2020 June - Still Quarantined
Exploring from Home:
Art:
- Raku Inoue - Fauna Out of Flora at Atlas Obscura.
- Shelley Phillips - Virtual Art Gallery. NJ native and elementary art teacher for 35 years.
I have been READING:
- Dead Beat (Dresden Files #7) by Jim Butcher.
I loved this book for the same reasons I love all the Hallows novels: the characters are believable, sarcastic, intelligent, and all have their own agency. Even female characters motivated solely by a desire to mate have deep personalities, believable backstories, and develop over time (seriously)!
I loved seeing new characters interacting with old. I loved getting to learn about The Turn. I adore the new facet given to beloved characters.
I do have one complaint: because Trent is a Jr (sharing his father's name), for the ENTIRE book I thought KAL was TRENT. That's really a Me problem, not a Kim Harrison problem. Reading through other reviews I notice I'm not the only person to make that mistake. I had to read someone else's explanation to learn my error!
It's too much for toddlers. I like seeing where most of the Thomas trivia comes from, but the pictures are very small, three to a page. The language isn't so much old fashioned as it is too sophisticated in grammar and vocabulary. My three-next-month Thomas-addict gets bored by the end of a page. My only critique is that the solution to most problems seems to be "Get Back" at one another.
** spoiler alert ** Coriolanus is born with a silver spoon in his mouth but has no food to put on it. Made destitute by the war 10 years ago, he lives with cultured GrandMam and cousin Tigris. Basically poor all his life yet he has pride in his surname and ancestry, and ambition.
The decadal anniversary of the Hunger Games (HG) introduces Mentors and C is tapped by virtue of his family's old blue blood. Sejanus is tapped as well. S was raised in District 2 and his family transplanted into the Capitol by virtue of his father's New Money. He is reviled by most Capitol children. C is jealous of S, seeing him as everything that C should have but doesn't.
C is assigned a girl from a low-quality district (a double slight). However, she captures the Capitol attention. C sees the HG as a way to earn Prize money he needs to pay for tuition next year. C and S's class devise the Sponsorship system. S bonds to C like a baby duckling. C resents the association though he begins to share S's revulsion for the HG. C develops a crush on his tribute Lucy, though it is possessive and materialistic. He believes he falls in love with her and she reciprocates. She wins, but C is exiled to Peacekeeper school for cheating to keep her alive.
At this point it feels like it should have been the end of one novella and the beginning of another. C ships off to PK duty and arranges to go to District 12 hoping to meet up with his love.
C resents the PK duty. He finds S is also in PK training and arranged for C to "graduate" form HS through he was exiled. He finds Lucy, gets jealous of her backstory and ex boyfriend, Really jealous. He suspects S of treason, and that slippery slopes quickly into a pair of murders at a botched back-alley arms deal. He tattles on Sejanus and he gets arrested and hanged in the morning. C learns he'll a shoo-in for Elite Officer Training. C plans to run away with L, but realizes she suspects him of getting S killed and decides killing her would let him accept the elite military school. He goes home to the capital, He manipulates Sejanus His family into sponsoring him like faster Then he poisons the gamemaster for hating him and his father. His ambition is now through the roof and he's totes ok with killing. His ambition is through the roof now. The timeline is a lil rushed in the end. and a LOT of references tonight.
Historical Note: Though Coriolanus later of the story bears some interesting parallels with his namesake, Sejanus resembles his namesake not at all. Coriolanus is a leader enjoying the military success against various uprisings, while being unpopular. Sejanus, however, is a fish out of water, a sheep in wolf's clothing. His namesake was a conniving and deadly leader of the royal guard, executed for suspicion of scheming against the Emperor he was piprotecting.
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