Happy Monday, I hope all of you had a good weekend. My weekend was mostly spent dealing with medications for my migraines. Right now I’m fighting with the insurance company when it comes to coverage so hopefully that will work out alright. Last week was pretty eventful. I had my niece vising and we had a great time, it was really nice to see her. I hope to be able to see her again later this year maybe around Christmas.
In other good news I’m also going to visit my partner in Utah for my birthday in September. I’m excited for this and will get to spend about ten days with him exploring the Salt Lake City area. I’m excited to hopefully go to some new bookstores and have to remember to leave some space in my suitcase.
As for how my reading month went, it was a little slow this month for a variety of factors. The first being I focused a lot on longer books. I was reading all of The Hunger Games original trilogy plus the first prequel. Not to say that that is all I read. I finished a few graphic novels including Band Nerd and The Cartoonist Club.
I also read a few short books including Buffalo Dreamer, my favorite this month other than the The Hunger Games. As well as a few picture books.
Now speaking of the Hunger Games. I think I’m going to use here for a review of both Catching Fire and Mockingjay. These books bowled me over! Suzanne Collins is a fricking genius and she deserves every drop of popularity she’d gotten now and in the past. I’m not saying she’s the only author who can do dystopia but goodness is she good at it.
I’ve been reading interviews from her. The whole way she expressed her feelings about war and entertainment and her background in war theory and stories. Brilliant! I’m also not surprised The Hunger Games was inspired by the Iraq/Afghan wars.
That period and this period now with things like Gaza really make war and genocide into a media experience. It is very sick and twisted and Collins does a great job of examining that. The thing it made me think of was how when the missiles were dropped in Iraq. You’d have the news channels following them and showing them blowing “things” up.
It made war into almost a participatory action for Americans back home. Divorcing us from the real life costs and consequences of the war except for those with families serving. Now you can see cries for help from Gaza on every social media site that you go on. While it is important that people in Gaza are getting a chance to get their messages out. It is interesting the way Americans have again become divorced form the concept of real people in war.
Katniss’ whole situation when it comes to being the Mockingjay made me think about all of this. Because that whole title is about propaganda. It shows that even the rebellion if they want to win has to use the Capitol’s methods of propaganda. Making Katniss into a symbol more than a person, especially towards the end of Mockingjay. Where she has been scared by fire and getting to the Capitol. But she still has to put on a good image for her last appearance with Snow.
Katniss subverts this later on, but I’m not sure doing so in real life is possible. Anyway, I’m thankful to Suzanne Collins for giving me my favorite series in a while. It is a series that I that I still can’t keep my mind off of.
It was an interesting month even if my reading goals shifted a bit. I’m looking forward to focusing on diverse Pride reads for June. I will have a post up about what I’m trying to accomplish next month in the middle of the week.
Happy Reading
Solara
Photo by Alessandro Oliverio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-pathway-between-walls-1472234/
Rose's Book Garden 