Still reading Shardik. Since no one here seems to have heard of it, any fans of Richard Adams' other works, such as Watership Down or The Plague Dogs? I'm hoping to get my brother to read Watership Down sometime in the near future; i was close to his age when i read it for the first time.

Read "Shardik" a long time ago- be warned, the sequel, "Maia", is near
pornographic in long stretches, with heavy emphasis on slavery.

Thanks for that - i've looked at it once or twice at the library, but something about it made me doubt i wanted to read it. I think something in the dust jacket hinted it would go into more detail on certain topics than i wanted to read ...

I tried to read The Plague Dogs once, but didn't get into it. I might try again some other time.

Watership Down is one of my favorite books. It took me a while to get into it - the first chapters i found very slow - but once i got to Cowslip's warren i zoomed through the rest of it.

Silver the Wanderer, i re-read my post and realized i didn't actually come out and say that i liked it - but i'm glad my point got through anyway! The Percy Jackson books were fun reads, not dazzlingly written or anything, but i own all of them and enjoy reading them.

Lucy85, i like some of Dickens, but it takes some effort for me to read his books. My mom read A Tale of Two Cities out loud to us for school, and we all really enjoyed it, but i've never re-read all the way through since. I read Great Expectations for school and didn't like it, but i read Bleak House on my own and liked it.

Hmmm, Bleak House. I've always been a bit afraid of that, but since you said you liked it I may give it a try Re: The Awakening-wasn't a big fan. Did not like Edna at all! Found her to be very self-centered, but looking back, that book must have been ground-breaking to show a new type of woman I give Kate Chopin kudos for that! I am also reading Room by Emma Donoghue. I love it so far, but it is also so very sad

A little catch-up:

I finished Les Miserables yesterday! What an amazing book!

Glad you liked it! 'Tis one of my favorite works of literature. I'm sure part of that is because I read it with other NarniaWebbers, and we had some wonderful discussions about Hugo's writing. It also happened that I read it at just the right time in my life to get the most out of it, if that makes sense.

Still reading Shardik. Since no one here seems to have heard of it, any fans of Richard Adams' other works, such as Watership Down or The Plague Dogs?

I remember rushing out to get Watership Down after seeing the animated 1978 film adaptation. I liked it. I tried Shardik next, but couldn't get into it. Maybe I should try again; it's been a few years.

Any Mary Stewart fans here? Well, I know there's fans of her Merlin books, but what about her mystery/romances?

A good friend is a Stewart fan, and in addition to the Merlin books has recommended a few of her mystery/romances. One I remember enjoying, as an interesting mixture of the 2 genres, is Touch Not the Cat. It's another book I haven't read for ages and may be due a re-read.

I recently finished reading The Maze Runner, and just right now- it's sequel, The Scorch Trials. Very enjoyable reads. I only hate that the third, and I think final, book releases this October. Anyone here read those? I know when I bought them on B&N, I was recommended The Hunger Games. Two friends of mine bought THG on Amazon, and were recommended these two. So there much be some likeness between both series.

This is kind of late, but oh, well.
I read both TMR and THG last month!
About the Maze Runner- The Glade's language took a while to get used to. It was pretty funny though. Overall I liked the book, and I'm waiting for a friend to lend me Scorch Trials.
About The Hunger Games- LOVED IT!!!

*pops up timidly after many months of absence*
Hello again! It's great to be back!

Any Mary Stewart fans here? Well, I know there's fans of her Merlin books, but what about her mystery/romances?

I haven't read many of her romance novels, and I am yet to read her Merlin books, but I liked them a lot. I think my favourite is Nine Coaches Waiting and I also remember quite well Thornyhold. I half read This Rough Magic many years ago, and from what I can remember, it was very good too; I would love to read it again someday. I agree that she is really good with atmosphere, like M.M.Kaye, although I think I prefer the latter, at least her Death series, because her mysteries are more developed.

I recently finished reading The Maze Runner, and just right now- it's sequel, The Scorch Trials. Very enjoyable reads. Anyone here read those? I know when I bought them on B&N, I was recommended The Hunger Games. Two friends of mine bought THG on Amazon, and were recommended these two. So there much be some likeness between both series.

