Morris YA Book Club

DragonFlight -- Final Thoughts (Part 2)

2010-08-20T09:00:00.015-04:00

Walle:
I enjoyed the book a lot, because it was very interesting. Even though it used stuff like dragons, and mythological creatures that we know about, I think she gave it her own twist. It was pretty unique. I liked the entire idea of the threads. The way she used the little details.

Dande:
This time around reading it, I didn't like it as much, but I still liked it and I still like so many things about it. I have such a soft spot in my heart for Pern, the world, and all the stories there. I obviously enjoyed it and it's obvious—I obviously—

Newhope:
It's obvious.

[laughs]

Newhope:
You don't have to say anything.

Dande:
I would recommend this book, and obviously I have—[she cracks up]

Smiley:
No, no, don't be self-conscious.

Dande:
No, I'm freaking out about the obvious thing. Wvskier: said "obviously."

Newhope:
What? No, she didn't.

[laughs]

Wvskier:
You're trying to put the blame on me?

Newhope:
Obviously!

[laughs]

Dande:
Okay! I love the world, and it's one of my favorite series. I mean, I have a lot of favorites, but it's definitely up there, and I think that's it's just really good fantasy.

Wvskier:
Even though it's old.

Dande:
Even though it's old, yeah. Well, it's forty years old.

Newhope:
It's really, really old.

Walle:
Oh, wow, I didn't realize.

Dande:
So . . . are we done?

Wvskier:
The only thing I have to say is that as soon as you get through the first book it gets a lot better.

Jolly:
Well, I would hope so.

Dande:
Keep reading.

DragonFlight -- Final Thoughts (Part 1)

2010-08-19T09:00:00.005-04:00

Dande:
So I think we should go around and have final thoughts.

Newhope:
In general, the book was okay. It had a shaky start, but it had great plot twists, in my opinion. I really liked where it went with the whole book, where it started out being with the one plot, and it switched completely, and it ended up being a book where I actually enjoyed it. I actually wanted to find out what happened at the end. It left it off to a sequel, and I know how many books there are that have been written for it, and I enjoyed the ending.

Jolly:
I read ten pages, and I was confused.

[laughs]

Jolly:
I have no idea what you guys have been saying this entire time.

Lasagna:
Me too.

Chair:
I didn't read any of it.

Smiley:
Well, I—I don't know. Like I said, I read it really fast, and I haven't read the end yet, so I don't know if it's going to be really good at the end, but I agree with Newhope: the beginning was really not inviting to read the entire novel, and the middle was kind of boring.

[laughs]

Smiley:
But maybe if I read the end, and maybe if I read it slower and at my own pace, I will like it. But I did like the plot, and I did like the whole between times thing, even though I didn't get the between thing until later on. It was a good book.

Wvskier:
I obviously love the series. I actually find her writing style very similar to J. R. R. Tolkien's. Basically it sort of draws out, not the boring stuff, but the stuff you wouldn't really read about, not the action.

Newhope:
Like J. R. R. Tolkien's description of the darkness of a cave that goes on for pages . . .

Wvskier:
It basically shows the minor things in the book, and I find that pretty interesting, because basically you don't normally read about every single little detail. And that's what I like about her, basically.

DragonFlight -- Bloopers: When You're Not in The Room

2010-08-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

[Dande,blogmaster, recorder, and transcriber extraordinaire, is about to leave the room to find a wayward book clubber.]

Dande:
You know, the last time I left for a little bit too, and I got to hear your whole conversation when I was gone, when I was listening to the tape. Just so you know.

[laughs]

Dande:
You guys were good. You didn't say anything mean or anything.

Jolly:
That you know of . . .

Dande:
I have good friends! Okay, I'll leave now.

[she leaves]

Chair:
Dande's gone! Party!

[laughs]

Smiley:
She does realize we can turn it off and say things about her that she doesn't know . . .

Newhope:
Well, she realizes it now!

[laughs]

Newhope:
No, I don't want to touch it, because I don't want to accidentally erase anything.

Smiley:
Just kidding, Dande!

DragonFlight -- The Rest of the Series (Part 2)

2010-08-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Dande:
Overall, I liked it. I mean, there were problems with it, but there are so many books that have problems like that and it is so boring it is not worth it. But I think this book was worth it, especially since it is the start of such a great series.

Newhope:
I really like the whole time thing. I did not know that the plot would revolve around time travel like that.

Walle:
Sometimes it felt like the book is not really supposed to be a book. It's just a set up for books to follow.

Smiley:
Like a prologue-book.

Walle:
And then every time we would talk about something it's like, "It's explained in a later book! It's explained in a later book!"

Dande:
I just made this up in my head, but I could imagine that the author knew about this whole world, and this is just the introduction.

Smiley:
Maybe she wanted it to go slow. Compared to The Hunger Games, this went by really slow. Like Newhope said, in the middle it was really dull. Maybe that's just because she wanted it to be slow.

Dande:
I think that certain things about the book would have been lost if she—

Smiley:
Went faster?

Dande:
Yeah, you definitely did feel that it was a world.

DragonFlight -- The Rest of the Series (Part 1)

2010-08-16T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
I encourage anyone who liked this book to go read the rest of the series, because they just get better from here.

Wvskier:
Definitely. Dragonflight is not the greatest book in the series.

Dande:
Well, I didn't know which one to start with, except for the first one, you know?

Wvskier:
Dragonflight is just information. Basically, they are introducing you to the characters, they are introducing you to the plot.

Newhope:
Well every last paragraph basically sets it up for a sequel. It totally does.

Lasagna:
Are all of the other ones good?

Wvskier:
Oh, yeah. They're a lot better.

Dande:
They're really different. She doesn't get stuck in a series thing where she is writing the same books over and over again. She writes them in the same world, but they're really different books.

Wvskier:
Because there's also this Harper trilogy where it goes on mainly in the Harper Hall—it's corresponding with this timeline, but it's a completely different point of view.

Walle:
So are there other books that include these characters from their point of views? Or do they keep switching?

Wvskier:
They are actually minor characters in other books. It's pretty interesting.

Walle:
But does it still stick to Lessa's and F'lar's perspectives sometimes?

Dande:
I don't think so . . .

Wvskier:
Lessa and F'lar are important characters, but you're not following their plotline specifically anymore.

DragonFlight -- The Between, The End, & A Paradox

2010-08-13T09:00:00.002-04:00

Newhope:
A massive plot hole to me was the between. They never explained the between.

Smiley:
Yeah, they never did.

Newhope:
I felt like they just made it up because they wanted something to guide the story along.

Wvskier:
The between is nothing. In one of the other books they go on with that.

* * *

Dande:
I thought that that was such a cool way to end it and tie it all together, that solution that they found. I thought that was unique. I didn't see it coming at all, that they'd go back and bring the Weyrs forward.

Newhope:
I did not know that the book would go back in time.

Smiley:
I did like that too, how she mentioned things in the beginning of the book and how it affected things later in the end. Like, the between time thing? I knew that was coming, I knew they would go to the south continent.

Newhope:
But the going back four hundred years thing is what you don't predict. I'm kinda wondering how that cycle started. If you think about it, it has to start somewhere. It makes sense that she goes back in time because they're not there, but it's a circle.

Dande:
It's a paradox.

Newhope:
It can't happen!

Dande:
It doesn't matter!

Newhope:
They should have been there, they should have had no need to go back. That's why I'm like, "Oh, wow, that hurts."

Wvskier:
Well, I think why they went back—yes, it is a paradox—but one of the main things, I guess the reason why they did that, is that over the four hundred years, since there are so many doubts, maybe all five Weyrs would have diminished. So bringing forward four Weyrs all trained in fighting the Thread would help with this current Pass.

DragonFlight -- Politics (Part 2) & Population Control

2010-08-12T09:00:00.004-04:00

Walle:
They said that there are records that show the path of the red planet, so why couldn't they need to determine their breeding on that? Once the Thread has passed, let the dragons decline a bit, but not let them die out? And then once the Threads start coming back, or when there's imminent danger, they could always start breeding.

