"Weading" Wednesdays

no, no - not that type of Weeding...

(not this type either!!)

Because no day of the week starts with "R" for Reading, we now have "Weading Wednesdays" - as a little kid would say.

And I'm totally stealing the idea for the awesome 2015 Reading Challenge from this crazy Canadian Housewife! (And I mean crazy in an awesome We-Make-Our-Own-BEATIFUL-Furniture and Cook-Some-freaking-AMAZING-Food way!!)

What's the challenge?

The challenge is to read.  A LOT.  Particularly, the 50 books from this list.  

And the best part? You can totally pick your own books to fulfill this list!

(I've already chosen and pre-selected books for 26 of the 50 book categories!)

Check out the full-size list/image here!

And my goal is to review (on Weading Wednesdays!) the recently read "Check That One Off!" book (maybe not every Wednesday, although I'm frequently reading via .pdf doc when I should be working... ssssh!)

So I'm proud to say I've already knocked one off the list:

A Book Set in the Future:

     The People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau

 The People of Sparks is a sequel to a novel called The City of Ember, set in an unspecified future.  

from Amazon.com: The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city.

I really liked the first book in the Ember series - I think it was originally intended to be for YA (but God knows I love me some Twilight and Hunger Games, other books I'm pretty sure also intended to be somewhat YA!) but it was very creatively written, and so I began the sequel, The People of Sparks.

Spoiler Alerts! 

The novel begins with Lina, and her friend Doon, emerging from the underground city of Ember into the glaring sun.  It follows them as they welcome a number of their fellow Ember-ites as they also emerge, and the former underground citizens learn of the world above, things they'd never experienced in the dark cave of Ember: rain, the sun (and it's rotations around the earth!), natural streams - they are children learning of the world around them for the first time!

The people of Ember, in their interactions with The People of Sparks, begin to learn of things like war, and how it could begin with just a tiny wrong:  

"Say one group of people does something bad to another group, like steal their chickens. 

Then the first group does something bad back in revenge.

That could start a war. The two groups would try to kill each other, and the ones who killed the most would win.”

The simplicity the novel is written with enables the author to uncomplicate the how's and why's:

"...[war] can be stopped at the beginning,” Maddy said. “If someone sees what’s happening and is
brave enough to reverse the direction.”

[...]

“You’d do something good,” said Maddy. “Or at least you’d keep yourself from doing something bad.”
“But how could you?” said Lina. “When people have been mean to you, why would you want to be
good to them?”
“You wouldn’t want to,” Maddy said. “That’s what makes it hard. You do it anyway. Being good is
hard. Much harder than being bad.”

Don't be fooled by the "YA" label (that may or not be officially given - I'm gonna be an "ASS" and assume it is YA. lol) 

The People of Sparks carries some simple lessons of life... I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and look forward to checking out the next two novels of The Ember Series (The Prophet of Yonwood, and The Diamond of Darkhold)