Belinda’s Book Nook’s Great Reads in 2018: Mem by Bethany C. Morrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: MEM
Author: Bethany C. Morrow
Copyright: May 22, 2018
Genre: fiction
Format: hardcover
Pages: 184

Discovering the book:

I heard about this book on a podcast sometime in May and I decided to buy it for myself as one of my books for my birthday back in June. I love that it was science fiction speculative fiction written by a black author and this was her debut novel. I made a conscious effort last year to seek out and read a number of debut books by black authors. I will have to go back and see how many I read last year.

Expectations:

So I went into the book with expectations built up from what I heard on the podcast description of the book. I’m always fascinated with the way people come up with concepts for books and then are able to tell a story and bring you someplace that you never thought about. This is especially true and the beauties of many genres but it is especially true in science-fiction and fantasy.

Experience:

One thing I noticed was that I was drawn into the story immediately.   I was fascinated with the idea of being able to get rid of unwanted memories. So my curious was peak from the start to learn what and how the author would handle the subject. I found the characters interesting and easily connected to Delores. I appreciated the subtlety that the author used to inform readers that certain characters in the book were people color. It’s not something that I normally experience in my daily reading and it was refreshing.

Premise of the story:

Set in the early 1920s in Montreal Canada when people that had the means could go to this facility and have bad memories or certain memories extracted from them. Typically the memories were bad memories and they would be put inside of a created “being”. This being would be referred to as a ‘Mem’ and would look like that person at that particular time they would have experienced the memory and would never age. The Mem would be that memory they lived and they would relive that memory over and over especially when they went to sleep. The reason that most people go to this facility was that they wanted to get rid of bad memories. The person going to the facility was called the Source. The Source then had all rights to the Mem but the Mem would reside at the facility.  What they noticed was that the Mem would not live very long lives they would eventually expire and they also noticed that the Source when they had these memories extracted that and that memory would then be gone from their memory but they would also lose more of them selves as well. So there was a price to pay to remove bad memories. The main character of the story was a Mem named Dolores after her source Dolores and she exhibited characteristics that no other Mem had before she experienced feelings and individual thoughts.

Final Thoughts:

There’s so much complexity to the various issues that I’m surprised it was fit in such a small book. A great read and I especially enjoyed at the very end the authors note where the author actually states that the character was black and that she chose not to include even though racism exist then and it exists now in Canada. But that she wanted to have the character and exist without having to deal with racism but as a responsible author, she wanted to make sure that she say did note that racism is still present. Then she recommended different resources to explore issues of race and race relations in Canada. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and give it 5 butterflies. This book was really great and I’m just so impressed with the concepts and the issues that it brought to the forefront for me. Read it!

National Read an Ebook Day!

Yay an excuse to read! Today is Read an Ebook Day! I have been giving my Kindle the cold shoulder lately so I think it’s time we get re-acquainted. Today’s weather could not be more perfect to get lost in a book. It’s cloudy and on and off downpours. So I will be taking 2 hours out of my work day today to do a bit of reading. I have everything set up to go. I will be putting Chai tea in the teapot you see in the photo so I can cozy up with my blanket lose myself.

I recently joined an online book club that focuses on female authors of science fiction and fantasy. It’s a genre that I haven’t read much in a bit so I like the idea of getting introduced to some new authors. Our first selection is what I will be reading today and that is “The Red Magician” by Lisa Goldstein.

Are you celebrating National Read an Ebook Day? If so, whatcha reading?

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

Ebook Bargains: Scifi and Fantasy Edition

ebookscififantasy1Let’s face it, I have plenty of books in print that I own and have not read yet. But the booklover I am, I can’t pass up good eBook bargains. I bought these three within the last two weeks at deep discount. Although some of them may have gone back up in price, most aren’t too much higher than what I originally paid for them. They don’t take up physical space in my home so it’s quite easy to collect a heap of books. These three are the latest in the scifi/fantasy category.

The most recent is called “A Mortal Song” by Megan Crewe. Is a stand-alone fantasy that some have described it as “Japanese folklore meets Percy Jackson/Harry Potter-ish” story.  I was first drawn in by the cover art and then the description and then the price of 99 cents sealed the deal. The author has won some awards and has written quite a few books so that also was a selling point.

The second one is called Curse” by Dale Furse, an Australian Female Science Fiction author. This book is the first in a trilogy. The cover is more stunning in person, the three books all cost $2.99 each and I can loan them to others on Amazon Kindle accounts. The book is a bit of Scifi/Fantasy and maybe coming of age story. The main character finds out that she is a mix of two warring alien species. I think it will be fun to give this one a go.

The final one is called “Fool’s War” by Sarah Zettel. I bought this one for 99 cents a few weeks ago. This blurb kind of sold me on this one:

“Displaying “the influence of Asimov’s robot stories and C. J. Cherryh’s elaborate, sophisticated spaceship adventures,” this is a science fiction masterpiece that asks the thought-provoking question, “What if the next great life-form with which we must contend isn’t from the stars but from our hard drives?””

So those are three. I will try to pull together my finds by genre to make it fun and easy to share with you all. Perhaps it will get me to read them sooner when I pull them out and take a look. In my mind, they can always be read on the go (trips, appointments, in-between print books) so I don’t mind collecting them at such deep discount.

Happy reading my bookworm people!

Belinda

Belinda’s Book Nook Book Review: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

Sleeping Giants

Title: Sleeping Giants
Author: Sylvain Neuvel
Copyright: April 26th 2016
Genre: science fiction
Format: e-book  Pages: 320

Wow, it’s been a while since I have written a review. Don’t be fooled, because I have still been ferociously reading books! This is one I recently read.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

My Thoughts:

I heard about this book from the online book community and it sounded like a good sci-fi fix. So I placed it on an e-book hold before it was released.  I was more than thrilled to receive the email informing it was available from the library to read.

I jumped right in and honestly found this book so easy to step into. I wasn’t sure if I would go for the interview transcripts format but I actually loved it. It kept the pace moving nicely while making it easy for the reader to keep up. What draws me to science fiction is the possibilities, the unknown, and the mystery. This book had a little of each. So I was pleasantly satisfied.

I don’t want to spoil this book for any intended readers so I won’t say more except that it was a fast read and very enjoyable. I also should point out, that it is the first book in what might be a series or a trilogy. Not sure which. But to be honest, it was a great stand alone read too.

I will be back with more books soon. Because I have been devouring so many. I hope you fill your summer with great reading adventures. They sure do make the summer even more special for me.

Although I enjoy science fiction, I can’t say I have read a lot, but from my perspective, I would rate this book a 4 1/2.

Happy reading!

Belinda

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