“Thursday Trails” is a feature dedicated to linking TV, movies, and music as a trail to book recommendations. To read how it works, click here.

This Week’s Topic: A Look at the Future
Here is the trail to one of my favorite takes on the future…

Music
Note: Thursday Trails Spotify Playlist is Here.

Stars’s “Dead Hearts”
Amazon, iTunes

Marina & the Diamonds’s “Valley of the Dolls”
Amazon, iTunes

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Movies

The Island
Amazon, iTunes, Netflix
I love this movie so much and I think that it is so completely underrated. Watch it if you haven’t yet!

Blockbuster action director Michael Bay delivers a striking look at a strange world of the future in this sci-fi action drama. Midway through the 21st century, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) lives in a confined indoor community after ongoing abuse of the Earth has rendered most of the planet uninhabitable. One of the only places in the outside world still capable of sustaining life is an idyllic island where citizens are chosen to live through a lottery. Or at least that’s what Lincoln and his fellow citizens are taught to believe; the truth is that Lincoln, like everyone he knows, is actually a clone who is kept under wraps to provide needed organs when the person who supplied his or her DNA falls ill. When he becomes aware that his existence is a fraud, Lincoln escapes to the outside world with a fellow clone, Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), though the powers that be are determined to see that no one gets away alive. The Island also stars Steve Buscemi, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sean Bean.

Surrogates
Amazon, iTunes, Netflix
This movie was not as thrilling as I hoped it would be so I have to start reading the graphic novel that the film is based on to appreciate this attempt more.

How do you save humanity when the only thing that’s real is you? From the director of Terminator 3 comes a psychological thriller starring the ultimate action hero, Bruce Willis. In the not-so-distant future, where people experience life through perfect surrogates controlled from the safety of their own homes, murder is a thing of the past. But when a college student linked to the creator of these replicants is killed, one FBI agent must re-enter reality and risk his life to unravel the mystery. In the battle of technology versus humanity, who can you trust? Surrogates is based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldel.

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TV

Chuck
iTunes, Amazon, Netflix
The intersect. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Love this show!

Chuck Bartowski, ace computer geek at the BuyMore, is not in his right mind. That’s a good thing. Ever since he unwittingly downloaded stolen government secrets into his brain, action, excitement and a cool secret- agent girlfriend have entered his life. It’s a bad thing, too. Because now Chuck is in danger 24/7.

Executive producers Josh Schwartz (The OC, Gossip Girl) and McG (Charlie’s Angels, We Are Marshall) merge techno-gadgetry, martial-arts smackdowns, narrow escapes and gorgeous spies in short shorts into this action comedy about a millennium Everyguy.

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Novels

Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Goodreads

In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would “unwind” them Connor’s parents want to be rid of him because he’s a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev’s unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family’s strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can’t be harmed — but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

Starters by Lissa Price
Goodreads

In a future Los Angeles, becoming someone else is now possible. Sixteen-year-old Callie discovers the Body Bank where teens rent their bodies to seniors who want to be young again. But when her neurochip malfunctions, she wakes up in the mansion of her rich renter and finds she is going out with a senator’s grandson. It’s a fairy-tale new life, until she discovers her renter’s deadly plan.

OTHER PARTICIPANTS
1. Stormy @ Book. Blog. Bake.
2. Belinda Crawford