Category — Book Club

This question is part of the GRAB(ook) Club, an online book club open to anyone and everyone.  It contains a few spoilers for The Hunger Games and the Harry Potter series, so read at your own peril.

This is the first time that I can remember where I left a book in a series feeling as if I couldn’t understand major points in the current book until I read the next book.  And I’m not sure how much I liked that despite being very interested in The Hunger Games and prepared to read Catching Fire soon.

All series leave plot elements unfinished that are developed in the next book, but none that I can think of left this many questions unanswered by the last page.  Why did Cinna choose District 12? (This needs to be answered because a big deal was made about the fact that he chose her district.)  What role does the Avox play in the larger story? (I’m assuming something about that relationship will come back to haunt Katniss down the road or else why draw so much attention to that character?)  Why did Madge give Katniss a mockingjay pin specifically, and really, why did Madge get involved at all?  And beyond that, why did Katniss take Madge’s item vs. something from Prim or Gale?

See, a lot of questions.

I’m not sure how much of it was sloppy writing, leaving frayed edges to the story (as opposed to something like JK Rowling’s incredibly tight storytelling in Harry Potter) vs. untied threads that will be knotted in future books.  If those questions aren’t answered by the end of the third book, it’s sloppy storytelling because the reader was asked to focus on the wrong things.  If those questions are answered by the end of the third book, they better be really mind-blowing answers because the reader has been asked to wait additional books to discover their meaning.  The general rule is that anything that the author drags the reader’s attention to purposefully needs to be well-explained (or for the reader to believe that it was well-explained) by the end of that book; somewhat an extension of Chekhov’s gun.

I prefer books where I don’t know what I don’t know.  I mean, take the Harry Potter series: I didn’t even question that Voldemort didn’t technically die when the spell bounced back on him.  I figured the weakness of the spell in secondary form was enough to damage him beyond human recognition but not enough to kill him entirely.  Which meant that when the horcruxes came around, my mind was blown because I got the answer before my brain even realized there was a question.  Can you imagine if JK Rowling had dropped horcruxes into the first book and asked you to wait for their purpose to be revealed until the sixth?  But that’s sort of what Collins did with The Hunger Games.  She drew our attention to these moments or characters in a big way.  And then didn’t wrap up the book so it could stand firmly on its own.

Do you prefer books in a series to be capable of standing alone while working together with the other books, or do you like books like the Hunger Games trilogy, which is truly just one long book cut down into three equal parts?

After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for The Hunger Games.  You can get your own copy of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins at bookstores including Amazon.

This is a post for the GRAB(ook) Club. Like the idea of a book club where you don’t have to leave your living room? Then read more about the GRAB(ook) Club which holds the book discussion on blogs, a Facebook group, and a GoodReads group.

This question is part of the GRAB(ook) Club, an online book club open to anyone and everyone.

Throughout the book, a piece of advice — “just ignore it” — is repeated in several different ways.  On page 133, Atticus recommends that Jem tune out Mrs. Dubose when she attempts to upset him.

“Easy does it, son,” Atticus would say.  “She’s an old lady and she’s ill.  You just hold your head high and be a gentleman.  What she says to you, it’s your job not to let her make you mad.”

Of course, we’re not just talking about the impolite, personal remarks.  Atticus is telling his son to ignore the blatantly racist remarks too.

It is advice that is often repeated on the Internet: don’t feed the trolls, don’t react to negative comments, let other people’s baiting roll off your back.  I know I’ve told the twins to ignore bullies in their class.  Ignoring — in other words, not doing anything — seems to be an easy solution that is offered for a variety of situations.

Yet we also see the effects of a town that has ignored its racism and turned a blind-eye to its bullying.  Change rarely comes from people who ignore a situation.

Do you think “just ignore it” is ultimately more helpful or hurtful?

After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for To Kill a Mockingbird.  You can get your own copy of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee at bookstores including Amazon.

This is a post for the GRAB(ook) Club. Like the idea of a book club where you don’t have to leave your living room? Then read more about the GRAB(ook) Club which holds the book discussion on blogs, a Facebook group, and a GoodReads group.

August’s Book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. You can jump into the discussion by clicking any of the blogs below (links will appear when the post goes up), or joining the Facebook or GoodReads group (links to those groups are in the information post).

• Stirrup Queens
• Are You Kidding Me?
• River Run Dry
• The Road Less Travelled
• Notes from the Ninth Circle
• The Book Diva’s Reads (on FB)

NEXT STEP: sign up for the September book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins(discussion on September 12) by leaving a comment below telling me that you’re in, the name and url of your blog, or whether you are blogless and will be discussing on the Facebook/GoodReads groups.

This question is part of the GRAB(ook) Club, an online book club open to anyone and everyone.

There are two types of teen characters that seem to pop up in books and movies — the realistic, everyman who stands in for tons of kids that you could actually point out at your school (for instance, the students in Breakfast Club) and the kid-you-wish-you-were (for instance, the kids in John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars).  There is nothing realistic about them.  They are too witty to be actual people, too self-actualized, too lucky, too unlucky, and too much the creators of perfect movie-like moments.  This seems to be a running characteristic of John Green characters: they are the people you wish you were or you wish were your friends, therefore, it is a joy to hang out with them in paper form on the page.

Do you tend to gravitate towards books with realistic characters who remind you of people in your day-to-day world (or you could see being an actual person you might encounter one day) or characters who have almost super-human personalities that allow you to escape from all those regular people around you due to their cleverness?

After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for The Fault in Our Stars.  You can get your own copy of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green at bookstores including Amazon.