The Giver by Lois Lowry

I am a huge fan of dystopian novels, my favorite being the Hunger Games Trilogy, but The Giver is an early favorite. The last time I read this book was probably 25 years ago. I enjoyed it as much this time as I did the last time. The only thing that is concerning is the end of course! It's much too ambiguous in my opinion!

Jonas lives in a community that is stable and predictable. Each family unit consists of a mother, a father, a son and a daughter. Each person has a well-defined role in the community. Feelings are share with family members each day. Dreams are shared at every breakfast time. The children are identified in age groups dependent on the year they were born, not their birth date. The goal is "sameness". There is no pain, but no other emotions or feelings either. What they see as "anger", is merely disappointment or irritation. They know no deeper feelings than that. No one lies. No one questions. Everyone is secure and content and well-fed. A true "utopia".

Except that it's not. Not only do they not experience true emotions, they don't see color; they don't hear music; they don't have memories. Not having memories spares them from making wrong decisions. It spares them from pain. It also prevents them from feeling "love" and "sadness" and true "happiness".

The only person in the community that has memories of past events is The Receiver. There is only one Receiver for the community and when he grows old, the community must find another Receiver to take on the responsibility of remembering the past. Jonas is chosen (at age 12) to become the new Receiver since he appears to have the "Capacity to See Beyond". The last chosen Receiver (10 years previously) was a failure, so a lot is riding on the selection of Jonas being the new Receiver. As Jonas accepts his fate, the current Receiver becomes the Giver, since he proceeds to give Jonas all of his memories, good, bad and otherwise.

Jonas learns within a year that he doesn't want to live a life of sameness. He becomes devastated at some of the things happening in the community, which no one is affected by. The Giver, when talking about Jonas' friend Fiona, says, "She's very efficient at her work, your red-haired friend. Feelings are not part of the life she has learned."

This is a must read, despite the ending, which can be interpreted a couple of ways. 

Wendy's Rating: *****

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I really loved this book! I am most definitely not a physicist, but quantum physics fascinates me. This book is similar to the show Quantum Leap (which I hear is being re-made from the original series staring Scott Bakula). Interestingly enough, I have never been particularly interested in philosophy, but I love the philosophical comments spread throughout the book. Finally, I loved the ending, because it's the only true & valid ending.

The book is about a young woman who is intelligent, musically talented, athletic (swimmer) and has a strong interest in philosophy, saving the environment and animals. So, lots of promise, right? In fact, however, Nora Seed is a depressed, jobless, broke, pathetic woman on the verge of suicide. She had so many opportunities to "make something of herself" - from an Olympic swimmer, to a lead singer in a rock band, to a professor at a college, to a geologist studying global warming in the Arctic. Instead, she gets fired from a dead-end job at a music store, her best friend moves to Australia, she is estranged from her brother, her parents are dead and her cat recently died.

Nora gets a second chance at life in the Midnight Library. She gets to visit the lives she could have lived had she made a different decision at specific times of her life. The options are limitless. We each make hundreds of decisions every single day, which affects the decisions made after that. So, in "Quantum Leap-style", Nora pops into her own lives had she made different choices. As soon as she feels truly happy with no regrets in a specific "life", she will stay there forever.

Nora's "guide" is Mrs. Elm, her grade school librarian. Mrs. Elm helps Nora whenever she gets "stuck", but it's really Nora who eventually figures out which life she is to lead. There are many philosophical quotes/ideas that hit home with me while reading, but a couple of my favorite are at the end: "It was interesting, she mused to herself, how life sometimes simply gave you a whole new perspective by waiting around long enough for you to see it." And then the anti-philosophy: "You don't have to understand life. You just have to live it."

So many people feel "mired" in their lives, unhappy with something in their lives (like their job!) or simply unhappy & negative about life in general. They stew in their regrets. This book is a good reminder that people do not have to live that way. You can make a different choice than the one you did yesterday, and you can do that every single day.

Wendy's Rating: *****