Across the Library

I promised to return with more of my thoughts on Mockingjay after I had more time to digest the final book of the series.  Initially I wasn't sure how I felt about the end of the book, though I admit to loving the book as a whole.  Now, I think that there are certain things about the end that I would have preferred to see end differently.  Namely, I would have liked to see more interaction between Katniss and those she cared about.  I don't think we got to see enough of those relationships being rebuilt, or in the case of one of them, continuing at all.   But just as with life, things don't always end the way we want them to, and we don't always get the perfect ending.  With that in mind, even if I'm unhappy with the ending, that doesn't mean it's unrealistic.  For such a hard story, with so much pain throughout, it shouldn't have the perfect little ending anyway.  One of the deaths that people seemed to be so upset about made me think, and I th...

Don't worry, I'm going to try and stay away from spoilers, at least for now!  In my opinion, the hardest part of writing any book or story is writing the ending.  I imagine that it's probably incredibly more difficult when you are writing the ending of a book that has been a popular series.  The author always knows that some fans will love it and some fans will hate it.  Of course you can't please everyone. That said, how do I feel about Mockingjay?  As I book, I loved it, and I wasn't disappointed at all.  The action was just as fast-paced and captivating as the two previous books of the series.  Suzanne Collins has mastered the art of keeping the reader from getting bored.  Around half way through the book, I got a little teary, but I won't say why just yet.  Nor will I reveal what part of the ending of the series made me cry.  Maybe later I'll come back, when more people have finished the book, or when I figure out if there's a wa...

I wanted to love this game, but unfortunately, I was disappointed in it.  The Hunger Games is a great book series, and I've been anxiously awaiting the release of the third book, which is tomorrow!  I bought the game for my library and held a small program for teens to come in and play the game.  The night before, I played with the game with my husband in order to learn the rules ahead of time, so I could better assist the teens as they learned to play.  I guess I just wanted more from the game than it was able to provide.  We knew from the box that it was a strategy game, but I'd hoped that it would at least pull some trivia form the game.  In the books, before the tributes actually go into the Hunger Games, they went through a couple of days of training in various events such as knot tying, wrestling, archery, edible plants, etc.  The board game takes place during those training days.  Players choose a district tribute to play from one of the ...