The Zombies Came to Vermont

I was bored last night, and sick of dealing with fixing something, so I took the time to watch a low budget gem called Zombie Town (see the trailer here).



What is the film about? Well, part of it is a farce about small town life in Vermont (based on what Google could tell me about landmarks, it was filmed in and around Rutland) and a loving critique of the zombie genre. Yes, there are a lot of guns, and the two male heroes do not have applicable skills to surviving a zombie apocalypse but...the female protagonist is of course a skilled biological research science who just happens to have come home to Vermont. It is so very likely.

But...

For all of the faults of the film, it was really enjoyable, especially how they were laughing at themselves with the purposely knowing dialogue.

It is on Netflix Instant, so...it is not something that you have to go looking for and it is worth the 87 minutes of running time. I mean, if you are into the zombie thing.


Speaking of zombies, I read Iain McKinnon's "Domain of the Dead" and the follow-up (parallel narrative) "Remains of the Dead".

Yes, they are slim volumes, and yes, they do not offer anything new to the genre, but they are great character studies and they offer another version of how the world would look, especially things about the human population being reduced to fifteen million people and the world under martial law (which offers some interesting looks on how conscription would work for everyone, and not just for military service, and how crackdowns would happen...).

They are great beach reads of the "holy crap, are they going escape!?!" variety.

Things that I love

(In no particular order)

Top Chef - I have given up on most reality television (Okay, I may have been sucked in to Dance Moms the other night but it will not be a thing.) but Top Chef drags me in like a Sarlacc (Yes, I have a dislike of that particular pop culture universe but...sometimes the analogy is an apt one, and it will make some of you laugh...I hope.) and I stay there. Part of it is the personalities, part of it is the food, and part of it is Padma. I am not looking forward to this season ending.

All Over Albany - Every time I am on this site, I see something that makes me laugh, makes me think, or both. Occasionally, something makes me angry, which is a goodness as well. I love the community that exists on this site and that even the contentious of fights seems like a loving if unstable family Thanksgiving.

New Books - I have been reading a lot lately (across genres) and the fascinating thing is that even bad books (poor realized plots or characters, or the genre novel that tries too damn hard to be something that it is not, even the first attempt at the Great American Novel) have great things to offer. The contributions to the circus of ideas that are put forth show that these people all have talent that may be misdirected. Yes, even Among The Living.

Laundry - Everyone has a chore that they enjoy and mine is laundry. I love laundry. I like the folding of the clothes. I get excited about the dryer sheets. Laundry rings my bell. Laundry gets my motor running. Laundry is awesome. (Your millage may vary.)

Walking & Podcasts: I love podcasts and I love walking. (By the way, RunKeeper is amazing and it helps with goals and metrics.) Together, they are like peas and carrots, or chocolate and peanut butter, or something you like coupled with something you like. It would be a little better if I had a dog. Maybe some day.

*Needless to say, I love and adore my friends (old and new, the ones I talk every day with and the ones that have slipped away but are still at the front of my mind), my family (who are amazing people that drive me insane while putting up with my insanity), and my son, TEA, who is my favorite person on the planet and an amazing young man.

PotD - Reading Material

Rereading before the movie comes out.

(In other book news, Colson Whitehead's "Zone One" is much better and far different than I expected. I would not be surprised to see it on the various lists signifying the necessity to include it in the modern canon.)

Book Recommendations

These are three of the books that I have read recently. I thoroughly recommend them all. (There have been others and it is best if I speak not of them, however, I will give a hint about a book I did not like. The book is about a guy with a name like Jteve Sobs.)

11/22/63 (NY Times Review)

The Year After the Flood (NY Times Review)

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (NY Times Review)

Books make a great gift and buy from a local independent book store.

Monday Morning Coming Down

When HJ77 left this morning at 6 am or something like that, I decided to stay up, watch the news (both WNYT (because I promised) and MSNBC) and I saw more about Amanda Knox then I wanted to, not because I do not care (not that I really do) or that it is not relevant (it is not) but that is all that people were talking about (that and #OccupyWallStreet which...well...later).

