The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau (Deception book)

In all honesty I wasn't a huge fan of this book. It caught my eye because it seemed like it was along the lines of the Hunger Games and Divergent series...which was true. A little too much along those lines for my liking, but with less character development. The main character, Cia Vale, is a strong female protagonist (like in Hunger Games and Divergent) who lives in a Distopian society born out of a post nuclear war America. Charbonneau definitely created a hybrid of the two worlds from Hunger Games and Divergent, but she emphasizes the theme of deception throughout. The testing (per the title of the book) is seemingly an aptitude test that students qualify for during their years of schooling in their colonies. However, this testing is much more sinister than members of the colonies know. This is the first layer of deception that Cia uncovers. From there she goes on to unexpectedly fight for her life over and over again during these tests. The entire premise of the book is based on the words her father, a former testing candidate who "passed" the testing, gave her before she left: "Cia, trust no one." During the next months Cia questions everything around her, wondering if anything can be trusted at face value. More layers of deception are uncovered as secret cameras are found watching their every move, the tests become more deadly and countless testing candidates turn out to not be what they seem as sabotage and murder run rampant through the tests. In the end the final deception comes in the form of a memory wipe, erasing all knowledge of the weeks spent in the testing and all that happened within. Luckily for Cia she was smart enough to keep a digital record of the happenings during the testing which she found after the memory swipe revealing the greatest deception of them all. Cia lives in a society where nothing is what it seems and few find this out and live to tell about it. It was hard reading a book where you felt like you couldn't even trust the characters for fear you would be deceived as well (since this happened often). The only consolation was that since the character development did not, I feel, create much depth in the characters, the deception and betrayal was not felt as deeply by me, the reader, as it could have been. Though the unoriginality of this book threw me off, I still enjoyed the imagination behind the plot and the simple thread of deception that is found throughout the story. It helps, at least, tie everything together to be cohesive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3DvdkO-GYc
This is a book trailer for The Testing that I think gives a good picture of the book but does not give too much away that happens within the movie. I believe this will help people decide whether they would want to read this book or not, based on a portrayal and opinion other than my own.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Love book)

Many people in the course of two weeks all separately told me to read this book. I'd heard of it before and thought it sounded okay. But I was not about to ignore all the prodding to read it. Felt like it was meant to bee (get it?) when my best friend shoved her copy of this book into my hands and said "You're reading this. No is not an option. This book will speak to you like it spoke to me." And per usual, she was right. The Secret Life of Bees is a beautiful representation of love, what it is and the many forms it takes. Lily, the main character, grows up with a father who seemingly hates her and with the knowledge that she accidentally shot and killed her mother when she was four. There it is right in the first chapter. The question of love hangs heavy in Lily's heart. She dreams about her mothers love and feels the absence of it in her father, T. Ray, which is where the adventure begins. Set in the midst of the civil rights movement, the concepts of love are challenged alongside the concepts of color. And most of all the love of a mother is the thickest theme throughout this novel. Lily finds that love holds no bonds and it covers a multitude of sins. It does not have a color or a gender or a face, because it is all of these things. Running away with her black nanny Rosaleen to a place she believes her mother once lived, Lily goes in search of love. What does she find? A trio of black bee keeping sisters named after the summer months, May, June and August. What else does she find? Love. As pure and sweet as the honey the sisters make. She also gets a chance to the see the dimensions of love in all its beauty and confusion. She sees how feeling the weight of the world can drive someone to suicide and how the ones who love us grieve when we are gone. She sees the hopeless love of a man for a woman who loves him back but is terrified of being hurt. She experiences love of her own for August, who becomes like her mother, and romantic love for Zach, the boy who helps August keep the bees. She sees a love for religion like she's never seen before in the worship of Mother Mary (and her statue in the living room) that the sisters invented. A love for creation. Love for hard work. Love through pain. Love in joy. Tough love. And even confusing love, in the act of her father giving her up. You name it Lily experienced it in her time as a runaway at the Boatwright household. Her inexperience with love and lack of it at home makes it hard to wrap her mind around the concept that love is multidimensional and while different for everyone, is also the same. It is not black and white (literally and figuratively). In the end it all boils down to Lily's search for motherly love and what that means. She finds that motherly love needs no blood ties. It comes from inside of us, as all love does. It comes from our understanding that we are loved beyond all we can imagine and from that we love those around us. Lily's closing thoughts sum it up nicely, "...I stood in the driveway with small rocks and clumps of dirt around my feet and looked back at the porch. And there they were. All these mothers. I have more mothers than eight girls off the street. They are the moons shining over me." She found the power of motherly love in herself, religion, loss and the 8 black women who stood for her and fought for her out of love. I especially enjoyed how the author left the end with some mystery still. She did not explain everything, just as love does not explain everything. But having and recognizing love within ourselves and our lives changes everything.

