Book #12 Week #11, The Hunger Games #1 by Suzanne Collins

What? TWO number elevens? Yes that is right two books in one week. I finished The Red Garden on Friday afternoon and just the day before I was loaned a boxed set of The Hunger Games. This is another series I wasn't sure I wanted to read but I picked up book #1 on Friday night out of curiosity and planned only to read a chapter or two and save the rest for next week. But alas it couldn't be done! I flew through this book, it was just that good.

The Hunger Games is set in a future North America which has been destroyed and is now Panem. In the middle is the lavish Capitol surrounded by 12 districts. Each district has their specialty and our heroine sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen is from District 12, the coal mining district.  People are starving and ever since her father's death, five years before hand, Katniss has taken up hunting in the woods (which is illegal) to feed herself, her mom and her twelve year old sister Prim.

Every year for the past seventy-three years the Capitol has held the Hunger Games. One boy and one girl are chosen in random drawing from each district to compete in a fight-to-the-death battle. Despite it being her first year of eligibility and her name is only on one of thousands of slips of paper, Prim is picked as the female tribute from District 12. A panicked Katniss steps up an volunteers to take Prim's place.

Loved this book, full of suspense and excitement. It gives us a strong female lead who is not boy crazy and has flaws. But the book is not without love, Katniss has her admirers but she does not have a lot of time to really think about what she wants, who would when their whole life centers on trying just to survive? Seriously I cannot stop talking about and recommending The Hunger Games. Here is hoping the movie does the book justice!

“Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true. Here is the place where I love you.”