The Last Monthly Review

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?
4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style? (You must include a passage or two from the text if you choose this question.)
5. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?


World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is exactly what the title says. It is a series of oral recounting of the Zombie War from many different fictional characters and it was written by author and screenwriter Max Brooks. In this book there is a break-out of a virus that can only be spread from blood or saliva. It envelopes the world and very few of the former 6 billion people on the world are still alive, or rather not undead. The remaining leaders of the remaining nations decide to fight back, and the apocalypse is pretty much overcome.

3. Overall, I would say that this is a very solid book. It gets the reader very involved and can easily make the reader crap their pants, metaphorically speaking. Really the only thing I had a problem with was that there were so many characters, from so many places, and they all sounded very similar. He didn't even give the Texan a southern accent. I think 3rd quarter you gave us that assignment about making a story where someone asks someone for a favor, and we read all those Fitzgerald short stories. The theme was to get characters to have different personalities. Fitzgerald did a great job, Max Brooks, not so well. Even the girls sound like the guys, other than their girl talk.

"Yeah, for about five minutes every day: local headlines, sports, celebrity gossip. Why would I want to get depressed by watching TV? I could do that just by stepping on the scale every morning."

This is a quote from one of the women in WWZ. If it weren't for "celebrity gossip" and "on the scale every morning," you would never know this was a woman. It seems a bit like he just puts key words and phrases into their dialogue just to distinguish their gender, instead of actually spending the time to develop a characters personality. However, I will cut him a break because their are upwards of twenty characters, and some of them are distinguishable, but not all of them. Another example of this is that their is an Australian character. Do you know how I found out he is Australian? The book said he was. It didn't come across in the dialogue at all. He didn't say mate once! Not a single time! What kind of Australian is that? Although this is a really good book, character development needs work.

4. This book is very unique because of the style it was written in. Basically it is a series of interviews about a world war with the undead. I have never had the experience of reading a book like this. And I have to say that this would be a totally different book without this styles of writing. Although the interviewees do not have much differentiating character traits, the interview-like writing style opens opportunities to tell tales of different countries and cultures. Henceforth, this book doe not suffer from the single point of view writing style that most protagonist based novels share. And that is really what sets this book apart. That fact alone opened up numerous opportunities in the writing of this book.

In any normal novel, the political analysis would all be up to the point of view of the main character. In a typical U.S. military survivor retelling of the same Zombie War tale, he'd be like man, those Russian commies were too brutal on their soldiers. But in this style, you have the opportunity to tell it from the point of view of the jar head and the Russian Official who would say, we did what we had to, or something like that. There was no Russian official interview, only one with a Russian soldier and a Russian priest. And to give a little insight into the Russian psyche, I will quote the priest.

"To kill your comrade, even in cases as merciful as infection, was too reminiscent of the decimation's. That was the irony of it all. The decimation's had given our armed forces the strength and discipline to do anything we asked of them, anything but that. To ask, or even order, one soldier to kill another was crossing a line that might have sparked another mutiny."

When the Russian army first discovered what they were fighting (the infection), much against the will of their superiors, their was a mutiny. As punishment, the Russian soldiers were put in groups of ten and to exercise their policy of democracy, the soldiers voted on which of the ten was to be killed. The members personally had to execute the member they voted out.
An American or Japanese person would never have that insight into Russian culture. And displayed in other ways throughout the book, the views of many cultures can be represented without the bias of a main character.

5. All I really wanted to know about this topic is why Max Brooks is so obsessed with zombies. He's the author of this book (World War Z), The Zombie Survival Guide, and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. The only thing I could find on him that would make him messed up enough to write an apocalyptic zombie book such as this, is that he is the son of Mel Brooks. And while I love Mel Brooks, he is a little crazy. The genetic funny bone seemed to have been passed on to Max as shown by The Zombie Survival Guide, which is pretty funny, and the fact that he was a writer for Saturday Night Live. He is also an actor and voice actor. As I said before, I couldn't find very much information on his personal life. This is the biography on his personal website:

"Max Brooks is the author of the two bestsellers The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. He has also written for Saturday Night Live, for which he won an Emmy. His new graphic novel The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks will be released in October of 09."

Really? That's all you have to say for yourself? Whatever he really has to say for himself, I don't mind. He seems like a cool person.

Lit Circle Letter 3

The final section of the book World War Z, is a little disappointing, I have to admit. They are mostly little boring short stories about life after the war. There were a few good stories at the beginning of the section but after that its just blah, blah, blah. I understand there's not much you can do to end a book like this but the stories could be a little longer than two pages.