Wvskier:
Well, during a Threadfall, dragons do start breeding more, and after a Threadfall they don't lay as many eggs, so that is one of the factors.

Newhope:
Speed up right before it.

Dande:
But they didn't do that this time, because the Queen was so bad.

Wvskier:
I think the reason why people were so resentful was there was only one Weyr left and they were so pitiful at that point. There were hardly any supplies going to the Weyr because the four other Weyrs came to the future. I think that is the turning point. Yes, they are that strong. They have more than one Queen; they have multiple Queens now. They can basically hold their own planet as long as they get the supplies and stuff.

Dande:
Yeah, the little Weyr wasn't as impressive anymore, it didn't inspire any awe anymore. So people didn't care. But definitely you see in other books, books that go to the past where the dragons are in their prime, and you see how the dragonriders are like, "Ahhh! Dragonriders!" In earlier times, that was the way it was.

Wvskier:
In earlier times people always wanted to be dragonriders, it was their dream. Now that they're back, it's probably going to start happing again. "They're the saviors of our world!"

DragonFlight -- Politics (Part 1)

2010-08-11T09:00:00.002-04:00

Dande:
Something I really liked, and I just want to know if anybody is thinking about this too, is the way she described the political systems of Pern, how they interact and stuff. It really made sense to me. If for four hundred years, people had to support these dragons who did nothing, I could really understand how they could end up not caring about them anymore. They used to care about them so much they would die for them and they had these rules to help them, but over time they could grow to resent them. It really made sense to me, and I loved that, because it's such an interesting idea, because you never see anything like that in real life. It was totally unique, out of her head, but it makes sense.

Wvskier:
I think that's also really cool because they actually lasted four hundred years with these people believing they are something, even though two hundred years have already gone by, no Thread has fallen. There's this huge break, Long Interval I think it's called? But what's really cool about this Thread is that in the first book, it's like a cliffhanger, what is going to happen now? And it's just interesting how the plot progresses and how Thread is always in the background, but more important things always seem to come up.

* * *

Walle:
You mentioned about the politcal system? There was a part of that that I didn't get. Technically, the job of the dragonriders was to protect the land from Thread, but the Thread came every two hundred years, so in the middle, the Weyrpeople demanded food from the Holds to sustain themselves, yet they did nothing? I don't get it.

Dande:
I think they were more happy to do that when it was just two hundred years and they remembered how bad the Thread was. The dragons had to be kept alive, and the generations had to be kept going, between that, and they kept having to have that many dragons or else when the Thread would come they wouldn't have enough dragons. So they probably didn't have to give every scrap and morsel they could to the Weyr, because the Weyr didn't need to be at such high capacity and deal with injuries and all that stuff, but they needed to keep feeding the dragons, and keep people living in the Weyr, and keep the knowledge and the skills up or else they would be lost for the next time. So they had to give the food, even though they'd never see anything good out of it, but so their great-grandchildren could live through the Pass.

DragonFlight -- Colors & Eggs

2010-08-10T09:00:00.006-04:00

Dande:
So anything else people wanted to talk about with the book?

Walle:
I wanted to talk about the entire dragon heirarchy, where green is the lowest, and then blue, and then brown, then bronze, and then gold. So there were no gold males, or something?

Dande:
No, golds were just queens.

Wvskier:
Golds are always female, bronzes are always male, blues and browns are always male, and greens are female. Though greens don't normally mate, and they can't if they breathe firestone.

Lasagna:
So they're color-coded?

Newhope:
Color-coded for your convenience, yes.

* * *

Walle:
So it takes two years for a queen dragon to mature?

Dande:
I think she was growing even faster than usual because she's so awesome.

Walle:
But then why did they send them back ten years—or Turns—if it only takes two years?

Dande:
I think that they weren't supposed to be there the whole ten years. I think they were supposed to be there for a couple years, and then come back.

Newhope:
No, no no no. It wasn't that they just wanted her to mature. They wanted to keep pumping out the eggs.

Dande:
Pumping?

[laughs]

Dande:
Yeah, okay.

Newhope:
They needed to be fully mature enough to fly, the hatchlings.

DragonFlight -- Thread & Title

2010-08-09T09:00:00.002-04:00

Dande:
When you read about the world in the rest of the series, it definitely seems like a good place. You get to care about Pern as a world.

Wvskier:
You understand more. You understand why they're there, how they deal with their problems, and how other people, the antagonists, try to stop them, but the protagonists always pull through.

Dande:
Mm-hmm. And I like the idea—the Threads were really so dangerous. If one little Thread got in the ground it would destroy a whole area. And so everything was so important, they really had to work together so well. During that fifty years when it was a Pass, every single day, every single time they went out, was so important.

Wvskier:
Yeah, but it's just a daily job, just like a firefighter or something. They go out to fire's all the time, and it is really dangerous.

* * *

Newhope:
What do you think about the title? DragonFlight? Why do you think she chose it?

Dande:
I don't know. Because there are dragons?

Lasagna:
And they're flying?

Newhope:
It's a pretty bad title.

Walle:
I think the idea of flying between was so important, it comes to do with the main plot of what happens and allows them to save their land, so that's why I think she chose the flight part of DragonFlight.

DragonFlight -- Lessa and F’lar & Power

2010-08-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Dande:
When you're talking about Lessa and F'lar—I remember when I first read it, I was totally into it and everything. But when I was rereading it, I just didn't get their relationship at all.

Smiley:
Yeah, it was somewhat weird. There was this part in the middle of the novel when they were having dinner together or whatever, and—I kind of didn't get it, in the beginning. Are they together, or are they not? Do they like each other?

Walle:
It felt like they were forced together because of their dragons.

Dande:
It's amazing, because I remembered it making so much sense— laughs

Dande:
—but as I was reading it, it was like, what in the world is going on here? The characters, I got them as individual characters, but how they related to each other followed no logic whatsoever. No development at all.

Wvskier:
Their relationship is sort of tough in the beginning, because they both obviously have a station of power, and they both want to control each other. That's sort of how they come together, because they understand that with each other they can become more powerful than when they're separate.

Dande:
I mean, she's riding the golden dragon, the most important dragon in the Weyr, but the person that her dragon mates with is the leader of the Weyr? How does that make any sense? It was written in 1968, so I guess feminism wasn't important then? Maybe that was part of it. There were just a lot of things that seemed strange to me.

Walle:
I didn't understand whether Weyrwoman or Weyrleader was the higher post.

Dande:
Exactly!

Wvskier:
Weyrleader is the highest. It's sort of like, not dictator—

[laughs]

Wvskier:
—but he basically is the president.

Newhope:
It's a monarchy.

Dande:
Well, if you put it in that way, it makes more sense to me. I guess I can't really compare it to this world and what makes sense here.

DragonFlight -- Middle Muddle (Part 2)

2010-08-05T09:00:00.002-04:00

Newhope:
I actually have some questions about the lapses in the storyline, where the action stopped and it felt like nothing would happen. It was after Fax died, and that little track right there, with the impression. After that, it kinda fell flat, there was nothing really to do.

Walle:
I think they skipped two years.

Newhope:
It was just a description of daily life, and I was like, "What am I reading?" After that, it started to pick up with the Threads, but it didn't really start until the battle of Nerat. It was flat for the entire middle of the book. I was kinda depressed.

Dande:
When I was first reading the book, I think you're right that there was no real conflict in that little bit, but I was so interested in the world and the life of this character that I just kept going through it. I wanted to find out what happened next.

Newhope:
The one conflict that you could argue would be the Hold army coming up, but that was resolved in seconds, literally. It was almost thrown in there just to have something to keep your attention. I thought that that was kind of shady story writing.

DragonFlight -- Middle Muddle (Part 1)

2010-08-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Walle:
I think also that who the antagonist was was sort of unclear in the middle of the book.

Newhope:
Yeah, because in the beginning it was Fax, so I thought, "Oh, he's probably the antagonist. Oh, he's dead!"

