Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

A Million Suns

Beth Revis’s sequel to Across the Universe continues the saga of the doomed spaceship Godspeed on its mission to colonize Centauri-Earth three hundred years into the future.

Elder is now the leader, but he refuses the title of Eldest to show that he is not like former rulers. Instead, he has given the people their freedom. Their freedom from the mind-numbing drug Phylus has the entire spaceship acting differently. The Feeders aren’t tending the crops. The food supply is drastically in jeopardy. Revolt is in the air as people are being killed and the messages found on their bodies convey this message: “Follow the leader.”

Why is Bartie, one of Elder’s best friends suddenly questioning every decision Elder makes? Why is Amy so terrified of Luthor? Will Amy get to see her parents again? Will it be necessary to awake Orion from his frozen slumber to lead the ship? Can Orion ever be trusted? How will Elder learn how to lead his people?

A Dog's Purpose

I love the cover of W. Bruce Cameron’s book A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans. I love the cover because it shows the dog thinking. Anyone who has owned a pet knows that as the owner, you often wonder what the dog could be thinking!

In Cameron’s book, the reader is delighted to learn the dog’s perspective as his main character is the same dog soul reincarnated several times throughout the book. As the dog gains knowledge, that learning often benefits him or her in his next life with humans.

I found myself thinking of memorable family pets from childhood and recent ones. The ties that bind people to animals are very strong. Any animal lover will enjoy this title!

Stolen into Slavery: The True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man

In 1841 Solomon Northup was living in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with his wife and three children. Solomon was educated. At 32 years old he was happy with his life as a free black man. Slavery had been outlawed in New York in 1827.

Times were difficult. Solomon was willing to work in many different jobs to make ends meet for his family. He was an excellent fiddler having learned to play the violin as a child. Solomon also drove a carriage for the hotel where many people stayed in Saratoga Springs during the summer. At other times he worked as a carpenter building railroads.

When two white men hire him to drive them by carriage to Washington, D.C., Solomon is eager for the money he will make. He makes certain that he has his “free papers” with him should they be stopped along the way. What the trusting Solomon doesn’t realize is that these two men are actually going to make money off of him by selling him to a slave dealer.  

His hardships begin when he is transported by ship to New Orleans. He has a merciful master at first, but when this man falls on hard times, he sells Solomon. Each time he is sold his name is changed. His first name is now Platt. His masters’ names become his last name.

How will he ever regain his freedom? Writing and the mailing of letters by black men in the South is outlawed. Who can he trust to help him? How can he endure the suffering and hard labor demanded of all the slaves? If his family does try to look for him, how will they find him since his name is changed?

I loved this easily accessible book which contains maps to help envision his journey, illustrations from the 1840’s, a bill of sale to one of his masters, and his brave account of the torment he endured.

Article 5

Ember's Miller's life has been fairly normal for the teenager of a single mother. When Beth and Ryan, two of her friends from school, walk home, they check to see if one of their school friends, Katelyn Meadows is still listed as missing. Since the War three years earlier, The Federal Bureau of Reformation—the military branch of the government whose purpose it was to enforce the citizens to comply with the Moral Statutes—has led to many mysterious disappearances of people. Evidently their friend Katelyn hadn’t complied with one of the statutes.

When the military police come to Ember’s house later in the day and forcefully remove her mother, Lori Whittman, everything Ember knows as a “normal” existence is thrown asunder.

Her mom has been arrested for the violation of the Moral Statute Article 5 which pertains to conceiving children out of wedlock. Ember has never known nor has she cared who her father is. This has never been a problem in the past. Why should it matter now? Yet her mother is being arrested!

Ember fights with the soldiers—biting one of them. She is stunned to see that the driver for the military is her boyfriend Chase Jennings. Chase and Ember have been friends since forever. His decision to join the military was upsetting, but Ember figured they could always write one another. His lack of letters to her has been of major concern. When he does nothing to indicate he even recognizes Ember at the arrest of her mom, she is really angry. Chase could stop this whole “misunderstanding” by telling the other officers that there has been a mistake as Ember believes the case to be.

Life unravels when Ember is driven by bus with other detainees to West Virginia to a Girls’ Reformatory and Rehabilitation Center. The only thing that Ember can think about is escaping and trying to rescue her mom.

Will she be able to escape? Will anyone at the school prove to be trustworthy? If she does manage to leave, where will she go to find her mom? Will she ever see Chase Jennings again? If she does, will she ever be able to forgive his lack of compassion to either her mom or herself?

Fans of dystopian fiction will like the fast paced action and unexpected twists to the plot in Article 5 by Kristen Simmons. The author has definitely left the opportunity for a sequel to be written.