Hunger Games: Catching Fire

by Suzanne Collins

Scholastic     2009

391 pages     YA

My grandson Maxwell was here visiting me with his family for the Christmas holiday. He asked if he could stay for a few more days. He's 16, and I was honored that he wanted to stay with his grandparents. So, among many other things, we watched The Hunger Games on Netflix and went to see Hunger Games: Catching Fire in the theater.

I had promised myself that I would read the book Hunger Games: Catching Fire before I went to see the movie, so I quickly began reading the book in anticipation. Didn't quite get it done, but I finished the book yesterday, after Maxwell went home. 

We were both very pleased with the movie. His quote was: "It exceeded my expectations!" That's how I felt, too, and that is how I feel about the book. It definitely exceeded my expectations. Katniss Everdeen is such an interesting, original character. She is not a caricature or a superhero, which is what I like the most about her. She has skill and intelligence, and she is able to mine those resources for her own survival as well as the survival of Peeta, her Hunger Games tribute partner. What she may not be able to survive is the machinations of the Game Keepers, and the country's evil president. 

The book is intense; I couldn't read fast enough, even though I had just seen the movie and knew what was going to happen. I was so angry with the Capital and President Snow. I hated what was happening to the tributes--I hated the whole idea. Yet, I couldn't stop reading.  Thus the beauty of Catching Fire. This unlikely heroine is caught in the juncture of politics, survival, love, altruism, and sadism. 

The District 12 mentor, Haymitch,  keeps reminding Katniss: "You just remember who the enemy is." Yet, Collins keeps reminding her readers that there is goodness in people, and many of the characters in Catching Fire have good in them. I was particularly engaged with the designers sent by the Capital to prepare Katniss and Peeta for the games. They drop their silly, fluffy personas when it becomes obvious that the Capital has become truly sadistic and they are helpless to counteract the menace.  They offer Katniss and Peeta friendship and support even as she offers them consolation. They are willing to sacrifice everything for the love of their young tributes.  The other tributes who align with Katniss and Peeta also offer support and friendship, although Katniss is wary of being betrayed by them. Just how long will their friendship last? 

Is this a book for kids? As I have said in this blog before, I believe that reading a variety of books is one way that children can learn to navigate a hostile world. I think, however, that this is a series of books for teenagers older than 13. What I particularly like about the Hunger Games books is that Collins handles mature concepts in a way that allows young teenagers to process them. The New York Times reviewer says: " Katniss is more sophisticated in this book, and her observations are more acute. We see this when she notices how much more difficult it is to kill people once you know them, or when she observes the decadent (and for the reader perhaps uncomfortably familiar) citizens of the Capitol gorging and then taking pills to make themselves vomit, or with her gradual realization that she may just stand for something greater than herself. All this is accomplished with the light touch of a writer who truly understands writing for young people: the pacing is brisk and the message tucked below the surface." 

Now, the third book in the series, Mockingjay, is calling my name. I need to know what happens next--now that rebellion is imminent.

 My thoughts on The Hunger Games: http://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot.com/2012/02/hunger-games.html

The review in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/books/review/Zevin-t.html?_r=0

Suzanne Collins website:  http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/

Under the Wire: Marie Colvin's Final Assignment

by Paul Conroy

Weinstein Books,  2013

326 pages     Nonfiction

The Shortlist

We think that we know what reporters and photojournalists do because we see them on television. Paul Conroy, a war photographer, documents the year he spent working with his friend, the journalist, Marie Colvin. We know who she is--the journalist with the eye patch who died covering the war in Syria in 2012. What Under the Wire documents is what we don't know--the danger, the fear, the desperation, and the camaraderie that reporters and photographers experience as they try to get the story out to those of us who follow the war stories from the warmth of our homes.

 Here is how Conroy begins chapter 11:

"I lay amid the rubble and dust next to the bodies of Marie and Remi. The immediate fear and chaos of the attack had passed but I felt neither grief nor sorrow. How could I possibly be devoid of any feeling, either physical or mental? i briefly wondered whether I might be dying, a thought I dismissed almost as soon as it entered my mind. Then it hit me. Huge waves of guilt surged through my body and the sheer intensity of the emotion made me freeze. My

 friends were dead yet I didn't feel anything. I wanted to cry but no tears came."

Under the Wire is a very clearly written, compelling depiction of the crazy danger of reporting from a war zone. I cannot fathom working in this environment nor can I understand why someone chooses this career path. I once knew a pianist who had been a child prodigy in the 1940s and the darling of New York society. When she grew up, her celebrity depleted, she became a war correspondent for the Vietnam war and died when her helicopter was shot down. Her name was Phillipa Schuyler, and she was one of the only women reporters killed in the Vietnam War. Maria Colvin is one of the only women reporters of this generation killed while reporting on war. Reading Under the Wire helped me understand  why Phillipa would have chosen that career and why she risked her life. 

