Baby's First Apocalypse

title: The Hunger Games Trilogy
author: suzanne Collins
method: borrowed (various sources)

I love apocalyptic/dystopian literature.  i love the idea that maybe this could happen to us in a few hundred years if we don't change our ways, or even if we had gone down a different path we may have ended up with authoritarian leadership, or living in the woods fending for ourselves.  Also since i work at a school and spend most of my time surrounded by 9 year olds i wanted to read what they were all excited about, so the hunger games quickly made it to the top of my must read list.
first let me say that these books are totally enjoyable.  they take about an evening to read, and the whole time you will be wrapped up in them.  i don't believe that they are something to be dismissed as young adult literature, and if you like dystopian lit, its a great example of beginners dystopia. however, all of the issues i had with are the things that make the book a young adult, and not an adult book.
What i loved the most about this book was Katniss.  she's strong, a feminist and an excellent literary roll model.  i feel too many young adult books feature sissy wishy washy girls as the protagonist who can't make a decision based on their own opinion, they just follow the men in their lives.  katniss is the opposite.  she works with what she has and does everything she can to stay in control of her own situation.  the sacrifices she makes are all to better her family.  now, she is also selfish and self centred (more so in the later books) but these flaws make her interesting.
the books do have a darker progression, and the more we learn about the world the more we realize that these people are not simply oppressed but controlled minutely.  everything they see every scrap of news they hear is controlled by the capitol.  at the end of the first book, some of the people i talked to agreed that they wanted what i wanted, which was to feel more for the other children taking part in the hunger games.  each of the other tributes are almost dismissed (minus Rue) as people we know nothing about or psychopaths trained from birth.  however collins relieves herself of this duty in the beginning when katniss vows to not mingle with the other tributes.  however, if we had a sense of where these other children were coming from and how they felt, i think there are moments in the book that would have been more powerful.
i found the love triangle unnecessary as well, but it's teen lit, and you need some romance. i mainly didn't really like it because i didn't see why Gale would a) fall in love with katniss or b) think to mention it.  I only say this because Gale is so strong on his own and has so much to worry about with his family and working in the mines and it would be nice just once for childhood friends to not fall in love when they hit puberty.  just once? can we have a platonic male female relationship? any ways.... Katniss herself is so focused on her own family and the fact that she never wants to bring children into the messed up world of the districts that she doesn't particularly care, but that means neither do we.
i'm still glad i read it, and there were moments in the third book that really got to me (in that good way), and when you meet the other past victors from the hunger games, things get a lot more interesting because you see what happens to people when how they win fame is killing other people in a world wide spectacle broadcast and are then treated as celebrities.
love always,
ellebee

The Kings Good servant, but Gods first- sir Thomas Moore

Book: Wolf Hall
Author: Hilary Mandell
method: borrowed (dad)

Now, I love historical fiction. It may be one of my favorite genres, because I like when things are based in reality, but not a literal depiction of reality. I first heard of this book at a dinner party where I was one of the few people there who hadn't read it, and it was raved about. My dad even said he read it twice, which is rare for my dad (unless it's a Pynchon novel) so I had a feeling it was going to be book of the year quality stuff.
This is definitely a big book. it's a heavy presence in your bag, even in paper back. It also isn't the kind of book where you can read it while reading another novel. It requires full commitment, because the way Mandell rights, Cromwell is often only refered to as Him in the narration, so you have to be on top of who is saying what and who is in the room with Cromwell.
I can see why Cromwell would be an interesting character to write about, because he is truly fascinating. During this period in history, your beliefs were often something that kept you alive and were incredibly important. Cromwell only believes in surviving, and surviving any way possible. This was also a time when the position you were born in was the position where you stayed, but Cromwell, born a blacksmiths son rose up to be the king's Cheif advisor, and he seems to have done so by always knowing who to talk to and what people wanted to hear.
Throughout the novel, there is a beautiful duality between Cromwell and Thomas Moore. Moore is so steadfast in his beliefs throughout his whole life. Everything he does he does out of devotion to what he believes (and. Oddly enough in my opinion comes out looking the bigger scum bag.) whereas Cromwell only believes in survival. The relationship between these two characters was my favorite part of this book, because they are such polar opposites.
Anne Boleyn is much more fascinating a woman through Mandell's eyes than any other interpretation I've read before. She is cool and calculating, but never described as being overly beautiful or charming. She is a woman carved of marble, and reminds me of the grandmother or Henry, Margret Beaufort. She was another woman who had one goal and did not rest until she had achieved it. She had the same sense of drive, but the same problems, being a woman in a time where a woman had little to no power. E two women also used the only means available to them to achieve their goals

xo- ellebee

Almost as good as new York review of books personals

Book: squirrel seeks chipmunk
Author: David sedaris
Method: gift (mum)

