Post-Apocalyptic Reading List

I’m usually very strict about not reading anything “fun” while in school because the road to hell is paved with paperbacks I purchased in airport bookstores (no really). This semester, however, I took a film class and a poetry class with scary amounts of required writing but little enough required reading that I tricked myself into thinking I had “spare time.” So I actually read some books and can write a review on my first day out of the grad school grind! (Which sounds a mite dirty, no?)

The Hunger Games trilogy
By Suzanne Collins

Admittedly, this is the trilogy that broke the camel’s back. I couldn’t stand listening to Kacie and Jessica R. talk about it anymore so I broke my own rule about not having fun just so I wouldn’t feel left out. There, I said it.

This is a young adult trilogy, and because it’s three books, I should talk about all three separately. But because it’s YA, you can read all three in the time it takes to read one normal human book, so I’m not going to. That doesn’t make them any less amazing. I will say right out that I did not find the last book in the series as compelling as the first two, but again, that’s not a reason for you not to read them.

Here’s why you should read them: it’s the future and a war has occurred between the capitol (California-ish) and the rest of the country—now called “Panem.” Everyone in power looks and behaves like Lady Gaga (Why am I wearing a meat suit? BECAUSE I CAN.) and the rest of the country has been divided into districts according to their chief industry (fish, coal, glitter, etc.) [ok—I made the last one up.]. Each year, the capitol proves its supremacy by forcing the districts to send two children each into a massive Thunderdome-like arena where they fight to the death until only one remains:

“Two men enter, one man leaves”
x 12 districts
x The Triwizard Tournament
- Wands
+ Televised killing
_______________
The Hunger Games

The books are addictive for two reasons: Collins has created one of those alternate realities where you want to know all of the details. The rather gory, can’t-stop-looking, car crash premise where you want to know who dies next sucks you in, but the details keep you there. How do people live in this future? The second reason is Katniss, the protagonist, who is both a hot mess, and someone you admire. It’s good that she’s a hot mess, because A) she’s a teenager and B) who wouldn’t be under those circumstances? But she’s still pretty lovable. I admire Collins for giving Katniss flaws. I dare you not to root for her.

I would recommend this series to: Amber, Trina, Versha, and ugh, Tim. Okay?

1984
by George Orwell

I’m going to go ahead and pretend I’m the first person ever to have read this book and just say, holy crap! This book is insane! I mean, I guessed that it would be pretty good because it’s a “classic” but I mean… woah.

Ahem. Sorry. There are two things to say about 1984. First, I didn’t expect parts of it to be so beautiful and poetic. Sometimes it’s just so lyrical it could make you cry, for example:

All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.

...

—a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting—three hundred million people all with the same face.

Second, it is still frightening. Maybe it will always be frightening because you’ll always be able to apply it to whatever frightens you the most in the world. It’s eerie how good this book is and this is coming from someone who doesn’t like capitalism or communism.

I would recommend this book to: Tim and people who don’t like Glenn Beck.

Mama Day
By Gloria Naylor

Ok, technically, I read this for class, but I would be cheating you if I didn’t recommend it to you, depriving you of air and sunshine and food and water and chocolate. Mama Day is a book that does not mess around. It is full of folklore and lightening, history and passion. The story is told from three perspectives, and after 50 pages I was talking to Tim about the characters as though they were real people I had been living with. This is probably the book’s greatest strength: you don’t read it, you crawl inside it and live in it. You wallow around in it and don’t want to come out and you cry and cry. Does it even matter what it’s about? It’s MAGIC. Go read it.

I would recommend this book to: literally everyone on earth, but my mom, and grandmother specifically.

Shane
By Jack Schaefer

Again, I read this because I was writing a paper about the film for class—but it wasn’t specifically assigned so it doesn’t count. I was shocked to find that nearly everyone in my class hated the film (oh, Alan Ladd!), which people in my family always seem to be quoting. I was so pleasantly surprised to find that the book is un-put-down-able. It’s short, about 160 pages, and very beautifully written from the point of view of the little boy. It’s about moral ambiguity and the meaning of “progress”—who has the right to land and at whose expense? What does it mean to be a good person under harsh conditions? All of these questions still apply despite our posturing about how advanced we are “these days.” The nice thing about this critical edition is that includes short articles you might want to read even if you weren’t writing a paper—I only say that because I sat and read them all even though I didn’t use most of them; they were just interesting.

Jack Schaefer said later in life that he could never have written Shane again; he’d lost his innocence and didn’t feel that people were capable of whatever it is that Shane does—sacrifice, I suppose. And people think Westerns are one-dimensional!

I would recommend this book to: again, my mom and grandmother, and maybe Emily? Idk, people are touchy about Westerns but should read them. And this is a good place to start.