Title: Shades of Grey
Author: Jasper Fforde
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Dystopian
ISBN: 0670019631
Pages: 388
Year: 2009
Publisher: Viking
Source: Dunedin Public Library
Rating: 4.5/5
Plot summary (from Barnes and Noble):
As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one’s limited color perception, society is dominated by color. In this world, you are what you can see.
Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective. With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works; he may even have enough red perception to make prefect.
For Eddie, life looks colorful. Life looks good.
But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine. There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes to the painful truth behind his seemingly perfect, rigidly controlled society.
Curiosity–a dangerous trait to display in a society that demands total conformity–gets the better of Eddie, who beings to wonder: Why are there not enough spoons to go around? Why is everything–and everyone–barcoded? What happened to all the people who never returned from High Saffron? And why, when you begin to question the world around you, do black-and- white certainties reduce themselves to shades of grey?
Other Books I’ve Read By Author: The Eyre Affair
Why I Picked Up This Book: I love the Thursday Next series and I was intrigued by the idea of the colortocracy.
My thoughts:
This book was wonderful. I’m not sure I should say this here, but I think I liked it better than the Thursday Next books. The idea is so original yet very simple: a dystopian novel with a hierarchy based on the color you can see.
The people in this world all follow the rules. They don’t make new spoons because the great Munsell has instructed them not to. There are loopholes a plenty to get around the crazy rules, but the rules are followed and generally not questioned. While this seems absurd to me, the girl who has a thousand questions for everyone, our main character, Eddie, is generally happy. This is not a novel where the main character feels oppressed and lost faith in his government ages ago. Eddie is perfectly okay with abiding by all the silly mandates that get tossed his way.
But then he meets Jane. The girl with the adorable nose who threatens to punch him upon meeting. And Jane forces him to see what’s really out there (although he can still only see it in Red). What he finds terrifies him and changes him and leaves me wanting the rest of the story.
While certainly a dystopian novel, Fforde keeps this one light and funny, only to make it a little darker toward the end. His writing is just as fun as it is in the Thursday Next novels and I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occassion.
This novel is about Eddie’s discovery of himself, his world, and what he must do. While it is a fantastic book, it really just sets up the story in the rest of the series – which I can’t wait to read.
Final question: Where are all the Oranges? [EDIT: I have since found this explanation of the Munsell Color System which explains why there are no Oranges and explains who this Munsell character is.]
Memorable Passages:
I’ve already returned the book to the library, so I can’t pull out my favorite passages, but I will say that I think this has an exceptionally fabulous first line:
“It began with my father not wanting to see The Last Rabbit, and ended up with my being eaten by a carnivorous plant.”
Will I Read This Author Again?: Absolutely
Other Reviews:
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Last May, when I only had a foot in this whole book blogging door, I decided I wanted to go to Book Expo America (BEA) in 2010. A long weekend in New York City – I could manage that. Then the BEA organizers scheduled BEA for the middle of the week (Tues-Thurs). A long weekend is one thing but a whole week? I automatically decided I couldn’t go.
Next I knew, everyone was signing up for BEA and talking about and I was getting very jealous of everyone who was able to go. Then the Book Blogger Convention was announced for the Friday following BEA and my desire to go to BEA increased even more. But I still didn’t think I could go.
Then Emily from Books, the Universe, and Everything had a fantastic suggestion: why not go for part of BEA? She only went for one day last year and had a wonderful time. Once this idea got in my head, I knew I had to go. I finally decided to go for the last day of BEA, the Book Blogger Convention, and then stay through the weekend to visit the city. It wasn’t that hard to convince Ben to go to New York with me once I got the housing situation figured out (thanks very much to the generosity of a certain friend).
So that’s it: I’m going to BEA!
I’m very excited to meet all of these online people I know and get a new look at the publishing industry. I’ve been reading tips from past attendees and wouldn’t talk of anything else for days. Apart from driving through it on I-95 and a couple of layovers at JFK and LaGuardia, I have never been to New York City, so part of my excitement is simply seeing this city that I’ve been longing to visit for most of my life.
To anyone else who is also attending these events: I will see you in just a few short months!
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While I was on twitter the other day, Jen from Devourer of Books mentioned that every book she read recently took place in Ann Arbor. Naturally, I immediately wanted to read every single one and asked her which books they were. Most of you already know this, but for any newer readers, I grew up just outside of Ann Arbor* and then attended The University of Michigan for both undergrad and law school. I adore Ann Arbor and miss it very much. The only book I’ve really read that takes place there is Charles Baxter’s The Feast of Love
The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar
Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan
*From the Detroit Metro Times: Dream House as a whole is an excellent portrait of “the stereotypes that distinguish posh Ann Arbor, backwoods Dexter, and Ypsilanti.” While I take offense to the label of my hometown as “backwoods”, I LOVE that it gets mentioned in a review and can’t wait to read about the stereotypes.
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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate. If you make a purchase from Amazon using the links I have provided, I will receive a portion of the sale – the proceeds of which are used to support this blog. There is no cost to you.
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Books Read:
- Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
- Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (audio) (review)
- The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson (review)
- The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening by L.J. Smith
- The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (review)
- Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (audio) (review)
Books Acquired: None!
