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rosereview · 3 years

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Book of the Month (Feb): The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

In the month of February I read four books with one of them being a reread and another one that was for school. Although I don’t consider any rereads for my Book of the Month picks, this one was a close first against the reread, which was no surprise given both of these books. But anyways, this is the list for the books I read in February and then I’ll get into the review:

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (4.5 stars)

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas (reread- 4.5 stars)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (4 stars)

Antigone by Sophocles (unrated)

Characters

First I would like to say that I usually really like a villain backstory and an anti-hero character. I just love the way an author can make you hate and understand a character so well, and I think the psychology of how a “villain” becomes bad is so interesting. If done well of course. And Suzanne Collins did a very good job in my opinion. Coriolanus Snow is not someone you like, but seeing his life in a post-war environment with bigotry all around him, you can very much see how he got to the places he did. And even though he does such bad things in the end, I could totally understand and sympathize with how he got there and why he became the evil president in the end. Throughout the whole book, Coriolanus is just focused on survival for himself and his family, much like Katniss in The Hunger Games, but unlike Katniss he doesn’t fully stick to his values and he gets lost in this complicated world he is trying to navigate. I found it so interesting with where his mind would go while thinking about everything he had to keep secret from everyone else, but I could also really sympathize with the way that he needed to keep it all a secret too. He was just trying to make a better future for himself and his family, which I can relate to, but it is also obvious that the way he did it was not good either.

The next character that I want to talk about is Lucy Gray, our lead lady, who I thought was magnificently written. She was the perfect opposite position for Coriolanus’ view points, bringing him down to earth multiple times to make him see what she lived everyday because she was district. But besides the relationship between her and Coriolanus (I’ll talk about that more later), as an individual character she was super interesting to read about mostly because of all the relationships with her music and the songs that we know about from The Hunger Games. To see that connection between Lucy Gray and our future Katniss was really cool and the mystery of what happened to her in the end I found to be really fitting for Lucy Gray and her character.

Relationships

I can’t really talk about anymore characters without talking specifically about their relationships to Coriolanus so this next part will also fill in what I think about certain characters. First I want to touch on the relationship of Coriolanus and Lucy Gray, which I thought was also well done. It was nice to see how Coriolanus had some humanity in him before he was corrupted by the government around him into the President Snow that we know now. Lucy Gray was the biggest part of showing us his human side while also being a big part of his downfall. His insecurities revolving around her were really what set him off, and it was so interesting to see how her relationship with the musical mockingjays and Coriolanus’ reaction to them was so different and was an interesting metaphorical take on their views of government and control.

Another super interesting relationship was Coriolanus and Sejanus Plinth, which honestly made me mostly anxious. Sejanus was such an interesting and good character, but really it was stressful to see his goodness also be his downfall. He trusted Coriolanus too easily and was definitely too open with his secrets, which I guess just showed how manipulative Coriolanus could be but also was a sort of metaphor on how easily the trustworthy and honest people are killed off in a corrupt society. Most of the time I was just really hoping that Coriolanus would be more understanding of Sejanus and not betray him in the end, but being able to hear Coriolanus’ thoughts and how he continued to be annoyed with Sejanus and his treachery to the Capitol, almost made me feel the same. It’s crazy how believing in something so much can really make even your friends not be enough to change you. And their whole relationship really made the end hurt more when Coriolanus betrayed him and watched his death only to steal his spot as a rich man’s son when he got back to the Capitol. I really wished it didn’t have to end that way (but I also knew that it would).

The last relationship I wanted to talk about was Coriolanus and his cousin and grandmother. I thought it was very interesting that even though Coriolanus’ grandmother was so against District people, both him and Tigris were actually sympathetic to the Districts at the beginning. It was very interesting to see how much Tigris believed in the hunger games being bad and wanting to find peace with them, when her cousin- practically brother- became the biggest controller and leader of those games. It just really shows how even if you grow up in the same way as someone, that doesn’t mean that you will grow up to be the same as them, especially when you are put into different situations outside of the family unit.