It was interesting, especially in a way that is totally disinteresting. She is, in all likelihood, headed back to Seattle. Justice has been served, no?

This weekend was a blast. HJ77 came in on Friday night, and I made a angel hair with a white sauce and meatball meal and we just relaxed and watched baseball, or at least until the rainout. My lack of sleep during the week had finally caught up with me, even while HJ77 was wired, and I had to crash, hard, like a Cessna flying to the Vineyard.

Saturday, we headed out to Oktoberfest at Wolff's Biergarten after a quick trip through the Troy Waterfront Farmer's Market. (Side note: When I want to wear a heavier jacket, even if it is a weather proof suede, I should not listen to other people (*cough*) when they say I should just go with a fleece jacket. Just sayin'.) It was very fun and it did get packed enough where my discomfort with crowds ended up getting the best of me prompting a quick exit...well, not that quick. We were there for three hours, largely hanging out with Teacher Dave. After Oktoberfest, we headed to McGeary's, which was much warmer, and had a couple of drinks, including McGeary's wonderful mulled cider.

We headed home and it was dinner time, as well as baseball time. (Surf and turf(aged and dry rubbed NY Strip steaks & Maine Lobster tails), with an extremely overcooked cauliflower risotto and fresh string beans sauteed in olive oil and Balsamic, for those following along at home.) A note on the baseball game. The name Fister will make me giggle. I am not going to apologize for it. It was a wonderful Saturday and wonderfully fun.

Sunday, because various plans fell apart, and because HJ77 was a little under the weather, we stayed it, watched sports and read, all the while I was doing a low and slow treatment on some Danish pork ribs. Now, let me lay some knowledge on you who don't do BBQ. Danish ribs are the small ones. They have lots of connective tissue and the meat is tough to get at. You have to do low and slow on them or you have now meat to eat. They also react well to being braised as part of the process, so that you can keep them moist. I made a dry rub where the flavor profile consisted of a dark chili powder as well as a Madras curry with some of the moisture for braising coming from an English Ale and some Balsamic (for both the acid as well as the sugar content). It was an experiment. I think they turned out well.

While we were noshing on the ribs, the various sporting events (The Yankees were losing, the Giants were losing, and the Patriots looked unstoppable.) required some light gambling. At the top of the ninth, I did bet HJ77 that the Yankees would come back, and they almost did. I did win my dollar back with my call that the Giants would come back against the Cardinals. You win some, you lose some...

As to what we were reading, HJ77 was reading The Leftovers while I was reading (and I am still reading) The Coming of the Third Reich. Reading this book, especially given the current situation, makes me uneasy, especially as I watch the news of the world, the national news, and think about the conversations that I have had with those who are actively intellectually incurious. There is a lot here to process, and a lot to rethink about the rise of National Socialism. At one point, I read a section to HJ77 and asked her to replace "National Socialism" with Tea Party and Germany with "The United States". She rightly pointed out that I was being unfair.

Anyway, that was my weekend...how was yours?

