The Hunger Games Trilogy - Books (obviously)

So I kept hearing hype about the The Hunger Games movie. Well I made the mistake of watching Twilight before I read the book. I chose not to make that mistake again because those movies did NOT do the books justice. I bought The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins via Kindle (which is a LOT cheaper than purchasing the individual books) and I sat down and began reading. Because I don’t have as much time to sit down and read like I used to AND this was three books, it did take me a while but I finally finished a week or so ago. There was also a point in there, during the third book, that I put it down for a few weeks because it got really boring and predictable.

Let’s start with the actual first book, The Hunger Games. This book was pretty amazing. It was thought provoking, a fresh idea spun off from many of those future ideas that the world will either end or be run by some crazy person wanting to off everyone. You see it enough that you’d think this is the same, but once you start reading, you realize it’s not quite the same time. It is kind of… terrifying to see that the ruler likes to send children in to battle and watch them slaughter each other, but let’s face it; in the world we live in, this happens and the author decided to be brave and take a chance. She made it work and it’s a pretty damn good book if I do say so myself. I also bet you didn’t know the story is based loosely off the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Catching Fire was…. Ok. It could have been better. It’s not like we didn’t see a lot of it coming. We knew the ruler was going to pull something crazy out of his ass to get back at Katniss for “defying” him in front of the entire “colony.” I call it a colony because the way they describe the districts, I feel it must be in the shape of a bee hive with each level being a district. Remember the Hive in Resident Evil? Yea, it kind of reminds me of that. I suppose we didn’t see an actual Hunger Games of all the previous winners coming, but Snow had to do something extraordinary to get the peoples’ attention. I’m not so sure we were supposed to see them being taken out and to District 13. I know I didn’t see that coming but I guess with all the talk of District 13, we should have known… I mean, there’s always a secret underground city right?

Mockingjay got boring to say the least. We knew they’re plan was to overthrow Snow. We knew the city would be booby trapped. We knew Coin wanted to be leader. Blah blah blah. I figured they’d end up back in a society like we have now. It kind of ended that way except everyone back to their districts. I still say it was built like a beehive even though it’s supposed to be the form "US". I was slightly happy to read the Epilogue and see that Katniss and Peeta stayed together and had kids knowing they wouldn’t be thrown into battle against one another.

I honestly believe that Suzanne Collins planned out all three books before she began writing. Or she had this story in her head that managed to come out so long it had to be broken up. I haven’t Googled her or anything to see what she says about the books, but if you think about all the stuff written in book 1, that occurs or happens in book 3, it’s like she was writing to lead us up to what happened in book 3. Then again, maybe after the first book, she just decided to continue it in book 3, I don't know!

A Hopeful Heart - Book

My Aunt let me borrow a book titled A Hopeful Heart by Kim Vogel Sawyer. It was pretty good as far as romance novels go. I guess you'd classify it as a romance novel. In this novel, several young women travel from the city to Kansas to a school for ranchers, in which they're supposed to learn how to become ranchers as well as the wife of a rancher and will then be married off to men in the area. It's not as barbaric as it sounds, I promise. It teaches women as well as men the value of each other and the way of life the Bible teaches us to live. It was an amazing book to say the least! When I first read the description, I was like "this sounds like some 1920's bull." However, after getting started and realizing that the woman who owned the school wanted the women to learn to be independent. Each woman had a reason for being there, whether it was because they were trying to escape an arranged marriage or because she was no longer rich and so a rich man wouldn't accept her without a dowry. You know how it was back in the day. It's still like that in a lot of places. A rich man/woman won't marry someone of the opposite sex unless they're rich as well. Anyway, the women do learn a lot and while most romance novels end on a happy note, so does this one. I won't tell you what happens though. You'll have to read it for yourself!

Courageous - Book

So a while back, I decided I was going to do a media blog. Bust since I don't really review enough movies, books or music to actually HAVE a blog, I decided to just add the original posts into my personal blog. Believe me, I see enough movies and read TONS of books. I just don't get into writing about them as much as I should. I mean, I'm always recommending great movies and books to friends, I just don't do it on paper (or on the computer).

Anyway! My "original" first book recommendation HAS to be Courageous by Randy Alcorn, Alex Kendrick, and Stephen Kendrick. This was a movie before it was a book by the way. This is an amazing and enlightening book! I haven't watched the movie yet but I will stand by the book. It's mostly aimed at fathers, and roles they should take in their children's lives. Four men's lives are changed through the course of this book and in the end they all come out better men. They learn to be better fathers, husbands, friends and police officers through the Lord. Now, in reality, this doesn't always happen, but for those that REALLY want to be better role models, they could take away something from this book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. PS. If you ever read or watched Fireproof, the same guys get credit for that project and if you LOVED Fireproof, you’ll love Courageous.