Well, I guess that's not fair to say. After re-looking at the section I realized that the boring little short stories were under the section labeled "Goodbye's". But that section really detracts from the overall awesomeness of this book. Other than that part I would say I was very pleased with this book. I read it in about a week, which is pretty impressive by my standards, especially because it is about three hundred and fifty pages. I read a book I would actually like to read since the last Harry Potter book, so if I read a book that fast, you know it's good.

At the beginning, the author seemed to have a pretty bleak outlook on life. There was so much death and panic and suicide. There was deception and misconceived politics. But in this section I think the author showed his true outlook on life and society, there were still sad parts, but it looked like the world was healing its wounds. And he still accurately portrayed the mind of the political machine.

"Hope. I'm not kidding, the town was actually named Hope.
They say the brass chose it because of the terrain, clear and open with the desert in front and the mountains in back. Perfect, they said, for and open engagement, and that the name had nothing to do with it. Right."

This is a quote about the location of the first American offensive in World War Z. And I think that's exactly how politicians would react. They would give the people hope precisely by beating the zombies in a town called Hope. Real life situations are portrayed well, except for the zombies, but other than that, I think this is exactly how the Z War would be.

Lit Circle Letter 2

In this second section of the book, the tide starts to turn in favor of the human's (the live ones). Throughout this section there are tales of heartache, the limits of human endurance, the return of faith in humanity, and other corny crap, no pun intended. Films are created to raise spirits, communities are built, companies are constructed, and the new military is resupplied. The world finally goes back on the attack at the end of this section.

"The man didn't shout, didn't try to restore order. He just kept going in that calm, firm tone that I don't think any world leader has since been able to duplicate. He even thanked his "fellow delegates' for their 'valued opinions' and admitted that, from a purely military perspective, there was no reason to 'push our luck.' We'd fought the living dead to a stalemate and, eventually, future generations might be able to reinhabit the planet with little or no physical danger. Yes, our defensive strategies had saved the human race, but what about the human spirit?... We had to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and leave that proof as this war's greatest monument. The long, hard road back to humanity, or the regressive ennui of Earth's once-proud primates. That was the choice, and it had to be made now"

This was the president speaking in front of the remaining world leaders and I feel, it very well exemplifies what would have to be done to really save the human race. Not just save it, but return it to it's original splendor.I think the authors point in this passage is the great epidemics may not kill all of us, but if we have lost faith in our own species, we might as well be dead.

This section was definitely my favorite section of the book, there was the most action, the most plot. Juicier characters and stories. This first part of the book was basically just how it started, a lot of chaos; people running through the streets with the undead, and specific isolated incidents. But in the second section, more unravels on the toll this war has taken on the world. It's even noticeable in the air, the ashes of people and cities. and it's way better than the end, which is just a bunch of really short stories about life after the zombies (spoiler alert).

There are longer stories in this section, with more emotion in them. Emotion drawn out from watching the hopelessness of people just trying to survive. And then there's the other side; new practical weapons being created, little communities surviving sieges of undead without a scratch, and the overall, somewhat improved spirit in the surviving humans. It's all very enthralling, and it's all very good.

Lit Circle Letter 1: World War Z

The book I'm reading this month is called World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, written by Max Brooks, the author of The Zombie Survival Guide. But the only factor these two books have in common is zombies. World War Z is definitely not as funny, but it's not trying to be, it's a serious book. I like the way it was written, it's like a bunch of interviews with people who survived the war.
The only problem with this is a lot of the characters sound the same, if it weren't for this, I think it would be very easy to mistake this for a non-fictional book, however scary that may be. Other than the characters I enjoy this book a lot, there's some humor but it can be pretty depressing, and it'll keep you up past any normal hour, it can be pretty scary.

"None of us were set up for this, we weren't trained for it, weren't equipped... Where was the riot gear they promised us, the shields, the armor, where was the water cannon? our orders were to 'process' all evacuees... But where were the goddamn sniffer dogs? How are you supposed to check for infection without dogs?"

This goes to show the disorganization and despair everybody faced in this book, and all of it seems exactly how a government would act. They wouldn't give people that weren't major assets any resources, they wouldn't inform the public until it was too late, they would lie and bicker with other nations and within their own, all of this occurring while humans fight their extinction. And that's exactly what Brooks writes about.
So far this has been a pretty good book, it gets the adrenaline pumping, accurately represents politics, and makes you sleep with your light on. Other than the small variations in the character's persona's, I would say this is a good, solid book. Definitely one of the best in the zombie business.

