The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I got a copy of this book at TLA in 2008. It was an advanced reader's copy so it still had typos, etc. in it. I read the back of the book and it didn't sound like a book I would read and also it was a YA novel which I don't read as often as I should. One day at the conference I had some free time so I took it out of my bag and began reading...I couldn't put it down. I read it in two days and for me that is a major achievement. I love to read, but I am not a fast reader so to finish a book in two days that isn't a picture book is huge. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen to Katniss and the other characters. I can't wait to read the next book in the series which comes out in September of 2009. I passed my copy onto one of my brothers and told him to read it. Let me know what you think - those of you that end up reading it.

Booklist starred (September 1, 2008 (Vol. 105, No. 1))
Grades 9-12: This is a grand-opening salvo in a new series by the author of the Underland Chronicles. Sixteen-year-old Katniss poaches food for her widowed mother and little sister from the forest outside the legal perimeter of District 12, the poorest of the dozen districts constituting Panem, the North American dystopic state that has replaced the U.S. in the not-too-distant future. Her hunting and tracking skills serve her well when she is then cast into the nation’s annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death where contestants must battle harsh terrain, artificially concocted weather conditions, and two teenaged contestants from each of Panem’s districts. District 12’s second “tribute” is Peeta, the baker’s son, who has been in love with Katniss since he was five. Each new plot twist ratchets up the tension, moving the story forward and keeping the reader on edge. Although Katniss may be skilled with a bow and arrow and adept at analyzing her opponents’ next moves, she has much to learn about personal sentiments, especially her own. Populated by three-dimensional characters, this is a superb tale of physical adventure, political suspense, and romance.

I realize that I have been reading more adult books that children's books lately. Usually all I read are books geared for infant through 5th grade. Occasionally I'll read a YA novel but rarely AD books. I guess I too have spring fever of sorts and can't wait for summer vacation. Usually I don't read AD books until summer vacation since I spent all the school year reading children books. I hopefully will have on here soon reviews of the 2009 Bluebonnet books for grades 3-5 that I am starting to read. Everyone have a wonderful Easter! On Sunday, He is risen...He is risen indeed!

Another adult book ...This is the first Anthony Bourdain book I read. It has his "attitude" throughout the whole book. After reading this story, it makes me think twice maybe three times before I decide to eat out again and/or make any comments about the food or service.

Amazon.com Review -Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths," in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase. Such is the muscular view of the culinary trenches from one who's been groveling in them, with obvious sadomasochistic pleasure, for more than 20 years. CIA-trained Bourdain, currently the executive chef of the celebrated Les Halles, wrote two culinary mysteries before his first (and infamous) New Yorker essay launched this frank confessional about the lusty and larcenous real lives of cooks and restaurateurs. He is obscenely eloquent, unapologetically opinionated, and a damn fine storyteller--a Jack Kerouac of the kitchen. Those without the stomach for this kind of joyride should note his opening caveat: "There will be horror stories. Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices. Talking about why you probably shouldn't order fish on a Monday, why those who favor well-done get the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, and why seafood frittata is not a wise brunch selection.... But I'm simply not going to deceive anybody about the life as I've seen it." --Sumi Hahn --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Typhoid Mary by Anthony Bourdain

Adult book ...I am currently reading this book. I picked it up because I enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show on the Travel Channel. I also have a few of his other books. This is very interesting to me. I am learning a lot about history and Bourdain's wit comes through in his writing. If you like his humor and his show you will like reading this book as well.

Amazon.com - In 1906, at a prosperous Long Island summer home, a family falls ill and typhoid is diagnosed. When Dr George Soper is called in to find the source of the contagion, he notices that the household cook has gone missing. She is Mary Mallon, the woman who would become known as Typhoid Mary. Soper, sanitary engineer turned sleuth, sees Mary as his Moriarty. He finds there has been an outbreak of typhoid fever in every household she has worked in over the past decade. Mary is a 'carrier', a seemingly healthy individual who passes on her dangerous germs, sometimes with fatal consequences. Now Soper must hunt the cook down before she can infect more unsuspecting victims. A poor Irish immigrant, Mary refuses to believe that she can harbour typhoid in her strong and healthy body, and she doesn't intend to go quietly. In this fascinating true story Bourdain, in an homage from one cook to another, follows Mary through the kitchens of New York, putting a human face to a desperate and unintentional murderer, and examines a time, and a life, with his inimitable style.

The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

I truly enjoyed this easy adult read. The characters were all different and yet they all came together and shared their lives with one another. What I really liked about this book, which is part of a series, is that there is a knitting pattern in each book. I will post a picture of my finished product when I get it done.

Four women come together in a knitting class run by Lydia Hoffman and make unexpected discoveries about themselves and each other while knitting baby blankets.

The Shack by William P. Young

This is definitely an adult only book! Quite a few teachers said that I should read it and finally I did. I liked it in that it really made you think about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I wasn't blown away by the book. I even had a hard time "buying" what the author at times was trying to convey but all in all it was an enjoyable read. Below is the description that I got off of Follett.

"After Missy is abducted during a vacation and evidence of her murder shows up at a shack in the forests of Oregon, Mackenzie Philips, her father, receives a strange note inviting him to return to the scene of the tragedy where he wrestles with nightmarish religious questions."

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee

Read any of these three books by Lisa Yee and you won't be dissapointed.
Millicent Min, Girl Genius - Stanford Wong Flunks Big-time -So Totally Emily Ebers
These books are telling some of the same stories but from different angles. I enjoyed them because I was taken back to being in middle school. The things that were important then are so trivial now. I got a good laugh or two or three... :)

School Library Journal (March 1, 2004)Gr 5-8:
Millie, an 11-year-old with a genius IQ, is taking a college poetry class and waiting for her high school senior year. Because she never hesitates to show how much she knows about a particular subject, her peers tend to stay away. Millie's social ineptitude is a cause of concern for her parents. Against her will, she is enrolled in summer volleyball and enlisted to tutor Stanford Wong, a friend of the family. Into this mix enters Emily, a volleyball teammate and typical preteen. The girls become friends but Millie neglects to tell Emily about her genius status. Eventually the truth surfaces and Emily feels betrayed. Millie thinks that Emily is angry because she is smart, never realizing that the betrayal comes from her lack of trust in their friendship. While some readers will have trouble identifying with Millie, her trials and tribulations result in a story that is both funny and heartwarming. A universal truth conveyed is that honesty and acceptance of oneself and of others requires a maturity measured not by IQ but by generosity of spirit.-Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.