Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: fiction, young adult, post-apocalyptic
Publication info: Scholastic Press, 2008
Pages: 374
Amazing. Profound. Moving. These are all words I would not use to describe The Hunger Games.
I realize I'm probably going against the majority opinion here, but I just can't understand why this book is so popular. The most I can say for this book is that it's a page-turner, and even then, it didn't have me wanting to turn pages until well after the first hundred. Until that point, I was mostly just annoyed.
Why was I annoyed? Because the book's premise is based on a situation so implausible and simplistic that it was next to impossible for me to care about what happens to any of the characters. (On a side note, I just learned that this book is apparently a direct rip-off of Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, but since I haven't read the other book, I'll confine my criticism to what I know personally.) In a near-future North America that has been ravaged by war and natural disaster, the cleverly named Capitol exercises control over the twelve districts of Panem by requiring each of them them every year to send one boy and one girl to participate in the Hunger Games, a fight to the death broadcast on television.
Okay. Why would they do something so disgusting and evil? Because apparently in this dystopian world, nobody has any sense of morality whatsoever. Yep, the Capitol is just that bad. No further explanation needed. And everyone in the districts just rolls with it. They grumble, they groan, but they send their children year after year. And the children? Well, as evil as they see the Games to be, they jump right in and try to kill as many others as they can. Does anybody else see how absurd this is?
Katniss, the protagonist (another requirement for dystopian societies: stupid names), volunteers to go to the games when her little sister is chosen. This is great because you see Katniss as a rebel right from the beginning; she regularly hunts outside the boundaries of her district, a crime punishable by death. So you expect to see her fight against this brutal system, right? She doesn't. Oh, she does a few things here and there to "stick it to them," but they really don't do anything productive. Ultimately, she just goes along with it like everyone else, leaving you wondering why we're supposed to like her.
My other major gripe about this book is that Katniss is always spared from making difficult moral decisions. A good story has good characters that develop throughout the story, and they do so by making tough decisions. We learn about them through the decisions they make. But Katniss has the convenience of being in an arena where people get killed off right and left. Let me explain. Without giving too much away, let's suppose she makes a friend or ally during the Games. Cool; now we wonder what she is going to do about having to kill that person eventually. It's going to be a real test of character for Katniss. But no worries—someone else kills off that friend, so Katniss is spared that difficulty. This happens multiple times during the story, and in the end, we still have no idea whether Katniss has any kind of moral fiber.
The Games themselves are pretty fun and exciting to read about. I'll admit I stayed up rather late one night reading it. But every time the kids fought with each other, I wanted to scream at them, "Does nobody see how wrong this is? Is anybody going to do something about it?" I think the author wants us to believe that the characters are powerless against the system, but if that's the case, she does a lousy job of showing it. I just don't buy it!
I have a few other complaints about the writing style that I'll mention only briefly. The speech tags ("he says," etc.) are done rather poorly. There is too much unneeded description and too little needed description (how big is the arena, anyway?). Events that are supposed to be surprises are easy to predict.
Finally, the ending of the book is really weak. The author couldn't have made it any clearer that there is a sequel if she pinned you down and screamed it in your face. I understand that it's the law (apparently) to write books in a series, but that doesn't mean that each installment shouldn't be able to stand on its own as a story. The flat ending of The Hunger Games makes it impossible for this book to stand on its own. But you can bet that I am never going to read the rest of the series.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Nine Stories
Author: J. D. Salinger
Genre: fiction, short stories
Publication info: Bantam, 1964 (originally published in 1953)
Pages: 198
J. D. Salinger is probably best known for his novel Catcher in the Rye, but this small collection of short stories is my first exposure to his work. Now I can see why he is considered one of the best authors of the twentieth century. These stories present aspects of life that are bizarre yet authentic—something that few authors can accomplish very well. And although most of these stories are quite tragic, they are also quite enjoyable to read.