Monthly Review 2

The Forever War is a gripping science fiction novel that masks strong themes of the Vietnam War. In this novel a man named William Mandella is the protagonist. He is drafted into the army for his intelligence and shipped into space to fight an unknown enemy, and because they go through time when they go really fast through space the universe ages much faster than they do. And when he returns the world is no longer as it once was. So he reenlists. He goes through several more battles with his girlfriend and they go to a planet that is not as hostile as earth but they have to go back into the army but are separated and because of the time differences his girlfriend will be dead long before he returns, if he even returns. But all in all this is a great book.

1. What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I believe that the authors purpose in writing this book was to spread knowledge about a subject that everyone was scared to talk about, Vietnam. In fact I'm positive, he said so himself in the intro to the book. But nevertheless, that was his purpose and the fact that that message still gets through to my generation 30 years later, is pretty impressive.
One way I can tell this is his purpose is he said so himself, but ignoring that fact, there are themes throughout the book. First of all, the title The Forever War is representative of the Vietnam War since that was the U.S.'s longest war. And in the beginning, not knowing what the enemy looked like, or even if you could kill them in the same ways. In their first engagement the humans slaughter the enemy because they didn't know what to do.
The main character Mandela has the author's name, Haldeman, in it if you get rid of the H and turn alde into "dela" and then swap that and "man", and Haldeman is a Vietnam vet. When he returned to his home, the world seemed alien to him, the economy was a lot worse, the speech had changed, it was much more dangerous, it was one third homosexual. Drastic changes like these are changes that veterans would experience when they returned home. With this and the overall treatment of the soldiers, you can't help but see the similarities to the Vietnam War.

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)
This book was probably intended for the Veterans of the Vietnam war, because it definitely wasn't for any other people during that time, because no one wanted to talk about it. Hardly anyone would even publish the book because it was so controversial. But writing such a timeless novel as this, he probably knew that younger generations would like this book as well. It stays current, if I had no idea that this book was written in the 70s, I would've thought it was a brand new book. It just has that feel to it.
As I said in the last letter, anyone who is old enough to read this (maturity-wise probably like 14 or 15) should definitely read this book. It's pretty awesome. Also anyone who has read Brave New World might like this book as there are similar themes and the author even writes "O brave new world" and uses words like "conditioning" to describe human behavioral modification. And there is an lot of sex in this book, as is in Brave New World, hence the recommended maturity age. But, yeah, otherwise it's good, so read this book, fer sherrrrrrrr.

5. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?
The author is a winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, basically this book is the more modern day Great Gatsby of science fiction, or really any genre for that matter. Seriously, it's hella good. Haldeman is a veteran of the Vietnam war, which explains the underlying themes and purpose of writing this book. And he has written a great sci fi book every other year since his first book (this book), The Forever War. He was, or maybe still is, I'm not sure yet, a creative writing professor at MIT, and has taught some of todays greats in the science fiction genre.
The authors life is reflected in many ways throughout the book, starting with the main characters name. As I said earlier, it's the same as the authors, if you switch the letters around and get rid of the "H". Also, the main characters girlfriend's name is Margay Potter. Haldeman's wife's name is Mary Gay and her maiden name is Potter. Plus, Haldeman is as I said, a Vietnam vet, and this book is basically the Vietnam War with science fiction slapped on top of it, so this book is basically his experience in the war. Much like F. Scott Fitzgerald relating his life in the Great Gatsby. Which makes it seem like the modern day Great Gatsby. Like I may have mentioned before. Basically, this authors life is reflected in the book, but subtly as any good author does.

As I said. This is an amazing book, I wouldn't hyave changed it if I could, except for the physics, because it is more or less perfect. Haldeman did a really superb job of writing this book. A romantic subplot, an impactful war, and a universe that is changing around the main character. It really doesn't get any better than this.

lit cirlce letter 3

Now that I have read this book all the way through, I have to say this is now my favorite book ever. The way it is written alone just makes it such a good book. The descriptions are pretty good, and he writes with a great flow. The themes he uses also kick ass because this can either be interpreted as a science fiction novel or a synopsis of the Vietnam War.
The plot of the book is great as well. There is so much darkness and unhappiness throughout the book but it still manages to have an upbringing and awesome ending. This is probably the only novel I would consider reading again. I'm really glad I bought it. Its just such an amazing book.
It has the perfect amount of maturity in it too. It isn't too gory most of the time and it isn't overly sexual like brave new world, although Haldmen does use a lot of themes from that book. Such as saying o brave new world, using conditioning to describe behavior modification, and the clone society at the end. But I digress... this novel is completely awesome and EVERYONE should read it at some point.

