Daily Archives: March 22, 2010

Two-Sided Tuesday: March 23, 2010

It’s Two-Sided Tuesday time!  I love Tuesdays so much and am having a blast figuring out what two books to talk about each week.  Last week I spoke about the re-imagining of Peter Pan in Brom’s The Child Thief (Click for my review) so I thought I’d do something geared a bit more toward the Young Adult genre then Brom’s work can be.

I think you have to be living under a rock if you haven’t heard of Suzanne Collins’  The Hunger Games series.  This is the first book of a trilogy, the second being Catching Fire and the third, Mockingjay, is due out August 24, 2010.  These are fantastic, nail-biting, edge of the seat books that will have you devouring them in one sitting – or wishing you could.  There are teams out there (much like the Team Edward and Team Jacob folk) speaking for Team Peeta and Team Gale (I’m a Team Peeta girl).  If you haven’t heard of these novels – the story is basically that of Katniss and her battle for survival through the “Games” put on by a pretty horrifying Capitol.  I don’t like to talk too much about the story – because I knew nothing about it and experienced a massive shock while reading it as a result.  It was an experience I love to pass on (and have to some friends and neighbors!).  By the way, if you have not read Suzanne Collins’ first series, The Underland Chronicles, I highly recommend you do so, as soon as possible.  I loved these books so much I immediately purchased them and cannot wait to have my nephew read them.  They aren’t quite as brutal as The Hunger Games books are – but they are packed with the same action, adventure and suspense that I’ve come to expect from this author.

I haven’t seen this book on many lists.  Sheila from One Person’s Journey through a World of Books hosts the weekly Monday meme, “It’s Monday, What are you reading?” and I keep my eyes open for it on people’s lists.  I’ve been disappointed by not seeing it much because, although it is different from The Hunger Games in many ways, in other ways it’s very similar.  I will tell you this – I had a harder time getting into The Maze Runner at first because the world was so confusing.  Don’t give up – it’s meant to be that way.  And when you reach the end you will find yourselves, like me, anxiously awaiting the next book, which, by the way, is The Scorch Trials and due out October 12, 2010.

So what about you? Feel free to leave a link if you have a Two-Sided Tuesday you’d like to share!

An Award!

Thank you to Hannah from Changing my Definition of Life for awarding me the Happy 101 award!  I love having our conversations in the comments as well and always enjoy reading the updates to your blog!  Awards are something that give me that warm and fuzzy feeling and I’m always grateful to those who take the time to pass them along.

And The rules for this award are:

  • List 10 things that make you happy.
  • Try and do at least one of them today.
  • Tag ten bloggers that brighten your day.
  • Link back to the person that tagged you.
  1. Reading, of course!
  2. Hugging my niece and nephew.
  3. Giving at least 5 minutes of tickles to family or neighborhood kiddoes
  4. Holding a baby
  5. Visiting with my family (via phone or computer)
  6. Smelling a pretty bouquet
  7. Making a yummy dinner
  8. The smell of freshly washed sheets
  9. Petting my kitty, Sergei
  10. Receiving new books in the mail!

I’ve done several of these things today – so I think I like to make myself happy quite a bit.

Now.. to pass the award along (I’m going to just do five.. ten is a lot of blogs to think up of!):

  1. Rachel at Home Girl’s Book Blog.  Rachel has done a fantastic job of taking over for J. Kaye and I thoroughly enjoy the discussions she hosts there.
  2. Danielle at There’s a Book.  This blog is a great resource if you have younger kids and are looking for fabulous books for them to read.
  3. Kari at Through a Glass, Darkly.  Kari’s a beautiful writer herself and her reviews of books were what inspired me to start writing my own thoughts down.
  4. Becky from Page Turners.  Becky always takes time to stop by and leave a comment for me! I appreciate it =)
  5. Allie at A Literary Odyssey.  I see Allie around on my blog as well – and also want to thank her!