The Hunger Games Trilogy

This trilogy was written by Suzanne Collins and released between 2008 and 2010. It tells the story of Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl who lives in an unidentified future period in which North America  has been destroyed and is known as "Panem", a country with twelve districts underthrown to the Capitol. Each year two kids between 12 and 18 years from each of the twelve districts are sent to an arena where they have to kill each other until only one of the kids survive. This event is called the Hunger Games and is  used by the Capitol to mantain it's power over the districts. The Hunger Games are televised and has a lot of high-tech thrown into it so that it becomes interesting to watch. Katniss enters the Hunger Games taking her little sister's place as female tribute of district twelve. The male tribute is Peeta Mellark, a young boy, son of the baker who's secretly in love with Katniss. 

The first book centers around the Hunger Games in which Katniss and Peeta have to fight for their survival. The second one (Catching Fire) starts off directly after the games and the threat that Katniss turns out to be for the Capitol's supremacy and the third one (Mokingjay) is also the last one and it speaks of the revolution that the events of the first two books have started. 

Ok that overview could have gone better, but I really didn't want to make any major spoilers to the books. 

Now to the books.

There are a few things that I absolutely loved about this trilogy. The first one being Katniss. 

The main character of this novel isn't very nice, nor very lovable. She's kind of rough and scared and weak. She's not wonderwoman, nor does she have all the answeres. Through the second and third book she's pushed around and played like a fool. But she's also 16 years old, and while you read the books- which is written all through the eyes of Katniss - you live and have the fears and don't know the things that a 16 year-old-girl has and knows. And that's why the book's are good. Because the point of view isn't flat or predictible. 

The other characters, no matter how small their roles, ara also multy-dimensional. You really grow to love some of them like Peeta Mellak and Finnick and Annie. You understand slowly the motivations of everyone of them. 

Another great thing of this trilogy is the use of the media-wars. It's very interesting to see how people can be manipulated by a girl who doesn't really know what she's doing. It's also one of the few books I've read in which the revolutionary side isn't depicted as the perfect society. The faults and problems of humankind isn't whiped out of existence by the new political power. It's realistic and it makes you think about politics and the promises that are made through TV, and it's a critic to war and hunger and... 

It just makes you think. 

 The story is well written, I finished the three books in less than a week, and I had already seen the movie, which can be taken as a complementary  info, for it tells the story from a different point of view.

And that's about it. I loved the trilogy, and I really recommend it to you. 

Out of 10 points I give:

The Hunger Games a 10

Catching Fire a 10

Mokingjay a 9

So now, go and read it already! 

¿Cada cuánto hay que echar a lavar un pijama? by Luis Piedrahita

There's this Spanish comedian called Luis Piedrahita who's rather famous in my country. For a few years he has been publishing his monologues in a total of three books with the title of one of the monologues. The first one was called:

• "¿Un cacahuete flotando en una piscina, sigue siendo un fruto seco?" [Can a peanut floating in a pool still be called a nut?] released in 2005.
• "¿Cada cuánto hay que echar a lavar un pijama?" [How often do you need to wash your PJs?] released in 2006
• "Dios hizo el mundo en siete días... y se nota" [God made the world in seven days... and you notice it] released in 2007
• "¿Por qué los mayores construyen siempre los columpios encima de un charco?" [Why do the older ones build the swing allways over a puddle] released in 2010. 

So far I have read the second and third, and I tell you, they are all hilarious. 

Luis Piedrahita was born in A Coruña [Galicia in the north of Spain] in 1977. He has worked in both radio and TV as writer, comedian and illusionist and was also director and writer of the mystery thriller 'La Habitación de Fermat'. He's known as the King of Small Things [El Rey de las cosas Pequeñitas], because he often critisices the little attention people pay towards the small things of cotidian life such as pockets, carnivorous plants, etc. 

I don't know if his books have been translated into other languages, but if you know spanish you should definitely check it out, because he's just too good. If you want to see him, you can find a lot of his monologues as well as his appearences in 'El Club de la Comedia' [The Comedy Club] and 'El Hormiguero'[The Anthill] on the Internet. 

And that's it.

Out of 10 I give his books a 9 and a 10 

The third one is funnier than the second one, but both are very worth your time.