David Sedaris is a wonderfully confusing human. He is such an interesting and bizarre character, and his stories always reflect his borderline insanity. My parents got me this book at a Sedaris book reading and signing. They said that he was so awesome, because he would actually talk to every person, and signs every book you brought if you brought books from home. My books autograph says 'dear Lindsay, your mother and I have a special relationship' which just tickles me every time I see it.
I don't know why I thought that these stories, or fables would be light hearted, seeing as they were written by David freaking Sedaris, but live and learn. I was a little taken aback by how dark they were. Sedaris sits with Dahl in the camp of authors with a very grim very of humanity. The animals in these stories are often Selfish or cold hearted or mean creatures. They aren't very forgiving, or likable, and some of the stories are down right depressing.
Just like any collection of short stories there are highs and lows, but each of these stories are interesting in their own right. There are a few that are very light hearted and interesting, and a few that are very disturbing. For example, the story about the bear whose mother died and whose laziness and felling sorry for herself ends with her ending up in the worst possible place for a bear to be. Sounds cryptic I know, but I'm always afraid of giving stuff away...
I feel that this book is exactly the kind of thing you want in your bag to read snippets of on your lunch break, or waiting for the bus. If you read it all in one go, it can be a bit of a downer, but spaced out the stories are witty clever and heartbreaking.


xo- ellebee

Love.

Book: Annabel
Author: Kathleen Winter
Method: gift (mum and dad)

My mum has this impeccable knack of picking books based on reviews and gut feelings. Both she and my father seem to have this talent. Maybe it comes from years of collecting, or maybe it's some 6th sense. This was a birthday present from the two of them, but I didn't get to read it right after my birthday because it is impossible to leave my parents house with just one book.
This book was a really beautiful story about the simplicity and the complications of love between a child and a parent, especially a child who is different. It is one of those novels that manages to deal with a very difficult and confusing subject in a way that makes the story both believable and moving.
The couple in the novel is born with a hermaphrodite baby in a very small hunting community on the east coast of Canada. The parents then make the decision to permanently alter their baby to always be a little boy on the outside. Over the years, this decision becomes more and more complicated as the boy, Wayne, reaches puberty and as he grows up and moves away from his parents. Because the book is based in such a small community, we don't just follow Wayne's progress, but one of his childhood friends and her struggle to overcome her own physical limitations.
This book really has a great view of the difficulties in being different, and how it is so difficult and so easy to just love people for the way they are.

xo- ellebee

Beloved monster

Book: Marie Antoinette
Author: Antonia Fraser
Method: borrowed(mum)

My mother and I went to see the movie this book was based on when it came out. She had read the book, but I hadn't. Long story short, we left giggling around the time that Kirsten Dunst's laughably huge head started crying on screen about the face that all her friends were having babies and she couldnt get Louie to touch her with a 10 ft pole. After this I was not expecting much from this book except to read about a frivolous and stupid woman who ate Bon bons, bought shoes and was with great finality beheaded before her subjects.
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this book, especially because I am not big on biographies. I prefer bio fiction, but Fraser is a very impressive writer. I think she must choose her subjects very carefully and with a lot of research. She chooses characters who evolve over time, and this is incredibly present in this novel.
Marie Antoinette did begin her life as a frivolous woman who wore gorgeous clothes and diamonds, but as she grew older she educated herself and attempted to work towards the bettering of her ravaged country. She became queen at the worst time possible. She and her family were doomed by the path france had to take to rid itself of the monarchy. However, I believe she and not louie was the focus of this novel because she was the one who was beloved by the people and then despised as a wicked Austrian dog (among other heinous nicknames). For some reason it was always Marie that bore the full brunt of the peoples feelings.
In the beginning she is an impossible character to sympathize with. She is lazy and petulant and has no patience for anything but the surface beauty. And I believe this was the great failing of the movie, because they never got to the point in her life where she becomes remotely likable. It is Strange to me that when I couldn't stand her in the book is when she was at her most popular and when I grew to sympathize with her was when the people of france were calling for her blood.
This is one of those books where you obviously know the ending. But I found, unlike in the movie, I was so saddened by the ending, it got me all teary eyed. It was so brutal to hear about the total eradication of her whole family and her friends.
Even though at the beginning of their rein, you see that they realize the people were restless and unhappy, but they seem to dismiss it as something that will resolve itself. What happened is something that had never happened before, so you can see why the monarchy didn't believe that anything would actually happen

