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Prescient and poignant, especially regarding corporate greed & climate change. This was my first Octavia Butler. The pace picked up for me as soon as Lauren leaves home (“a tree cannot grow in its parents‘ shadows”). There are some powerful lessons conveyed about community and the dynamic nature of gender. What I didn‘t find particularly dynamic, however, was the tone. For this reason, it won‘t ever become one of my favorites. Still, I respect it.

I despise working the late shift…but I can‘t be mad about slow mornings.

This book became too emotionally heavy to read in this world with everything I had going on personally. I'll pick it up again.

#FirstSaturdayReaders

Book club day is always a good day! #FirstSaturdayReaders

September, October and November for book club. #FirstSaturdayReaders #bookclub

Up next for book club. #FirstSaturdayReaders #BookClub

Well, I‘ve finally read it. The writing is great, but it‘s difficult for me to say I enjoyed it given the subject matter and context I‘m reading it in now. Chaos, disorder, little respect for humanity, and idea of states having what amounts to national borders.

The so-so rating is only because speculative fiction isn‘t my bag and I am not intrigued enough to read the second novel. It‘s too bad Butler didn‘t live to write the third!

I'm finally reading Parable of the Sower and I had no idea the diary entries start in July 2024. It's an odd feeling to pick a book and see it starts around the day you started reading it 😅

Watching the Harris fundraiser in GA with my current read; such a prescient novel. Please let the seeds fall on fertile ground!

Show us what you are reading this weekend! Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler July 20, 2024…IYKYK. Love & Whisky by Fawn Weaver…history not being told. #weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I heard on a podcast that this book, published in 1993, starts in July 2024. So I figured I‘d give it a try. And yeah, it‘s superb. I think I had written it off before because of the religious elements, but I am so engrossed in the story that you better believe I‘ll be reading book 2.

This is a heavy read. It‘s deep. It‘s complex. The characters, the issues, the world. It‘s scary because it‘s not far from current issues and the brink we are living with climate change and covid. I‘ll be thinking about this one for some time. There‘s so much to take in and absorb. It‘s interesting that Butler‘s ideas of the world in the 90‘s are not too far off from what we are living in ‘24. Exaggerated, but not by much.

#motivationalmonday 1. Have new dishwasher installed (old one broke last week) and celebrate younger son‘s 19th birthday 🎂 2. Dark now, but our covered patio furniture 🌖 3. Dublin, Ohio, suburb of Columbus - warm and sunny today 😎 4. Tagged 👆🏻📖🎧

Glad I took an extra “just in case” book with me on my travels. It‘ll come in handy with an unexpected extended stay.

This 1993 book hit a little too close to home at times. Butler‘s book remains relevant and insightful.

Started reading this one and I love the style of this first person narrative. I‘m 7 chapters in and the whole thing is thought provoking. Where have I been in science fiction land to have missed Octavia Butler? I only heard about her when she died but never read her works until now. And boy is this a doozy. Her thoughts and ideas on religion are truly unique and giving the narrative to a YA teenager makes it innocent and compelling.

So good. So hard. The book starts in 2024 and looks at a world ravaged by climate change, poverty, and corruption. It‘s a tale of survival and adaptation, change and consistency. This is the kind of book that stays with you. It‘s a gentle but persistent haunting.

Lauren lives in a gated community with her family, she feels other people's pleasure and pain. Lauren knows the world can only get darker.

Written in a diary format this is Earthseed, the Books of the Living.

My second book by the author and her writing is extremely accessible and her insights are very realistic. The world she creates here isn't that far fetched anymore.

Bleak, grim, & all too real. Butler was prescient in how dystopia comes to be; it's emerging in pockets of societies all over the world as a culmination of fascism & the capitalist climate crisis. Reading this was hard & it gave me nightmares. Reading it right now is too much. Butler's writing is both beautiful & matter-of-fact. I found myself wanting to debate Earthseed with Lauren. I find myself wanting to ask Butler how to get out of this mess.