Walle:
Yeah!

[laughs]

Walle:
And then the Threads. So I was kind of confused about who the antagonist was. Who are they fighting against?

Newhope:
The entire intro of the book with Fax seemed like it could be left out.

Wvskier:
Well the point of an antagonist in this book, it's really different than most books we've probably read, because the point of antagonist always changes. First Fax, then the Lords of the Holds who don't believe in Thread, then it's not really anything after that because Thread is falling and it's just a point of emergency.

Dande:
I know we're probably going to learn this year in English about this stuff, but I think it ends up being Man vs. Nature as a theme. And not all the books are about that. This trilogy is mostly about fighting the Thread, but other books have people as the antagonists, or even disease. But even in that one, I think there were people that were the problem too. Her writing style changed, and is more what we think of as normal in the later books.

DragonFlight -- Firestone & Games

2010-08-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
But what things did people like about the book?

Smiley:
I liked the plot. The storyline was definitely good. I know dragons are very repetitive in fantasy, but I thought the storyline was somewhat unique.

Dande:
Yeah, and she definitely was pioneering a lot of those dragon things that we think of as so cliché now, but she was the first.

Walle:
I liked the fact that her dragons weren't usual mythological dragons. Like, with the entire eye thing, she tried to go for something different, so I liked that a lot.

Dande:
I remember when first read it being so interested by the fact that they couldn't just breathe fire, they had to eat rock and belch out fire.

Newhope:
I'm wondering how they learned that.

Dande:
Well, it's explained in later books.

Newhope:
That's what I would expect.

Wvskier:
It was genetically engineered.

* * *

Dande:
I did like the fact that she explained—there are little things in the book that explain questions I hadn't even asked yet. Like the thing about how they do the games. They never really even focus on it or talk about it, but then you get it. "Oh, they must do those game things every year to keep the dragons in shape between two Passes!"

Newhope:
Practice.

Dande:
Yeah, keep them practicing, keep them still able to fly and do maneuvers and stuff. They must have invented that just to keep them doing stuff. And then people got into it, I guess, and made it important.

Walle:
It said that some dragon died because of firestone. Does that mean that they feed them firestone in the games?

Newhope:
Yes.

Walle:
But isn't that dangerous?

Newhope:
Yes.

[laughs]

Wvskier:
It is, but it keeps them trained, even though they don't understand it at this point.

Newhope:
During a Thread attack shouldn't be the first time they try it out.

Walle:
But breathing flame at each other?

Wvskier:
That was an accident.

Walle:
Oh, okay. I was scared. I was like, "Do they want to kill each other?"

DragonFlight -- Thrown In & Style (Part 2) & Threadfall

2010-08-02T09:00:00.006-04:00

Walle:
It said that the Thread eats or whatever, burns up, any organic thing it finds, so if there was a Threadfall in the beginning, how did anything survive at all?

Newhope:

That's what I want to know. How did this whole thing start?

Wvskier:
When humans came, they were in the middle of an Interval.

Dande:

The reason there was an ecosystem at all was because they thought it was a planet that was mostly barren, but had a few good spots. They didn't realize that there was Thread.

Walle:
But if it kills everything that's organic then the humans should have died out too.

Wvskier:

Well, they almost did. They managed to find shelter under stone. That's what the holds are made of, they're made of stone in cliff faces in the north. Thread does not go through stone.

Lasagna:
Oh, that's what they were talking about in the beginning of the book! I get it now. She's like, "They don't even make their things out of stone anymore." I'm like, "So? Why does that matter?"

Walle:

Yeah, in the beginning they spent so much time focusing on how there was so much greenery growing everywhere, and I wasn't sure what that meant because it seemed so random to notice weeds.

Dande:
I kind of like that. I didn't like that because it was confusing, but at the end of the book, once you understand it, it makes sense. She just threw you into the world, and she didn't try to talk down to you. So it's confusing but once you get it, everything falls into place, and all their little pieces of conversation have a place.

Lasagna:

But I just don't think it's good for a book to just start out throwing you into it, all these weird names, stuff you don't get.

Wvskier:
That's what's unique about her style.

DragonFlight -- Thrown In & Style (Part 1)

2010-07-30T09:00:00.041-04:00

Lasagna:
I don't think I read far enough into this to actually get anything, because this is one of those books where they just throw you right into it, and you have to think for a little bit about what it's talking about and then you'll understand it. I just didn't really get it.

Dande:

When I was reading it recently to reread it, it was different for me because—while I knew that all these cool, interesting, great things came later, and so I kept reading, but I was thinking that if I just started reading this book now, I probably wouldn't keep reading through it. The beginning would have totally turned me off. I must have been a more open reader five years ago when I read it for the first time.

Smiley:
In the beginning, you know when Fax, F'lar—I always say flare when I'm reading it, but I know it's F'lar—Fax, F'lar, and F'nor, you know when they're all talking, and after they say one sentence, it's like, "Oh, he directed this insult at him. Oh, he said it like this." That was kind of annoying to me to get past. If they said it once, "they said it insultingly," then OK, I get it. But they kept mentioning it throughout the whole dialog. "Oh, he said it like this, which was so insulting. Oh, he said it like that, which was so OhMyGosh."

[laughs]

Smiley:
It was annoying, in a way.

Wvskier:

In later books, she actually sort of changes her style. She doesn't do that as much, and she actually has the dragons talk directly.

Dande:
Yeah, I'm not sure if this was her first book overall, but it was definitely her first book in this whole series that lasted thirty years. So we could cut her some slack, maybe.

Smiley:

I don't think I was able to enjoy it as much because I was trying to read by today as a deadline.

Dande:
I gave it to you last week!

Smiley:

But I haven't read it since, like, today!

DragonFlight -- First Impressions & Terms (Part 2)

2010-07-29T09:00:00.006-04:00

Dande:

Also, it was supposed to be a medieval culture—how were they so advanced to figure out a year is a Turn [and call it that]? We didn't figure that out until a couple hundred years ago.

Smiley:

Maybe they were smart.

Lasagna:

Didn't they come from Earth, or something? But they didn't know [it]?

Wvskier:

Well, they lost their technology over the years. Right now, there's no electricity or anything. They lost it because they don't have a fuel source.

Dande:

If you read the rest of the series, they were colonists that—

Lasagna:

It says that in the beginning of the book.

Dande:

It does?

Lasagna:

Yeah, it says something about how they came from Earth but they don't remember it.

Wvskier:

Now it's two thousand years later.

Walle:

They came here? Oh—I thought this was a completely different planet which developed humanity.

Dande:

No. Well, it's supposed to like that, in this book. This book is a fantasy book, and that's what fantasy books are: humans in a different world where they never were anywhere else. The series starts out as fantasy, and then it morphs into science fiction at the end.

* * *

Newhope:

What did you think about the different terms that meant the same thing, such as "Turn" and "year."

Smiley:

Yeah, yeah!

Newhope:

They said "year." So I'm like, "Then what's a Turn?"

Smiley:

Yeah, I was so confused. I'm like, "Is Turn their year?" But then they say "year."

Walle:

In the beginning, I thought a Turn was a day, because a turn is a rotation.

Smiley:

Yeah, I thought it was a cycle.

DragonFlight -- First Impressions & Terms (Part 1)

2010-07-28T09:00:00.010-04:00

Dande:

Welcome to the second formal meeting of the Morris YA Book Club!

Smiley:

How many people have actually finished reading the book?

[about half]

Dande:

It's a good thing Wvskier is here, since she's read the whole series. I've read a lot of the books, but not all of them. I never tried to systematically go through them or anything. I just read the ones that were at the library.

Wvskier:

I have the six directly related to the Weyrs.

Smiley:

Do you want to begin?

Dande:

First impressions?

Walle:

I think that the author's writing style was a bit different. Sometimes, I had to read the sentences over again, because when you read it the first time I thought it was a fragment or something, and then I had to go back, and search . . .

