Double Cross

This is the first of Patterson's popular books that I've ever read. This is the 13th in the series, but it's written in such a manner that you don't need to have read the previous books to follow it, although perhaps you would feel more invested if you had read the previous books. I don't typically read the detective mystery type books lately, but I used to read cop/lawyer mystery books a lot when I was in high school. 

I don't have a lot to say about the book. It's a quick read, and it's great brainless entertainment. I got it for free, and while I didn't love it, I don't regret reading it. I would read other books in the series, and I have another Patterson book in the queue.

Mockingjay

I finally read the last book in The Hunger Games trilogy. I really wish I could have read them all back to back, but I had to beg, borrow, and steal to get my hot little hands on them for free.

I don't feel like discussing the particulars of the plot. Instead, I'm going to reflect a little on my thoughts about the series. I thought it was great and found all of the books to be quick reads. Greg, the intern at work who lent me #2 and #3, asked me whether I was "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale." I thought about it and realized that I had no particular opinion about which man, if either, Katniss ended up with. I was rooting for all of them to make it out alive, but I didn't know what particular ending would be better. I think that Katniss loved Peeta and Gale, but I think she loved them in different ways that are more adaptive for different parts of her life. I think I couldn't "pick a team" without knowing how things ended up for her. I was satisfied with that portion of the ending. I thought that Prim dying was an extra special tragedy since the whole trajectory of the book started with Katniss keeping Prim alive.

I recommend these books, and I'm looking forward to watching the movie, although I'm sure it will be a disappointment.

The Last Child

This is another book Misty loaned me. I now understand that she loves reading about traumatic topics!

This book started one year after 12 year old Alyssa went missing. We learn that her disappearance has basically destroyed the lives of her twin brother Johnny, her mother, and the lead detective on the case. After the case has been cold for nearly the entire year, it breaks open pretty quickly due to Johnny's astute detective work. While I found myself engaged in the book, I had trouble connecting with parts of it because it seemed so unrealistic at times. This especially true with some of the connections that Johnny makes--the author tries to make them sound logical, but it seems more random. During the course of the book, there are in inordinate amount of murders, including a college professor who saw too much, a prostitute, a dirty security guard, a child molester, a coke head business tycoon, etc. Everyone in this town appears to be connected and twisted.

This book made me question, for about the billionth time, how people put their lives back together after a tragedy. If my *hypothetical* daughter disappeared, how would I go on living and breathing? Would I be able to go on with some semblance of my life as I know it now, or would it be the beginning of my own demise? In my work I sometimes see people who are reeling from some type of tragedy, like my 19 year old college student client whose 17 year old brother drowned. I am supposed to make some judgements about how he is reacting to it--is that reaction appropriate, especially given that his family immigrated to the US from other country and thus has different cultural norms for dealing with death? I hate assigning diagnostic labels to people who are reacting to their own very difficult situations. I always question at what point it is--or should be--considered mental illness.

Well, maybe that's just a rant, but that was what I was thinking post-The Last Child.

Lucky

Misty recommended that I read Lucky and lent it to me after I finished The Lovely Bones. This memoir is not for the faint of heart. It begins with a graphic description of her brutal rape. At the end, she leaves the reader with some hope, but this hope is only given after Alice loses nearly everything. The reader learns about the rape, the additional injuries caused by the criminal justice system, the often insensitive responses of others (including a terrible psychiatrist), her best friend's rape, and her alcohol and drug abuse before learning that she truly did emerge as a survivor.

While reading this, I kept asking myself if this was something I would/could/should recommend for clients. It is not unusual to have a client with some history of sexual trauma, and sometimes it helps to have something to read. I don't think I would recommend this to a survivor though because it may be too traumatizing. I think it might be good reading for a romantic partner or family member of a rape survivor. Although Alice's story is just her own, perhaps there are lessons in it for all of us who are confronted with rape/rape survivors. The last statistic I read on this matter was that 1 in 4 American women (1 in 4!) experiences sexual abuse and/or sexual assault during her lifetime. That means that every American is likely to know many women who have had unwanted sexual contact. This book may be a window into their experience, although reading the book is actually somewhat traumatizing.

