The Circle by Dave Eggers
497 pages

What’s it about?
Mae is a few years out of college and hates her boring job with a utility company.  She finally asks her best friend Annie to help her get on with the big tech firm that she had started with right after college.  With Annie's help and support Mae finds herself in a new fabulous world where all her needs are met and she is truly a part of a community.  But when does "community" go too far? 

What did it make me think about?
This book was so timely for me!  Like many of us I struggle with the role of social media in my life. Although this was a dystopian novel and takes many issues to an extreme, it certainly had a point to make.  Keep in mind I am saying this as I prepare to post this review online!  At what point do we lose our individuality to the opinions of the masses?  Do we really need to share everything?  What is the role of privacy in our actual relationships versus our online relationships?  How real are all our crafted online identities?  So much to think about here!

Should I read it?
I recommend this novel!  I had read about this book when it first came out but some of the reviews (and Dave Eggers reputation as a literary heavyweight) made me put it off.  At the advice of a friend I picked it up and started it on a plane flight (the easiest way for me to get into a difficult book).  What a surprise!  This book just flew by for me.  Although Mae could have been a stronger more vivid character (most people have a little more backbone-right?) her story still kept my interest.  I think that with a stronger main character and more editing this book would have been a masterpiece.  But as is- it is still a very good read.   As I mentioned before the book is a dystopian novel, but I must say  it was different in that the world had not been destroyed- yet....  I certainly can not think of a book that would create as much conversation as this novel would generate.  Book clubs take notice!

Quote-
"The flash opened up into something larger, an even more blasphemous notion that her brain contained too much.  That the volume of information, of data, of judgements, of measurements, was too much, and there were too many people, and too many desires of too many people, and too many opinions of too many people, and too much pain from too many people, and all of it constantly collated, collected, added and aggregated, and presented to her as if that all made it tidier and more manageable- it was too much."

If you like this try-
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Dog Stars by Peter Heller
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

8 stars

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
259 pages
 
What’s it about?
It is the 1850’s and Thomas McNulty is 17 years old.  He has fled the famine in Ireland and come to the United States.  He meets another orphan on the road (John Cole) and they don dresses for 50 cents a dance to keep from starving.  They then decide to head out West to fight in the Indian Wars.  We follow Thomas and John’s journey through the Indian Wars, into civilian life again, and back in uniform again for the Civil War. 
 
What did I think?
Sebastian Barry is one of my favorite writers so I ordered this book as soon as it came out.  This book’s subject matter was very different from the earlier books I had read- but the writing is equally as beautiful.  I was not disappointed!
 
Should you read it?
In the end this is a love story.  Not a romance novel- not even close!  The setting was in a time and place that was so harsh it seems as if a love like this would be impossible.  Thomas and John are soldiers a good portion of their lives and we see war as well as the violence of the antebellum South.  Somehow through all this- Sebastian Barry again shows us that love can transcend all boundaries. 
 
Quote-
“Thousands die everywhere always.  The world don’t care much, it just don’t mind much.  That’s what I notice about it.  There is that great wailing and distress and then the pacifying waters close over everything, old Father Time washes his hands.  On he plods to the next place.  It suits us well to know these things, that you may exert yourself to survive.  Just surviving is the victory.” 
 
If you like this try-
News of the World by Paulette Giles
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

​9 stars