Dande:

Well I noticed a couple that were fragments—but I think it was definitely different. I think it was partly because it was written so long ago that they had a different writing style back then.

Walle:

Sometimes they used very hard words.

[laughs]

Newhope:

The vocabulary I didn't very much like—how they kept introducing terms but didn't really explain them.

DragonFlight by Anne McCaffrey

2010-07-27T08:33:00.020-04:00

Dande here! This month the focus of this blog will be DragonFlight by Anne McCaffrey. DragonFlight was published in 1968 and is the first book in The Dragonriders of Pern series. The epic series contains almost two dozen books that take place at various times in the history of the planet Pern.

Overall, we enjoyed our DragonFlight meeting, but we intend to pick more recent books to read in the future, if only so that there will not be such an imbalance between those who have read later books and those who have not.

Our discussion revolved around a few key things: the dragging middle, the unique solution at the end, and the fact that many of our questions about the world would be explained later in the series. The two attendees who had read other books in the series agreed that the quality of the series improves as it goes on. We hope you enjoy eavesdropping on our discussion and contributing your own thoughts in the comments!

The schedule for DragonFlight posts is as follows:

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 -- First Impressions & Terms (Part 1)
Thursday, July 29th, 2010 -- First Impressions & Terms (Part 2)
Friday, July 30th, 2010 -- Thrown In & Style (Part 1)
Monday, August 2nd, 2010 -- Thrown In & Style (Part 2) & Threadfall
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 -- Firestone & Games
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 -- Middle Muddle (Part 1)
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 -- Middle Muddle (Part 2)
Friday, August 6th, 2010 -- Lessa and F'lar & Power
Monday, August 9th, 2010 -- Thread & Title
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 -- Colors & Eggs
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 -- Politics (Part 1)
Thursday, August 12th, 2010 -- Politics (Part 2) & Population Control
Friday, August 13th, 2010 -- The Between, The End, & A Paradox
Monday, August 16th, 2010 -- The Rest of the Series (Part 1)
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 --- The Rest of the Series (Part 2)
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 -- Bloopers: When You're Not in The Room
Thursday, August 19th, 2010 -- Final Thoughts (Part 1)
Friday, August 20th, 2010 -- Final Thoughts (Part 2)

At this meeting: Newhope, Dande, Walle, Wvskier, Smiley, Chair, Lasagna, Jolly

The Next Book: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

And We're Back!

2010-07-27T08:30:00.003-04:00

After a very long hiatus, the Morris YA Book Club is happy to be back. Starting tomorrow we will begin our discussion of DragonFlight, which will continue through the middle of August. The DragonFlight meeting was actually held in September 2009, and was closely followed by an October meeting discussing Catching Fire, the sequel to our first book, The Hunger Games. Catching Fire is the next book that will go up on this blog after DragonFlight. While in normal circumstances we do not read sequels as a rule, we decided to make an exception for The Hunger Games trilogy, since we enjoyed the first book so much. To wrap it up, our very next meeting in September will discuss Mockingjay.

Besides the books above, we have an entire year of back meetings wating to go live on this blog. Until we catch up to the present, we hope to be able to offer content every weekday. This is an exciting time on the MYABC Blog, and we hope that you'll stick around for everything we have in store!

200+ Comments & Counting!

2009-12-03T20:35:00.002-05:00

Here is the comment I made (in two parts) on the infamous "Names" post, reposted here on front page:

Hello everyone, Dande here, from the post at the top of this "forum." This may be a long comment, so please just hang in there! First of all, I'd just like to express how amazed and excited we in MYABC are about the phenomenon that is "The Hunger Games -- Names." 200+ comments! That is incredible, especially for a blog that has been silent for months.

At first, we were just mildly amused by all the people looking for auditions here. "Wow, there are all these people coming to the blog descibing themselves and asking about auditions! Do they think we know anything? That's so random! But look, 20 comments already!" While we thought the topic was strange, we were still happy about it, because any traffic is good traffic as far as Google is concerned. Because the internet is so big, we'd planned on having to post for months before anyone found our little blog. I emailed the whole book club squealing the first time I saw us in the top 10 on Google. Yet the "Names" phenomenon pretty quickly became rediculous (in a good way): at one point, searching for "Morris YA Book Club" got you nada, while for "hunger games peeta" (or some other characters) we were in the top 2 or 3 (This has gone done a bit since then, which makes sense. The highest we're at right now is #2 for "hunger games auditions.")

What we have been most amazed about recently, though, is how this page has morphed from audition info questions to actual discussion of the book. This is more than we could have hoped for and exactly what we were trying to do with this blog. Of course, we cannot clame any credit for this, since we've been silent. The original policy I'd layed down was to respond to each and every comment we get on this blog, but I got a little behind, and then the comments started coming in more quickly, and then--well, I hope you can see how now that would be a daunting task to undertake. That is why I am writing this long comment, as a response to all of you, to try to open up a dialogue with all the book lovers out there who've found our site. (However, I will be responding to the few comments made on the other, quieter, posts.)

Let me now explain what happened to this blog: obviously the "update" that's been on the front page is outdated and no longer accurate. First: MYABC is still alive and thriving! (Well, we get better at organizing every meeting, so even though there are bumps, I call that thriving.) It is only the blog that has been neglected (by me, as the blog is my job.) We did have that Dragonflight meeting, along with three other meetings, including one for CATCHING FIRE. I have the sound files for those meetings on my computer, the holdup is in the transcription, as it's been hard for me to find time during the school year to type up our chit-chat. But I've been making progress on that front, and hopefully (cross your fingers) the Dragonflight posts will start showing up in a few weeks, and then Catching Fire soon after, and so on. One of my biggest reasons to regret dropping the ball on this blog is that a lot of real discussion about Catching Fire has gone on here, in "Names," while our Catching Fire meeting has gathered cobwebs on my computer. But I have no doubt that you guys have plenty more to say, so hopefully there will be good discussion on those posts too, when they show up.

Which brings me to my last topic: what we're working towards on this blog in the future! Almost all of the activity on this blog has been limited to this page, which is okay and expected since there's been no new content on the blog. But we're hoping that when we start posting stuff about other books besides The Hunger Games, at least some of you will stop by the front page and check it out. Our wildest dreams for this blog, which we may not reach for years of course, is to build a community where our readers see the book that's coming up, and if they think it sounds good, read along with us so they can discuss it as the posts come up. Then, maybe, people could start suggesting books for us to read next! We welcome all comments of course, whether or not you choose to read along, and I have to admit that sometimes our members even come to our meetings without having read the book, just to talk anyway.

Thanks for sticking with me! DragonFlight soon!

--Dande Lion

What We've Been Up To

2009-07-09T15:47:00.006-04:00

After the success of our Hunger Games meeting, we have had two other unofficial meetings. While fun, for various reasons these meetings did not lead to intelligent discussion, and so we have decided not to post about their books on this blog.

We are excited and hopeful for our DragonFlight meeting, and the transcript for that meeting will be posted over the month of October. After DragonFlight, which was published in 1968, we hope to pick a more recent book to read. Suggestions are always appreciated!

--Dande and Jolly

The Hunger Games-- One Last Comment from Everyone

2009-05-15T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
I really liked it. Like any book, it was good at some things and bad at others, and the stuff that I think it was really good at was that it really threw me in there, and while I was reading it I couldn't put it down. And it seemed definitely realistic, I really could believe I was there.

Newhope:
It made me hungry.

Walle:
I liked this book a lot, mostly because it was completely different than what I expected. It sort of opened up my mind.

Windex:
I thought this book was really good, because of all the action and stuff, but I felt like the romance just kept going on and on and on and on...

Smiley:
I really liked this book too, but I don't know, I thought the romance wasn't that bad. But the romance made me so sad because I knew that Peeta really did like her, I just could tell, and I knew that she didn't. It was just so sad at the end.

O'Juice:
Yeah, I kind of agree with Smiley. The instant that they were interviewing the people and he said, "Oh, and I brought that girl with me who I've always liked." I knew that was real.