2024: 8
First 5 star read of the year. Octavia Butler's books give me anxiety in the best way. Her novels and characters are easy to get invested in so you really feel the story. This post apocalyptic novel is terrifying in how ordinary the atrocities happening are. There's no super bug or nuclear fall out, just plain old human hubris. Massive inflation, water shortages, and gross wealth disparity lead America to regress.

Parable of the Sower depicts an America that deals with a water crisis, wildfires, unemployment and general collapse of society. It‘s a dystopia set in 2024 (yikes) and it actually & brutally shows what women would have to fear in such a situation, so be aware, there is a lot of sexual violence shown.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,5/5

Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. #FirstLineFridays

Due to a StoryGraph challenge I finally got to read a book by this great writer. Had no idea what to expect going in, just what a friend told me: it is dark. Dark? Extremely dark! It's the darkest dystopian book I've ever read: kept hoping things are getting better, but did they ever? What made the book bearable were the Earthseed verses at the start of each chapter, bringing some hope.

Definitely a pick!

@PuddleJumper alt #Roll100 October pick

I admit to being just a bit tired of post apocalypse fiction. And this is an ‘after the end of the world‘ tale with no zombies, pandemic or alien invaders. It‘s simply the future we expect, after neglecting our environment and democracy for decades. But in the hands of this writer, we get a deeply human account of what life means after the fall. What is the purpose of continuing on. What keeps us going. At times sad, but ultimately uplifting.

Very good, but not the least bit enjoyable to read, IMO. Which, to be fair, is mostly how I feel about dystopian fiction in general - the present is terrifying enough, I don‘t like to imagine this very possible future! The first 90% is bleak, but some hope shows up toward the end. I don‘t think I could read the sequel. #52books23 #dystopian

#whimsicalreads It's book discussion time!!!! What did everyone take from this book?!
@Linsy @ShelleyBooksie @gracielee8 @SamAnne @MrsRoberts96 @joolz_92 @RedxoHearts @Clwojick @Read4life @wanderinglynn @Allylu @AbigailJaneBlog @persephone1408 @KristiAhlers @GirlNamedJesse @BooksNBowls @Liatrek @PageShifter @ozma.of.oz @BrittanyReads @tokorowilliamwallace @BookBelle84

4⭐ for writing and world building, this is the mother to most dystopian books we see nowadays.
But on a personal level I didn't enjoy this. It is really dark, and missing the hope that more current books have been able to bring in. I did enjoy it more than the last couple of Pattermaster books which were too violent and focused on "breeding". So I would recommend this more. It is interesting how Lauren is building a cult, I will read book 2.

JULY 2024.
I should have waited until next year to read this!
It is always interesting to read a dystopian book written decades ago while you are in the future they imagined.

This is one of those books that has great writing and a good storyline but was a process for me to get through as I felt I was very bored the whole time I was reading it. This is a read perfect for discussions, though, as it talks about a futuristic earth and what it could possibly become. I can't wait to discuss with #whimsicalreads book club at the end of the month.

Catching a flight to Texas and met the sweetest book lover! She sat next to me and took out her Kindle and I immediately started up a convo in hopes she would want to talk books. Let's just say we didn't read any haha 📚🛩☕️

Waiting to discuss with my ladies of #WhimisicalReadsBookclub, but omg this was fantastic, heartbreaking, and eerie simply for the fact that it‘s TOO real! Octavia Butler- author ir psychic? Idk but I love her and this. 4.25/5

🧡 Chapter 1 was very lovely! Ready to see where this story takes me.

This is our July read for #Whimsicalreadsbookclub so I‘m going to wait to rate & review until the end of the month. It also (obviously) completes the Butler prompt for #52BookClub2023.

@KateReadsYA @Cinfhen @BookBelle84 @Librarybelle @rmaclean4 @Read4life @ravenlee @LaraReads @britt_brooke @triplem80 @Smarkies @Bluebird @Deblovestoread @AshleyHoss820 @BarbaraBB @jenniferw88 @squirrelbrain @KarenUK @LeeRHarry @azulaco @CarolynM

For the month of July, #WhimsicalReadsBookclub is reading Parable of the Sower from the amazing Octavia E. Butler!

