Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins
Spoiler Alert - If you haven’t read the first two Hunger Games books and intend to, you may want to skip this review, for now.
( Spoiler Alert, Read more... )
The series as a whole has landed at #3 on the American Library Association's list of top 10 “challenged books”. That phrase translates to requests for it to be banned from libraries. The books are in good company, To Kill A Mockingbird (published in 1960) is still on the list and at number 10.
Wild cat-calls for censorship, grounds enough to make the books worth your time reading? Maybe. I considered them time well spent.
- Book Review: Collins - Mockingjay
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mazerlodge- May 1st, 16:03
- Book Review: Collins - Catching Fire
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- mazerlodge
- April 17th, 22:24
Catching Fire (Hunger Games Trilogy, Book #2)
Susan Collins
This book picks up at the moment the previous book ends. There’s so much entertainment value in the first book that if you haven’t read it, drop this and go there now. Besides, the rest of this review will have to reveal at least one important point about the previous book.
( Read more... )
- Book Review: Collins - The Hunger Games
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- mazerlodge
- March 30th, 21:28
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Yeah, I know. It’s everywhere. It is so much everywhere there were three people at my office reading it at the same time. While talking about it, a fourth co-worker asked what book we were discussing, and when we told her she rolled her eyes. Over exposure will do that. But this is a good book, so what do you say about it?
The storyline is pretty well known by now, the launch of a major motion picture-- and a successful one-- kind of gets the word out. In case you missed it; The hunger games is set in a futuristic country situated where the United States are today. Sometime in this country's past, the districts (12 of them) rebelled against the capital. The capital eventually put down the rebellion, and as an annual reminder of who is really in charge, requires each district to send one boy and one girl to fight in the hunger games. Think survivor with teenagers and the last living person being the victor.
Simple enough, this is classified as juvenile fiction. The story begins shortly before the annual selection process, follows our main characters through the games, and ends...well I don’t want to ruin it for you so lets just say there are three books in a series, this is book one, and book two starts one sentence after this book ends.
The story is engaging. The main character is immediately likeable. She’s clever, so you get the feeling she’s going to get out of whatever trouble she finds herself in, but you don’t know how. The pace is quick, this has been the fastest I’ve read a book in a long time. If you want some entertainment, you can find it right here.
- Audio Book Review: Bryson - At Home
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- mazerlodge
- March 28th, 16:43
At Home
Bill Bryson
People who enjoyed Bill Bryson’s “A Brief History of Nearly Everything” will probably enjoy “At Home”. In this book, Bryson takes a look at what seems to be nearly everything in his home, and shares his research on where it came from, why it is there, and what may have influenced it. We’re talking about a lot of stuff here- from the structure of his English home- English as in, ‘in the UK’- (small doorway height? it is explained and isn’t what many people think) to the rooms (closets included). He even considers, researches, and relates-- in a narrative style I found entertaining and made me laugh-- ordinary household items. Why salt and pepper on the table? Why not some other condiments? Common terms are explained (room and board being my favorite) and even delves into historical events that influenced things like the availability of glass for windows and the funding of churches-- and how they used the funds to advance the arts and mechanics of daily life.
For a book about what we might consider the ordinary, Bryson’s presentation is extra-ordinary.
- Book Review: King - The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
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- mazerlodge
- March 27th, 14:11
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
Laurie R. King
I like Sherlock Holmes, a lot of people do. And while I long ago exhausted Arthur Conan Doyle’s writings about Sherlock, there seems to be an endless supply of new authors who take a shot at writing Sherlock stories. Some authors imitate the style, some play with location, others intermingle past and present. And some, if you’re willing to stretch a little, take the essential concept and completely repackage it with only hints of the origin remaining (see the TV series House, for example).
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- Book Review: Harkness - A Discovery of Witches
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- mazerlodge
- March 4th, 12:16
A Discovery of WitchesDeborah HarknessNot my usual fair, but if you’re going to step out and try something different this book would be a good candidate.A Discovery of Witches is a story set in present day with the twist that witches, vampires and daemons live among us. Before you think Twilight Saga, let me suggest you put that completely out of your mind. Yes, there are vampires. No, they do not shimmer, but they do live extraordinarily long lives. Witches, vampires, and daemons are aware of one another in society but humans, for the most part, are not aware of them. End of connection.
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- Live Journal in the news...
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- mazerlodge
- March 1st, 21:37
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17177053 LiveJournal: Russia's unlikely internet giantBy Robert GreenallBBC News
- Whitney dies
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- mazerlodge
- February 11th, 19:13
RIP Whitney Houston
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
- Too Big for a Tweet
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- mazerlodge
- January 17th, 22:40
William Gibson on how to write fiction; If you wish to learn to write fiction, it helps if you've read a lot before you begin to try.
-From the introduction to "Distrust That Particular Flavor", his book of collected essays.
- Book Review: Preston & Child, The Cabinet of Curiosities
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- mazerlodge
- January 6th, 11:26
The Cabinet of Curiosities
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
This book came to me as a surprise, it was a free add-on when I bought the electronic version of Brad Meltzer’s The Inner Circle. If your first thought was to associate these two put it out of your mind. The two books have nothing in common beyond their delivery method.
( Read more... )
