I defected

To Tumblr. You can find me at stephaniedoig.tumblr.com, where I am still doing book-related things but doing a lot of sillier stuff, too. I'm going to leave this active for at least a little while, but don't plan to post here. Thanks for reading!

May I Direct Your Attention To...

Censorship! Waffling! Sadness.

(I was thinking of writing a blog post on this, but Smart Bitches did it better.)

Comin' atcha

Anyone else experiencing a touch of the winter blues? I miss going outside without putting on five layers of outerwear first. I miss open windows and fresh air. In winter I am sleepy more often than not, and it takes a lot to convince myself to do anything that isn't work or other impossible-to-avoid responsibilities. I eat too much. Generally winter blues. Nothing serious, I am just taking a moment to be a downer and also trying to get it out of my system.

All this is to say that I am still only halfway through Cleopatra. I am actually loving it, but I am usually a much faster reader than this, even with nonfiction. I am getting antsy to finish it, not only because I want to see what happens, but also because I miss fiction. (I particularly miss YA, which I blame on the many talented YA authors I follow on twitter, and how fun their lives seem.)

I used to love history in high school, but for whatever reason, I never could get into ancient history as much as more recent events. And then in university my interest waned, due partly to a horrible history professor (I don't like to disparage professors, but some of them are terrible, and this one really, really was) and partly to general university-era upheaval that turned me briefly into a less nerdy (and less interesting) person, one much less likely to spend time learning things outside of classroom hours. Anyway, prior to starting Cleopatra, I could remember snippets of Egyptian history but nothing truly useful. My knowledge of Cleopatra was basically composed of our collective pop culture history (Elizabeth Taylor! Seduction!) combined with a dim recollection of the boating-down-the-Nile scene from Antony and Cleopatra (also arguably pop-culture history). So I was both interested and a little worried about this book. What if the history went over my head? I didn't want the book to talk down to me or anything, but I also didn't want to be lost the whole time.

I had nothing to worry about. So far (again, only halfway through), Schiff has been a wonderful storyteller, balancing history with drama with a present-day caution. The caution is because we actually know very little indisputable fact about Cleopatra. Papyrus was not a terribly sturdy medium, and so almost all accounts of her were written after her death, by people who never knew her and were either poets, writing with an eye to drama, or historians with a decided bias for or against (more often against). And so the beautiful seductress Cleopatra was born, in order to explain away a woman's unprecedented success in politics. Schiff sorts through the different accounts and gives a reasonable and engrossing account of what we can assume was her life.

This book is interesting both for how it debunks a lot of popular myths about Cleopatra (obviously the biggest being that she slept her way to the top; though it is clear she had sex with Caesar and Antony because she bore their children, her other conquests appear to be solely political) and for how it makes history fun! (OK, I'm really sorry for that, but it DOES!) I've been a slow reader because I am reading it pretty much exclusively on my commute, but I am excited to see how the rest of her life turns out. I'm betting on dramatic and tragic! Also luxurious.

You would think that since we've made Cleopatra into a beautiful, glamorous and sexy woman in pop culture, the real thing couldn't possibly be better, but she really is. I'm not surprised; a powerful woman is always interesting, and Cleopatra was the most powerful woman of her time.

[Images: Scholars' representation of Cleopatra, c/o Image Foundry Studios, Ltd., Liz Taylor in the 20th Century Fox production of Cleopatra, and Cleopatra from MTV's Clone High, respectively.)

Weekend Roundup

What did you do this weekend? It is pretty much too cold to function here in Toronto, yet for some of this weekend I actually managed to leave my condo and do things.

On Friday I saw The King's Speech, which was fantastic. Colin Firth definitely deserved that Best Actor Golden Globe—at times I had phantom throat pain watching his character struggle with words. A touching story, wonderfully acted. Plus there is the fun bonus of getting to see all your favourite British actors in one place. It was like a Harry Potter reunion in there.

