If We Burn

Oh man oh man oh man oh man.

I have discovered the Holy Grail of Awesome, and it is the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay. Which I finished early this morning.

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. I want everyone who reads this book to go into it completely fresh and unsullied, with only their own biases/expectations in tow. I will only leave you with my opinions of this 390-page tome of greatness.

To help you fully understand how much I loved this book, I will say this: I had a big, big day today. I had to pack all of my things and move up to my new apartment in Logan, plus at one I had a telephone interview for a Disney College internship, which I desperately want to get. Today was a day that needed a good night's rest preceding it.

However, after acquiring the book and arriving home at 1:30 a.m., I couldn't stop reading. I literally could not stop. Until I finished it at around 6 a.m.

Needless to say, today has been a blur of zombie-packing and fake cheeriness. All because of Mockingjay.

My theory for why I could not stop reading is that Collins' writing pulls you into her sparse, horrifying world and makes you feel like you have to be there. I couldn't put the book down because it would have felt like I was abandoning a friend.

On a final note, I had a nightmare about lizards last night.

READ THIS BOOK AND THEN CALL ME SO WE CAN GEEK OUT.

Le Petit Prince

One of my most favoritest books growing up was The Little Prince. It is a short story written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Originally the book was written in French, but there are several really good translations. I found my old copy of it laying around the other day and read it in about an hour. I forgot how much I loved it. 


The plot is basically that of a small prince that lives on an asteroid and is visiting Earth where he runs into a pilot that has broken down in the dessert. The pilot then proceeds to discover the wonderful adventures the prince has recently been on traveling around space. It is a very simple book fraught with complicated meaning if you care to look into it, which you don't have to if you don't want to bother.


Turns out there is a bunch of movie adaptations of the short story the most prominent of which involves Gene Wilder playing the role of a fox....I have been terrified of Gene Wilder ever since I saw Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (His creepy eyes mixed with his unreal intensity I think. It's just chocolate man--Lighten up!) Needless to say the man finds a way, in my opinion, of making everything he is involved in creepy. I will prove it. 


First read the quote from the book below:

(The little prince has just finished taming a wild fox and has to leave it in the wild to continue on his adventure) --The little prince went away, to look again at the roses. "You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made a friend, and now he is unique in all the world." And the roses were very much embarrassed. "You are beautiful, but you are empty,"...... 
And he went back to meet the fox. "Goodbye" he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."....
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."--

Now, watch the clip from the movie of it on YouTube. I predict you have first found the quote to be pretty great and will now find the same sentiment to be a bit disturbing after watching the clip.

Dear Kenny,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

-from everyone here at the book blog :D

Something new...

This picture seems appropriate concerning this post.

I'm gonna do something on this blog I've never done before: post about a book Kelsi recommended to me that I actually liked! Shocking, I know. But one must be varied and unpredictable lest one fall into the boring pit of monotony and languish there forever. So anyway, let's get talkin' 'bout The Hunger Games!

So I'm sure if you're acquainted with Kelsi you've heard at least a passing description of this book, but I'll let you have the benefit of the doubt and give you the rundown. So it's the future, right? And it's set in this place that once was a magical world called North America, see? And human civilization is split up into twelve districts scattered throughout the country and a capital city that has dominion over all the districts, okay? And years ago there used to be thirteen districts but when all the districts rose up against the Capital, District 13 was obliterated, comprende? And now every year, to remind themselves how pathetic they are and to dissuade them from ever rebelling again, each district has to give up one boy and one girl below the age of 18 to fight to the death in gladiator style games that the whole country will watch, you know? And the winner will have untold fame and fortune, but the twenty-three losers will have death. And that's the setup.

The story follows Katniss, a girl from District 12 who is desperately trying to make ends meet for her family of three (herself, her sister, and her mama) by hunting and trading. But her world is turned upside down when she is randomly chosen to compete in the games. And so Katniss The Hunter Of Squirrels And Other Small Rodents must become Katniss The Killer And Stabber Of Teenage Boys And Girls. And it is awesome indeed when she does.

