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Jan. 22nd, 2012 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljI think I owe my soul to the Grocery store! Yeesh! I really was out of everything. I asked Mom to take me yesterday and it cost me $188!!! Today I've got a pork with peanut sauce stewing in the slow cooker. That's the difference between finding the last can of soup in the cupboard or having toast for supper!
It snowed on Friday and it made rush hour traffic hell. It took over a half hour just for my bus to come, during which time i stood there dodging snowflakes in my eyes, hair in my face, and i think somewhere along the way i must have got something in my eye or rubbed too hard because all weekend my eye has been sore. It doesn't feel scratched, though, it feels like someone poked a finger in my eye and it's bruised almost. Owie.
It didn't snow a huge amount but the snow clearing efforts this time around really seemed to be shoddy. I live on a bus route and it's usually in pretty good shape after the kind of snowfall we just had, which wasn't really all that much, about 5 cm or maybe 10 at the most depending on where you were in the city.
I caught up on the other two episodes of Sherlock (UK). Wow, really good! The guy that was playing Moriarty was stunningly good, unhinged and brilliant. Sherlock survived the fall somehow. Must have taken lessons from John Stape off Corrie!
Corrie in the UK is going to be good tomorrow night. Tracy Barlow is going to be bitten by Karma. Friday's 2 episodes were really good, too.
8 - the Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
I usually end up reading "popular" books or series long after everyone else has. I think I've come to it a bit earlier than usual when everyone is still talking about the Hunger Games series of books. I saw the movie trailer and I will probably go to see that, so I thought I'd dive in to the book and I'm glad I did.
This is the first of three books. It is set in the future after a war. North America has become divided into 13 sections, ruled by The Capitol. There were 13 but District 13 rebelled and was put down soundly. To reinforce the Capitol's authority, they started a survival "reality" game. Two candidates in their teens from each of the 12 remaining districts are put into an arena and the last one alive "wins". It's not a new concept, I realize that. The names of the "contestants" are drawn at random and you can volunteer to substitute for one of the ones picked. This doesn't usually happen. But in District 12, Katniss volunteers so her little sister, Prim, doesn't have to go.
District 12 is not mostly a well to do district. It's filled with coal miners and working class people who struggle to survive. After the death of her father, Katniss has been helping her family survive by illegal hunting outside the district borders. This helps her immensely in the games. She seems to sense right away how to "play the game" and work the politics of it even though her co-contestant from her district might turn out to be a friend rather than an enemy. In the arena, temporary alliances are made and Katniss might end up making one herself.
Obviously it's not a spoiler if you realize there are three books in the series, that Katniss survives the Games but it is an exciting read to find out how.
9. A Secret Kept - Tatiana de Rosnay
I didn't like this as much as Sarah's Key, which I read in December. I found it a bit non descript really. A man in his 40s, Antoine, takes his sister to the seaside resort where they spent their childhood summers to celebrate her 40th birthday. He's newly divorced and lonely, still loves his ex-wife, having trouble coping with his teenage children. The holiday weekend brings back a lot of old family memories for both of them, memories especially of their mother who died in 1975, the year after their last family visit there.
Since then, he and his father have not had much of a relationship, probably due to the father's grief and later, his remarraige. Thus Antoine doesn't really know how to show his feelings, not even to his kids. During the weekend we are also taken back to things that happened on the last summer there when they were children and it's alternated with short letters written from one person to someone that's obviously their lover. You can pretty much see where this is going.
On the drive back to Paris, his sister takes the wheel and is about to tell him something she remembered from their childhood, a long lost memory that was brought forward on the weekend. It upset her so much that she loses control of the car and they are in a serious accident. She forgets what it was and he doesn't know and won't push her. While she's in hospital, he meets with a very sexy mortician, as you do, and this perks him up considerably. It all feels very mid-life crisis in part.
Back in Paris while his sister recovers, he tries to connect with his kids, the older two of the three having their own problems. When his sister finally does remember, they are all shocked though I don't really see why. I suppose it's the difference in the time we live in. Even if the memory and the incident that it's about were shocking at the time (1974), I don't get why it's devastating to find out now. Surprising? Even a bit of shock at first? Yes.
