Immortal in Death by JD Robb

Book #3 in the Eve Dallas series. More murder and mayhem. Ha! Eve's good friend, Mavis, is charged with the murder of her current boyfriend's (Leonardo) ex-girlfriend, Pandora. Pandora happens to be one of the top models of the planet. Eve absolutely has no doubt that Mavis is innocent. Mavis, and her wedding planner entourage, end up staying with Eve & Roarke. While Eve (& Roarke in a background kind of way) search for the answers regarding Pandora's real murderer, Mavis, Leonardo and the rest of their unique crew invest in the preparations for Eve & Roarke's pending wedding. So, there is a lot going on!

People in the 2050's are super obsessed with their looks - and youth. They take pills, have surgeries, do whatever it takes to remain young and beautiful. (I hope this is not what our world is actually coming to!) Anyway, it's discovered that Pandora found out about a new drug called Immortality, which could give her what she was always seeking: vitality, sex, power, beauty and wealth. Unfortunately, there were some significant and fatal side effects from taking this drug. Someone wonders (in the book) why people would purposefully take a drug that will cause their early death. The response was so accurate: people do all sorts of things that will most likely hasten their death, like smoke tobacco, drink, take illegal drugs. It's called addiction. Immortality (the drug) is highly addictive.

It doesn't take long for Eve to start connecting the dots between Pandora's death and a couple of other deaths, that don't seem related, but are. Eve has a new "right hand woman". She requests that Peabody be her aide while she investigates these murders. She is a good addition to Eve's "team".

In this book Eve starts remembering - and finally dealing with - the trauma in the first 8 years of her life. So we get a better understanding of what she went through as a child. There may also be a very minor "softening" of her hostile relationship with Summerset. I am surprised that Eve & Roarke's relationship proceeds as quickly as it does, but they do indeed get married at the end of the book. (I am used to the main character in mystery series taking years and many, many books before tying the knot with someone!)

Wendy's Rating: ****

Glory in Death by JD Robb

This is the second book in the Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas mystery series. This story is set in 2058. (The book was written in 1995.) Eve is called to the murder scene of Prosecuting Attorney Cicely Towers, who was found is a really bad part of town with her throat cut. Since Cicely works often with the Police Department, she is well-known and well-liked in the law enforcement community. In fact the Commander of the Police Department is the godfather of Cicely's son, David. The second murder is of a up-and-coming actress, who was well known to the public due to a successful TV series she was starring in. Eve starts to think that the murderer is someone either close to these women or someone who hated that they were strong independent women. The third murder seemed to cement that feeling.

Meanwhile, Eve continues to have a significant issue with comittment. Roarke gets super frustrated with her because she insists on living in her small apartment instead of moving in with him. He has vocalized that he loves her several times, but she refuses to say it back. She even treats him as a "suspect" early on because he knew the first two murder victims on a personal level. She keeps telling him that she doesn't believe that he had anything to do with their murders, but questions him like she is investigating him. Eve simply cannot deal with her abusive past, which even the police department psychiatrist would like her to.

Eve has a solid support system, including Roarke. She is a good investigator and is a loyal friend to those she trusts. I love how fiercely independent she is and how tenacious she is when trying to discover the truth. This is an entertaining series.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I can't believe that I have never read this book, especially considering I was an English major in college and I was in a Classics book club after college. This book was written in 1953. It's set in a time where "joy" and "fun" and "happiness" is the focus of life. A very interesting concept. Of course if it seems too good to be true, then you can bet it is!

Guy Montag is a fireman. He is a fireman who starts fires, not puts them out. His job is to burn books - and to burn homes of people who have books. It's illegal to own a book or read a book. Books contain knowledge. Books contain history. Books contain unhappy events. If the idea is for the entire population to only feel happiness, then books must be destroyed. It took awhile for me to understand Guy's living environment. He is married to Mildred, but he certainly doesn't seem to love her. He doesn't even remember when and how they met, which is odd. Mildred spends her time with her "family" in the walls of their home. Eventually I figured out that the walls of their homes were like huge TV screens which were on all the time and filled with happy "entertainment" - I guess to bring only joy to people.

The problem is, Guy isn't happy. He meets a young girl (17 years old) named Clarisse who "thinks differently". She seems happy and carefree and is a free-thinker. She is bold enough to ask Guy if he is happy. But, she "disappears" and her family moves away suddenly. Guy believes that she was killed for her thoughts - and unwillingness to conform to the narrow vision of an "entertainment only" life. He goes home from work one night (his work was only done in the middle of the night) and kicks an empty pill bottle in the dark. Mildred has taken the whole bottle of 30 pills. He calls for emergency help and they pump her stomach. Mildred doesn't remember taking the pills or anything that happened as a result of it. The final straw is that one night the firemen go to a house full of books and the woman who owns them chooses to burn with her books and her house.

Guy has been stealing books and hiding them in his home. When Mildred finds out, she reports him. She leaves him as the firemen come to burn their house down. Guy manages to escape his doomed future by running away (with the help of a former professor). I wouldn't say there is a "happy ending" or anything, but it's a more positive ending than Nineteen Eighty-Four! I think I need to take a break from these classic stories of dystopian futures.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

This was certainly the most depressing dystopian novel I have every read. (The book in second place is The Road by Cormac McCarthy.) Orwell wrote this book in 1949 - and died in 1950 at the age of 46. He certainly had a dismal view of what the future held for our world.

The main protagonist is Winston Smith, who works for the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth was responsible for re-writing the news, books, history. So in reality, it was the "Ministry of Lies". This is a book of opposites. It is set in London. The slums are referred to as the "Victory Mansions". The Ministry of Peace was responsible for maintaining a prolonged state of war. The Ministry of Love spread hate. The Ministry of Plenty made sure that no citizen ever had enough of anything. The Party, who oversaw all of these Ministries, had three slogans they lived by: 1) War is Peace; 2) Freedom is Slavery; 3) Ignorance is Strength.

The world was separated into three sections: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.The goal was ultimate control, or reality control, of people's minds, memories, emotions, bodies and language. The official language of Oceania was Newspeak. Newspeak was developed to support English Socialism. Oldspeak, which the Party wanted phased out completely, was Standard English. Newspeak eliminated much of the English language. The purpose was to limit individual thought.

Big Brother watched over every member of the Party. There were cameras everywhere, so absolutely no privacy. People's thoughts were also monitored by the Thought Police. Doublethink was the goal for each person, which means that each citizen needed to believe in opposites - or believe in whatever they were told: black is white; two plus two equals five.  If people were caught thinking differently, they were taken and tortured until they were completely and unequivocally brainwashed.

Winston starts thinking outside the box. Since his job is to re-write history, he knows that actual history is being lost. He wants to fight against the Party. He understands that the proles (the non-Party individuals who made up 85% of the population of Oceania) are the only ones that could destroy the Party. But they are not conscious of their own strength. Winston starts fighting the Party the only way he can. He starts journaling in private (which is dangerous because owning paper and writing utensils is forbidden). He falls in love with Julia and finds a "safe haven" for them to meet. They are of like minds and want to rebel against the Party. He trusts a man by the name of O'Brien, who he thinks also wants to destroy the Party.

I guess I don't have to say that this dystopian story ends badly. The entire book is depressing. Let's hope that our world never comes to this! It was certainly time that I read this classic however. Done.

Wendy's Rating: ****