Plot

Now for the final points, we move to plot which was overall well executed but still crazy. The only reason why this book got a 4.5 rating instead of 5 was because I thought that the book was a little bit longer than necessary, especially comparing it to it’s previous Hunger Games books, which are much shorter. Although that being said, every chapter did feel like it was important (even if some weren’t as interesting as others). I have to say that I was very very surprised with the plot twists, namely when Coriolanus became a Peacekeeper and goes to District 12 and when he almost runs away with Lucy Gray. I was not expecting that from the future President of Panem. Because of those interesting surprises, I thought this book was incredible, and I really did think that it was worth the read. I know that a lot of people are saying that this book didn’t need to be added to the world of The Hunger Games, I disagree. If you are like me and you like having background knowledge of the way a certain world is formed and made into the world it becomes in a previous book, then you’ll like this (because it explores the whole invention of the games and how they become the crazy TV sensation that you know in the original trilogy). Also, if you love philosophy and questions on morals and law vs. lawlessness then you will also like this book, because it totally explores it from multiple angles which were very cool. Overall, I think that it was a really good read if you liked The Hunger Games and love to go back to series that are already “finished” then this is the book for you.

Thank you for anyone who made it to the end of this. I know my thoughts are always pretty much all over the place, but I had to get them down.

Until next time!

~Rose Reviews

#TheHungerGames #Suzanne Collins #suzannecollins #the hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #president snow #catching fire #mockingjay #book of the month #book review

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mortuarybees · 5 years

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What books do you recommend me to read?

I’m not sure what your tastes are but I’ll tell you some of my favorites! To be quite honest, I mainly return to the same books over and over again so the list is rather short and I doubt I have anything to recommend that you won’t have heard of already. I’ll recommend my favorites. It consists mainly of my usual rotation of things i read over and over or books that left an impression on me and I refer back to them often.

When it comes to the non-fiction section just like….keep in mind that most academic texts have many, many problems and I’m not presenting any of the texts I list as The Quintessential Must Read Best Flawless Overview of a topic, I’m mainly listing the books I have found to be approachable and reasonable introductions to topics. Read everything critically, always (and that includes everything else on this list, not just the non-fiction).

Plays:

An Oresteia, translated by Anne Carson (Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Elektra, Euripides’ Orestes)

Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides

I mean like. Shakespeare, obviously; my personal favorites are Hamlet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth; recently, thanks to the productions starring David Tennant, Much Ado About Nothing and Richard II have been added to the list

Doctor Faustus, Edward II, and Dido by Christopher Marlowe

Antigone, particularly Anne Carson’s translation, and after you’ve read Antigone, I’d recommend reading Antigonick, but not before

Lysistrata by Aristophanes

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (I feel like Lady Windermere’s Fan is also kind of necessary reading and I do love it of course but I’ve only read it the once, for the sake of it, whereas I’ve come back to the Importance of Being Earnest a million times and the 2002 movie is one of the things I watch when I’m down)

Novels (and Epics)

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett if you haven’t yet, obviously

Maurice by E. M. Forster

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

VIRGINIA WOOLF. everything but particularly the Waves, Orlando, and Mrs. Dalloway. The Waves is my favorite, followed closely by Orlando, but I’d start with the Mrs. Dalloway because it gets you accustomed to Woolf’s writing style and the way she approaches her characters if you haven’t read her before.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (If you haven’t read it yet and you have seen 2005 P&P and love it and you’re opening the novel with the expectation that it’s similar to the 2005 film in tone and feel, you’ll be disappointed. If you’ve seen the 1995 miniseries, that reflects it very well. So just approach it with an open mind with 2005 on the back burner and you’ll find it an amazing and very repressed love story)

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

The Iliad (the translation I own is Lombardo. It’s extremely approachable and colloquial and I enjoy it, and if you’ve never read the Iliad and you find it intimidating, I would very much recommend it, but my high opinion is not universal. Fagles and Lattimore are very popular translations and I like them both well enough)

I’m dying to get a copy of Emily Wilson’s Odyssey translation. I don’t love the Odyssey personally but I am a big fan of Wilson and from what I’ve read about her translation and what she’s said about it, if anything could make me enjoy the Odyssey, it would be that translation.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I would personally recommend reading the Iliad first just because Miller takes…….liberties with it, but I also don’t think there’s a problem with that at all, so if you’re not interested in the Iliad, or you think tsoa would get you interested in it, there’s nothing at all wrong with reading it on its own or reading it first. I just think it’s a genuinely more enjoyable experience to read the Iliad first and then see what Miller does with it. And regardless of what order you read them in, if you read them both you will understand how very different tsoa and the Iliad are from one another and you will not be one of those people who talks about the Iliad when what they mean is tsoa. Again, there’s nothing wrong with tsoa, it’s one of my favorite novels, but it’s just a very separate thing and it gets just a little maddening.