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Title: Juliet, Naked
Author: Nick Hornby
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 0143144901
Pages: 416 (8.9 hours)
Year: 2009
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Source: Dunedin Public Library
Rating: 4/5
Plot summary (from The Book Depository):
Annie loves Duncan-or thinks she does. Duncan loves Annie, but then, all of a sudden, he doesn’t. Duncan really loves Tucker Crowe, a reclusive Dylanish singer-songwriter who stopped making music ten years ago. Annie stops loving Duncan, and starts getting her own life. In doing so, she initiates an e-mail correspondence with Tucker, and a connection is forged between two lonely people who are looking for more out of what they’ve got. Tucker’s been languishing (and he’s unnervingly aware of it), living in rural Pennsylvania with what he sees as his one hope for redemption amid a life of emotional and artistic ruin-his young son, Jackson. But then there’s also the new material he’s about to release to the world: an acoustic, stripped-down version of his greatest album, “Juliet”-entitled, “Juliet, Naked.” What happens when a washed-up musician looks for another chance? And miles away, a restless, childless woman looks for a change? “Juliet, Naked” is a powerfully engrossing, humblingly humorous novel about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to one’s promise.
Other Books I’ve Read By Author: A Long Way Down
Why I Picked Up This Book: I was browsing the audio books at the library and remembered that I wanted to read this one.
My thoughts:
When I first started this book, I thought it was simply going to be a funny book about a man who is obsessed with a washed-up singer. But this book turned into so much more. Duncan really fell into the background of the story pretty quickly and it became more about his girlfriend Annie and the washed-up singer, Tucker Crowe.
Annie has been in her relationship with Duncan for far too long and is incredibly saddened by the realization that she is never going to have children. Tucker has had too many wives and has too many children – he really only knows his youngest, Jackson. Yet both Annie and Tucker are searching for something. This book is about their journey to find it.
Hornby did a wonderful job writing the character and eliciting empathy for them from the reader. The audio version was interesting because each of the three main characters – Duncan, Annie, and Tucker – were narrated by different people. I think this took me into the story more than one consistent narrator would have.
I’m not finding the words I want to accurately describe how this book made me feel, but I really enjoyed it. I haven’t read much Nick Hornby, but I know that music is one of the things people say he writes about best. After finishing this, I would like to go back and read some of his older books.
Will I Read This Author Again?: Yes
Other Reviews:
- S. Krishna’s Books
- (I couldn’t find any others in Google Reader. But I’m sure they must be there. If I missed yours let me know.)
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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate. If you make a purchase from Amazon using the links I have provided, I will receive a portion of the sale – the proceeds of which are used to support this blog. There is no cost to you.
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Ben recently accused me of reading too many library books. While I’m glad the you-read-too-many-young-adult-books accusation has been temporarily replaced, I somehow felt the need to defend myself again against this new crime. Am I ignoring my own books?
I find that I want to read the books that other people are reading – when they are reading them. Instead of adding to my already overwhelming library, I’ve been checking out some newer titles from the library. But I have approximately 8 million unread books in my own personal collection and I want to read them, too. I know most of us suffer from some version of the “so many books, so little time” dilemma, but this is the first time I’ve felt conflicted about my library to owned books reading ratio.
So my question to all of you is: Have you ever felt like you are ignoring your own books? Do you try to find some sort of balance? Do you go through phases where you read more of your own books? Do you avoid the library entirely?
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“The footsteps sounded right above them. Then there was silence, followed by a slithering sound on the bank.”
- Page 287 of The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle by LJ Smith -
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
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I didn’t read much this last week. Work and life were simply too busy. I am hoping to finish Juliet, Naked and Shades of Grey today, but I didn’t finish anything else. So I’m going to talk about some other things that I did this week:
I finally watched Bride and Prejudice
Yesterday, I skipped Gasparilla due to the rain and a still semi-injured husband, and instead went to the movies with a friend. I do, however, think it was somewhat fitting that we saw one that included Mardi Gras: The Princess and The Frog (Three Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo with Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
Finally, I went and saw our President and Vice President at a town hall in Tampa on Thursday. I hadn’t planned on going since I really did have a lot of work to do. But after watching the State of the Union the night before, and after an email implying it would be ok from my boss, I gave my old campaign boss a last minute call and snagged a ticket. I’m glad I went. It reminds me why I worked as hard as I did to get him elected. I’d also never seen Biden speak (did he speak at the inauguration?).
So that was my week of nonreading.
Oh, and I’m leaning toward actually going to BEA. *fingers crossed* But no definite plans yet.
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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate. If you make a purchase from Amazon using the links I have provided, I will receive a portion of the sale – the proceeds of which are used to support this blog. There is no cost to you.
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A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Recommended by: The Literate Housewife
The Little Stranger
Recommended by: Devourer of Books
The Kingdom of Ohio
Recommended by: Beth Fish Reads
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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate. If you make a purchase from Amazon using the links I have provided, I will receive a portion of the sale – the proceeds of which are used to support this blog. There is no cost to you.
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I’ve been inspired by Emily to finally do my first Library Loot post.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages readers to share the goodies that they picked up at their libraries each week.
These are books I’ve picked up at various times during the last few weeks. Some of which I have finished or am in the middle of but I wanted to share them all anyway.
Books
Shades of Grey: A Novel by Jasper Fforde
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle by LJ Smith
Genesis by Bernard Beckett
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
Audiobooks
The Eye of the World: Book One of ‘The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan’
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (not pictured because it’s in my car)
Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate. If you make a purchase from Amazon using the links I have provided, I will receive a portion of the sale, the proceeds of which are used to support this blog. There is no cost to you.
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