Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. This review assumes that you’ve read the first book, The Hunger Games, and may have spoilers for it if you haven’t.
When Katniss handed the poisonous berries to Peeta, she had no idea that she could be starting the rumblings of a rebellion among the Districts. The Capitol is angry and wants Katniss and Peeta to fix the damage they’ve caused. There’s not much more I can say about the plot of Catching Fire without giving away the many twists and turns in this book.
I found Catching Fire just as riveting as The Hunger Games. Several of my favorite characters are back and some great new characters are introduced. It’s so hard to review this book without giving something away! I’ll just say that if you loved The Hunger Games, you will love Catching Fire.
I think I’m the last person in the world to read The Hunger Games trilogy but I’ll go ahead and give you a brief summary of the book along with my review. . I’m starting with my review of The Hunger Games today and I’ll post my reviews of the next two books over the following two days.
Katniss Everdeen lives in the nation of Panem, built on the ruins of what was once North America. Once a year, the Capitol forces each district to choose one girl and one boy to send to the Hunger Games. The twenty-four tributes fight gladiator style until only one person is left alive. When Katniss’s little sister is chosen as a tribute, Katniss immediately volunteers to take her place.
This book kept me guessing from almost the very beginning. Every time I thought I knew where things were going, something else happened that I didn’t expect. Katniss is a great heroine. I loved that she is stronger than the Peeta, the boy tribute from her district, in many ways and is his protector. However, there were a few times when it she seemed kind of slow on the uptake. I know it was to build suspense but I wanted to yell at her to get it together. Overall though, the suspense was authentic and I was on the edge of my seat most of the time.
How many books read in 2011?
73 as of today – an all-time record for me!
How many fiction and non fiction?
I read 64 fiction and only 9 non-fiction. I’d like to read a higher percentage of non-fiction next year.
Male/Female author ratio?
I read 54 female authors and 19 male authors. Wow – I didn’t realize I favored female authors so heavily!
Favorite book of 2011?
It’s so hard to choose just one! I think I’d choose Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman. Or maybe Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. I can’t decide!
Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?
I started the audiobook of Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr and couldn’t finish it because I found the narrator’s voice grating. I plan to read the print version at some point.
Oldest book read?
The oldest book I read was Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden. It was published in 1982.
Newest?
That’s hard to say because I read a lot that were published in 2011 and I didn’t keep track of the exact day they came out.
How many books from the library?
24 books from the library. I checked out probably 4 times that many. I’m really good at putting books on hold and not nearly as good at actually getting them read!
Any translated books?
I read The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler which was translated to English from Swedish.
Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author? I read 9 books by Meg Cabot which doesn’t surprise me – she’s my go-to fun audio book author. Any re-reads?
I re-read the first half of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer in preparation for the release of the movie. I also re-read Dark Lover and Lover Eternal by JR Ward.
Favorite character of the year?
Hmmm…I think Felton Reinstein from Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach or Tom Violet in Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman. Come to think of it, I think Felton will be a lot like Tom Violet when he grows up.
Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?
I went to India, Sweden, Pakistan, England, Holland, Poland, Congo and France.
Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?
I wouldn’t have read Stupid Fast without my friend Molly’s recommendation. I’m so glad she recommended it to me!
Which author was new to you in 2011 that you now want to read the entire works of?
I don’t think there were any that I loved that were new to me that weren’t debut authors – interesting.
Which books are you annoyed you didn’t read?
My TBR list is too long – there aren’t any I can think of that I want to read more than any other.
Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?
Not really. Most of the books I read were newer books that I read fairly soon after I heard about them.
The time has come to sign up for 2012 reading challenges! These are the challenges I’m entering this year:
I posted previously that I’m signing up for the What’s In a Name challenge hosted by Candace at Beth Fish Reads. It’s so fun to try and find books that fit into the different categories. Head on over to Beth Fish Reads for more details and to sign up!
Here’s the list for 2012:
1. A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title
2. A book with something you’d see in the sky in the title
3. A book with a creepy crawly in the title
4. A book with a type of house in the title
5. A book with something you’d carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title
6. A book withsomething you’d find on a calendar in the title
One of my favorite challenges is S. Krishna’s Books South Asian Challenge. The year there aren’t different levels of number of books to read – everyone sets his or her own goal. I’m setting my goal at six books.