Dande:
When he did that, and then they had the chapter break to the next section, I was thinking, "Oh, no she didn't!"

Laughs

O'Juice:
Okay, so I think this book might end up being one of my favorite series, and it's really awesome. The romance... it was good, but it would probably be better if it was actually real. She was faking it, so there was nothing there. It was just, "I'll give you a kiss, and now I'm going to get food."

Chair:
Personally, I think it was almost violent enough for me to forgive that scene where he takes off all his clothes, when she's pulling him out of the riverbank.

Laughs

Smiley:
Not all...

Jolly:
I really liked it, there was enough romance where I can deal with it, but it wasn't Twilight. There was enough action to keep me in the book.

O'Juice:
It wasn't like love at first sight or something. I hate those kinds.

Jolly:
Yes, thank you. Love at first sight is shallow.

Newhope:
This story actually had a progression to it. I liked it a lot, it had highs and lows, it had peaks where it was really exciting, and then downtime to build up to being even more exciting. Except for the ending, it ended without that peak.

The Hunger Games-- Bloopers: Athens & A Japanese Game Show

2009-05-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
I actually read a little bit on the author's website, and it said that it was actually based off of, you know that Greek thing? With the Minoans? Who have that labyrinth with the monster guy in it?

Newhope:
Minotaur.

O'Juice:
You mean that bull guy?

Dande:

Yeah, and it was like a tribute from Athens, that Athens would have to send them seven girl and seven boys... but Newhope, didn't you have that Japenese game show thing you wanted to talk about?

Newhope:
No.

Begging and laughing

Newhope:
It sounded just like that, they had twelve students from this high school, and they had them all fight to death on this remote island, and it sounded just like this. They just gave them each separate weapons, pots and pans and stuff-

O'Juice:
Pots and pans?!?

Laughs

Chair:
See, who doesn't like Japan?

Walle:
Wait, so, this was-?

Dande:
No, not real-

Newhope:
Just a show I found.

O'Juice:
Can you kill someone with a cooking pot?

Laughs

Newhope:
You can deflect a bullet off of it.

The Hunger Games-- The Next Book

2009-05-12T09:00:00.002-04:00

Dande:
I kind of got mad at Haymitch in the beginning for not helping them.

O'Juice:
It was kind of expected, because every time they'd die anyway, so he tried not to get close to them, because they didn't have a chance. I felt like he had to do that.

Jolly:
I feel really bad for them now though, because now they have to train the next tributes from District 12.

Dande:
Maybe that's for the 3rd book, because they're going to do the Gale/Peeta thing before that. Will you guys all be reading the next one?

Chorus of agreement

Walle:
I don't understand how the Hunger Games are going to tie into the whole story again.

O'Juice:
I feel like after the actual Games, there's no more story left.

Jolly:
They're probably going to revolt against the Capitol.

Chair:
The Games established the unstoppable, unchallengeable Capitol.

Newhope:
I thought that was going to happen in this book. Until it actually went into the Games, I thought she would try to run away, the rebellion would start.

Jolly:
The next book they're probably going to revolt.

Dande:
I bet the author can't create a world like this, and not by the end of Book 3, have it so the world is a better place.

Walle:
I think, the whole thing where they mention the Avox, and then they mention her dad, I think maybe her dad is actually alive. So maybe that will do something.

Dande:
They're probably going to go on that victory trip with the other districts, and there's going to be something with the mute person, the thing with Gale, and some kind of rebellion.

Jolly:
The Capitol is going to try to knock off Katniss. They're going to try to take her out.

Walle:
I think the Avox people are going to be a big part if they do rebel, because their tongues got cut off.

Dande:
And we're going to find out what was up with the thing where the hovercraft in the woods got the person. And I think that we're probably going to get to know somebody who lives in the Capitol.

O'Juice:
We already do know someone...

Dande:
No, but really, how it would be one of the main characters, that's a kid. To know what the Capitol's perspective on all this is.

Newhope:
I want to learn about more of the separate Districts.

Dande:
I want to learn more about how the world got this way. What happened to the rest of the world?

Newhope:
There's absolutely no explanation. And everything's fine, I don't see any environmental damage at all in this.

Chair:
It's 1984, it's just this is how it is, deal with it.

Dande:
But it tells a good story.

The Hunger Games-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 2)

2009-05-08T09:00:00.002-04:00

Jolly:
I think they should have told us more about Gale.

Dande:
Gale seemed weird to me, they talked about this character and then-

Newhope:
-they offered nothing more on him at all.

Chair:
Yeah they kind of abandoned him after Chapter 2.

Jolly:
He's just her hunting partner, that's all we know about him.

Newhope:
He's just a plot device.

Chair:
Pretty much. They just kind of dropped him and then referred to him for the rest of the book.

Dande:
I think he's going to be a big deal in the next book, because that's where they're going, and so they have to include him here for him to be a big deal in the next book.

Chair:
I don't know, he seemed more like someone to refer to, like when she lost her hearing, like: I lost my hearing! If only Gale was here... I don't have any weapons! If only Gale was here... Peeta's not here! If only Gale was here.

Laughs

Dande:
Yeah, like an easy thing to say. She misses home, and we have to prove that she misses home, so, let's have her miss Gale!

Chair:
We need a character who is at home-

Dande:
Why couldn't it just be her sister?

Chair:
Because her sister's useless.

Newhope:
Maybe Gale's something to compare to... when Peeta moves through the woods, he goes so loudly, compared to Gale's moving silently.

* * *

Dande:
They try to set up this thing between Gale and Peeta for the next book, but they don't give us any reason to care about Gale. They say she cares about Gale, but I don't see any reason to care about Gale, Gale doesn't at all awesome to me. But Peeta, on the otherhand, he saves her a million times.

Chair:
But Gale is taking care of her family.

Jolly:
Until Peeta told his story about the first day he saw her, I didn't like Peeta at all, I liked Gale better. I liked Gale from the first minute they had him. I wanted him to end up in the Hunger Games just so that he could get to know her.

O'Juice:
Same here! I thought he would volunteer in place of Peeta or something.

Jolly:
I liked him better because he could hunt and survive.

Smiley:
I wouldn't have wanted Gale to come, because then the plot would be so much more-

Jolly:
I just wanted him to go so we found out more about him.

Dande:
I feel bad for him to have to watch this on TV. To watch what they were doing.

O'Juice:
She's always thinking, "I wonder what Gale is thinking right now..."

Jolly:
"I wonder what Gale thinks about all the kissing..."

Chair:
I wonder if you could concentrate on the people who are hunting you down as think about this!

* * *

Chair:
This is good now, but once the whole Gale vs. Peeta thing comes up, this could become Twilight way too fast.

Mixed squeals of glee and boos of horror

Jolly:
There will at least be a subplot of action and of them revolting against the Capitol.

The Hunger Games-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 1)

2009-05-07T09:00:00.002-04:00

Dande:
So what'd you guys think of Katniss and Peeta, that whole thing?

Smiley:
I felt so bad for Peeta.

Chair:
Sleeping medicine!

Laughs

Jolly:
That was funny, it's like-

Chair:
"Good night!"

Jolly:
"I'm not going to let you go off and try to save my life. No, you're stuck here with me."

Chair:
"Here, have some of this!" "Oh, what's this...? zzzzz......"

Jolly:
He's yelling at her and then he falls unconscious.

* * *

Dande:
At the end, I got so mad at Katniss for being unsure. "Do I love Peeta? Do I not? Or should I just fake it?"

Jolly:
I got really mad at Peeta for being mad at her. He just overreacted.

O'Juice:
I thought he would know. I thought he knew all along that she was acting.

Smiley:
I knew he didn't know.

Jolly:
I knew he didn't know after the Games ended. I'm pretty sure he knew during the Games, but after the games ended I'm pretty sure he thought she was totally being real.

Chair:
I don't know, because Katniss knew that when romantic stuff happened, Haymitch would send in more food-

Jolly:
1 kiss = a pot of broth.

