osprey_archer: (books)
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What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Mockingjay. D: D: D: TEARS FOREVER.

I also finished Miss Read’s Miss Clare Remembers, which I enjoyed very much for the sort of bird’s-eye view of English history that it offers. Miss Clare is reflecting on her life as she waits for a friend to visit, which covers everything from the 1880s to the 1950s, although it must be said that bulk of the book is pre-World War I and before.

What I’m Reading Now

Still The Red Queen. There are only two days left in March! WILL I FINISH IT BEFORE THE END? I’ve only got two hundred pages left, so I think yes.

The more important question is “How will Carmody pack in enough story to wrap up all the loose ends she’s got dangling?” Elspeth hasn’t even met Matthew again - I’ve been waiting for Elspeth and Matthew’s reunion since book 3, goddammit! - let alone restored Dragon to her throne, found the last sign of her quest, spoken the ancient promises in the place where they were first made, confronted her nemesis Ariel, disarmed the weaponmachines permanently, or led the animals to a new home where they will be free from the depredations of humanity.

I’ve given up on hoping that it won’t feel rushed. Right now I’d settle for Carmody managing to get all that in.

I’m also still reading Miracles on Maple Hill, which continues to be a delight. There are whole scenes which pretty much consist of Marly listing the different flowers or berries that grow on Maple Hill at a certain time of year, which sounds tedious when I write it like that but actually is wonderful. I feel like children’s books have really tapered off the natural history in recent years, which is really too bad.

What I Plan to Read Next

I was puzzling over what to read for my April challenge, “A book of poetry or a play,” BUT THEN I found a copy of Tolkien’s translations of the Middle English poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo. Problem solved!

And the TransPacific Book Exchange is back in action: soon I will have Norah of Billabong! YESSSSSSS.

Date: 2017-03-29 08:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] osprey-archer.livejournal.com
Well, now that I have a little more distance from it, it is no longer quite so TEARS FOREVER, because there is some hope at the end, buuuuut it's like three pages of hope as compared to two hundred pages or so of misery beforehand as Katniss and co try to navigate through the Capitol on a fool's errand to assassinate President Snow.

I think what gets me most is that none of them needed to die - well, the ones who died at the beginning in the booby-trapped street were goners; but the rest of them might have come through it fine if Katniss hadn't insisted on chasing after her vendetta. And it was all so useless! The rebels were on the verge of breaking through anyway! So Finnick and so forth died for nothing.

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