Tag: Government

Books

Book 245: Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3) – Suzanne Collins

Geoff W

Collins, Suzanne - MockingjayAs with my most re-reads of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire I’m realizing (once again) how much things change between re-reads based on where you are in your life, what you’re doing in life and any other number of uncontrollable factors. Looking back on my original review in September 2010, I see that my thoughts haven’t changed too much, but my understanding and appreciation of Collins’ storytelling/building has increased.

I’ll go ahead and get my major gripe of Catching Fire and Mockingjay out-of-the-way: these were not two books, they were one book that was split into two. They had to have been! And I can’t imagine the movie studio splitting the third book into two films unless they are going to add in a lot of additional information that is missing from the series. I mean sure, the books have contained beginnings, middles and ends, but the two books cannot stand alone because their plots are in essence the same plot. In comparison you have the encapsulated first novel. As with the last two reviews don’t read past here if you don’t want anything revealed! (AKA SPOILERS!)

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Books

Book 244: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) – Suzanne Collins

Geoff W

Collins, Suzanne - Catching FireAs with my recent re-read of The Hunger Games and going back to re-read my original review of Catching Fire back in 2010, I realized how much my blog has changed over the past three years. (I’ve also realized how poorly proofed my old posts are. Seriously go back and read some of them and laugh at my horrible editing! I used ‘one’ instead of ‘won’ and have ‘wont” instead of ‘won’t’ at one point. As I said in that review, DON’T READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON’T WANT ANYTHING RUINED.

If one of the novels had more potential than any of the others, this is it and this is most evident in the way the writers were able to create an AMAZING film out of a mediocre book. And as with the book itself I wished the movie would’ve spent more time in the arena itself rather than on the outside of the arena, but both the book and movie did have to set up the third book.

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Books

Book 243: The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) – Suzanne Collins

Geoff W

Collins, Suzanne - The Hunger Games The Hunger Games Trilogy was one of the first books I reviewed when I started The Oddness of Moving Things and it was the first book recommended through my suggest a book page. I of course re-read this series with all of the hype surrounding the release of Catching Fire and I’m very glad I did. I blew through the trilogy in just over 72 hours (so similar to lat time).

What is most interesting looking back at my original review is how much my reviews/responses have changed. It seems like in 2010 I was more interested in providing a recap of the books rather than a response to the books. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it and honestly I’m sure it was exactly what I needed (something to organize my thoughts and keep me going while looking for a job), but it’s funny naturally things have changed to a regurgitation/thought explosion of my thoughts on a book, or series, or more often than not some random comment on Goodreads or Amazon that ticked me off.

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ARC, Books, Reading Events

Book 145: Israel/Palestine and the Queer International – Sarah Schulman

Geoff W

My third book for The Literary Others reading event, and the final ARC of this month was Israel/Palestine and the Queer International. I requested this book via NetGalley and the below response is my honest opinion and I did not receive any compensation. I requested the book as I’m well aware that my knowledge on what is going on and what has happened in the region is woefully lacking and I thought this would be a great perspective for an introduction and boy was I right.

Like most readers, at least on Goodreads it seems, I expected this to be heavier on academics, what with being a publication of Duke University Press (Go Heels! – sorry couldn’t help it 😀 It’s a gut reaction…), but I found it incredibly approachable, well-reasoned and well written. This work clearly shows that Schulman is first and foremost a writer, her eloquent language, pertinent anecdotes and a great mixture of academia and activism really opened this book to a wider audience than I expected it to be able to reach. Previously, I have read two of her novels, After Delores and People in Trouble, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and am definitely interested in reading more of her more recent work, as well as her more biographical works.

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Books

Book 78: Inheritance – Christopher Paolini

Geoff W

What a fitting 50th book for 2011. Not only have I completed my ‘set’ goal for 2011, but I completed a series that has spent eight years on my various bookshelves across the East Coast and Britain. As with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a part of my childhood/adolescence has come to a close with the completion of the Inheritance cycle.

I first read Eragon as a first year at UNC Chapel Hill. I didn’t know what to expect, but I ended up enjoying it and was surprised someone my age had written the novel. Eight years later and I’m not sure how to feel about the end of the series. I have no doubts that Paolini will return to Alagaësia, he’s said as much himself, but I wonder if it will be worth it. Having reread all of the novels these past few weeks has highlighted that they’re still a great story, but that there is much that could’ve been done to make them better. But, on to my thoughts about this book in particular wish some musings on the series thrown in for good measure.

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