But probably the thing I noticed most, and the thing I most appreciated, was the dialogue. Most of the stories in this collection are dialogue-heavy, but I didn't mind that at all because this is probably the best dialogue I have ever read. The characters interrupt each other, leave thoughts incomplete, and refer to situations that don't get fully explained. Have you ever read a story in which one character explains something to another character for no other reason than to explain it to the reader because both characters already know it? It's bad practice, and you won't see any of that in Salinger's writing. One of my favorite examples is in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." Muriel is talking on the phone with her mother, who is concerned about Muriel's husband after "that incident with the trees." We never find out what that incident was, but we learn all we need to know about the husband's character from that simple reference. Salinger is simply artful with dialogue.
The downside is that the dialogue in these stories often includes a great deal of profanity. It's believable, but not necessarily pleasant. Potential readers be warned!
And speaking of not pleasant, none of these stories really have happy endings, if that's an important thing to you. Some of them end quite tragically, in fact. I for one enjoy that sort of thing, but not everyone does. I'm really glad this book of stories was recommended to me. If you're looking for some good literature that will make you think, this book is a good idea. You'll laugh (yes, some of it is really funny), you'll hurt, you'll wonder—all good things in literature.
Genre: fiction, short stories
Publication info: Bantam, 1964 (originally published in 1953)
Pages: 198
J. D. Salinger is probably best known for his novel Catcher in the Rye, but this small collection of short stories is my first exposure to his work. Now I can see why he is considered one of the best authors of the twentieth century. These stories present aspects of life that are bizarre yet authentic—something that few authors can accomplish very well. And although most of these stories are quite tragic, they are also quite enjoyable to read.
But probably the thing I noticed most, and the thing I most appreciated, was the dialogue. Most of the stories in this collection are dialogue-heavy, but I didn't mind that at all because this is probably the best dialogue I have ever read. The characters interrupt each other, leave thoughts incomplete, and refer to situations that don't get fully explained. Have you ever read a story in which one character explains something to another character for no other reason than to explain it to the reader because both characters already know it? It's bad practice, and you won't see any of that in Salinger's writing. One of my favorite examples is in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." Muriel is talking on the phone with her mother, who is concerned about Muriel's husband after "that incident with the trees." We never find out what that incident was, but we learn all we need to know about the husband's character from that simple reference. Salinger is simply artful with dialogue.
The downside is that the dialogue in these stories often includes a great deal of profanity. It's believable, but not necessarily pleasant. Potential readers be warned!
And speaking of not pleasant, none of these stories really have happy endings, if that's an important thing to you. Some of them end quite tragically, in fact. I for one enjoy that sort of thing, but not everyone does. I'm really glad this book of stories was recommended to me. If you're looking for some good literature that will make you think, this book is a good idea. You'll laugh (yes, some of it is really funny), you'll hurt, you'll wonder—all good things in literature.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Everwild
Book 2 of the Skinjacker Trilogy
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: fiction, young adult, fantasy (sort of)
Publication info: Simon & Schuster, 2009
Pages: 424
For those of you keeping score at home, Everlost was the very first book I reviewed on this blog. I raved about it for its brilliance in depicting a world utterly bizarre and foreign and yet at the same time eerily familiar and believable.
A few months ago, I was surprised to come across Everwild, the sequel to Everlost, in the library. I didn't know there was gong to be a sequel. The ending to the first book certainly leaves open the possibility, but not the necessity, of a sequel. Being naturally wary of sequels, I was hesitant to check this book out, but since I loved the first one so much and wanted to return to the world of Everlost, the limbo world of dead children, I just couldn't help myself.
I loved this one too. Maybe this isn't the best-written book in the world or the most profound, but I just love being in the world these books describe.
Everwild begins a short time after the previous book ends. Nick, the newly dead kid from the first book, has embarked on a quest to help all Afterlights (inhabitants of Everlost) to "get where they are going"—in other words, to escape Everlost. But the power-hungry Mary Hightower is on a quest of her own to villify Nick and gain as many followers as she can. Nick soon realizes he will need to confront her, so he sets out to amass an army. And to do that, he'll need to go into the mysterious region of Everlost known as the Everwild.