Lamb, Books, & Picnic Baskets

• I finished "Dog Blood" this past weekend.  The author has written a number of things that I have liked but not loved.  In this case, I loved it.  I strongly suggest that you read Hater and then Dog Blood and tell me what you think.  Especially if you have grown tired with some of the tropes of the zombie genre.  This is not a zombie book (oh yes, it is...) but it explores the same themes.  I look forward to the third book of the series (Them or Us) which comes out in about eight weeks.  I mean, if you don't like the genre, I understand...but then why are you reading me?
• On Saturday, HJ77 and I went looking for things to fill a picnic basket.  My suggestion was "Let's head to the Farmers' Market" which HJ77 had offered resistance to before. Now, I know someone like me loving Farmer's Markets is so much of a cliche that it is stuff that white people like. But I do love them...I like fresh, seasonal, local food, and I love tasting new things that I have never had before.  When I think of Farmers' Markets, I think of the Troy Waterfront Farmers' Market or the Greenmarkets in New York and I have certain expectations about what as going to be available.  My belief is that you should be able to buy the bulk of your food directly from the producers.  (There is also the thing about buying fresh and raw food as opposed to the boxed crap that most people shovel into their maws, but I understand why my situation, while not being unique, is different.) So, in our quest to fill the aforementioned picnic basket, we headed to the largest Farmers' Market in Rhode Island, the Hope Street Farmers Market.  HJ77 was very happy at the Troy market and she had told me that her's was different.  Because I am an idiot, I thought "How different could it be?" Mainly because Providence is one of those towns that is full of smart people with hippie sensibilities and enough money to demand what they want.  Yeah, I was wrong.  It was not that it was a bad farmers' market it just that it was...small.  I was expecting a literal cornucopia of fresh and local delights and...while there was some of that, there was also a lot of...the same stuff.  We ended up having to go to a...wait for it...Whole Foods to get the rest of the things for the picnic basket.  Ironic, no?
• On Saturday night, HJ77 and I had dinner at Cook & Brown Public House and while I am not going to write up a review (I am sure that HJ77 will over at SugarnSpice.) I wanted to mention a couple of things.  One, the service was incredible. It was just great.  Our table was great too. (I am wondering if it is a Union thing.  HJ77 graduated with the Chef-Owner.  I do not remember him.  I doubt he remembers me.  Maybe that is why the service was great but I doubt it.  I think that they offer this level of service for everyone.) Our appetizer was outstanding.  Lobster makes everything better, no?  Especially when it is cooked well.
  
  Doesn't that look grand?
  
  For the entree, I had the lamb shoulder, which is very good.
  
  Now here is the issue. The difference between very good and incredible comes down to one little thing for me. I love chorizo. It is a wonderful sausage and pork is always good. It also has a distinct flavor. The sauce for the farro salad was finished with chorizo oil and at the end of the meal, that is all that I tasted. Again, not bad but...I was loving the taste of the lamb and relishing what was my first real Autumn meal of the year. The dessert (which HJ77 will talk about) made up for it. If you are around, and can get a reservation, please do check it out. (Oh, as a by the way, the Union alum who is the Chef-Owner is also a James Beard Award winner...that is pretty cool.)
  

Feeling Out of Sorts

Maybe it is because the summer is actually over, that it is a rainy Tuesday, or maybe it is because I am coming to terms with time and decadent behavior catching up with me and my increasingly decrepit body, but I am feeling out of sorts. (Hence the post title...see, it does make sense. I am not senile. Get off my lawn.)

I finished two of the four books that I am reading this morning. The Leftovers (Great, and possibly the best book I have read in the last year but the ending seemed too...expected. However, finishing did allow me to finally get around to read Stephen King's review in the Times. Interesting perspective that Mr. King has. I have read someplace that in addition to being a critic, he is also an author. I could see that.) and The Know-It-All and have started The First Days (which isn't as bad as the back cover suggests (watch below) and I have needed to get my zombie on).

One of the reasons I am feeling out of sorts (for the definition, I find this useful.) was because today is the day that I started getting serious (or as serious as I get about anything) about my training and it was hard. Running at quarter to six in the rain was not the optimal time to be doing anything, let alone running on a body that ate well and drank well for the past week (it was my birthday and HJ77 was here for the whole time) but I did it.

While running, a song came on and I found myself singing along with it. This, in and of itself, is not odd as I sing all the time. Not well but I make up for my lack of skill with enthusiasm. First, I was able to run in the rain because HJ77 picked up the iPod shuffle that I had been wanting to pick up for myself but had difficulty ever getting around to purchasing and running with the iPhone instead, which was sub-optimal (Thank you!) and the song that I was singing outloud had been a trigger for a while, creating a cascade of memories and I only realized this as I was getting to the part of the sing-a-long that had always made me laugh. So...this is a goodness, no?