Synopsis: In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.

If you would like to join us, we will be discussing on @KateReadsYA page on the last day of the month! I‘m so excited for this one!

#whimsicalreads
This is our July book club pick! Feel free to join us, and if you'd like to be tagged in future posts, just comment down below!
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@Linsy @ShelleyBooksie @gracielee8 @SamAnne @MrsRoberts96 @joolz_92 @RedxoHearts @Clwojick @Read4life @wanderinglynn @Allylu @AbigailJaneBlog @persephone1408 @KristiAhlers @GirlNamedJesse @BooksNBowls @Liatrek @PageShifter @ozma.of.oz @BrittanyReads @tokorowilliamwallace @BookBelle84

This will be #whimsicalreads book club pick for July!!!!! Everyone is welcome to join us.

repost for @KateReadsYA

This will be #whimsicalreads book club pick for July!!!!! Everyone is welcome to join us.
@Linsy @ShelleyBooksie @gracielee8 @SamAnne @MrsRoberts96 @joolz_92 @RedxoHearts @Clwojick @Read4life @wanderinglynn @Allylu @AbigailJaneBlog @persephone1408 @KristiAhlers @GirlNamedJesse @BooksNBowls @Liatrek @PageShifter @ozma.of.oz @BrittanyReads @tokorowilliamwallace @BookBelle84

I have been trying to read this genre defining iconic book for a while. Butler invented hyperempathy before everyone was an empath, & (before we somewhat saw 1st hand) predicted how quickly everyone could turn on eachother & slide back 200 years.

Unpopular opinion: It was a slog. There were few peaks & valleys of emotional highs & lows. For long stretches Lauren‘s hyperempathy or religion played no role. Everyone is just walking around.

So none of this went how I predicted.
Idk what is with me and the tagged book, but I *am* going to finish it (soonish) & am glad I made some real progress. But it is crunch time for Legends & Lattes since it‘s due back in 5 days 🧐
3 physical books thanks to lots of reading outside in the sun 👍
Only finished 1 audiobook. Didn‘t get as far in to 🎧 of Monsters We Defy because the aux cord in my car broke 😂😩
#20in4
Thanks as always @Andrew65 !

This is the most chaotic TBR I‘ve made for 1 of these.

I only really care about reading Parable, which I started reading again last night because I couldn‘t get L&L to download & I couldn‘t sleep, I‘ve pushed off this book 100 times in favor of library holds, & I know I would like it.

& as many physical books as possible (I picked the shortest ones, except The Witcher)

I‘m sure I‘ll finish the audiobooks, already started 1

#20in4

Finished this on the way down to Florida last week. I started and ended my vacation reading on VERY different notes.

I am conflicted about this one. Everything about it was compelling, except Lauren's obsession with starting a new religion. That gave me so much pause, because what she was describing will inevitably lead to a cult. ⬇️

This book is scarier than any horror or true crime I've ever read... I'm not even sure I'll be able to make it through. This part of the book takes place in 2027, which is looming on the horizon...

My one and only freezer book... I tried this in 2020 and it was just so probable that I freaked out. Sadly, 3 years later and we're not only closer to this life but it starts in 2024. This hits my Published in the 90s #bookspin choice (I struck out on the other 2 books) but Lord, this book is GRIM... 😮‍💨

Ooof. This one hurt my heart. My first Octavia Butler and holy hell can that woman write. Read it if you haven‘t. But prepare yourself. Like Morrison, it‘ll leave you wrecked.

Thank you so much, @RowReads1 , for the incredibly generous #muglove! I adore the kitty mug and can't wait to dive into the books. I'm using one of the stir sticks in my coffee this morning 😍😍. And the coffee looks fabulous. Thank you!

@TheKidUpstairs @Cinfhen

5/5⭐ Riveting. Lauren's voice is so strong and distinct. I couldn't stay away from her perseverance and dedication to the Earthseed religion she develops, the hope it promises in a devolving world. That world is just a single terrifying step away from our own, and in some cases not even that far away. The description of science fiction as being just a progression of what the author sees happening already is never more true than it is in this book.