved ones. And without meaning to do this, the Postman becomes a symbol of hope and, eventually, a legend. The Postman by David Brin.
"This is the way the world ends" Part 1
There has been a chemical or nuclear war and 16 year old Ann Burden has watched her entire family sicken and die. The nearby towns are empty. Ann fears that she may be the last person left on earth. Then, one morning, everything changes. As Ann tells us: "I am afraid. Someone is coming. That is, I think someone is coming and I pray that I am wrong. I went into the church and prayed all morning. I sprinkled water in front of the altar, and put some flowers on it, violets and dogwood. But there is smoke. Not like the time before. That time, last year, it rose in a great cloud a long way away. But this time it is a thin column, not very high.... And it's moving closer each day." Ann is right: someone is coming. Will he be a friend, or an enemy? Is there something worse than being the last person on Earth?Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
A look at the Future Part 4
Matt lives on the estate of El Patron, a drug lord operating somewhere in what is now northern Mexico. He knows he is different somehow. He's not allowed to play with other children, there is a huge commotion every time he falls down or gets a little cold, his mother is not really his mother and he has no idea where his biological mother and father are. As he begins to grow up, he learns pieces of the truth. He was genetically engineered. His DNA is that of El Patron himself. And Matt is being raised for spare parts so that, as El Patron ages and his body parts fail, Matt can donate a kidney, part of a liver or, if need be, a heart. Can Matt escape the real dangers of El Patron. If he escapes the House of the Scorpion, can he also escape his identity as a clone? The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Garden.
A look at the Future Part 3
These are pictures of the same girl, before and after cosmetic surgery. What a difference! In record numbers, we are changing the way we look. Why? We want to be prettier, whatever that means. In Pretties, by Paul Westerfield, teens of the future receive a very special (and free)16th birthday present. Every teen is given free surgery to make them pretty (or handsome for the boys). Imagine a world where everyone is pretty!Tally Youngblood used to be ugly. Before she had her operation, she used to hang out with some friends who chose not to have the operation. Those who choose to keep their looks are hiding far away. Tally has forgotten all about her old friends as she goes from party to hairdresser to shopping to another party. But a mysterious message from her 15 year old self plunges Tally into the reality that being a "pretty" has a sinister and dark side.
A look at the Future Part 2
Laptops are getting smaller, cell phones are getting thinner, IPods now play videos. Why? Because we want to carry our information, our communication, our music and videos with us. Smaller is better because it's less to carry around. So what if you could get a procedure, no more painful than ear piercing or a tattoo, which would allow you to carry all this around...in your head. A small chip in your brain allows you to think a song, for instance, and hear it instantly. Would you do it? If you say "no"...would you do it if all your friends and family were doing it? Titus is just an ordinary guy who went along with the crowd. The chip in his head is pretty convenient, although the commercials sometimes can be annoying. But mostly he enjoys it and it helps him fit in. But on a school trip, Titus encounters Violet. She thinks for herself, doesn't follow the fads and doesn't have "The Feed." And for the first time in a long time, Titus starts to think for himself. In the future world of The Feed by M.T. Anderson, thinking for yourself might be dangerous or even deadly.
A look at the Future Part 1
Every time you make a phone call, text a friend, buy something on line or email personal information, you create an electronic file which may be saved somewhere. Recently, the governor of New York was forced to resign because his text messages about illegal activity were accessed, even though he deleted them. AT&T had a record of his messages! John Twelve Hawks, in his future fiction novel The Traveler, tells a story of the future where a single company, the Tabula, attempts to control all information about every citizen and thus control the population. In a world without privacy, a handful of visionaries (the Travelers) try to live "off the grid" and seek the truth hidden by the Tabula's lies, propaganda and mind control.
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