Audio Book Challenge Review: Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins - 2009

2011 Audio Book Challenge: Book # 3 (of 6)

Title: Catching Fire (Hunger Games # 2)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Year: 2009

Read By: Carolyn McCormick

Publisher: Scholastic

Date Read: 2-13-2011

Overall: * * * * (4/5) (based on audio book version)

GoodReads Blurb: Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol. Catching Fire maintains the adrenaline rush of Suzanne Collins's series launch.

My Review: I really like the audio book versions of the Hunger Games books now. Though I kept having weird sound problems with this book, not sure if it was the mp3, the ipod, or my headphones. Sometimes it sounded like there was a crazy echo and that Carolyn McCormick was part robot. Weird.

I still love this story, and I love Peeta more and more as the books go on and as I reread them. I think I've said before that when I first read The Hunger Games (book 1) I really didn't like Peeta. I thought he was cocky and a jerk. Then when I read Catching Fire for the first time, I fell in love with Peeta. Now when I reread them, I don't have that hatred for Peeta in the first book, I guess because now I understand where he is coming from a lot better than when I first read it.

Listening to these books feels a bit more depressing than reading them though, because the full effect of hearing someone describe everything that happens in the arena is just more intense, in my opinion. I am excited to start listening to Mockingjay soon, but I want to make sure I have a few good big chunks of time so it doesn't take me as long as the first two books did.

To Purchase: Print version | Audio Book version

Currently Reading: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, Ten Miles Past Normal (ARC) by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Warning: A large number of book reviews will be posted later today and tomorrow.

I listened to this book as part of the 2011 Audio Book Challenge hosted by Teresa's Reading Corner.

Books Read in 2011: 21

Audio Book Challenge Review: The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins - 2008

2011 Audio Book Challenge: Book # 2 (of 6)

Title: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins

Year: 2008

Read By: Carolyn McCormick

Publisher: Scholastic

Date Read: 2-4-2011

Overall: * * * * (4/5, based on audio book)

GoodReads Blurb: Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

My Review: I really enjoyed listening to this book. I love The Hunger Games trilogy in print format, and I've been wanting to reread all 3, so I figured I could incorporate that into the audio book challenge I am participating in. At first, I was turned off by the reader's voice, because she sounds a lot older than Katniss, but after a few chapters I was used to it and her voice was actually very soothing.

There were many times that tears came to my eyes while listening to this book, because some of the sad or shocking parts seem even more real when they are read out loud. I wish the reader had given some more emphasis to Katniss's sarcastic inner voice, because I always found Katniss to be very funny, and I felt like McCormick didn't get that tone of voice the way I had wanted it to be.

A downfall of listening to this story was that I would have to stop listening when I parked my car and sometimes that would be in the middle of a suspenseful or action-packed part of the story, which made listening kind of a choppy experience. I am glad that the same woman does the other books in trilogy, because now that I am used to her voice, I really like it and I wouldn't want to have to get used to another voice.

To Purchase: Print version or Audio Book version

Currently Reading: Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph

Currently Listening To: Catching Fire (Hunger Games # 2) by Suzanne Collins (read by Carolyn McCormick)

Books Read in 2011: 17

I listened to this audio book as part of the 2011 Audio Book Challenge hosted by Teresa's Reading Corner

It's Time!

I finished Redwall last night and now I can start Catching Fire! I am so, so excited, and so far all I've heard about the sequel is that it's amazing. I know it's going to have a lot of twists thrown at Katniss, and it's probably going to leave me bewildered and wanting more, but I am SO ready!
I won't get to start reading it until a bit later on today, since I have to get ready and drive to my parents house now, and then visit some friends for dinner possibly. But I will probably end up staying up really late tonight, because if it's anything like the The Hunger Games, I won't be able to put it down for anything less than a house fire.

Catching Fire

After dropping off this months rent I went to Barnes & Noble to get "Catching Fire", the sequel to "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. I am SO excited to read this book! It's hard to put it on hold while I finish "Redwall", but I know it is worth waiting for. "The Hunger Games" is fantastic and well-written and unique. I didn't used to like stories that took place in the future, because they all seemed so unrealistic, but "The Hungers Games" is so captivating that it definitely changed my mind about reading similar books.
While I was at Barnes & Noble I also picked up a couple of the books on my "To Buy" list. I got "The Miles Between" by Mary Pearson, "After the Moment" by Garret Freymann-Weyr, and the first "Pretty Little Liars" book by Sara Shepard. But obviously, they have to go on hold for a while so I can catch up to the other 5 million books on my lists.
After stopping in at B&N I went through the Drive-Thru Panera (So awesome!) because I really just wanted one of their lemonades. Their lemonades are amazing, I don't even know why! I'm trying to savior it and make it last, but that's a battle fought in vain.
Now, time to get back to "Redwall," because the sooner I finish it, the sooner I can dive into "Catching Fire" and see what's going on in the world of Katniss and Peeta! I also have to figure out what's wrong with my desktop computer, it's being a bit feisty and I have to go put it in its place.