Chair:
But Peeta didn't realize that. He just lay in the cave, dying, like, "Still here... any more food yet?"

Laughs

Walle:
About Katniss, I think Katniss also thought that Peeta was faking it. I don't understand how she didn't realize that he actually loved her.

Smiley:
I don't think she wanted to believe that.

O'Juice:
I think she actually likes Gale though. I have a feeling, when she comes back-

Jolly:
I know. I kept expecting that to happen, that's going to be a subplot, there's going to be a mini-war between Gale and Peeta for Katniss.

Smiley:
Twilight series!

Jolly:
Pretty much. That's going to be the plot of the next book. There's going to be the rebellion, but there's also going to be Peeta vs. Gale for Katniss. I think that was the whole reason for the, "We could run away, and make lives in the forest, if we didn't have so many kids..."

Walle:
I also think that, when he's shouting, "Remember, I-" and then he got cut off-

O'Juice:
Yeah, when they were leaving, and he said that and then they shut the door behind him. I thought he was going to say, "I love you, don't leave me!" or something.

The Hunger Games-- The Ending

2009-05-06T09:00:00.002-04:00

[Editor's Note* The first part of this is from the very beginning of the meeting, and this was the first thing everyone had on their minds.]

Dande:
So welcome to the Morris Young Adult Book Club... so what did you guys think about the book?

Chair:
Jolly, go right ahead-

Jolly:
It had no ending...

O'Juice:
I hated the ending.

Chorus of agreement.

Windex:
Is this a series?

Newhope:
Well the book says end of book one...

Dande:
There are two more books.

O'Juice:
But is it like all about the same person?

Newhope:
It better be...

Jolly:
The next one comes out September 1st.

Dande:
I get that you have to set up for the series, but that kind of thing gets me mad. You have to have some sort of conclusion.

Newhope:
Closure.

Dande:
I'm still going to get the next book, because I want to know what happens, but... * frowns*

Jolly:
There's no ending, okay? They're holding hands, and they're about to step off the train. That's it.
End of Book 1. That's not an ending.

Walle:
I think they should have at least shown how the crowd reacted, just for a second. A brief flash of Gales face-

O'Juice:
Then if they ended with the sentence, "And then I saw Gale," that would kinda be a little bit-

Smiley:
That'd be really worse!

Jolly:
They should have just ended it after Peeta got mad at Katniss. It should have been, she's just standing there, and he's storming back to the train.

Dande:
I don't know what the author could have done... you guys are saying to just add a couple sentences, but I think it's just the way that the story is made. The story is made for there to be a whole bunch of stuff that happens latter but she didn't want to have a book this thick- *pantomimes thick book*

Jolly:
She should've.

Dande:
-so she had to chop it off right in the middle. And I guess, probably, she likes it because people will be like, "Oh, what's going to happen?" and buy the next one, but it's annoying.

O'Juice:
I want to smack her.

Laughs

Dande:
I think that because she had to cut it off in a horrible place, I think it almost would have been better if she just cut it off after they start going home, after the interview drama thing, and not even introduced the Peeta thing.

O'Juice:
I feel like she just took a knife and chopped it wherever she felt like it.

Chair:
It would have been good if they go on the hovercraft and it ended there. If they didn't even go into all the preparation: her ear's fixed, he's got a new leg.

Dande:
But they have to have that extra drama, about: oh my god are they going to attack them for the berry rebellion thing?

O'Juice:
I've never read another book with an ending that makes me want to read the next book so bad.

Dande:
I have.

Smiley:
It's called a cliffhanger...

Dande:
No, cliffhangers are good for the ends of chapters, not the ends of books. When authors do it at the end of books, it's just mean.

The Hunger Games-- Berries (Part 2)

2009-05-05T09:00:00.003-04:00

Dande:
What did you guys think of the whole berry thing, at the end?

Laughs

Chair:
Oh, that was funny.

Newhope:
I'm pretty sure the Gamemakers were feeling pretty stupid right then.

Chair:
It's like, you're the smartest person in the Games?!?

O'Juice:
To me, that was a bit like... are you serious? That's so stupid, that's so soap opera right there.

Dande:
But it was smart too! That's the whole thing, a soap opera, but that's why they won, because the Games are supposed to be a soap opera or something.

Smiley:
But why do the Games need a winner?

O'Juice:
They don't want it to be like they're just having Games so they can kill all these children-

Smiley:
But that's what they do! It makes no sense!

Newhope:
The Capitol should have just killed Peeta off right then.

Chair:
See, what they were doing though, is they wanted to make it the big dramatic fight between the two star-crossed lovers, see which one of them kills each other, and if all else fails, declare them both winners so we have one.

Dande:
They needed to have a winner because if they didn't have a winner everyone would get all upset and angry and revolt! But... who cares if they revolt? They can just kill them. I guess maybe they didn't want them to revolt because then they'd loose money, because they wouldn't be working...

Walle:
But I don't think the people in the districts would revolt, I think the actual population of the Capitol would revolt, because they would say it wasn't fair. Because even though this is entertainment I think that they too have some soft of-

Dande:
You're right, I didn't really think about the people in the Capitol, I guess they're still people.

Newhope:
I wouldn't really give them too much credit, to be quite honest. They're surgically altering their bodies and stuff, just for fun.

O'Juice:
Don't people do that now?

Newhope:
But not on this large scale.

Walle:
Maybe they still have a heart, though.

Newhope:
Maybe that might pop up in book 2, that will probably happen.

Dande:
Do you know what I think was totally for book 2? That thing with the mute servant.

Chorus of agreement

Newhope:
Nothing develops at all. You just learn about it, and that's it.

Dande:
Maybe some of the people have a heart, like the make-up guy or whatever...

Jolly:
I liked him. He was awesome.

Dande:
And what about like the interviewer guy? Was he really trying to help people?

Chair:
I don't know what was with him.

Dande:
What did you guys think of the interviews? That was an interesting part of the book for me.

O'Juice:
It was kind of stupid, how she's giggling and turning around, saying, "Look at my dress! It's so cool!" I thought: shut up.

Chair:
"You know I'm going to die tomorrow, right?"

The Hunger Games-- The Capitol & Berries (Part 1)

2009-05-04T09:00:00.002-04:00

Walle:
I was confused, if this is supposed to be in the future, after North America falls, then why are they all starving? I don't get why they have to result to bows and arrows instead of guns or something.

O'Juice:
Maybe the Capitol hid them from them.

Chair:
They're so poor the only thing they can afford to make is a bow and arrow.

O'Juice:
It's not like now when everyone's medium. Everyone's super rich in the Capitol, and then there's the people who are half dying.

Dande:
I wonder if she was trying to show-- if this was supposed to be America? That everyone in the Capitol is so heartless, and laughing at this like it's entertainment, is she trying to knock reality TV shows or something?

Newhope:
I don't really know... she's offered her little scenario of what could happen...

* * *

Smiley:
I liked how they made the Capitol look really bad, when they said, "Oh, the people from the same District can win!" and then they changed it around. I liked that.

Dande:
When I was reading that, I was so surprised.

Newhope:
Really? I was laughing.

Smiley:
I was happy they did that, because it would be too happy of an ending.

Jolly:
I didn't expect them to just say, "Ok, you both won." No, they had to make something more dramatic happen.

O'Juice:
I thought in the end that she would fight Peeta and then she would win or something like that.

Smiley:
I thought they would both die.

Dande:
Romeo and Juliet thing? Except in Romeo and Juliet they actually killed themselves...

Newhope:
You have all these expectations, and it doesn't reach your expectations, it just goes for a different route.

Dande:
But it was still good though!

Newhope:
Yeah, it doesn't go below or above, it's just... different.

Dande:
Original.

The Hunger Games-- Cornucopia, Wolves, & Injury

2009-05-01T09:00:00.001-04:00

Newhope:
I was trying to picture the Cornucopia in my mind, it was kind of hard to picture what they were talking about.

