Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Hunger Games: A retrospective, not a review

This is not really going to be a review of The Hunger Games Trilogy or any of the books. Or much of a review of any kind. I read The Hunger Games a couple months ago, then I read Catching Fire about a week ago and Mockingjay a few days ago. And I read Mockingjay in one day. Close to one sitting, though I went for a run in the middle. This was perhaps not the smartest choice as I got a bit too engrossed in the plot and high emotionally attached to the plot and the characters. That skewed my thoughts about the book for a bit, though upon rethinking about it and discussing it with a couple coworkers, I think I have a firmer grasp on what I liked and didn't like.

However, at the moment, I am not going to review or recap or anything for two reasons: 1) I can't think of a way to do it without spoilers and 2) I am going to be hanging out with my co-tart around Christmas and think a co-blog will be better. So, on to a few thoughts about the story/books as a whole.

Suzanne Collins did not underestimate her audience. They are YA books, on Amazon it looks like most reviews say grade 7 and up. I'm not sure all 7th graders would be able to handle The Hunger Games, but I definitely think that I would have been ok with them at that age. I'm the girl who read Stephen King at 13, so take that how you will. Regardless, Collins filled the book with darkness, pain, intense emotion, confusion, hope, death, violence, love, deceit, trust, etc. They are full of intense stuff...what you would find in any fiction book for adults. She doesn't back off on the unhappiness just because her audience is young. I respect the credit she gives to teens.

I had no idea what was going to happen. Like, at all. I can usually tell how a book is going to go. I can make educated guesses on what characters are going to die in books. I am rarely caught off guard in a story. I had zero idea where Collins was going with the whole story. I had no idea what the plot of the third book was going to be. I didn't call most of the big deaths and I could not have guessed at the end. Props to completely catching me offguard!

I had trouble saying I liked Mockingjay after I finished it. But I loved it. Yeah, makes no sense...stick with me. As a story, as a conclusion, it was amazing. It kept moving, there was lots of action, a lot happened, people made hard decisions...awesome! But dude, there was a lot of stuff that happened that I really didn't like. There was one thing that happened to a character I loved that I was just not ok with. The love triangle did not pan out how I thought it would, though I was ok with that part of it. It was just...ugh. I can see how lots of people didn't like Mockingjay. It was heavy, it was dark, things didn't really end with a happily ever after. Upon reflection, I really loved the entire series, including Mockingjay, though Catching Fire was my favorite.

I would recommend you read The Hunger Games if you haven't already. I do not guarantee a happy story with sunshine and rainbows, but I do guarantee a highly engaging story that you will take with you.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Nerd or Geek?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/02/nerd.or.geek/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Such a hard distinction to say. What makes someone a nerd vs. a geek? Can you be both? Are either an insult? I have some pretty personal knowledge of what I think a nerd is and what I think a geek is and I am going to share with you what I think. And then you should comment and let me know if you think I am right or wrong (if you are a geek or a nerd, you are probably used to commenting/arguing about topics so that shouldn't be a problem).

I would consider myself a nerd. I have a Bachelors of Science in Informatics with a minor in Cyber Security (and a minor in Art History) and I have a Masters in Library Science with a specialization in Library Technology Management and a focus in Digital Libraries. Just the fact that I have all of that and like to share it makes me a nerd. My hobbies include reading, doing puzzles, playing Scrabble, and playing puzzle/word games on the computer. However, I am not a traditional nerd. Along with all my nerdy academics, I am also a dancer, currently ballet, tap, and ballroom, and I used to do competitive ballroom in college. I am also a runner and a shoe-whore and a lover of sparkly things and have been known to sport a faux-hawk.

I would not consider myself a geek, though I have geeky tendencies. I always think of geeks as having a specific cause or focus. My sister would probably be considered a Star Wars geek. She can name (or used to be able to name) all of the creatures in Star Wars. When she was little, she was a dinosaur geek...as in she knew more about dinosaurs than probably anyone else in our hometown. What a geek! My geekiness tends to be about Harry Potter and Doctor Who/Torchwood. I can discuss, at length, certain things about the Harry Potter universe and have been to a Sci-Fi Con that was all about Harry Potter. And I may have won Harry Potter trivia. But I don't really analyze anything about it. And I have only read the stuff written by J.K. Rowling and none of the companion/encyclopedia stuff. And I really don't care that things in the movies are different from the books (bad geek!). I also geek out about Doctor Who and Torchwood, but I have only been watching them for about 9 months, so I don't think I've really put in the time to be a geek. I have looked up the Who-verse time line (geeky!) but I got confused and stopped trying to figure it out (bad geek!).

