2016 Top Ten Lists - #5

Oh the shear excitement! Just kidding.. Time today to continue my countdown. Looking at my #5 song and book selections today. Then off to the gym for an hour or so before the carpenters arrive to do a bit of touching up and clean up on the built-ins.

Number 5

Song Selection

Kelvin Jones - Call You Home

#5 comes from another newish artist for me, British - Zimbabwean singer, Kelvin Jones. The song is from his first single, Call You Home, which was released in 2015 off his first album, Stop the Moment. It's a nice simple song and I like his voice. (Click on the song title under his photo if you want to hear it)

Book Selection

#5 is a book I'd heard of for awhile and finally decided to try it out and purchased it in April 2015. It sat on my bookshelf for the rest of the year but I decided to add it to my 12 + 4 challenge this year as I wanted to focus on Canadian authors for that challenge. I'm definitely happy that I read it. It was such an excellent story. It falls into that dystopian view of the future that books like The Road by Cormac McCarthy are part of. In fact, I think there are some similarities to The Road; at least the concept, but I think Station Eleven is more positive in outlook and story. Anyway, you must give it a try. I loved this story. My review is below.

"I loved Station Eleven. It was one of those books that I wanted to finish to see how it ended, but, at the same time, I wanted to continue exploring the lives of the characters. Does that make sense?
It brought out so many emotions; sadness, anger, tears (in both a good and bad way), happiness, encouragement, etc. In some ways it reminded me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but it wasn't so consistently dour and scary. Probably part of the reason for that may be that Station Eleven had more characters and it also didn't just situate itself solely in the dystopic (am I spelling this right?) future.
I particularly liked how the story moved along, starting in their present (our future), introducing the Travelling Symphony and highlighting the new way of life of people trying to survive, then wandering to other characters, explaining where they were when the Georgia Flu caused this world-wide destruction and following their adjustments to the post-flu life.
I liked how the main characters are slowly linked up, such as how Kirsten came to be in possession of Miranda's comic, Station Eleven, even how this comic may have impacted The Prophet. The Prophet introduced a very scary element into the whole story. Was he not utilised enough? Maybe but, personally, I think his appearances were just sufficient enough to provide a negative counterpoint to those trying to live safe lives. More of him might have put a completely different tone to the overall story. How people coped with this new future is what was most interesting.
There were so many nice touches. I liked Kirsten especially but every character was excellent and their personalities were developed just to the right amount. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, it's an excellent story and well worth reading. I think the ending left the story open - ended enough to provide a continuation story to show us how the future continues to unfold, should Emily St. John Mandel so desire. Maybe?? Please.. "

So there you go. Now I'm off to the gym. #4's tomorrow.