The Hunger Games

It has been a long time since I was moved to stay up reading a book simply because I could not put it down. The Hunger Games has reminded me why I love books so much. I bought it about a year ago because I really liked the cover. I only moved it up on my to-read list because a friend mentioned that they had just read it and it was superb. They could not be more right. Everything about this book screams ‘favorite.’

Simple, just the way I like it.

I wasn’t sure whether I would like the narration style — inner to outer narrative is something I have struggled with (writing and reading) for quite some time. Suzanne Collins masters this — the changes are made seamlessy, naturally, and interestingly.

Even the plot is perfectly done — it goes in and out of intense moments, keeping you on edge for something disastrous to happen. I never considered putting the book down to take a break. The only reason I didn’t finish this novel in one day was the need for sleep. Let’s just say I’m glad that I started this book on break, so I could really sit down and enjoy it and not have to worry about school work. I loved every minute of this book, and am even now considering picking it up and reading it again. It’s exciting to think there are more books out there about Katniss and her adventures.

I absolutely cannot wait to read (and review!) Catching Fire. Until then, I will be reading (the complete) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Five Dances with Death: Dance One by Austin Briggs.

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

For my Women Studies class at Wartburg, I have been reading The Second Sex (Simone de Beauvoir). I will admit that it’s interesting and worth a read for anyone who is fascinated by women’s relationships with the rest of the world. However, to me, it reads like a textbook. The entire first chapter relates women to eggs and men to sperm. It was fun to tell people about, but not to read. There were even quite a few words that were new to me, which is a novel feeling in itself.

Although I have enjoyed learning about some of the topics in the book, it’s quite dry. I don’t believe I will end up finishing it. I realize that a lot of people hail this as  an amazing book, which it is good, it’s just not something you can pick up and read every day.

There were actually quite a few quotes that I thought worthy of writing down in my favorite quotes book — things like:

“Just as in America there is no Negro problem, but rather a white problem; just as ‘anti-semitism is not a Jewish problem: it is our problem’; so the woman problem has always been a man’s problem. We have seen why men had moral prestige along with physical strength from the start; they created values, mores, religions; never have women disputed this empire with them.”

I actually have to do a ‘book report’ over this book for the class. I have to decide on three major themes, relate it to our class, and talk about why I think it should be included in women’s studies classes as required reading. I personally don’t think it should be, so I decided to tell the class how it could be studied as a textbook rather than additional reading. I was considering starting off my report with one of two quotes that would give a good feeling of the attitude of this book.

An old Anglo-Saxon incantation says, “Hail, Earth, mother of men, may you be fertile in the embrace of God and may you be filled with fruits for man’s use.”

From Tertullian, whom she quotes multiple times, “Woman! You are the gateway of the devil. You persuaded him whom the devil dared not attack directly. Because of you the Son of God had to die. You should always go dressed in mourning and in rags.”

For my three main themes, I chose the ideas that women is the “Other” to man and that she was made FOR man, that marriage and reproduction imprison women and limits them, and how woman is related to nature — as I am also writing a paper on ecofeminism.

I do hope that someone finds this book interesting enough to pick up and read, though I know it’s not for everyone.

Rage: After the Impact

After receiving quite a few graphic novels from one of my favorite publishers, Dark Horse Books, I chose to read and review Rage: After the Impact.

This is the first time I've read a graphic novel as an ebook. It was interesting, to say the least.

Rage: After the Impact is an introduction story to id Software’s game, RAGE. The story follows the brief beginnings of Dr. Elizabeth Cadence’s life after awakening from sleep in a cryogenic ark. A deadly meteor, Apophis, was headed for Earth, so the government took preemptive measures and saved the lives of many who would be necessary to rebuild humanity. Approximately 5,000,000 people were killed by the meteor. As Rage indicates, “They were the lucky ones.”

Once awakened from her cryo ark, Dr. Cadence is attacked by ‘Wastelanders’ and saved by The Authority, or the new form of government in this post-apocalyptic world. Once inside the scientific facility, she senses something amiss with the research that is being done on the mutants, the humans who have supposedly come into contact with feltrite, a substance from Apophis.

Arvid Nelson does a great job of building an interesting relationship between Drs Antonin Kvasir and Cadence. I am truly interested to see where Kvasir ends up. With his new outlook… he could go anywhere. Cadence, on the other hand, I see getting into a lot of trouble due to her gung-ho attitude.

Near the end of Rage: AtI, I was reminded of Serenity, a movie based on one of my favorite (one-season) shows, Firefly. I personally love being reminded that humans are often to blame for some of the bad things in this world, and that we have many faults, greed being a large one.

This was a fantastic snippet of what I imagine to be a great story line for a video game. I enjoyed this story, and can’t wait for the full novel, Rage, and the video game from id Software to experience more of this world.