Tag: survival

What’s Ashley Reading?: Boudicca’s Daughter

Boudicca’s Daughter by Elodie Harper

First line: The twisted branches flash past, swift as shadows, yet solid as spears.

Summary: Few women strike fear in the hearts of Rome like the Iceni queen, Boudicca. She challenged Rome’s takeover of Britannia with a revolt that destroyed several key towns across the southern lands. But the revolt was doomed to collapse and the mighty queen is conquered leaving her daughter a captive of the Roman general, Paulinus.

Solina, the daughter of Boudicca and a druid king, has spent her life in her mother’s shadow but is now forced to carve out her own path in a world she never imagined she would inhabit. As a prisoner she is taken to Nero’s Rome where she finds that survival in the capital can be just as dangerous as war. With her life now in Rome she must come to terms with her past, the enemy all around her and what it truly means to be Boudicca’s daughter.

My Thoughts: Ever since I heard that Elodie Harper was going to write a book about Boudicca I could not wait for its release! I even went out and bought a copy of the beautiful book so I can add it to my collection. And it did not disappoint. I loved everything about this book!

While this book is historical fiction much of Solina’s life is fiction including her name. Boudicca’s daughters and their violation by Roman soldiers were cited as important reasons behind the revolt. Little is actually known about what happened to them afterwards and the records are all from Roman historians giving them a very one sided point of view. But I think Harper did a fantastic job imagining what life may have been like for a high profile prisoner being taken to Rome during a turbulent time in its own history.

Told through several viewpoints including Boudicca, Solina and Paulinius we travel from the Iceni homeland, to fierce battles, then captivity and finally to Rome. Solina is portrayed as a woman who is constantly in conflict with herself on surviving and the urge to continue the resistance to Roman control. As I’m sure the author intended, I could feel this struggle throughout Solina’s journey. Added to this Harper shows how cutthroat life in Rome was at the time of Nero. No one was safe from incriminations and threats. I could feel the anxiety of it through the narrative while also finding it fascinating.

I would highly recommend this and Elodie Harper’s trilogy set in Pompeii. She writes fascinating characters who inhabited the ancient world. We are shown the darker sides of what this gilded society was like through the eyes of strong female characters.

FYI: Currently this book is only available through Libby/Overdrive.

What’s Ashley Reading?: Dry

Dry by Neal & Jarrod Shusterman

First line: The kitchen faucet makes the most bizarre sounds.

Summary: When a severe drought hits California people are forced to make extreme choices in order to survive. Cutting back on water usage sounds doable until the water runs dry. As people start to experience life threatening thirst they become animals. Life has become a war zone and people are going to die.

Alyssa, a high school student in California, is shocked when the faucets stop working. Her family try to stay calm and find new water sources. However, when they don’t return from a water run Alyssa decides that she has to take matters into her own hands to keep herself and her younger brother alive. With the help of the neighbor boy, and his prepper family, she thinks that maybe they will survive the Tap-Out until one night when the rest of the neighborhood turns on them.

My Thoughts: This story felt oddly familiar. I feel like in a way we are living this reality right now. People are scared. The world has changed. Life is almost unrecognizable. I don’t know if this made the book even more intriguing or scarier.

I have to say that I learned a lot about dehydration and how the human body needs water for survival. Hopefully this will never become a reality because it is terrifying. I found myself drinking a lot more water while reading this.

I enjoyed the characters. There were some I liked and others not. I liked how the author incorporated news casts, snapshots into other people during the crisis and then sometimes gave those snapshots bigger parts later in the story. My heart was pounding and I could not put the book down during the last 150 pages. I had to know if Alyssa and her crew were going to survive.

I love that Shusterman brings important issues to teens. Water conservation is something we need to be careful about and plan for at one point. I highly recommend reading this. It gives a scary but realistic view into what could be a future world disaster.

FYI: Also try Scythe by the same author!

*This is my pick for category #11 (A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) novel or book about a natural disaster) for the ReadICT challenge.*

What’s Ashley Reading?: The Forbidden Forest Read-a-thon Week Two

Alrighty. Week two is completed along with three more books. I was not sure that I was going to be half way done at the end of the second week but I accomplished it. Plus I finished two of the longer books this last week!

I greatly appreciate audio books. I know some people do not consider these “reading” but I certainly do. I get the story and I am engaged in the plot and its characters. Two of the books from last week were ones that I partially listened to thanks to our book on CD collection and Rb Digital.

This last week’s reads include The Loving Cup by Winston Graham, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer. Each one was a four star read. All of them had fantastic characters and stories. I am hoping to soon read the rest of the books in each series. However, my favorite book this week is by far Hatchet.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

First line: Brian Robeson stared out the window of the small plane at the endless green northern wilderness below.

Summary: Brian’s parents split up recently and on his way to Canada to spend a few months with his father. He is flying in a small plane with only himself and a pilot. As they are flying over the forests of Canada the pilot suddenly has a heart attack. Brian is left alone in an airplane, thousands of feet in the air and no idea where he is or how he is going to land the plane.

For several hours he keeps the plane in the air until he decides to try and take it down on a lake. When he crashes he finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with only the clothes on his back, his wits and the hatchet his mother had given him. How long will it take for someone to rescue him? Will he be able to survive alone in the forest?

My Thoughts: I picked this book because it has been years since I heard the story. I remember having it read to my class while I was in school. It was a good story then but now that I am older I realize that it is a great story. I usually recommend this to young boys who ask for something to read. I am happy to see that it is still popular and has a hold list.

A thirteen year old boy is lost in the wilderness with nothing. He survives using what he knows from nature shows and his school science classes. Not many people would be able to do this. Paulsen does a splendid job of mixing the adventure with facts. Not many kids books can stand the test of time but I believe that this one can. It is still engaging and fun and perfect for all ages.

FYI: There are five books in Brian’s saga.