What'cha Reading?

[SD45T-2]

Leyte, 1944: The Soldiers' Battle by Nathan Prefer. I'm up to about November 10th.

https://www.amazon.com/Leyte-1944-Soldiers-Nathan-Prefer/dp/1612001556

 

[Aquarelle]

I just finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It was pretty good. Before that I read Uprooted by Naomi Novik which I adored!

Next up is The House of Velvet and Glass.

 

[Tina&Jane]

Intimations by Zadie Smith

I'm also trying to read The Pearl that Broke Its Shell for my bookclub, but I can't get into it

 

[Abcdenfp]

if women rose rooted - sharon blackie

 

[Mole]

'The Hidden Life of Trees", by Peter Wohlleben, is totally amazing. Who would have guessed there is so much in a tree, click the hidden life of trees review - Google Search.

 

[Liason]

I'm re-reading my favourite series: The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker.
Think post apocalyptic in the historic past with magic and ugly violence, a coming of jesus/siddhartha-esque character that takes hold of people through analysing their faces.

 

[EJCC]

Reading Dune to prepare for the movie (whenever Denis will let us watch it online).

 

[JocktheMotie]

Reading Dune to prepare for the movie (whenever Denis will let us watch it online).

I am definitely risking the 'rona for Dune in IMAX.

 

[EJCC]

I am definitely risking the 'rona for Dune in IMAX.

That sounds amazing (and also potentially less 'rony at a matinee)! I might do the same in the event of lower covid rates.

 

[JocktheMotie]

That sounds amazing (and also potentially less 'rony at a matinee)! I might do the same in the event of lower covid rates.

Thankfully in Toronto we have extremely high vaccination, low COVID cases, and an incredible IMAX theater.

 

[tinker683]

"Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History" by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta.

Very well written, but the subject matter is...rough

 

[Burning Paradigm]

"Harlem Shuffle" by Colson Whitehead. Wildly entertaining so far.

 

[fatgurl]

A wattpad book actually. It's called the Faerie Guardian. It's a fantasy book and has been really interesting so far. I love any book about fairies.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth by Kristin Henning

Typeset In The Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies by Dave Addey

D&D Player’s Handbook

 

[Burning Paradigm]

Continuing to read my collection of Sherlock Holmes stories

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre

 

[SD45T-2]

Amazon.com: Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944: 9780451475060: McManus, John C.: Books

Amazon.com: Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944: 9780451475060: McManus, John C.: Books

www.amazon.com

It arrived a couple days ago. I'd been waiting two years since reading Fire and Fortitude. I'm 60 pages in and just finished the chapter about the 7th Infantry Division at Kwajalein.

The third book will cover the last several months of combat plus how the world was shaped by the immediate aftermath and the continuation of the Chinese civil war. I'd don't know how long I'll have to wait for that final volume, but I imagine it will be about as big as the first two (640 and 656 pages respectively).

 

[Cellmold]

The Master and His Emissary was so good, I'm looking forward to these:

 

[jacky45]

I am reading How To Get to the Top of Google by Mr. Tim Kitchen. This is a very comprehensive book and every SEO should follow the techniques that are shared in this book. What most people don't understand is that once you know what to do, it's actually extremely straightforward to rank highly in Google. But there's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding out there, and many businesses feel that they don’t have the time or expertise.

 

[Hellena Handbasket]

A Discovery of Witches

 

[Totenkindly]

Got The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes yesterday (the fourth Hunger Games book) and finished it before bed.

It was pretty readable, although I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it. Much of it does cover the the 10th Hunger Games event, and it's interesting looking at how things changed between that event and the events of the trilogy, which was based around the 74th and 75th event. I think another interesting aspect was how after the first war that Capitol (aside from the richest people in the city) were also struggling with poverty and hunger, including the Snow family. War affects everyone, not just the losing side.

