Catching Fire

Sparks are igniting.Flames are spreading. And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before...and surprising readers at every turn.

The film is already out and here is the trailer:

Last weekend I watched this film for the second time. It still made me feel a lot of emotions.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein

  by Mary Shelley

"Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever."

 I remember seeing the Frankenstein monster on cartoons when i was young, so I got curious to know the real story when i saw the book. The history is not similar to what I thought, well, its far away from what i remembered from cartoons, it's more dramatic and tragic but still interesting.
 

Because You Are Mine

Because You Are Mine

 

by Beth Kery

 

"From Beth Kery, the national bestselling author of Explosive, comes a red-hot romance like no other--where the rules of attraction are broken with that first electrifying touch. Meet Francesca and Ian. The fantasies of what's to come begin...

 Because You Are Mine, an exciting tale of erotic obsession divided in 8 parts with 2 chapters.

 
Because You Tempt Me is the first part and it starts with that first look, when you know you have to have him... Francesca Arno has been commissioned to create a grand centerpiece painting for the lobby of Ian Noble's new skyscraper. It's at a cocktail party in her honor that she first meets him--and the attraction is immediate for Francesca. It's also bewildering. She's not used to such a wholesale sexual response to a stranger. Enigmatic, darkly intense, with a commanding presence, Ian completely unnerves her. And she likes it.
For Ian, she's the kind of woman he can't resist--one that comes all too rarely: a true innocent. But he can sense in her a desire to open up, to experiment, to give herself to the fantasies of a man in control. The first kiss, the first caress, the first challenge for a woman who craves what she's never had--a man who gets what he wants."

I liked this book, but I have to say that it looks like "fifty shades", with a domineering billionaire and a struggling student taking centre stage. I found the story a little predictable and familiar, as so many books in this genre have the same kind of storyline, but I only let go of the chapters after i read them all. 

 

Panic

Panic

by Jeff Abbott

  
"What if everything in your life was a lie?

Things are going well for 24 year-old Evan Casher: his career as a documentary filmmaker is booming and his relationship with his new girlfriend, Carrie, couldn't be better. After an urgent phone call from his mother, he makes an unexpected trip home to Austin. Then the unthinkable happens. He arrives to find his mother brutally murdered, and narrowly escapes an attempt on his own life. Spirited away from the scene by an enigmatic mercenary with an agenda of his own, Evan is confronted with a shocking fact: his entire life has been little more than a carefully constructed lie.
Pursued by a powerful, ruthless organization of killers who will stop at nothing to keep old secrets buried, Evan's only hope for survival is to uncover the truth about his family…and his own past. With his mother's attackers fast on his heels and with no one to trust--not the authorities, his father, nor the woman he loves--his perilous search takes him from the Texas Hill Country to New Orleans, to London, and to Miami. Full of unforgettable characters and jolting plot twists, Panic is an emotionally charged, heart-stopping thriller about one man's determination to take back his stolen life"


Jeff Abbott is new to me and Panic is the first of his books I've read. Very impressive, especially his ability to seemingly end each chapter with a cliffhanger that forces you to keep reading. Abbott manages to insert a believable romantic twist that doesn't get in the way of the story. My only problem was with the frenetic and somewhat unbelievable action in the conclusion. Still, I'm happy to have found a new suspense novelist and I'm looking forward to reading another of his novels. 

Angels and Demons

Angels and Demons (Robert Langdon #1) 

 

by Dan Brown

"An ancient secret brotherhood. A devastating new weapon of destruction. An unthinkable target.

World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization - the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces with in Rome with the beautifl and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth...the long-forgotten Illuminati lair."

If you enjoy suspense and mystery novels like myself, Angels and Demons is a great novel. Dan Brown combines religion and science to create a rather controversial read. I really like this book and it´s my favourite from this author, but I became disappointed with the movie because of some little changes they made in the story.

Glory in Death

Glory in Death (In Death #2) 

 

by J.D. Robb

"It is 2058, New York City. In a world where technology can reveal the darkest of secrets, there's only one place to hide a crime of passion-in the heart.

Even in the mid-twenty-first century, during a time when genetic testing usually weeds out any violent hereditary traits before they can take over, murder still happens. The first victim is found lying on a sidewalk in the rain. The second is murdered in her own apartment building. Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas has no problem finding connections between the two crimes. Both victims were beautiful and highly successful women. Their glamorous lives and loves were the talk of the city. And their intimate relations with men of great power and wealth provide Eve with a long list of suspects-including her own lover, Roarke."

This is another easy read that involves crime, romance and a little scientific fiction as it happens in the future with lots of new technologies. 

The book as a really good rate on Goodreads (above 4 in 5) and lots of people say that it is really amazing. I agree, of course! 

J.D. Robb is a pseudoniem of Nora Roberts and I Think the more than 35 books of this series speak for themselves...

  

Why The Toast Always Lands Butter Side Down

Why The Toast Always Lands Butter Side Down

by Richard Robinson

"Haven't you noticed that after waiting forever for a bus, three will arrive bunched together? That your nose always starts to itch the minute your hands are full? That the line you're on at the supermarket always moves the slowest? There's a law governing all these phenomena: Murphy's Law, which is most generally stated as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong," but which is most frighteningly revealed in hundreds of day-to-day situations. For example:

Nothing works while people watch You blink; they score If you want to be late, give yourself plenty of time
Familiar? Actually, there are rational explanations for all of the above. The answers turn out to be one part science and three parts psychology�or brain science, really. In Why the Toast Always Lands Butter Side Down, Richard Robinson explains with a light touch, but with serious intent, the science and science of mind behind dozens of these these inexplicable, frustrating recurring nightmares."

 I finish reading this book recently. It was quite interesting. A great reading for my wasted time in public transports every day.

This book talks about Murphy's Laws and most of the things are answers to question that we never ask, but still, somethings that happen to us every day. It's different from what I usually read, but interesting anyway.

The Subtle Knife

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2)

by Philip Pullman

"Here is the highly anticipated second installment of Philip Pullman's epic fantasy trilogy, begun with the critically acclaimed The Golden Compass. Lyra and Will, her newfound friend, tumble separately into the strange tropical otherworld of Cittàgazze, "the city of magpies," where adults are curiously absent and children run wild. Here their lives become inextricably entwined when Lyra's alethiometer gives her a simple command: find Will's father. Their search is plagued with obstacles - some familiar and some horribly new and unfathomable - but it eventually brings them closer to Will's father and to the Subtle Knife, a deadly, magical, ancient tool that cuts windows between worlds. Through it all, Will and Lyra find themselves hurtling toward the center of a fierce battle against a force so awesome that leagues of mortals, witches, beasts, and spirits from every world are uniting in fear and anger against it. This breathtaking sequel will leave readers eager for the third and final volume of His Dark Materials."

The adventures of young Lyra continue, and now she's with Will, a 12-year-old boy from our world. I really loved this book when I first read it and I still love it now. I'm sad because the movie based on the first book wasn't what I expected and they didn't make the seconde after that. At least I have in my mind the world and the characters.