Catching Fire-The Hunger Games Book 2

After rising out of the poorest District, 12, to win The Hunger Games, Everdeen Katness and her co-tribute Peeta, should have been able to expect lives of safety and contentment, but that is just not the case for the winner of The games. President Snow, leader of Bread and organizer of The games, makes an unscheduled visit to Katniss and Peeta. He is troubled by vague rumors of insurrection brewing in the background and he is also troubled by the apparent linkage of winners with the revolutionary rumors.

This is the world that Katniss and Peeta find themselves as they make a grand tour of all of the losing wealthy Districts, including the Capital. The intrigues continue as Katniss is drawn into planning the 75th Anniversary Hunger Games.

As the planning and story of the move is Katniss ' life reveals itself as she becomes a more rounded individual. Her characterization is becoming broader and she is more than just a remix to be winning tribute. Behind the mask of the competitor, there beats the heart and mind of a developing growing character. That Katniss is growing is due to the carefully planned and well executed, the writing of author Suzanne Collins. Katniss is coming to life as a person-a person that the Capital of the District may have good reason to fear.

Beneath the apparently calm surface of Bread-a country that corresponds roughly to the Old USA and to which the outer Districts owe tribute in the form of warriors for the yearly games-there's an undercurrent of revolution. Katniss and Peeta Are part of this movement or are they just being used by the revolutionaries who hope to overthrow Bread and bring themselves to power?

It's an Celine question that President Snow is trying to answer with his visit. It is during this visit that bread and also becomes a fuller and richer place with traditions that one could have only guessed at during the Hunger Games (Book 1). In Book 1, Katniss and Peeta are fighting for their lives, while Book 2 brings more calm but also shows that there may be a fire in the background that President Snow and Bread have to deal with.

As all of this is happening, Katniss discovers herself and finds a relationship with an equal, one which helps to define her as an individual and round her character.

The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins trilogy's author deftly handles these in the background changes as Katniss matures and bread and wonders. It is well done and shows that Katniss is more than just a warrior. It also shows that, as the saying goes: "uneasy lies the power" as bread and tries to halt the revolution.

With the help of the 75th Anniversary and planning Katniss Hunger Games will truly be something and are something special. Katniss gains humanity as she battles to stay alive in Book 2. The author handles this deftly and builds a nuanced storyline that Hunger Games fans love.

Roberto Sedycias works as an IT consultant for ecommUS-Books

Love in the Times of War

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Book Title: Song for Night

Author: Chris Abani

Publisher: Akashic Books, USA

Year: 2008

Song for Night is a story of civil war in Nigeria. It is set firmly against the backdrop of Christian and Muslim hostilities. Song for Night is an impressive and fast paced description and observation of war narrated by one of its active participant, a boy soldier (15 years) named My Luck.

In the nutshell, it's a story of human triumph over insurmountable odds. A story of courage. A story of fear. A story of hope. The book has been described as an illumination of the body's capacity for both ecstasy and pain with honesty rarely encountered. Its narration is faced-paced. Its prose, beautiful beyond measure. Its description and observation as clear as a blue sky.

My Luck was trained as a human mine detector, and joined a platoon whose job was to disable clandestine enemy explosives. This is how they were trained: first their eyes were made keen so they could notice any change in the terrain no matter how subtle: a blade of grass out of place, scuffed turf, a small bump in the ground, the sharp cut of a metal tool into earth - any sign of human disturbance to the ground. They also received feet exercises to make their feet sensitive - because as part of detecting bombs their toes had to work like fingers - always exposed no boots. As part of the training, his vocal cords and that of his comrades were cut off to prevent them from screaming and giving away (their) his platoon's presence in case of an explosion, and, or if one is blown up.

Despite an absence of his voice, My Luck tells the story of the senseless war with clarity, and maturity of a retired soldier. He seems to agree that the war is necessary, and he is committed to fighting until he is told to stop. Yet, he hardly remembers the hate that led them to the bush in the first place. "We are simply fighting to survive the war..." he admits.

