45. Hogfather

Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
Corgi Books (UK), 445 pages, 1996

I read this on Susi's recommendation after I mentioned to her that I was disappointed with Small Gods, and she was right--it's much better. It wasn't laugh-out-loud funny or anything, but it was fun and inventive and (I think) a much better example than Small Gods of why people love Terry Pratchett so much.

40. Mockingjay

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press e-book, 288 pages, 2010

Maryann and I had a conversation the other day that clarified my thoughts on the Hunger Games trilogy as a whole, and what I thought was its major flaw: Katniss doesn't change or grow as a character at all throughout the books. She's portrayed as kind of an unlikable personality to begin with--surly, distrustful, far less crowd-pleasing than the kind and honest Peeta--and it works in the first book when she's fighting for survival and sacrificing herself to save her sister. But in the second and third books she remains completely self-centered as the struggle she's caught up in grows bigger and bigger around her, and it's frustrating.

I disagree with Maryann on the ending; I think Katniss ended up with the right guy (trying not to spoil things here although you probably shouldn't be reading this anyway if you haven't read the book and want to). I disliked what they did with Peeta through most of the book, and I think the final chapters had a kind of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows bloodbath thing going on where characters were killed seemingly at random and their deaths were barely noticed (spoilers, highlight to read: FINNICK!!!!!! Plot-wise there was NO reason he had to die, except that he was a newlywed and that's apparently the rule in these situations. Bonus cheap drama points if his wife is pregnant. How boring and predictable.) But honestly, all this is just nitpicking the most enjoyable series I've read in quite a while. Still highly recommended.

35. Island Beneath the Sea

Island Beneath the Sea, Isabel Allende
HarperCollins ebook, 419 pages, 2010, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

Reading Isabel Allende these days is like, I don't know, going to your favorite restaurant and ordering the steak with fries instead of trying out the hip new Ethiopian place*. It's boring (if satisfying); you already know exactly what you're going to get, which in this case is an enormous cast of characters who evolve slowly and aimlessly over a long period of time, sumptuous descriptions of gowns and French meals and ballrooms, beautiful courtesans, honorable soldiers, and a little bit of political unrest. In that sense it was fine, but the problem was that I actually actively disliked all the characters, except the relatively minor Sancho, and maybe (if pressed) Maurice. It was a little disappointing overall, but I'll probably still read whatever she comes out with next.

*If your immediate, instinctive response to this is "HURF DURF I DIDN'T KNOW THEY EVEN HAD FOOD IN ETHIOPIA," please re-evaluate your life

31. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson
Borzoi ebook (Random House), 547 pages, 2005, translated by Reg Keeland in 2008

Yeah, I finally read this, and while I think I liked it overall I'm also kind of ambivalent about it. The nice thing about this book is that it has enough different storylines going on that at least some of it will probably interest every reader. I LOVED the media face-off between journalist Mikael Blomkvist and financier Wennerstrom, and I also enjoyed the mystery of the Vanger family and the descriptions of Blomkvist's life and research in Hedestad. On the other hand, I found Lisbeth Salander, the titular "girl with the dragon tattoo," annoying at best. She was fantastic in the few scenes that showed her in her professional capacity as a private investigator, but the rest of the time it was just this "oh, she's so damaged and promiscuous" act and that got old really fast. A lot has been made of the author's supposed crusade against violence against women, but I really didn't like all the descriptions of rapes and murders--they were completely gratuitous and didn't actually say anything about the issue. And the vigilante justice scene with Salander bugged me--there was something similar in The Time Traveler's Wife (although that was even worse because it was Clare's boyfriend going to kick the rapist's ass--really?), and it's just such a pointless male fantasy. So yeah, I would have been a lot happier if the book centered around Blomkvist, but I'll probably still read the next book in the series. Eventually. Maybe.

Up next: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

25. Small Gods

Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
HarperCollins e-book, 343 pages, 1992

This was my first Terry Pratchett novel. I really wanted to love it, and it did grow on me as I went along, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. For one thing, most of the book is a parody of religion, which I can appreciate on an abstract level but have trouble really getting into because the particular kind of straight-laced, by-the-book religion that he parodies is just so far removed from my life. I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny, either, and it took about two-thirds of the book for me to start getting really invested in the plot. I do plan to give Pratchett's Discworld another try at some point--I've had Hogfather and Going Postal recommended to me, and I think I have both of them lying around my apartment somewhere.

In other news, I've now read 25 books, which means I'm halfway through the 50-book challenge! Yes, I was supposed to have reached this milestone by July 1. I have a lot of books I'm excited to read, though, so hopefully I'll catch up. Best books so far: Revolutionary Road, A Wild Sheep Chase, The Hunger Games, The Left Hand of Darkness and East of Eden. I cannot say enough good things about these books!