I often wish we’d get an EARLIER heads-up from school about things that will be needed. The twins’ classes are making bird-nest bags at school, and so we got a note home from the teacher saying each child needs to bring in a net bag (like the kind that has onions or apples in it) by next week, and to please send in extra bags if we have them. If I’d known this, say, a month ago, I could have been saving bags and/or looking for alternative sources for them. As it is, I had to go out and buy two bags of overpriced apples just to harvest the bags.
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I read The Road, and I was very nervous the whole time because I remembered reading something someone wrote about it that convinced me it was not a good book for me to read even though I like apocalyptic fiction, but I couldn’t remember what it was they said. It was okay, though.
I wouldn’t recommend it, however, mostly because it destroyed the Fun Apocalypse Thoughts I have sometimes, like when I stock up on peanut butter or when I buy a hand-crank radio. Now I realize it wouldn’t matter if I were prepared for a genuine emergency or not, because someone stronger and meaner would come and take everything I had within microseconds.
Also, I was confusing it with On the Road, so I was thinking it was a Famous Old American Classic I Really Ought to Read for Cultural Literacy. But actually it’s from 2006 and it’s an Oprah’s Book Club pick—a category I’ve learned through bitter experience to avoid.
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Have you tried DeKuyper’s hot cinnamon schnapps? It has a Swear Word in the name, which I won’t put here since I’m ALREADY getting blocked by some workplaces. I bought it on a whim, and Paul and I tried it, and we both liked it. Paul said it’s like someone took huge handfuls of red hots and melted them into a bottle of vodka, and I was too busy coughing to do more than nod my agreement.
Have I already asked you if you’ve read “Pure”? If you like post-apocalyptic fiction, you might like it. I, too, found “The Road” almost unbearably depressing and resented its harshing of my always-be-prepared buzz. Maybe I liked “Pure” because it’s written for a “Hunger Games” age group and I’m not mature enough for the Oprah crowd?
I think you HAVE, and I think I meant to write it down but forgot! Who’s the author?
Julianna Baggott
The Road won a Pulitzer Prize, and Cormac McCarthy is a very well-regarded author…so try to ignore the Oprah Book Club pick part! ;)
What @Teej said.
I used to be a teacher and if I did too early heads-ups, the parents forgot completely and sent nothing. But then again, I taught at a terrible school. I eventually gave up asking the parents to send anything in and I just bought it all myself. And I think back now to how little they paid me and I wonder why I bothered! This is becoming less relevant to your original topic the longer I write.
Oh, YES, that WOULD be an issue. Hm. Well, as long as I’m dreaming: a way-in-advance notice (like a list of what will be needed throughout the year), and then the closer-to-event reminders. And a side of fries.
Can you suggest any other apocalyptic fiction that you enjoyed? I read the road and liked it but I LOVED World Made By Hand.
Let’s see. Stephen King’s The Stand. And Douglas Coupland’s Girlfriend in a Coma (preachy and navel-gazey but I like it anyway and skim those parts). And…oh dear, I KNOW there are MANY others, but now none will come to mind! I’m adding World Made by Hand to my library list!
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it!
I have loved post-apocalyptic fiction since I read The Stand way back in the 80s and The Road is one of the very few books in that genre I had to abandon reading. About 75 pages in, I skipped to the end, read that, and then returned the book to the library. My (only at that time) child was 3 when I started reading it and I could not stop thinking about how truly horrible an actual apocalypse would be with a small child. Started having bad dreams, the whole nine yards. I guess it’s a tribute to Cormac McCarthy that it was so well written that I was immersed so fully in that world, but it was too much for me. I guess I prefer my apocalypses to be on the less realistic and grim side ;-)
Also we are constantly being asked to bring things to the kids’ various schools with little notice. It’s aggravating that I could have everything requested most of the time if only I was told more than a few days in advance. Sigh.
I mostly liked The Road but it WAS so sad. A lot of my book club (the family book club) did NOT like it at all. Which made for a good discussion, which made me like it even a bit more.
And I totally agree about advance notice. There are SOME of us parents who WOULD remember, or who know to make ourselves a note on the calendar! Rrr.
1) I wonder if I’M the one who pre-poisoned you on The Road? I did indeed hate that book, and I think I wrote about it.
2) If you like Hot Damn, you would probably love Fireball Whiskey. It’s my new favorite for shots.
I think I will avoid both the book, and the drink, and now I’m glad I know!
I am ridiculously pleased that Tessie told the name of the schnapps. I was trying to think of what it could be, but apparently I’m not that bright. Thank you, Tessie. Now I will sleep tonight without googling “cinnamon schnapps” and worrying my husband.
Ha, now I’m imagining other possibilities. “F’in Spicy,” for example.
I can’t remember if I read that one or not (oh the joys of early on-set dementia….I KID) so I’ll add it to the list. Just recently re-read The Stand (because I couldn’t remember it) and absolutely fell in love with Stephen King all over again (even though, technically, I have never fell out of love with him in the first place).
As an FYI – you are probably blocked from workplaces because you are a “blog” (i.e., not work-related) and not because you write words like “damn.”
If you like post-apocalyptic fiction, do you also like The Walking Dead tv show?
I read a great first-in-a-trilogy recently called The Last Policeman that’s actually PRE-apocalyptic, which was interesting in itself because the end was imminent but not THERE yet. But it was also just… an interesting book.
