Skip to main content

The Dreamers

"An outlandish idea is beginning to bubble in his mind.  Or is it only a wish?  That these dreams really are a sort of travel, a kind of vision of a time yet to come."
The Dreamers, by Karen Thompson Walker, is the incredible story of a small college town in California that gets hit by a fast spreading virus.  The virus puts its victims into a deep sleep where they are consumed by dreams, sometimes a lifetime's worth.  The affected range from small children, college students, a married couple new to parenthood, a single day, an elderly man wistful for days gone by.  Everyone in the town is affected in one way or another and their lives are never the same because of it.
The story was very captivating.  I've always been fascinated by sleep and dreams and the unconscious mind.  I've been an insomniac for much of my life, plagued by fucked up dreams, so I found this book extremely interesting.  I also enjoyed a look at how fast a virus can spread.  How quickly simple day-to-day acts can make us fall victim  
The narrative was very well done.  Karen Thompson Walker has a wonderful written voice that I got lost in immediately.  I read this book in one day, then shipped it off to my mom, who loved it too.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Don't Need a Dog

Need is a funny word.  It implies that the thing we are hoping to acquire is directly related to our existence.  We would simply perish without it.  So yes, I probably didn’t need a third dog.  No, scratch that.  I definitely didn’t need a third dog on that warm August day in 2011.  The big brown eyes staring back at me from the computer monitor suggested otherwise.   I looked down at the basset hound stretched out on the floor below me, my foot idly stroking his white and brown fur.  “What do you think, Tuck?  Do we need another friend?” Tucker thumped his tail and rolled over onto his back so that his belly was fully exposed for proper petting.  If you wanted a happy, ready-for-anything, easy going dog Tucker was your guy.  I was certain he’d love a new friend.  A more playful friend.  Maggie was great as far as companions went, but the dopey little French bulldog with his smooshed up face wasn’t what you’d cal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Green

 "I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'if this isn't nice, I don't know what is." - Kurt Vonnegut It seems that life very rarely offers us perfect moments, and when it does we are far too busy to stop and notice them.  Or we are trying desperately to capture that perfect moment, to cling on to it for just a little longer, but then it vanishes right before our eyes and we are left with just the fuzzy memory.   Perfect moments can't be captured.   But they can be enjoyed. It rained last night.  The kind of gentle downpour that's easy to sleep through, the rain coming straight down so evenly that the windows can be left open without the worry of a stray drop traveling in and finding its way to the hardwood floors.  The clouds lingered and the rain decided to continue on throughout the morning, pausing my plans to plant the last few petunias in the hangers that line my fence and chicken coop....
Post a Comment
Read more

The Losers Club

"Alec didn't really want to be in a club either...and he really didn't want to start one.  To have to get an activity organized and then keep it going, day after day?  That sounded horrible.  Because right now, today?  All he wanted to do was read." The Losers Club , by Andrew Clements,   is the story of 6th grader Alec who wants nothing more than to hide away with a good book. But Alec's teachers, parents, and principal think he's spending a little too much time inside his books.  And the teachers in charge of the after school program want him to be more involved.  Determined to get his reading time in, Alec creates The Losers Club, a place where he can be left alone with his books after school.  When fellow 6th grader, Nina, joins the club Alec realizes that the world outside of his books can be pretty intense. This was a really cute middle-grade read that I read out loud along with my 10-year-old son.  We both enjoyed it.  Alec...
Post a Comment
Read more