What are you currently reading?

[Stephanie]

Actally, Katniss isn't really my favorite character. If I had to pick one it'd either be Gale or Peeta. And since I don't really know Gale all that well, right now it's Peeta.

My favorite scene? I don't know. That's a toughy. I really liked it when her and Peeta actually spent real time together but other than that, for a sinlge scene, I think my favorite one is probably when Peeta realizes everything Katniss did was for the game. So heart breaking. Poor Peeta.

I think you're talking about Rue. And I must agree, I liked that part too. Rue was awesome.

[Krys]

Ah, the Hunger Games. I should probably reread that book. I really didn't like Katniss or Peeta too much. My favorite character throughout the whole series was Gale or Rue...

[Stephanie]

Even from the little bit we saw of Gale, he really grew on me. I like him already. I just need to go to the library now and get Catching Fire.

[Krys]

Really, the only book I liked out of the Hunger Games series was the first one. The second was too predictable, and the third was just a little out there. It seems like the author went a little away from the story in Mockingjay, and was even rushed...

But that's just my opinion. They were still okay.

[Stephanie]

All I've really heard is that the first book was the best.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I liked the last book best, but it is more political.

[Stephanie]

Oh?

[Rita, Busy Bee]

In many ways, Hunger Games is entertainment, but in Mockingjay, the story is a battle for freedom.

[Stephanie]

I figured the series would turn into soemthing like that.

[Kate]

I just read a VERY good book in the Hunger Games mold: Legend by Marie Lu. I picked it up because I met Marie; we got stuck side by side at a bookseller convention and ended up trading each other for copies of each other's books. Legend is her first book, and I have to say I'm impressed. It's very definitely Hunger Games mode: repressive dystopian society, teenage hero and heroine, romantic twist, 1st person present tense POVs, imminent revolution. But well done: a brilliant military protege of a girl tracking down a young revolutionary, and realizing he might be right about a few things after all.

[Stephanie]

Huh. Sounds interesting.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

That does sound interesting. I need to add it to my ever-growing to-read list.

[Stephanie]

I bought a copy of Catching Fire yesertday(among other things). I just couldn't help myself. I'll be reading that soon. Although getting tangled up in a series like this right before NaNo probably wasn't the smartest move. Oh well.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I'm currently reading The Exiled Queen, the sequel to The Demon King. I was bored with the usual fantasy novels, preferring urban fantasy and paranormal novels, but these books are really good. I didn't want the first one to end.

[Stephanie]

Okay, I just finished Mockingjay. Wow.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Was it better or worse than the Hunger Games?

[Stephanie]

I think I liked The Hunger Games better. I'm not sure which is my favorite though, Catching Fire or The Hunger Games...

I think Mockingjay had an appropriate ending after everything Katniss had gone through. Very realistic ending after a war but honestly, I wish it had had a happy ending.

[Krys]

This isn't really about what I'm reading, but I'd really like some help/suggestions.

I just need a bit of help when it comes to finding some literature/information, and although I have done some research myself, I was wondering if any of you had more extensive knowledge, or books that you could tell me about.

Mostly, I'm looking for classical, informative literature. All those good old classic, and some that aren't classics, preferably set in the Victorian era, or some time period that isn't today. I'm also looking for philosophy books, religiously informative ones, and poetry. Just stuff like that.

If you guys could give me a list of good ones, or tell me a couple, I will love you forever ;D

[Michael]

Kriss, I'd love to help, but I need something more specific. I could recommend Trollope who through his novels documented English landed society, its culture and politics from about 1830 to 1880. There's Dickens of course for hyperbole and comic invective. And there are few who can beat Mark Twain. If you want to cry and rail against fate, read Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I can remember crying in rage at that one. The point is there's so much, and that's only fiction. Is it biography or history you want? All I can say is dive in and see where it takes you, and by heavens I envy you

[Krys]

Thank you! I know I'm being super vague, because I really can't decide what I want to specify on. I'm really just looking for some older literature that I can learn from, if that makes sense. I'll definitely look up the people you mentioned!

[Jeanne]

Hi Kriss,

I just sent you a message with a couple of lists from my own past reading. You've probably read some of them already. I agree with Michael about Mark Twain. One of my daughters read all of Twain's novels when she was about your age and she loved them. His writing is astonishing. Some of the sentences go on for a page -- and they're perfectly good sentences, not run-ons.

For vocabulary, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London are both good. Once, just for fun at age fifteen, I read a Jack London book and looked up every word I didn't know in my dictionary. If I came across the word again and didn't remember the definition, I looked it up again. This is where I learned the word atavism. ;-) The book was Before Adam. Fun!

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Kriss wrote: "This isn't really about what I'm reading, but I'd really like some help/suggestions.

I just need a bit of help when it comes to finding some literature/information, and although I have done some r..."

If you are interested in classics, I imagine it must be because you read a few and enjoyed them. Can you tell us what you've already read and liked most so that we can suggest some similar ones?

Some books I enjoyed:
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Gulliver's Travles by Jonathon Swift
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Count de Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Some books I did not enjoy because I found them depressing:
Tess of the D'ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

[Krys]

I actually don't really have a good reason for it, other then looking for inspiration and reading references of classics in other books, and it made me curious, more or less.

Thank you! I'll definitely have fun looking these up.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I'm currently reading something that is a little different than the usual paranormal books out there: The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton.

The story is about an orphan girl, living on the streets, trying to survive by pickpocketing and stealing, when she steals an important ring that binds the faeries and humans in a covenant.

So what makes this one paranormal story different? It's London in the year 1871. So it is a HISTORICAL FICTION Urban Fantasy.

I'm really loving it so far.

[Stephanie]

Sounds cool, Rita and definately worth checking out!

[Krys]

Just finished reading How to Say Goodbye in Robot, and it was ridiculously sad, but pretty good.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

How to Say Goodbye in Robot? Sounds interesting. The title alone makes me wonder what the story is about.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Oh, and I'm also reading City of Glass, but I'm not sure if I'm enjoying it or not. I like parts of it but overall I'm not sucked in.

[Krys]

Rita wrote: "How to Say Goodbye in Robot? Sounds interesting. The title alone makes me wonder what the story is about."

Its strange and interesting at the same time. I really liked it, but the ending left me a little unsatisfied. I'd look it up, for sure!

[Krys]

Oh, its been so long since I've read City of Glass. I was recently rereading City of Bones, and I do adore the series (although I'm kind of upset she's adding three more books on to it). City of Glass was probably my least favorite of the series, though, or at least parts of it.

[Gwendolyn]

For those of you interested in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow & Bone, I've just left review for it.

...And yes, this one of those books I found hard to put down until I reached 'The End"

[Makani]

Stephanie wrote: "I'm now reading The Beyonders #1 A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull. It's a great book, but after reading the Fablehave series I was expecting more from Mull. It's still a solid four stars thou..."

I've read that book