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Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)

Octavia E. Butler

Start date: October 28, 2021

Finish date: November 10, 2021

Why we're reading this: Parable of the Sower is our November selection for our NEA Big Reads Book Discussion. This program will b…more
[close] Parable of the Sower is our November selection for our NEA Big Reads Book Discussion. This program will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, 11/3 at 6:30 PM. Visit our website or call 515-248-4152 to register or for more details.

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What Members Thought

Jul 09, 2021 Karna Converse rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

An eerily-real read set in the years 2024 to 2027 and written as science fiction in 1993

Lauren is a 15-year-old girl living in an isolated southern California walled community where there are at least two guns in every household and the community's pastor-leader teaches that the police can't protect them so they must all know how to defend themselves. This includes gun-handling instruction in school, weekly target practice beginning at age 15, and an overall attitude based on Nehemiah 4:14, “And ...more

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Jun 28, 2022 Stephanie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-dystopian

Wow! A book to make you think about life, society, the world. Interesting dystopian that could easily be to close to reality.

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Feb 09, 2022 Jolie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Exquisitely excruciating

I’m not sure I have the right words for the experience that is reading PARABLE OF THE SOWER. Devastatingly prescient, and I don’t know whether to be glad or sorry that Butler didn’t live to see the times we are living in. We may not - yet - be at the stage in the book. We could - oh, so horrible to acknowledge - get there.

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Jul 05, 2021 Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi, dystopia, kindle, lit-prize, diversiverse, 2021, book-club

I have the same struggle with this novel that I did with previous Octavia Butler novels I've read, which is that it takes a lot of pages before I can finally connect with and feel engrossed by the narrative. I don't know if it is the pacing, or the disconnected narrative voice, but it always takes long enough that I almost feel like DNFing the novel, and then suddenly something clicks and I can't stop reading.

There is a lot here to digest and sink into - religion, relationships, social and econo ...more

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