Book 9 of 2011

I finished this early Sunday morning after staying up late the night before attempting to finish it but ultimately succumbing to sleep.

10) Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins
The final installment of the Hunger Games trilogy is bleak. It's a country song without the steel guitar. It's your dog dying on the day your significant other leaves you because you got fired from your dream job. Mockingjay is Aron Ralston's situation but with both arms. It's bleak is what I'm saying. The one ray of hope and sunshine occurs in the final two pages and that undercuts much of what the character represents.

Book 7 of 2011

Finishing this on my iPad's Kindle app made me glad that I bought Mockingjay at the same time.

7) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The sequel to The Hunger Games finds the political intrigue merely hinted at in the first book become more of a focus here. Katniss' actions at the end of last year's Hunger Games makes her a target of President Snow and the rest of the Capitol, the city that represents the oppression present in all 12 of the districts.

Book 3 of 2011

This was on sale for $5 dollars in the Amazon Kindle store, and I finished it in a single weekend, the last half or so in about a day. For some, that's nothing, but it's a bit of a big deal to me.

2) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
There's something to be said about coming into any kind of story with absolutely no preconceptions. While I knew the title and had heard that the director of Pleasantville was picked to helm the movie version, that about sums up all I knew going into this book. In fact, I had to look up the main character after the first chapter to double check that she was a girl since the name wasn't the best indicator. If at all possible, it's a joy to experience any kind of media this way, which is increasingly tougher the more information savvy society becomes. With so many films getting the adaptation treatment and spoilers for things I enjoy sometimes being difficult to ignore, I really appreciate that I experienced this first book cold and encourage everyone to do so if they can help it...which means that your own reading should probably stop here. I don't really spoil anything below this cut, but keep in mind that I didn't even know the PREMISE of the book prior to reading it.