One reader expressed the view on Goodreads that Under the Wire is "possibly the finest account of war of this generation and is comparable to Michael Herr's landmark Dispatches on Vietnam in the 1970s."

Here are a couple of other reviews of the book. I received my copy from the publicists.

http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Book-Review-Under-the-Wire-Marie-Colvin-s-4902013.php

http://www.examiner.com/article/book-review-under-the-wire-marie-colvin-s-final-assignment-by-paul-conroy

My Favorites: 2013

The Best of my year of reading.

In 2013, I read a lot of good books, some mediocre books, and too many books of marginal value. I read 53 books from the stash that have accumulated this year. My husband calls UPS the Bookmobile.  Additionally, I have a lot of books on my Kindle and in hardback that I didn't get to read no matter how much I wanted to read them. Even though the intent and desire was there, time and energy interfered. 

 This has been a hard book year. Because I worked so much this year, I read a lot of terrible student essays and a couple of books about education. All that work meant that my personal reading and blogging suffered. The other problem was that I reviewed a lot of books for publicists and publishers that I didn't particularly want to read. I am a bit nonplussed about how to deal with the problem of too much of a good thing. 

 Best Novel: The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I read this with my book club and have grown in respect for Erdrich. She tells a good story.  This is quickly followed by The Submission by Amy Waldman. Morally intense. 

Most clever mystery: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Loved how it kept me guessing. I didn't peek at the ending--not once! 

Most profound exploration of grief: Enon by Paul Harding. I was pleased to see it on some best of 2013 lists, because I thought it was incredible. Also loved Let Him Go by Larry Watson, another exploration of loss. 

Best Gothic (and only Gothic!) Moonrise by Cassandra King. My introduction to her as an author. 

Best International Mystery: I loved Police by Jo Nesbo. Also liked The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach. 

Best book about aging: Fierce with Age by Carol Orsborn. Quickly followed by The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, which I absolutely loved. 

Best classic to read again for the first time: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald which I listened to on an audio book before seeing both the Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio versions of the movie. 

Best Essays: My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places by Mary Roach. Laughing at the crazy stuff of life. 

Best Memoir: The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagame because of his extreme honesty, humor and hopefulness . 

Biggest Surprise: Ship it Holla Ballas by Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback. Can you believe I read a book about how online gambling works? Oh, and also Shot All to Hell by Mark Lee Gardner about Jesse James robbing the Northfield Minnesota bank. 

A book I wanted to like: Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld. This was well reviewed but I just couldn't relate to it. 

Other notable books:

Reconstructing Amelia Kimberly McCreight 

 Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen 

 Saturday Night Widows by Becky Aikman

Sweet Nothings

by Janis Thomas

 Berkley Books  2013

386 Pages     Fiction

The title says it all--"Sweet Nothings."  It is a trifle, a cupcake of a novel. It can be read in a couple of sittings, much like a cookie can be eaten in a couple of bites. But like a cookie, or a cake, you just gotta have a book like Sweet Nothings occasionally. Janis Thomas, the author, calls her books "Chick lit grows up" by which she means matrimonial suburbia, where the mundane aspects of life take over.

Sweet Nothings is a book about resilience. Ruby is the owner of a sweets bakery called Muffin Tops. In the opening chapters of the book her husband leaves her and their two children for another woman--not a sweet young thing, but a woman of his own age. This is almost a bigger insult than if he had left Ruby for a 20-something hottie. Ruby pulls herself together in short order with panache and great humor. She has a very rye way of looking at the world, but she is nothing but honest with herself, her children, and her world. She figures out a way to make her bakery profitable so that she can support her family. Ruby is a very likeable character, and her journey to a new life is inspiring. The closing lines of the book share her journey: "It's never too late to dream. It's never too late to believe."

The beauty of Sweet Nothings is that the serious topic of a woman left in the lurch could have been told with pain and suffering, but instead it is told with humor.There's a lot of baking in this book which adds to its enjoyment. Although there is very little remarkable about Sweet Nothings, it was a perfect book to read the week before our huge family descended on us for Christmas. Thank goodness for that, because there was no way that I could have read a heavy book as I was doing my own cooking and baking before the holidays. It actually may be the reason that I baked more than I usually do. Ruby's efforts inspired me.  My children and grandchildren should thank her.

Ruby reminded me a little of Diane Mott Davidson's character Goldy, and although there is no mystery involved in Sweet Nothings, the feistiness and humor are similar. I also remembered a friend whose husband left her for another middle-aged woman. She came to work one day with a picture of her ex with the new woman, who looked older and chubbier than my friend. The first thing out of my mouth was "He left you for her!" My friend told me that was the best thing that anyone said about the divorce. Ruby had some of those same emotions. All jilted women should be so strong.

Janis Thomas' website: http://www.janisthomas.com