What did you read this summer?


Soooooo I can’t lie. I love pop novels and I have recently been obsessed with Regency Romances (thank the lawd for my Kindle so no one can see the cheesy romance covers!). Julia Quinn is my favorite…and I could write a whole post about how her stories are such fun escapism. But I recently gave my romance love the boot and picked up The Hunger Games,by Suzanne Collins. I had heard the buzz but really didn’t have any clue what it was all about. My friend Doe shoved a copy of this futuristic tale in my hand an said, “Oh you HAVE to read.” I brought it with me on vacation and I was HOOKED.  I devoured the entire action-packed trilogy in a week….have you read it? It’s a Young Adult book, but extremely engaging. What did you think? Katniss is an excellent heroine and I thought the story was very clever. My mom is the one who got me hooked on futuristic/sci-fi movies and gave me my first Ray Bradbury novel….I had a feeling she would love this series and she started reading it while I was in Michigan. She was hooked too! We can’t wait for the movie. Crossing my fingers it’s as awesome as the books!

21 thoughts on “What did you read this summer?

  1. This has turned into a favorite series of mine. My favorite book of all time has always been 1984 by George Orwell, so I guess it isn’t too big of a surprise that I tend to drift towards dystopian novels? Haha! I think I’ve read this series about 4 times! I’m so glad you have jumped on the Hunger Games bandwagon! haha!

  2. I’ve only read the first two. I LOVED the first. Like, couldn’t put it down and stayed up way too late love. The second one, though…was just so-so in my opinion. I think that’s part of the reason why I haven’t picked up the third. I might have to go back and re-read the second to see if it excites me more. Either way, I can’t wait for this first movie!!

    1. Oh you have to finish off the series! I actually enjoyed #2 alot….don’t want to give anything away to those who haven’t read it, but when I started that I thought, “OK, really??” but I got sucked in just the same and thought the characters were all very interesting. The third book is very different from the first two! Let me know what you think if you pick it up again!

  3. Okay can I just tell you that I am also OBSESSED. Some moments were a little cheesy but I still couldn’t put it down. Also, like, looking up botanical drawings of the Katniss plant and thinking “hmmm…that would make a cool tattoo”

  4. As soon as I’m done with A Dance of Dragons I will SO pick up Hunger Games. I’ve been reading the Song of Fire and Ice series since May (DUDE! MAY!) and I’m about 300 pages from saying goodbye to the Seven Kingdoms for at least another year. I don’t even know what happened in any of the books anymore–it’s just all one, long, fantastically epic epic.

    1. Jody I think you will LOVE it! I mean, it’s a YA novel, but I loved the story…..and just when you think it’s going to get predictable, something happens that completely surprises you.
      What’s Song of Fire and Ice??

      1. Dude! If you like fantasy even a little, I think you’ll like this series. There are about a million characters, but Martin manages to make them all interesting enough to care about. I’ve been reading the series for about 8-9 years (he had a craaaaaazy 5+ year gap between books), and he still manages to introduce new interesting characters to become invested in this far along in the series.

        My only regret with these books is that I got my mama hooked a few years ago. She would bug me every few months about when Dance (the last book) was coming out, and I’d have to tell her they’d pushed the publication date again. Sadly, she didn’t get to read it. I kinda wanted to kick GRR Martin when I saw him at Comic Con this year. Misplaced anger, I know!

      1. YA is my very, very favorite kind of book. I love me some coming-of-age stories!

        Song of Fire and Ice is the what the show “Game of Thrones” is based on. It’s FABULOUS. But if I have to wait five years for the next book to come out, I’LL kick him for you AND your mom, Andrea!

  5. Oh don’t you worry….i’m already looking to see if I can “lend” it to you via Kindle!!! Takes place in the future (a little bit Mad Max meets Fifth Element stylistically) but really engaging!!

  6. I’m with you!!! Devoured it as quickly as I could – all three books. Can’t wait to see the movie, but I never like the movies as well as my own imagination + book. (Noted on the romance novels, I’m the same. Just finished a trilogy of – cringe – Nora Roberts. Cringe cringe cringe. Thank god for my Nook)

    1. The books are never as good as the movie (with the exception of Harry Potter….not as good as the books, but still pretty stellar in my opinion!) so you’re right. And SO much of the book is in her head, I’m curious how they’ll pull it off!

  7. -SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BOOKS-

    You know, I did like the books, for the most part, but I was kind of upset with the ending. It’s like, the whole book was about how she was totally self-sufficient and so much stronger than wimpy, pathetic Peta, but when I got the message that “it’s okay for girls to go out and have adventures and stuff, just as long as you make sure to settle down and get married and be a good little wife after you’re done”, and that made me mad. Like “I owe you my life, so here, take it”?

    Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the story was fantastic. It just had a lame ending, that’s all.

    1. SEMI SPOILER, CHITTY CHAT ABOUT LAST BOOK!

      Hey Celeste! I totally hear ya, but I have to say I didn’t get that from the ending…
      I mean Peeta isn’t really wimpy—he survives the games pretty well on his own, he’s just a sensitive/sweet guy. I admit I def liked bad ass Gale better when I started reading the books. But Peeta grew on me!

      What I took away from the ending was that she nearly lost everything thing…The two of them had this crazy bond and whether she realized it or not, no one would ever know what she had gone through or could relate to her except other players of the game, ya know? I can’t imagine her settling down and being a “good little wife” just because she is married. I imagine her the same as before.

      My critique of the ending was that we had this HUGE build up…..three books worth of tension and drama….and then……..it’s over. I wanted more of a confrontation scene with President Snow…it sort of wrapped up really quickly. But I still loved them none-the-less!

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