"Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins

My rating 4.5 out of 5
Where I acquired the book: borrowed from the library

Product Details
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0439023491
ISBN-13: 978-0439023498

Synopsis from Amazon.com

Every year in Panem, the dystopic nation that exists where the U.S. used to be, the Capitol holds a televised tournament in which two teen "tributes" from each of the surrounding districts fight a gruesome battle to the death. In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the tributes from impoverished District Twelve, thwarted the Gamemakers, forcing them to let both teens survive. In this rabidly anticipated sequel, Katniss, again the narrator, returns home to find herself more the center of attention than ever. The sinister President Snow surprises her with a visit, and Katniss’s fear when Snow meets with her alone is both palpable and justified. Catching Fire is divided into three parts: Katniss and Peeta’s mandatory Victory Tour through the districts, preparations for the 75th Annual Hunger Games, and a truncated version of the Games themselves. Slower paced than its predecessor, this sequel explores the nation of Panem: its power structure, rumors of a secret district, and a spreading rebellion, ignited by Katniss and Peeta’s subversive victory. Katniss also deepens as a character. Though initially bewildered by the attention paid to her, she comes almost to embrace her status as the rebels’ symbolic leader. Though more of the story takes place outside the arena than within, this sequel has enough action to please Hunger Games fans and leaves enough questions tantalizingly unanswered for readers to be desperate for the next installment.

My thoughts:
It took me a few pages to get back into this story, which is the same thing that happened with "The Hunger Games" but once I was hooked I read the book over the course of a day. This time, surprisingly, I wasn't quite as full of questions at the end as I was at the end of the last one. I almost feel like I should have more questions, but for some reason I don't.

One thing I wonder about is the envelopes for the Quarter Quells that state what will make each 25th anniversary special or different from the regular Hunger Games. I am not altogether convinced that these were put together after the uprising and stored away. The envelopes perhaps but not necessarily what is inside of them. I really felt like President Snow might have put in the terms for this one as a punishment for Katnis and Peeta and for all the other winners. Maybe to show the people that they are never safe no matter what. I could feel Katnis's horror when she found out that she would have to be a part of the games again, especially with all of the nightmares she was still having. Also, I can't see how she will ever be able to make a choice between Peeta and Gale if it comes to a time when she is even in a position where a choice can be made. I was left feeling hopeful at the end of the story and will keep August in mind for the final installment of the series. I loved Cinna dress creation for Katnis for the interviews and wonder about his fate.

"What Your Preschooler Needs to Know: Read-Alouds to Get Ready for Kindergarten" Edited by E.D. Hirsh, Jr. and Linda Bevilacqua

My rating 4.5 out of 5
How I aquired the book: purchased at bookstore

Product Details:
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Delta (March 25, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385341989
ISBN-13: 978-0385341981

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

Prepare your child for a lifetime of learning and wonder.

Designed for parents to enjoy with children, filled with opportunities for reading aloud and fostering curiosity, this beautifully illustrated read-aloud anthology offers preschoolers the fundamentals they need to prepare for a happy, productive time in school—and for the rest of their lives. Millions of children have benefited from the acclaimed Core Knowledge Series, developed in consultation with parents, educators, and the most distinguished developmental psychologists. In addition to valuable advice to parents, including what it means for a child to be ready for kindergarten, special sidebars throughout the book help parents make reading aloud fun and interactive, suggesting questions to ask, connections to make, and games to play to enrich their preschooler’s learning experience.

Discover:

Favorite Poems and Rhymes—all beautifully illustrated. Read and recite together— from Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “At the Seaside” to limericks by Edward Lear and tongue twisters by Jack Prelutsky, plus fun “clap along!” and “fingerplay” verses that parents and children can act out together.

Beloved Stories and Fables—read aloud from stories like “The Three Little Pigs” and the African folktale “Why Flies Buzz” —and open whole new worlds of learning and discovery.

