Sunday, September 26, 2010

Books, Books, Books!

Books! I can't get enough of them!
Lately the lot of them has been science fiction, which is a new genre for me.
Still, I can't get through them fast enough, having read twenty-five novels since this past March, I am still on a roll.

The latest series I finished was a young adult selection titled, "The Hunger Games", by Suzanne Collins. My fifteen year old is now reading them since they are mom approved.

This series was an interesting, thought provoking, suspenseful, emotional, funny, dramatic,... I can not come up with enough adjectives to describe what I thought about this series.

There are three books in all, the first being "The Hunger Games," "Catching Fire," and "Mockingjay." They are shorter books and easy reads. The elements for discussion within the books such as perception, tradition, government control or socialism, fight vs. flight, love, the list goes on; are great points of discussion for young and old.

The main character who is placed in a post-apocalyptic setting, is sixteen-seventeen years old throughout her journey, but the life she has experienced is that of someone much older. The romantic triangle tugs your heart in both directions as Katniss Everdeen discovers not only herself, but those who love her. 

You experience the innocence of heart and mind while in the same moment mature strength in the spirit to overcome. Katniss is not your typical female heroine, she makes more mistakes than one would care for. She also winds up remaining true to herself, which becomes somewhat of a revelation for this main character, because of the duress in which it presents itself. 

To find out more you'll have to get your own copy, and I hope you do!
Have you read "The Hunger Games"? What did you think? Were you satisfied with the ending? What would you have done differently if you were Katniss or Peeta or Haymich?

Thursday, September 23, 2010

All Hail the Ice Chunks

This past Saturday night we experienced a hailstorm here in the Midwest. I say experienced because that is what happens when a severe storm like this hits; the lightning, the wind, the rain, the ice, the sound of thunder! This was one of the many chunks of hail that pelted our home. At first the hail was golf ball sized and as that settled a bit, the rain and lightning continued. 

It didn't take long before the thunks of ice were back against our house. This time louder and harder! So, of course we sent the fifteen-year-old out to go retrieve a piece. This piece had already begun to melt by the time we turned of the flash and got out the measuring tape. Still, a pretty good sized hail storm. The winds were whipping and the rain continued on throughout the night. 

We wound up having leakage into our family room a few areas, the siding, garage, roof, vents, windows, gutters, to name a few things, were being torn and bashed. We literally lost pieces of siding from the house.
The excitement of photographing hail quickly turned into a serious event.
I still feel blessed, having heard of other areas that received five inch hail and power outages.

We are still dealing with our insurance company, which, thankfully we have insurance. In the meanwhile, another storm is on the way, and more hail is expected. Although there is tarp on the roof and over the wall that was damaged on one side, the carpet is still wet, and the walls are still damp, and this upcoming storm is no longer welcome at my house. =]