Meanwhile, Allie, who died at the same time as Nick, is trying to find her family and see how they have been doing since her accident. She is developing her skills as a skinjacker, an Afterlight who can "borrow" the bodies of the living. But skinjacking soon becomes a dangerous obsession for her, leading her to discover a most surprising truth about herself.
I don't want to give too much away here, especially if you haven't read the first book. But I would just like to say that I enjoyed this book immensely, and I was actually pretty sad when it was over. I read it over a single weekend when I was sick, and at the end I thought maybe I had read it too fast. I just can't overemphasize how fun the whole idea is. Some parts had me laughing out loud. And yet while it's fun, it's also grim and eerie.
There are only two potential problems with this book that I can see. The first is that it features quite a bit of "teen angst"—love triangles and whatnot. You'd think Afterlights wouldn't be concerned about love, but they manage somehow. It's not terrible, though. I just wanted to point that out for people who might be bothered by it.
The other point is that whereas Everlost had a pretty satisfying conclusion, Everwild pretty much screams for a sequel. Now it's obvious on the cover that this is part two of a trilogy, so it should be no surprise, but still, it's going to be hard to wait for the third book to come out. It took three years for this one to come, so I might have to wait another couple years before I find out what happens to these Afterlights.
To anyone looking for an interesting and fun book to read, I recommend this series. Definitely read Everlost first, though. And if you have read Everlost and liked it, continue the adventure with Everwild. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: fiction, young adult, fantasy (sort of)
Publication info: Simon & Schuster, 2009
Pages: 424
For those of you keeping score at home, Everlost was the very first book I reviewed on this blog. I raved about it for its brilliance in depicting a world utterly bizarre and foreign and yet at the same time eerily familiar and believable.
A few months ago, I was surprised to come across Everwild, the sequel to Everlost, in the library. I didn't know there was gong to be a sequel. The ending to the first book certainly leaves open the possibility, but not the necessity, of a sequel. Being naturally wary of sequels, I was hesitant to check this book out, but since I loved the first one so much and wanted to return to the world of Everlost, the limbo world of dead children, I just couldn't help myself.
I loved this one too. Maybe this isn't the best-written book in the world or the most profound, but I just love being in the world these books describe.
Everwild begins a short time after the previous book ends. Nick, the newly dead kid from the first book, has embarked on a quest to help all Afterlights (inhabitants of Everlost) to "get where they are going"—in other words, to escape Everlost. But the power-hungry Mary Hightower is on a quest of her own to villify Nick and gain as many followers as she can. Nick soon realizes he will need to confront her, so he sets out to amass an army. And to do that, he'll need to go into the mysterious region of Everlost known as the Everwild.
Meanwhile, Allie, who died at the same time as Nick, is trying to find her family and see how they have been doing since her accident. She is developing her skills as a skinjacker, an Afterlight who can "borrow" the bodies of the living. But skinjacking soon becomes a dangerous obsession for her, leading her to discover a most surprising truth about herself.
I don't want to give too much away here, especially if you haven't read the first book. But I would just like to say that I enjoyed this book immensely, and I was actually pretty sad when it was over. I read it over a single weekend when I was sick, and at the end I thought maybe I had read it too fast. I just can't overemphasize how fun the whole idea is. Some parts had me laughing out loud. And yet while it's fun, it's also grim and eerie.
There are only two potential problems with this book that I can see. The first is that it features quite a bit of "teen angst"—love triangles and whatnot. You'd think Afterlights wouldn't be concerned about love, but they manage somehow. It's not terrible, though. I just wanted to point that out for people who might be bothered by it.
The other point is that whereas Everlost had a pretty satisfying conclusion, Everwild pretty much screams for a sequel. Now it's obvious on the cover that this is part two of a trilogy, so it should be no surprise, but still, it's going to be hard to wait for the third book to come out. It took three years for this one to come, so I might have to wait another couple years before I find out what happens to these Afterlights.