Anyway, it's not a bad book but it's not as emotionally engaging like Sarah's Key was, not for me.
It snowed on Friday and it made rush hour traffic hell. It took over a half hour just for my bus to come, during which time i stood there dodging snowflakes in my eyes, hair in my face, and i think somewhere along the way i must have got something in my eye or rubbed too hard because all weekend my eye has been sore. It doesn't feel scratched, though, it feels like someone poked a finger in my eye and it's bruised almost. Owie.
It didn't snow a huge amount but the snow clearing efforts this time around really seemed to be shoddy. I live on a bus route and it's usually in pretty good shape after the kind of snowfall we just had, which wasn't really all that much, about 5 cm or maybe 10 at the most depending on where you were in the city.
I caught up on the other two episodes of Sherlock (UK). Wow, really good! The guy that was playing Moriarty was stunningly good, unhinged and brilliant. Sherlock survived the fall somehow. Must have taken lessons from John Stape off Corrie!
Corrie in the UK is going to be good tomorrow night. Tracy Barlow is going to be bitten by Karma. Friday's 2 episodes were really good, too.
8 - the Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
I usually end up reading "popular" books or series long after everyone else has. I think I've come to it a bit earlier than usual when everyone is still talking about the Hunger Games series of books. I saw the movie trailer and I will probably go to see that, so I thought I'd dive in to the book and I'm glad I did.
This is the first of three books. It is set in the future after a war. North America has become divided into 13 sections, ruled by The Capitol. There were 13 but District 13 rebelled and was put down soundly. To reinforce the Capitol's authority, they started a survival "reality" game. Two candidates in their teens from each of the 12 remaining districts are put into an arena and the last one alive "wins". It's not a new concept, I realize that. The names of the "contestants" are drawn at random and you can volunteer to substitute for one of the ones picked. This doesn't usually happen. But in District 12, Katniss volunteers so her little sister, Prim, doesn't have to go.
District 12 is not mostly a well to do district. It's filled with coal miners and working class people who struggle to survive. After the death of her father, Katniss has been helping her family survive by illegal hunting outside the district borders. This helps her immensely in the games. She seems to sense right away how to "play the game" and work the politics of it even though her co-contestant from her district might turn out to be a friend rather than an enemy. In the arena, temporary alliances are made and Katniss might end up making one herself.
Obviously it's not a spoiler if you realize there are three books in the series, that Katniss survives the Games but it is an exciting read to find out how.
9. A Secret Kept - Tatiana de Rosnay
I didn't like this as much as Sarah's Key, which I read in December. I found it a bit non descript really. A man in his 40s, Antoine, takes his sister to the seaside resort where they spent their childhood summers to celebrate her 40th birthday. He's newly divorced and lonely, still loves his ex-wife, having trouble coping with his teenage children. The holiday weekend brings back a lot of old family memories for both of them, memories especially of their mother who died in 1975, the year after their last family visit there.
Since then, he and his father have not had much of a relationship, probably due to the father's grief and later, his remarraige. Thus Antoine doesn't really know how to show his feelings, not even to his kids. During the weekend we are also taken back to things that happened on the last summer there when they were children and it's alternated with short letters written from one person to someone that's obviously their lover. You can pretty much see where this is going.
On the drive back to Paris, his sister takes the wheel and is about to tell him something she remembered from their childhood, a long lost memory that was brought forward on the weekend. It upset her so much that she loses control of the car and they are in a serious accident. She forgets what it was and he doesn't know and won't push her. While she's in hospital, he meets with a very sexy mortician, as you do, and this perks him up considerably. It all feels very mid-life crisis in part.
Back in Paris while his sister recovers, he tries to connect with his kids, the older two of the three having their own problems. When his sister finally does remember, they are all shocked though I don't really see why. I suppose it's the difference in the time we live in. Even if the memory and the incident that it's about were shocking at the time (1974), I don't get why it's devastating to find out now. Surprising? Even a bit of shock at first? Yes.
Anyway, it's not a bad book but it's not as emotionally engaging like Sarah's Key was, not for me.
