Sunday, December 25, 2022

The Sunday Post #318

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book ReviewerReaderbuzz, and Book Date.




The Sunday Post #318





On The Blog Recently







In My Reading Life





Last week, I continued my reread of the Arc Of A Scythe series by Neal Shusterman. I finished Thunderhead, which is the second book in the series.

In this book, the main characters, Rowan and Citra, are separated. Rowan has rebranded himself “Scythe Lucifer” and is punishing Scythes who abuse their power. Meanwhile, Citra is a Junior Scythe with a unique way of doing her job. Both of them are making waves within the Scythedom. Some of the older Scythes feel like their corrupt way of life is being threatened, and they’re not going to keep quiet about it.

The biggest difference between this novel and the first in the series is the addition of chapters narrated by the Thunderhead, a supercomputer that basically runs the world. If you’ve read The Illuminae Files, then Thunderhead is the opposite of AIDAN. Thunderhead is programed to love humans and constantly find better ways to care for them. The chapters add a lot to the worldbuilding and bring up some intriguing ethical questions. How much of our lives should be controlled by computers? Would you let an ultra-compassionate computer heal your body? Or drive your car? Or babysit your kids?

Just like Scythe, Thunderhead is full of gallows humor. Since death in this world isn’t permanent, the author can casually kill your favorite character a dozen times. Instead of being sad, I laughed when my favorites died. Death is just a minor inconvenience to them.

I think Thunderhead suffers from Middle Book Syndrome. It’s slow to start, and it spends a lot of time setting up conflicts that play out in the next book. I can forgive it because of the ending. That was nuts!

Bring on the next book!




In The Rest Of My Life


Five things that made me happy last week (Christmas photos edition):




Not my house, but I wish it was. These people just put a Santa hat on their Halloween decoration. That's lazy holiday goals right there.




Christmas cards have taken over my bookshelf.




Not my house, thankfully. These people obviously have an addiction to inflatable Christmas characters. Send help.




I spent Christmas Eve morning wandering around the neighborhood where I grew up. See those 4 white trailers? That's where I went to school from 3rd to 6th grade. I went to kindergarten through 2nd grade in different trailers in a different field.




My 4 Christmas trees.






MERRY CHRISTMAS!











Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!






21 comments:

  1. Your trees look beautiful! And it's genius to multipurpose decorations the way that person did. It makes them worth the investment to me

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  2. Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful day.

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  3. You go all out with the decorations - lovely! Merry Christmas!

    Anne - Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post

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  4. I love that you have that many Christmas trees! My mom had three at one time. This year she barely got one put up last minute so we could have our traditional Christmas Eve gift opening. I really need to start that Shusterman series. Hope you are having a nice Christmas day!
    Lisa Loves Literature

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  5. Merry Christmas! Your four Christmas trees look fantastic.

    I can see the utility of Halloween-Christmas decorating. Please don't ever let me become like the inflatable people!

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  6. I have a neighbor that has lighted inflatable Christmas stuff in his yard, but thankfully not too many. I do remember a house in Michigan that was like the one you showed, except they had several white pines in their yard. A few days before Christmas, we had an ice storm. I felt it was God's providence (or revenge) for all those gauntly blow up decorates were deflated with pine branches on top of them.

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  7. Merry Christmas. I love the Halloween/Christmas house. That made me laugh. :D

    My Sunday News

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  8. Nothing says Christmas like a Santa hat on a giant skeleton. Love the pic of your trees... so pretty! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

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  9. Merry Christmas AJ!

    Wishing you a wonderful week.

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  10. Your trees are lovely. I need to go back and check out some of your other posts. I used to read nonfiction only before I began blogging. Hope you have a great week.

    https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2022/12/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-and_01255930146.html

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  11. Lovely trees! I didn't put one up this year or do any other decorating. I admire the efficiency of the folks who added a Santa hat to their Halloween decor. Come see my week here. Happy holidays and happy reading!

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  12. Santa skeleton :)

    I love your trees! Merry Christmas!

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  13. I love your 4 trees and the cards on your bookshelves! I do not like the inflatable characters.

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  14. Wow! Those two houses really shocked me, lol. My favourite was the skeleton. I hope you had a great Christmas!

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  15. Merry Christmas! I love those Halloween directions turned into Christmas ones. Lol.

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  16. Such pretty pictures! Your trees are beautiful! And lol about the Christmas skeleton. The house up the street from us is also obsessed with holiday blowups and they cover their yard with them for every single holiday. I can barely manage our one single Christmas blowup since I deflate it when it rains alot or if the weather is bad, so I can't imagine deflating then reinflating all those blowups.

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  17. What beautiful trees! I love the neighbor with the skeleton in the Santa hat and wow on the people with the inflatables. I'd really enjoy looking at it but wow that's a lot of work! Have a wonderful week!

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  18. So many great pictures there, AJ, love it. I love the first one, I love the house pictures even more but I love the one from your house best. I hope you had a wonderful trees.

    Oh, and I love the house with the Halloween decorations turned Christmassy. What an idea!

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  19. Wow, some crazy houses LOL. I hope your holidays went well!

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