Something Wicked This Way Comes

Discussion time. I have a few questions to get things started, but just feel free to post your thoughts, whatever they may be.


1. In many sections of the book, Jim and Will are contrasted, and Bradbury makes a big deal of their differences. Are they really so different? To what extent is there a little bit of Will and a little bit of Jim in everyone? Which is better to have more of: Jim, Will, or a balance? How does this play into the narrative?

2. There is also a possible idea that the freaks are people who have given up on that kindness between people in favor of some aspect of themselves, and thus are turned into caricatures of that aspect. Thoughts?

3. Just how corny is it that Mr. Halloway can beat the demons by laughing at them? How much of the book really ends up being about Mr. Halloway beating his "old" demons?

I'll address number 2. I thought it was a really interesting idea that there is some aspect of us that we might abandon everything else for. It is interesting to think about who I would be. Why did the salesman turn into a dwarf? How do we keep from letting ourselves be taken over by something that it turns out is not so important. In stake conference today someone shared a quote that seems somehow applicable. "Remember that all holy men have a past and all sinners a future."

All in all, I liked the book. Beautifully written. A bit mesmerizing. What an imagination.

Feel free to post your thoughts as comments or as new posts.

November Book - The Higher Power of Lucky

Since Mom and Dad are heading off to Asia on Friday, I was tasked with picking the November book before they left town. (Mom is packing food for Dad to eat, if you have any suggestions on how to sneak peanut butter to the Far-East let her know)

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Anyway, Stephanie and I have been reading some Newbery Award winner books recently and I thought that this year's winner might be the way to go. So I DECLARE NOVEMBER'S BOOK: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron.

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So the book is about, Lucky, a 10-year-old girl who lives in a small town named Hard Pan (population 43) in the California desert. After her mother died two years ago, her father called upon his ex-wife, Brigette, to come to the United States from France to take care of Lucky. Lucky fears that Brigette is tired of being her guardian and of their life in Hard Pan. Her experiences lead her to believe that Brigette will abandon her and return to France. This anxiety prompts Lucky to seek help from her "Higher Power", a notion she gets from eavesdropping at her town's 12-step meetings.

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Enjoy!

October's Book

Okay, so I will go first. October's book will be "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury. Let's plan on starting the discussion on October 28th and that way it will be done in time to start a new book in November.

Here is a brief description. Enjoy the book (or don't).

"Few American novels written this century have endured in th heart and mind as has this one-Ray Bradbury's incomparable masterwork of the dark fantastic. A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes -- and the stuff of nightmare." - Barnes and Noble