It is strange because the general assumption is that nerds are more socially awkward and geeks can blend into mainstream more, but I think that is kind of backwards in a way. A nerd may be more awkward, but a geek is more likely to speak up if you are wrong about something they love. And I am a nerd, but I am definitely mainstream. I mean, I am a librarian (nerdy!), but I have no problem with the human interaction part of the job and really enjoy being around and working with people. So, am I not really a nerd, even though I associate as such? Or is the distinction more basic than I am making it...a nerd is intelligent and a geek is an idiot-savant? Can you be a general geek or do you have to have a focus? And what about the D&D or comics crowd? They definitely have a focus and would call them geeks, but they would be more likely to be seem as nerds. I can't really speak to that as I don't do either thing (bad geek! bad nerd!), but I do enjoy playing Munchkin (nerdy! geeky!) and really liked reading/playing Order of the Stick (nerdy! geeky!). Though to be fair, I just like being Haley Starshine because she is a rogue and all about treasure and if you have played Munchkin with me, you know that I will do anything for treasure. And now I have out-nerded myself with that tangent. Or out-geeked myself? Or, am I a nerd because I enjoy it and not a geek because I am not obsessed?

So nerds and geeks alike, give me your opinions! Am I right in my analysis of the cultures? Would you consider me a nerd or a geek or both or neither? Or is part of being a nerd or a geek not caring wha the label is and just being secure in what you like?

Friday, December 3, 2010

Strong Female Protagonists

Lately I have been thinking about gender and reading. Recently I have read quite a few articles about how boys don't read and various other gender/reading divides. I have also read quite a bit about the stories written for girls and the stories written for boys. Today I read an article about stories (both book and movies) for girls...aka stories for preteen and teen girls to read and feel inspired by. It just so happens that I also read an article about how kick-ass Ginny Weasley is. So...needless to say that I felt inspired to add my thoughts about the divide.

First of all, without no regard to actual studies, I think it is fair to say that on average girls read more fiction than boys. I think it is also fair to say off the cuff that more stories are written with a male protagonist, especially books where the main character kicks ass. This may be more of a generalization of movies, but if you think about "the classics" or any sort of sci-fi/fantasy, it is a male character who is leading the fight. For example, pretty much anything by Mark Twain, Charles Dickins, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, most comic books (again with the generalizing), Captain Underpants, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman...you get what I'm saying. A lot of popular books have a male lead. Now, there are a lot of kick-ass chicks in a lot of those books. Stardust and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman both have pretty awesome females who are fairly center, but the main character is still a guy. Harry Potter has Hermione, Ginny, McGonagall, Umbridge, Luna, etc. but they are all second to Harry, Dumbledor, Snape, Voldemort.

My thought is that girls are plenty willing to read a book that features a guy--I would never turn down a book with a great plot just because the main character is a guy--but a boy may not want to read a book, regardless of the plot, if the main character is a girl. Which is kinda weird and unfortunate. I would hope that boys would read books with female protagonists, like Hunger Games. I am too lazy to really research that and I don't really feeling like blogging about that topic right now. Instead, this is now going to focus on stories that feature super bad-ass females front and center! Let's call it my top 10 (though I will probably miss some of my favorites)

1) Lyra Belacqua from His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman--Lyra rocks, like hardcore. And yes, in the second book she acquires Will who is kind of a main character too, but really secondary. Lyra does what she wants, ignores the rules given to her, fights for what she believes in, goes through Hell, figuratively and literally, and goes to great lengths to save someone she loves. Awesome.

2) Sally Lockhart from the Sally Lockhart Series by Philip Pullman--Again with the hardcore rocking! Sally is 16, self-sustaining, willing to fight, and willing to do what is necessary to survive. Very bad-ass.