Then yesterday I went to a board games party at the lovely home of Vicki Essex, our neighbourhood favourite romance novelist (look for Her Son's Hero in July!). A board games party, you say? What a bunch of nerds. Well, obviously. If you're not interested in settling the grand nation of Catan, then I am not interested in you. It was kind of exhausting, though. Pic courtesy of this lady.

Today I stayed in and did absolutely nothing. I have to make some concessions to the cold, you see. Tonight I plan to work on some writing. Happy weekend!

90-second Newberys

I recently became aware of this great contest challenging kids to recreate their favourite Newbery-award-winning books in 90-second videos. The deadline isn't until September, so it might be a while before we see the winner, but for now here's one video to make you laugh.

"A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy on Vimeo.

Pretty great, right? For more info go here.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room was a very buzzed-about book in the fall of 2010. It is the story of a young boy born in captivity and his unique view of the world. His mother was kidnapped at the age of nineteen and has been repeatedly raped by her captor, resulting in the birth of Jack. The room her captor has fashioned for her is the only place Jack has ever known, and to make things easier his mother has told him that Room is the real world and everything they see on TV is Outer Space, not real.

I have read a few books written from the point of view of a child, and it takes extraordinary talent to do it well. Donogue manages to not only write convincingly as Jack, but to do it at a fast pace and in present tense. That's like a writing hat trick! If I had been able to slow down long enough to formulate thoughts beyond "Wow, this is good, what happens next?!" then I would have been envious. (I have had plenty of time to be envious since then, and believe me, I am.) I started this book on my commute into work one morning, and finished it before going to bed that night. It is heart-wrenching, dark and uplifting at the same time. Should you read it? Absolutely.

[This book is part of the Bestsellers 2000-2010 category of book club.]

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

[Avid readers may remember that I had planned to read ten books in ten months, with one book per category per month. There has been a small change of plans: I still plan to read a book from each category, but I've decided I can do them in whatever order I want, since I am the boss of me, na na nanana, etc.]

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (category: first novel)

So, I'm fudging the rules a bit with this one, since technically I started reading it in December 2010. But because I read the majority of the book in January, I'm going to go ahead and count it.

I loved this book. I actually bought it a long time ago but somehow never got around to reading it until this month, and I am really happy I did. A multigenerational tale of immigration, assimilation, and identity, this book transitions flawlessly from sharp, insightful humour to touching drama. Samad, a Bengali man with a flair for language but, unfortunately, the wrong-colour skin for 1975 London, struggles to find glory in his ho-hum job as a waiter in his cousin's Indian restaurant. His only friend, Archie, starts the book off with a suicide attempt that is, darkly, hilarious, and almost immediately regains his zeal for life via the cure-all of a willing, attractive, younger sexual partner. The book follows the men as they marry much younger women, have children, and spend their days reminiscing about the past and, in Samad's case, actively fighting the future.

I won't say too much more, but I highly recommend this book. It is unbelievable that this is Smith's first novel; her talent is remarkable.

One down, nine to go!

Happy Late New Year, I Guess

So, it's now 2011, guys? And people were all listing it up about the best things of 2010 a few weeks ago but I missed that? And I rang in the new year by getting a terrible cold? Auld Lang Syne?

2010 was definitely an up-and-down year for me. In the end I was pretty happy to see it go, if only because I needed things to settle down a bit. No more moving! Not so much travelling! (Although I am going out of town this weekend, so that is not exactly meshing with the 2011 plan, but it's for a wedding, so I am happy about it.) I hope to one day not be afflicted with the soul-crushing, breath-stealing common cold virus that is currently keeping me down! (Fingers crossed!) And let's hear it for fewer people dying! (Seriously, I know that is a downer, but that was the main problem I had with 2010. Too many funerals.)