Apart from the searing pain in my chest and my knees aching like they were trying to give birth to their own little knees, the run in the rain went well, and even better, I was able to laugh and sing-a-long to a song that I had not been able to in a while.

Life could be a lot worse, and even then, it would still be okay, if all I have to complain about is my aching knees and the various banalities of everyday existence. One of my friends accused me of being less fun because I was happy. He did not apologize for that (nor did I expect him to. He has a reputation to maintain.) when we had dinner last night, but he said he was glad for me.

Current Reads

The Leftovers - Tom Perrotta - I am just getting into this one and I have noticed something different about this. It is less mean than Little Children or Election. I think this is a good thing. Perrotta becomes more engaging with every page. I know that this book has been reviewed a lot (I have not read them but I can only assume that they are great) and that being nothing related to a literary critic, I suggest you pick this up on your own.

The First Days - Rhiannon Frater - This book is kind of famous for some reason. I picked it up at the Book House because I had read good things about it (even though I cannot find the review online any longer) and I was hoping that it was going to be another fun zombie book. I have to withhold judgment until I actually finish it but...maybe the reviewers and I look for different things when it comes to writing and such. I do not enjoy giggling at scenes that should be evoking a sense of horror or dread, but maybe they enjoy that.

Dog Blood - David Moody - If you loved Hater, you owe it to yourself to read this. Just do it. Stop asking questions.

The Know It All - A.J. Jacobs - What does a guy who has outsourced his life do for fun? Read the Britannica cover to cover. I like Jacobs as a writer, especially some of the things he has done for Esquire but I am not sure that I would like him as a friend or colleague.

A Summer Reading Suggestion

If you have been reading me for a while, or know me in real life, you know that I am a huge fan of apocalyptic fiction. Maybe it is because so many of my favorite novels as a child were based on the end of the world, or what came after, or maybe it was watching The Day After at too impressionable an age. Maybe, just maybe, it is some narcissistic belief that when the end of the world comes, I will be spared and I will help in the rebuilding process. Yes, I know...someone like me in charge is much more terrifying than the end of the world...

But, that is an unnecessary digression. Apologies.

Last summer, I picked up an anthology of end of the world short stories called Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Now, I mention that I picked this up last year because yesterday, I also picked it up for my Nook. (Buying too many books at the same time and not reading them Fail?)

It is a wonderful collection.

I had read a number of these before, like Cory Doctorow's When SysAdmin Ruled the World (which...come on...feeding into my erroneous belief that I would be of any value at the end of the world...well...maybe I could help with uptime), however, a number of them were foreign to me.

If you like the short story, and want some short stories that are perfect to give you chills as the sun is beating down on you while the beer you are sipping on perspires, I must make this suggestion. Support your local book seller as well. (You know that you can buy your e-books through your local book seller, right?)

Offending me as a lit-geek and a sci-fi geek

Glen Weldon has pulled off something special. He has irked me as both a lit-fiction guy as well as a fan of speculative fiction.

Glen, I am really glad that you feel comfortable speaking for both groups of fandom authoritatively.

And your use of the term "hard sci-fi" to define China Mieville shows that you fail to understand both Mieville and hard science fiction...but that is okay. I mean, you are just writing a "summer reading list for X group" list for NPR. It is not like you are going to be influencing anyone.

Though, I am really happy that you included Albert Brooks' 2030 on list. Well done.


Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Books For A Fantastical Summer : NPR:

"Publishers like to throw around the term 'speculative fiction,' but you won't see too many fans of the genres it comprises — fantasy and science-fiction — bandying it about. For one thing, it's redundant; all fiction speculates, or it isn't fiction. More importantly, true fans of science fiction or fantasy don't feel a particular need to justify that love, much less dress it up in more 'respectable' language. It's a mug's game, after all: Those readers who reflexively turn up their noses at genre fiction will continue to do so, no matter what name it goes by. (That they will do so while embracing 'literary fiction' — a genre replete with tropes and strictures of its own — is an irony lost on them.)"

