Fahrenheit 451- The Temperature At Which Paper Burns

I have returned to the all too familiar realm of science fiction which I love dearly but cannot write for some reason. This time with a classic that I think lovers of apocalyptic stories will enjoy. Ray Bradbury was a well-known science fiction author from the 1950's who has written many stories about the future of the human race. Either from alien attacks or self-extermination, he has many ideas about the future and how we will be able to cope with our changing environments.
This is one of his rather well-known novels that I had been dying to read for a long time based off a suggestion from a good friend. She also steered me into requesting Animal Farm by George Orwell, another classic science fiction novel which should arrive within the next few days.

The cover-

In the dystopian world of Guy Montag, firemen do not fight fires, rather start them. The firemen in this world burn books. Why? Because books are dangerous and education is forbidden. People sit in their family rooms all day long watching television and being with their fake families.
Montag is a fireman. Every day he gets up, burns books and comes home. Not once did he question the logic of this in the many years he has been in that occupation. After all, no one ever goes against the orders of Captain Beatty. As long as Montag gets his salary, he is happy with whatever he does.
Only when he meets Clarisse, the girl who moves into the house next to him does he realize that books do have value and that humans need to preserve their history in order to advance their species.
When Clarisse is taken away to a mental institution, Montag starts secretly hoarding books and eventually becoming a fugitive to show people that books aren't nearly as evil as they are said to be and that censorship is not the way to a successful society.

My thoughts-

It's a very thoughtful story that really does tell the truth. With our government becoming more and more protective of who sees what, it may not be long until a world like this happens. Books tell so much more than just stories. They tell life lessons and give education, sometimes on subjects that we never want to say out loud. I feel that even though I am taking a formal education to get a good life later on, but most of my (in)formal education has been through books. I learned a lot more through books than I ever did in the classroom.
I believe that Guy Montag's story is one to bring the world back to what it used to be. Bring humans back together and help them live the way they used to. His cause was a noble one. It was a search to show people the truth. Even if they couldn't see it, he is happy that he did all he could.
This is one of those books that when you finish it, you just feel heavy and broken. It's a terrible feeling but only once in a while do I find books that make me feel like this.

((More library books to read! I also bought all of the book versions of the Star Wars episodes so I can't wait to read those once I finish all of my pending library books... Happy Reading everyone!))

The Tyrant's Daughter

This is a rather interesting historical fiction book that I came to like recently. Because of my exams screwing up my schedule and my laziness in general, I read this book a lot more slowly than other ones. In some ways that helped and in certain ways it didn't.
I think it is an interesting idea to write a story about the issues going on in the world today, rather than about something that happened a hundred years ago. I feel that it made this book seem a lot more real because we have experience and knowledge about these events and they are in our recent history. It could be related to by many people and it showed how hard things are in places of unrest.

The cover-

Laila grew up believing she was a princess. Her father was a king, her mother a queen and her brother a prince. And that was how it seemed until the day her father was shot and killed in a riot and her family was forced to flee their country and hide in the United States where they could stay until it was safe to return.
Watching her family in this unfamiliar situation, Laila is horrified by the sudden changes her mother and younger brother go through. Their mother starts working for a shady man who promises that they can help her and has cast off all ties to her life back in the Middle East. The only thing that Laila can do is let go too and make the best of their unfortunate situation. But not if there is something for her to learn out of all of this and make sense of the lies that she had been fed for so long.

My thoughts-

As I was reading this book, I was constantly thinking about the types of stories I have heard on the news regarding the issues in the Middle East. This book is kind of a deeper insight into the things that we hear about and about what is actually going on.
I really found it interesting the way the book was opened. It kind of began the way an old fairy tale would. Laila's father was a king. As was his father and his father and his father. Her mother was a queen. Her brother was a prince and when their father died, he would assume the throne. And this made her a princess. But her life was far from a fairytale. It was a nightmare.
This book has a very dark and serious feeling to it, but there was some comedy to give a break from constantly reading about the horrible things that Laila's family was going through, especially their mother. That was the job of Ian, a reporter for the school newspaper who has a habit of following Laila around and bothering her. I will give away a spoiler that she does fall in love with him, but it is a little limited.
The way Laila acts around him constantly makes me think of fanfictions that I've read for various series where the female love interest just cannot get their act together because they're so confused about what they feel for the male character. That's basically what Laila goes through. One minute she can't let go of Ian and the next she's running away from him every time he approaches her. She knows she wants to love him, but there are certain things that she has to sort out first.
There could've been a possible love triangle with this boy named Amir who is from Laila's home country, but never met her until she came to the United States. She meets him because he lives with the man that her mother is working for. He makes her understand about the truth of her father's regime. He is a man who ruled many others through fear and threats. In fact, in the middle of the school day, Amir's school was bombed. Many of his friends died that day and his sister suffered horrible aftereffects of the poison gas and being stuck in the ruins for so long.
I originally wanted there to be a sort of love triangle between Laila, Ian and Amir, but once I got to the halfway point of the book where it started to make sense why Laila was so drawn to Amir, I realized that it was not a good idea. This book is not a love book to begin with. It is politics from the eyes of a teenager. Laila needed Amir to give her the answers to the questions she had never asked anyone and tell her everything that was hidden from her when she was in her home country. After all, his cold and unforgiving nature will not allow him to love anyone, at least the way the story goes.
This book was a real eye opener for me and I think I now have a much better understanding of the things going on in the Middle East after reading this book. I really do hope that there is a sequel to this book where everything is settled and Laila can go back to her home country. But then again one of the things that Laila repeats over and over throughout the course of the book is that life is not a fairy tale. There is no magical spell that can suddenly make everything better. Happily ever after does not exist in the real world and there is no way to make it exist.

((This review has been pending since the end of June. I for some reason just had no energy to do it until today. I recently bought a book that I am very excited to read! I love big cats, tigers in particular, so I decided to read The Adventures of Jim Corbett- Man Eating Tigers of Kumaon. Jim Corbett was a British hunter who spent many years in India and tells his experiences with tigers. Looks like my (second) non-fiction review! Happy Reading!))