I know everyone makes resolutions in January and it is somewhat lame, not to mention discouraging for those who keep resolving unsuccessfully to do the same things every year. But I do think that resolution-making can be a positive experience, as it is always good to sit down and think about what you want out of life every once in a while. And actually, doing it on a year-by-year basis is a pretty decent short-term goal system.

So what do I want to accomplish in 2011? Well, to stay on topic, I'd like to read more. I've mentioned before that reading for a living sometimes hinders my reading for pleasure, and I've also mentioned that I plan to combat that with this year's 10 in 10 book club. I came across a friend's list on Facebook the other day wherein he listed all the books he had read in 2010, and I wished I had a list like that. So I'm going to make one. Pretty simple. I think just writing down what books I read and freeing myself from any obligation to write actual blog posts about them will help. I'll write about them if inspired, but if not, expect to see short posts that are basically for my own tracking purposes. Starting with this month's pick, Marching As to War by Pierre Berton, which I plan to start as soon as I've finished my current fiction pick, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. (I can read multiple books at once, but I avoid it if possible. I always risk abandoning one because I prefer another.)

I also want to write more. As in, not just spur-of-the-moment writing that I put up here (sorry), but an actual planned writing project. This is something I've always wanted to do, but I never seem to get started. I think because I am a pretty harsh critic and I would want whatever I wrote to be perfect. So I'm going to do my best to discard that attitude and acknowledge that whatever I write is going to be terrible at first, and just write it anyway. I'm thinking about looking up some writing exercises to help out with this, because it is a bit of a daunting task.

And finally, I will conform to the expected and cop to my last resolution as being the old fitness one. All I've seen this week on social media is complaints from gym-goers about the January resolutioners crowding the gym, and I sympathize, but still. I need to exercise more, so screw them. I'll go to the gym if I want to. I am going to set up a schedule for myself in the hope that structure with this will lead to structure with writing, reading, etc. and soon I'll be like those normal people with routines!

Oh, one last thing: I plan to gradually create an actual online presence. I am bizarrely skittish about this, even though I never say anything all that personal either on here or on twitter or on Facebook. Anyway, eventually I want to link all three of these things. I've started that already by linking my twitter account to this blog. Hopefully you all aren't too bored by it.

That's all for today. See you when I've finished the next book!

The Mockingbirds

[Note: I wrote this post in December but only got around to finishing/posting it now. Enjoy my dated references!]



In a recent post I mentioned that I've been holding off on buying books because it is the holiday season and I would not want to deprive my family of the pleasure of buying books for me. (Ha, but seriously, I am an excellent gift-opener. I do not hold back with the joyous facial expressions.) But, of course, my resolution was destined for failure. I went into my neighbourhood industrial-size bookstore, convinced once again that my loved ones would probably enjoy books as presents. (This is a mistake I make every year. My family reads, and avidly, but I never escape the common trap of buying books that I'd like to read rather than books I think they would enjoy.) Anyway, I was browsing and pretending any purchases would be for other people when I saw The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney. This book was on the NPR Best YA of 2010 list, and that's pretty much all it took for me to give in and buy it.

This is a powerful book about a difficult subject. I'll let the publisher's synopsis explain for you:

Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way—the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds—a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers. In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone—especially yourself—you fight for it.

To be honest, books about "special" subjects sometimes concern me, because they can often be too after-school special for my liking. But Whitney impressed me by consistently choosing the difficult route. Alex realizes right away that she's been raped, but she comes to that conclusion through evidence rather than memory: she can't remember much of the night before, but waking up naked next to a boy, coupled with seeing two condom wrappers in his trash can, is enough for her to realize she must have had sex. The complicated issue of consent is explored through flashbacks that slowly restore Alex's memory of the night.