And have you read The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta? SO GOOD. The best book I read all of last year. It was a great mix of describing life post-EVENT and interesting characters and their reactions to the event. Not a typical The-Stand-style post-apocalyptic book but REALLY GOOD.
Oh! Yes, I read The Leftovers, but all I remember is that I found it Unsatisfying for some reason. I haven’t watched The Walking Dead, but that’s because I usually don’t like to SEE apocalyptic stuff. I’m adding The Last Policeman to my library list!
I really liked The Leftovers, but I like that author a lot. I can be sort of an apologist for an author I like. I love that schnapps, we used to drink it all the time as a shot when I was in college and I haven’t thought about it in quite a while. I’m glad I’m home from work when I read this, otherwise I might have been tempted! I have never read The Road, I couldn’t get through The Stand, even though I love S King. It’s harder for me, now that I have kids, to think about stuff like that. Have you read Where’d You Go, Bernadette? I just finished it and really enjoyed it.
I teach 4th grade, and parents SAY they would like advance notice, but really only medium-short notice works. If I give advance notice plus the reminder close to the event, they think the reminder is the only notice and that I didn’t get around to asking in time. But it might have more to do with the urgency the child feels about the situation, since they are the ones (in my school demographic of very busy/wealthy/let-the-nanny-handle-it parents) that have to get the ball rolling. The 20% of very involved parents chip in no matter what, but seem to prefer medium-early notice. We compromise. And gush about how nice the support is, which it totally is.
I like to think about apocalyptic scenarios, too – I sometimes say that knitting/sewing and especially spinning are my apocalypse skills, which will mean I won’t get eaten, because when we’re rebuilding society, we’re going to need people who can spin for rope and thread and twine. That means that I prefer depictions of rebuilding life after apocalypse to the part where everyone is still in the stealing-and-dying-and-cannibalism phase. Have you read Oryx and Crake? It’s post-apocalyptic (and also pre-apocalyptic and also apocalyptic) and I really like it, and it’s pretty different to most of the other stuff I’ve read in the genre.
Adding to library list!
I’m excited about all the apocalyptic book suggestion. I liked The Road, but “soul crushing” is my preferred genre of fiction for some reason.
Hated The Road with a white-hot passion and did not even finish it despite its promise to restore my faith in humanity. WHATEVER. I was pregnant when I was reading it and having quite a bit of generalized anxiety and that book made me nuts. Sometimes, even now, I’ll hear an explosion late at night (usually rednecks with fireworks) and immediately begin to worry about whether or not this is THE END OF TIMES and that I don’t have nearly enough bottled water and/or bullets. Yes, that is how I roll. That book can die in a fire.
Oh, man, it DESTROYED my faith in humanity. I was like, “Oh, I see. No, this makes sense. This is what would happen: everyone turning horrible.”
I second the suggestion of Pure by Julianna Baggott. The writing is wonderful; I was completely engrossed. The best part is that it’s a trilogy, and the second novel, Fuse, is just as good, if not better than the first. I literally could not put it down. The only downside is the third one is not yet published, and I am dying to know how it ends!
HAHA – I knew Tessie would comment. She and I both hated The Road with the fire of a thousand suns. We both wrote about it, if I remember correctly. I do second the recommendation of The Last Policeman – I really liked it as well. Also, the Life as We Know It series is supposed to be really good. I read the first one and really liked it, but haven’t gotten around to reading the other two. Also, in non-apocalyptic recommendations, have you read Gods of Gotham? It’s set in NY in the 1800’s, which is not my usual genre, but I LOVED it.
I read tons of sci fi, some of which is post-apocalyptic. Can’t think of any titles right now other than Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
I may have been the person who said The Things about the road.
I liked it, but I will never read it again.
Also, this review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2O8EWYACH712D/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0015LUVWA&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=
I LOVE THAT AMAZON REVIEW SO INCREDIBLY MUCH I CAN’T STAND IT.
I loved The Road primarily for the depiction of the relationship between the father and the son, but seeing the movie trailer once almost made me sick, and there was no way I could watch it.
Ooh! Here are some great books that are apocalyptic fiction (I too really like the genre):
1. Earth Abides, by George Stewart (1949). Great book, the classic, still very readable.
2. The Postman, by David Brin – yes, there was the movie with Kevin Costner, but the original book is great.
3. Lucifer’s Hammer by Niven and Pournelle – asteroid!
Also, in related categories:
4. Ariel, Stephen Boyett – fantasy apocalypse! The world changes, magic works, most of the population disappears, survivors adapt. The protagonist befriends a unicorn. I read this as a teen and loved it – turns out that the author wrote it at age 21, and then in 2009 he wrote a sequel, Elegy Beach, different, but also very good.
5. Island in the Sea of Time, S.M. Stirling – time travel apocalypse! The island of Nantucket, and all residents, are suddenly transported back in time to the 1250s B.C. The survivors need to adapt to the new reality, making the most of their resources and learning new skills, and encountering locals.
6. 1632, by Eric Flint – similar to the above, this time it’s a whole present-day West Virginia town that gets transported to northern Germany in 1632. More good old boy and war-focused, but also some great characters and interesting juxtaposition.
7. Foodfall, by Niven and Pournelle – okay, so it’s not apocalypse, it’s an alien invasion. But it does shake up the world, and it’s a fun read, too.
*scribbling down entire list eagerly*
Whoops, #7 is “Footfall”. As in the foot. Of the aliens. Falling on the Earth. :-)
That Amazon review is spot on brilliance. I laughed until I cried.