Rats

She did it again.

I have a new favorite author I think. Suzanne Collins keeps you hanging, and interested, which is great for a night-reading insomniac such as myself.

After being disappointed that the next Hunger Games book doesn't come out until Sept. 2010, I started on her Gregor series. I read the first and now on the second.

These books are much more in the middle school age range (compared to the Hunger series which I would be way too intense for my 7th grader.) Fun, slightly scary, full of giant rats, cockroaches, and bats (all of whom can talk.) Great for boys or nature-happy kids like mine.

Gregor is such a real, likeable 11 yr old boy who has much put upon him when his dad disappears. He cares for his sisters and grandmother when his mom is at work, even changing diapers and doing laundry.

Laundry-

which leads him to the Underland... a modern day rabbit hole.

Think these will be our next read-alouds.

Illuminating

I adore illuminations. I was a strange kid I imagine. I loved calligraphy, needlepoint, history...

I had some great calligraphy pens and wanted so badly to learn how to do illuminated manuscripts. (Told you I was strange.)

Anyway, that said, I loved People of the Book. It's about (can you guess?) an illuminated book!

Actually the Sarajevo haggadah which is a real book, with a real history. The author, Geraldine Brooks, was a foreign reporter for the Wall Street Journal during the Bosnian war. She became enamored with the story of the haggadah and created her own version of the story with People of the Book.

Page from the Sarajevo Haggadah

Although I thought it dragged in a few places, in general the story (or stories) keep you moving.

The way the author takes you through time via the book is amazing.

Well worth your time!

Still Hungry!

I devoured the Hunger Games and Catching Fire in three days. I wanted to drag it out but just couldn't! I passed The Hunger Games to my hubby (who doesn't usually read anything but management theory or computer language books) and he read it in two days! It's just one of those fast, addicting reads that keeps you wanting more.

Catching Fire was much better than the Hunger Games in my opinion, unusual for a second book. It gave more depth to the characters. Again, not for the faint-hearted. It is a young adult book but graphic and violent (although maybe not as much as the first.) Think gladiators (as that is pretty much what it is.)


I know don't know how I'll make it until September when the next one comes out... Have to find a new series to get hooked on. Any suggestions?

The Hunger begins

Okay, I broke down and bought The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I started reading The Hunger Games and finished it in one night. Now I'm absorbed in Catching Fire but trying to slow it down a bit because I know that the next book doesn't come out until NEXT SEPTEMBER!

These books are not at all what I expected. Okay, I didn't expect anything except that everyone was going on about how fantastic they were. I had no idea what they were about. Wow.

They are another post-apocalyptic type book for young adults. (Think Ember series, Ender series, The Giver, etc.) The intensity got me. Very violent (and I don't like that normally.) But I can't stop reading. I am really glad I read them before giving them to my 12 yr old (who now will have to wait a year or two.)

The characters are so wonderful, the drama, the political, social and environmental (sort of) discussions to follow will be great! I don't want to give anything else away.