Visual Arts—help your child appreciate and talk about art. Beautiful full-color reproductions of great works of art will foster early appreciation of art history while igniting discussions about shapes, colors, and different styles and media.

Music—dozens of songs to sing and dance to, including “move around” songs like “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “The Wheels on the Bus”

History—a delightful introduction to American history—from the first Thanksgiving to Martin Luther King, Jr., —with activities and stories parents and children can enjoy together

Science—from the wonder of animals to exploring physical properties of light, air, and water—fun activities that will let children observe, experience, and enjoy the natural world

My thoughts:
While I was browsing in the bookstore at our local mall that is going out of business this book jumped out at me. I already have two children in school and prior to being a stay at home mom I taught first and second grade for a number of years. I know what we were expecting for children to be ready for those grades and feel like I have a pretty good idea of what is expected to enter kindergarten, but I thought this might be a handy reference guide for fun activities to do with my three year old. I read through it last night and for the most part I like it. It has some fun poems and songs, most of which are familiar, with pictures and fingerplays to go with them. My three year old is love with the idea of school, but doesn't start going to preschool until the fall so we have been doing "school" at home. He asks to do "school" all the time so I thought having a few more ideas of would help me when I can't think of something. My daughter came home yesterday saying that they learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. at school and we flipped to the history section of the book to read what it said about him and discussed his life a little more. We have other books on our shelf about his life, but this was easier to find and flip through than searching for the other picture books. Especially for parents who aren't sure what schools are looking for in terms of readiness I can see this being a good guide. It has companiion workbooks but I didn't buy those, I may go back to see if they still have any but it isn't really a priority right now. I like that we can sing a silly song or read a poem and work on rhyming and motions and I can see my son having fun while learning some of the skills he will need to be a reader.

Twilight Video

Today is my branching out day, I'm trying something new. I saw this video on another bloggers site and it made me laugh so I am making my first attempt at posting a video on my blog. See what you think!


">

"Crossing the Bridge" by Michael Baron

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Product details:
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Story Plant, The (January 5, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0981956815
ISBN-13: 978-0981956817

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

Hugh Penders has been stuck in neutral for nearly a decade since his brother Chase died in a car accident. He carries with him two secrets that he has never been able to share with anyone: that he believes he might have been able to prevent the accident, and that he was deeply in love with Chase's girlfriend, Iris.
When Hugh's father suffers a debilitating heart attack, Hugh must return to the New England home he's been running away from for the past ten years. One day, he encounters Iris - who has long since moved away - on the street. They begin a friendship and Hugh believes he's falling in love with Iris all over again.

But the ghost of Chase haunts both of them. And when each reveals a truth the other never knew, their lives, their vision of Chase, and their chances for a future together will change forever.

Charged by the power of desire and the impact of loss, Crossing the Bridge is a soulful, romantic novel that will speak to you deeply.

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed the beginning of this story. It pulled me in and kept me interested. Hugh's feeling of being trapped, not only in his old home town but in his father's card shop, was portrayed very well. It was almost as if, since Chase never had the chance to continue on with his life that Hugh felt the need to curtail his own life. He never really moved forward all that much from the moment in time when his brother drove off of the bridge. I could see the different meanings as well with crossing a bridge. There was the literal bridge that Chase drove off of, there was the bridge to the future that Hugh didn't want to cross and the bridge to the past that meeting Iris and renewing their friendship showed. At times I got frustrated with Hugh, he was watching his father spend the day in his bathrobe afraid to even climb the stairs because of his heart attack. While he could see how stuck his father was without there being a real need for it, he didn't seem to recognize how stuck he himself was. The moving every year or so to a new job and a new relationship, his fear of developing anything long term or even really starting a career for no real reason. It was so similar to his father but he couldn't see it.

