Author Binge

Obviously I am on an author binge with Robert Cormier.  After the First Death was harder for me to get into at first, but once I was hooked, I was HOOKED.  It was brutal.  It was very well done.  It raises a lot of questions about service to one's country and what that might mean. 
Powerful. 

Rags and Bones

When I was reading The Rag and Bone Shop by Cormier I kept thinking about the book Ragman:  and other Cries of Faith which I read 100 years ago.  One has nothing to do with the other.
I started wondering what a "rag and bone shop" was and found this.  Now I am curious as to how the title of this book fits.  And I see that the book got its title from this.  I  need to think about this more, because I haven't yet read the poem and maybe then I will figure it out. 
This was again another "no happy endings" kind of book.  But it was excellent.  Was Cormier a pessimist or a realist?  I guess it depends on what the one asking the question is.  Some days I might see him a pessimist  and some days as a realist.  I guess on really bad days he might be an optimist!  Ha!  Great book though.  Really great. 

SO NOT Cheesy!

I Am the Cheese is one of those books that I should have read a long time ago but never did.  And now I think I am glad because I got to experience it and loved it at a time in which there is a lot of junk going on and I am just so thankful that I was able to "escape" into another world that goes to show that it could always be worse!  Ha!  It is worse for Adam.  And I am glad he is a fictional character, but I am sure that there are real, living, breathing people who have gone through the misery that he goes through in this book.  Whether what he experienced is real or not real, it is real to him and so it is "real."
The mind is a tricky thing.
And the government is a tricky thing.
Sure you can trust your government, ask a Native American! 
Great book.
I would love to talk about this! 

Brutal

The Chocolate War is a brutal book.  As I've mentioned again recently, as a born and raised Presbyterian, even though I'm a Baptist now, I still believe that human nature is basically evil.  There is no good without God.  We are all, as Calvin said, totally depraved.  The behavior of the students in The Chocolate War, well it isn't surprising.  It is horrifying.  It is just another reminder that we need God and His love in this lost world.

I listened to this book and in this edition, the author, Robert Cormier, gave an introduction.  Not only did the guy have an amazing Boston accent, but he made you really want to read the book!
TCW is gritty and real and heart-breaking.  A bit dated, of course, but it is so good and real that it doesn't matter.