The Hunger Games - 8/10

My holiday present was a Kindle. How fitting. Now I'll be able to read more books throughout the year without being tethered to the library. Hooray! So, I had to choose some new books to load up on my Kindle. My co-workers have been raving about an adolescent book called The Hunger Games, and so I made it my first purchase.

At first, I wasn't thrilled with the book. The first 30% of the book is nothing but description and Katniss' thoughts. Oh, by the way, have I mentioned that I despise books where characters are given stupid names? This book certainly takes the cake: Primm, Haymitch, Cinna, Peeta...all absolutely dreadful names. Anyway, the reader is taken into Katniss' world, the United States sometime in the future when it's been renamed Panam and things are pretty totalitarian. So far so good. I like dystopian novels. Go on. Nonetheless, Katniss describes everything down to the clothing put on her body, every single emotion and thought that pops into her head, and while that's nice, it's hardly necessary. However, Suzanne Collins does do one good thing--she knows how to end a chapter. Every chapter ends on some weird note that makes you think, "Hmm, what's happening here?" or "Hmm, what's going to happen next?" and you find yourself reading on, even if you thought the last chapter (and the one before it) was boring.

Finally, the Hunger Games begin. I won't summarize the book for you. If you want a summary, look elsewhere online. But once the Hunger Games began, I found myself plowing through the rest of the book. It was exciting, although in truth, there's a lot of sitting around in trees, in caves, just sitting, wondering, thinking, staring at the sky, starving, injured, etc. But the threat of danger just keeps you, the reader, reading on to find out what will happen next.

Another unsettling thing: what's with all the references to Romeo and Juliet? Collins incorporates the phrase "star-crossed lovers" a million times throughout the book. And the two almost commit suicide at one point in the book. It's weird and I'm not sure if I like this "borrowing" from Shakespeare. Since I teach Romeo and Juliet to my high school students, I'm not sure whether to praise it or roll my eyes and say, "Way to be original."

Nonetheless, I found myself purchasing the second book in the trilogy (oh yes, it's a trilogy...isn't every book nowadays?). I rate The Hunger Games 8/10: An easy read, an exciting journey (once it picks up), and an interesting concept.

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Final

So, after 5 weeks of trying to finish The Girl Who Played With FIre....I finally did it! Honestly, the last 200 pages flew by. It was Larsson at his best. Point of view being changed from Salander to Blomkvist and back again. Suspenseful. Full of action. The good stuff, you know?

Overall, I found the book to be a drag until the end. If you're a reader who enjoys details, character development, and can stand an author deviating from the plot for hours at a time to delve into other non-essential information, then this is a good mystery book for you. For me, I found it rather annoying and almost painful to muck through.

The Girl Who Played With Fire receives a 6/10 with 4 points deducted for the 400 pages of BORING I had to endure.

The Girl Who Played With Fire - pg. 560

So for the past 4 weeks, I've been TRYING to finish The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. By this tone, you should be able to guess that I'm not exactly enjoying this book. It's nothing like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a book I adored!

So, let's be clear: The Girl Who Played With Fire is the "sequel" of sorts to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It features the same characters, added some new ones, but it focuses on Blomkvist and Salander as always. These are two interesting characters with a lot to give if done right. And in general, Larsson does a great job of building upon their characters. Except it's too much. Way too much.

The first 400 pages of this 700 page novel is all background! Half of it doesn't have to do with anything regarding the plot of the story. There's not only 100 pages of character building for Salander, but another 100 pages for Blomkvist (who basically doesn't do anything except work and obsess over Salander who has snubbed him after their encounter 2 years ago). Then, once something DOES happen (a murder...or 3), then Larsson decides to give the reader insight into all the detectives involved in the case. BOOOOOOOORING!! Nobody cares! That would have saved another 200 pages of grinding through the book.

So now I'm at pg. 560...pretty much at the end of the novel and NOW things are picking up. I should have just flipped through to pg. 500 because the previous 400-500 pages were WORTHLESS. What I will say is that The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, the sequel to THIS novel, will NOT be on my reading list anytime soon.

Anthem by Ayn Rand

I finished my 3rd book of the summer - Ayn Rand's Anthem. This book is taught in 12th grade at the school district I work for and I was curious when I discovered it was somewhat of a dystopian novella.