Catching Fire

This is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I really wish I had been able to read them all in a row, but I didn't have my greedy little hands on all of them at once. This book picks up about a month after the last book left off. Katniss is back in District 12 and is essentially leading a double life. According to the Capitol, she is love with Peeta. According to her, she is in love with Gale and is unsure about her feelings toward Peeta. She is frightened about the safety of her family, Gale's family, and (to a lesser extent) Peeta's family. Her fears seem realistic, as the president of Panem visits her and threatens Gale. Every time she thinks that she is doing something to buy herself and/or the people she loves a little safety, it either backfires or is rendered useless.

After a series of events, it is determined that Peeta and Katniss have to compete in the Hunger Games again against champions from previous years. It seems clear that the Capitol wants Katniss dead, as uprisings in other districts are being blamed on her. Once the competition begins, it is clear that something is amiss. Rather than trying to kill her and Peeta, several other tributes are going out of their way to keep them alive. After three days and a number of deaths, Katniss brought down the forcefield around the arena.

Katniss woke up connected to machines and tubes and thought she was still a pawn in the Capitol's games. Instead, she was a pawn in the rebel's games. Her face, and her Mockingjay, were symbols that had organized a revolution. She and two other competitors were rescued, but Peeta is thought to be dead. (My money is on him popping back up at some point.) She was reunited with Gale, her mother, and her sister, but she learned that District 12 had been destroyed.

This book is as engaging as the first. You will want to sit and read it all at once. I am very eager to read the third one, but I have to wait to get it, so I have to read something else in the interim. 

Regeneration

I didn't have access to any of the books that I planned to read, so I snuck this one in there a few days ago. My former supervisor, Dr. Wai Wong, bought this for me as a goodbye gift when I left Cornell. He said he liked it because it combined two of his passions: therapy and war poetry.

What I didn't know when I read the book was that it is based on true characters and events. It (loosely?) follows the 

experience of a WW1 soldier who objects to the war and is ultimately forced into a mental institution. His psychiatrist (also based on a real person) is treating a large number of soldiers, who are mostly suffering from "shell shock"/PTSD. The psychiatrist is mostly conducting exposure therapy, which was apparently cutting edge at the time. He is contrasted with a colleague of his who treats symptoms through electrical shock applied to various areas of the body. The psychiatrist's own mental health also receives some exploration.

I can't decide if I liked the book. I guess I did but not a lot. It was hard for me to get into it because I have no interest in reading about war, but once he was in the mental institution, I found it more interesting. It is always intriguing for me to read about the development of psychological treatment, so that part was good. There was some attention to same-sex attraction/desire that was interesting.

This book is part of a trilogy, and I've been considering if I would like to read books 2 and 3. I'm leaning against it. While this first book was okay, and the other books might also be okay, I have a list of books that I'm really interested in reading, so I'll probably skip the rest of this trilogy.

The Hunger Games

Well, I finally got around to starting the second famous recent trilogy (with the other one being The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This book was a very fast, engaging read. The story line takes place in a post-apocalyptic society in the area of the former US. In this society, the Capital controls almost everything that happens in each of the 12 districts of the country. The main character, Katniss, grew up in District 12, where she is one of the poor children of "The Seam." One way that the Capital reminds residents of the districts of their total lack of power is by the Hunger Games, which involves one boy tribute and one girl tribute from each district entering a brutal weeks-long competition from which only one will emerge alive. This event is televised, and citizens are required to watch it.

Katniss, who grew up protecting her younger sister Primrose, took Prim's place as a tribute. Although Katniss appeared to be an underdog in many ways, she was a favorite by the time the actual competition begins. She outwits many competitors but is confused by the kindness of Peeta, the boy tribute from her district. Since Peeta had spun a tale about he and Katniss were star-crossed lovers, the Capitol changed the rules of the Hunger Games to allow both tributes from any given district to win. Basically, a lot of fighting and out-smarting occurs, and Katniss and Peeta are left alive. In a not unforeseen twist, the Capitol dictates that there can be only one winner, as watching Katniss and Peeta (who seem to actually have legitimate feelings for one another) fight to the death. Katniss gets the last laugh of the official Games though, so they both live.

Katniss and Peeta are returned to the Capitol, where their various injuries are miraculously healed. This appears to be a happy ending, until Katniss learns that Capitol officials want her dead to punish her for her final stunt at the end of the Games. This is further complicated by Peeta's love for Katniss and Katniss's confusion about her feelings for Peeta. This book ends just as Peeta and Katniss return, victoriously, to District 12. Of course, this cliff hanger is a very effective way to sell the second book in the trilogy.

This book reminds me of the last book I read...government control of the masses, using people for whatever purposes suits them, etc. These themes are very thought-provoking and disturbing. I'm going to be mulling this over for quite some time.