Lit Circle Letters 1-2

The Forever War is probably now one of my favorite books that I've read. It's really good and the parallels to war, Vietnam in specific, are unprecedented. This book also sounds like it could've been written yesterday. It's so timeless, its hard to remember that it was written in the 70s. I've never found a book that's been so old yet could be so current. With Brave New World I could tell it was older, but this one, it definitely stays current. The only thing that confuses me about this is the "physics". I've been told that they are made up, which frankly, makes a lot of sense, because they don't make any. And I think it detracts from the glory of this novel. No ones going to understand it anyways why include it, to take up space?
Other than that this book is brilliant. Basically what happens in the first section is an introduction into the world of war in the 1990s and it isn't pretty. Only half the people survive through the training. I don't know if that's what it was in 'Nam, but I hope it wasn't. And then They land on one of the enemies planets and have the first encounter with the Taurans in which there are many similarities to Vietnam. It was a very gory and disturbing battle. Its this way with most of the book for that matter. There's lots of sex, lots of gory descriptions in the way people were killed or injured. But that's part of what makes this an awesome book. I can also see why almost no one, during the time period he wrote it, would publish it. It has very controversial and, as I said, disturbing content.
In this second section, the soldiers are traveling to the next world and are attacked by the enemy, one third of the soldiers are instantly killed and lots more die and get injured, so they return to Earth. The rest of the section is basically about the different world they returned to. One third of the population is gay, there is a universal currency, lots of people are unemployed, and very violent. The deaths of most the main characters families bring them to reenlist as trainers on the moon, but they get swindled and shipped back out into space.
It must have seemed like a different world to the vets returning from the Vietnam war, it probably didn't help the characters out that they had only aged two years when the world had aged 25. Which was something I didn't get, more of the made-up physics. And the fact that the army put them back into space seemed like just the kind of swindling that the army would've done back in the day (the nonfictional 70s). That's all I really have to report so far. This is a great book so far. It's got love, sex, violence, drugs, the works. I would for sure recommend this to anyone 14 and up, because there are some pretty mature subjects. So far I'd give it an A, it's not nearly as weird as the last book I read.

Monthly Book Review #1

Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley. It was written in 1931 and published in 1932 (during the Great Depression). It is fictitious and the general premise is that humans are all born in labs and conditioned to be leaders or workers in their sleep.
In Brave New World the basic synopsis is that there is this guy named Bernard who is like almost all other people, born in a lab and conditioned to be what the Director's want them to be in their sleep. Bernard doesn't really fit in, because he is odd, he is at the risk of being shipped off to an island. In order so save his career he brings back a savage that is a Director's son. This particular Director is Bernard's "prosecutor", he quits and Bernard is free to stay where he is. The savage, who is a naturally born person, doesn't adjust well to this strange place. He and Bernard are eventually sent off to different places and the savage elects to be isolated. I think this is a thrilling and oddly captivating book tat I would recommend to really anyone who has somewhat matured.

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

I believe that really anyone from high school on till death should find this book to be a damn good and interesting read. There are many, many, strange and adventurous themes carried within th depths of its pages. But I believe the people that will truly enjoy this book are people that find something wrong in society today and society throughout time. People who have felt like they don't belong, more specifically, people who think they're the only people that don't belong. But there are people that feel like they don't belong in the world we live in, and therefore they are not alone, they do belong (just with people who feel like they don't belong).
People who feel like there can never be a perfect place, a perfect way to run things might get a kick out of this book, people who enjoy freaky things and equally scary ideas, will definitely love this book. People who like sex, lots of sex, will probably be very happy with this (large) aspect of the book.I liked this book, it was, as I've said, a scary yet truly enchanting novel. So ,if you happen to be like me, however rare this is, you'll probably like, and at the same time, not know what to think of this book.
All in all, I think as long as you aren't opposed to listening to controversial ideals and are old enough to tolerate a lot of talk of "erotic play". If you're old enough to handle the concepts of death and sexual themes, as well as the theme of what I think is "dehumanization", you will probably enjoy this book.

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?

The major weakness of this book is for suuure the ending. I didn't like the ending at all. It wasn't the plot, I understood what happened, it just seemed like it wrote it really, really fast, because he had to make a deadline and forgot to make a better one. Another thing that confused me is that if the Controller is this all powerful/wise person, why wouldn't he send John somewhere completely isolated? I mean, if he's close to a city someone's bound to see him as they fly over or something. I get the authors point that he doesn't fit in anywhere, but it just doesn't fit right. Even if he hadn't moved John farther away, I thought people were conditioned not to like being out in the countryside, why were those people that first spotted him out there?
I really wish I could ask the author if he rushed the ending. It just ended so abruptly and the last chapters setting changed so quickly, without even a decent heads up. It was just like, I'm flying, okay now I'm in the countryside at a lighthouse. Seriously? And why a lighthouse? Aren't tall objects easy to spot? Did John pick the spot? Did Mustapha pick the spot? If John picked the spot and truly wanted to be alone, why the hell did he pick that lighthouse instead of some private island or something like that?
Anyways, that was definitively the weakest part of the novel. Nothing else really stuck out out me. So all in all, compared to most movies this was a relatively sensible read.

