What Am I Reading Next?

What do I read next? My good friend has suggested these thrillers, "The Boy in the Suitcase" by Lene Kaaberbol and also "Snowman" and "Nemisis" by Jo Nesbo.   However The Devotion of Suspect X, by a Japanese writer, is July's Book club selection so that is on my list of books to read.   Tomorrow I will be traveling and I will be taking An Unexpected Guest by Anne Korkeakivi with me to read in the long wait times.

Hunger Games

I have dropped everything to read The Hunger Games.  It is the first book in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  The first few pages just pulled me in. I could not put it down.  It's a very exciting dystopic fiction even with the gore and the sadness we readers feel as we read about children being sent to kill other children as sport. Their communities watch and listen in on them on television as if they were watching the TV show Survivor.   The 24 young children are brainwashed to think this is a good thing to represent their district by murdering each other to win a life of comfort meaning a house and regular meals.

Killing as entertainment is not such a fictitious scenario.  Think of  Rome.  Think of the coliseum.  We know adults fought each other or fought animals to their death as others watched the "entertainment". 

I am on page 376 and I can't wait to see how this turns out for Katniss and Peeta.  How do they survive and keep their humanity?  Peeta, the baker's son, has never been brainwashed.  Before the Games begin, he is intent on maintaining his naturally kind and loving self and on keeping Katniss safe. 

I am looking forward to reading all three books.  How are the starving struggling people in the Districts going to defeat the governing fat cats in the Capitol?  I hope I will find out in the end. Also, I am now looking forward to seeing how Hollywood transformed this on the big screen.

Les Miserables - new movie

Well what do you know, there is a new movie coming out in December and it is based on our May book club selection ... Les Miserables!  

This is the movie trailer starring Hugh Jackman as Jean Vajean, the convict that became mayor, fugitive and devoted adopted Dad.  Also features Russell Crowe as Javert, a man following the law without any compassion.  

We did not enjoy the book at our book  club but the movie should be just as wonderful as the musical we saw in Jacksonville a few weeks ago.

What are you reading on Memorial Day?

Thanks to all you military personnel who risk your life every day.   A shout out to all my family members who have served over the years you know who you are.

I have been reading Defending Jacob.  Is the propensity to violence an inherited trait?  That is the issue in this book and so far I am enjoying it.  Hopefully, I will complete reading and begin the first book of the Hunger Games Trilogy.   

Lessons from Les Miserables

So we chose a difficult book this month, Les Miserables, which none of us could finish reading before our meeting last Friday.   There were too many irrelevant details in the book.  In fact I cheated.  I went to see the musical in Jacksonville and I borrowed the DVD from the library to get the storyline.  Imagine my surprise when this morning on twitter I came across a post with  this link   to Lessons from Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean being the main character in Les Mis. 

The main lesson in the book, I think, is compassion.  A bishop had compassion on Jean, a former convict, and Jean changed his life expressing compassion to everyone he met and in turn changed the lives of many.  The injustice in France at the time was highlighted.  Jean was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread.   His question to the courts at the time is relevant today, it was something to this effect, "Don't you know what it's like to be hungry and not to be able find any work?"

Great Idea to Promote Reading

What a great idea to promote books and reading! The Seattle Public Library system will be hiding 1,000 books around town for young people to find, read, and re-hide for other young people.  The Theme for its annual Summer Reading Program is Century 22: Read the Future. Little Brother is one of the Young Adult books that will be hidden.

7 Must Read Books on Happiness

This looks like an interesting site with recommended books on happiness.  I listened to the TED Talk by French Scientist turned Buddhist Monk, Matthieu Ricard.

Top 10 Most Read Books

Well, well, well, I am sure you guessed that The Twilight Saga  would be on the list and likewise The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter.

World Book Night: I Am A Reading Ambassador Today

I am joining a whole host of Reading Ambassadors today and participating in World Book Night. We will be giving away books to promote a love of reading.  By the way, April 23rd is UNESCO International Day of the Book in honor of writers Cervantes and Shakespeare who both died on that date.  April 23, 1616 is also Shakespeare's birthday. 

Read the FAQ for World Book Night here.  Also, check out the benefits of reading according to this blogger, link here. 

I will be handing out a past book club favorite, The Glass Castle to students in southeast Georgia.

Fanstasy Fiction: The Alchemyst

We discussed The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel at our book club meeting yesterday.   This is of the fantasy fiction genre so not everyone loved it. This is the first of 6 books in a series, published in 2007, by Irish writer Michael Scott.

The setting is San Francisco. All of the main characters are based on history or mythology. Dr. Dee walked into a bookshop with his goons and foul odor, attacked the owner Nicholas Flamel, and kidnapped his wife Perenelle. Nicholas and Perenelle are the guardians of The Book of Abraham and Dr. Dee was in the bookshop to steal it. Teenagers Sophie and Josh Newman try to help Nicholas and Perry fight off the bad guys and suddenly they find themselves caught up in a world of magic and myths and legends.  They meet humans who have lived for centuries without aging and a non-blood sucking vampire. They have had to flee with Nicholas and they have been followed by rats and later attacked by birds and cats.  They hid in a tree house in the shadow realm of an Elder.  They get help from a Witch with no eyes who can see the future.

I think I  can see the future too. I see a movie with an abundance of special effects coming out of this series.  It is fascinating to me that there really was a Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel in France, that they really did do charitable works and founded hospitals and schools, and that their tombs are both empty.

Our book for discussion next month is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  The play will be performed in Jacksonville May 1-6.  Atlantic Coast Bank is organizing a trip to St. Augustine then an evening of Les Miserables on May 3rd.

Adults Reading Young Adult Books

Oh no! This columnist, Joel Stein, thinks that adults should read only adult books and forget about the teen books such as Hunger Games and books in the Twilight series.  I just finished reading the fifth and last book in the Boy Sherlock Holmes series by Shane Peacock targeting young adults.   They were all good reads but I prefer the first two in the series.  Sorry Joel but I am not with you. The Hunger Games is on my list of books to read this year.