The story begins with My Luck getting separated from his platoon after an explosion. He woke up and found himself alone in the bush. My Luck's journey to find his missing platoon takes him through abandoned villages, and rotting corpses. He sees first-hand the destruction caused and the futility of war. He remains single minded nonetheless - he must be united with this comrades and continue to fight until there is an order to stop. During his search, he talks openly about his own part in the war including how he enjoyed killing. He once sprayed a group of women with an AK 47, raped, and murdered his own commander.

Song for Night is a devastating book in its lucid description of the effects of war, yet it is a story with a happy ending. Although, the author Chris Abani never tells us about the end of the war, but My Luck does get reunited with his family. He also regained his voice.

Bhekisisa Mncube is a specialist web-content writer, media relations specialist and managing director of B74 Media Lab. He is also a columnist at the Witness Newspaper as well as a Media/Political Commentator at the Gagasi99.5 FM. He is a member of the Book Review Panel at the New Agenda academic journal in South Africa. Mncube has been a writer for 12 years. He is a widely published in newspapers, magazines, websites and academic journals. You can network with Bhekisisa through LinkedIn, Facebook or by writing to info@b74.co.za

Book Review: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

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The year is 1861. America is on the brink of a civil war. In the South everyone seems to be talking about nothing else, which is not to the liking of the sixteen-year-old Scarlett O'Hara, a feisty daughter of a plantation owner who finds all this talk about war and politics boring -- especially when she has more important things to worry about, such as how to profess her undying love to Ashley Wilkes, the handsome heir to the neighboring plantation. The opportunity presents itself at a barbecue held on a warm April Sunday at Wilkes' place, but as Scarlett finally manages to steal some alone time with Ashley and charges through with her plan, fully certain that she'll be a married lady by the end of the day (elopement is an integral part of her scheme), the actual outcome comes to her as a shock: although Ashley is not immune to Scarlett's charms, he turns her down as he is already engaged to Melanie, his cousin from Atlanta. And as if the humiliation of being rejected were not enough, it turns out that there is an involuntary witness to the whole scene in the shape of one Rhett Butler, a ruggedly handsome Charlestonian with dubious reputation. Thus one of the most fabled love triangles of all times comes into existence.

Out of spite, Scarlett marries the first boy that crosses her path -- purely by accident this happens to be Melanie's brother -- and as the war erupts and her young husband falls victim early on she is left a widow and a mother of an infant at the age of seventeen: not a very bright perspective for a young girl who was just a few short months ago the belle of the county with a surplus of beaux lavishing her with attention. To snap her out of the depression she has fallen into the family sends her to Atlanta to stay with Melanie, and Scarlett spends the better part of the war there playing the role of a bereaved widow -- albeit not very successfully. Bound by the promise she has made to Ashley, Scarlett is forced to stay in Atlanta (taking care of Melanie who is pregnant and cannot be moved) until it is almost too late; the two young women manage to escape the Sherman's advancing army in the nick of time.

Back home at the O'Hara plantation, however, they find nothing but devastation and despair: Scarlett's mother had succumbed to an illness and her father, unable to cope with it all, has turned into a broken old man. Instead of finding refuge and comfort as she hoped, Scarlett is forced to take charge of the situation herself -- and she is not one to choose the means or balk at anyone or anything when it comes to bringing her birthplace out of ruin and ensuring survival for herself and the few remaining residents of the plantation.

Gone with the Wind has been widely hailed as one of the finest achievements in American literature. First published in 1936, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, the novel is set in the period of Civil War and Reconstruction, depicting those turbulent times in American history from the point of view of the defeated side -- which, given that history is always written by the victors, makes it that much more intriguing. The book is a portrayal of the collapsing of the Old South and its values -- some good, some bad -- and gives a remarkable account of the once ruling class and its former members as they struggle to conform to the harsh new reality: some adapt and survive, others perish...

Read full review at JustGoodFiction.com.

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