Month: November 2025

Book Review: Sunrise on the Reaping

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Sunrise on the Reaping
The Hunger Games prequel #2
by Suzanne Collins
Read by Jefferson White

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for The Hunger Games trilogy and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

I’m just going to say up front that I did not expect to care about this book. Similar to the other prequel, I didn’t think it was necessary. Why do we need to see Haymitch’s games? We already know he wins and we even know how. Why do we need to be shown yet another reaping, another Hunger Games? And hearing my daughter call it “Sunrise on the Weeping” over and over didn’t endear it any more to me—she hadn’t read it yet but had seen that online. I’m not a particularly emotional person, and I dislike it when I feel an author is trying to manipulate my emotions, which is what I anticipated here. I am here to say that I was mostly wrong in all of my assumptions. I even teared up a few times while listening to the audiobook, though still not as much as my daughter did when she read it.

I expected a rehashing of the same basic elements from the first book in the trilogy, but the reaping was different; the training time was different; the Hunger Games were very different. It really is its own story overall, while being connected to the main series and the previous trilogy in ways that I absolutely loved. I’ve seen many TV shows where there’s an episode that shows some time in the past, and the connection between characters that know each other in the main timeline of the show is shown earlier than it should have been and feels awkward and forced. In this book, there are several characters from the main trilogy that show up, and none of it feels awkward and forced (except one, but I can live with that). I really liked seeing everyone that appeared, and their roles brought events from the main series to light more. After my daughter read it, we discussed so many nuances that we both had found in it, and I just really appreciate the continuity and detail that Collins included.

I have to admit that the last part of the book dragged a little for me, but I think that was one of those areas where there was emotion that didn’t affect me like it does others. The epilogue, though, was brilliant! Overall, any issues I had with the book were minor enough that I can’t even bring the rating down half a start. I really liked it and look forward to reading the series again some time to be reminded of some of the related details. I did listen to the audiobook, and Jefferson White was an overall good narrator (though maybe if I’d read it instead of listening to the audiobook, I could have glossed over some of what dragged so much at the end). If you’ve read the main series and aren’t sure about reading this prequel, I’d definitely recommend it, though I highly recommend reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes first if you haven’t yet.

Find out more about Sunrise on the Reaping

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

November Writing Challenge Day 5

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The Words: 1725 words total for the day, most of which came in two 15-minutes sprints early in the evening. Then after a longer break, I used the word tracker on the Sprinter site again, set my goal for the 120 words I had left to hit 1667, and wrote until a natural break, which pushed me a little past the goal. And I broke 10k words!

The Story: Even Garend admitted that he was stalling in going to Newland, so by the end of today’s writing, he was stepping out into that journey. Of course, how he’s getting there is as much of an unknown to me as it is to him, so I guess I’ll figure that out tomorrow.

Total word count: 10,466

Book Review Podcast Episode 33

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In episode 33, we review The Alcatraz Escape, book 3 in the Book Scavenger series by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, Rise of the Elgen, book 2 in the Michael Vey series by Richard Paul Evans, and The Hawthorne Legacy and The Final Gambit, books 2 & 3 in The Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Also available on Spotify:

November Writing Challenge Day 4

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The Words: 1700 words total for the day, much smoother than yesterday. I had more free time this evening and did a 15-minute sprint to start with, using the Sprinter site. Then I switched to word goal instead of time and set it for 700 words, since that’s how far away I was from the daily goal of 1667 words and called it a day.

The Story: Garend has made the arduous decision to go to Newland. He’s finally been enticed enough by the person who came from there to try to convince him to go back with her. He’s not exactly happy about it, though, since he feels sad (and not a little guilty) leaving behind some people who had become special to him. But the benefits are too good to pass up.

I think that tomorrow I’m going to have to finally dive into Newland, which I’ve been avoiding, and not just for the last 4 days. For years, really.

Total word count: 8741

November Writing Challenge Day 3

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The Words: 1900 words total for the day, which felt like a miracle. I did a 15-minute sprint that was a little more distraction-filled than usual and ended with around 750 words. It was getting late, and I considered leaving it at that, eating up a lot of my first-day lead. But I pushed myself to start another sprint, figuring I’d at least get another 700. Fortunately, I got onto a roll and wrote over 1100 words in that 15 minutes, which put me past the 1667 daily goal!

The Story: Garend is beginning to weaken, not because he actually wants anything to do with the stranger that he’s at least starting to get to know, but because he’s finding himself more and more intrigued by the idea of being able to visit Newland. But he can’t just visit Newland—it will require a commitment that he isn’t yet willing to make.

I definitely feel like I’m stalling, but then I remember that it’s only day 3, so I have plenty of time to flounder through writing about Newland.

Total word count: 7041

October in Review

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I read 15 books last month, another higher-than-average month, with a page count only barely lower than last month. It’s been a good stretch of reading for the last 3 months, but that will come to end in here in November, as I spend more time writing and less time reading. With my current rate of listening to audiobooks, though, the number for November might not dip as low as it has when I did NaNoWriMo in the past.

