Review: The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: A Children's book that questions adulting

A utopian world where uniformity and sameness is paramount. Just like how five star food is consistent even though bland compared to street food and their riot of flavours, people don't celebrate birthdays - there are rules for every year of your birth till 12 and then you are an adult and forget age. Similarly devoid of colors, occupations decided based on your passion and skills as decided by the council (who also got their roles through a similar process) in an apprenticeship type of culture.

Our protagonist thinks he is going to get the same mundane till he is picked to the "receiver" - a role filled with pain and given to one person in decades when the previous "receiver" decides to become a giver for the chosen one. As he shares years of wisdom and memories to Jonas, Jonas opens up to feeling emotions - a concept he had no clue about neither did his entire community.

A very black and white take with no greys on individuality v/s uniformity and evolution of efficiency in society over humanity. An interesting premise on the type of society it is, the outcomes probably extremely naive but then the target audience is youngsters though adults would find it a fresh perspective unburdened by maturity and age.

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Review: Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A documentary view of correlating the evolution of sexuality with modern age march of mankind

A unique take on how monogamy is a modern day concept and how a lot of our concepts associated to it today are probably more Victorian (tying in with English colonialisation in that timeframe across the world). The hunter gatherer group shared it all is the bottom line. They try to also compare and contrast wirh our fellow Bonobos on genital sizes and habits to push their point across.

The narrative picks examples from civilisations around the world and adds a new spin to the "it takes a village to raise a child" because of shared paternity as a concept to keep a warring village healthy in the go forward. Monogamy and its safety net could be considered counter intuitive to Darwinian theory of evolution and the survival of the fittest for the given conditions.

I would call this opinions backed with confirmational biased scientific facts rather than a rigorous academic paper that it is fronted as.

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Review: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: Adventure fantasy with a large squeeze of naval piracy.

The two con-men move on to bigger and better things from the first book in the series as they try to reinvent themselves in the new world. Always landing between the devil and the deep blue sea, this book continues to put them into that spot and you wonder how they are going to pull themselves out of each spot. Jean continues to be man Friday for Locke through his schemes. This edition involves them onto naval piracy - a la pirates of the Caribbean as the Bondsmagi continue to play spoilsport and draw them into the political matters of their current disposition.

A mix of Tom Sawyer and Captain Jack Sparrow, Locke continues to attract adventure in a medieval setting. The challenge with the second book always remains that it always seems to act as a bridge to the next editon and the first and I do feel a little underwhelmed from that perspective. Though staying to the storyline, after the chaos of one, this book focuses on rebuilding for the main characters. I ended up reading the third book before this so had rated that higher and now with that hindsight, while the action seems a little toned down, the protagonists do get out of their skin on the seas and so does the direction of the book. Oh! did I miss out the cats? Never forget the cats.

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Review: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A prostitute sees her entire life in a flashback after being murdered in Istanbul.

Elif Shafak has a way with picturising Turkiye and she contiues to romanticise beautifully the country and its vibe by intricately painting a kaleidoscope of the culture and flavours of the country. Against that backdrop, we go through the life of Tequila Layla who has been served lemons by life and she just served it with her moniker. From a tough childhood to rough adulthood, she has suffered through a lot but made the most of it , thanks to friends who became family. The book is a flashback to the moment of her death introducing the various turning points in her life including the entry of each of her friends through that journey. You root for the characters, no matter how flawed they are, because they are human and humans aren't flawless. Whilst the narrative does slow down and doesn't seem to go anywhere, you enjoy the slow rhythm to savour the rich cultural context coming out of it.

Friendship is the strongest element that evokes emotions in this book and whilst a binding agent to the storyline, it is the foundations on which this story stands.

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