To anyone looking for an interesting and fun book to read, I recommend this series. Definitely read Everlost first, though. And if you have read Everlost and liked it, continue the adventure with Everwild. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
Author: Nicholas Carr
Genre: nonfiction, popular science
Publication info: W. W. Norton, 2010
Pages: 276 (including notes and other supplemental material)
I feel like a hypocrite writing about this on a blog, but I need to get the word out. In The Shallows, author Nicholas Carr brings together the history of technology and neurology to explore how the World Wide Web is changing the way we read and write—and think. What he finds is not pretty.
Actually, it's more than not pretty. It's downright disturbing. If you're reading this blog, you're probably a frequent user of the Internet, so let me ask you: When you are reading a book, do you often get distracted and want to do something else after only two pages? Heck, do you even read books anymore? Do you find it difficult to go walking for any substantial length of time without pulling out your phone, even if nobody is calling or texting you? Your Internet use may be to blame. And it probably is.
You see, the Internet is changing the way our brains work. A few decades ago scientists began discovering that the human brain, even in adults, can be "rewired" to accommodate changing behaviors, both physical and mental. Basically, the brain gets better and faster at what it does the most. And since it's more than likely that most of us are using the Internet with increasing frequency, our brains are adjusting themselves to a style of thinking better suited to the Internet.
What style is that? It's fast. It's superficial. It's distracted. If you haven't noticed, Web pages are designed to distract you. They're full of snippets of information here, a navigation bar there, pictures and a video you can play over there. Not to mention your browser's multiple tabs and all the alerts it's set to give you for e-mails, blog posts, or Twitter updates. I'm not accusing Web designers of sinister motives, but the plain fact is that the Web is made for giving you an onslaught of information all at once.
And our brains are burdened with processing all that information. With every link we come across, our brains have to decide whether to follow it. We have to skim pages to get the information we need fast. (My guess is this blog post already looks too long for frequent blog readers.) And since our brains are "plastic," or adaptable, they rewire themselves to be more efficient at this kind of thinking.
What gets sacrificed as a result is our ability to think deeply and creatively. Yes, maybe our brains are faster at processing a lot of information fast, but only at a superficial level. By frequently taking advantage of what the Web has to offer, we are denying ourselves the ability to synthesize the information we receive and produce original thought. Doesn't that sound scary to you? I guess it all depends on what's important to you, but I certainly place a high value on deep and creative thinking.
Everybody please, please read this book. I hate to be an alarmist, but I feel this is very important. Carr does an excellent job describing relevant research and presenting a coherent argument, much better than I've done here. Plus, by reading a book like this, you're doing a brain a favor. Because the good news is that since our brains can adjust to more frequent Internet use, they can also be trained back. With a lot of discipline, we can become free thinkers again.
Genre: nonfiction, popular science
Publication info: W. W. Norton, 2010
Pages: 276 (including notes and other supplemental material)
I feel like a hypocrite writing about this on a blog, but I need to get the word out. In The Shallows, author Nicholas Carr brings together the history of technology and neurology to explore how the World Wide Web is changing the way we read and write—and think. What he finds is not pretty.
Actually, it's more than not pretty. It's downright disturbing. If you're reading this blog, you're probably a frequent user of the Internet, so let me ask you: When you are reading a book, do you often get distracted and want to do something else after only two pages? Heck, do you even read books anymore? Do you find it difficult to go walking for any substantial length of time without pulling out your phone, even if nobody is calling or texting you? Your Internet use may be to blame. And it probably is.
You see, the Internet is changing the way our brains work. A few decades ago scientists began discovering that the human brain, even in adults, can be "rewired" to accommodate changing behaviors, both physical and mental. Basically, the brain gets better and faster at what it does the most. And since it's more than likely that most of us are using the Internet with increasing frequency, our brains are adjusting themselves to a style of thinking better suited to the Internet.
What style is that? It's fast. It's superficial. It's distracted. If you haven't noticed, Web pages are designed to distract you. They're full of snippets of information here, a navigation bar there, pictures and a video you can play over there. Not to mention your browser's multiple tabs and all the alerts it's set to give you for e-mails, blog posts, or Twitter updates. I'm not accusing Web designers of sinister motives, but the plain fact is that the Web is made for giving you an onslaught of information all at once.