This book was, at times, an almost painful reminder of how cruel high school can be. Alex's rapist does not take the accusation lightly. It was also a thoughtful exploration of how consent is misunderstood; many students were against Alex, and all the usual excuses appeared: she was drunk so it was her fault, she was flirtatious so she was asking for it, she was lying to get attention. While I can vehemently disagree with these viewpoints at this time in my life, it is chilling to think about how many girls I knew of in high school who were labeled like this, and to wonder how many of them might have "earned" their reputations in similar ways. I can't remember any actual rape accusations, but that doesn't mean rape didn't happen; it more likely means that because we weren't educated about the nuances of consent we didn't recognize rape when it happened.

This book is the rare example of an issue-centric novel that is an entertaining and engrossing read. Recommend!

Sometimes you buy a Christmas present for yourself

And sometimes that present is The Mockingbirds. See you after I've read it!

Another year over

It is that time of year again. Of course, I am referring to the end-of-year-list time. Have you been losing sleep wondering what your favourite things from 2010 are? No longer. Putting things in lists ranked from best to worst is everyone's favourite Christmas gift to themselves. I can't get too snarky, because reading these lists is always fun, and they are great for drawing your attention to books you didn't know existed. With that, I admit shamefully that I had not heard of any of the books on this list from NPR. They sound great, though, and I am particularly interested in The Things a Brother Knows. Fodder for my next trip to the bookstore? Not that I needed it.

Thinking over the year, I actually read very little. Reading for a living (I am a proofreader) is wonderful, but one negative side effect is that it can be difficult to come home and delve into a book when you've been reading all day. And sometimes when I do read, I find myself mentally adjusting the style of the book to our house style, correcting sentence structure I disagree with, etc. This doesn't happen all the time, and the more books I read outside of work, the better I am with it. But it's deciding to pick up a new book that can be a challenge.

Solution: the book club I mentioned in an earlier post. It starts this January, with the topic Wars of the 20th Century. I am so excited, you guys. Though I have neglected it in recent years, I used to have a bit of a love of history (history award, twelfth grade, *ahem*), and this might turn out to be the best category. As for what book to read, I haven't decided for sure, but I am thinking about Pierre Berton. Some might say I should move my focus from the most famous wars of the 20th century, but to those people I say make your own book club. Canadian history is really impressive, and I miss it. I am not sure which book by Berton I'll choose yet, but I am leaning toward Marching as to War.

The actual details of this book club have been vague so far, except for the picking-categories part, so I am not sure how the discussion is going to go. But I will definitely post my thoughts here, and you all would certainly be welcome to participate in any conversations about them. Starting in January 2011!

A glimpse into my brain

My thoughts on an ereader in the past month:

1) Hmm, ereaders seem to be the big Christmas gift this year. They're cool, I guess, but I love real books.
2) Don't have too many ideas of what to ask for this year for Christmas. Maybe I'll put a Kindle on the list. What the hey. If it's free. But I'm still going to ask for a real book just in case.
3) I want to buy this book. But what if I get a Kindle for Christmas? Better wait.
4) IF I DON'T GET A KINDLE FOR CHRISTMAS MY LIFE IS OVER.

What happened? Ereaders have completely seduced me.

A Tale of Two Nerds

No time to post lately, but I would like to direct your attention to this blog post my friend Chloë wrote about how often we dork out about Harry Potter. Timely!

Have a good weekend, everyone! Gryffindor!

Procrastination Makes It Happen

It is approximately 8 pm on a Friday night. I just woke up from a little thing I like to call a procrastination nap. Tomorrow morning, ridiculously early, I have to be on a train. Before that happens, I have to do about five loads of laundry, pack, take a shower, and attempt to clean up my disgusting home. I am thinking about making some cookies.

So, obviously, it is time to sit down and write a blog post.