3) Suze Simon from The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot--Suze kinda likes to fight. Not people, just ghosts. And she is willing to go to great lengths to save her ghost-in-distress. And she stands up for herself against the vaguely evil, definitely bad, super hot guy who is trying to seduce her. No one pushes Suze around. Also, she really doesn't like following rules, which is always fun in a bad-ass! Also, she hangs out with a hot ghost. What could be better?

4) Heather Wells from Size 12 is Not Fat, et. al. by Meg Cabot--Heather solves murders. In the dorm that she works in. Cha! What could be more bad-ass. And she used to be a teen pop star, but stood up for herself and now writes her own music that totally kicks all sorts of ass.

5) Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins--Katniss gets chosen as one of 24 teens who must fight to the death in a giant arena for the viewing pleasure of the government. Dystopian, much? But fight she does. And with so much ass kicking. Though with some reservations as killing your peers is never fun. But still, the girl is a survivor and a fighter and totally bad-ass.

6) Norah Silverberg from Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan--This one is sort of a cheat as Nick and Norah are both main characters, but it is exactly divided and Norah is pretty damn awesome. She kicks ass in that she kinda just does whatever the hell she feels like unless giving a very convincing reason to do otherwise. I like a main female character who refuses to be passive. Super bad-ass without actually kicking any ass.

7) Margaret Rose Kane from The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg--Margaret is a bad-ass chick because she stands up for her self no matter what and she fights the system when she believes in something. Also, she knows when to ask for help, when to allow things to happen, and when to make things happen. Fabulous role model for girls (and boys) everywhere.

8) Sookie Stackhouse from The Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris--Sookie, as with all of Charlaine Harris's female protagonists kicks ever so much ass. A lot of the time it is literal ass that is being kicked. Sookie is a bit of a romantic, what with dating a vampire and all, but also does not take crap from anyone. And is the only human who is willing to stand up to the vampires who could rip her face off with no problem. And wouldn't really hesitate to do so. Also, Sookie does not necessarily forgive a guy just because she is "in love". Once mad, she must be convinced otherwise. Also, did I mention that she can kill vampires! Bad. Ass.

9) Any female lead in any Karen Marie Moning book--You probably don't want to encourage young girls to read Moning as she writes romances and they aren't what I would call sweet and innocent. But for older teens/college kids/adults...absolutely. A lot of romance novels have the female be all love struck and weak and lame. But not Karen Marie Moning. Her females are fierce and feisty and kick-ass and always keep the boys in check. Speaking of which, Meg Cabot romance novels have the same sort of leads. Most romance novels that I enjoy have strong female leads.

10) Annie Walker from Covert Affairs--Yeah, there are other books that I could list, but really I think a big shout out needs to be given to Piper Perabo and her portrayal of CIA agent Annie Walker. Walker kicks so much ass it isn't even funny. And she kicks literal ass along with intellectual ass. She is versed in a ridiculous number of languages and is one of the top trainees the CIA has ever had. And she has the ability to be friends with the guys she works with without any of the usual romance that would normally be in a show like that.

Do you have any other books that feature kick-ass chicks? Let me know! I am always in the market for new books that feature strong female characters.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I occasionally follow internet memes (I just learned the correct pronunciation for this yesterday...not at all like I was saying in my head) and this one is a fit for the blog, so I will follow along with the trend!

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here…

Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (I read FotR and part of TT)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (I actually want to read this, but haven't gotten around to it yet)
4 Harry Potter series (1-7) - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - God
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa Mae Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read Romeo & Juliet and some of the sonnets)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (I love the Hobbit!)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (I keep trying to read this and have never gotten all the way through...maybe this winter?)
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (I had to read it for a class. I read the cliffnotes!)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (This is stupid because there are two books and neither is called "Alice in Wonderland". I've read Through the Looking Glass but not Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (Yeah, I know. I've only read the first 3 or so. Sue me)
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Isn't this part of the Chronicles of Narnia? Who made this meme? They did a crap job)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (Finally a Dickens book that I have read!)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (Again, I was supposed to read it for a class. I read part of it, but...yeah...kinda boring)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (I don't think I ever made it through, but I definitely read part)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I've read 20 of the books on the list and partially read 10 others. I feel like that is a suffient representation of my reading. I occasionally read good books, but mostly I read fun things. Just because a book is old doesn't make it a classic (according to Grandma Nancy!) and just because "every has read it" doesn't mean that I should read it or would enjoy it. I should make my own book quiz of 100 books that I think everyone should read and see how people do on that quiz! I think my mom would be the only one who would come close.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Thanksgiving Reading Redux

