Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

About the book: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

About the book: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins' groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
 
My thoughts: I Read these two one after the other so it felt like one book. I wanted to see how this all turned out since I read the first one. The middle was exciting and imaginative. The end seemed sort of .....empty.  I don't understand Katniss as the heroin. She is a weak, unstable character and her appeal was lost on me.

The Hunger Games by

About the book: Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

First line: When I wake up the other side of the bed is cold.

My Thoughts: I saw many reviews for this book a while back but didn't consider reading it. Since then I have learned that a movie is being made from this book so I dedided to go ahead. I found it quite compelling and hard to put down. It surprised me that a book for children would be so violent. The violence wasn't very graphic, until a death scene near the end which was nightmarish. The main characters were well written and likable. I enjoy the glimpses of humor in Katniss' dialogue. After reading this I have to know what happens to them so I have the next two books ordered.

Reading level: Ages 12 and up

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (September 14, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0439023483

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

About the book: With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.

Ayn Rand's epochal novel, first published in 1957, has been a bestseller for more than four decades as well as an intellectual landmark. It is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world - and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies but against those who needed him most - and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world's motor - and the motive power of every man?

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life - from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy...to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction... to the philosopher who becomes a pirate...to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph...to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad...to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand's masterpiece. It is a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller.

First line: "Who is John Galt?"

My thoughts: Wow! This has been in my TBR pile for several years and I have been putting it off, I guess because of the size of the tome. Even though I found it a bit wordy at times I thought it was captivating and compelling, I had a hard time putting it down. It is a dystopian novel set in an alternate 5os era so the sci/fi, fantasy nature of the book appealed to me. The author has very strong philosophical beliefs which were the foundation of this novel and are the source of much controversy. Basically I put the philosophy to the back of my mind, I read it for the fiction. The main characters were larger than life and I couldn't help loving them. Rand herself said about them that "they are not man as he is, rather man as he should be." There were no shades of gray here, all black and white. The good characters were good and the bad were evil.Even though I like this book, there were a few things that I didn't like: For one the sex was rough with little or no love involved. The 70 page speech on one of the main character's vision of life was a bit much (Yawn). All the main characters fall for Dagney and she has no trouble moving on to the next guy. Rand's treatment of her philosophy was preachy and heavy handed.


Rating: A

Quote: "She sat listening to the music. It was a symphony of triumph. The notes flowed up, they spoke of rising and they were the rising itself, they were the essence and the form of upward motion, they seemed to embody every human act and thought that had ascent as its motive. It was a sunburst of sound, breaking out of hiding and spreading open. It had the freedom of release and the tension of purpose. It swept space clean, and left nothing but the joy of an unobstructed effort. Only a faint echo within the sounds spoke of that from which the music had escaped, but spoke in laughing astonishment at the discovery that there was no ugliness or pain, and there never had to be. It was the song of an immense deliverance."

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Synopsis:In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

First line: My mother used to tell me about the ocean.

My Thoughts: I truly enjoyed this YA dystopian novel. I thought it verged on horror with the gruesome deaths and descriptions of the Unconsecrated (zombies.) I found the Unconsecrated to be creepy and the romance to be as painful as I've come to expect from YA romance. The setting reminded me of the movie The Village mixed with your choice of a zombie movie. Interesting. This page turner kept me reading until well past my bed time, and I'm too old to stay up too late.Ryan's world building here was quite good, I was surprised to find that I wasn't reading about happenings on an alternate world, but right here on our earth. That made it that much more scary. I had a couple of issues with this story. One was I didn't find out how the how it all began, what caused The Return. Another was with Mary. As much as I liked her character in this book I wish she could have found happiness. I hope these things are covered in the sequels. I'll be reading them. If you like YA, dystopian or horror novels I think you'll like this one.

Rating:

Quote: I try to get a feel for the blade in my hand, for my only weapon. From a young age everyone in my village is taught how to fight for a day such as this. The wood on the handle is smooth and slippery from the dampness of my palm. It feels awkward and unwieldy, and the bag of food throws me off balance.

Links:
Carrie Ryan

the series