what I thought about "the hunger games"

Well, gentle readers, I have finished the Hunger Games trilogy and loved it as much as everyone said I would.  It's a pretty gripping story, and far superior to the Twilight books, but of course you knew that.  One of my problems with "Twilight" was that there was no reason why what's-her-name . . . Bella, that's it, anyway, she was such a paste wax character, how could she have inspired passion in even one person, let alone two, even if at least one of them was a possessive misogynist?  She was a mewling, simpering ninny who had no depth or complexity or interests or hobbies of any kind, basically no identifying characteristics whatsoever.  Is that what attracted Edward to her, that she was essentially a blow-up doll onto whom he could project his fantasies?

But we're not here to discuss "Twilight."

I love Katniss because she is dynamic and complex and flawed and doesn't always understand what she wants or what her motivations are.  She makes some difficult decisions and has to live with the consequences, in a very believable way.  She is a real person, and so are the other characters in the story. I love the little hints of the depths to be plumbed in so many of the people in the world of Panem.  Plus the treatment of the corrosive effects of power, the blurred lines between good and evil and war and entertainment, the lasting effects of hardship and loss, the numbing influence of comfort . . . good stuff, Brother Maynard.  Highly recommend.

what I thought about "white corridor" and "tears of the giraffe"

Recently I read "White Corridor" by Christopher Fowler and "Tears of the Giraffe" by Alexander McCall Smith.  Recommend both.

what I thought about "because I said so"

This book is fun and fast and interesting.  Grant and Emmett are reading it now, and they keep re-reading passages of it to me.  Ken Jennings is that fellow who won a whole bunch of money on Jeopardy, and perhaps surprisingly, he not only knows stuff but also knows how to present it in a way that doesn't make you want to staple his mouth shut.  The book's aim is to debunk or verify a bunch of the collected bits of folk wisdom that we tell each other.  Recommend.

catching up

Oh you guys, I have been a terrible reader/reporter.  Let me try to catch up.

I loved "The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet" immensely.  The protagonist is a delightful little boy and I want to hug him.  It's an interesting, heartwarming story, and it has such a unique style.  There's a moment where I was afraid it was going to get Oprah's-book-clubby, but thankfully it did not.  I highly recommend it.

I'm reading "Cooked" and seething about the people who call Michael Pollan an anti-feminist food scold.  Have they ever actually read any of his books?

I read "The Cooking of Provincial France," one of the Time-Life series of books.  I loved it, because it's written by M.F.K. Fisher, whose convictions are similar to mine.  So far I've only cooked the savory crepes from it, and I was not as attendant to the recipe as I should have been, but they were good.

Next I'm going to read "Salt Sugar Fat" and "Birds of America."

go check out "the selected works of t.s. spivet" right now

I cannot adequately describe this book or recommend it highly enough.  I'm only about halfway through, so you have time to catch up if you go check it out right now.  Then we can talk about it.  I love this book something fierce.  It's like nothing I've ever read before.  It's not exciting, per se, but it is very interesting.

what I thought about "french women don't get fat"

I saw this book at the D.I. the other day for two bucks and snatched it up, because I remember the furor about it when it first came out.  I am amused by our country's ambivalent attitude toward France and all things French--either we hate them for being cheese-eating surrender monkeys or fetishize their perceived superior taste.  Obviously France doesn't have all the answers any more than America does, but what little I've read about their gastronomic culture makes me think they've got some things worked out pretty well.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think it is full of good advice.  I appreciate the French attitude about food, and I was thankful to see that no real food is demonized.  I was also thankful to have her blow the lid off the absurd perception that French people eat copious amounts of mille-feuille and duck confit while remaining tantalizingly slim--they succeed in maintaining a healthy weight by the revolutionary method of eating proper portions of a wide variety of food with a high percentage of seasonal fruits and vegetables, being physically active, and getting enough rest.  Seriously, could people just take a quick glance at the WoW?

Anyhoodle, I went in expecting an annoying hagiography of the alluring, mystical French Woman (which, to be honest, it leans a bit toward), but it was a useful, entertaining book with recipes that I look forward to trying.  Recommend.

what I thought about "the white plague" by frank herbert

An interesting book.  I felt simultaneously too smart and too stupid to read it.  The premise is that a man is in Ireland with his family, and his wife and two children are killed while crossing the street when an IRA car bomb detonates.  Being a molecular biologist, he creates a plague, as you would.  This plague infects anyone exposed to it, making men carriers and killing all the women.  There is discussion about how the virus bonds to the DNA of the host that was a bit over my head, but you don't need to know exactly how the virus works to enjoy the book, if enjoy is the right word.

There are two token female scientists at the beginning, and then a woman who plays a key role in the denoument who is a cotton-headed ninnymuggins.  She and her boyfriend enjoy a very traditional male fantasy type of relationship (he is thinky, she is hysterical) that irritated me immensely.  When there is talk about premarital sex and unwed pregnancy the Catholic church is portrayed with some pretty dinosaurian and sexist doctrine, which may be a function of this book having been written in the early eighties.  I am not familiar enough with Catholic doctrine to know if they still believe that use of condoms or being a victim of statutory rape brings damnation to your soul.  I would hope not.  And the end, in which women are being asked to take secondary husbands, is a bit unbelievable.  With men outnumbering women five thousand to one and the fate of humanity hanging in the balance let's not pretend that women are going to have any control of their sexual lives.

But it wasn't all depressing.  There is some interesting history of why the Irish hate the British so much, and a sweet moment of forgiveness and tenderness that I enjoyed.  And as in World War Z, Israel is way more prepared to deal with the problems than everyone else.  Paranoia--it's a good thing.