The Hunger Games Book Review

Alright, so my goal for this year is to update my blogs once a week.  I'm thinking this one will be updated every Tuesday.  So here we go!

The Hunger Games  By: Suzanne Collins  4 out of 5 stars.

"In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. 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," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed."

I read this book a little over a month ago now.  It was the first book I got on my new Kindle Fire. :)  It had been recommended to me by lots and lots of people.  And then while I was looking at it online I saw the movie trailer and decided it was worth a look.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 for a couple reasons.  5 out of 5 requires that I absolutely fall in love with the book, so this getting a 4 out of 5 isn't really bad.  I was able to read the book in one day.  It's such a quick read because the language is simple and Collins writes it in such a way that you can't put it down.  Every chapter ends with a cliff hanger so you have to keep reading or it will drive you mad.

I liked the main character, Katniss, she was well rounded and believable.  I also admired her total focus on her goals.  But I was not a big fan of Peeta; he just seemed weak compared to Kat.  I also found the world this story was set in to be believable.  It seems extreme at first, a government that requires people to sacrifice their teenagers to the viewing of all seems really strange.  But given the back story of the collapse of civilization as we know it, it makes sense to me.  Also, the action scenes were very well done.  I can see how this will translate into a movie very well.

Although this isn't the kind of thing I'd normally pick up to read (my favorite genres are adult or YA fantasy) I did like it.  And 90% of the reason I read it was because the movie trailer looked really cool and I figured I should read the book before I go see the movie in March.

So, overall, 4 out of 5 stars.  I enjoyed the book, it was entertaining, but I'm not sure I'll read the rest of the series.  It didn't grab me that hard.

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As I said before, I'll be updating this blog every Tuesday.  And next week I'll be reviewing The Help.  Again, if you have any suggestions of books I should read and review, please leave a comment.  I'm trying to broaden my reading horizons, and I'm always looking for good suggestions. :)

Happy Tuesday!

'Tis 2012

I meant to update this at the beginning of the week, but you know, life and all that. :)

So it's a new year, yay!  At the beginning of every new year I do this huge thing in my journal where I go through the past years entries and sum it all up.  I won't do that here, since a lot of it is personal, but 2011 was a busy year.

I quit my job and became a stay-at-home-mom.  We bought a new car.  I wrote a novel and started a second one.  We moved to Denver and found out I was pregnant and having a another little boy this spring.

This new year should be eventful, what with a new baby and all of that.

And now, in honor of the new year, I'll tell y'all some of my New Years resolutions.

Kristen's 2012 New Year Resolutions

• Work on getting out of debt.  Daniel and I have been wanting to get better control of our finances for a while and now we're super dedicated to getting it done.
• Be better at using my time wisely and being more productive.  Got some great tips and help from this book that I reviewed awhile back .
• Go to the Temple at least once a month.  I've had an excuse the last couple months not to go because of being sick and then the Denver Temple was closed for a while for cleaning and maintenance.  But no more excuses! :)
• Update blogs at least once a week.  Seriously, I'm going to really try on this one. ;)

I also have some writing goals, but I'll talk about that on my writing blog.

So I hope you're new year has been good so far, although we are only 5 days in. :)  Happy Thursday!