Bookish Thoughts

Gregor the Overlander  is a fun, quick read that follows the  Alice in Wonderland  template pretty closely, but with a few key changes that add a lot of emotional resonance. Gregor doesn't fall into the Underland alone, he follows his baby sister in, which means he spends a lot of the book taking care of a toddler. He's also reluctant to stay, knowing how much his mother will worry when her kids don't come home. It takes a lot - the promise of finding out what happened to his missing father - to bring him around to the idea of adventuring. Then again, there are parts of this book that remind me of nearly every other book in this genre. There's a quest and a prophecy. Friends and enemies met along the way. A world to be saved by a chosen one, and a map for how to do that. There are more twists, though. I'm not sure I've read many of these books that contain actual death and betrayal, and then deal with the shock and grief that come in their wake. I saw Henry...

With the upcoming release of the movie version of The Hunger Games , I decided to pause briefly in my consumption of Kvothe's tale so I could re-read the book and have it fresh in my mind. I read the whole trilogy about a year and a half ago in roughly a week. This story grabs hold of you and just doesn't let go. Reading the book the second time was a similar experience. Some of the flaws were a bit more obvious this time around. There are oddly formed sentences. Collins is perhaps a bit too fond of flashbacks, especially in the first third of the book. And Katniss' obliviousness of Peeta's true feelings for her gets a bit annoying. Even with all that, this book is hard to put down. Once again I found myself up until midnight*, trying to read just one more chapter. I finally had to stop in the middle of a chapter in order to avoid a cliffhanger and get some sleep. The book is action-packed and exciting. Collins' decision to narrate the entire thing...