I still do not believe in magic...

Not that long ago, I was looking for a book suggestion, and someone pointed me in the direction of China Mieville's Kraken.

I will admit that there was some trepidation going into this, mainly based on Mieville's history of writing fantasy novels. (As you may remember, I am a genre guy, but I lean to the more speculative fiction side of the debate, especially works that are based in our world...see: Gibson, William.) When I think of fantasy, I think wizards, and spells, and awful imagery (not awful in the graphic sense but more like the "one" with special powers who dies, and resurrects to save the world...see: Potter, Harry.) that takes me out of the narrative and makes me want to shake the author for being...disingenuous(?) or using magic as a crutch to drive the story forward. Write yourself into a corner, introduce a "special" ability of the protagonist and "BOOM" there is now a pathway from your corner to the third act.

This is not to say that speculative fiction, especially Hard Sci-Fi, does not suffer from this as well, generally in the ability of a reasonably primitive culture to utilize some wonderfully advanced alien artifact in order to "save the day/planet/galaxy". For an example of this, see: Stargate...any iteration. Star Trek would always re-purpose their engines to do something amazing within the last twenty minutes of broadcast, saving the day, et cetera. One of the things that made me love the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica was Ronald D. Moore's promise to fans that he would not use "science as magic" to drive the story forward, and he mostly lived up to this until the end of the series, where he went off the rails and had actual FRACKING ANGELS. (Yes, I am still bitter. I will remain bitter.)

Yes, someone will remind me of the quote from Arthur C. Clarke. Yes, yes. I understand. It is still a cheat. Alastair Reynolds makes his physics work, and while he does have a Ph.D in the stuff, his writing does not suffer from over explanation or the "science is magic crutch.

"Why don't you like magic?"

Well, because it is not real. Magic, and the supernatural, can be easily explained, and if it cannot be explain yet, it will be soon. Like the canals on Mars (which may have been apocryphal to begin with), with a little time and understanding of what people are actually seeing, a natural explanation, that works withing physics will be put forth. One of the (myriad) of reasons that I do not like cars is because they have become so advanced that I cannot understand how they really work. There are too many subsystems that are locked to the user and non-serviceable that they become...wait for it...magical. One of the reasons I like Open Source is that if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of what is going on under the hood of your computer, you are allowed, encouraged even, to do so. There is an order to my universe and I want my fiction to follow that same order. Sure, orcs were cool...when I was eleven.

But, I am off topic...

So, Kraken is about magic. Magic (called knacking), cults, gods (and Gods), and competing apocalypii (I am assuming that is how you pluralize apocalypse. Edify me.) as well as having the some of the characters speak in something that I would have difficulty describing as English, some patois of lower class English that was undecipherable for me for the first one hundred pages.

Yes, I read it. Yes, it was enjoyable, and for five hundred pages, a surprisingly quick read. Is it a great book? No. It is, however, well written and almost playful. I found myself laughing at various aspects of the story (the manufactured soul who had created a union of magical creatures and then set the union on strike...that is the funny.) and generally laughing at the story itself. I went through reviews after finishing the novel and saw that Kraken was described as "Pynchon-esque". I would not go that far, for both good and bad reasons. Pynchon has never written anything, or I have never read anything by Pynchon, that made me laugh out loud, and Mieville was a much more accessible author. Actually, the comparison to Pynchon, who some people love (I am not among them) is unfair because Mieville is better, at least for what is a beach book.

I spoke to a friend who had read this, and made the comparison to "House of Leaves" (which is another book that I alternately love for being so weird and readable while hating for the use of "magic") and I did not see it immediately however, I understand.

Anyway, if you want an odd book, about gods and men, cults and cops, and a curator who gets caught in the middle, plus a fun beach book, I suggest this.

Especially if you are by a body of water.

Everyone has favorites

And this is (by far) my favorite opening line to a novel.