And our brains are burdened with processing all that information. With every link we come across, our brains have to decide whether to follow it. We have to skim pages to get the information we need fast. (My guess is this blog post already looks too long for frequent blog readers.) And since our brains are "plastic," or adaptable, they rewire themselves to be more efficient at this kind of thinking.
What gets sacrificed as a result is our ability to think deeply and creatively. Yes, maybe our brains are faster at processing a lot of information fast, but only at a superficial level. By frequently taking advantage of what the Web has to offer, we are denying ourselves the ability to synthesize the information we receive and produce original thought. Doesn't that sound scary to you? I guess it all depends on what's important to you, but I certainly place a high value on deep and creative thinking.
Everybody please, please read this book. I hate to be an alarmist, but I feel this is very important. Carr does an excellent job describing relevant research and presenting a coherent argument, much better than I've done here. Plus, by reading a book like this, you're doing a brain a favor. Because the good news is that since our brains can adjust to more frequent Internet use, they can also be trained back. With a lot of discipline, we can become free thinkers again.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Genre: fiction, fantasy
Publication info: Henry Holt, 2006 (originally published in 1970)
Pages: 98
Several years ago I enjoyed the marvelous fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain. If you haven't yet discovered the series, which consists of five novels, I recommend them to you. They may remind you somewhat of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, but they have enough of their own unique elements—characters, story lines, and pieces of Welsh mythology—to make them a series worth reading.
If you have in fact read The Chronicles of Prydain, I recommend this book, The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain. I didn't even know this book existed until earlier this year when I found it at a bargain book sale. Apparently Lloyd Alexander had other characters and stories he wanted to explore and explain.
In this collection of short stories, you find the tale of how Dallben came to be the great enchanter that he is, a cautionary tale of how the great sword Dyrnwyn must be handled, the tale of how Eilonwy's mother found her husband, and more. There are eight stories in all, so in a 98-page book, each is pretty short, but each one manages to capture your imagination. At least they captured mine. They are told much like folk tales (with lines such as "This is the tale of . . . And this is how it begins."). Some of them are surprisingly deep for how short they are, especially the story of the sword.
It has been a while since I have read the novels of Prydain (which happens to be the Welsh word for Britain), so I don't remember a lot of the details, but I still very much enjoyed this book. Reading these stories brought me back to that fantasy world I loved. I've said before that I'm not much for fantasy most of the time, but The Chronicles of Prydain, including The Foundling, are a great exception to my rule. I hope you enjoy these books too.
Genre: fiction, fantasy
Publication info: Henry Holt, 2006 (originally published in 1970)
Pages: 98
Several years ago I enjoyed the marvelous fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain. If you haven't yet discovered the series, which consists of five novels, I recommend them to you. They may remind you somewhat of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, but they have enough of their own unique elements—characters, story lines, and pieces of Welsh mythology—to make them a series worth reading.
If you have in fact read The Chronicles of Prydain, I recommend this book, The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain. I didn't even know this book existed until earlier this year when I found it at a bargain book sale. Apparently Lloyd Alexander had other characters and stories he wanted to explore and explain.
In this collection of short stories, you find the tale of how Dallben came to be the great enchanter that he is, a cautionary tale of how the great sword Dyrnwyn must be handled, the tale of how Eilonwy's mother found her husband, and more. There are eight stories in all, so in a 98-page book, each is pretty short, but each one manages to capture your imagination. At least they captured mine. They are told much like folk tales (with lines such as "This is the tale of . . . And this is how it begins."). Some of them are surprisingly deep for how short they are, especially the story of the sword.
It has been a while since I have read the novels of Prydain (which happens to be the Welsh word for Britain), so I don't remember a lot of the details, but I still very much enjoyed this book. Reading these stories brought me back to that fantasy world I loved. I've said before that I'm not much for fantasy most of the time, but The Chronicles of Prydain, including The Foundling, are a great exception to my rule. I hope you enjoy these books too.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Write Is a Verb
Sit Down, Start Writing, No Excuses
Author: Bill O'Hanlon
Genre: nonfiction, how-to
Publication info: F+W Publications, 2007
Pages: 212 (plus bonus DVD!)
