Manic Monday: On The Road by Jack Kerouac -- Also thanks to my fairy godmother - I love you, whoever you are!

Each Monday (or the closest I can get to Monday) I will be posting a Past/Present/Future Reading Post called Manic Monday. Don't hate me if I post it on a Tuesday - it just indicates how "manic" my Monday really was! If you want to see more of what I have been reading, I try and update my Goodreads account with each book I am reading.


What I just finished reading
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Stars: 4/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
The Chrysalids is set in the future after a devastating global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel, lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, who exist in a state of constant alert for any deviation from what they perceive as the norm of God's creation, deviations broadly classified as 'offenses' and 'blasphemies.' Offenses consist of plants and animals that are in any way unusual, and these are publicly burned to the accompaniment of the singing of hymns. Blasphemies are human beings; ones who show any sign of abnormality, however trivial. They are banished from human society, cast out to live in the wild country where, as the authorities say, nothing is reliable and the devil does his work. David grows up surrounded by admonitions: KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD; WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT. At first he hardly questions them, though he is shocked when his sternly pious father and rigidly compliant mother force his aunt to forsake her baby. It is a while before he realizes that he too is out of the ordinary, in possession of a power that could doom him to death or introduce him to a new, hitherto-unimagined world of freedom. The Chrysalids is a perfectly conceived and constructed work from the classic era of science fiction. It is a Voltairean philosophical tale that has as much resonance in our own day, when genetic and religious fundamentalism are both on the march, as when it was written during the Cold War.

Why I picked it up: It was part of my book club reading.
Why I finished it: As above. I also found it a very interesting take on a post-apocalyptic world.
I'd give it to: People who like science fiction of dystopian stories.

What I am reading now
On The Road by Jack Kerouac

Yes, still! It is my in between read these days. I'm nearly finished it, but I have no motivation to read it in one sitting.
Blurb from Goodreads:
On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac's works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature, but one of the most important novels of the century. Like nearly all of Kerouac's writing, On The Road is thinly fictionalized autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac's real life friends, lovers, and fellow travelers. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.

What I am reading next
I am not sure. My fairy godmother sent me a $30 gift voucher to Galaxy on Friday. It wasn't signed, so I have no idea who it was. Who ever it was, I hope you read this, because I want to say a big thank you! Now I just have to decide what to buy... I am thinking Kate Elliot's Cold Magic, or another book that is $30 - I normally don't buy a book that is more than $20 :) So thank you fairy godmother! I hope you are having a wonderful day!