The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins
January 2012

Everybody's reading The Hunger Games.  Everybody's been reading The Hunger Games for a long while now.  This is the first in a trilogy of books that has remained popular for several years now. I finally decided to see what the fuss was all about but couldn't get my hands on a copy. Thanks to a Barnes and Noble gift certificate and my  Nook, I finally joined the club.

It's a good book and an exciting read. I imagine that the popularity of the book grew with the publication of the other two titles in the trilogy.
The Hunger Games is set sometime in the future. The land mass of North America has shrunk due to global nuclear war, changes in the climate, and through natural disasters.  The United States is no more - now the country is known as Panem and is made up of twelve districts.  The capitol city is located in the Rocky Mountains.  About 75 years before this novel begins, the districts rebelled against the Capitol. One of the districts (number 13) was destroyed and the rebellion was put down. As a punishment for the rebellion, all of the districts were ordered to participate in "The Hunger Games."

The Capitol is like ancient Rome and the Games are akin to the gladiator's games.  In fact, the residents of the Capitol have names like Cinna, Octavius, and Flavius.    There are 24 participants, or "tributes": one girl and one boy chosen from among the teenagers in each district.  Once a child turns twelve, he or she must enter his/her name into a lottery. The obligation to enter the lottery ends when the child turns 19.

It's considered an honor to be chosen and the tributes are treated like celebrities during the weeks leading up to the games.  But the games are a necessary evil because the winner is the person that is still alive at the end.  Because this story is set in the future, the games have somewhat of a high-tech quality.   The setting and circumstances of each game change from year to year. They always take place in an arena, but to the tributes, it could look like a forest or a desert or an icy wasteland.  The year that Katniss, the hero of our book, becomes a tribute the setting is a forest.  Fortunate for her, because she has spent most of her life hunting for food in the woods near her home.

The high-tech stuff comes in the way that the Gamemakers manipulate the environment.  The whole game is televised, so if things start to become boring the Gamemakers can start a thunderstorm or bring in a cold wind.

I enjoyed this book a lot and am ready to read "Catching Fire," the next book in the trilogy.  The world that Suzanne Collins created and the games themselves are a fascinating invention.  I can see why this series has become so very popular.

Bethlehem Road

by Anne Perry
finished January 22, 2012

This is Anne Perry on her soap box.  While she has always pointed out the subclass status of women  in all of her books, this one stands on a soap box and shouts it out.
In fact, the book begins with Charlotte attending a women's sufferage rally.

The mystery comes with the death of an MP on the Westminster Bridge.  It's thought to be either a personal attack or the act of a lunatic. When a second MP is killed, Pitt begins to suspect that the deaths were politically motivated.  The prime suspects are a pair of women who are vehemently for women's rights.

Charlotte, with the help of Aunt Vespasia and a new character, Nobby Gunne, investigate by paying calls upon the families of the murdered men as well as to the two suspects. But it's Thomas who solves it all with his street smarts and skills of deduction.

The end came kind of out of nowhere, but it wasn't a complete surprise.  It's been very interesting reading the later Monk books and then these earlier Pitt books.  Later in her career, Perry learned how to mesh a good mystery with her soap box.  For now, with Bethlehem Road, however, she is a little clumsy.

Silence in Hanover Close

Anne Perry
January 2012

This was so good right up until the end.  Pitt is given the assignment of investigating a three year old robbery and murder.  The Foreign Office has asked that the investigation remain discreet because it could involve scandal and treason.

Thomas investigates as best as he is able, but makes little headway.  He cannot question the family involved without raising suspicions and creating scandal with the investigation itself.

Of course, Charlotte gets involved and is able to find out things that Pitt never could.  This time she launches her own investigation in order to give the widowed Emily something to occupy her mind while she is in her period of mourning and confinement.  She also wishes to get to know Jack Radley better since he and Emily have continued their friendship after meeting at Cardington Crescent.  Could Jack be genuinely interested in Emily or is he only after her inheritance?

Charlotte poses as Jack's cousin from the country and finagles an invitation to the house of the murdered man's family.  Meanwhile, Emily goes in disguise to obtain a job as a ladies maid to the young widow who is newly engaged to be married.

