[Insert Bad Pun Here] In Underland

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Promising myself to read this, I pulled a copy off the shelving cart Thursday, and then forgot it. Pulled it off the shelf yesterday and started it. Whoa! Forget exposition! We're into the action by page 13! And giant cockroaches! No one told me there would be cockroaches. Nor did anyone tell me that farther into the book I'd be crying (while sitting at the Children's Room desk) because one of them died.*

Collins apparently wrote this as a sort of urban Alice in Wonderland, with blood and gore and death and fear and no social commentary. Well, hardly any. The most important feature of this book, I think, is the presence of complex characters, of which I think I counted two. This is something you have to wade through most of the Harry Potter series to find. Is Snape a totally bad person? Who is your enemy?

Anyway, the book has two strong characters, a rollicking good plot, but I quibble with the names. "Gregor"? Who calls their kid that? It would make more sense to have him called Greg/Gregory at home and have the Underlanders call him Gregor. And "Boots" is a name you give to quadrupeds with white paws or hooves, not the baby. Also, there's a big age gap between the siblings ... makes one wonder if any other babies got sucked down the dryer exhaust. [This from someone with nine years between her and her sister.]

*I don't consider this a spoiler because, first of all, there's a prophecy that a certain number of the characters will die and, secondly, you kill one roach and there are 60,000 more to replace it.

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Not for the Faint-Hearted

Guts : The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books by Gary Paulsen

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
Just not my type of book. Everyone wanted to know what Paulsen's true-life experiences were that gave him grist for his adventure story mill and this is the result. Whatever you do, don't read the first chapter if you're about to take a plane trip.
His story about the blizzard during the Iditarod makes me want to eradicate the concept. Fortunately, toward the end he tried to eat turtle eggs and got what was coming to him.
This is an excellent companion to his adventure stories, such as Hatchet, but precisely the sort of thing I don't enjoy. Strange, because he can also write stories as funny as Patrick McManus (see Harris and Me) and there's a terrific opportunity to inject humor in the scene where as a 16 year old he tries to get a 200 lb. buck home.
Definitely a guy read. Also, it seems to be just thrown together because it's just one anecdote after another.


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Chichen Itza

LludiKris explores Chichen Itza in SecondLife as a Mayan Warrior

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, but I've been back at work and very, very tired. But not so tired that I can't sit in front of a computer and get bloodshot eyes finding more and more treasures to investigate in SecondLife.

Fellow librarian 50winx recommended the Chichen Itza sim to me and it was well worth an extended visit. First of all, you get these cool costumes: Mayan Warrior and Mayan Princess in full regalia! I liked the warrior costume best and I think it suits Kris, don't you? Shows off his tattoo nicely. The butterfly that usually gives the flying audio tour was not available so Kris and Lludmila actually had to walk around. Next time I might click on the info posts, but there was just too much to look at: pyramid, shaman's huts, sacrificial pool, tropical landscaping, village of gifte shoppes, and outdoor bar and dance flo- Is this place run by the Mexican tourism board or what?

Lludmila shows too much thigh as she admires the waterfall at Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza is just one of the high quality sims with educational (as well as entertainment) content in SecondLife. Also, there's no language barrier, bugs (well, there was a spider dangling down), amoebic dysentery ... what's not to like?