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson. It’s both poetry and a novel but it’s got to go somewhere so

When I was 14 I got very into Les Mis and i will recommend it. I genuinely love it and it will always have a special place in my heart. I have read the entire brick only once however because as much as i love it. as much as i Relate to the infamous off-topic tangents. there is a limit to my patience.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is just like. extremely good. I really don’t know enough about it to recommend any specific translations; in high school I was given a stapled copy of the whole thing and I read that til I lost it and now if I want to reread it or refer back I just look it up online. I’m a fake fan.

Poetry

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho translated by Anne Carson

The Beauty of the Husband by Anne Carson

Devotions, Felicity, and Winter Hours by Mary Oliver. Those are the anthologies that I have read and I adore them. I imagine that all of her anthologies are also amazing and all of them are on my to-read list. I don’t think you could possibly go wrong

I do not have the singular published collection of Elizabeth Siddal’s poetry (My Ladys Soul) but I have read all of her poetry and she is an amazing poet and I hold her very near and dear to my heart

Crush by Richard Siken

Useless Magic by Florence Welch……..yall knew what you came here for

Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake

Non-fiction and Essay Collections (again. None of these are recommended as the definitive, end all, be all, all-you-need book on any given subject, they’re just some of my favorites). I have limited myself to collection specifically because this is long enough already and if I start just adding essays it’ll never end. All of these were either purchased online for under $10, are available somewhere on the internet as pdfs, or were at my library, so if you look, you can probably find them somewhere (I say this bc while trying to find the authors of some of these I have been stunned by their retail prices and I’m assuring you, don’t be scared off by your initial search bc I sure as fuck did not pay $30):

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama

Marie Antoinette: the Journey by Antonia Fraser (controversial but well-researched and approachable and I love it. I would recommend reading like. almost anything else first because Fraser does obviously focus on Marie Antoinette and her life and experiences; and while she does talk about the revolution, it isn’t the focus of this biography, and you won’t understand why it was necessary if you don’t come to it with a good grasp on the broader events outside Marie Antoinette).

A Day with Marie Antoinette by Hélène Delalex

Robespierre: a Revolutionary Life and Liberty or Death: the French Revolution by Peter McPhee

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James

If you’re at all interested in 18th century art, I recommend Rococo to Revolution:Major Trends in Eighteenth-Century Painting by Michael Levey

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn is controversial. But it’s approachable and well-researched and if you don’t know a lot about American history, I recommend it highly (especially for Americans).

Eros, the Bittersweet by Anne Carson (okay literally everything by Anne Carson. All her essays, her poetry, her translations, her weird mashups, all of it. There are a few things I haven’t read yet but. I very much doubt you’re going to be able to go wrong, so just take what I’ve listed as my favorites)

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate and the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: and Other Lessons from the Crematory and From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty (also the illustrations by Landis Blair are absolutely phenomenal. Look at this. I love it so much I pulled it out of the book to hang in my momento mori corner because it’s so beautiful.)

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

Alexander of Macedon by Peter Green is. okay we have a love-hate relationship, me and this biography; me, and peter green, but I have major issues with every single Alexander biography I’ve read and this was the first so if you want to start somewhere, I guess go for it.

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison

The Honey Bee by James L. Gould. It’s out of date in some respects but a good, simple introduction into honeybee biology and behavior

Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s by Otto Friedrich

Vanishing Bees: Science, Politics, and Honeybee Health by Sainath Suryanarayanan and Daniel Kleinman

Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present by Neil Miller

Holy Madness by Adam Zamoyski isn’t by any means perfect, but it’s a alright introduction to the Age of Revolution. Just don’t let it be the only thing you read. It’s here because it has a special place in my heart as my introduction to it.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Erotic Exchanges: the World of Elite Prostitution in 18th Century Paris by Nina Kushner

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology by Patrick S. Cheng

Our Lives Matter: A Womanist queer Theology by Pamela R. Lightsey

Our Native Bees: North America’s Endangered Pollinators and the Fight to Save Them by Paige Embry

At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell (I really do not know that much about philosophy or existentialism specifically or this subject generally, so I have no idea where the faults of this book are, but I really enjoyed reading it and it made me think a lot. I have a feeling it’s very simplified so take it with a grain of salt as I did?)

