Mockingjay

Page Count: 78,207

Expected Completion Date: Nov 23rd, 2094

Book Page Count: 390

Title: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins


Mockingjay is the final book in the trilogy, the Hunger Games but probably should have been the third of four books. 


On the positive side, Mockingjay ended the series, the main story completed, characters died, lived, thrived, suffered, and years passed. The writing was fast paced which made it a good read. Character development was good overall (see negatives below). Main character had a future story.


On the negative side, the author forced way too much into this book. In the course of 100 pages dramatic changes happened which deviated enough from the previously known information that really, the information should have led to a new book, not 100 pages in the final pages of a trilogy. Furthermore, the author left her characters personalities in the dust in these pages, deviations from what we could expect from characters were half-hazard with little or no explanation. Two and a half books of character development were dropped so that new twists could be added to the series. For me this is not a good way to finish a series. I appreciate twists but to completely abandon character traits, while also deviating from the main story in such a way that it is clear that the goal is just to add new drama is unacceptable. 


I enjoyed the series because it was an interesting idea, written in an easy to read fast paced manner, but as a piece of literature it falls short because of a lack of focus by the author.

/*I'm sick so this is a short review*/

Griftopia

Page Count: 77,817

Expected Completion Date: Sep 4th, 2094

Book Page Count: 207

Title: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That is Breaking America

Author: Matt Taibbi


From the start I'm going to admit to a few things concerning Matt Taibbi:
1. I believe most of what he says is true, I'll explain why shrotly

2. I cannot or will not factually check everything in the book, because of this I will not say what he says is true (this is different from above where I said I believe, this vs. it is absolute truth)


And here we go with the review....


This book is hilarious, scary, frustrating, complicated, and aggressive in almost every page. That's right, virtually every page of the book made me laugh, scream (either to myself or to my wife), or scratch my head in confusion -- sometimes all at the same time. Matt Taibbi is a brilliant writer to say the least, if even half of what he writes is true, he's a brilliant journalist as well. Mr. Taibbi's writing style is off the wall, his use of language, especially profanity, keeps a dry subject (finance) entertaining while his points are always clear, concise and enlightening. 



As I have said I won't vouch for what is said but what I will say is that, our system is probably just as fucked as Matt Taibbi claims to to be. An incestuous relationship between top level management in the banking sector and top level management in government is frightening and appalling. The legislation that results in interactions between these top level individuals results in what we see, a highly complicated, highly dysfunctional smörgåsbord of crap that ultimately doesn't protect us citizens from the one thing that government should legitimately protect us from -- flat out lies made in order to steal from the public. The back room deals are disgusting, the unwillingness of even the most idealistic president to intervene, all result in a continuous trend down the drain.  


Mr. Tabbai leaves no one out in his criticism -- well, almost, but I'll get back to that in just a second. The right, middle and left are all equally attacked. "Obamacare" (not my favorite term, but he uses it, so I will as well) is shown to be a total farce, the banking sector in total shambles, and our entire economy perpetually on the point of collapse by bubbles made by irresponsible people (both in government and in the private sector). The entire chapter dedicated to Allan Greenspan is probably the most entertaining to read, literally showing contradiction after contradiction spoken by a man who is so egotistical he places himself on a pedastool next to God.


Now my one complaint about the book. Personal responsibility by the 99% is almost completely stripped. The only time Taibbi really criticizes the masses is in the last chapter when he complains about our ADHD when it comes to politics, today we yell against them, tomorrow we scream in their favor. Now, to say that the American public isn't responsible at all for the 2007 collapse is irresponsible and I really wish Taibbi had addressed this. Americans wanted homes, President Clinton pushed on their behalf, it was done. A decade long boom began, lots of people moved to middle class, some moved to upper class, everyone was happy. The problem is that we rarely ask "how" or "why" something is possible. For instance, "how does suburban living contribute to degradation of our planet" instead we say "we want a clean planet" and "we want to live in the suburbs", never connecting the dots and seeing the inherit contradiction in these two demands. Our unwillingness to sacrifice coupled with our never ending desire for the "American Dream" (I'd call it something else, but to each their own), leaves us wanting crooks to make money for us and then when the shit hits the fan, we cry foul. 


Overall a great read, I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone

Killing Hope

Page Count: 77,565

Expected Completion Date: Nov 11th, 2094

Book Page Count: 207

Title: Killing Hope

Author: Keith Houghton


This will be a short review as there really isn't much to say about the book. 


On a positive note the book was fast paced and had a lot of action. The author's writing style was really simple (for me not the greatest positive but for a light read it made it fun). This was my first e-book read and surprisingly enough I liked the Kindle experience.


The cons of the book by far outweighed the pros unfortunately -- I gave the book a D- in my spreadsheet. Character development was lackluster, throwing new characters into the book every few pages while developing only a few of them to make you really feel connected. Even near the end new characters were being tossed out that became pivotal to the plot despite the reader having no connection at all to them. Character development was so bad that the author failed to even give the slightest hint of a connection between the protagonist and the antagonist despite the two having a very strong familiar connection. Lastly, the ending was just disastrous in this book. Too many things happened over a span of a few pages and ultimately the author let an easy out for the antagonist, obviously so future books can be made. 



This book didn't do it for me and I won't be reading another by this author.

Kindle Present = New Rule

Almost done with my first "kindle only" book and realized I have no way of knowing page count for the book. So here's the new rule:

Kindle only book, 5kb = 1 page (the only thing provided by Amazon is the size in KB's so this will have to do)

If there is another version of the book I'll just use the page count from the physical book, I'll try to use paperback version but if only hardcover exists, I'll take that.

For those of you curious, I did a quick random sample (kind of random) for books that there are physical copies and ecopies, number came out to just over 5 kb/page


**This rule is still under consideration as I'm seeing wide variation for book size**