Bonus points to the first person to identify it.

And I read something new that I like

Sunday afternoon, I ended up in one of those awful chain book superstores because my brother wanted to pick something up. Well, I was looking for something new to read but the problem with the awful chain book superstores (if I have to use it again, it will be abcss) is that the staff is generally unliterate. (NB: This is not to say that everyone who has worked in an abcss is unliterate as I know some very intelligent and well read people who have worked in an abcss and I do not wish to imply anything about them, not that they care.)

Anyway, I was left to my own devices to find something new to read.

I lucked out.

Directive 51 by John Barnes is interesting, moderately well written, and topical.

Knowing that some of you do not like genre fiction but give this one a chance!

Sometimes the simplest gifts are the best

As a gift for being part of Dan and Laura's wedding, the put together a gift bag for me, and this gift bag was the most amazing thing ever.

Beers and Books!

The Beers:
(Left to right)
Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale (NH)
Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils (MD)
Erie Brewing's Railbender Ale (PA)
Framboise Lambic (Belgium)
Ommegang's Three Philosophers (NY)
Erie Brewing's Mad Anthony's American Pale Ale (PA)
Dogfish Head's Aprihop (DE)

The Books:
Zombie, Ohio
Charles Bukowski's Women

Why are these so amazing? Think about it for a minute...if you know me, this is a great weekend. Plus, Bukowski! I love Bukowski (and I have Erik to thank for that).

But...

Beer and books. Craft beer and books is what I am all about and that with the exception of the Lambic, all the beers are made relatively locally and that makes me happy.

Local craft beer, good books, and that people to the time to understand what I love about life.

Amazing! Thank you, Dan & Laura.

Using Insomnia for Useless Things

Insomnia has been kicking my tail this week, and I haven't been trying to sleep all that hard. Rather, when I am finding it too hard to stay awake (around 4 am) I sleep and wake up at 6:30 and start my day. What have I been doing for the past couple of days between 11:30 and say 3:30?

Reading.

It is no secret that I love speculative fiction and I always have.

Sometime on Sunday, I remembered a story about a generation ship made out of a gas giant where the core had been turned into a (reasonably) habitable world for post-humans.

So, I thought that I remember which story this world was in and I wanted to read it.

I started with Pushing Ice and when I got to page 300 or so, I realized that I was reading the wrong book. But...I felt compelled to read it again. So, I finished it.

Then I thought it may have been in Eon, so I started reading that. The difference is that I realized my mistake about one hundred pages in, but once again, I felt compelled to finish the book.

Unwilling to let the vagaries of my memory determine which wild goose chase I would be going on, and it being 2 am, I let my Google Fu help out.

Turns out the novel I was looking for is called Marrow and while the story was right on, I never read the book.

Never.

So I did some more searching and discovered that the novel was based on a short story of the same name.

Maybe I read that?

Some more searching, led me to it being published in The Hard SF Renaissance which I have read through and was sitting in my bedroom. So, I read it.

With all that build-up and all that work, it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered.

Apropos of nothing

"Do you need transportation? Tools? Stuff?"
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."
"Okay, I will go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string."

Something...Missing

(This may be a possible selection for the next Books and Beer.)

How do you take a burglar and make them completely redeemable? How do you take a thief and make them the hero of your novel? How do you make someone with crippling shyness a love interest?

You make your main character a burglar with OCD (and an interesting and slightly difficult childhood) and a willingness to only steal things that the owners, or clients in the protagonists parlance, will never notice being gone.

There you have it. That is the complete story of Something Missing by Matthew Dicks.

This is a very fun book and I laughed out loud several times, and chortled continuously while reading it. It also reads much more quickly than the 292 pages that it is listed at. I was able to complete it, with a dinner break, between late afternoon and early evening on Sunday, but YMMV.

For being slight, and very funny, the novel does offer some interesting questions, and the author does not go out of his way to answer them. Which, in this case, is a very good thing, because answering the questions about what makes someone good or bad could only lead to a type of moral absolutism that is condescending and banal.