When Hugh and Iris renewed their friendship and spent time together I was glad because they both seemed to still be healing from Chase's death ten years before and they were helping each other. It was nice too to see Hugh start to develop some friendships and interests. Unfortunately towards the end of the middle it felt like the novel dragged a bit. I found myself not as keen about picking it up, but this might have been almost purposeful on the authors part to show us how stuck Hugh was with his perception of the past and his inability to go into the future. As the novel started to conclude and pieces started to fall into place I once again felt very engaged by the story. It was a satisfying story. In the end notes from the author he mentions that he is writing under an assumed name as he usually writes non-fiction which has made me curious about his other works. Along with this fiction novel he has another novel that was published prior to this and one that comes out in May. This book will be available tomorrow, January 5th, 2010.



Where the book came from: Received from the publisher for review. Thank you The Story Plant for the chance to read this novel.

Places people read

Since deciding that I want to make more time for exercise I've had a number of people suggest I try reading while on the treadmill. I tried it the other night and it just didn't quite work for me. I'm not sure if it would be easier with a different book, I had a mass market paperback in my hands, or if a magazine would be better. Perhaps not holding it but putting it on the machine itself would make it easier. Could be that my lighting is just not good enough by the treadmill, but the text jumped around too much. When I tried slowing down it still wasn't ideal for reading and then I felt like I would have to go for longer to make the workout count. Plus I remember reading an interview with some personal trainer in People Magazine who stated something along the lines that if you could read the magazine while working out you weren't working hard enough. All that said, a lot of people have told me that they read while walking or riding a bike so I know there must be a way to make it work. Years ago when I actually belonged to a gym I remember borrowing audio books from the library and listening to them while walking and that usually worked, although I had to turn them up to hear over the sound of the gym TV's. I'm toying with the idea of doing that again, but for now I usually use the time to catch up on something on TV or watch a movie.

I have a few friends who love to read in the bathtub and that I've never really gotten into either. The tub just doesn't seem like the most comfortable place to me and I'm always afraid I'll drop the book in the tub. That said when we owned a pool at our last house, and before we had children that needed to be watched very closely by a pool, I used to read both by and in the pool. We had a floating chair that I loved to sit on and read and I would also sit on the steps and read on really hot days. That was one of my favorite things to do during the hot summer months. There was only one occasion I can recall where I dropped my book in and it was a book I got a library sale for ten cents so I wasn't too heartbroken about it's loss. I never took library books by the pool though.

Anyone have a favorite unusual reading place or advice on how to read and work out at the same time? I'm all ears (or I guess eyes) if you do!

In My Mailbox 7

This week I totally expanded my TBR pile. At our local mall our Waldenbooks is going out of business. They will be closing sometime this month and all of their inventory is 40-60% off. Also a local used bookstore has decided that they will be closing on January 23 so all of their inventory is $1 per book with a few exceptions. I went a bit overboard with my buying so now there is no way that I will run out of books to read anytime soon, although it wasn't really an issue before that I bought these new books either. I bought 36 books at the used bookstore and eight at the mall bookstore. To save time I am going to skip pictures of the covers and just list the books.

Christmas Anthologies
1. I'm Your Santa by Lori Foster et al.
2. A Stockingful of Joy by Mary Jo Putney et al
3. Jingle Bell Rock by Lori Foster et al

Paranormal Romance
4. The Hunted by L.A Banks
5. The Forsaken by L.A. Banks
6. Crime Seen by Victoria Laurie
7. A Vision of Murder by Victoria Laurie
8. Demons are a Ghoul Best Friend by Victoria Laurie
9. Abby Coopers Psychic Eye by Victoria Laurie
10. Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband by Melissa Mayhue
11. Love Underground by Alicia Fields
12. Over Hexed by
13. Ain't Myth-Behaving by Katie MacAllister
14. Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
15. Born of Fire by Sherrilyn Kenyon
16. Born of Ice by Sherrilyn Kenyon
17. Phantom in the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
18. Playing with Fire by Gina Showalter
19. Killer Insight by Victoria Laurie

