Let's Booktalk: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

“I don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.” from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Marlow is a man of philosophy, skepticism and independence. As such he craves escape within his employment that will take him away from the mundane life amidst "civilized" society. So, when he is hired to be captain of a crew bound to enter the heart of the Congo he believes he has found what he wants. Yet, he becomes infatuated with the idea of the man Kurtz. Kurtz is the object of his exploration, as he is to deliver aid to a man who is overcome with illness. But is it a sickness of the body or of the mind?

Kurtz is the chief of the central station, however he has fallen ill from some sort of disease. He is known to be a man of artistic talent, but he has the power to bend men's wills in order to follow him. He is also a conspirator against his employers, and perhaps more. 

Is Kurtz's ability and prowess what has caused his illness and hunger for power? Or, has the illness caused this great man to become a representation of darkness itself? Can Marlow put a stop to the man he has come to admire? Or will he join him?

 

Apocalypse Now, a film by Francis Ford Coppola (1979) 

and based on Conrad's novel.

Let’s Booktalk: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith

Four years after their union, Darcy and Elizabeth are in marital bliss. They go for walks together, visit family and friends together, decapitate flesh eating zombies together, just your typical couple stuff. Things take a turn for the worse though when Darcy becomes infected with the unmentionable decease, and Lizzy is forced to enlist the help of Darcy’s aunt.

The deal. Aunt Catherine will only help Darcy if Lizzy agrees to never see him again. The dilemma. Darcy awakes to find his wife gone on the hunt for the cure, and his infected cousin trying to seduce him. The truth. Zombies love to eat brains.

What will fate bestow upon our two lovers? Can there be a happily ever after, even when your undead? Or, is it best to just chop your head off?

 Get your nerd on!!! Think zombie preparedness is just a pop culture fad? Think again, the CDC takes it seriously because it is more than just preparing for a zombie apocalypse. Check out the CDC!

Let’s Booktalk: Sense and Sensibilty and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

After losing their father, the Dashwood sisters and their mother find themselves in need of new living quarters, as they cannot inherit the house or money left by their father. Sea monsters though can make finding suitable living quarters difficult, not to mention they do cramp a girl’s style when it comes to looking for romance.

England’s greatest triumph, the Submarine Station Beta. A dome structure located in the deep sea of the English channel, where the good citizens of England can live in harmony and safety from sea monsters. But it does not protect the Dashwood sisters from the pain of a broken heart. Will the Dashwood women find happiness and love? Or, will defeating a sea creature from the deep prove to be the easier task?

Let’s Booktalk: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith

Elizabeth Bennet is a typical English lady. She is the second oldest of five daughters, and during a time when women do not inherit their father’s fortune, she must rely on finding a husband. This does pose a problem, for one her family lives in the country where there are few eligible men to choose from, and secondly most of England is overrun with the unmentionable creature, the zombie.

Hacking off zombie heads is hardly a way to find true love, then again you won’t meet anyone quite like Mr. Darcy. He is a man of good fortune, handsome features, zombie killing skills, and proud. Can Lizzy find love, a good marriage, and remain the strong zombie killing woman she enjoys being so much? Or, will prejudice and a few zombie attacks keep romance out of her grasp?

Let's Booktalk: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Courtesy of Amazon.com
Click HERE to read the e-book.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" (Austen 1).

Elizabeth Bennett is the second born daughter in a family of five daughters. In a time where only the eldest male of the family may inherit, her only hope is to marry a man of wealth. However, she will not marry for less than a man of intelligence and love, much to her mother's disapproval.

Enter Mr. Darcy, a rich young man with a stern and solitary disposition of great prejudice. He would separate his best friend Mr. Bingley from Jane Bennett, Elizabeth's sister, as well as propose marriage to Elizabeth in spite of her inferior birth. Things do not bode well for him in love, unless Elizabeth can somehow swallow her pride and he his prejudice.

"It was necessary to laugh when she would rather have cried...most cruelly mortified...by...Mr. Darcy's indifference...perhaps, instead of his seeing too little, she might have fancied too much" (338).

Let's Booktalk: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Courtesy of Goodreads

Would you give legal advice for only a payment of potatoes? Would defend a man in a town where the color of your skin determined you guilt? Would you stand up against an angry mob whose only intention was to kill? Would you allow a man who committed murder in defense of children to go free?

Atticus Finch would do all this and more as his daughter Scout narrates her story of life as a child in Maycomb, Alabama during the depression era. Scout's story of her adventures with brother Jim will show the world through a child's eyes. She will witness events that would show her a world divided by racism and money, and how doing the right thing, is not always legal, as well as how the law turns a blind eye on doing the wrong thing. Her story of only one year from her childhood will show how Scout will influence and be influenced by the people and the events surrounding her father and his pursuit for justice and raising his children to do the right thing even as you stand alone.