213/300

If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans by Ann Coulter

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I read this book as part of the task, "read about a subject you disagree with." After seeing some people read books about adultery or polygamy or hookers, I really wish I went with one of those. At least they would've been entertaining.

Previous reviews, as well as Coulter herself, say that liberals don't like her because she is scary and right. Well this liberal doesn't like her because she is everything I dislike in humanity. She lumps all liberals together as one brainless blob of baby-murdering, America hating morons. There were several times I had to read the lines to someone else because I couldn't believe that someone would say things like that. Say things just to be shocking and say that liberals should cower before her. And what's even greater about this display of literary genius, it isn't even any new material. It's just a mash-up of all her other "witty" quotes.

I think it is interesting that people always describe her as being so amazing because she is a beautiful woman, yet she has no problems demeaning women and saying they shouldn't have the right to vote. I would quote some of her crazier stuff but I was all too happy to return this book to the library as soon as I was done with it.




View all my reviews

212/300

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I don't know what to review this just quite yet. Just needed to share that I feel really sad after reading it.



Okay, I had the night (well 4 hours of night after I finished reading) to sleep on it and here are my thoughts.

Obviously I was really excited for this release. If excited is even the word. So when it arrived on my Nook at about 12:20, I settled in for the night.



THERE FOLLOWING IS ONE BIG SPOILER SO PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!



*************************************************************************************************************





















The story starts with Katniss walking around the destroyed remains of her District, #12. Eventually they take her back to her new home, District 13. This new district (where rebels had been running the place since the Dark Days) is much like life under the Capitol, where everyone has a schedule, and a restricted amount of food to eat.



We are told from the beginning that the leaders (Plutarch Heavensbee, the Head Gamemaker at the time of the Quarter Quell and one of the leaders of the rebel force, and Alma Coin, the president of district 13) want Katniss to be the Mockingjay, the symbol of the rebellion. I was going to mention Heavensbee's assistant as well but I realized I couldn't even remember her name, since I feel like she played a large part at the beginning but then we never hear about her again. Haymitch plays a role, too, in the same confusing way him and Katniss often have a love/hate relationship. After seeing Peeta on Capitol propaganda, Katniss realizes that there cannot be a ceasefire and she must be the voice of the rebels.



There is a lot of time spent filming propaganda pieces to cut into the Capitols programming. Eventually, Katniss realizes she needs Peeta to keep going. So Gale and others go to the Capitol to find him and when they bring him back, they discover he has been brainwashed by the Capitol to hate Katniss and want to kill her. For a while, I was thinking Peeta might be dead and that this was just some kind of mutt version of him.



Katniss eventually leads the team (Gale, a semi-deranged Peeta, the new and likeable Boggs, Finnick, and other newbies) on a (unbeknownst to the team) mission to kill President Snow.



I am not going to go into too much detail here about the ending except that it was incredibly depressing. I thought the climax was strange in that they just kind of wrote Katniss off in the end as being a but nutty. I felt like there was a lot more potential there. I thought the stuff with President Snow was rather anti-climactic. I did not feel satisfied about the resolution of the relationship with Gale. I am annoyed at the little mention of Madge and her family and how that ended up. At first I thought the stuff with Peeta was glossed over too quickly (he DID try to kill her after all) but after I thought about it more, I was okay with it.



Maybe the most disturbing thing was how depressed Katniss was for most of it. Not that she shouldn't be. But God, she never seems to catch a break. And nothing truly ever seems to be okay.



Overall, I can't be disappointed in the way Collins blurs the lines between good and evil. And if it was a bad book, I doubt I would have stayed up all night reading it. But I am a little bummed. After reading some of the theories before the release of the book (namely that Madge's mother was the actual Mockingjay) I was a little upset that it didn't take that direction. Ultimately, a happy ending was not possible so I guess this was the closest thing. I am still digesting a lot of it and maybe my rating will change or I will need to add more. But now I just feel sad about it. Which I guess means it was an amazing book.



View all my reviews

211/300

Catching Fire reread

210/300

The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I love me some Marian Keyes. This book was most like This Charming Man - a good read with some light points, but shadowed by heavier ones. The book starts as a countdown of days and is narrated by a type of spirit. Much like TCM, you didn't really know exactly what was going on with the characters until a good couple hundred pages in.



The spirit winds up at 66 Starr Street, a building whose residents eventually have lives that entertwine. Lydia, the cab driver, is not very likeable. She lives with 2 Polish men and goes out of her way to make her roommates miserable. I didn't really think her backstory made up for as terrible as she was, although you could see why she was angry.



Jemima is an old woman who lives alone with her dog, until her grown foster son, Fionn comes to live with her. Somehow Fionn seems to fall instantly in love with every woman he comes into contact with.



Katie is just turning 40 and her boyfriend, Conall does not give her the respect she deserves. Her friends and family despise him and his flashiness.



Matt and Maeve are a married couple who appear to be in a boring routine in their life.



I found some of the stories of forgiveness to be a little far fetched, but I still love what Keyes has to offer.



View all my reviews

209/300

Hunger Games - listened to on audio

208/300

Deception: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman




This was a standard, enjoyable Delaware/Sturgis mystery. A young school teacher is found dead in a tub of dry ice. A video is found saying that if anything happens to her, here is who did it. I thought this was the weak part of the story. Scandal and other deaths ensue. Everything you would expect.



View all my reviews

207/300

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was an enjoyable, funny read. I thought it was far better than Russell Brand's book. I don't know too much about Silverman's career but I liked that she could mock herself and I thought her arguments with her editors were funny. It wasn't, for the most part, laugh out loud funny, but it was decent.



View all my reviews