This week a long-distance friend of mine [okay, cookies are in the oven. Some cravings just can't be ignored] posted a link to a Salon article suggesting that instead of writing for NaNoWriMo, people make an effort to read more. The idea is that you read 10 books from 10 different categories in the space of 10 months (totalling 100 books—10 from each category). Now, as a person with a full-time job, this is impossible. But we decided that reading 1 book from each of the 10 categories was a respectable challenge. So now we are in the process of choosing the categories. It's looking like popular history and popular science will make it in, as well as short stories and contemporary bestsellers. I'm excited to broaden my reading scope a bit, and I'm looking at this as both an excuse to buy new books and motivation to read some that have been sitting on the shelf for a while. All in all, good reading project. I'll probably blog as I go (somehow using blog as a verb still sounds pretentious, but whatever), if you're interested. And even if you're not.

Have a good weekend, everyone! Procrastination time is probably over. For now.

[cookie update: kind of cakey, since I accidentally added baking powder. dough is always the best part anyway.]

On Exercising

Unsolicited fitness update: I am extremely out of shape.

I say this a lot, but that's because it is usually true. I would like to say my relationship with exercise is complicated, but it's actually very simple: I don't really like it. I like the results, and so sometimes I can fool myself into thinking I like it. When I am in shape I am happier, I know that much. And so exercising is worth it. But I get bored. I get distracted. Most of all, I get sore muscles and want to quit.

October is a particularly bad month. My old roommate from university and I used to call it Fat Month (full disclosure: we still do) because of all the Halloween candy we used to (still) eat. This October was no exception, and now I find myself afraid to get on a scale and more than a bit uncertain about how to stop all of these bad habits. What to do?

Enter Vicki Essex! A soon-to-be-published romance novelist and friend of mine, she has decided that instead of doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, as she is already a very disciplined writer, she is doing NaNoExMo. (I am still not quite sure what the "No" means, but the "Ex" is exercise.) The gist is that she's vowed to work out for thirty minutes three times a week throughout the month of November. And because it's such a good idea, I've decided I'm going to join her. She didn't ask or anything, but too bad! I'm going to plague her with calories burned and lunges lunged all month long anyway. Hopefully this will create some good habits to replace the bad, and at the end of it all I hope to have more energy and motivation for this blog as well as other projects.

Wish me luck! I promise not to do too many boring exercise posts.

P.S. Regarding the photo: this is a picture of my family's cat, the Hulk. He is adorable but, let's face it, a little on the chubby side. So I figured it was an appropriate picture for this post.

This is Halloween

This week is Halloween. I never think I am a huge fan of Halloween, but then, in the weeks leading up to October 31st I seem to love scary costumes and cutting pumpkins into amusing shapes. Here is where I should probably write about YA horror books, but I am a big fat wimp and really hate that stuff. I don't get a thrill out of horror books/movies, I just feel terribly unsettled for the rest of the night. So instead I will recommend something that is kind of close to horror (but really not at all): paranormal fiction.
Paranormal fiction is scary in the way that it usually involves things like werewolves and vampires, only it's actually not scary because these werewolves and vampires are just like us! But more mysterious. And attractive (sometimes).
Lately paranormal fiction, and especially paranormal YA fiction, has been very popular. This gets largely credited to Stephenie Meyer. I just wrote three sentences concerning that and deleted them all because of unsportsmanlike conduct, so I'll just continue.
I sometimes think I don't like stories with vampires/werewolves/demons etc., but lately I've come to realize that when I think this, I am completely delusional. Because, you guys, I think I love them. There are some really well-written novels out there about werewolves and their (surprisingly) varied brethren.
Specifically, let's talk about an Irish author I like named Sarah Rees Brennan. Sarah published her debut novel, The Demon's Lexicon, in 2009 with Simon & Schuster. Now, as someone in denial about her love for demons et al, I was skeptical about the title, but I read the first chapter on Sarah's blog and was pretty much immediately hooked by her writing style. The Demon's Lexicon universe is compelling and original, but what I think is the real strength of Sarah's writing is the way she presents relationships between people, and specifically familial relationships. Nick and Alan, two of the central characters of the book, will break your heart. In a good way.
This is another one of those books where I can't say too much for fear of spoiling things, should any of you choose to read this book (or the second in the trilogy—did I mention it's a trilogy?—The Demon's Covenant). But I will say that the author is outspoken about featuring strong women in her books, and this is another thing I love about the book: women in it are unapologetically fierce, demanding and, even when thinking romantic thoughts about Nick and/or Alan (listen, you don't understand. It happens. They can't help it), maintain their independence and rational thought. I know some books lead you to believe this is impossible, but it's not! It's actually very refreshing and realistic.
Do you want to read it yet? I hope you do. I kind of want to read it again. Maybe I will.