What makes the book come alive is the main character, Martin, who considered the people he steals from (mostly things like a bag of tomatoes here, some toilet paper there) clients and friends, albeit in a very bizarre way, and the action starts when Martin decides that he can "give back" to his clients, by making their lives better. His sweetness, combined with his very vivid oddness (flossing five times a day), make him one of the more enjoyable characters I have followed in the past couple of years.

If you are looking for something fun, quick, and interesting, I suggest purchasing Something Missing at your Local Independent Bookstore.

At the end, you cannot even trust yourself

(Just giving a "heads up" here, everything below this line may be spoilerific. You have been warned.)

Some books leave you with more questions than answers, and that is often comforting. The creator of the universe does not have all the answers, and life can not be summed up into something that is neat and occasionally nausea inducing.

Suzanne Collins does not try to answer all the questions in the third book of her Hunger Games trilogy and she does not have to. She answers the important ones and leaves more disturbing ones out there.

To summarize the first two novels, Katniss Everdeen, a young and poor woman living in what was the Appalachian region of the former United States is selected to fight for her District in the annual Hunger Games, a bread and circuses reaction to a civil war seventy five years previous. The bread and circuses aspect is taken quite literally with the nation being named Panem. She and a fellow citizen named Peeta compete and win, based on a number of duplicities and the fallout from this is great, with Katniss becoming the voice of a burgeoning resistance.

The next annual Hunger Games has Katniss and Peeta again fighting, with other previous victors. There is quite a bit of posturing regarding rights and such, and in the end, the "victors", along with help from the resistance, sabotage the Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, and rescue Katniss (while leaving Peeta) to make her the symbolic leader of the revolt against Panem. This revolt is coordinated by rebels and inhabitants of the mysterious (if you have never read any Soviet era literature or seen any dystopian films) District 13, which has been destroyed according to the official record.

And that is where we begin.

The only quality of any redeeming merit that Katniss possess is her unwavering lover for her sister and her refusal to see any harm come to her. Otherwise, she is what she is: oblivious, haughty, stubborn, rude, and quick to judge others, as well as being a skilled killer.

Mockingjay does nothing to disabuse of that notion regarding Katniss. More to the point, Collins goes out of her way to show that her protagonist is not an example of a complex and moral person, rather someone trapped by circumstances and by both sides into becoming something that she is neither comfortable with or can understand until the very end.

The is the story of a chess match, written from the perspective of a particularly well made and camera ready pawn.

Peeta (who is eventually rescued, after being tortured and brainwashed by President Snow, the leader of Panem) and Gale, Katniss' confidant, love interest, and protector, have a conversation about who will end up with Katniss when the revolution is over.

Gale states, "Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can't survive without."

Katniss, who is pretending to be sleeping when she overhears this, is sent into a fugue state and slowly comes to realize how she presents and who she really is. She comes to grip with her reality starting at that moment and the reality is that she is cruel, callous, and maybe irredeemable.

This is the beginning of the end, and the end is dramatic, with Katniss assassinating the new leader of Panem, the former leader of District 13 for essentially what amount to war crimes. Katniss is her own tribunal, and executioner.

The war crimes in question involve the fire bombing of children and then the killing of the first responders the same way. Among these first responders, and Katniss' real motivation for the assassination is Katniss' sister Prim. The only person she loves unconditionally in this world.

So...

These books take a number of facets of modern life in America and package them as a fairly deep allegory for young adults.

To make a quick list:

• The efficacy of torture
• Media as a tool for manipulating the masses
• The stardom of "normal" people in extraordinary circumstances
• The concept of a Just War
• Rebels against a powerful central government being the ideal
• Individualism, and rural pastoralism, as being the ideals for humanity
• The foppishness, and general uselessness, of urbanites
• A longing for a simpler time of small towns and simple pleasures

I know nothing of Suzanne Collins political views, and I really do not care about them. I can read however, and each of the bulleted points is on very clear display in the last novel. That being said, there are some counters that are offered in the book, and one regarding the uselessness of urbanites seems close to genuine, however the bulk of the book keeps hitting on those themes.