Original photo by Brogan James c. all rights reserved

This photo is simple and has honey as the focus because honey is the metaphor for love that exists throughout this book. At the beginning it is the main focused, used for everything, "the cure all", sticky, covers everything, takes many forms and has many uses. Then as Lily begins to find the true love hidden behind and within the honey and the making of honey and "the secret life of bees" the purity, rawness and sweetness of honey is no longer found in honey but is found in the love she finds at the Boatwright's house.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (Sense of Self Book)

For years I've wandered what all the excitement is about over J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit. Don't get me wrong, I love all the Lord of the Rings movies. Really love them. A lot. And I am an avid reader, enjoying the type of fantasy and wonder offered in a series like this. But several times I sat down and began to read, feeling no connection or even grabbing effect from the first few pages. So, I would put the book down and try again later. This time, however, I was hooked. I loved it from the first word. Page 1 got me and took me on an adventure right along with the scared senseless (and selfless) Bilbo Baggins, the little hobbit who was conflicted within himself about which "part" of himself to follow that he nearly missed the adventure that showed him who he was. I was taken on a wild ride through different lands, met innumerable amounts of creatures (both pleasant and vile), saved villages, made harrowing escapes, solved riddles, slayed dragons and then went back again to the sweet, calm, quiet life of The Shire. What grabbed me this time was the character of Bilbo himself. A small creature who liked his safe, expected, comfortable life was thrown into the fire and found he never really knew himself at all. I love the way this book, in it's unique way, mirrors how we find ourselves in life. It is never an easy process. We are put through the ringer. We get burned. We want to go home to the familiarity and comfort there. But that is how people remain stagnant. No growth happens out of the comfortable. Only more comfort and laziness does. Tolkien here shows us that when adventure and an old friend show up on your door step, ask for help and demand you take an extraordinary adventure with them that you do it! Bilbo never would have found himself if he did not run out the door that morning after a pack of crazy dwarves hell bent of taking back their treasure. Bilbo transformed from a regular hobbit into the unique person he was all along inside through this adventure. And though it was hard, he understood himself and his capabilities better because he finally put them to the test and came out on the other side. When Bilbo returned to his Hobbit hole, though it was all the same, everything was also different because he himself was different. While finding treasure, he found himself. And so did everyone else! Bilbo goes through a massive transformation from beginning to end and has the benefit of retracing his steps to get a chance to reflect on all the change he had gone through. Bilbo found that it was all about the journey itself and what he took away from that. I think that might be why he entitles his book/life story "There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale" rather than something like "How a Small Burglar made a Big Difference in Slaying A Dragon". He realized it was all about the journey. About getting there and back again because in doing so he found himself. It's a hobbit's tale. It's Bilbo's tale. Because it is him that truly made it back again.

Original photo by Brogan James c. all rights reserved

This photo represents some of the essence of hobbits in the black and mild (representing a pipe and pipe tobacco) with a burning candle (tobacco scented) that represents the comfort of Bilbo's life and also the refining effect fire (through the adventure to slay the dragon) had on helping him discover who he really was.

Everyday by David Levithan (Hero)

An emotional roller coaster that is suspenseful in it's own way. With a consistent inconsistency, like the main character, you felt each chapter in the book the way A felt everyday. Everyday: a book about a person who identifies itself by the self proclaimed name 'A' and wakes up everyday, without fail, in a new body. Then one day...A falls in love. Fell hard. Couldn't get back up. So everyday became her: Rhiannon. Time and distance began to restructure itself around how far he was from her. As a central theme this book really challenges the ideas of love, identity and heroism in a way never done before. The main character, A, who does not identify as either male or female drifts between bodies exploring the concept of identity solely being based on the mind and personality and not the body that accompanies it. Levithan also explores the concept of an identity not matching the body it is in. He also explores the concept of love transcending the body and the simple nuances associated with "love" like waking up next to the person you love, a task that is impossible for A (or seemingly impossible). Levithan introduces a variety of characters through the bodies A inhabits and challenges people's ability to be truly in love with the inside, separating this love from the shell it resides in. However, the importance and necessity of the body is not totally neglected. It is a concept that is explored and challenges the way people think, which I think all books should do and this book does incredibly well. Lastly Heroism. A does not seem like a hero at first. Though he is highly disciplined he does not display many heroic qualities that traditional heroes possess. In the end though A turns out to be a quiet hero, slipping into the shadows as he slips into a new body each night. He displays this through self sacrifice and a different kind of love, true love, love that is willing to let go knowing that is what's best. He gives up his personal happiness, his chance at a life over destroying another life to take it's place. Even more than that he gives the life he wants and the girl he loves to, Alexander, the one he could have destroyed without him even knowing. Then he runs to give that love space to grow. And that is an everyday act of love and heroism.

Original project and photo by Brogan James c. all rights reserved

This photo is of a collage I made representing what this book meant to me. It is representative of how A does not have his own face but the only two things he takes with him day to day are his brain (where the arrows are coming from) and Rhiannon.