The Hunger Games Review and Themes

The Hunger Games, most likely you have seen the movie, or maybe even read the book, but do you understand it or realize why you love it so much? For many this answer is no. They just know that the book is great and that they enjoyed reading it. This review will hopefully give some understanding to this epic book and address the many qualities and disappointments that fans had for this dominating series. Be aware for those who have yet to read this book, many spoilers will be included.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was published in 2008. Since then it has become the favorite book of many as well as a box office hit. The book starts off through the eyes of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year old living in District 12 of Panem, formally known as America. Panem is a very poor nation with all who live there suffering and starving, with the exception of the Capital where all the rich people live. To remind the 12 districts who is in control, the Capital holds the annual Hunger Games where each district must submit to children ranging from ages 12-18 to fight to the death. Only one will win. Each child gets one entry in the Hunger Game pool when they turn twelve and an extra entry each year until they are eighteen. Many children are entered in more, however, for they can enter themselves in more times in exchange for food.

Katniss, who is a known law-breaker by hunting for food, has many entries into the Hunger games, though it is not herself that she fears for. She fears for her sister Prim who just turned twelve with only one entry and her best friend Gale who is eighteen with many entries. When the time comes for to select the Hunger game participants, shockingly Prim gets selected. Katniss is overcome with emotion and will not allow for her younger sister to be shoved into an arena of death, so she volunteers herself in her sister's place. The second person chosen is a boy named Peeta who has always shown Katniss kindness. She is sad for him to because she knows that if it comes down to it, she may have to kill him.

Peeta and Katniss are then whisked away to the Capital where they are to prepare for the Hunger Games. Both participants know that they have almost no chance of winning since in many other districts the participants spend their life training for these games. Nevertheless, they try their hardest and soon learn that Peeta is very skilled when it comes to strength and that Katniss is skilled with a bow and arrow.

Peeta and Katniss then have to make their live appearance to the public, where they are the talk of the nation for their costumes make them appear as if they were actually on fire. It is then that Katniss receives the long lasting nickname of The Girl on Fire. Next, during the live interview process, Peeta makes remark insinuating that Katniss and he are star-crossed lovers who will never get the chance to be together. Though this is false, and quite frankly makes Katniss mad, it earns them many fans who will be great help during the game for they are allowed to send them supplies during many parts of the Hunger Games. It is soon after this interview that Katniss and Peeta are lowered into what is assumed to be their death, The Hunger Games.

There are many themes to this book that aid in its popularity. The first of many would be family sacrifice. There is no love that is truer than family, and this book is the perfect example of it. By stepping up to take her sisters place, Katniss is essentially dying for her sister, for she has no expectations of making it out alive. I feel that many current books focus on the romance side of love and completely forget or leave out love when it comes to family. It is very refreshing to have a book show this kind of love at its truest form and the emotions that come with it. This part of the book gets two thumbs up from me!

The second theme that I really loved in the book is female empowerment. Instead of having Katniss playing a helpless damsel in distress, she is out there with the rest of the boys kicking butt. When she found out that she was going into the Hunger Games, she had the mentality that if it comes to it, I am ready to die, but until then I am going to try my hardest to live. I know that many book characters would have the girls crying their eyes out, but instead they show Katniss as a strong willed person with the mentality to do whatever it takes. Also when she finally gets into the arena, she shows that she is just as good if not stronger than the men.

The last theme that I enjoyed in this book is being true to yourself. Katniss showed over and over again in the Hunger Games that even put in the worst circumstances, she would not let the capital change her. She had many chances to kill people to better herself in the game, but she refused to unless she was protecting someone that she loved. For example, when the little girl named Rue, who reminded her of her sister, came up to her, she had every chance to kill her, for Rue was an easy target and it would have been a quick fix to better herself in the games. Instead Katniss helped her and did everything that she could to keep her alive. Also in the last part of the book, it is only Katniss and Peeta left. When the game makers says that one of them has to kill the other, Katniss refuses and they both try to kill themselves before they try to kill one another. If that's not staying true to yourself, then I don't know what is.

Many critics of the book many say that this book is not well written and is very adolescent. In response to not being well written, is it Shakespeare? No. But it is obviously written well enough to sell over a million copies. Those critics sound a little jealous to me. And when it comes be adolescent, they are correct. It is a young adult book, so it's supposed to be adolescent. I would, however, not let anyone younger than 14 read this book because there are some very graphic parts and adult themes tied into it.

In conclusion, my review of The Hunger Games can be summed up in one word, Amazing. It gives me everything I want in a book and still brings something new to the table. For the one percent out there who has not yet read this awesome book, I beg you too. I can almost ensure you that you will love it, and if you don't then you can at least join into the conversation that the rest of the planet is having about these books.

