Interesting. I know ND Wilson's fiction is a favorite of NarniaWebbers. I picked up Leepike Ridge last night. I'm only two chapters again, but I love his writing style. He talks about moon-flavored night air. What an incredibly eloquent, original, yet accessible description!

Oh, that is lovely. I definitely plan on checking out his fiction soon - I like how he seems to be following in Lewis's footsteps by specializing in my two favorite things: perspective-altering theological non-fiction, and children's fiction.

ok, I read the first paragraph of "The Hunger Games" while I was at Barnes & Noble last night - and I am hooked! I am SO getting this out of my library!

I am about 50 pages away from the end of Mockingjay, the final book that just came out, and it is FANTASTIC. A fair warning: some of the themes in this series are pretty heavy, and there is a lot of jarring violence. However, part of Suzanne Collins's point in including this is to critique it, along with the media-saturated culture she depicts. Very intense, very well-done. But then, I've always had a thing for dystopian sci-fi.

I think Suzanne Collins' writing provides a nice counterpoint to all of the fiction out there that basically tells kids/teens war is awesome.

Except: the Forest Born cover AJAiken showed us, that came out in England. That one is positively inappropriate!

Wait, which one do you mean? If you mean the pink one, I was actually going to comment and say I thought it was rather nice and would LOVE to get my hands on one of those copies.

*wants to read Mockingjay so, so, bad!!*

A few things from the previous Books thread:

Booky, thanks! The idea that the Keys to the Kingdom series
Interesting, DiGs. I actually hated most of the characters in Inkspell. Elinor, Darius, and Maggie's dad were my favourite characters, so that's a plus, then. I guess I shall still just have to see about reading the last book.

Mel, about Spellhunters/Knife: But, on the subject of world-building, Anderson was fine but I prefer N. D. Wilson.
I did like Runaway Ralph well enough, but I never got into The Borrowers.
Ooh! What are you thinking of Princess of Glass so far? *coughs* I didn't pick up on the literary name. Then again, I've never read that book, so...

I haven't scrutinized either the new or old Bayern covers in detail, but I prefer the old ones.

Mara, I think I may have heard of No More Dead Dogs before---it sounds vaguely familiar. I shall have to look it up.

This thread:

Nice intro, Kate!

Ooh, DiGs, that library sounds cool!

equustel, I'm glad you're liking Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl. I may have to see if my library will be getting it in---probably not, but I can always check. I really like his 100 Cupboards series; if you haven't read it, I'd recommend it. And Leepike Ridge is good, too.

Jo, have you read any books by Wilson?

Adeona, is it just the idea of the polytheistic gods that bothers you? Because, as Booky and you have pointed out, some of the theology is remarkably sound. Personally, the gods and goddesses don't bother me, but that might partially be because I find Greek (and other) myths rather interesting. And, it's not a 'real' world, so the polytheism really doesn't bother me when the lessons that come out of it have so much truth to them. Does that make sense? About the other thing that bothered you:
I'm still waiting for Mockingjay. Good news, though: The library has ordered a 3rd copy and I've gone down from #11 to #2 on the list. I'm really, really hoping to have it before the library closes for Labor Day, but we'll see. *is anxiously waiting* I keep stalking the library site to see if I'm getting any closer to getting it.

I also had my other hold come in yesterday: Lord Sunday. I actually finished it today and, while it wasn't what I was expecting, I thought it was a pretty good end to the series. *coughs* I know there was tons more I wanted to say, but I forgot it. Booky, Mel, anyone else who's read it, do you want to add/discuss something?

Valiant_Lucy, yes, I did mean the pink one. Sorry, but I find it completely wrong for the book and just plain brash.

ValiantArcher and Bookwyrm: I'm not trying to ignite old debates, but what ages would you put Gen and Attolia at? I was thinking, at the end of QoA,

Sure, I'd be happy to talk about it.

We don't mind them being reignited, we like arguing about stuff around here.

silver the wanderer: lol. I am enjoying it more and more. but i am stuck at the part where they are in the house of Tom in the Old Forest.

Anyoe read, the tommrow series? tommrow when the war began? their is a movie of it soon.

Yay! We're into our 2nd books thread.... *is properly happy*

(From the previous thread)

No clue. The two I read were hilarious though.

Ah, okay, thanks!

I... have no words. (I know you're kidding, but you are just about the last person I would have expected to make that joke. )

Hehehe!