This is kind of late, but oh, well.
I read both TMR and THG last month!
About the Maze Runner- The Glade's language took a while to get used to. It was pretty funny though. Overall I liked the book, and I'm waiting for a friend to lend me Scorch Trials.
About The Hunger Games- LOVED IT!!!

Glad to get a reply from this, it's nice to know someone else has read them here. TMR is terrific, I think I like its sequel better too, TST.

THG-
I just now finished read the first book. Part one took me a week and a half. Part two took me three days. Part three took me a day and a half. I am so mixed with emotions right now. Tomorrow, or possibly later, I will begin Catching Fire. About Mocking Jay, I keep hearing the same as what you said.

Currently have a stack of books over a foot high in my room. I am rereading Christy, and reading Unseen Academicals and Crown Duel.

Last night, I finished a whirlwind weekend reading of the Hunger Games series for the very first time. I'm now in the process of going back and re-reading the books to make sure I didn't miss anything...with a story as riveting as this, I tend to "skim" so I can get through the suspenseful parts faster. And these books, especially the very last, was VERY suspenseful.

It's kind of hard to form a solid opinion on these books, since this genre isn't my cuppa tea and I picked them up on a whip out of pure curiosity due to the movie buzz and thanks to a former NWebber's book review (her taste generally does not let me down). One thing I can say for sure, is that I'd be hard-pressed to name another series that I found so absolutely riveting. It's fascinating, really. You take such a horrific concept, and weave it into a story that people not only want to read, but are left wanting more. I wonder if that's a sign of the times; that these days it takes a book that offers more than a good story, but a bone-chilling proposition to get us to THINK.

Forgive me for rambling, but the whole concept of the Hunger Games reminds me a lot of Torchwood's Children of Earth season. It really touches on what is maybe the most terrifying kind of fear for any human being, especially adults. If you're unfamiliar with that particular season, I won't go into a lot of detail but I will say that it deals with an alien invasion that is centered on one simple thing...the aliens want ten percent of the world's population of children, and they WILL have them. Utterly horrifying and bone-chilling.

I think that perhaps one of the greatest fears of adults, and parents especially, is not death and destruction and horrifying monsters, but the mere threat of children. Children are helpless, vulnerable. They're supposed to protect them. And the idea of not being able to is one of the most scary things you could think of. So, not in very different way, the Hunger Games are the same. The Capitol takes the children. There's nothing anyone can do about it. And that is what makes it so absolutely horrible. I wonder if the reality of the depth of this madness is maybe a little lost on the target audience of these books, who are teenagers themselves. They feel empathy for the characters, and horror, but not the way an adult would. It's different; it's hard to explain.

Anyway, on to the books. I am clueless as to what is considered a spoiler and what isn't (one never knows with recent books), so if you haven't read these books, you might want to skim.

When I started reading, I only knew two things for sure: That Katniss survives two Hunger Games, and that Peeta is her love interest. I didn't know exactly to what extent Peeta was her love interest (and after I read THG I wondered if maybe that was the extent of it, and that it might be Gale all along). But then based off some things I read, I figured that was too easy and that it was deeper than that, and generally stuck to Peeta and Katniss officially being in love at one point or another. Whether Peeta would die shortly afterward, I didn't know. I guess that's maybe why I never really gave Gale much of a serious thought so "coming to" all this Team Peeta/Team Gale thing surprises me a bit.

I have to give Suzanne Collins credit. When I started reading THG I mentally made predictions on how the book would end. I figured that somehow, both Katniss and Peeta would survive the arena and it had to do with love. She surprised me with exactly HOW that came about, though. Didn't see the suicide act coming. Oh, and from the very first moment that Rue was noted out of all the other tributes, I KNEW that she and Katniss would become allies and that Rue would die at the hand of someone other than Katniss or Peeta. Not a terribly genius guess given the circumstances but anyway, smelled that one a mile away. The exact circumstance of her death was a bit different than I thought, but not terribly so.

Anyway, more later...I've got to pull my thoughts together. Just finished my second reading of THG, and on to CF tomorrow...