I really enjoyed this book and the mystery involved until the end. Perry wrapped things up too quickly and in a very soap opera style.  The final paragraph was completely unrealistic and a little too movie-of-the-week.

Still, Perry found a way to continue her pattern of Pitt-investigates-and-Charlotte-helps without becoming stale.  

On to the next book!

Witches!

The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem
by Rosalyn Schanzer
January 11, 2012

This is a non-fiction book from National Geographic publishing.  The book is small and illustrated with black, white and red drawings, similar to what's seen on the cover.  In judging this book by its cover, I thought I was going to read a narrative of the Salem witch trials.  Instead of a interesting true-life story, Schanzer presents a series of facts and anecdotes.   The book was written for a much younger audience than it appears to target.  I expected a book for upper elmentary, if not middle school.  The writing style makes this suitable for 3rd grade and up. However, I am not sure that most 3rd graders would be ready to hear about the confusing and inexplicable behavior of the Puritans who tortured others because they feared witchcraft.

Update:  This book was named a Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor Book  for 2012.  I am not too sure it deserved that.

Cardington Crescent

by Anne Perry
December 2011

The Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries are getting better. At first I was a little bit bored with them. I am so fond of the Monk series, these weren't impressing me. But I'm enjoying them more and more as I get into the series.

Emily, Charlotte's sister, is suspected of murdering her own husband, Lord George Ashworth.  The couple had been guests of family at Cardington Crescent.  George is found dead of an apparent heart attack. The doctor becomes suspicious when the family dog is found dead, too.  It turns out that someone has poisoned George's coffee with an overdose of digitalis. The poor dog became a casualty after drinking some coffee offered to it in a saucer.

Charlotte comes to Cardington Crescent to support her sister and Thomas is called in as the investigating detective.  The book is a sort of drawing room mystery, with most of the story taking place in the house at Cardington Crescent. Near the end of the novel Thomas takes the investigation out into one of the area slums after finding a new lead.

Death in the Devil's Acre

by Anne Perry
finished December 23, 2011

I read this on my Nook Color.   I had a hard time getting a copy of it. Perry's older titles aren't always available at the library. So, I broke down and bought it for the Nook.  I was given a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, so I can buy more Nook Books!

The Thomas Pitt books are getting a little more gritty.  We've move out of the posh neighborhoods and into dangerous slums like the Devil's Acre.  This is an area of town where a gentleman would only go if he had business there - namely, if he was visiting one of the area brothels. A lady would never go there - at least not any lady in her right mind.

A body is found in "the acre".  He has been stabbed in the back and his genitals have been cut off and placed on the ground between his legs.  The murder of a pimp wouldn't normally garner much attention at all, but the manner of his death attracts the attention of Thomas Pitt. He recognizes the victim to be Max, the footman that formerly worked for the Balantyne family in Callandar Square.  

Another victim is found, killed and maimed in a similar way. This time, the victim is not a pimp and not a resident of Devil's Acre.  He is a respected doctor. The case suddenly takes on a greater importance.

Thomas is being featured more often in these novels, which I think is a good thing. Charlotte and Emily still finagle invitations to tea or to society events in order to do a little amateur detective work, but the tedium of Rutland Place is gone and an actual and interesting mystery is in its place.

This was a quick and satisfying read. Some old characters return and new ones are introduced.

The Fox Inheritance

by Mary E. Pearson
December 2011




This is a sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox.
About 250 years after the events in the first book, Locke and Kara's minds have been uploaded into new bodies. Their bodies are completely synthetic, made up of a substance called BioPerfect.  Locke narrates the story of his and Kara's quest to escape the scientist who would use them as "floor models" for potential clients.  This is also a quest to learn how to live in a society so completely different from the one that they left two hundred fifty years before.
As with the first book, The Fox Inheritance explores the themes of medial ethics, the soul, and what it means to be human. Locke and Kara were prisoners in a dark, isolated world for two and a half centuries. Are they old or are they still the teenagers they were when they "died" in a car accident so long ago?

A worthy sequel.   Will it become a trilogy?  The author hints that it will be.