I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. ~ W.E. Henley

Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts

Vixen's Reads: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go (Movie Tie-In Edition) (Vintage International)
Amazon
A tale of 3 friends living a predetermined life.  A short life that completes in the first or maybe fourth organ donation.  
  • science fiction
  • cloning and medical advancement
  • humanity
  • friendship
  • melancholic



Points I have pondered on:


What does it take to be human?
The world we live in is full of divides. These divisions of race, color, religion, culture, nation etc., do not only separate us physically but they also ensure that we all stay divided. The permanency of these things that keep us light years further apart from our actual distances, depends solely upon how far longer we arrogantly sustain the thought that we are more human, thus more deserving, than others. 

The soul.
One of the many things most of us believe in, is the existence of souls. What is the criteria for one to have a soul? Who are soulless creatures and how exactly do we deal with those categorized as such? Pardon the rhetorics, but these are serious thoughts.

That bossy best friend.
Admit it, best friends can ruin your life if you let them get away with it. How Gossip Girl is that?! hahaha I thank God I dont have to compete with any of my friends. Im not the competitive type anyway.  I rarely put border lines on friendship, there are no rules except to just be truthful.

I love the story of this book although Im not much of a fan of how it was written.  First person narrations either capture my attention right away or it just cant keep me interested.  I am big on first impressions.  The sadness of the novel is felt immediately.  Make me cherish my lifelong connections and appreciate how human I am.

Vixen's Reads: Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

Amazon



A very composed man wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and how patiently and brilliantly he made his escape.
  •  Interesting characters
  •  Prison realities
  •  Subjective Justice
  •  Post World War II setting
  •  Short Story



Points I have pondered on:

What is Justice?
Justice is blind to the truth and to the lies.  Im in law school long enough to know that the truth is bendable.  Im in this country long enough to know that the truth is worthless.  Im in this world long enough to know that the truth when told boldly can shatter dreams.  Telling the truth and keeping the truth are both equally selfish acts.  Getting Justice on your side is a hefty and dangerous pursuit.  Might as well pray on getting lucky.

We make our own prisons.
In life, it is either we are restrained by others or we are wound in the very shackles we forged for ourselves.  Freedom does not equal to a free spirit.  Sometimes I envy the insane, their reality is so altered they do not have to worry about what can and can not be done.

Is freedom worth the fight?
Yes it always is!  I pray that I may always have the strength to endure a life long battle of breaking free from imagined restraints.  It would be sad to have lived a life of holding back.  

The fine line between principle and ego.
These two feel just the same.  The former is a virtue the other a vice but when you take time to drink it in, the likeness is astonishing!

At the end of the day, it is you who shall evaluate your own life.  
Was it a life of freedom or was it in chains?


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Vixen's Reads: My French Whore by Gene Wilder


Wookies! So you've read my book list.  Here goes my first book reflection.  ^^

Amazon
An American Private soldier purporting to be a well known and respected German spy falls in love with a French whore.
  • Love story
  • World War II setting
  • A handful of characters 
  • Very light reading
  • Young adult readability



Points I have pondered on:


What is cowardice?
I have barely lived my life yet to know exactly what it is to be a coward.  Sometimes I think it is the greed for power and prestige that seem very cowardly.  But thinking it over, that's just being spineless.  In the story, at first Private Peachy would appear to be someone we would call a coward.  Running away from an ensuing exchange of fires does warrant that. How about having to lie through your teeth and pretend to be someone you are not just to save your life, is that bravery?  It seems there is a fine line between cowardice and bravery.  I wonder who gets to judge the distinction.  That is hard!

Love in the oddest places.
In a time of crisis and devastation, only the purest form of love flourish.  It is when you are surrounded by deception that you trust your gut-feeling when you find yourself in the dark groping for sincerity behind all the lies.  Love is all that remains true.  We should hold on to it and cherish it.  Although finding out the truth makes everything else a lie, love would be the only exception.  No amount of lies can mask the love that came from those same lies.  Tough times give love the deepest of roots.

Friends vs Alliances
How do you honor friendship while staying true to your duty as an enemy?  It is a tough choice.  Many of us go through this everyday.  It's a choice we make while doing our jobs yet helping a friend would mean betraying a sworn oath.  In friendship there is no paper documents detailing your terms as friends, neither is there an oath to speak of.  Yet it is demandable, challenged and invoked as if its the most stringent of contracts.

When life give you lemons, you make lemonades to drink in celebrating friendships and love.  What is cowardly, is to sell the lemons as it is.