Non-Fiction
20. Witches' Spell-A-Day Almanac
21. The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden
22. Pure Drivel by Steve Martin
23. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
24. Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields
25. If I am Dead or Missing by Janine Latus
26. Aruba: The Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise by Dave Holloway
27. Motherhood and Hollywood by Patricai Heaton
28. Holiday in Your Heart by LeAnn Rimes and Tom Carter
29. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
30. The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley

Literature
31. Mr. Knightly's Diary by Amanda Grange
32. The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Street

Science Fiction
33. An Acceptable Time by Madelene L'Engle
34. A Wind in the Door by Madelene L'Engle
35. A Wrinkle In Time by Madelene L'Engle
36. Many Waters by Madelene L'Engle
37. A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madelene L'Engle
38. Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Young Adult
39. Invitation Only by Kate Brian
40. Untouchable by Kate Brian
41. Confessions by Kate Brian

Diet and Exercise
42. The Biggest Loser Fitness Program
43. The Biggest Loser Success Secrets
44. The Biggest Loser: The weight-Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health and Life


In The Mail:
Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger

"Dark Slayer" by Christine Feehan

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
How this book came to me: borrowed from my sister in law

Product Details
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (September 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425229734
ISBN-13: 978-0425229736

Synopsis from Amazon.com

Even new readers daunted by 40 pages of appendixes and a two-page family tree will love the tender romance in the 20th installment of Feehan's Carpathians series. Benign blood-drinking Carpathians turn into evil vampires if they fail to find their destined life mates. Broken and left for dead after a family betrayal, Ivory Malinov gradually heals, becoming a loner and dedicated vampire slayer. Razvan's evil grandfather, the mage Xavier, forced him to commit unspeakable deeds against fellow Carpathians. Ivory discovers Razvan near death, and after realizing they are life mates, she nurses him back to health and they plot to combine forces and defeat Xavier. The slow-to-trust Ivory fights her growing feelings for Razvan, whose self-hatred juxtaposes brilliantly with his innate gentle nature. Fans looking for a departure from Feehan's usual alpha male heroes will enjoy this lengthy but powerful tale.

My thoughts:
I think I have read most if not all of the stories in Feehan's Dark series. I was lucky enough to read the first ones all in order and in a row so at that point it was easy to keep track of the characters. Now I am starting to mix up who is who and what makes each of them special. I appreciate the family tree mapping out the relationships at the beginning of the novel, but the community of Carpathians is so large now that at I stopped referring to it and just went with the flow. At the end of the last novel a few more female characters were introduced and with this one some ancient Carpathian male hunters were brought in so my guess is they will be featured in the next few novels. Each novel usually centers around one male and one female character who become lifemates and goes through not just their relationship but also whatever outside forces are coming against them, either vampires or mage, who want to destroy them.

It took a few starts for me to get into this story. The two main characters were both thought to be either dead or traitors to their people for years, centuries even, so their reappearance was kind of jarring. Ivory Malinov had been cut into pieces by vampires and scattered over the ground but did not die. Wolves put her bones all together and using Mother Earth's help she knit herself back together. I had some trouble with that whole concept, but once I got past it I enjoyed the story. At times I felt it was a bit repetitive how Feehan kept reminding us that Ivory was a loner and didn't trust easily. Razvan had truly seemed evil in the other books he was in so to see him as having been possessed and having had his body used by dark magic at first felt forced but then he started to seem real. As I was reading I was wondering how much further Feehan will be able to go with this series. If she is now resurrecting characters has it already run its course? I used to really look forward to the next book but this time I wasn't as excited about reading it. I felt a bit less excited for the last one too. I wonder if it is hard to let go of a series for an author if there is a large readership? Would if feel like you were letting your readers down? Do publishers pressure authors to keep going? Or does Feehan have an ultimate goal for the series that she is working towards? I know I will keep reading any future books that come out, I just wonder if the series will continue indefinitely and if it should.