My main Thanksgiving break task was reading. And I got quite a bit done, though not as much as I would have liked as I got sidetracked by watching many many episodes of Eureka. But I still finished one book I was in the middle of and read two other books and started a new book. So overall, pretty successful! So, what did I read...

The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz
I don't think I'm talking much about the Spellman books, but this is the fourth (and last so far! Lisa Lutz needs to write more!) and it is just as excellent as the previous three books. The Spellmans are a family of PIs, including Olivia and Albert, the parents, Izzy, the 30 something (mostly) former delinquent and main character, Rae, the youngest and most devious, and David, the oldest child who used to be a lawyer. As you can imagine, growing up in a house where there is no privacy makes the whole family a little nutty. If you like mysteries and unconventionally written books, you will like the Spellman books. The stories are told by Izzy, who does not ever start a story at the beginning and are a combination of Izzy narrated plot and transcriptions of recorded conversations. My favorite thing about all the books as a whole is the way that Izzy evolves and interacts with side characters. It is fun to try to figure out what is going on, but I am never right! A mystery until the end.

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg
Technically E.L. Konigsburg is a children's author, but I find that distinction particularly unfortunate for any adult unwilling to read kid's books because her books are always amazing. I can't really describe the plot because it would take pretty much the same length as the book. But the main character is Margaret Kane Rose, 12 years old, and the story follows a particular summer. This book kind of follows a normal time line, but with a lot of flashbacks and side stories. I am just in love with the way E.L. Konigsburg writes and the story was very much a story than anyone can relate to. Also, it was a nice, easy book to read over the weekend.

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
I love Sophie Kinsella! Ok, to be fair, I've only read two of her books. But I loved them both. The Undomestic Goddess follows Samantha, a lawyer, who makes one mistake (a 50 million pound [British book] mistake) which ruins her life. She accidentally becomes a housekeeper, which starts to change how she views herself and life. It sounds inspirational, but mostly it is just fun and funny and cute. And for Chick Lit, has very little to do with any of the chick lit standards...shoes, guys, shopping, makeup, clothes. It is mostly about a woman who is lost in life who finds her way through her job. Obviously there is a hunky guy, but he seems almost secondary to everything else going on. If you have read much chick lit or romance it is usually that the chick and the dude are attracted, but hate each other and end up together or they get together and something tears them apart and then they end up together at the end anything. But in this one, there is none of that. It is a healthy relationship for the most part and would probably have worked out even better if Sam were just a bit more open.Sophie Kinsella writes very real characters. And while they are definitely the light, fluffy chick lit I know and love, the characters seem very real and make mistakes just like any normal person would. None of her characters seem stupid or forced or act in a way contrary to what I think they should. I thing Kinsella, Jennifer Cruise, and Meg Cabot are all vying for the top spot in my chick lit queue.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
I finally started reading the second in the Hunger Games Trilogy. It took far too long. When I finished The Hunger Games, I thought I would jump right into Catching Fire, but I had trouble getting started. I think part of it was that I was not ready to read another book where everybody dies and everything is unhappy. But also, I knew that the moment I started reading I would want to finish and I've had very little straight reading time. So I started it Sunday night, which sucks because I don't always have time to read during the week. But I wanted to get into it. My biggest problem right now is that I read The Hunger Games a while ago and I read it really fast so I have forgotten a few things and feel slightly lost. I am going to read up on the first book today so that I am refreshed, but that is hard to do without getting any spoilers for the next two books.

I am also still reading The Historian, but it takes me forever because it is too heavy to read before bed and I often don't make time to read in the afternoons. Maybe next weekend I can carve out some time for vampire book reading. Seems appropriate now that it is starting to turn into winter.