The title says it all. Just get writing, because writing begets writing. The more you write, the more you write. And the better you get at it. So that's what I'm going to do.
But if you, like me, aspire to be a writer and, also like me, need a good kick in the pants, this book might be helpful to you.
Author: Bill O'Hanlon
Genre: nonfiction, how-to
Publication info: F+W Publications, 2007
Pages: 212 (plus bonus DVD!)
The title says it all. Just get writing, because writing begets writing. The more you write, the more you write. And the better you get at it. So that's what I'm going to do.
But if you, like me, aspire to be a writer and, also like me, need a good kick in the pants, this book might be helpful to you.
The Prince
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli, translated by Peter Bondanella
Genre: nonfiction, politics
Publication info: Oxford World's Classics, 2005 (originally published in 1532)
Pages: 130 (including notes)
Take it from me: The Prince is not exactly a beach read. Or an exercise-bike read, as the case may be. This book takes some serious thinking, which I wasn't always able to give. So I probably didn't get as much out of this book as I could have, but I definitely found it interesting.
You may have heard of The Prince, or maybe you've heard Machiavelli's name. Perhaps what comes to mind is the maxim "The end justifies the means." Well, as it turns out, Machiavelli never actually said that. Not in those exact words, anyway. But in this book he does put forth some principles that may be a little alarming to most decent people. For example, it is most important for a prince to be feared by his subjects. He should always keep his promises, unless he needs to break them in order to maintain his power.
For reasons like those, The Prince has been condemned by many people and organizations. Now I'm not necessarily supporting everything that is said in this book, but I think we should be careful not to take this book for something it isn't. Machiavelli wasn't trying to write a book on how to be a good person. His intention was to instruct princes on how to be effective princes (not good, but effective). And we also need to keep in mind Machiavelli's ultimate goal in writing this book, as he discusses in the final chapter: he wanted a strong leader to come forward that could unify Italy and fortify it against outside influences.
If you want a deeper understanding of The Prince, there are a bazillion scholars who have written about it. My purpose in reading it was actually a little different. I really did want to learn how to be a strong, effective, even ruthless prince, so I could put those abilities and traits into a character I have plans for in a future novel. And I was pretty pleased by the ideas this book gave me. I also simply enjoyed how much this book made me think.
So if you want a real thinker, give this book a try. But don't necessarily try to live by it.
Genre: nonfiction, politics
Publication info: Oxford World's Classics, 2005 (originally published in 1532)
Pages: 130 (including notes)
Take it from me: The Prince is not exactly a beach read. Or an exercise-bike read, as the case may be. This book takes some serious thinking, which I wasn't always able to give. So I probably didn't get as much out of this book as I could have, but I definitely found it interesting.
You may have heard of The Prince, or maybe you've heard Machiavelli's name. Perhaps what comes to mind is the maxim "The end justifies the means." Well, as it turns out, Machiavelli never actually said that. Not in those exact words, anyway. But in this book he does put forth some principles that may be a little alarming to most decent people. For example, it is most important for a prince to be feared by his subjects. He should always keep his promises, unless he needs to break them in order to maintain his power.
For reasons like those, The Prince has been condemned by many people and organizations. Now I'm not necessarily supporting everything that is said in this book, but I think we should be careful not to take this book for something it isn't. Machiavelli wasn't trying to write a book on how to be a good person. His intention was to instruct princes on how to be effective princes (not good, but effective). And we also need to keep in mind Machiavelli's ultimate goal in writing this book, as he discusses in the final chapter: he wanted a strong leader to come forward that could unify Italy and fortify it against outside influences.
If you want a deeper understanding of The Prince, there are a bazillion scholars who have written about it. My purpose in reading it was actually a little different. I really did want to learn how to be a strong, effective, even ruthless prince, so I could put those abilities and traits into a character I have plans for in a future novel. And I was pretty pleased by the ideas this book gave me. I also simply enjoyed how much this book made me think.
So if you want a real thinker, give this book a try. But don't necessarily try to live by it.
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