Anthem is the story of a man who lives in a world where people have no real sense of individuality, that all actions are done for the benefit of everyone else. Case in point, the protagonist refers to himself as "we" because the word "I" has been banished for so long, it was forgotten. Yet, the protagonist still feels that something is wrong with his day-to-day life and stumbles upon an object which (literally) illuminates his mind and makes him realize the error of the society in which he lives.

I personally liked this story for the concept, the interesting world Ayn Rand has created, and even the ending of the novella is satisfying. The drawback to the story is the philosophical rambling that break up the plot of the story. It is hard to read because the repetition of words make everything sound like nonsense:

"What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and obey?" (97).

Huh? But this is Ayn Rand. She's apparently coined the term "objectivism" and created an entire philosophy known as objectivism, which is evident in this novella as well as her other works. It sounds pretty kooky to me, but see for yourself.

Anthem by Ayn Rand receives a 6/10.

Push by Sapphire - ABRUPT

So, Push was seemingly building up to something the last time I wrote. Last night, I finished the book and I can tell you that this book builds up to a brick wall. It was one of those books where you think it's going to end well, that things are going to come full circle. In a way, it does...but there's something missing. The end is the stories of all the other girls in Precious' pre-GED class. Her "story" is eerily absent, a poem about little to nothing, and then the entire novel just ENDS. There are no notes on the real Precious (Sapphire). Did she get her GED? What happened to her children? Did she stay in Harlem? This is non-fiction. I'm used to reading non-fiction stories with a clear, almost anticipated ending. But this had no such thing.

Push by Sapphire gets a 7/10.

Push by Sapphire

My latest read is Push by Sapphire. Yes, it was made into a movie called "Precious" and no, I haven't seen it. I'm not sure what compelled me to pick up this book. Like The Help, it's not my type of book. First, it's non-fiction and two, I only knew this book was about a fat black girl (no offense, but seriously - that's all I knew). Nonetheless, I checked it out along with Ayn Rand's Anthem (yes, much more my speed. Love dytopia!).

I'm a little over halfway through Push. I didn't realize how foul it was going to be. The language used is just as bad as what is happening to Precious - a father who rapes her (and of whom she has two children by by time time she is 16 years old), a mother who basically rapes, beats, and forcefeeds her, and a world which systematically doesn't care what happens to her. In fact, maybe that's the issue I have with this book. 12 years old, she's in the hospital after delivering her baby, and she tells the nurse that the father of her baby is HER OWN FATHER and this guy doesn't end up in jail? Seriously?! Yeah, that's a serious plot hole.

But on a teacher level, I love this book. I love Ms. Rain who teaches Precious to read and write. I find it interesting how she uses the idea of a journal to build confidence in her students, who come from horrible, horrible homes (or streets as the case may be). And I wonder if I can somehow utilize this when I'm teaching my students...writing to build confidence, to comment and help students not only write but build character.

My next post will probably be my full review and rating of this novel.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My summer reading binge has begun! It's been hard to "read for pleasure" while being a teacher, but as the school year comes to a close and the weather makes for a good time reading out on the porch, I begin my merciless devouring of books.

The first book I had an interest in was "The Help." Truthfully, I had no idea what it was about when I went to the library and picked it off the shelf. I don't know whether I heard it on the news, on the radio, or in the teacher workroom, but I knew it was a bestseller and lucky me, the library had a copy with my name on it.

Now, if I had known what this book was about, I probably would have scoffed and never read it. Do I really want to read about black maids or "help" in 1960's Mississippi? Have you seen the list of books I've read? But the day I brought it home and broke open the first page, I was hooked. Through the voices of 3 characters, an intimate world of dangerous, complicated relationships is revealed - a division of labor based on race, the cruelty and pettiness of rich white women, and the danger of antagonizing social and racial boundaries.

While the book kept my attention, there were some things that bothered me. First, I really didn't like Miss Skeeter, one of the three protagonists in the story. I know I'm supposed to like her, but I find her ridiculously creepy. She stalks Aibileen (one of the maids) for months and harasses her for ideas and to help with Skeeter's book idea. If I had been Aibileen, I would have been like, "Look, leave me alone already." Her obsessive compulsive nature is annoying and I disliked reading the chapters when she "spoke."

Second, the ending was sort of anti-climatic and questionable. Did Milly finally leave Leroy? Has Miss Hilly been fully "punished"? I'm satisfied with some details, but I'd still like more. More, more, more. There's a rushed feeling about the ending, like Stockett got bored and said, "Okay, this and this happens aaaaaaaaand the end!"

Nonetheless, it's still a worthwhile book to pick up.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett receives an 8/10.