Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

5 Stars. Highly recommended.

Suzanne Collins has done it again. Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, is just as emotionally charged as the first book. It quickly grips the reader by the heart and squeezes. Raw emotions are ever present. Survival is number one on the hierarchy of need but big surprises await Katniss, Peeta and Gale, ones they could never have predicted. The dark and powerful Capitol looms large over the lives of everyone in the 12 districts, and President Snow wants revenge...

I don't read book jackets because they contain a certain measure of spoileriness and I like to be surprised, so I'll never write a review that gives anything away. Suffice to say, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are intense must read books about a future dystopian North America. (Lots of big words in that sentence but I'm not but a humble pirate. Argh!)

Suzanne Collin's active writing style pulls the reader in. There's nothing passive or extraneous in the writing, not a single verb or adjective is out of place. Every word, every sentence, every dialogue propels the story forward and all we can do is hold on. Just enough back story is layered in to remind the reader of important events from book one. Descriptions are brief but distinct. The reader knows the characters and the environment -very much a character in its own right- without being hammered over the head with details. The author leaves room for readers to use their imaginations and personalize everything. Deep point of view allows us to know and love Catniss Everdeen. She's strong yet vulnerable, but never evokes pity. She's our girl on fire.

Book three can't come soon enough! The book is brilliant and I'll read the series again, which for me, is really saying something.

Let me know what you think. Happy Reading!

Blood and Ice by Robert Masello

4 Stars
Recommended

For most of the book, Blood and Ice, is two incredible stories, beginning 150 years ago with the harrowing events that transpired on the ship, Coventry, once it was blown far off course into the dangerous waters of the South Pole. Sinclair, an affable, idealistic young soldier, and his beloved, Eleanor, are chained together and thrown overboard into the freezing glacial waters. What crime did they commit that the crew thought they deserved such treatment?

Fast forward to present day, to Michael Wilde, journalist, an adrenaline junkie high on life until a terrible accident forces him to withdraw from life, an accident that has left the woman he loves unconscious in a hospitable bed, her prognosis grim. Michael's employer, after months, pushes him to take an assignment on how scientists work in the most extreme climate in the world, the South Pole.

The author does an excellent job of alternating between both stories with thrilling suspense until they collide, mixing science and folklore in an exciting way. I'm almost afraid to say the word....shhh, come closer...closer....vampire...because perhaps you might think I'm giving something away. But I'm not; it's on the back of the book (but strangely not in the classification for the Library of Congress) and told in a way you would not expect.

The magic is the unique story and how it brilliantly unfolds. Robert Masello is a wonderful storyteller. There's nothing cliche about his writing and it's not like any other vampire novel I've read before. His masterful descriptions made me feel like I was there along side each and every character, experiencing it all for myself, and isn't that why we read-to live vicariously through the characters? To feel the excitement and pride of the soldier eager to fight for his country? To feel the bone chilling bite of the arctic wind on our skin, or feel the claustrophobic dive in freezing arctic waters and seeing with our minds eye a glacier wall descend and disappear into the dark depths below?

There's a lot that's scary in this book: Arctic diving, living in the harshest environment in the world, the Crimean war and the conditions afterwards, and for those that love the paranormal, the vampire- still scary, even if you know it's coming.

As always, what makes me love a book, is the way an author makes me love the characters so much that I can't put the book down, the way they can turn a phrase making me shudder with fear or my eyes well up with heartfelt emotion. (I'm weird that way) It's awesome when that happens! This is a great story blending history, science and horror. I ~almost~ want a sequel. I can't help wondering what the characters are up to now.

The 2009 Pub Challenge

I've decided to give The 2009 Pub Challenge a try!

I haven't decided on the books just yet but here are the rules:

Here are the 2009 rules:

1. Read a minimum of 9 books first published in 2009. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2009, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2008, and then published in the USA in 2009, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2009.
2. No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
3. At least 5 titles must be fiction.
4. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
5. You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.
6. Sign up http://1morechapter.com/pub/?p=1
7. Have fun reading your 2009 books!

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