The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

I am currently reading Les Miserables, bit out of my comfort zone with it but plodding along

Francesca wrote: "I seriously recommend The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Honestly it is so good. I cried while reading it."

i am having a hard time with this book. i have put it down for now, but i will try again!

Kate wrote: "I am currently reading Les Miserables, bit out of my comfort zone with it but plodding along"

i will start this soon!

The Canarsie Flash Good evening tonite to everybody on board here. Right now I'm reading a cool graphic novel DC Vertigo Visions with some of the greatest selections of artwork and well done description from that era in the 1990's when I used to like to go to NIN concerts. Gift from a friend of mine who is my co-author in our book The Canarsie Flash that I listed above if anybody needs something new to check out. Best wishes, Hunter B.

I just started reading Fahrenheit 451 and I'm liking it so far. It's kind of wierd, firefighters acutually set books(and houses) on fire instead of putting them out.

Lianne wrote: "Last night I finished Coraline and I loved it! It's such an easy read and the story is original and interesting. It's creepy and quite a nightmare, but still very beautiful. Coraline, the main char..."

I can reccomend Gaiman's Sandman Series.

Reading Reckless by S.C. Stephens (:
It's amazing... Well the last two were amazing too!!
Totally bias tho ;)

Okay so I'm very new to groups on goodreads, so forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong place.. But I have a bit of a problem. I've been on a book buying spree lately, and I can't wait to read them all, except.. I have no idea where to start. Not sure what mood I'm in. Here are a few of the books I have yet to read: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, and Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien. Where do I start?! Ugh.

Megan-
I've read all of Clare's books and I'm waiting on her clockwork princess to come out this month.
They are ALL really good!!

twelvejan wrote: "I'm really enjoying myself with The Night Circus. You know sometimes when you read a particular book, you would already hv an inkling feeling of how it would end (Like Me Before You or TFIOS). But ..."

I loved The Night Circus! I think it was my favorite book I read last year. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that hasn't read it yet. I actually felt a little depressed after finishing it. Not because it was bad, but because it was so beautiful and it was over! lol

Megan wrote: "Okay so I'm very new to groups on goodreads, so forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong place.. But I have a bit of a problem. I've been on a book buying spree lately, and I can't wait to read ..."

I haven't read Obsidian or Birthmarked but I've read the rest. Really you can't go wrong with any of them. You'll want to read the entire series of all of them though, I can say that. So, the Stieg Larsson Millenium Trilogy would probably take you the longest to get through as they are just a little long and involved. The Mortal Instruments are a quick read but it 5 books. The Delirium trilogy is also a quick read and the final book just came out today so that's awesome for you so you can read them back to back! Really they are all great books. The Mortal Instruments is a little more fun/less heavy than the others I mentioned.

Megan wrote: "Okay so I'm very new to groups on goodreads, so forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong place.. But I have a bit of a problem. I've been on a book buying spree lately, and I can't wait to read ..."

I love almost all of those books, so I could recommend any of them to you, but I love few books more than I love Delirium. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend it to everyone, so I woul start there. And Liz is right, the final book came out today so can read them all!

I'm currently reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. It's exciting and quick moving so far.

I'm currently reading Changes by Danielle Steel

Oclaline wrote: "I can reccomend Gaiman's Sandman Series. "

Thanks! I'll put them on my TBR list.

I'm currently reading The Cellar by Richard Layman. Very interesting.

I never read that book

Just finished . Good but not really my type.

Is that a good book?

Christine wrote: "Is that a good book?"

Yeah, the beginning was amazing, but it really wasn't my type of book.

What's the book about?

Lo♪ wrote: "Just finished . Good but not really my type."

I was not a fan of this book. It was something to read, at best.

I'm reading The Physick Book of Deliverance Daneand it's interesting. I had finished Cloud Atlasand Beautiful Creaturesand I thought that they were both just okay at best.

I would like to read that book

I'm currently giving a chance to The Host by Stephenie Meyer, yes I know, the Twilight author. I'm almost finished. I like it, but it's not great.

I wouldn't like to read that book

No, I didn't want to read it at first. But then, why don't give it a chance? I thought. At least there are no sparkling vampires :P.

The host was just like twilight series. All four books were condensed and vampires switched to aliens but the themes are the same and I read all of them but I think Meyer is a one trick pony. Forbidden Love and love triangles are her big themes. The only part I loved were the back stories but again she ran out of stories I guess because Emmett didn't get enough said for him.

