Book Review: The Night Room by E.M. Goldman

The Night Room
by E.M. Goldman

Publisher: Viking Penguin
ISBN: 0670858382
Paperback: 216 pages
Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi
Source: Purchased at Dollar General.
Time to read: 3 days
aStore Link: The Night Room

| Enjoyability: 5 | Readability: H | Characterization: 3 | Overall: A- |
(Traditional Rating: 4.5 Stars)

Summary
Seven high school juniors are selected to participate in a computer program project called Argus, a simulator that thrusts each individual to their tenth high school reunion.  By combining lifestyle patterns obtained through student interviews, the students get a glimpse of what could be their futures.  As frightening and enlightening as that is, they also discover that one member of their group is missing from the reunion, a memorial plaque revealing her date of death.  Each successive student's experience with Argus adds another layer to the building suspense as Ira and the others try to figure out what happened to her and what they can do to stop it.  Through it all, the students discover more about themselves, their relationships, and the value of living.

The story in third-person narrative mainly follows student Ira Martinic, with a few side stories involving other members of the teen test group, as well as some behind-the-scenes drama with people directly involved in the production of Argus. 

My Reaction
When I saw that Goldman dedicated the book "To the Crew of the Starships Enterprise" and read her bio, I figured I would fit right in with her style of writing.  Throughout the book, the characters refer to Argus as a version of the Holodeck from the Star Trek series, and it was a fair approximation without being a complete copy of the idea.  The copyright date of 1995 placed the book in the timeline of when Star Trek: The Next Generation was a current series, which incidentally was the same time I was young and watching the series.  I related to this book well.

Although the 11th grade characters were a small sampling of typical school caricatures (school paper reporter, all-around nice guy, chick everyone wants to date, jock), Goldman did a good job of rounding them out as they reacted to their simulated future selves.  The background story involving the Argus developer and her assistants adds sufficient information to the story, as well as more interest in their characters.  In fact, I think I would really enjoy another book focusing on some of the college students' experiences with Argus that led up to the high school experiment.

Though written for the secondary school age bracket, The Night Room I think appeals to anyone who has been in high school and can remember those moments when planning for an adult future was all at once exciting, frightening, and intriguing.  Fans of Star Trek: TNG will also appreciate some humorous parallels.


Want this book?  Care to help out LeviSamJuno, too?  Click to buy The Night Room from my aStore.

Book Review: The Ruthless Realtor Murders by David A. Kaufelt

The Ruthless Realtor Murders (A Wyn Lewis Mystery)
by David A. Kaufelt

Book Review has been moved to this post on LeviSamJuno Reads.

A to Z Reading Challenge

I had read about the A to Z Reading Challenge from many of the other Reading Challenges I've perused.  So in the spirit of doubling up my reading this year, I present my A to Z Reading List for Authors and Titles.  Click the above link for the official page.

A to Z Authors
A
B
C
D
E
Funke, Cornelia (Inkheart)
Goldman, E.M. (The Night Room)
H
I
J
Kaufelt, David A. (The Ruthless Realtor Murders)
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
Stevenson, Robert Louis (Treasure Island)
T
U
V
Woodruff, Elvira (Ghosts Don't Get Goosebumps)
X
Y
Z

A to Z Titles
A
Bone Factory, The (Nate Kenyon)
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Bible in a Year: Day Sixteen

Today's Reading: Matthew 5-7

Summary
All three of these chapters are collectively called the Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew 5 contains the Beatitudes ("Blessed are....") and several illustrations of obeying the commandments.  Matthew 6 contains the Lord's Prayer and instructions in how to give alms, pray, and fast.  Matthew 7 contains the allusion to a tree bearing good fruit and that a good tree should not give bad fruit.

What I knew
The Sermon on the Mount pretty much epitomized Jesus' teachings on holy living, so one would be hard pressed to have not heard preachers or Sunday School teachers refer to, mention, or quote much of the contents.

What I learned
I did not know for certain that the Beatitudes were part of the Sermon on the Mount, nor that all of what I read was all contained there.  Having now read the three chapters in sequence and in context, I see how it flows together in a clearly orchestrated manner.

Doctrinal Importance
There is so much here doctrinally, I have to narrow it down and pick a few that really stood out to me.  At the end of Chapter 5 (verse 48), Jesus sums it all up by telling us to be perfect even as God is perfect.  As scary and impossible a task as that seems, Jesus wouldn't have told us that if it wasn't important.

The parable of the tree bearing good fruit tells us that a person is judged by their fruits; a bad tree gives bad fruit and cannot give good fruit.  The solution: bear good fruit, which is something that can only happend when God changes the tree from bad to good.

The instructions to give alms, pray, and fast in secret also say that those who do those thing in public for show get their reward.  They want the attention and to be looked at as being noble and righteous.  But God doesn't want you to do it for show.  In fact, He promises to reward you openly if you obey Him and do it in secret. 

Jesus also tells us to love our enemies.  It's easy to love someone who loves you back.  Treating an enemy like a friend and not repaying bad with more bad not only frustrates their efforts, but it is a good way to show love for them.

Finally, at the end of Chapter 7, the people are astonished after hearing the sermon because Jesus did not just speak like a scribe as if He were reading the Torah and reitorating what had been said.  He taught with authority; note the root "author" in the word "authority."

