Hooked on Books discussion

Members Starting the BR: Jenny, Sammy, Judith
Challenge: Book Quest Adventures
Book: All the Glimmering Stars by Mark T. Sullivan

Anyone is free to join in this Buddy Read! Happy Reading!

I'm about halfway through, and this is not an easy listen! Especially not since it's based on a true story.

Honestly, some days my brain just wants to spiral into a "does not compute" sequence trying to understand how people can be so horrible to each other.

There are some scenes in this book that are making me feel physically ill, and I'm not squeamish!

Yeesh! That changes my desire to begin, not gonna lie.
I will probably start tonight.

It's supposed to be uplifting in the end, but I'm not there yet!

Don't get me wrong, it's not at all bad, just greatly lacking in sunshine and unicorns...

Oh dear! That makes me not want to jump in either!

Jenny - A TT note, I saw on Cat's SS (yes! I was snooping!) that repeated countries can't be on the same Itinerary..... I'm just going to read and wait to finish the last chapter until there is somewhere to put it! Lol

Otay!

There are some very beautiful moments too.

I also wholeheartedly approve with a moment in the book where the name Kenneth is linked to being a Good Human.

It was my grandfather's name, and if you were to look up the definition of Good Human, you'd probably find a picture of him. 😁

Miss him like crazy, but so grateful to have had him in my life. 🥰

Finished.

This was very good, but as I said, the topic is a hard one.

The hardest part for me was (view spoiler)[ when Florence had to watch her brother Owen be murdered. I have brothers. I'm rather fond of them. Definitely not an easy scene for me. (hide spoiler)]

But there are a great many moving moments too. My personal favourite: (view spoiler)[Florence being reunited with her father after believing her parents to be dead. After so much loss and unpleasantness, it was a lovely moment.
the fact that as soon as they found out she was married they went "Nope. didn't happen. We require a dowry first" was highly amusing! 😆 (hide spoiler)]

I definitely thought this a worthwhile read in the end, just be aware it's a bumpy ride getting there!

Whew, Sammy, you were not wrong! It is a hard listen!!

I thought the same about your hardest part. But, (view spoiler)[ it was also hard to read when Anthony had to participate in the same type of thing with the young boy that was taken when he was! (hide spoiler)]

I agree. (view spoiler)[ Yes, that was pretty tough too. But didn't hit home in quite the same way for me as the brother thing.


I do remember seeing some of those pictures of child soldiers posing with people they killed years ago. You could tell some of them were terrified. others seemed to be pleased with what they'd done, which I guess is the brainwashing part of it all doing its thing.

I just don't understand how a person gets to be so heartless and unhinged that they think "hey, let's kidnap kids and threaten them into killing for me". (hide spoiler)]

1000% agree with your last statement!

As horrific as the theme is, it is a surprising good book!

This is going to break my heart isn't it?
I just started listening to it, and I am already angry and sad.
This is reading like a fictionalized version of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, which is set in Sierra Leone, if I remember right, but has the same atrocities that are occurring here.

I'm afraid that it probably will!

So I am at the point where Anthony and Florence are about to meet.
The first thing I did when I got home was to Google Kony. For some reason I thought he was dead, but the jack-ass is still around and hiding from justice in Darfur. Damn.

Anyway, this is bloody hard to read, but it is a good, well written story, so I am "enjoying" it?!?!?
I think I have a bout 5 hours left in the audio book, so I take it Anthony and Florence don't immediately escape with all of their friends and run away to join the circus. I mean the actual circus, not the hell hole full of clowns that they are currently living in.

Seriously. How the hell can people do that to each other? I jokingly say sometimes that I want most of congress to get hit by a bus, but I don't really mean it. What I mean is that I wish that people in power would only be there if they had common sense and a conscience. How hard is that?

So is it all down to brainwashing children and they don't recover from it? Aristotle said something like "Give me the child until they are seven and I will give you the man." Show you the man? I don't remember exactly. I know there was a prominent Christian guy who said basically the same thing, but it was give me the child and he will be a Christian for life. Or something. So, Children are not born bad, unless their brain is broken and they are a sociopath. So, it is what parents and the churches and society do that forms the ultimate output of the child when they grow up to be adults. ]
Kony was a bloody alter boy. Makes me want to run out and join a church. Not.

I can't comprehend that level of cruelty! Or how someone like Kony decides that is what how they want to "rule".

I didn't realise he was still alive. That makes it even worse.

But yes, I fully agree with the fact that most children are the product of their upbringing, and those influences are incredibly hard to break.
It was incredibly obvious when my son was young and was bullied a lot at school because of his autism. When the parents of the kids that were doing the bullying were called in to the school, they invariably turned out to be bullies too. Unfortunately that usually meant the school was unwilling to discipline the bullies, because they were scared of the parents. So it was my son who time and again would get into trouble for getting upset with the bullies, while they didn't even get so much as told off.

I count myself fortunate having had a "normal" upbringing by good people every day. I hate to think of the horrors some of these people must have been through to make them that way!

And done. That was heartbreaking, and yes, uplifting at the end.
I'm glad I happened across this while looking for books for TT.
I'm with you Sammy. My family, while not perfect at all, brought me up to respect other people unless they earn my disrespect.
Thank goodness for that. I try to be sympathetic and empathetic, but I cannot put myself into the heads of evil people. I just don't get how hurting people makes one feel better. Or stronger. Or more potent or whatever. I always feel better if I help someone, or if I make them feel better, or try to ease someone's burden. The few times I have hurt someone or said the wrong thing haunt me. So, different brain chemistry, or different formative brainwashing makes a big difference.

Anyway, I liked this book.

Would it be great if everyone would strive to be Good Humans?!?!?!

Dreamer!
And yes, yes it would.

Definitely.

I know I try. Sometimes I fail. But causing pain has always been unintentional.

I'm not going to pretend there aren't people out there I can't abide, but I prefer to simply avoid them, rather than try to cause them pain.

Just so long as they don't mess with my kids 😆

This was a hard read and I agree with all of the sentiments all of you posted above.

I weirdly liked this better than Beneath a Scarlet Sky. That book was way too long or the pacing wasn't right or something. It was a slog.

This was hard to get through for entirely different reasons, mainly the topic. But so important. The things humans do to each other is just baffling.

Oh I absolutely agree. Beneath a Scarlet Sky was very mediocre to me. this one was far more engaging.

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