O'Juice:
I think it was just this gigantic metal box sitting in the middle of this giant-

Walle:
I don't think it was a box-

Dande:
Isn't it the thing that they have at Thanksgiving?

Jolly:
It had to look like it was weaved, so that they could climb, so they had handholds.

Newhope:
The descriptions weren't that descriptive.

* * *

Chair:
Those wolves at the end creeped me out.

Newhope:
That was weird!

Jolly:
That was cool, but that was so freaky.

O'Juice: With the eyes?

Walle:
Do the wolves actually have their brains?

Newhope:
I don't think so.

Walle:
Or are they metal contraptions with just their eyes and their hair?

Smiley:
But if it was really them, wouldn't Rue turn on all the other wolves and try to protect Katniss?

O'Juice:
I think it was just their eyes to creep them out. "This is what's going to happen to you, hahahahah!"

Newhope:
I don't think they actually were the wolves, because they mentioned not destroying the bodies. I don't think they would have done that to them. They just made it look like they were. I hope they go into more detail on this in the next book.

Chair:

I think it was supposed to be, "These are all the people who you killed to get here... let's kill 'em again!"

Walle:
It also sort of had, "Your friends can turn on you," because the allies were there too.

O'Juice:
I think they just replicated the eyes.

Dande:
The book's supposed to be so futuristic, so I guess they could do that. They fixed Peeta's leg.

Chair:
Didn't they just replace his leg?

Newhope:
It sounds more like modern technology.

Chair:
It's like a 1984 kind of thing. The Capitol has all the weird technology that no one's sure about. Their technology is never fully explained.

Newhope:
That thing on the roof where you can't go off.

Chair:
And on the hovercraft, they had that too. They couldn't get off the hovercraft at the end of the Games.

Jolly:
Really? The first time she was on the hovercraft, I thought that was just her freezing up, then I figured out, "Oh...!"

Chair:
Well didn't they actually say there was a field that wouldn't let them out?

* * *

Jolly:
When she woke up, perfectly fixed, in the hospital room, that really annoyed me. They spend 200 pages making her that way: covered in dirt, can't hear through one ear, that cut, all the scars and everything. In a paragraph, they fix all that. You just don't do that.

Dande:
Well, they want her to be okay so they can break her in the next book.

Laughs

Jolly:
But still!

The Hunger Games-- Foxface, Rue, & Tresh

2009-04-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
What about the little girl, Rue? And how she died, and Katniss sang the song, what did you think of that?

Jolly:
That was really sweet but it was kind of boring.

Smiley:

Who thinks that she likes Rue more than Prim?

Dande:
I think she was a substitute.

Newhope:
You know something's up if it's considered an act of rebellion to put flowers on a dead girl.

Laughs

Chair:
Well doing that kind of takes away from the whole bloody massacre thing.

Newhope:
Yeah, but that really foreshadows, wow, that situation's not going to last forever.

* * *

Dande:
What do you think of the bombs and everything?

Jolly:
That was funny!

Newhope:
The landmines? That just added more tension to the entire beginning. I guess it was pretty funny.

Jolly:
How the kid redid them, around the food? That kid was awesome!

O'Juice:
But then he died.

Smiley:

That brings us to Foxface. What did you think of her?

Jolly:
Her death was hilarious.

O'Juice:
Yeah, like she's all so cunning, and then she dies because she's an idiot.

Chair:
"There goes the smartest person in these Games! Oh, wait..."

Dande:
I thought she would be a lot harder. I didn't think the big Hulky guy would be the last person standing, I thought it would be her, I thought she'd be trying to outwit them at the end.

Newhope:

Exactly.

Jolly:
I thought they'd end up fighting Rue at the end. Before they teamed up with Rue, I thought she would be at the end, because she's so small and cunning.

Chair:
Well, Katniss kind of mentions that in the beginning. She says, "Maybe someone else will kill her, so I don't have to."

Jolly:
That's why I wouldn't want to team up with the person from my District, until they announced the new rule, because I'd half to kill them off later anyway.

* * *

Chair:
I didn't like that Tresh didn't get an actual death, they just mentioned, "Oh, look, he's dead!" Didn't he just save your life ten minutes ago?

Newhope:
It was a really convenient way of getting rid of him without going any deeper.

Jolly:
They just knock people off and you half to assume that's what happened. For all we know, he ate the poisonous berries that Foxface ate.

Laughs

Dande:
Didn't they say that the people got him in the fields though?

Newhope:
Yeah, but I think it would be pretty hard to find him in the fields.

Walle:
And he's used to the fields, because he works there, so I don't think he should have died there.

The Hunger Games-- Tracker Jackers, Forest & the Pin

2009-04-28T09:00:00.002-04:00

Dande:
Tracker jackers!

O'Juice:
They track you down and they jack you.

Laughs.

* * *

Dande:
I didn't expect them to have a boring forest. They talked about deserts, and arctic wastelands, and they had a forest?

Newhope:
Yeah, that's way too convenient.

O'Juice:
I hate how it was so perfect to her.

Chair:
Well they needed a forest because otherwise Katniss wouldn't be able to do anything.

Dande:
And also Rue couldn't be a squirrel and jump through trees.

Newhope:
She'd be dead in the first field.

* * *

Jolly:
I don't get about the pin. What's the big deal about the pin? I mean sure, it's the token she takes, but... she barely knew Madge.

O'Juice:
It's symbolism.

Chair:
It's more of a connection with Rue, because Rue explains what the bird was. And they were going to give it to Rue, but then Rue didn't want it, she gave it back.

Dande:
I think they just needed something awesome to put on the cover.

Newhope:

I thought this symbol of the front cover to be the symbol of the resistance, and it never happened.

Jolly:
I expected that to be the symbol of the Capitol, but I had no idea what it meant before she got the pin.

The Hunger Games-- Career Tributes

2009-04-27T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
What did you guys think of the Career Tributes?

Jolly:
The Career Tributes? I think that they especially made the rest of the tributes really mad, because they volunteered. They're hoping they end up there.

O'Juice:
I feel like they're idiots, and they're, I'm sorry, they're suicidal!

Jolly:
They're training to go kill themselves.

Chair:
They've trained to the point where no one else could possibly stop them-

Dande:
-except they do stop them!

Smiley:
But wouldn't that be better than just having some random person who's barely anything be forced to go into the Games?

Dande:
It's not fair to the other people who are forced to go, and then they can beat them so easily.

Chair:
They trained for their whole lives so they could slaughter 23 other people and return home as celebrities.

Walle:
And I don't think they need it, because they were already so rich.

Dande:
Well not rich, just richer than the other Districts.

Walle:
Yeah.

Jolly:
In District 12, you have to go in, no one wants to volunteer to take your place. Katniss only volunteered because Prim would have had to go in, which I don't get how that happened because Gale had like 42-

Chair:
But then they'd have to write something about Gale. They'd already dropped him by that point.

Laughs

Jolly:
But that's not the point. In District 12, unless there's someone else to volunteer to take your place, you have to go. Everyone in the rich Districts is volunteering to go because they've been trained for it their whole lives.

Newhope:
Which is technically illegal...

Walle:
I have a question, how do you think they're chosen? Because I'm pretty sure that a lot of people-

Dande:
Yeah, there'd be more than one who wants to volunteer.

Jolly:
Just let the people who want to go duke it out.

Dande:
Maybe they have procedures in the other towns.

O'Juice:
I guess they'd take everyone who volunteered and then pick their names.

* * *

Dande:
But if this was real life, do you think the Careers would be better than they were in the book?

Chair:
The Careers weren't as good as everyone said they were. Once they lost the food, they all just started dying off.

Dande:
But I wonder because, they had to not be uber awesome because then Katniss couldn't win, and obviously she and Peeta had to win for the book to work, but if this was real, don't you think that the Career people would be some much better?

Newhope:
It's still technically illegal, so they can't be so overpowered that the Capitol knows they they've been training them.

Dande:
Oh yeah, I forgot that.

The Hunger Games-- Cinna & Killing

2009-04-24T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
What did you think of the whole 'girl on fire' thing.