I loved this book so hardcore. Action is one of the hardest things to do and do well in literature (I refer to bazillions of sci-fi books that fail miserably) and yet this book had me white-knuckled through all of its intense sequences. There's a rather awesome part when the Games first begin that's quite shocking and intense, but I won't spoil it. And kudos to Suzanne Collins for not pulling any punches. She makes a story about teens and tweens killing each other be as brutal and harrowing as it sounds. There's no sissy "maybe everyone can survive and be best friends forever" endings in this book. Only killing, killing, and then some more killing! Of course, if the book was straight action it would get rather tedious no matter how well written it was, and so it's just as well that the parts that take place outside the Games are engrossing. Ms. (Mrs.?) Collins has created a very intriguing world that I'd like to explore more and has filled it with characters that actually seem real and relatable. The dialogue never seems cheesy or hackneyed like it does so many other young adult novels. And let's talk about comedy! There's nothing funnier than teenagers killing each other in brutal and gut wrenching ways, amiright? And that previous sentence just put me on every 'Most Wanted' list in the country.

Obviously I can't say enough good things about this book, so I'll stop right there. Oh, except this: whoever you are, read this book immediately so we can talk about it and get to work on writing our fan fiction together. And if you read this book and you don't like it... I don't want to know you.

A Strange Journey, in scarlet

After my prolonged read of For Whom the Bell Tolls I launched into my complete collection of Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 starting at the beginning with numero uno A Study in Scarlet.
Again great, it began as a narration by Watson and as it is the first book told how Watson and Holmes became rommies. What is so strange about this story and why the members of a book blog comprised of mostly Mormons should read it is that Part II begins in the Western United States Desert!! Two weary travellers settle down in the shade of a boulder to die, but before they can launch into their death throws, and to the chagrin of awaiting vultures, they are rescued by the Brigham Young and the Mormons on their way to the promised land. At first Sir Arthur presents quite a favorable image of the Mormons. This however, is short lived as they become corrupted by total control in their new home. He even goes as far as to say that the Spanish Inquisition had nothin on the LDSers in Utah. My endnotes told me that while on a U.S. speaking tour he apologized to the Mormons while in Salt Lake for misrepresenting them. But what I find fascinating is this late 19th century fascination authors had with the Mormons. Jules Verne gave them a chapter in his book Around the World in 80 days. And here we have half of the first ever Sherlock Holmes book being set in Utah with the Mormons. I just never knew we were so that interesting to the world stage, my what peculiarity will do for you.
Now I'm blogginly up to date. I have begun my first ever biography, General Patton, a soldier's life. Coincidentally it's by the same guy that wrote Lion of the Lord, about Brigham Young. All of his other works are about military men, I'm not sure of the resemblance. . .

A Beautiful Journey

It all started with a pen. A Monte Blanc Fountain pen to be exact. This exact pen, made in honor of Ingrid Bergman. This pen sent me to wikipediea to see who this lovely dame Ingrid is. From there I learned that Ernest Hemingway desired most that she play the part of Maria in the movie For Whom the Bell Tolls. If my fellow book bloggers will recall I posted a question about who is Ernest and why is he significant. You were all very helpful. I then asked each of you which of his books I should read. Ken replied don't go near The Old Man and the Sea, Kelsen said The Sun Also Rises was great but didn't recommend it. However, it was Luke that pulled through with a reasonable response, said he simply, "Read For Whom the Bell Tolls, it's great." So I bought it and began reading it clear back in May. I LOVED this book!!! And I have our blog to thank for it. You all explained Ernest's style of writing to me and gave specific examples of how he used short declarative sentances which though short convey a ton of back story. I kept calling to mind Kelsen's example, "Baby shoes for sale, never been used". Knowing this I got so much more out of the book then I otherwise would have. It took me forever to read it but that was because I went over the lines very closely to make sure I got everything and then imagined the back story of the characters. Plus the imagery is so beautiful, book me a trip for Spain. But I still don't understand how he does it. How he creates such a beautiful picture because he doesn't blurt it out, it's underlying. After finishing the book I watched part of the movie Windtakers. I only watched part because it made the scenes I had just read in the book too vivid and painful. Finally I loved how he presented views of Spain and it's people from the view of a loving outsider and citizens view of other citizens. A long journey yes but very worth it!!