My Unholy Love for the Hunger Games
Before (during and after) TJ's arrival, the Angel household went on a throwing things away spree. This is because (as previously mentioned) we are insane packrats who have a big bowl of little ketchup and mustard and sugar packets in our hall closet (just to give you an example.)
The hardest thing we did was get rid of books...but the easiest books to get rid of were the ones that I don't want TJ to read. (I figure, any book in my library should be fair game for her - some of it she'll have to grow into, but any fictional friends who are living with me should be people I want her to know.)
The worst was how much sci-fi I threw away. I love Robert Heinlein (Have Space Suit Will Travel is one of my favorite books of all time) but that dude wrote some lame sexist stuff. I remember enjoying Podkayne of Mars back in the day, but when I reread it I was disgusted by what a dumb bunny she was. (I ended up keeping Time Enough For Love, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. The incest is...well, incest - but one thing you gotta say for Lazarus Long, he respects bitches.)
So then I started looking for speculative YA fiction with strong female leads, and someone recced The Hunger Games. I read the first chapter...and my heart was pounding, and I was angry that I bought it, just furious! Because I am a Trekkie-Type Sci-Fi fan! I like exciting adventures in a future full of possibilities - not terrifying adventures forced on people by miserable necessity!
But I couldn't stop thinking about that first chapter, so I finally just sat down to read the rest of it, and it's incredible. The voice, the world building, the PLOT - the philosophy, and the way it both welcomes you into Katniss's pov, and subtly implies that the reader is part of a society not unlike the Capitol...
They've just announced the title/release date of the third book, and I am chomping at the bit.
In the meantime - DEAR INTERNET - the fanfiction I most want to read the whole world is a retelling of the first book from Haymitch/Cinna's pov. Please get on it. I will wait here.
The hardest thing we did was get rid of books...but the easiest books to get rid of were the ones that I don't want TJ to read. (I figure, any book in my library should be fair game for her - some of it she'll have to grow into, but any fictional friends who are living with me should be people I want her to know.)
The worst was how much sci-fi I threw away. I love Robert Heinlein (Have Space Suit Will Travel is one of my favorite books of all time) but that dude wrote some lame sexist stuff. I remember enjoying Podkayne of Mars back in the day, but when I reread it I was disgusted by what a dumb bunny she was. (I ended up keeping Time Enough For Love, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. The incest is...well, incest - but one thing you gotta say for Lazarus Long, he respects bitches.)
So then I started looking for speculative YA fiction with strong female leads, and someone recced The Hunger Games. I read the first chapter...and my heart was pounding, and I was angry that I bought it, just furious! Because I am a Trekkie-Type Sci-Fi fan! I like exciting adventures in a future full of possibilities - not terrifying adventures forced on people by miserable necessity!
But I couldn't stop thinking about that first chapter, so I finally just sat down to read the rest of it, and it's incredible. The voice, the world building, the PLOT - the philosophy, and the way it both welcomes you into Katniss's pov, and subtly implies that the reader is part of a society not unlike the Capitol...
They've just announced the title/release date of the third book, and I am chomping at the bit.
In the meantime - DEAR INTERNET - the fanfiction I most want to read the whole world is a retelling of the first book from Haymitch/Cinna's pov. Please get on it. I will wait here.