#10, 11 and 12 Hunger Games Trilogy

*Spoilers, lots of them.*

I'm assuming that most people have read these, I'm just a little late to the party.  And I'm reviewing them together because they aren't that long and the story just picks up where the last one left off.

I think that "The Hunger Games" was the strongest of the three in terms of the solidity of the story line and its presentation.  I think the twist with Katniss and Peeta being willing to commit suicide rather than kill each other was a good ending.  I feel that the integrity of the characters was more or less kept in tact, which I think was the point.

The thing that I don't really understand about "Catching Fire" is why President Snow thinks that it is a good idea to bring Katniss back to the Hunger Games, where she is once more in the spot light.  It may be, and I considered this, that the Quarter Quells were set up before hand and President Snow had no choice, but Collins leaves the source of the Quarter Quell rules up for grabs.  It does set up a lot of discontent among the victors, so that works as a plot point, but from the information that you get elsewhere in the book, it seems like the victors were a pretty discontent, mistreated bunch anyway.

"Mockingjay" was a disappointment for me.  Katniss spent most of the time worrying about being the cause of so many peoples' deaths.  I'm just a little tired of the woe-is-me-look-how-many-people-died-because-of-my-actions thing.  Yes, you made decisions that if you may have made different ones, that might have saved peoples' lives, but you are at war.  You are fighting people who want you and everyone with you dead.  This is the reality of the situation.  I wish just once the angsty teenager at the center of things like this would finally get that, or that an adult would explain it to them.  Yes, you should morn the loss of life, and get mad about it and second guess is a natural response, but blaming yourself for all of it is self defeating.

I also like the point made to Katniss that she needs to remember who the enemy is, but perhaps because of my American upbringing, I jumped to the conclusion that the enemy really is tyranny, embodied in President Snow and President Coin.  I think that Collins might have been thinking along those lines too, which is why Katniss assassinated Coin instead of Snow at the end, but a conclusion isn't drawn there.  It seems like was all about Prim and Snow promising not to lie to Katniss.

I've got to be honest, I was annoyed at the love triangle.  Collins didn't spend enough time developing the relationship between Katniss and Gale.  She had chances, quite a few in fact.  So it always felt like Katniss was going to choose Peeta, Gale was just there to complete the triangle.  The whole thing could have been carried off with Katniss falling for Peeta.  There was enough in their relationship to create questions and uncertainty, without the third wheel.

There's No Place Like My Odyssey

Because we had to take our van in to get it fixed, we were given a rental.  In particular, this rental:

It's a Chevy Traverse.  Apparently, a squishy cross-over is the same as a mini-van because you can sit eight people in it.  At least according to the rental car place, but, here's the secret, it's not the same.  Vans are a lot more functional and after spending two weeks with this gem, I don't think I would ever buy a car like this.

The back row of seats is only accessible if you move the second row out of the way, which in our case necessitates the orchestrating of car seat movements.  Getting Seth strapped in his car seat was also frustrating because I had to climb into the car to reach the seat belt catch.  The kids had no leg room.  Then there were the head rests.  Which basically made you sit so far forward that it really didn't matter there was a seat there.  And I'm pretty certain that an army tank has less blind spots that this puppy does.

My ten year old mini-van gets the same gas mileage (aren't we suppose to be improving gas mileage?, the newer Odyssey's have better gas mileage).  The handling was not as good as the mini-van.  The Odyssey really feels like you are driving a smaller car because it handles so well.  I felt every centimeter of the size of this guy, and as SUV's go, it's not that big.

If you are thinking about buying one of these cause they are stylish or what ever, yet still have that coveted third row of seats, let me warn you that when you have three kids and two are in car seats and you have to keep moving that seat back and forth, you are going to be eyeing my van and experiencing something I like to call envy.  You'll feel it when your ten year old is too tall for the leg room and you'll feel it when you try to move over in traffic because even with the mirrors and looking over your shoulder, you aren't going to be able to see any one in the other lanes.

The good thing about this experience?  It makes me love my van more.  It was such a relief to get it back.

Life is What Happens When You're Busy Making Other Plans

Over the past couple of months, life has hit us pretty hard.  In mid-April we were rear-ended, causing a couple of thousand dollars worth of damage to our van.  It's stressful to work with insurance companies.  I'm still wading through the paper work.

Jamie got rear ended by a car while riding his bike.  He got a little hurt, and his bike is repairable.  We are still waiting for the bike to get fixed.  Luckily, he has two bikes.

My dad had a stroke a couple of weeks ago.  I took a trip to see him.  He's lost some memory function.  He's having pain associated with a knee replacement that needs to be fixed.  He'll be living in the same nursing home as my mom for the foreseeable future.

When I got back, I had probably the worse stomach bug I have ever had.  I spent a week in bed.  And I'm still not feeling great.

I'm hoping all the fun is over for a while.  I've got lots to catch up on, mostly school with the kids.

And if you want to hear the song the post tittle comes from:  (I don't know who made the movie, but the song is by John Lennon of Beatles fame.)

#9 State of Wonder

I think I had too high of hopes for this book.  I've had several friends tell me that they liked it, friends that I usually share a taste in books and movies with, but this time around, I have to say that I'm a little disappointed.

I my issues lie in two things.  First, I couldn't suspend disbelief long enough for the story to carry itself.  I have a limit of times that I can think to myself, "I don't think that could happen, given the characters and the situation" before I start to get annoyed.  Its not necessarily about the world being believable, its also about it being consistent and about the characters being consistent.  Second, the plot.  I don't get it.  It's slow.  The characters are one dimensional.  Nothing coalesces into a story really.

Patchett is a talented writer, I don't regret reading the book, its just that I feel like I've been told a joke that everyone around me is laughing at and I haven't figured out the punch line yet.

#8 Uncle Tom's Cabin

Reviewing classics gets a little tedious.  They have been read and analysed by so many people that any response I can come up with feels like a cliche.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is important to the history of the United States.  It was written as a way to present abolitionist ideals to the masses.  The response to the release of the book was overwhelming.

I read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" because it helped spawn major social change when it was published. It gives a glimpse into the past.  A time when the United States legal sanctioned the kind of behavior that would get someone jailed for life now.  It was a very different time with justification for grotesque behavior sanctioned by not only the predominate culture, but also ironically, a government meant to free men from the horrors of tyranny.

These are the kinds of things that we have to look at as a culture and decide that they are not going to happen again.  We have to stay alert and attentive to keeping all men as free as we can while maintaining social structure.  Its a balancing act and the more we learn about the past, about when things were in balance and when they were our of balance, we can build a brighter, better future.