There were some other issues, though:

• The story is from the perspective of Coriolanus Snow, which is kind of shady in that do any of us really care about him based on the man he became? And do we really want anything humanizing him? Of course OTOH the truth is that good people and bad people are all human, and typically not all good and not all bad. It's more of a thing where we are uncomfortable with humanizing someone we find despicable. I always did find it interesting that Snow in the original trilogy was pretty terrible, yet still had his points of honor, and that the rebels fighting for the side of "good" were capable of stooping to the lows of their enemies, resulting in Prim's death.
• Snow is 18 at this point, so the development comes through the fact that his life philosophy is not yet baked. This isn't the time period I expected a Snow prequel to fall, I thought it would deal more with his rise to power -- but this is in the time period where he has ideas (some of which are unvocalized) that don't necessarily reflect his later views, and the circumstances of this story set him on the path of where he ends up.
• For HG #10, they use rising students as the mentors and many of the rules we saw in the trilogy don't yet exist. Snow is paired up (cruelly) with the girl from District #12, who is expected to lose -- and who he begins to fall in love with and vice versa mainly due to his commitment to supporting her to become a victor -- he does lots of good/noble things in pursuit of this, but they are mottled because he is also doing them out of self-interest. She is kind of the anti-Katniss, so there is that... warm, empathetic, charismatic, a musician... but a good portion of the book happens in District 12 and it seems like a pretty odd coincidence. OTOH, it could explain why Snow is so annoyed by Katniss and District #12, it's dredging up these kinds of memories.
• Snow shows much of his craftiness and ability to also play the crowds that he shows in his 80's in the trilogy. His personality also becomes established and he scans probably like an IxTJ type? He develops a negative view of people (based on his own behaviors in this book as well as others, when put into combative situations), where chaos is a huge deal that devolves society and you always have to have controls on it to lock everything down or society will collapse. Lawful Evil personality, although he seems more good earlier in the story... and then realizes when he almost abandons Panem for the sake of love that he likes his organized, knowable life in the Capitol or in power of some sort even more than the uncertainty of the wilderness and love itself. (Because love demands trust, and he is not a trusting or trustworthy person in terms of his primary focus being on security and order -- he starts on his long road of selling out relationship for that security.)
• Tigris is Snow's cousin, a few years older than him, and they are very close in this novel, surviving together and very committed to each other as a family since they are both orphaned and live together with their grandmother, the last Snows so to speak. It shows how much he changed over the years to where in 65 years he has undermined her life and she is actively rooting for his death.
• The story locks in who actually created the Hunger Games concept, as a way to move the real war into a controlled environment where the Capitol had the upper hand.
• Some of the songs showing up in the trilogy are explored via the performer families here, and The Hanging Tree song features prominently in the story -- Snow is very aware of the origins of the song.
• We also see a lot of early development of the mutts/mutations here. Dr. Gaul is kind of a frightening intelligent psychopath with no moral compass aside from whether something can be done and how can the Capitol stay on top -- it's coupled with her having a kind of genial appearance/style, but she has no conscience, she's entirely pragmatic. Anyway, HG #10 is the first in which mutts are used to move things along.
• The arena has not been developed or automated so extensively, it is primarily just an arena that this year due to some explosions opened up the warrens and tunnels beneath the arena, adding a new dimension to the games which enables more easy hiding. This is also the first year in which donations are implemented through drones, so it becomes important to woo the audience into providing resources to their favorite players. The situation is nothing near as elaborate as what we see decades later, with computer control centers and manufactured environments and lots of mutts involved.
• The tributes are treated like crap at this point in time and many are starving or in ill health by the time the games occur. This is very different from Katniss' time, where the Capitol determines that they can control the situation better and play everything up to the audience by treating the reaped like celebrities, feeding and clothing them, and making sure they are in their best shape for the games. They also develop ways to get more support from the districts for their reaped, by providing rewards to the winning district and creating the victor's villages and a lifetime of reward to the survivors.
• There's a lot of reference to Capitol families who feature in the trilogy as well (65 years later). The first emcee of the Hunger Games is Lucky Flickerman, who is probably no doubt related to Caesar Flickerman who takes over the role. But there's reps from the Crane and Heavesbee families as well, among others.
• "Katniss" is apparently the local name for a swamp potato. I don't recall if this was ever stated in the trilogy.