Bible in a Year: Day Eleven

Today's Bible Reading:
Genesis 4-7

Summary
Chapter Four of Genesis chronicles the birth of the first family's sons Cain and Abel.  Cain grows to be more of an harvester and Abel a shepherd.  God accepts Abel's blood sacrifice but not Cain's offering from the ground.  This causes Cain to become crestfallen and seek out vengeance on Abel, whom he later kills in an act of the world's first murder.  God confronts Cain and casts him away with a mark upon him to keep anyone from killing Cain.  Then the chapter lists the generations after Cain beginning with the son of Cain and presumably his sister.  Finally, Adam and Eve have a son, Seth, whose generations lead to men calling upon the name of the Lord.

Chapter Five is a list of the generations of Adam all the way through Noah's sons.  The list is pretty much unbroken except for two stories of note.  First is Adam's great-great-great-great grandson Enoch of whom it is said to have "walked with God" and later "God took him."  Second, Noah is named by his father Lamech  because he will comfort them from the toil and work of the cursed ground.

Chapter Six tells of the growing sinfulness of the people on the earth, causing God to repent from making man in the first place.  But Noah came from a righteous heritage and "found grace in the eyes of the Lord."  God speaks to Noah and has him build an ark to save Noah's family and enough animals to replenish the earth after God sends a global flood to destroy all other living things.  Here is where God gives the ark's building instructions.

Chapter Seven is where God instructs Noah to take seven clean animals and two each of the rest onto the ark.  Once all the animals and Noah's family (including his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law) are on board the ark, the "fountains of the deep" and the first downpours began deluging the earth covering every piece of land.

What I knew
Early Sunday School classes teach all about Cain and Abel and Noah's Ark, so I was pretty informed about those particular stories.  My own studies had made Chapter Five particularly interesting to me as it details the family line of Adam through Noah.  A quick timeline using the given ages and years reveals that Noah's father Lamech died a few years before the flood and the oldest man recorded in the Bible (Noah's grandfather, Methuselah) died the year of the flood.

What I learned
Seeing that Noah was favored by God probably because of his righteous nature, I have to believe that Noah had faithful teachers in his parents and grandparents.  Though Methuselah died the same year of the flood, it appears that he most likely did not die in the flood.  I like to think he died before the flood since he would otherwise have been in the ark with Noah and his family.  I did a little online research to discover that Methuselah means "death and sent" or, more loosely, "when he dies, judgment."  It seems Enoch (Noah's great-grandfather who walked with God right out of this world) may have had a hidden prophecy right in his son's name.  So, when Methuselah died at the extreme and very blessed age of 969, judgment was on its way.

Doctrinal Importance
First off, man's fall from grace into a sinful nature resulted very quickly in what is considered by most societies to be the worst sin of all: murder.  The very first generation of mankind saw murder.  However, we also see that God still loved His creation and that the first parents still loved God by bearing and teaching a lineage of God-serving people.  I think we see in the family history of Noah that parents have a responsibility to pass on their knowledge and love of God down to their children.  If Lamech had been like the rest of man at the time, then Noah would have been just as unrighteous, and no one would be left alive after the flood.  Finally, the flood is an important doctrine of Christianity because it is one of the many that demonstrates God's hatred of sin and impending judgment that can befall anyone.

Book Review: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Review has been moved to this post on LeviSamJuno Reads.

Book Rating Systems

FICTION

• Enjoyability: This system is highly subjective and is based on how much I personally enjoyed the piece.
• 5 = I found myself completely immersed in the work, didn't want to put it down, will probably read again.
• 4 = I was aware that I was reading but still had fun with it and still got lost in the story a few times.
• 3 = I had to labour through a few pages or chapters but found some parts of the book that I could fly through in interest.
• 2 = I finished the book for the sake of finishing what I started, and was probably offended by some of the material in it.
• 1 = I didn't finish the book.
• Readability: This system is based on the ease of reading the book.
• E = Elementary: an elementary school student could read this book with ease.
• H = High School: a high school student could easily read this book.
• C = College: college-level reading.
• S- = Science (light): the book is filled with explained scientific jargon.
• S+ = Science (heavy): the book is filled with scientific jargon that may be difficult for people in the mainstream to read without picking up a dictionary or web-searching some words.
• M- = Medical (light): the book contains a lot of medical jargon but explains the terms understandably either directly or by context.
• M+ = Medical (heavy): the book contains a lot of medical jargon that the author assumes the reader understands.
• Characterization: This system is based on how believable and dimensional the characters were.
• 4 = Almost all of the characters could almost be part of my family.  They act and exist like real people, even if a completely mythical and impossible creature.
• 3 = There were some archetypal supporting characters, but the majority of the main characters could have existed.
• 2 = The main character(s) carried the story, but they didn't really have any interesting characters off of which to work or respond.
• 1 = I had little to no empathy for the main character(s) or any of the supporting characters.  These could not be real people at all.
• Overall Impression: This system takes into consideration the above systems plus a factor of how likely I am to recommend the book.
• A+ = Exemplary.  A must-read for everyone.
• A- = A very enjoyable book, especially for its target audience.
• B+ = An enjoyable book, but probably not for all audiences.
• B- = A book you should at least have on your shelf.
• C+ = An ok book, good for a rainy day.
• C- = An ok book, good for a snowed-in day.
• D+ = If the library is closed and you can't find anything on the Internet to read.
• D- = If the Internet's down and your house is clean and you've read everything else on your shelf twice.
• F = If you were the victim of a Bradburyesque fireman and this was the only book hidden behind the portrait in your bedroom.

As I incorporate this system into the reviews, it will be denoted at the top underneath the book information in a format similar to this:

| Enjoyability: 5 | Readability: S+ | Characterization: 4 | Overall A- |