Haha, yeah that's true. But there are a lot of love triangle story's...Wait! Now I think of it: Jared=Jacob and Edward=Ian, they are very similar. I've read all her Twilight books too, back when it was a big hype when New Moon came in the cinema. I like vampire books, but I don't like Twilight anymore. I thought that vampire's in Stephenie's book were very original, haven't read vampire fiction before. But now that I've read more vampire book, they are a complete fail in my reading history. I mean: Which vampire would go to school over and over again, and that complete Bella character ugh! I'm nor Team Edward, nor Team Jacob, I'm Team Lestat (Vampire Chronicles ftw!).

Don't even know how I heard about it, but just finished The Legend of Devil's Creek and really enjoyed it.

I'm reading The Complete Persepolis!

I'm currently reading 500 books. haha, but I'm actually reading Looking for Alaska by John Green and it's absolutely amazing. It's no The Fault in Our Stars or anything, but it's very good. Definitely would recommend it :P

Reading it's good and I hope to finish it tonight.

I'm about to start Parade's End by Ford Maddox Ford; admittedly with a little trepidation . I've heard it can be a bit of a slog at times, but I think it is a book one should try to read. A bit like Proust! I'll try to post updates from time to time.

I used to have a goodreads account, but for the life of me I can't remember my old username or password. So I linked it to my Facebook this time. I am currently reading Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. I've had this checked out since like, December, but I haven't found the time to just sit down and read it like I've been wanting to. College keeps you busy.

Thanks for adding or checking out our book. Borrow it for free with Amazon.Prime. Best wishes. The Canarsie Flash

well if you are 18 or have permission to read paranormal romance I'd recommend JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Note it is full of blood, tattoos, lust and some drug references. One of the best books I've ever read

I just finished reading the lunarmorte series by Samantha Young, I couldn't put them down.

twelvejan wrote: "Okay guys, I need a little help. And it would be great if you could help me within the next 2 hours! I'm thinking of going on a book shopping spree. So it would be great if you could recommend me r..."

There are a hundred books that I could tell you to buy, but of that list I would DEFINITELY get the Delirium trilogy. I just bought the third one an hour ago, but Delirium is one of my top three favorite books of all time. Shatter Me is very good, too, but I only started to love it after I read Destroy Me, the short novella that comes after it.

I just finished reading Dale Brown it was okay to much of high tech weaponry & too many pages.

twelvejan wrote: "Okay guys, I need a little help. And it would be great if you could help me within the next 2 hours! I'm thinking of going on a book shopping spree. So it would be great if you could recommend me r..."

I think that Water for Elephants is utterly brilliant and worth the purchase! Don't consider the movie in buying it, because I personally feel it was miscast...

The Moon Is Not For Sale by Wallace Provost - Book Review

Land, society and how things could be

Annabelle Taylor (Annie) and Clint Baker are thrown together in the middle of an asteroid shower on the Moon. Lunar City, for the moment, is in chaos, offering only very cramped, bored and squalid conditions until the next shuttle arrives in two weeks time. Annie is only a temporary worker on the Moon having gone there to pick up easy credits for her law degree, but Clint is a “Luney”, that is, he was born on the moon. Clint decides it is best to take Annie with him to his family home, Moondogy Ranch, which is a few days drive away by very rough road. The ranch is located in a huge cavern, which is sealed off from the outside to protect it against the solar radiation and the extremes of temperature. Annie feels stirrings of emotion for Clint, but her plans for her life do not include being a farmer’s wife, much less one who lives on the Moon. Annie is a Cherokee Indian and very much intends to become a lawyer so she can advance the standing of her people. What direction will Annie’s life take, and indeed what direction will events in the pioneer Looney civilization take?

The Moon Is Not For Sale is Wallace Provost’s first novel and is a very amiable book, full of adventure. It is written in the hard science style, which is to say it is based on science fact, current science theory and logical projections from today’s widely held science concepts. Provost holds a Masters Degree in the philosophy of science, and a second Masters in sociology. Not surprisingly the novel also contains speculations about the nature of society and the possibilities of future societies. At its heart this is a book for those who like to imagine and dream, and for those who like people.


Provost’s novel is very much about frontier life on the Moon and suitably the style has a hint of the back-woods, fire-side tale. The voice is very chatty and we feel we are perhaps listening to our uncle or grandfather tell us about people he knows. Each new character, for example, is introduced by a short yarn which reveals something of their history and personality. This helps to make the book warm and friendly and we immediately feel at home. Along the way there are several surprise endings which spur us to read on. There are occasional moments of real irony, such as the “jungle drum music” (p. 153) in Chapter 18, where patrons of the “Haven of Evil” lasciviously prepare to watch a truly gratuitous spectacle. This very much contrasts with the previous chapter in which Kwame Nkuomo, a Gahanna engineer, beats his jungle drum while remorsefully contemplating the terrible consequences of a failed project which he helped to initiate. The philosophical ethics of the first chapter bitingly contrasts with the degradation of the next.