Sweet Valley Confidential

Have you heard about this? I know I’ve talked about my undying love for Sweet Valley High before. Haven’t I? I talk about it a lot in life, so I assume I’ve mentioned it here. Anyway, for those of us who miss those perfect size six Wakefield twins and their eyes the colour of the Pacific ocean, there is Sweet Valley Confidential, a new book due out in 2010 wherein Francine Pascal (not a ghostwriter! the real thing!) returns to the Sweet Valley universe years later. The twins are now thirty years old, and (gasp!) not speaking to each other. I need to know why. I am very excited for this book to come out. Other important questions: Does Jessica still wear one item of purple clothing per day in order to comply with the rules of the Unicorns, Lila Fowler’s prestigious club? Does Bruce Patman still have 1Bruce1 license plates? Is Todd Wilkins still insufferably boring? What of the beach disco?

In a conversation about SVH recently, my boss told me her favourite book was one in which Bruce Patman is dating one very nice girl whom everyone loves, but then at a party flirts with another girl, prompting his goody-goody girlfriend to snort coke and die. I personally favour one in which a strange girl, Margo, comes to town, where she discovers that she just happens to look eerily like the Wakefield twins. At which point she decides the only logical thing to do is to murder Elizabeth and take over her life. Naturally. What’s your favourite?

Reading is Hard Sometimes

It's book awards season. Otherwise known in my brain as that time when I remember all the good books I'm not reading, panic slightly about how I will ever have time to read them all, remember that I don't have an unlimited book-buying budget, cry, and go home.

Not really, but it does always cause me some anxiety. I love books, but it's overwhelming sometimes how many of them there are. I had a lot of this type of anxiety in university, when it seemed absolutely essential to read every single classic, not to mention all the obscure essays/poems/novels that no one has heard of now but obviously changed forever the landscape of essay/poem/novel writing and because of which nothing will ever be the same. I eventually let this go, because it was either that or invent a time machine, and I'm pants at science. (I obviously got far enough into the British contemporary realm to learn the modern slang usage of the word pants.)

But, as some of you may know, I work in publishing. I'm pretty new at working in publishing, relatively speaking, and while I love my job I would eventually like to move into something different, and to do that I know that I'll need to be more up on the contemporary book scene that I am. So my anxiety about needing to read every book ever hasn't really gone away, it's just changed. Classics don't matter now; contemporary fiction does.

How do people do this? Libraries only go so far, and I never have the patience for them anyway. Plus, though I know award-winning books will probably be good, that doesn't mean they're always going to be my first choice. Do people in the industry just read enough reviews to sound like they know what they're talking about, or do they actually read everything relevant to them? I suspect the former.

Anyway, the point of this post is, I guess, to appeal to some rich book-buying patron. Anyone? Do you guys find yourselves wondering if you should be reading something, even if you don't particularly want to?

The Baby-Sitters Club

With nineties nostalgia in full swing, I feel like every couple of months or so there is a new funny thing online about the favourite ghostwritten children's lit series du jour. Today it is The Baby-Sitters Club, or BSC for those in the know. The Huffington Post has put up this Where Are They Now? satire. Now, this might just be my leftover fondness for the series talking, but I didn't find it terribly funny. It's been done before (a search for it brings up more than one), but I still like being reminded of the series, so I thought it was worth posting.