Walden by Henry David Thoreau (just. just. it’s enjoyable but don’t get too into it please for the love of God). My copy (and I think most copies?) includes his essay Civil Disobedience as well which is very good.

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave by Ona Judge

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

The Diaries of Virginia Woolf: I’m currently in the midst of volume 2 (1920-1924). They’re very enjoyable, but they’re something of an undertaking as all diaries are if you aren’t already very familiar with the biography of the person in question, so like. If you find yourself moving slowly don’t worry about it.

Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity by Robert Beachy

To Be Broken and Tender: A Quaker Theology for Today by Margery Post Abbott

The New Jim Crow byMichelle Alexander

The Environmental Case: Translating Values into Policy by Judith A. Layzer is a textbook that was assigned to me in my Enviornmental Policy class last semester and I really fkcing enjoyed it. It’s a book of case studies in environmental policy and it’s dense at times, but really interesting and enjoyable.

The Second Amendment: a Biography by Michael Waldman

Michelangelo’s Notebooks: the Poetry, Letters, and Art of the Great Master by Carolyn Vaughan. Just like. Genuinely. Genuinely. unintentionally hilarious. but also sometimes very sad, and very gay. I just adore Michelangelo. Just a shy foul-tempered repressed disaster. Jesus Christ.

#my next read is going to be richard ellmann's biography of oscar wilde #i'm v excited #henry speaks #vocallsama

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onewomancitadel · 2 years

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How does the chapter hold up, you ask? Well it holds up all right on a reread. It doesn't hold that sense of anxiety and suspense on the first time, but it does keep me entranced and taking a closer look at the minor things. Looking for things that I missed on the first go around I'll say.

What novel? Well that's a secret. It's unreleased to the public so I need to be hush hush. But what I can say is that it wasn't a romance story. It was a happy tale in a bleak era filled with a lot of ideology and government vs. government, self vs. self, a look into depression and someone who is used to lying most of their life and the consequences therefore. There was some romance but it wasn't the main highlight and it was terribly tragic and left me feeling sad. It was a tragedy with a bitter ending left on a high note of hope for the future. I enjoyed it every word of every chapter of the way. I was sad it ended but glad I got to experience the journey. If that makes any sense?

Ben Solo sore spot? No idea what you mean. Jk, I don't know anyone who isn't sore about how that ended. Personally, I didn't have high hopes for a happy ending there, it's Disney. Disney likes redemption deaths.

Yes, the one and the same person who found this story through the Cinder Redemption tag. I'm in this for the long run, really love your writing and The Distance Which Fools The Skimming Eye. There are few writers that can grab by attention like this, Fanfiction and Fiction writers included. Can't wait to see where your story goes.

Minor confession, I've been getting into audio books lately and so I've started downloading chapters and stories that I like and listening to them, haven't done it with The Distance Which Fools The Skimming Eye yet, I plan on doing it when it's finished so I can get the whole story chapter after chapter.

Do you plan on writing anything further aside from The Distance Which Fools The Skimming Eye? Not talking about one shots, I've read all of yours and enjoyed them and hope we get some more. Do you plan on writing anything big like The Distance Which Fools The Skimming Eye?

How does the chapter hold up, you ask? Well it holds up all right on a reread.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

I do intentionally foreshadow stuff and put ironic prophecy into the story so I wonder if that flags itself anywhere.

What novel? Well that's a secret. It's unreleased to the public so I need to be hush hush.

No worries in that case! Sounds like you are one of the lucky ones to read it before it's released! I bet that author is happy with your reception of it. (o:

There was some romance but it wasn't the main highlight and it was terribly tragic and left me feeling sad.

