Catching Fire

the sequel to Hunger Games. Was amazing. Again, Collins rocks it. Katniss is back, having (SPOILER FOR FIRST BOOK) won the Hunger Games in the previous book. She and Peeta both make it home, which is unprecedented for these games, where there is supposed to be only one victor. At the same time, coming home means more danger, for Katniss and her family, because the Capitol is not pleased with how she won.

Now I have to wait for August 2010 until the last of the trilogy appears. The emotional twists and turns are only rivaled by the unexpected vertiginous meanderings of the plot. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is safe in this world. It's a great read.

In between the two by Collins, I stalled out yet again on a Tamora Pierce book, Wild Magic. It's good. It's really ok. Nothing bad about it. But once the Alanna character shows up, it gets kinda ceremonial in weird ways... Pierce is a little ham fisted in her writing, and makes the presumption that we care because, well, we must have read the other books. That tends to annoy me, because I need to be made to care about THIS book...