Ship Breaker

Title: Ship Breaker

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Pages: 9 discs?

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: In some strange future version of the United States, Nailer works on the Gulf Coast on a light crew stripping old oil tankers of their copper wiring. He and the rest of his crew must meet quota every day to earn the food and stay on the crew.  When Nailer, who lives with his alcoholic, abusive father finds a brand new and very expensive clipper ship he must decide whether or not to save the beautiful rich girl or to strip the ship of all its worth in order to become a rich man.

My Review: The premise for this book is very unique and was surprisingly interesting.  It takes a little while to understand the society and how it is different from the one that we live in, but I gathered that the book is set in some future time after global warming and rising seas have changed the world and the United States forever.

The God of Small Things

Title: The God of Small Things

Author: Arundhati Roy

Pages: 333

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book is set in the latter half of the twentieth century, generally in a small town in India. There is a lot of political unrest in the country. The book follows an affluent Indian family and explores how their lives were changed forever by one fateful day in 1969.

My Review: The writing and prose in this book is excellent.  At least at the beginning of the book, I found that I needed to review a more detailed synopsis to fully understand what was going on. Part of that was probably due to the fact that I found myself only able to read the book in bits and pieces and that I was unable to immerse myself in the book.

From the Book: "(p. 162) She had short, thick forearms, fingers like cocktail sausages, and a broad fleshy nose with flared nostrils. Deep folds of skin connected her nose to either side of her chin, and separated that section of her face from the rest of it, like a snout. Her head was too large for her body. She looked like a bottled fetus that had escaped from its jar of formaldehyde in a Biology lab an unshriveled and thickened with age.

She kept damp cash in her bodice, which she tied tightly around her chest to flatten her unchristian breasts, Her kunukku earrings were thick and gold. Her earlobes had been distended into weighted loops that swung around her neck, her earrings sitting in them like gleeful children in a merry-go-(not all the way)-round. Her right lobe had split open once and was sewn together by Dr. Verghese Verghese. Kochu Maria couldn't stop wearing her kunukku because if she did, how would people know that despite her lowly cook's job (seventy-five rupees a month) she was a Syrian Christian, Mar Thomite? Not a Pelaya, or a Pulaya, or a Paravan. But a Touchable, upper-caste Christian (into whom Christianity had seeped like tea from a teabag). Split lobes stitched back were a better option by far.

Kochu Maria hadn't yet made her acquaintance with the television addict waiting inside her. The Hulk Hogan addict. She hadn't yet seen a television set..."

Grimpow: The Invisible Road

Title: Grimpow: The Invisible Road

Author: Rafael Abalos

Pages: 10 discs?

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B-

Synopsis: Grimpow lives in the Alps during the dark ages when he comes across a dead man in the woods. In the dead man's pouch Grimpow finds a stone that grants him visions of places that he has never been and grants him understanding of secrets and mysteries of the world. In possession of the stone, Grimpow embarks on a journey to unlock the full mysteries behind the mysterious stone.

My Review: This book was interesting and quite enjoyable, but the writing (possibly only the translation from Spanish) left something to be desired. Along with that, the story was a bit unbelievable and the characters felt too scripted.