Feeding Your Soul

Every year, the world of Panem comes together to watch The Hunger Games – a live-action, real time, real people event that brings 24 tributes between the ages of 12 and 17 into an arena to fight to the death.   The last one standing wins eternal glory, food and shelter beyond their wildest dreams.   This is the future of North America in The Hunger Games.   North America, after years of war and unrest has divided up into 12 Districts – all obeying the Capitol who rules them. Originally there were 13 districts but the 13 th district rebelled and wiped out because of it. So that the other districts don’t forget what they did, the Capitol created the Hunger Games – to remind all of Panem of just how much power the Capitol has over them.   Katniss Everdeen is a 16-year old girl who takes her 12-year old sister’s place in the games when her name is called. She has no idea what her being in the games will do to her, her family, her district and all of Panem. Kids killing...

Set in the middle of the Great Depression, Jacob is a university student studying to become a veterinarian to work alongside his father at his animal hospital.   During his class, the Dean of Students tells him that both of his parents were killed in an automobile accident.   Through a talk with his father’s lawyer, the animal hospital and home will be sold to the bank to cover their debt.   Jacob becomes closed off from everything and everyone and soon finds himself jumping on a moving train filled with circus performers for the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.   He talks his way into the circus as a veterinarian and becomes immediately attracted to the owner’s wife, Marlena.   And this is where the fun really begins. One thing the author does well is the creation of August.   The reader knows from the start that there is something not right with August and so does everyone else in the circus.   It isn’t talked about nor is it confront...

Picture it – The Hamptons, Labor Day weekend, a big party on the beach hosted by the most known couple and family on the Hamptons. Then a gun goes off three times and someone falls dead on the beach by the water while the fireworks are going off. Cut to the party where we meet Emily as she talks to her friend Ashley about a fight she is having with a man named Daniel who is her fiancée. Then another friend Nolan comes up to her and they tell each other that neither one should be there (at the party). Cut to the beach again where we see a man pulling the dead body away from the shore to a marshy area with tall grass – out of sight. We see a couple run away from the party to the beach area and attempt to go swimming but see someone else there and go to investigate, shocked at what they find. AT the same time, the host of the party, Victoria Grayson is making a speech about the party which is an engagement party for her son Daniel and Emily. She gives her blessing to Emily in front of eve...

They are in your cars. They are in your homes. They go with you to work every day. They follow you to your family reunion. The “they” is artificial intelligence and in today’s world, they are all around us. In Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson, the fact that AI is all around us is the reason for our downfall. And it all started with one computer. Archos is an AI developed in a bunker in the middle of the Alaskan frontier. The AI had been “killed” many times as the creator did not feel the AI was correct. What the creator failed to realize or understand is Archos learned to be perceptive and aware – Archos learned that his creator had the ability to “kill” him so Archos disconnected the kill switch and he in turn killed his creator. That was Zero Hour as the humans in the book later came to call that moment. What follows is a chronicle of the over 2.5 years the world was at the mercy of robots, AI beings – all from the point of view of one survivor, Cormac Wallace who found the “black ...

In the world of modern science and technology, we sometimes forget how much intuition and extreme attention to detail was important in determining a murder or a thief before the newest advances in science. In the world of Sherlock Holmes, that attention to detail and intuition is what keeps him alive and gives him the title of most loved fictional detective. In the movie Sherlock Holmes , Robert Downey, Jr. plays the title character with Jude Law playing his trusty sidekick and occasional brunt of jokes, Dr. John Watson. The movie opens with Holmes and Watson catching a formidable opponent in the act of sacrificing a woman for a ritual – something this man has done 5 times before. The man is Lord Blackwood and the arrest is a highlight for Holmes as Lord Blackwood is to be put to death. Blackwood is hanged for his crimes and everyone sees him die – or so they thought. Later on, he is “seen” leaving his grave and around the town. Holmes is now curious so with his trusty sidekick, Wats...

For John Smith aka Number Four running has been his life since he and 8 other children from the planet LorienMogadorians. They destroyed Lorien and killed everyone on the planet – except for the 9 Garde (Loric people gifted with special powers) and their guardians who escaped in 2 ships that brought them here to Earth. For the past 15 years they have been running around the world trying to stay out of the spotlight so the Mogadorians don’t find them and destroy them. But they did. And they have killed 3 – Number One, Number Two and Number Three. Number Four, John is next and he knows it. And that is why he doesn’t want to stop running. The movie starts off the exact same way the book does – with the death of Number Three in the jungles of South America. As he dies, we see John Smith – Number Four – have a strange brand/tattoo being carved on the side of his ankle. This is how the other 9 Garde know that one of them has died. Some of his friends saw this happening and John, along with...

With another Christmas approaching without her soul mate, Gaby decides to make this Christmas one that she and her 3 children will never forget. She sends a video message to each of her children across the country asking them to come home for Christmas because she is getting married – and they won’t find out the groom until Christmas Day! Of course her kids are all up in arms trying to figure out who the lucky man is – Jacob, Tom, or Marty. What follows is a chronicle of her kid’s lives and hers leading up to their arrival at their childhood home? And throughout the whole story, two revelations are being worked out – 1, you can always go home no matter what and 2, sometimes you have to take care of yourself before anything else – and its ok. Every year I pick a Christmas-themed book to buy and read for Christmas. This was the first book I saw and I had to have it right away. I had never read a James Patterson book before. And I didn’t think a romance novel was going to be the first ...