After a hiatus I picked this book back up. (Mad spoilers for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire) The third book in the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay follows Katniss Everdeen through a rebellion led by District 13 against the Capital. Peeta Mellark, her maybe boyfriend and definite ally in the games is in the hands of the Capital. Katniss is herself in the hands of the authorities of District 13 which is not exactly freedom. She signs on to be the Mockingjay, the face of the […]
Can you ever be just whelmed?
So this year, I’m not doing the whole Booker Prize Longlist. After last year’s epic slog and some disappointments of a very large magnitude, I approached this year’s list with a more discerning eye. I immediately discounted three of the titles, while noting with varying degrees of smuggery that I owned another two of the list and had already readone of them. A fourth title, this one, was also sitting on one of the bookshelves in the flat, but it didn’t belong to me. It […]
Living for the ‘maybe.’
Goodreads summary: “Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland–known as The Death Shop–are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild–a savage–and her only hope of staying alive. A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile–everything he would expect […]
California, by Edan Lepucki
Set in the middle of this century, “California” spins a tale of an earth in flux. Droughts, super storms and climate shift have caused financial and environmental catastrophes that leave the 1% in “safe” enclaves while the rest scramble to eek out a life wherever they can, preferably out of the cities, preferably with like-minded souls that can provide a group illusion of safety and power. Cal and Frida are a young couple who flee dry Los Angeles to build an existence in […]