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The Global Reading Challenge 2012 is a challenge to read one fiction book from each of the seven continents:
Africa
Asia
Australia
Europe
North America
South America (please include Central America where it is most convenient for you)
The Seventh Continent (here you can either choose Antarctica or your own ´seventh´ setting, eg the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it).
The Off the Shelf 2012 challenge is to read books that are on your shelves as of December 31, 2011. I need this challenge in a major way – I have so many books in my TBR pile! I’m signing up for the Trying level which is 15 books.
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Let’s see how I did on the 2011 challenges I entered:
Twenty Eleven
I need to read two books in nine of the categories and one book in two of the categories.
To YA or not YA (YA)
1. Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden
2. Avalon High by Meg Cabot With a Twist (Read a sub-genre you don’t normally read)
1. Soulless by Gail Carriger (steampunk)
2. The Man In the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal (true-crime) Hot off the Presses (Read a book published in 2011)
1. The Girl Who Would Speak For the Dead by Paul Elwork
2. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown It Wasn’t Me!(Read a book chosen because of a bloggers recommendation)
1. Feed by Mira Grant
2. Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman Show It’s Who’s Boss (Read a book from TBR pile as of 12/31/2010) 1. Lover Awakened by JR Ward
2. Lover Revealed by JR Ward Bablefish(Read a translated book)
1. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler Will-Power? What Will-Power?(Read a book bought in 2011) 1. Room by Emma Donoghue Mind the Gap(Read a book needed to finish a series)
1.Runaway by Meg Cabot
2. Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot Back in the Day(Reread a favorite book)
1. Dark Lover by JR Ward
2. Lover Eternal by JR Ward Way Back When(Read a book published before I was born) Slim-Pickings (Read a book between 90-150 pages)
1. Illyria by Elizabeth Hand (144 pages)
2. We, Robots by Sue Lange The Vampire Chronicles Reading Challenge 2011
There are ten books in the Vampire Chronicles series.
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2nds Challenge 2011
This challenge is to read a second book by an author you’ve read before. I signed up for three books.
I think I did pretty well. Obviously I flunked The Vampire Chronicles challenge but I either completed or came really close to completing the other challenges. Now I just need to decide which challenges I’d like to sign up for for 2012!
Oswald T. Campbell’s doctor has told him that if he doesn’t spend the winter in a warmer climate then it may be his last. Oswald packs up and moves to the small town of Lost River, Alabama. Once he gets there he is greeted by a cast of colorful characters, including a store-owner and his little redbird named Jack.
A Redbird Christmas is classic Fannie Flagg. It’s filled with colorful, Southern characters with good hearts and intentions. It’s a little on the sappy side but it’s a Christmas story so I think it’s to be expected. And yes, everything is wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow at the end but would you want a Christmas story to end any other way? I wouldn’t want to read books like this all the time but it was the perfect choice to put me in the Christmas spirit and bring some joy to my heart.
I am so pleased to be able to giveaway the paperback edition of The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley to two of my readers with US addresses. My review of this book will come out after the new year but I wanted to go ahead and do the giveaway now as a special holiday treat for my loyal readers! I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of the book so far and I think you will too. To enter just fill out the form at the bottom of this post. I’ll take entries up until 11:59pm CST on January 2, 2011. Here is the publisher’s synopsis of the book:
The year was 1765. Eminent botanist Philibert Commerson had just been appointed to a grand new expedition: the first French circumnavigation of the world. As the ships’ official naturalist, Commerson would seek out resources—medicines, spices, timber, food—that could give the French an edge in the ever-accelerating race for empire.
Jeanne Baret, Commerson’s young mistress and collaborator, was desperate not to be left behind. She disguised herself as a teenage boy and signed on as his assistant. The journey made the twenty-six-year-old, known to her shipmates as “Jean” rather than “Jeanne,” the first woman to ever sail around the globe. Yet so little is known about this extraordinary woman, whose accomplishments were considered to be subversive, even impossible for someone of her sex and class.
