The Hunger Games Series

This is a departure from what I normally read, but my book club picked it so I gave it a try.  I liked the idea of this book, even though it seemed really depressing.  In the future there is a nation (Panem) where 24 teens are stuck in an arena, forced to battle to the death on live TV for the world to watch.  The winner gets a lifetime of glory and riches while the losers get, well, death.  The story is written in from the point of view of Katniss, a young girl in the games.  I had a hard time connecting with her character, so her first person account fell a bit flat for me.  While the writing style wasn't really to my taste, it was fast paced and pretty exciting. If this book didn't end so abruptly I would tell you to just read this one and leave it at that.  It was an interesting concept and the story was pretty good, but the author pretty much ends the book mid-thought...

 

Without giving too much away...The results of the Hunger Games led to a rebellion of the oppressed districts against the Capitol.  If this one didn't also end so abruptly I would say end here, but once again the author manages to leave the book in a cliffhanger where you just want to know how it ends.  In this book and in Mockingjay I feel like there are some pretty cool scenarios that are summed up so quickly I almost felt short changed.

I was pretty excited to finally get my hands on the final installment of this series from the library (it had quite the waiting list) just so I could see how everything would end.  Basically the rebellion is in full swing and a battle of sorts ensues between the districts and the Capitol.  Since Katniss is telling the story there were once again pieces of the story that were summed up so quickly (parts where Katniss wasn't directly involved) that it was pretty lame.  This book was hard to wade through and when I finished I was just happy to be done. Oh, and I didn't like how it ended.

To sum it up.  If you want a quick read then go ahead and read The Hunger Games.  If you really liked that and want more read Catching Fire.  If you want to know how it all ends, just ask me and I'll tell you.  Then you won't have to waste your time reading Mockingjay.  

Scout Finch, Philadelphia PA

A Reliable Wife

I just finished A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. I normally trust a novel that is The Number 1 New York Times Bestselling Novel, but this time i was a little disappointed.

synopsis (thank you amazon):

Set in 1907 Wisconsin, Goolrick's fiction debut (after a memoir, The End of the World as We Know It) gets off to a slow, stylized start, but eventually generates some real suspense. When Catherine Land, who's survived a traumatic early life by using her wits and sexuality as weapons, happens on a newspaper ad from a well-to-do businessman in need of a "reliable wife," she invents a plan to benefit from his riches and his need. Her new husband, Ralph Truitt, discovers she's deceived him the moment she arrives in his remote hometown. Driven by a complex mix of emotions and simple animal attraction, he marries her anyway. After the wedding, Catherine helps Ralph search for his estranged son and, despite growing misgivings, begins to poison him with small doses of arsenic. Ralph sickens but doesn't die, and their story unfolds in ways neither they nor the reader expect. This darkly nuanced psychological tale builds to a strong and satisfying close.


Let me demonstrate how I felt about this book with some imagery...

oh how intriguing... 

AHHHH MY VIRGIN EYES!!!

Parts of this book I found pretty intriguing, it is chalked full of: deceit, murder, fake identities and the author meticulously describes items in great detail without it being over done or boring. However, some of the writing bothered me, there were a lot of fragmented sentences trying to be dramatic but instead i annoyed me and I would catch myself analyzing the writing style instead reading the story. BUT i mostly would not recommend this book because I had to skip a lot of it, as my last photo indicates, because just like the author liked to describe food, clothing, and house furnishings in great detail, he also used way too (i'm assuming accurate) descriptions of sex and the like. Needless to say this book got a lot shorter when I was reading it...

and that, is A Reliable Wife.

Now on to The Power of One... and yes, i accidentally dyed my hair purple...

-Amelia Bedelia

Booky Bookerton

I feel that I had to post something on this blog today, I can't just let is sit by idly, neglected of love...

I am not sure which book I want to start off with, I have read so many in the past twenty or so years, instead I am just going to give a glimpse of what might get critiqued in the future.

I am currently reading:

I will let you know how they turn out. 

-Amelia Bedelia