When I was about 9, my best friend and I used to devour these books. I remember she had a drawer full of absolutely all of them, books I had never even SEEN, as my exposure was pretty limited to the local library, which was very, very tiny. Apparently her aunt worked for a bookstore or a publisher or something, and the result was that she had every BSC book in existence. I was already jealous of her tropical fish tank and how she had her own room when I had to share mine with my older sister, but this made me ridiculously jealous.

Looking back, I recognize how ridiculous these books are. I realized it to some extent even then, because I always skipped chapter two, knowing it contained all the same tired information about how Kristy's parents were divorced and Dawn was from California and Mary Ann was a loser, etc. Still, I loved those books. I really admired their business moxie, I guess.

That's a lie. What I admired was the drama. I was (and still, let's face it, am) a sucker for an overwrought, dramatic story line. My favourite character was Stacey, because she was from New York (glamorous!) and had diabetes (glamorous?). I still remember the book where she ate a candy bar in a flash of pique and went into a diabetic coma, during which the book flashed back to when she discovered she had diabetes. She was on a train to New York to visit her dad (her parents had just gotten divorced! The poor girl!) when she found herself having to pee all the time and also being unreasonably thirsty. I have no idea if these are real symptoms of diabetes, but for years I wondered excitedly every time I was thirsty or had to pee a lot if I had a dramatic, potentially terminal illness. I am not particularly proud of this. But there it is.

Um, you can all feel free to psychoanalyze 9-year-old Stephanie now. Current Stephanie can probably take it.

The Hunger Games

I mentioned in my last post that Patrick Ness had gotten me interested in Dystopian fiction. But after I devoured The Knife of Never Letting Go, I had a few weeks' wait ahead of me before The Ask and the Answer came out in paperback. Luckily, about the time I finished the first book, there was some general internet hubbub about a book called Mockingjay, the third in a series that had been hovering in the back of my mind since I first heard about it on the lovely Sarah Rees Brennan's journal. I decided that since all three books were out, it was about time I read it. The series is called The Hunger Games, after the title of the first book.

The Hunger Games is about a girl named Katniss Everdeen. Katniss lives in District 12, in a country called Panem. Every year, one girl and one boy from each of the twelve districts of Panem are chosen to fight in The Hunger Games, a fight to the death on national television.

Yep. Fight to the death. You see why I was interested.

Again this is a book that is hard to explain without spoiling, but I think it's safe to say that Katniss is a participant. What follows is a story very smoothly written (it's in present tense and I didn't even notice until I was a third of the way through the book, which is extremely impressive) that kept me constantly guessing and never took the easy way out of anything. The critique of reality television is extraordinarily interesting; the games are fought by district children for the entertainment of the people of the capitol, whose lives of extreme leisure juxtapose nicely with the lean, impoverished lifestyle of the districts. Though we watch reality television knowing that the contestants are there voluntarily, there is still a sense that their actions are for our benefit. While they're on television, they essentially exist for our entertainment. When we no longer find them interesting, their television careers die. Taking it a bit further, to a fight to the death, isn't as much a stretch as it seems at first. Rich from fourfour has a more in-depth (and much better) analysis of the reality television theme here.

This book contained many moments when I wanted the characters to do one thing, and then was extremely relieved when they did something else. Because what I want for the characters isn't always (actually, is probably almost never) what is best for the story. Suzanne Collins doesn't shy away from putting her characters in difficult situations, and she certainly has them make a bad decision or two. Katniss is very compelling despite being extremely flawed (the best description I've heard so far called her a "loveable asshole"), and it's interesting to watch her try to make the best decision when there isn't really a right decision available.

I'm afraid to say much more in case any of you decide to read it (which I obviously think you should). So: fast-paced? Yes. Well written? Absolutely. Did I cry? Maybe a little. So you should read it.

p.s. It is worth noting that I cry very easily when bad things happen in books. So take that one with a grain of salt.