A New Book

I have just finished a really good book!  I finished Mockingjay a while back, but I did not feel that I was done blogging for it yet.  The book that I just finished is called Shiloh by Shelby Foote.  If you like the American Civil War or just history in general you would love this book!  Shelby Foote's writing is fantastic!  He writes with so much detail you would think that he was really there.  Shiloh is a book about many different people and their experiences at the Battle of Shiloh.   It goes back and forth between Confederate and Union so that you get both sides of the story.  Some of the characters are even mentioned in each others' stories.  (which I think makes it more interesting)  My favorite part of this book is the way that Shelby Foote ends its.  He ends the book with the same person that started the book.  However now he is in a very different situation.  I will not go into further detail about that though, so as not to ruin the book!  This book really helped me get a better feel for the battle.  I learned a lot that I did not know before from it.  However, I is not actually non-fiction.  The characters were not really people.  Still, the things that they saw happening around them are true to what really happened at the battle.   

I would highly recommend this book if you love American history.  Even if you not a big fan I would still encourage you to give it a try.  It is a great read!

Different people had different opinions on Mockingjay.  A. R. Bovey seemed to enjoy the book in his review on Amazon.  He really liked the way that Katniss handled her problems.  Some times she acted outside of character, but he believes that that made for a better story.  He admitted that the epilogue might have been disappointing for some people.  However he thought that it was very fitting.  He said that Katniss had truly stopped living.  That she had given her life away when she volunteered to take Prim's place in the hunger games.  Now she was only physically living.  Over all he really liked the Hunger Games series.   However not every one liked this book.  Deniece R. Mason thought that it was a huge disappointment.  She thought that the first two books were extremely good and was very excited for the third book to come out.  She said that she really stared to dislike many of the characters, including Katniss. She also thought that Peeta's roll was so to minimum.  I would have to agree with Deniece.  Katniss really did annoy me a lot in the book.  I felt that she changed so much.  In this book I felt that she had a crazy imagination and was very illogical.  Personally I did not really like this last book.  It was really disappointing for me because I loved the first two.  I just hated the end of Mockingjay, it seemed to depressing and sad whereas most stories end with a "happily ever after" ending.

I think that these sources are valid because they are two different peoples opinion.

Civil War

I think that the subject of Mockingjay is civil war.  It is a story about the people of Panem rebelling against their capital.  In some ways I think it is similar to the American Civil War.  They both start with apart of the country rebelling.  There weapons and tactics are very different, but the reason for their fighting is similar.  They both wanted to break away from their country.  The people of Panem want to because of the horrible way the capital was treating them.  The south rebelled because they believe they were being treated unfairly.  They were both fighting for there freedom and therefore had a tremendous amount of determination.  Their uniforms were even similar, as they were both gray.  They did differ in the way they were fought though.  In the Civil War most of the battles were much more organized and planned out.  In Mockingjay the fighting does not have the same style.  It is more spontaneous.  Katniss' attack on the capital was planned out as they went along.  The attack was not even intentional at first!   Throughout Mockingjay the main theme is civil war.

The information that I got about the American Civil War was from The Golden Book of the Civil War.  I believe this is valid because I am using that book for the Civil War class that I am currently taking.   I also used http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html to get this information.  I believe that this is valid because it was created by Dr. George H. Hoemann and Mary E. Myers. who seem to be very qualified.  

Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins' career started off in 1991 when she began writing children's television shows.  She worked on the staff of Nickelodeon shows including Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby.  She also wrote many stories that were geared toward preschool children. The series that she wrote stories for were called Little Bear and Oswald.  She co-wrote the famous Christmas specials Santa Baby!  Also she was the Head Writer for Clifford's Puppy Days.  She met James Proimos when she was Kids WB.  He was the person who first convinced her to start writing children's books.   The first book that she wrote was Gregor the Overlander.  This book was the start of a five book series called The Underland Chronicles.  Most recently she has worked written the Hunger Games series.  Which have perhaps been her greatest success. 


The website that I got this information from is called http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm.  I believe that it is accurate because I obtained this information from her own website.  

Setting Goals

Hello everyone!  My name is Laura Grove.  With this blog, I plan to write about many different types of books.  As I read a book I will research the genre and author of that book.  I will also write about what is going on in my books and what I think of it.  My goal is to cover as many different genres as I can.  The first book I am reading is called Mockingjay  by Suzanne Collins.  It is the thrid and last book of a seires.  I have read the first two book and have enjoyed them immensely.  However I am not enjoy book as much as the others.  The main character named Katniss is beginning to really annoy me.  I feel like she is too dermatic and unreasonable with her thoughts and ideas.  The genre of Mockingjay is science fiction.  Science fiction books are based on the way new imaginary technological or scientifical discoveries change the world.  In Mockingjay Katniss' world is very advanced.  They have weapons that are must more advanced than those in our world.  They have new planes and hovercrafts, and even a city underground.  Most science fiction books are set in a futuristic world.  This too is true in Mockingjay because katniss refers to American democraty as something you can only find in history book.