This book has an unusual plot structure. The first half of the novel follows Annie as she rises in the world and has to deal with various complications, such as a possible romance with Clint and even a plot to kill her. In the second half of the book the plot diverges into various stories, many of which are centred on the development of the moon colony. We read of, for example, the establishment of a number of new settlements. In this second half there is still a plot line related to Annie, however, she does not take centre stage. One criticism of Provost’s book is that this second half is unnecessarily repetitive. There is, for example, a second attempt to kill Annie. In the first half Black Horse Jones, Cherokee Indian ‘big man’ and Annie’s long standing enemy, is the individual who wants Annie dead. In the second half Injun Joe Bristow, also a Cherokee Indian ‘big man’, is the assassination schemer. Once again in the first half we read the story of the establishment of the city of Inyanga by dispossessed Zulus. In the second half of the book we read of the establishment of Helium City by Indians from the slums of Mumbai, and then again the story of the establishment of the village of Xi Hue by oppressed immigrants from Tibet. This is basically the same plot idea repeated. Finally in the second half we read the three stories of Mike Riggs, Monty Wilson and Art Anderson, all of who are temporary immigrants to the moon and all of who meet and marry Indian ‘Luneys’ in Helium City. These stories come in so close proximity that we cannot help noticing the repetition. A related problem to this is that, without Annie taking centre stage, there is less to tie the various plot developments together. As a result this second half of the book is too diffuse. This is not to say that the last half is totally boring: it is interesting but over extended. Viewed as a whole the novel certainly works.

The characterization is one of the novels strongest points. Provost has a way of capturing people in a few words and making us feel that we understand them. Annie is outspoken and ambitious in a level headed, likable way and we are immediately on her side. Provost has also given her a little mystery. We wonder why she feels the first trip to Moondogy Ranch is such a “trap.” (Ch. 4) The introductory character studies, which have already been mentioned, are certainly one of the highlights of the book. This is, however, very much a story about one person. Provost has given us a stage full of characters, but he does not really develop any of them except Annie. Even Clint is not depicted in any depth, or as growing in any way. The novel would have benefited from having just one more character explored in detail. I do not wish, though, to overstate this point. The Moon Is Not For Sale is quite readable and enjoyable.

Provosts novel is mainly action and adventure, but there is just a little symbolism. The asteroid shower in Chapter 1, for example, is a highly ironic symbol commenting on capitalist society. Lunar City’s huge roulette wheel, which is a monument to the grad vision of the Moon’s casino, is smashed to pieces. What was meant to last “forever” (Ch.7, p. 49) is in ruins. Provost is not at all liberal, heavy handed or obvious with this symbolism, so don’t expect a gratuitously ‘poetic’ book, but just a little imagery is there if you look for it.

The Moon Is Not For Sale is about frontier life and the theme of individualism, ingenuity and free thinking is very prominent. This pioneer spirit existed in the U. S. when it was first being explored and colonized, and also in Australia at a similar point in its history. When nothing exists to rely on individuals have to fall back on their own resources and ideas. As a result new types of society can emerge. Along similar lines the question of ‘What is success?’ is examined in some detail. Our society says that money, property and social status mean success, but is that really so? Aren’t our own personal goals very important in defining us as a success, and are these necessarily the targets suggested by society? Provost’s characterization of Annie very much delves into this theme of success. Friendship and pairing into couples also features strongly in the novel. What makes us happy and what helps us through life? Sure bonding is at least part of the answer. Bonding is a very basic human need and Provost depicts it both light-heartedly and also with a little philosophic depth.

As we have noted in the paragraph above, the book has a lot to do with society. On the Moon private ownership of land is banned. The Capitalist/Marxist debate therefore features strongly in the novel, though it should be noted that Provost is not in any way advocating totalitarian communism, which Marx himself would have been quite horrified by. (Gill Hands. Understanding Marx: Hodder Education, 2011, p. 79-83) As Hands writes: “The Soviet Union was ostensibly a Marxist-Leninist regime under … [Stalin’s] … rule but this was nothing like the society envisaged by Marx or Lenin.” (p. 83) Indeed in Provost’s novel in Ch. 46 the Tibetans, who have lived under communist Chinese rule, find it very hard to believe that on the Moon business is run to very much benefit ordinary workers. (p.264-265) Provost notes, as Marx did, that Capitalism encourages an aggrandizing self-ambition almost like a fetish. (Hand, p. 46-49) In Chapter 7 Provost depicts Fuller, the original owner of Lunar City casino, as exactly such a fetish driven man, and indeed there are quite a few examples of similar men in the book. The importance of power in Capitalism, as noted by Marx (Hand, Ch. 3 & p. 59), is also noted by Provost. In Chapter 9, 10 and 11` we read of Annie being wary of and avoiding ‘men in black suits.’ Marx, of course, observed that whole classes of people are enslaved by the few (Hand, p. 51-53), and indeed that whole nations can be oppressed by the Capitalist elite (Hand, p.44-46). As we have seen, the history of oppressed peoples such as the Zulu’s and the Indian poor is highlighted. Most notably Provost explores in depth the Marxist point of the ownership of land and the resulting enslavement of people. (Provost. Ch.21, p. 165-166 for example, & for Marxism Rius. Introducing Marx: Icon Books, 1999, p. 117-118) It should be noted, however, that Provost is not saying that the proto-Marxist society of the Moon is a seamless paradise. Unemployment is noted. (Ch. 37, p. 242) It is also noted that capitalist competition and land ownership are strong drivers of growth. (Ch. 42, p. 251-252)

