Sunday's Are For Blogging...Texas Winters and Zombies

Rant: Short Texas Winters...why? Our winter is pretty much over. I don't foresee any dips in the weather from here on out and I predict we will just slip into Spring by February. It feels like perfect Spring weather today and I guess many of you out there would love to be here right now....way below San Antonio...way down here by the Mexican border. But, when it's pretty much hot all year, two months of cold weather is not enough. And it's never like straight cold weather...our cold weather comes in spurts like 2 or 3 days of cold followed by a "warming trend." So much for my wool coat, boots, scarves, and hats. Starting around Novemeber, people start layering on the winter clothe the minute the temperature falls to the 60's. I'm one of those. Besides, I usually feel cold anywhere I go. Which leads me to my classroom...hot when its hot, cold when its cold. The cooling system doesn't kick in when it needs to, but then all of a suddent turns on when its freezing cold outside. It's like kids who wear sweaters year round even here in 100 degree weather and then wear flip flops on super cold days. Why can't they get it right?

Rave: THE FOREST OF HANDS OF TEETH!

I can not stop gushing about this book. I am a huge fan of I Am Legend... the book by Richard Matheson and the movie with Will Smith, although they have different endings. Can't say which ending I prefer, but I do love that small, very small element of romance in the book. Huh? Romance? Well, that's what I call it when Robert Neville has an emotional, intimate moment with a woman name Ruth...really, it's more like a moment truth, but if it had been possible for them to be together, I believe they would have. She regretted allowing Robert Neville to test her blood. Well, that is just my opinion. Ok. Enough I am Legend. You know, I wrote a whole paper on this book last semester, so I can go on and on!

Well, The Forest of Hands and Teeth...this is like 700 years after the world has been taken over by The Return. I wouldn't doubt if the film version of this book (if there's ever one) is titled The Return. Imagine the end of the Will Smith in I am Legend...where Ruth and her son find the fabled colony of survivors. Now imagine a new society beginning there--a society of a much simpler time, surrounded by a wall. And all around, out there, is the forest where the zombies live....that is The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

How do you live with zombies all around? With their low moans as part of the background noise and just a gate away from your life of normalcy?

I didn't know what to expect from this book, and I didn't know how much I would love it. It is captivating from the beginning. The back of the book described it as a "post-apocalyptic romance" but it's more than that. The romance is not really what it's about. It's about the continuation of humanity and collective memory. The world is not what we create but what we continue and what we all share in common experiences retold throughout generations of time and those things that can not die but only conitnue in those who come after us.

It's sci-fi, it's zombie, it's romance, it's action--the all around great writing, engaging protagonist, worst-case-scenario, and hope after all is lost kind of story. As Kung Fu Panda says, it's pure awesomeness!

Check out the book trailer on the post below this one!