Here are the books I read in October:

Edgeland
Carpenter 20
HTTYD 2
Poirot 20
Maze Cutter
Pennypickle
gambit
Castle in the air
Bleak Creek
7 Things
not-if-i-save-you-first
Lemoncello 2 GN
lost-lt
Sunrise

Edgeland by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski (2.5 / 5)
Dachshund Through the Snow by David Rosenfelt (4 / 5)
How to Be a Pirate by Cressida Cowell (3 / 5)
The Maze Cutter by James Dashner (2 / 5)
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie (3.5 / 5)
The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (4 / 5)
Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzle Quest by Chris Grabenstein (5 / 5)
Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones (2 / 5)
The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal (4.5 / 5)
Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible by Michael F. Bird (3 / 5)
And to All a Good Bite by David Rosenfelt (5 / 5)
Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter (1.5 / 5)
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics: The Graphic Novel by Chris Grabenstein (4.5 / 5)
The Lost Lieutenant by Erica Vetsch (5 / 5)
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (5 / 5)

This list includes 3 ARCs and 3 re-reads. My favorite book from October was Sunrise on the Reaping. I started 2 series, continued 4 series, and finished 2 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

November Writing Challenge Day 2

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The Words: 1500 words total for the day. I’m not going for more than par every day this month, but I didn’t expect to come in shy of 1667 so early in the month. Today was a full day, though, and I didn’t get to writing until late, so I’m happy with what I got from the 2 15-minute sprints I did this evening.

The Story: Garend has a lot of questions for his visiting stranger about Newland, but she’s not really giving him the answers he’s looking for. She is, however, giving him enough to be intrigued and at least consider leaving Pithea and going to Newland. Considering that my plan for this month’s writing was to actually show Newland, it’s taking me a while to get there, but that’s okay. These discussions are good for me to get down anyway.

Total word count: 5132

November Writing Challenge Day 1

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Okay, so it doesn’t roll off the tongue like NaNoWriMo does, but oh well. I am tracking my progress with a challenge called Novel November, but I’m not particularly attached to the name or the site (which is just a sales site for some kind of writing tool). So I’m making it my own this year.

The Words: 3632 words total for the day. I started right at midnight just like old times (it’s only been 3 years since I did this last, but man did it feel like longer) and did 2 15-minute sprints before going to bed. That got me to 1800 words, which was already more than the one-day goal of 1667. Then couple of sprints this evening–one 20 minutes and one 15–got me the rest.

So far I’m using my Freewrite Alpha, which is new since I last had much to actually write (mostly I’ve been doing revising work for a while now), so it’s taken some getting used to. But I do love the mechanical keyboard feel and sound.

The Story: Up until a week ago, I had no idea what I might write this month. I thought I’d end up just freewriting with prompts every day. So when my husband gave me a brilliant idea last Sunday, I only had a week to think about it. But in truth, I didn’t need to do any planning. I’m basically just writing about a side character in the book I’m currently revising to hopefully publish within a few months, “Power,” who has a story arc that takes him out of the book and onto his own adventures. What happens to him doesn’t really come back into play for a long time, and it’s not front and center in any of the future books I have planned. But my husband suggested I write about what he gets up to in a far off land that will be front and center in a later book. And since that gives me a chance to explore that place that so far has been a fairly nebulous future idea, I jumped at the idea!

So today I wrote about Garend, who has had a visitor from a stranger that wants to be part of his life. The stranger told him of a far-off land (we’ll call it Newland for the sake of avoiding potential spoilers) that, though he wants nothing to do with the stranger, he can’t help but be intrigued about.

Garend, who overall has a minor role in “Power” came out a lot more in my writing today, and apparently he’s a man who holds a grudge. Who knew?

Total word count: 3632

And in honor of November 1st, because even if it’s not really NaNoWriMo, the NaNoMusical still showcases the spirit of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Plus, I can’t help but love spreading the NaNoMusical love, so here is episode 1!

Book Review: Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible

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Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible
by Michael F. Bird

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Christian nonfiction

In this book, Michael F. Bird explains how the modern Bible came to be, the need to take it in its proper context, and other nitty gritty details about the Word of God. It’s purported to be accessible to everyone, which means the fact that I struggled to understand some portions of it make me feel kind of stupid. Really, though, in a lot of ways it was similar to many other more intellectual, theologically deep books I’ve read, though not all the way through. Still, it makes me wonder why so many reviews talk about how easy it is to read.

As for the content, some aspects of this book were nothing new for me while others were quite new. For example, I’ve never before heard that the apostle John, the author of the 3 epistles named John, and the John who wrote Revelation might not all be the same John. My concern, though, lies in this book being read by new Christians or those who aren’t very strong in their faith. Even I, who 100% believe the complete accuracy of the Bible and the ability of God to protect His Word as it was handed down over the millennia, found myself beginning to question how accurate what I read can be when Bird gets into the details about how we got the Bible. Maybe that’s because he never quite touched on God’s sovereignty, that He had the power to guide the men who wrote, translated, edited, compiled, etc. the Bible and keep it intact to His wishes. On the other hand, He hasn’t stopped some translations and paraphrases from coming out that water down the truth, so therein likes the concern that this book could actually lead some people to question the Bible as a source of truth. His comments about learning about the historical and cultural context of the different parts of the Bible were intriguing though. I have no plans to try to read Josephus now, but there are more accessible options that I plan to look into. Overall, I can see the merit in this book, which my husband, who read a couple of chapters of it for one of his pastoral training classes, recommended to me, but I am not sure I’m the right audience for it. But I’m not really sure who is, since people who are newer to Christianity might not be able to follow some of it or might actually become confused about the authority of scripture and more mature Christians likely already know much of what is contained within.

Find out more about Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!