Mission to Paris: A Novel

Alan Furst, a master story writer and best-selling author, has returned to World War II as the setting for his work Mission to Paris: A Novel. Indeed, the setting for Mission is in the run-up to World War II as the Nazis begin working their mind-games against the French.

An American star, Frederic Stahl, is on his way to make film for Paramount and the Nazi propaganda machine's secret department is cranking itself up to use Stahl - or so they think - as part of their plan to destabilize France from within and its will to win.

What they don't know about Stahl is that he, too, is an agent, working for the American Embassy against Germany. Stahl is aghast and horrified by the Nazis and what was to become known as "the final solution." In 1938, though, the Nazis could not reveal their true agenda to the world or they would have quickly been cut off by the rest of society so they had to work behind the scenes to do their deeds.

The key to his novel, though, is Furst's ability as an author. His works are called "page-turners" by the trade. Some have called him the best spy novelist in the business this generation, on a par with the master spy novelist John LeCarre. After reading him, we would have to agree.

The list of characters that Furst's fertile imagination creates and the reality you feel is amazing. Take, the Baroness von Reschke, a famous beauty, a deeply committed Nazi who is also deeply committed to the operations against France. As noted, the intimate scenes in which she is involved are well drawn and believable. Indeed, each character, as noted, is just that believable, including the Nazi thugs, Janoz and Lothar, who, though they seem just from the trees, are also quite creepy as assassins.

This work must have taken a great deal out of Furst because of the way he details the film cast and crew; members of the diplomatic community and Stahl's lovers. Like a puzzle, not only is each piece a small work of art that is meant to fit into a larger work, the whole of Mission to Paris is greater than the sum of its parts.

Whether you read it the old-fashioned way, as a standard book, or you download the Kindle version, you should be glad you did.

Hopefully, Furst will remain as prolific as other writers of this genre, as reading his work is something you should not miss.

Competing Sisters - A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble

A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble is a book with a hyphen in the title. This is apposite, since it presents a tale of two sisters, Louise and Sarah who, in a short but intense period of their lives, realise that there is an enduring bond between them, even if that bond may be no more than an agreement to compete.

Louise and Sarah have both been to Oxford. Louise is three years older than Sarah, who estimates that her sister is thus also three inches taller than herself. They are both beautiful, desirable young women, clearly drawn from society's existing elite and destined not to tread beyond the boundaries of their class. Sarah's first person narrative begins as she graduates, just as her older sister is about to marry Stephen Halifax. He is an awfully sophisticated author - whose books, nevertheless and by common consent, are pretty ropey - who seems permanently to roll in it, where 'it' refers to a mixture of money and whatever it is that allows an individual to claim the label 'Bohemian'. (Being born in Bohemia would not endow that status, of course. We are literary, darling, not literal!) And Louise is twenty-four, for God's sake, if we still demand His approbation in the 1960s. It is time she did something with her life, settled down, started a family, at least aspired to the respectable.

Sarah laments her sister's good fortune. For years one side of her assumed future has yearned to attach such trappings to her own life, a standpoint to which she might only occasionally admit in mixed company. There is a gentleman friend, but he has hopped it across the Atlantic for a while to do some research. She wonders if he will ever come back. In matters of the heart, the immediate is always more likely to stir the emotions.

Throughout A Summer Bird-Cage the two sisters interact and we hear Sarah's version of the envy, the bitchiness, the conflict, the resolution, the co-operation, the closeness and distance of their relationship. There are several parties where new people appear to gossip, to speculate or to provoke. Much is learned in these highly ceremonial gatherings about others.

And, as far as plot goes, that's about it. There are some flaming rows, but no-one draws a gun. There is conflict, but no-one's life is threatened. There's duplicity, but the greatest sting is committed by a taxi driver who goes off with a whole two shillings of extra and undeserved tip. But even as early as the nineteen sixties lovers would sometimes take baths together!

Via Sarah's frailties, imaginings, intellect, prejudice and eventual good sense and loyalty, Margaret Drabble presents a magnificent study in character and the human condition. If the reader were to pass Sarah on the street, not only would she be recognisable, she would immediately demand greeting. "By the way," the reader might ask her, "did you really feel such resentment at everything your sister... " And no doubt Sarah would reply at length and in detail.

In A Summer Bird-Cage the encounters are real. The events are credible. The failings of these people are purely human, rendering them completely three dimensional. Yes, the society they inhabit is rarefied, elitist and limited in its world view, but surely they existed and, via this superb novel, still do.

Book Review: Coastal Empire

Fiction/Mystery
Coastal Empire
Rocky Leonard
2012
Each Voice Publishing
329 pages

In author Rocky Leonard's debut novel, Coastal Empire, Savannah private detective Robert Mercer, finds himself in the middle of an elaborate, illegal real estate scheme after taking a job to track a suspected philanderer. What begins as a simple case soon becomes a tangled web of fraud and murder. Mercer risks his on life as he works to save the remaining targets on the criminals' list. This story has a complicated plot that moves in unexpected directions.