While not coming out and saying what the real audience for these books are, and not saying that these very popular books could be used as an indoctrination took themselves, I ask you...

What person would look that the above list and say, "Yeah, sure, you betcha" to the truths contained therein?

More on Books and Reading

A couple of months ago, on Fish's recommendation, I bought and read "The Giver" with the belief that I was going to give it to TEA to read. It ended up being far to dark for a then seven year old and I put it away for when he was a little older.

However, it did re-introduce me to the genre of young adult dystopian fiction (from now on, it will be referred to as YADF) which was a genre that I loved growing up. Think of the great ones from your youth: A Canticle for Leibowitz, Alas, Babylon and all those short stories that popped up. They changed my world view. One of the things that I loved about these books and stories was that there was no magic. It was a fantastic world but one that played by real world rules.

I read some of the Harry Potter series and the magic bothered me. The same problem existed with Pullman's Dark Materials series (but I could use the Clarke quote (See Law 3) here, because it was science-based even though it was fantastic) and I couldn't get into them.

Over the past couple of weeks, a number of people had mentioned The Hunger Games (including the good people on the Slate Political Gabfest) but when my friend Heather mentioned that she was reading it about a week ago, it fully hit my radar. Then as I was running some errands yesterday, the book was endorsed on Slate's Culture Gabfest, and I knew that I had to have it.

So, I purchased it and read it and I am hating Heather and the others that promoted this book. Why? Because it is the first of three and it is really good. Like I want to run out right now and get the second book right now good.

This story is set in a post apocalyptic America after a civil war and each area (or District) has two select two (one of each gender) children between the ages of twelve and eighteen to compete in the Hunger Games which is a combination of Thunderdome and Survivor.

Any more than that and I will give away too much of the story. What I can say is that even though these are YADF novels, at no point do they become condescending to the reader, and if you have some idea of what is going on now, you will be well prepared to understand the world (and you can figure out with area gets blown (literally) off the map).

Here is the perfect book (or books, I will get the other two tomorrow) for the cold winter that is still upon us.

On books and reading

While doing some legwork for the Beers and Books, I headed down to Market Block Books to ask if they would be okay with me recommending them as the official indie book store of this (hopefully these) events.

While there, I asked for recommendations for books for these events.

Stan recommended Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler.

Let me say that Stan made a wonderful recommendation. It was a stunningly good book, and I have read quite a few 9-11 novels (and make no mistake, this is what it is) and I have never felt the pathos quite the same way in any of the other novels that I have read.

My issue was not with the book, but with the discussion questions provided by the "Reading Group Guide".

Here was the one that set me off:

8. After months of taking care of people in the aftermath of the crash, Kevin is tired and frustrated. "Why all this fuss for people who died so publicly - so spectacularly - in a flash, when there was nothing for the thousands who died agonizingly slow, alone, shunned inside their rooms?...All the friends in New York City he'd watched die and no one cared?...Yet Douglas, who was too young to have experienced those years in New York, needed to talk" (p. 179). What is Kevin referring to in this passage? How does Kevin's past experience as a caretaker for the dying influence his reaction to the plane crash? Discuss the very different ways Kevin and Douglas responded to the crash.

Just to give you the briefest background on the two characters mentioned.

When the book begins, Kevin is 52, and he and his partner Douglas (aged 40) have moved to Nova Scotia to start an inn, from New York City.

The book takes place around 2001, based on the timeline established.

So...readers...

What is Kevin talking about?

Do you really have to ask? Do you really have to think about it?

Did the assistant who created these questions really think that the people who read this book would have to have it spelled out for them?

This is lit-fiction, not Twilight.

I could go off on a real rant, but I would spoil the book and I do not want to do that.