Pro-British books are rather hard to find here. Is it the same for you as well? I can only think of... one. I think. It's been so long I don't actually remember how the plot of The Reb and the Redcoats goes. I can think of a few more where there are semi-main characters who are Loyalists, but they're both set in the same area of the colonies, and the characters are the same type--older Scottish immigrants who remember what happened when they rebelled against the king. I can't think of any others where you have really positive Loyalist characters... (Er, wait. There is Felicity's grandfather in the American Girl series... he might count...)

*adds those to lists of future reads* Given the fact that the British and Loyalist aspects of the War had such huge positive impacts on Canadian history, yes, books like that are rather scarce around here. The only two I can think of are a Dear Canada diary (With Nothing But Our Courage, which was pretty good) and a book written by a lady who incidentally was one of my dad's teachers in elementary school, entitled Flight. Other than that...there's really nothing else that I've found. Except for I think there was a Dear America diary that was also pro-Loyalist? Someone recommended it to me once, I think.

I did a quick re-read of Daniel Deronda these past few days, except for I think I read it too fast, and therefore didn't enjoy it as much as before. I had been wanting to re-read it for some time, especially to see what my second impressions of the book were. Ultimately, I think my thoughts the second time around are much the same as the ones the first time I read the book, although of course they are slightly different because it's a second time read through. If that makes any sense. Now I'm reading a Hardy Boys novel as some lighter fiction.

Regarding the continued discussion on the first page, I too must confess I'm not a big Tolkien fan. I enjoyed reading LOTR and love the films too, but I've never been completely in love with them. Same goes for Jane Austen actually, I enjoy reading her books but I wouldn't call them favourites.

So, a new thread! I don't come in here quite as much as I used to. I think it's because I read a lot of non-fiction these days, and unless you're interested in the particular subject it's pretty dull for other people In particular lately I've been reading books on physics and cosmology. I've especially enjoyed books by the physicist Michio Kaku, but I'm also delving into books by Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene.

I also picked up my first Neil Gaiman book recently. I went for Neverwhere, and I was pretty underwhelmed by it. I'm always being recommended Gaiman's work and want to give him another chance, but I don't really know what to try. Are there any Gaiman fans on NWeb?

Last night I finished another book people are always telling me to read - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I began this one again feeling that my expectations had been too high, it was an OK read but I didn't really care for it too much. The vivid writing reviewers kept talking about seemed like Zusak was trying a bit too hard to be inventive. But, in the last 100 pages it picked up and I began to really care about the characters. I won't lie, by the end I was crying my eyes out

I've now started White Noise by Don DeLillo, it's a strange, postmodern novel which is a change after the last few pieces of fiction I've read, but I'm starting to enjoy to style and just go with the flow.

Neil Gaiman? I haven't read heaps of his works but I've read some. They really are hit and miss. Here are some I feel are his better works (of those I've tried).

The Sandman (a series of 10 graphic novels - I've read the first 6 volumes so far)
Good Omens (hilarious! - co-authored with Terry Pratchett)
Coraline (great but aimed at children)
American Gods (I only got half-way through before I had to return it but the story was very good, if odd)

Also there are several movies.
Stardust
Coraline
Mirrormask

I've read some of Neverwhere and seen the mini-series. The premise was very interesting but the story and characters didn't reel me in.

a book written by a lady who incidentally was one of my dad's teachers in elementary school, entitled Flight

Connie Brummel Crook was your dad's teacher?? When I was younger I was positively obsessed with her books. Laura's Choice was my favorite book, "ever", when I was 13 (I think I was mostly in love with "Red" in it ). So yeah, that's really cool!

Shantih--glad you liked The Book Thief--or the ending of it anyway I haven't read it in a while, I lent it to my cousin and she hasn't given it back yet But thinking about it, I want to reread it. I definetly loved it.

Val: Hehe, yes! Even better, we went to the same church as her, although I was too young then to actually remember if we ever met her. I still really like Laura's Choice, which I remember my Mom reading to us eons ago, because of the War of 1812 setting, and of course because Laura Secord was just plain amazing. *shakes hands solemnly* Glad to meet another fan! (Although I think I already knew you liked her?)

I think Suzanne Collins' writing provides a nice counterpoint to all of the fiction out there that basically tells kids/teens war is awesome.

yeah! I totally agree! in The Underland Chronicles, she shows just how bad war can be! and she has her characters discover goodness in the midst of war! I love her writing!

W4J, Stardust is a really good book! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's got the occasional curse word, but it's very well written, and is a very quick read. I think I read it in less than a week (not saying much as it's less than 250 pages I think. . . but I'm a slow reader). You should definitely check it out. (The movie isn't half-bad either. . . apart from their occasional exxagerations )