After receiving a thank you card from a jeweler in Atlanta, Sarah Reid hires Robert Mercer to find out if her husband, Barry Reid, a prominent local real estate agent, is cheating on her. Mercer accepts the job and spends a couple of days in Atlanta searching for the man who sent the thank you card. During his investigation, Mercer meets Kelly, a woman who originally presents herself as an employee of the jewelry store, but who Mercer later discovers is a significant figure in his case.

Upon his return to Savannah, Mercer meets Nick Mason when Nick runs out into the middle of the street as Mercer and his dog Ox are making their way home. This chance meeting turns into a partnership when Nick informs Mercer of strange real estate transactions involving multimillion dollar properties and a local attorney. When the men discover that the owners of two of those properties were killed just months after a real estate trust on their properties was set up, they investigate the key players in the scheme. Barry Reid happens to be one of them.

Leonard has created an intriguing storyline that demands the reader keep up with each twist and insertion of new information in order to comprehend fully what the characters are up against. Mercer emerges as a powerful force in the book, as he makes capturing the criminals and saving prospective victims his mission. His intelligence, military background, and compassion make Mercer an attractive lead and a solid anchor for future books in the Robert Mercer mystery series. There are many characters in this book whose roles must be defined and connected to the main plot. Fortunately, Leonard successfully connects all of the dots and doesn't leave a single loose thread as the story ends.

A Baseball Novel About a Female Phenom

Fari Madrigal was a baseball pitcher who only comes around maybe once in a lifetime, and pitching coach Chet Macquire (aka: Mac) for the World Series-winning team, the Minnesota Twins, knows Fari is special, the "Real Thing," the very first time he sees footage of the phenom from Santa Domingo. Just how special Fari really is, Mac doesn't realize until he flies to the Dominican Republic and sees the pitcher in person. Fari displays remarkable control, has mastered several types of pitches besides the fastball to fool batters with, and-Fari is a woman. She is one of the best, if not the best, pitcher Mac has ever seen; but, will she be able to make it on the team, and be the first female ever to pitch in the Major Leagues?

I have to say, e-books are the coming thing, gaining more and more in popularity daily. I, myself, have written three e-books and am working on a fourth. Each is available in paperback, as well. E-books, though, are very portable, convenient, and you can carry around an entire library of them wherever you go. So, though many sites still don't deal with many e-book reviews, I was glad to get the opportunity to review the highly entertaining and page-turning Fastball Fari by the talented author Michael Cruit.

Fari is the twenty-five-year-old daughter of the deceased Major League relief pitcher Jose Madrigal. She is beautiful, with looks that could have made her a model. She may have a certain amount of telekinetic ability, also, that helps her accuracy. She also has a condition similar to autism, Aspberger's Syndrome, like the character of Walter Bishop in the TV series, Fringe. She is not impossible to get a hit off of; but she definitely makes hitters work to get one.

Fari is represented by her mother, Frances, who is a great character in her own right. Frances is a tough negotiator. Though she is aware that, no matter how great Fari is, getting paid more than the minimum of $100,000 the first year that most baseball players earn is probably going to be a hard sell. But, she works her negotiating magic a different way, getting Jack Daniels (JD) Johnson, the team's General Manager, to donate millions of dollars to stop the deforestation of rain forests in the Dominican Republic and Central America.

As cool of a character as Fari is, the characters around her also are very realistically portrayed and three-dimensional. Mac, still in mourning over the loss of his wife, who died of cancer, is a character I really found myself liking. He is taken with Fari, and starts to fall for her, despite the difference in their ages. He also has a twelve-year-old daughter, Kim, who he deeply cares for and loves, and Kim is another favorite character of mine in the novel.

Everyone who comes into contact with Fari is changed by her, and her remarkable skills, beauty, charisma, and presence. She is even chosen to be the pitcher for the opening game the Twins will play against the White Sox. Ticket sales soar, a huge amount of publicity is generated, and Fari gains admirers everywhere. But, she also gets attention of an undesirable nature, ranging from cat-calls to sexually suggestive e-mails to stalkers. These distractions threaten to cut short her promising career before it barely starts. What's worse, even the team's physician, Doc Skipper Harris, who is having a rocky relationship with his wife and other issues, is sexually attracted to Fari.

Fastball Fari by Michael Cruit is a stupendously well-written, engrossing debut novel. It's proof, as if any more were needed, that Indie authors can write with just as much skill and authority as any published by major companies. There's room for a sequel to be written, and I would love to read one; but, I'm sure that whatever book Michael Cruit writes next will be one that is well-written, and deserving of a wide audience. I'd highly recommend this very cool and unique book to anyone who is a fan of baseball, books about women breaking into fields dominated by men, and to anyone who loves reading great fiction, in general. Check it out today!