Jolly:
That, I totally expected that to backfire, the premiere outfit, for when they introduced the pairs-

Walle:
I still think that the stylists are geniuses. The way that they truly try to make Katniss and Peeta actually shine.

Jolly:
I just liked Cinna, because he was nice. He was the only character that didn't have a really bad part in the book. He was just awesome for the entire thing.

Walle:
I suspect the maybe, Cinna might be from District 12. Because he choose District 12, and he actually tried to get more sponsors.

Dande:
But how could a person... isn't he from the Capitol though?

O'Juice:
Yeah, but I'm guessing he might have some kind of background, something might have happened-

Jolly:
-in District 12, yeah. A family there, or something.

Dande:
Well, does the Capitol have any connection to the rest of the Districts?

O'Juice:
I don't think everyone's always... I mean, if you're in the Capitol, it's not like you can't go out. He might have gone to District 12 for something, and then something might have happened there.

Chair:
Maybe he just got a shipment of coal and saw the people, and said, "I should help them someday..."

* * *

Dande: Before she went to the Games, the main character, Katniss, she watched this stuff on TV, and everybody watched this stuff on TV-

O'Juice:
Because they were forced to. They had to.

Chair:
It's mandatory.

Dande:
I don't get why the people stuck with it.

Chair:
With what?

Dande:
I get that, maybe, you're right, that some of the districts that are really rich, they'd have people who went in there and owned it... but all the people who are really poor, you'd think they'd refuse to kill someone rather than-

O'Juice:
Yeah, they did, they did the rebellion and-

Walle:
-and that's why they started the Hunger Games.

Dande:
Yeah, but why did the people who got chosen- the kids- why didn't they say, I'm not going to kill anyone, I'd rather have them kill me than kill somebody else.

Chair:
Because then they'd be dead.

O'Juice:
It's for their families, it's not just them. If they do that, the Capitol will kill their families.

Jolly:
I assume that's why Katniss only killed the boy from District 1-

Chair:
Well, he deserved it.

Jolly:
-yeah, he did. But, because she knew that everyone had families back home, and she just wanted to survive, she didn't want to have to kill them.

The Hunger Games-- Food & Sponsors

2009-04-23T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
Before they get to the Hunger Games, everything is about food. You really notice that this character notices food a lot.

Jolly:
Yeah that's because she can't get a lot at home. She's going to eat as much as she can before she gets there.

Chair:
Even in the interview, when they ask her her favorite part of the Capitol, she said the lamb stew.

Jolly:
That was funny.

Walle:
I don't get why it's called the Hunger Games. It's not like they're starving to death.

Newhope:
Because that would be boring!

Jolly:
If you don't go up to the Cornucopia and just can't hunt, you're dead.

Dande:
It's also because it's a lot different to fight people to the death on a full stomach than an empty stomach. And the thing is that as the Games go on, it gets a lot harder because people are more hungry.

* * *

Dande:
What did you guys think about the way people pay to give them goodies?

Jolly:
I like that, except how it costs more the farther you get into the Game. That's messed up.

Smiley:
I don't get the whole sponsor thing. Because they say, "Oh, how many people must have payed so much money to give me this little thing."

O'Juice:
What happens is, you have to give a good impression, and then people that like her give money to Haymitch-

Jolly:
If I think that Katniss is going to make it all the way through the Game, I'll send Haymitch money to send her stuff throughout the Game.

Dande:
It's not like a bet, I mean I guess sure they have bets, but it's more like if you like them, if you think they're cool and you want to help them.

Walle:
I don't think Haymitch bought it, I think they would send the actual items, because the bread was created in District 11.

Dande:
But it isn't the items they're paying for, it's the privilege to give them the items.

Walle:
I think it's like when you're voting for American Idol, except you pay money to vote for them.

Dande:
That's a good example.

The Hunger Games-- Names

2009-04-21T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dande:
Jolly, didn't you want to talk about Peeta's name?

Jolly:
That really annoyed me. It's lame.

Walle:
Isn't that a type of bread?

Newhope:
That's why they named him that way, because he's the baker's son.

O'Juice:
You're a baker, you name your son after bread?

Newhope:
And if you're in the forest, your name is Katniss after a plant! Make's sense!

Laughs

O'Juice:
That's so cool.

Newhope:
And if you work with jewels, you get named Glimmer.

Jolly:
Yeah, that's pretty lame. The ridiculous stuff they name them in the rich Districts.

* * *

Jolly:
I think they should have let us hear each person's interview, because it's kind of annoying to keep track of who's dead and who's not.

Chair:
Half of these people don't even have names.

Dande:
I think she didn't want to talk more about it because she didn't want to slow down the book, she wanted to make the book fast.

Walle:
Also, I don't think she wanted the people to have an emotional connection to the person, because once you know their name, you sort of get to know them a bit more.

Dande:
But the whole book is supposed to be gruesome and people dying...

Jolly:
I think she should have at least nicknamed them, like she did with Foxface.

Dande:
Did Foxface ever get a real name?

Laughs

Chair:
No, she was just Foxface.

The Hunger Games-- First Impressions & Prose

2009-04-20T09:00:00.002-04:00

Dande:
Overall, good book?

Chorus of agreement

Walle:
It was better than I expected.

Dande:
Oh, you don't like my book-choosing abilities?

Laughs

Newhope:
It doesn't help, the title, at all. You have to really read the inside cover.

Dande:
I'm guessing that they count more on word-of-mouth than people picking it up for the cover.

Newhope:
It's definitely engineered towards that.

O'Juice:
Actually, you know what I first heard about when I heard the title? I thought it would be some girl on the streets of New York or something like that.

Walle:
I thought it would be something about a person who's struggling to live, not a futuristic society.

Dande:
You thought I picked a memoir?

Walle:
Yeah...

Laughs

Dande:
What did you guys think the actual way the book was told, the prose, the writing style? It was present tense.

Windex:
Better than Dickens...

Laughs [Editor's Note* Many Members of MYABC recently read Dickens in English Class]

O'Juice:
I liked how it wasn't an all knowing author. It was from her perspective. It wasn't one second she's talking about this, another second she's talking about something else, and it's like, how do you know that? I want to follow it from what she knows.

Walle:
I also liked the fact that in the beginning, it wasn't a description of her whole life, and then the Hunger Games start. I like the way they incorporated her past into the present.

Jolly:
I like how they tell you about her life during the Games.

Newhope:
They didn't tell you about that girl she found, with the cut off tongue, until she actually met her.

Dande:
Actually, if you noticed the Hunger Games actually started halfway through the book, but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like it goes by so quick.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2009-04-13T19:51:00.018-04:00

Dande here, and welcome to the Morris YA Book Club Blog!

This month we read The Hunger Games, and overall, everyone enjoyed it. I don't want to spoil too from our discussions, but I think it's important to note that the conversation kept revolving around a few key things: the Katniss/Peeta/Gale dynamic, the cliffhanger ending, and speculation on the next book. So be on the look out for those interesting posts!

The schedule for Hunger Games posts is as follows:

April 20th, 2009-- First Impressions & Prose
April 21st, 2009-- Names
April 23rd, 2009-- Food & Sponsors
April 24th, 2009-- Cinna & Killing
April 27th, 2009-- Career Tributes
April 28th, 2009-- Tracker Jackers, Forest, & the Pin
April 30th, 2009-- Foxface, Rue, & Tresh
May 1st, 2009-- Cornucopia, Wolves, & Injury
May 4th, 2009-- The Capitol & Berries (Part 1)
May 5th, 2009-- Berries (Part 2)
May 6th, 2009-- The Ending
May 7th, 2009-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 1)
May 8th, 2009-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 2)
May 12th, 2009-- The Next Book
May 14th, 2009-- Bloopers: Athens & A Japanese Game Show
May 15th, 2009-- One Last Comment from Everyone

At this meeting: Dande, Newhope, Jolly, Chair, O'Juice, Smiley, Windex, Walle