Book Reviews - The Hunger Games & Catching Fire

The latest book club selection was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which is a face-paced and gripping tale about about a teenage girl forced into a deadly reality-based competition (The Hunger Games) run for entertainment by the government in the future.  The super short version of my review is:  I loved it.  I found the tale so compelling that I did not want to put down the first novel, and then I ran out and bought the sequel, Catching Fire, and finished it quickly as well. The third and final book in the series, Mockingjay, will be coming out in late summer, and it's definitely on my list.  These books would be outstanding beach reads, if you are into fantasy or futuristic novels. 

I must admit that I was initially negatively biased towards this book because it's found in the "young adult section", but I thought I'd read it anyway since some of the other ladies in the book club were screening it for their older children.  I'm glad I did!  I was completely sucked into the plot, and yet there are some serious issues threaded throughout as well, including pitting entertainment over humanity. For me, this was one of the books where you don't even notice the words anymore because you are so completely embedded in the images and characters of the story.

If you're interest is piqued, maybe take a read though the plot synopsis or professional reviews on bn.com:
 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Hunger-Games/Suzanne-Collins/e/9780439023481/?itm=1&USRI=the+hunger+games#TABS.