Thoughts: Mockingjay

*No spoilers--I wouldn't even call this a review of the book.

Last night I finished reading Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I am very proud of myself for not neglecting my child or going to bed at a ridiculous time to finish reading it.

I have tons of things to say about the book to someone who's read it, but I don't want to ruin anything for someone who hasn't. So I'll just say I liked it, and I liked the ending. There was the plot twists throughout like the first two books, but this one had closure (thank goodness, being the last book in the series, but that's not always a guarantee).

As I was reading it I was thinking about Suzanne Collins and the kind of pressure she faced as she wrote the book. The Hunger Games series had become so popular that there were millions of fans with their own ideas and expectations for the book. The characters had truly taken on a life of their own.

I didn't read The Hunger Games or Catching Fire until this year, but I still wish I could have read them both again just before reading Mockingjay. It was honestly hard for me to keep track of some of the characters simply because there already were so many and many more are added. I'm sure someone who was more obsessed with the story would have no problem keeping track of them--I don't think it's the fault of the writer or the editors. Just my tired mom-brain that needs help these days. Maybe I just should have kept a character list. At any rate, I will definitely read the three of them back to back at some time--probably before the movie comes out.

Review: Nectar in a Sieve

"Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And hope without an object cannot live."
-- Coleridge

I decided to read Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya for one of the most random reasons. I am working on reading Great Expectations (Dickens is always a long journey for me, and I start and finish many other books before one of his is conquered). My copy of Great Expectations is a Signet Classic. After finishing a chapter, I was flipping through the Signet ads in the back and found a list of the top 20 Signet Classic Books. I discovered that I had read all of them but one, which I had never even heard of.

So I read Nectar in a Sieve with no idea what it was about. And I wish I had left it that way. Partway through, I began to read the back cover and I felt it gave too much of the plot away--it told me some of the struggles the main character, a peasant woman in rural India named Rukmani. And so I kept waiting for them to happen. "Oh this must be where blah happens..." (I will not ruin it for anyone who wants to read it by repeating the overtelling of the plot.) So if you read it, do not read the back cover.

And I do think it is worth reading. It is nothing like the things I usually read and Rukmani and I have little in common besides our humanity and being mothers. She lives in a different time and place with completely different ideas and values. She works hard and accepts her lot in life, though she is always struggling and often starving. It definitely made me more grateful for the abundance of food we have. I am so glad that I don't live in a mud hut that I have to smear with dung to keep it standing. And yet, though anyone who reads this book will obviously be better off than Rukmani, it is never presented in a way that you feel that you should pity her or that you are being judged for your lack of poverty.

It is often heart wrenching, always moving. The language is simple which made it a quick read, but I wouldn't call it an easy read because of its content. The short book follows Rukmani from when she is given away as a child bride until she is an old woman.

Review: Too Much Happiness

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro is the best contemporary collection of short stories that I've ever read. The title story was the last one and almost long enough to be a novella. Munro wrote it after she discovered Russian mathematician Sophia Kovalevsky and was fascinated her life and her work.

Has any seemingly random figure in history caught your attention and held it? Mine is a woman named Hannah Dustan who lived in the early days of New England. She was kidnapped by Indians, her infant's brains bashed out on a tree in front of her. She later escaped and massacred and scalped her captors--men, women, and children. After she returned home, she was praised and paid for the scalps she took, even though that had been outlawed years before. I read a short story about her in a survey of American Literature class probably eight or nine years ago, but I still occasionally think about Dustan and what drove her to do what she did. What fascinates me most is wondering how she lived the rest of her life and how she felt about her actions years later.

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast

I picked up another comfort read--Beauty by Robin McKinley.

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, and this is one of my favorite retellings, although I like Robin McKinley's Rose Daughter even better. (Beauty is for a younger audience, Rose Daughter is for adults.) Beauty is a simple, beautiful, and surprising take on the classic story.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie. It always has been, but it has a special place in my life since it's my husband and my movie. We don't have a song, we have a movie. We had a our first kiss while watching Beauty and the Beast. And yes, it was during the cheesy, romantic Beast changing into handsome prince part.

Comfort Reads

When my real life is turned upside down, I reach for familiar books with happy endings. Nothing too complex or deep, nothing too dark or sad. Just a good story that I know will end well because it ended well the last dozen or so times I read it.

Today that was The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Newbery Winning author, but not for this book). Looking at the limited books I have on my shelf in this transition period of life, I think I'll be reaching for Beauty by Robin McKinley next.


What are your comfort reads?

Review: A Single Shard

"I am going to--to Songdo," Tree-ear said at last, as if testing the words. He looked at his companion pleadingly. "It seems too far away, to say it."

"No, my friend," Crane-man said. "It is only as far as the next village. A day's walk, on your young legs."

Tree-ear frowned, mystified. But before he could speak, Crane-man continued. "Your mind knows that you are going to Songdo. But you must not tell your body. It must think one hill, one valley, one day at a time. In that way, your spirit will not grow weary before you have even begun to walk."


I reread A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park because I remembered how much I had enjoyed it while thinking back on all the Newbery Award winning books I have read. It is still one of my favorites--simple, beautifully told, interesting history, moving story. You won't regret reading it once or twice either.