Never Let Me Go

This book have given me a lot to think about. It is set in near present day England, and this society is in many ways similar to current society. The dystopian elements, however, are disturbing. The book is narrated by Kathy, who looks back throughout her life and provides snapshots of different moments of her life. Throughout the book she learns (and we learn) Kathy's role in her society. She grew up in a setting that appears to be an idyllic boarding school, but she ultimately learns that she is a clone of an existing human being. She and all of her classmates have been created to serve as donors for all of the non-cloned people. Each of the donors serves a term as a carer for donors before transitioning into being a donor. Each donor donates various body parts until completing (i.e., dying). Although this is a compelling story line, it is largely the backdrop against which the central love story is set. The love story is quite sad, as Kathy and her love Tommy are kept apart by various forces. 

In the end, I am sadder about the outcome of Kathy and Tommy's relationship and the meaning of their lives than either of them seemed to be. They understood their fate and seemed fairly easily resigned to it. 

This book continues to raise questions about the implications of scientific progress. In this society they have cured cancer and most health conditions but only at the cost of having a second class of human beings that are created as body parts farms for first class human beings. Obviously, this is over the line, but it can be hard to see where the line is sometimes.

The Total Money Makeover

I finished this book a few days ago, but I've been busy drinking Ramsey's KoolAid, so I wasn't able to blog about it.

Obviously, this book doesn't fit so well with the other books I have read so far this year. Lizzy and I decided to read this book because I know a few people who have been following the system with success. Ramsey explains financial concepts very clearly, although I could do without the quotes from The Bible.

Our own situation can use a makeover. When I finally graduated with my last degree just over one year ago, I had way too much student loan debt. I also have some credit card debt. Lizzy had student loans, credit card debt, and medical bills when we met, but we have paid all of that off except for her student loans. Since reading the book, we have decided to attack our debt more aggressively, even though we are planning our wedding reception. Over the past couple of days we have listed many items for sale on Craigslist and Ebay, and I've gotten over $250 so far. I also applied for a part time job to supplement our income, at least temporarily.

It's way too early to tell how committed we will stay to this over time, since we will need to budget very strictly for a long time to meet our goals. I'm hoping that putting this out into the universe will help build in some accountability for me.

Unaccustomed Earth

Book #3 of 2012 is by the same author as Book #1 (The Namesake). This book has a unique structure. The first part is comprised of 5 disconnected short stories, and the second part has three short stories that are snapshots from the same characters' lives that occur over the course of several decades. Each story in the book falls under the overarching theme of people who left India to build a life elsewhere. Most stories have some version of an unhappy ending, although there is a wide range from just merely in an unhappy marriage to being killed by an act of nature. Many stories involve the juxtaposition of American culture and Indian culture and varying levels of acculturation by different family members, similar to The Namesake. While this book was interesting, I would recommend The Namesake above it, partially just because I like to explore characters over the course of a novel rather than just a short story.

The Lovely Bones

It's great when the students are gone for break. I read a whole book today, with a big chunk of it completed at work.

This book is told from the perspective of a 14 year old girl who gets murdered. Parts of the book are simply heartbreaking, while the overall message seems hopefully. There are some interesting perspectives on the afterlife, which (for me) range from probable to impossible. Sebold's notion of individual heavens that overlap with other people's individual heavens is intriguing, and her observations of those left behind are stimulating. If you can handle some grief and feel up to contemplating existential themes, I recommend this book.

The Namesake

I officially started The Namesake last week (i.e., 2011), but I read almost all of it today, so I figured that it counts as the first book of 2012. I watched the movie a few years ago, and the book followed basically all of the plot that I can remember from the movie.

Lahiri poignantly describes Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli's process as they diligently work to maintain their Indian culture while American culture and their own children pull to Americanize them. She mostly follows the life of Gogol/Nikhil, which parallels a number of clients that I have worked with over the years. He struggles to walk the tightrope of two disparate cultures, attempting to create his own American identity while determining how to respect his parents and their (his) Indian culture. After failed relationships and family tragedies, he seems to find a balance that works for him. I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to other readers.

Getting Started

Lizzy encouraged me to start my first ever blog to review the books I read, so I decided to give it a shot. I finished 30 books last year, and I hope to do better this year. I plan to use this space to share my thoughts about what I read and hopefully start some dialogue. Be warned: any and all of these posts might contain spoilers, so don't read them if you are worried about that.