When the ships made landfall and the secret lovers disembarked to explore, Baret carried heavy wooden field presses and bulky optical instruments over beaches and hills, impressing observers on the ships’ decks with her obvious strength and stamina. Less obvious were the strips of linen wound tight around her upper body and the months she had spent perfecting her masculine disguise in the streets and marketplaces of Paris.
Expedition commander Louis-Antoine de Bougainville recorded in his journal that curious Tahitian natives exposed Baret as a woman, eighteen months into the voyage. But the true story, it turns out, is more complicated.
In The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, Glynis Ridley unravels the conflicting accounts recorded by Baret’s crewmates to piece together the real story: how Baret’s identity was in fact widely suspected within just a couple of weeks of embarking, and the painful consequences of those suspicions; the newly discovered notebook, written in Baret’s own hand, that proves her scientific acumen; and the thousands of specimens she collected, most famously the showy vine bougainvillea.
Ridley also richly explores Baret’s awkward, sometimes dangerous interactions with the men on the ship, including Baret’s lover, the obsessive and sometimes prickly naturalist; a fashion-plate prince who, with his elaborate wigs and velvet garments, was often mistaken for a woman himself; the sour ship’s surgeon, who despised Baret and Commerson; even a Tahitian islander who joined the expedition and asked Baret to show him how to behave like a Frenchman.
But the central character of this true story is Jeanne Baret herself, a working-class woman whose scientific contributions were quietly dismissed and written out of history—until now. Anchored in impeccable original research and bursting with unforgettable characters and exotic settings, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret offers this forgotten heroine a chance to bloom at long last.
Girl With a Pearl Earring is the fictionalized story behind the girl in Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting with the same title. Very little is known about Vermeer’s real life and no one knows who the real Girl With a Pearl Earring is so most all of the plot is from Tracy Chevalier’s imagination.
Sixteen year old Griet is from a poor Protestant family living in 1660s Holland. She goes to work as a housekeeper for the Vermeer family so she can help contribute to her family’s dire financial situation. The work is hard and the days are long. Because of her attention to detail, Griet is given the job of cleaning Vermeer’s studio and leaving everything in exactly the same place it was before she cleaned. This makes Vermeer’s wife jealous – she’s not even allowed in the studio because she is so clumsy.
I could not put this book down. Griet is a great character. She is strong but recognizes the limitations of being a woman in the 17th century. She’s smart enough to work with the social confines of her situation to survive and thrive. The relationship between Vermeer and Griet was complex, at times it seemed like a parent/child dynamic and other times it seemed to have more romantic tension. The author did a great job of putting the reader right in the middle of Delft, the town in Holland where the story takes place. I highly recommend this book.
Laura Loss was in her brother’s punk rock band, Second Class Citizens (SCC), in the early 1980s. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the band and they broke up. It’s now the early 1990s and Laura is living in Seattle working as a barista in a coffee shop and playing bass in a little band called Cooler Heads. She meets Nathan and Sean, two young aspiring musicians who live in Montana, at a Cooler Heads show. They are huge fans of SCC and Laura offers to help them if they ever find themselves in Seattle. Though Laura never dreams that they will actually take her up on her offer, sure enough they show up on her doorstep a few months later.
Sean turns out to be a gifted guitarist and Nathan is a brilliant songwriter. Laura agrees to play drums with them for their first show as The Mistakes, which turns out to be a huge success. One thing leads to another and before they can catch their breath, The Mistakes are one of the biggest bands the Seattle grunge scene has ever produced. When the band implodes, the world blames Laura. She tells her side of the story in How the Mistakes Were Made.
This book captured the feeling of the early 90s grunge movement perfectly. As someone who lived through that time while working at an alternative record store, it made me feel very nostalgic for those days. This is definitely not a feel good story. The three main characters are all flawed in some pretty major ways. At the same time, they are relatable and I found myself sympathizing with them even as they made some terrible choices. I could not put this book down – I was desperate to find out what exactly happened to cause the band’s breakup. I highly recommend this book.
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
