book: gregor the overlander

by Suzanne Collins

While grocery shopping in the 'boro, and before I tried my best to avoid said large chain store, I would stop by the book section to see what Young Adult books were there, and were within a reasonable price. Un/fortunately, I will always give into a book for a good price.

Well, I needed a Suzanne Collins fix, as I wait patiently for the last book in the trilogy to arrive. The only problem is, school starts the 23 August. I guess homework will just have to wait a day while I read Mockingjay. The same will happen when Heroes of Olympus arrives.

But enough of that - I think I've established my desire.

Oh, one last randomness - a movie is in the works for the Hunger Games. Thankfully Collins is writing the screen play, so there's hope it turns out.

I had known that previous to Panem, Collins had written something about Gregor Overlander. I was skeptical, but this last week, I took a chance, and was glad.

Gregor and his family live in NYC. There's his mom, grandma, and two little sisters. Lizzy got to go to summer camp, but Gregor had to stay to baby sit his youngest sister, Boots. Why, you ask? Because their father disappeared two years, 13 months something something days ago.

While doing laundry, Boots and Gregor fall down, and land in the Underland. The first 'people' they meet are the crawlers, who just happen to be giant roaches.

I HATE roaches. It is not a passing, eww factor. It is a a deep loathing. It was hard to keep listening at this point.

(Random fact - Roaches are at the top, followed by crickets, you know, those disgusting black ones, that leap at you unpredictably? Then caterpillars likened to a morbid curiosity. Kinda like picking a scab. Gross, but interesting. OH, almost forgot earwigs. A childhood friend once told me that earwigs get into your ears, and eat your brains. Never got over that. They're probably equal to crickets.)

You are introduced to the colonies of underland: the people, crawlers (roaches), spinners (spiders), fliers (bats) and gnawers (rats), all of ginormous sizes. Oh, and there is this prophecy. Oh, and Gregor's dad is known to the Underlanders, and he's still alive! And they believe the rats have him.

What I liked about this book was that you cared about the protagonists, which is quite a feat for such a short book. The plot is something that rings similar to many other fantasy books, but it was well done, and thus, enjoyable. A good, just for fun, book.

Read the first chapter, here.

find the kitty

Yay for a legit picture of Max the Cat in his new surroundings.

You can also have a nice look at my sweet pack. It was very kind to me on the Grand Canyon hike, thank goodness.

books i've read

Okay, so I've read a number of books this summer, since school has been out. I would do the few I managed to read over the school year, but they are in Greensboro. So, I shall list them below, in no particular order. I hope to get them all talked about soon, but if there any that are of more interest than another, let me know, and I shall hurry up the production.



Books Finished

To Kill a Mockingbird - bought with per diem during the Old Time Ensemble's trip to the NC coast
The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan* - Riordan's Egyptian style Percy Jackson series (I know it's more than that, but it's the easiest way to explain.)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson
The Candy Shop War, Brandon Mull
Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel*
I am the Messenger, Markus Zusak (read during school - I remembered one!)
Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins*
Once Upon a Marigold, Jean Ferris (also during school)*



Re-Reads

Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale*
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konisgburg*
The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks*
Cater Street Hangman, Callendar Square, Anne Perry*



Books Begun, hope to finish

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers, Amy Stewart
A Brief History of the Smile, Angus Trumble
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne*
44 Scotland Street, Alexander McCall Smith



Book to Read

Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself, Maud Hart Lovelace
Olive's Ocean, Kevin Henkes
Septimus Heap, Book 5: Syren, Angie Sage
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
The Adventures of Sally, PG Wodehouse
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

I think that's all of them.

* Audio Books

book: tender morsels

In response to the question, "...[W]hat message would you like readers to take away after reading [your book]? The author, Margo Lanagan responds, "No message. I'd like to think that they'd look up from the last page, shake themselves, and find it hard to come back to the real world. I'd like to think for the next several days, questions that were touched off by the novel would keep being brought back to their mind...."(1)

Well, I think she accomplished that.

This book is the story of Liga, her early life that is heavily tainted by sexual violence, her two girls that come as a result, and their life in Liga's personal heaven. To keep this review from going off into tangents, I will restate what I wrote in my journal last night after finishing:

What I got from it [the book] is that sometimes, after bad things happen to us, we go to our own personal heavens to keep out the hurt. But without hurt, there is an absence of joy, as well. And as hard as it is [for Liga and her daughters] to return to the real world, it is necessary; [they were] unable to progress in [Liga's] 'personal heaven.'

I'm not sure if I would recommend the book heartily - no - I would recommend it. However, it deals very bluntly with violence agains women, mainly sexual violence. Specifically incest and rape. As the author says, the acts are never "on-screen"(2), [but] you definitely know what is going on. The author becomes/is quite adept with her euphemisms.

An interesting point is that in Australia, the book is marketed for adults, and in the USA the book is marketed to Young Adults.(3) The back contains a Q&A with the author. 

I would only add that it is the author's reaction to the Brother's Grimm, Snow-White and Red Rose. And the "super-nice"(4) women in that version "to be passively accepting and reliably amiable...." Lanagan much prefers Caroline Stahl's earlier tale, "The Ungrateful Dwarf."(5)


All quotes are from the author's interview, found in the back of the 2008 paperback version of the book.
1- 14
2- 6
3- 12
4- 10
5- 6

find the kitty

Okay, I'm a bit slow today. And since I didn't post the HIGHLY anticipated recurring post last week, I felt an extra push to follow through this week.

Well, it was this, or Fainting Goats.

Enjoy.



More here.

new member of the family

I would like to introduce the newest member of my family:

Manny, the Mandolin. 

Okay, that's really not his name, but I thought it was punny.

But look at his beeyootiful backside.

I thought he was purty, too.

I forget what the guy said the wood was, but I think the style of the back is not very common. I will say that the model is one of a kind - a prototype that will be downgraded in materials to meet a certain price point. Which of course appealed to my 'I-like-to-be-different'-ness.

But, besides all the nice aesthetic appeal, it has quite a lovely, resonant sound. Including the one I played last semester, I've only really played four mandolins in my life. There was a nice rich toned mahagony, and a super lacquered one; this was a nice balance between the two styles.

I'm currently playing scales, and working on getting the individual notes to sound. This whole string, well, let's just say I prefer holes to strings. So much more intuitive!

And for those concerned about my oboe-ing, I have a standing rule that I cannot practice mandolin till I have practiced the oboe. I only broke that rule once, when my new strap came in the mail.

find the kitty

And now for something a little different.