Gymfan15, thank you a million for your review of THG! I am a huge fan of the books and that helped get my thoughts for it into normal people words

NaiadWaker, I must agree with your thought of the third book, I felt the exact same way

Have you seen the film "Howl's Moving Castle" or read any of Diana Wynne Jones' other books?
Sad news today that she has died.
I posted on facebook:

It's a sad day: my favourite late 20th century writer Diana Wynne Jones (file under Jones, please, bookshops!) has died. She brought a lot to my life in the last 20 years, with creative fun-filled novels for children and young adults, neither of which I was at the time.
She had the ability to create new versions of our world, new worlds, a new perception of our world, and several layers of story all wound together, often not showing the whole thing until nearly the end. Her colour, light, depth and hidden turnings into fantasy and humour remain on my bookshelf as dear friends - but in her death I have lost a friend I never met. Thank you so much, Diana. If the Upper Room was a real place, you would be there now.

I just ordered a book entitled Murder In Amsterdam by Ian Buruma from AbeBooks. It's about a movie producer who was killed in Amsterdam by a Islamic extremist. He was killed because he made a movie with an anti-Islam politican that blasphemed Islam.

It's supposed to be really good. It's assigned reading for History and I have to write a report on it.

Oh my gosh, Coracle!! That is so super sad!!! I love all her books so much, and the movie Howl's moving castle too. I kept hoping that she'd write a fourth one in the series.

Watz: Yeah, The Awakening is a tough book to enjoy. Edna is very selfish. It's an odd book because I think Chopin wants to both applaud and censure her. She wants to show how limiting and sexist their treatment of women is, but also show that Edna totally loses perspective of anything except herself and she is

Oh! I saw Room on a lot of end of the year "Best of" lists and I was interested. Let us know what you think in the end.

Gymfan: That's a very interesting connection between Torchwood and THG. I quite agree. There is something so horrifying about danger to children. Make them 20 though, and suddenly it's less scary.

I read Octavia E. Butler's Kindred for a class. It was very odd. It's about an African American woman from 1976 who is transported in time to 1815 where she becomes a slave. The story was fast paced, but rather contrived and the prose lacking. In contrast, I'm currently reading Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping which so far has almost no plot, but very lovely prose. I hope it will get more cohesive.

Recently I read Les Miserables for the very first time (I'm very proud of myself), and I did like it lots - how could I not? It annoyed me with all the random, long history ramblings, but I got used to them. The story seemed a little incomplete to me - I kept waiting for more, but I don't know, that might just have been from my (little) knowledge of the musical.
I cried nonstop the whole last chapter, though, and I as very glad that I was alone in the house.

In my recent reading, I have formed a few opinions. I'll share them from most positive to least positive.

Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel by David C. Downing: I would recommend this to just about anyone. The glimpse into Lewis, Williams, and Tolkien's work was one of the absolute best parts of the book. The interactions between the characters managed to stay on the acceptable side of the line between humourously snarky and irritating and simply unnecessary. The biggest failing is that the plot can't quite forget that it's a vehicle for the various conversations with the Inklings and I never wholly invested myself in Tom's quest. It does have its moments--they just weren't were I was expecting them to be. I am considering a re-read now that I have a better idea of what I'll be getting.

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer: As the novel progressed I found myself snickering audibly more and more, but overall I think my enjoyment of the story suffered a little from reading it in close proximity to Friday's Child. The hero and heroine were similar, even to the two ladies nicknames, though Kit seemed a bit more aware than Hero (Kitten).

Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley: I stand by my original claim that I don't see why this one won the Newbery while The Blue Sword only took an Honor slot. I fail to see how the Luthe and confrontation with the Northern mage is any more striking, dramatic, original, or meaningful than any of the other 80's fantasy that I've read. It has the exact same handwaving and vagueness of purpose to the "ultimate confrontation" and didn't fit the rest of the story. Sure it might tie threads together, but I'm not convinced they were the threads best tied and the more interesting bits were undeveloped. I love the first part where Aerin's position and motivations for dragon slaying slowly unfolds in McKinley's dreamy prose. Talat is one of my favourite "cranky mounts". The storyline with Maur also happens to be one of the most memorable bits of the book, even if the resolution only takes about two pages. I would be a much better satisfied reader if Luthe (who only accomplishes things by accident which is a grave disappointment after previous meetings with him) were removed altogether and Tor given a bit more consideration. I was hoping to revise my opinion by spotting something I'd missed this time around, but no. It just gave me a slightly better handle on why the book disappointed me in the first place.