I think you need to go read something fluffy now then. :D I have some wares I could proffer you with, but if you want a flavour of tragedy which ends in triumph, there is a book I could recommend. It's romance through and through though, set in a post-apocalyptic setting.

In terms of tragedy my favourites are mostly the Greek, there is modern tragedy I like but so often it gets caught up in masturbatory intellectual sophistication it gets annoying, and I'm not big on Shakespeare (alas - this is less a matter of taste and more to do with the fact someone I know ruined a lot of Shakespeare for me but my poet-friend is working on it). (Funnily enough, I like how tragedy is done in R/WBY, I just want more comedy - that is, more weddings).

Antigone is probably my favourite, but like... oh... well

My URL, onewomancitadel, comes from Anne Carson's translation of Agamemnon by Aiskylos. I'm such a two-faced bitch, sometimes I take real issue with her but some of her translation work makes me >:( in how clever it can be. 'One-woman citadel' is an extremely liberal translation of μονόφρουρος (watching alone, sole guardian, Aesch. per Perseus, I think this might actually be one of the only instances of it) referring to Klytaimnestra. I suppose I should clear the air: I don't think Klytaimnestra's a girlboss at all and the entire cycle is deeply tragic. The fact she's in a position where she feels she has to kill her husband because he killed their daughter is like, already the tragedy itself.

Hahaha. Hahahahahaha

I had high hopes for a happy ending because if they bothered to tell an original story, particularly after setting up a) Reylo and b) Stormtrooper rebellion then things coud have been really different and better rather than rehashing ROTJ. Ben's death doesn't fit a retread of Vader, it makes no sense. The only way the ST legitimised itself is if it were going to give an even happier ending than the Original Trilogy, that is, not even Vader dies. Instead the ST just resurrected the story to kill it even worse. It's nihilistic and evil. Leave well enough alone if you're going to fuck it up.

(Came back to edit: but I watch this fanvid a very talented vidder made when I am sad about Reylo. It even recontextualises some of the Rise of Skywalker nonsense).

I don't know what you mean about the D-word corporation liking redemption deaths, because redemption deaths are generally in vogue across media. Everybody is always like 'but Zuko lived'. Like he's the one redeemed villain allowed to live ever. Also it didn't even have a good romance.

I had a feeling it was you! Thanks for stopping by again, and thank you for reading my fic and still following it. That means a lot to me. (: I keep a mental list of people who message and comment and obviously with anon I can't always tell who it is, which might be in anon's interest, so I try to be polite and not figure it out, but you mentioned Kylo and I couldn't not lol.

It means a lot to me as well my story has moved you, thank you. (: I am really terrified of disappointing readers and generally, I think if you don't like a fic you should just move on, and in the reverse, I don't expect people to be nice and feel the need to say they like something they don't, so when I hear back something positive it's very precious to me. I put a lot of passion into my fanwork because I love the pairing, I do really like writing, and I love R/WBY.

Oh yeah I can't do audiobooks myself, they're too slow, but I also don't actually need text to speech. If you sincerely wanted to listen to the chapters I could try to arrange a podfic, especially if there were other readers who need audio over text. I know my poet-friend who uses it prefers books read by people and not text to speech, so I'd want the best audio experience.

I have a pretty good reading voice and could do it, and there is a good microphone I can borrow quite readily.

The only thing I would feel uncertain about is reading the explicit scenes, lol. I also cringe rereading my writing and think I am a loser failure, so that's also an element.

Yes, I've mentioned a few times I'm already working on another longfic that I'm debating on when to post. I have V9 immediately in front of me though and I want to get Skimming Eye done as quickly as possible before I lose the mental gumption, since I am a soft baby and my heart hurts easily. I don't even know how I can handle being in fandom, I'm so terrified of people.

Thanks for reading my oneshots, I really have a lot of fun with them too. If you feel like it you're welcome to comment on AO3 by the way, not trying to be pushy or anything, but if you did like those I do hoard AO3 comments. That's true of Skimming Eye too, if you'd prefer to comment there and not Tumblr. If you don't have an account guests can comment. (: Still it's really fun hearing from you here if you prefer that!

Hope you're having a good evening! It was lovely to hear from you again!

#seraphina's asks #user: anonymouse #the distance which fools the skimming eye

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