kriti ki kahaani

13. Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Tina Fey gives me hope.

Five stars, I highly recommend this!

The Hunger Games Trilogy (via marynyriene on Flickr)

10-12. The Hunger Games Trilogy (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay), by Suzanne Collins

It’s been a long, long while since a book that’s not already a favorite has been so captivating, and so to come upon a full trilogy that did was just wonderful. The Hunger Games trilogy is set in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem, where the Capitol holds power over the twelve districts, the inhabitants of which live in varying degrees of poverty. Each year, the Capitol arranges a huge televised event called The Hunger Games in which one boy and one girl are chosen from each district as “tributes” and thrown into an arena to fight it out to the death, until one victor emerges.

The first person narration was quite jarring at the beginning but the intensity of Katniss’s thoughts, actions, and surroundings becomes almost hypnotic, especially in “Mockingjay.” It might be because I read all three back-to-back, but the injustice and moments of emotional intensity all come in these waves immediately one after another and the tragedy is spellbinding. When Katniss says “It’s not what I breathe in, but who, that threatens to choke me” while roaming the charred ruins of District 12, I felt as if I just read a line out of a genocide survivor’s memoir. The parallels to our society today and images of what it could become are just frightening, again especially in “Mockingjay.” At first I felt like I was seeing a bit of a sexist/anti-feminist streak with Katniss’ makeovers but it clicked, how even our “good” celebrities and influential people have to be made up to be closer to the ideal than they are for others to take that first step to value them and like them, and then hopefully listen to and trust them (which also reminds me of the “more beauty = higher wages” scientific studies, and then also the simultaneous beatdown women like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama receive for wearing shorts in 100 degree Arizonan heat or having a tiny bit of cleavage showing, and yes I’m frustrated with WaPo’s Robin Givhan for making something out of nothing and dumbing down the accomplishments of her own gender while she’s at it).

The story, especially in the first book, reminded me a lot of another I read in fifth or sixth grade about another dystopian society with a televised game where kids were thrown into an arena, except I think the arena was the North Pole. The filming for the show was done through cameras lens inserted in the participants’ eyes and soon this is figured out and with help from a night-shift audio editor who sends them messages, the kids figure out a way to overthrow the system. The novel was less violent than The Hunger Games trilogy because it was more about surviving together than trying to kill everyone else off, if I remember correctly – anyway, if anyone knows what book I’m talking about, do tell!

I’m not sure how I feel about the “The Hunger Games” movie, because there’s just so much in the book that won’t fit into the movie. Of course there are events that’ll have to be taken out entirely to fit the movie into under two hours or however long American movies usually are, but it’s mainly all the thought and deliberation behind Katniss’ actions, the subtle movements and connections she has with Peeta, Gale, Rue, and Haymitch, that I just can’t imagine being carried out on screen right. But I should give Collins more credit than that because she’s adapting her novel for screen and she’s had experience with script writing before. I hope that they don’t lighten the story up (though they’ll have to, considering the target audience for the movie) because the violence and gore in the book would definitely be R-rated, and if not in the first book than the second and third most definitely. But even if the movie itself turns out to be magnificent I can’t help but think that all the vague Twilight parallels will be drawn out (though let me make it clear, there can be no legitimate comparison). In Allison’s words, “Call me selfish, but I do not want to share the experience I had with Hunger Games with those people [crazy fan base of the movies]. Maybe I’m mean, but they don’t deserve to turn it into cray-cray land. No way.” There frickin’ better not be “TEAM GALE” and “TEAM PEETA” or heaven forbid “TEAM HAYMITCH” shirts and posters out there after the movies. You can fan-girl but fan-girl with some dignity and knowledge… 

Also here’s to hoping that the actors and film industry people involved with the movies aren’t like those of the Twilight movies because holy crap they bash on their own movies aalllll the time and just can’t wait for them to be over with, which makes me laugh because I don’t like the Twilight books at all but if that happened to The Hunger Games, TT_TT. Maybe just achieve like, a quarter of the awesomeness that made up the Harry Potter cast and crew, that would be amazing ^___^

The trailer has at least one good sign — Jennifer Lawrence is wearing gray contact lenses to match the description of Katniss’ eyes in the book! And that’s a fairly small detail (considering the green-eyes-gaffe in the Harry Potter movies, since Harry’s eyes being the same as Lily’s was an important detail from the books), so kudos to the costume people & whoever else. Whee looking forward to this!

The Hunger Games. (via wyfaced on Flickr)

You know a series is good when you’re up until six in the morning reading it and then only go to sleep because your mom woke up to start her day.

9. Lost and Found, by Andrew Clements

Easy read! Couldn’t sleep so read this from about 2 to 2:30 a.m. last night/this morning. It caught my eye in the library when I was looking for books for the kid I tutor — “The Landry News” was one of my favorites in elementary school! Come to think of it, it was a huge factor in my obsession with having a school newspaper in middle school (we had one absolutely fabulous issue in seventh grade! Comic Sans type and everything!) (But really it was amazing I still have it saved somewhere, three sheets legal paper sized, stapled in the corner, and a masthead!) — which then led me to apply to journalism in high school. 

And I thank the literary gods for that.

—-

EDIT: Looked up “The Landry News” on Wikipedia to check a plot point and turns out one of the stories written by a character in TLN is titled “Lost and Found” and is also about discovering yourself, although in a less literal way than LAF’s! Also to get a bit review-y on LAF: A bit more cutesy and… more cheesy?… than Clements’ other books, but still fun :)

8. Scat, by Carl Hiaasen

Hiaasen has never failed me yet! In ‘Scat’, teenagers Nick and Marta search for missing teacher Mrs. Bunny Starch after a field trip to Black Vine Swamp is cut short by a fire. Of course, things aren’t as simple as they seem and illegal oil well drilling and endangered panthers are involved. Oddball characters in ‘Scat’ include a trilingual macaw, Twilly Spree (an eccentric, wealthy, and slightly mad environmentalist), and Duane Scrod, Sr. (whose wife ran away to Paris and runs a cheese shop while her heartbroken husband and son live in Florida off her mother’s money). Scrod Senior is just a supporting character and his macaw, not even that, yet every detail, no matter how absurd, doesn’t throw this novel into the all too large pile of books that are cheesy, overdone, and overkill with adjectives.

Hiaasen’s other young adult/kids books are ‘Hoot’ and ‘Flush’, both of which are equally amazing, though ‘Scat’ has a more serious side plot line that the other two don’t. But his books for adults are the real can’t-put-this-down ones. I’ve read ‘Tourist Season’, ‘Sick Puppy’ (also with Twilly Spree), and ‘Skinny Dip’. Each of his novels is an ecological-action-mystery-rom-com which sounds both ridiculously nerdy and like utter nonsense, but I guarantee you can’t read just one.