xo- ellebee

Post post modernism

Book: brief interviews with hideous men
Author: David Foster Wallace
Completion date: 12/11/10
method: Purchased

This is my second DFW book. I really love reading his books of essays because i find him a bit overwhelming and i like to be able to take breaks and regroup, both in terms of his emotional tole and intellectual tole. i found that the essays in these books were much more convoluted than the essays in a supposedly fun thing i'll never do again.
this book felt like a dive into post modern writing. frequently i found i was chasing myself in intellectual circles, or should i say, i was being placed in them by wallace.
as per usual (especially when you're blogging about a book hmmm months after you finished it) i found one essay stuck with me and stood out as my favorite- the internal dialogue of the dying father to his disappointing son. It was to the son that didn't do exactly what the father thought was best (including keeping his nails long). it was a bizarre insight into the relationship between parent and child. its hard not to wonder if the father is wallace's own and wallace as the part of the son. however, i could be totally wrong on that one...
xo- ellebee


postscript- this one is so short because i read the book so long ago... i've been working on this long backlog of books, so forgive me xo

Sookie vs Sookie

This is a bit of a break from my usual, but i found I needed to get this down and out of my head.
This week I wanted to do some light reading, and being in London, I returned to my Sookie stack house novels (the ones that inspired true blood). This was also because, I had attempted to watch the true blood series again and was (inevitably) disappointed. So having read and watched both I wanted to compare the star of both the novels and the tv show.
on initial reading of the Sookie Stackhouse books, i got what i thought i expected. the books were flighty, sexy and a little bit bloody. they are the epitome of easy reading. I appreciate a fantasy writer that can create a world with new rules that exists within our own. Now, upon reading the novels a second time, i found i was most interested in Sookie, the blonde, telepathic waitress. she does something that few flighty and beautiful romance heroine's can do- sookie learns from her mistakes. When we first meet her, she's just a waitress in a small town that most people consider crazy because of her telepathy. She is a part of the back ground, and she is just an innocent girl who has hardly ever been out of her small town. When that town changes, her reaction feels quite genuine. She is scared and cautious of her new relationship with the vampire Bill. After knowing him at slightly deeper than surface level, Sookie worries if a relationship with a Vamp may not be all peachy just because she can't read his thoughts. She backs off and thinks. She gets around people. This is in sharp contrast to her living and breathing counterpart, played by Anna Paquin in the True Blood series. Paquin as Sookie, is helpless in her love for Bill (and disgustingly sappy). She relies on him for so much and doesn't seem to ever accept a bad word against him. She has no inner strength and doesn't seem to ever learn from any mistakes or understand the ramifications of spending lots of her times with Vampires. She's selfish and a little stupid.
Now i am curious as to why they changed Sookie so much. she is mildly more likable in comparison to bill (who is the most wimpy, whiny vampire ever created. plus he's like 4 ft tall #petty), but nowhere near as interesting as her original. I'm curious as to why they changed her at all.
i don't think that i gave her enough credit in my initial review. Harris has created a very strong and likable girl in her leading lady. although the books are fluffy, i do like Sookie. I like seeing her gradually change and harden towards her brother and ex-lovers. She makes the hard call many times, but it only makes her more interesting and compelling. i'm not sure if you'd see in as much if you hadn't read the books entirely in a row (but seeing as each takes maybe an evening to read and always end on an exciting note, i don't see how you could read them any other way), but i think you still would. they're fluff, but there is something worth while about them.


xo- ellebee