From the perspective of post-colonialism the Moon Is Not For Sale is full of successful, educated and independent (self-empowered) characters from the ‘third world.’ Provost makes a special point of noting the oppressed state of the Zulus and their need for freedom (Ch. 40, p. 247). In one interesting passage (Ch. 23, p. 178) Provost notes that originally nomad people had no need for the ownership of land. ‘Indigenous’ people, for him, have a wisdom from which we as ‘advanced’ society may be able to benefit. As the plot progresses there are also a number of successful East/West relationships as ‘ordinary’ workers meet and mix on the Moon. (Ch. 33, 36, 38) There is no bigoted fear of ‘mixed marriages’ here. As with Marxism though, here too the picture is not patronisingly ideal. The Ecuadorian owners of the unprofitable Titanium mine on the Moon decide to simply shut down the operation, abandoning the workers to die of starvation or thirst in isolation. Obviously those in the third world are not all model characters.

Indigenous North American Indians play a special role in the novel, but here once again Provost takes a balanced approach. There are two Cherokee lawyers, Annie and her uncle Bradley Hays, but there are also the two previously mentioned Cherokee villains, Jones and Joe. Provost does, however, take a mainly positive approach. From this positive perspective Cherokees are depicted as having skills of value. One Cherokee character, an old woman living a traditional life in the woods, is depicted as having very keen, almost intuitive observation skills, much more than a white Westerner would. (p.72-73) The bigotry which North American Indians face is also depicted. In one very telling scene Mina and Robert Lowrey discuss with moral indignation the “Haven of Evil” which the new Cherokee owners of the Lunar City casino have set up, completely ignoring the “snuggle tunnel” which the previous white owners provided for their customers.

The gay characters Evan Williams and Ralph Burns make brief positive appearances (Ch. 8, p 58-62), as do the lesbian characters Glenda Trilling and Marsha Mayberry.(Ch. 50)

Provost has made a special effort to portray women positively and the plot has many intelligent working women. Antonia Vilafiana, for example, is Mayor of Lunar City at the age of just 22 years. In Chapter 51 (p.289) female contestants in the first “Pan Lunar Games” take a starring roll defeating male contestants.

twelvejan wrote: "Thanks for the rec Haley, Brittany!

Hope to get more recs from all of ya!"

your welcome pick any jr ward up?

I'm currently reading sex, lies and bonsai by Lisa Walker an Australian author and it's amazing. Full of witty humour and situations that most girls/ women can relate to.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my earlier comment about not knowing which book to read first. I decided to go with Delirium by Lauren Oliver. So far it's been pretty good, but it kind of seems like it skips around a bit and I feel like I'm almost half way through and the story hasn't even begun yet. Am I just expecting something that's not there or does the story get more in depth later in the book and in the next book?

Thanks to everyone who replied to my earlier comment about not knowing which book to read first. I decided to go with Delirium by Lauren Oliver. So far it's been pretty good, but it kind of seems like it skips around a bit and I feel like I'm almost half way through and the story hasn't even begun yet. Am I just expecting something that's not there or does the story get more in depth later in the book and in the next book?

hi i'm currently reading practice make perfect by julie james she is witty writer if you should get alook and see but to the heart & soul writer John Green my most devotion
read it if you didn't already you won't regretted it

hi i'm currently reading the beautiful and damned by scott fitzgerald.Just discovered him - great author.

I'm currently reading Great Expectations and No Rest for the Wicked

I would strongly recommend, to anyone who hasn't already read them, The Lord of the Rings, Life of Pi and The Immortals After Dark Series. They're all well written, but completely different(shows why I'm in this group :P)

Hi, we are currently reading a collection of Grant Morrison graphic novels that we became custodians of while a friend had to move. Arkham Asylum is my favorite. Check our our Novella The Canarsie Flash, its free with Amazon Prime. We spent 10 years writing it. Looking to meet friends and other writers, we have too many interests to list, but self publishing is very high on that list. Best wishes, Hunter.