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.

Bernard Marx was the character that interested me the most. Sadly, I identify with him more than I do with any of the other characters except I'm not that conceited or that much of a tool in general. What I find interesting about him is that he seems to be one of three people in the book that find something funny with their Brave New World. But what I like about him is that he is a very modern (as in right now) person. I could see a person like Bernard living in our world, I do see people like Bernard living in our world. People that will curse the world they live in when they are unhappy and when they gain their popularity they will fight to the bone to keep it, and along the way usually loose what little dignity they had.
Bernard is definitely one of those people. Forgive more of my slang but he is a complete tool. He's easily manipulated and when he becomes popular he loses interest in the little things about society that tickle him the wrong way. He stopped his conversations with John and Helmholtz and then he of course went back to them when he lost his popularity (which was only based on the savage, John). I find him interesting because he is a well developed and relevant to people living in our modern age.

Book Letter 3

The ending confused me a little. It wasn't the plot, I understood what happened, it just seemed like it wrote it really, really fast, because he had to make a deadline and forgot to make a better one. Another thing that confused me is that if the Controller is this all powerful/wise person, why wouldn't he send John somewhere completely isolated? I mean, if he's close to a city someone's bound to find him. I get the authors point that he doesn't fit in anywhere, but it just doesn't seem right. Even if he hadn't moved John farther away, I thought people were conditioned not to like being out in the countryside. Whatever, I'll save it for the monthly review.
I don't know of much else to say that I already haven't or I'm saving for the monthly review. It was a good book, it was freaky and scarily close to a possible reality, especially for the time period it was written during. Their were well developed characters, who by some odd means out grew some of their conditioning one way or another. It was a very scary alternate reality. I was thinking about doing this for the monthly review of the book (as well as a very brief summary of the answers):

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?):
Anyone really, but in particular people who find something wrong with society
3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion:
The ending
8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth:
Bernard

Book Letter 2

In this section the "Savage" is fully enveloped in the "civilized" culture, and it's too much for him to take and him along with Bernard and Helmholtz are sent to islands, at least Bernard and Helmholtz are going to be. I don't know about John. They still haven't said how Bernard and Helmholtz came to be oddballs, and I don't think they will, but they should be much happier on their islands among other people that don't fit in with the rest of society. The character Mustapha Mond is fully introduced and him and Bernard start a very intriguing conversation about religion and other aspects of society and happiness and history, this definitely clears up why the civilization is the way it is.
I can't really see where this civilization is similar to ours, but I could see this actually happening, I mean, the premise is totally believable. The things I do notice that are similar is the materialism, when somethings old, you don't fix it, you throw it away. Fairly true today. The people these days aren't as promiscuous as they are in the book, but I know a lot of people wish it was that way. A major difference would be the lack of solidarity in this society. Everything is done in public, I guess they're conditioned to have no shame as well.
There are really too many differences with this culture to mention, but I think I covered most of the similarities. Here's one more. There are loners, people who don't fit in, who believe that there is something greater than themselves and their society. Which I believe is one of the most important similarities, it provides a sliver of hope that this very strange way of life could be altered so as not to be so controlling. Which is what Bernard, John, and Helmholtz are after, and maybe by the end of the book things will change.

Book Letter

I find this book to be very strange, yet still incredibly interesting. The erotic play between little children is just a tiny bit creepy. And it isn’t only among the adolescents and children. It’s among everyone, there’s a constant stream of sex and talk of sex coming out of this book. And it’s all seemingly second nature to these “people”. Another thing I find odd is the Bernard Marx character. He’s the only person in the story to have old-fashioned human emotions. He seems to be one of the only people to be unhappy with their “utopia”. The reason behind this will probably be revealed later in the story, but until then, it remains a mystery to me.

There also seems to be an underlying thought or emotion bubbling up inside these people that they themselves cannot explain. I think it may be the same reason that Bernard and Helmholtz have their little conversations, and why Bernard is so unhappy with and appalled at the society he lives in. When he talks to Lenina about these thoughts she feels them to but covers it by telling him not to talk about it and has some soma to get her mind off of it. So everyone feels it, but they’ve been taught to fear it or cover the emotions. In fact, they’re supposed to take one whenever they feel bad or unhappy, only burying the issues present and creating another strange thing about Brave New World.