1. Fast, Cheap, & Written That Way: Top Screenwriters on Writing for Low-Budget Movies, by John Gaspard
2. Siddhartha (audio book), by Hermann Hesse
3. Sharp Teeth, a novel in poems by Toby Barlow
4. Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist, by Brooke Kroeger
5. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
6. Screencraft: Screenwriting, edited by Declan McGrath
7. At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror, by H.P. Lovecraft
8. The Mermaid’s Madness, by Jim C. Hines
9. Sons and Lovers (audio book), D.H. Lawrence
My Category Reading Challenge for 2012
For some reason, I didn’t post about my category reading challenge for 2011, huh (well, here it is on Librarything). I’m not done with it yet, and it doesn’t look like I will finish — I’m currently at 90 books, with 9 more to be read. I’ll post my reading stats at the end of the month once I have a full tally.
In the meantime, I’m planning to do the category reading challenge again this year (what can I say, it’s fun, and gets me reading what I might not read otherwise.), so here are my planned categories for 2012 (my Librarything thread is here). Some categories have more required reading than others, but the ultimate goal is to read 100 books.
1. Hello, I Love You (0/6)
I’ve read one book by an author and loved it. Now I want to read at least one more by the same author.
2. Oh, How I’ve Missed You (0/6)
Books by an authors I once loved, but haven’t read in a long time. OR, rereads of favorite books.
3. It’s a Smoldering World After All (0/7)
Apocalyptic and Post Apocalyptic books, as well as some dystopian novels.
4. Unicorns from Space! — Science Fiction (0/10)
5. Unicorns from Space! — Fantasy (0/10)
6. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up (0/9)
Books for children and young adults.
7. Bam! Pow! Wham! (0/9)
Graphic novels and comics.
8. Just the Facts, Ma’am (0/8)
Nonfiction.
9. The Universe in Verse (0/9)
Poetry.
10. From My Bookshelf (0/8)
I have a tendency to jump at the new and shiny in bookstores and the library, rather than reading the stacks already on my shelves. This is meant to rectify that.
11. From the Modern Library’s 100 Best Books (0/10)
There are actually about 200 books, since there is also the publicly voted list (with some overlaps). I’m working off the list from 2009, which is posted on my blog.
12. Miscellany (0/8)
The catch-all category for whatever doesn’t fit in the above.
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
First, let me say that this was a fantastic and appropriate conclusion to the trilogy. Now, I’m going to go into more detail about my reasons — without getting into too many specifics — so if you don’t want to risk a spoiler, turn away.
The conclusion of the Hunger Games trilogy finds Katniss as a symbol (and perhaps puppet) of the revolutionary forces housed in District 13. All of the districts, to varying degrees, are at war with the Capital, and a large part of this book deals with the public relations aspects of war. Katniss is allowed out into the field only so that District 13 can record her actions for PR commercials leaked illegally into the districts to inspire them to keep fighting.
It an interesting point of view for a young adult book to take. So many present the main characters as “the one” that will save the day and they become the most important aspect in the war and are the key to ending it. Katniss is vital to the war and is important as a symbol. But the war is so much bigger than her, and in many way’s she’s powerless against the tide. The war would carry on and end one way or another without her.
Katniss is certainly a strong character throughout the series, even as her emotions and actions have been coopted by one cause or another. She stands up, she fights even if she’s sure that doing so will mean her own destruction, but another important part of her internal struggle (which occasionally is reflected in her external actions) is finding a space for herself, to feel, to live, to love, to be, that doesn’t belong to someone else. For example, at one point, Katniss overhears Peeta asks who Gale thinks she will choose, and Gale responds that she will choose whomever will most help her survive, implying that Katniss is cold, calculating in how she approaches relationships. She never openly addresses the accusation, but is angered by it, as she acknowledges that she has never been allowed the emotional space to consider how she really felt about either of them on her own terms because the games and the war for so long has decided for her. I think Katniss’ emotional journey is powerful, because she goes through such darkness, and yet finds her way out of despair to light and life and hope again.
I won’t go into details about the ending, except to say that it’s a war, people die and those who survive are left emotionally and physically scared. Some people, I have heard, were upset by the ending. I thought it was thoroughly appropriate, and I appreciated that Collins gave space and feeling to reconstruction, as well as recognizing the kind of sorrow and depression that can be felt while recovering from war.
[Cross-posted to my livejournal.]
Books Read in November
1. The Gaslight Dogs, by Karin Lowachee
2. My Life as a White Trash Zombie, by Diana Rowland
3. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
4. Shine, by Lauren Myracle
5. Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word, edited by Toni Morisson
6. Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld
7. How Long, poems by Ron Padgett
8. Kissing Kate, by Lauren Myracle
Books Read in October
1. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin
2. Sweetly, by Jackson Pearce
3. Push of the Sky, by Camille Alexa
4. A Room with a View (audio book), by E.M. Forster
5. By Grit and Grace: Eleven Women Who Shaped the American West, edited by Glenda Riley and Richard W. Etulain
6. Locke & Key: Keys to the Kingdom, written by Joe Hill, art by Gabriel Rodriguez
7. Paper Covers Rock and Triplicity: Poems in Threes (poetry), by Chella Courington and Kristen McHenry
8. The Canterbury Tales (graphic novel), by Seymour Chwas
9. Deadline, by Mira Grant