So Long Ago

It's been ages since I last posted.  I have since graduated with my MLIS.  Reading is back at the top of my list of past times, as it should be.  I never finished Haddix' Shadow Children...maybe someday.  I have gone back to my mysteries...Krueger, Reichs, Jackson, Connelly...

More to come later.

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

I saw this book on a display table at Barnes & Noble.  The cover caught my eye--the front of a Chinese jacket/overcoat.  I am very attracted to Asian art--very refined, delicate and it always tells a story.  When I read the inside cover, I wasn't all that impressed, but I thought "I'm still going to buy it.  It might surprise me."  Always work on your instincts when it comes to a book.  This one surprised me.

Although very sad and poignant, it is also quite ordinary in terms of the movements and actions of the people.  This story takes place in 1979, Communist China.  The town was specifically built by the regime and specifically "planted" with people to promote the socialistic cause.  There are also some people who wandered into this village.  It is, on one hand, small and on the other, quite large.  There are distinct disparities amongst the social and economic classes.  There are boundaries that are prescribed and unspoken.  We meet people of the lowest beggar and of the highest government within the town.

The story is about the actions and reactions of a community when faced with, are part of and after the excution of a counterrevolutionary woman.  Some of the stories are excruciatingly ugly.  Some of them, such as her parents, are excruciatingly sad.  Some never had to occur.  Some should have happened and you wonder what if?  In the end, you know that this could have really happened.  All these storylines happened because of the excution of that woman.  She had no knowledge they would happen and couldn't have controlled many of them if she had known.

In 1979 I was 10 years old and I was entering the 4th grade.  I knew about free elections.  I knew I liked to read a lot.  I knew I could go home and have a good dinner and be loved.  I had siblings who laughed and loved.  I had parents who cared and protected.  I live  in the United States, where freedoms are protected--freedom of speech and of press.  Freedom of religion and thought.  Education is valued for the ideas it creates.  I cannot imagine living in China in 1979.

The author is originally from China and lived in this regime.  She now lives in the United States.  The Vagrants by Yiyun Li.

Margaret Peterson Haddix

I'm going to start reading Margaret Peterson Haddix's series.  I think I'll start with the Shadow Children series so I get a feel for her writing.  I noticed if the middle schoolers were not checking out her books, they were into James Patterson.  I have to admit, as an adult writer, Patterson is one of my favorites. 

So, I guess that means his YA books are next on the list.  I have quite a reading list to work.  I also have the last Last Apprentice to read.  I'm waiting on PC Cast's last two books in the teen vamp series to come out in paperback.  I also have to read Sorceress and Necromancer in the Immortal Secrets of Nicholas Flamel series.

I'm also going to add Copper Elephant to the list.  Saw that one in the library today at the high school.

The Hunger Games end

WARNING:  SPOILER AHEAD!!


I finished the last book of The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay.  Have to say it still leaves a lot hanging and questions unanswered.  I really don't like the fact that Prim dies so unnecessarily.  I don't like the fact that Gale doesn't fight harder for Katniss.  I don't like the fact that Peeta seems so easily "cured" with just a few remnants of the torture--come on!  Even Kat still suffers just from the Games and the last battles!  Peeta should be feeling nearly the same or worse given the extra torture and that he was in the last battle too.  I don't like the fact that they go back to District 12 and just start rebuilding.  It's too weird.  The epilogue rings odd too.  Like she had to put it in just because Rowling put something in HP 7.  I also don't like the fact that the mockingjay doesn't come out near the end either.  It was instrumental and should be symbol of new hope beyond the rebellion.

The whole concept of the Games leaves a lot of thinking and pondering on the part of the public however.  What if we were war torn and under a military control?  What if we rose up and rebelled against the government?  What would happen if the US really did fall into different areas and there were Hunger Games?  Would we really allow this to happen?  Would we be as hopeless and scared as most people are in the book?

If this really happened, would some other country step in to stop it as a genocide?  Truly that is what it is, a genocide of a select 24 children.  Children used to control the actions of others. (Just as the child barricade around President Snow's mansion)   Children slaughtered to teach the adults to stay in line.  Children missing from District 13 due to disease and infertility.  Would another country step in and stop it, just as the US has in some countries, or would they be selective as the US has been in some countries (Africa)?

How does a story like this affect the thinking & actions of people?  Do you feel more compassionate?  Do you feel safe?  Do you feel you have a pretty good life?  Do you feel as if more should be done for others in that situation, that you would step up and say, This is wrong?  Would you hunker down and just try to survive?

Did you know that middle and high schoolers are reading these stories with a passion, soaking up the events?

Suzanne Collins:
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay