Small lapse of mental processes.

So, it's been awhile since my last post. I've spent the last two weeks expanding my reading material and have acquired... numerous books. Will have to take some time out to list and link them all.

I'm still amongst the land of the living, but, also been working on migrating the blog to something more 'professional', sorta. Just not sure I want to keep working on something under a personal name. Perhaps I'm just being silly.

So, will try and keep up to date, and at least get a list of my latest bookloot up. But, other projects are taking a serious bite of my time, and one of the projects might consume what this is.

Rest of the Motherreader Prizes Arrive

So here's the prizes from the #48hbc, and wow, I'm in love with absolutely everything I've gotten. Thank you so much MotherReader. Only thing missing from the pictures (and just a sleepy hindsight) is the Catching Fire ARC, an extra copy that was graciously donated by another of MotherReader's readers. Extra thanks there, as I stated in my review, I consider it a must read.

Going through the pictures, the first is an overview of everything. There's a t-shirt saying 'Plot, it builds character.', the trophy cup bearing a quote from Thomas Jefferson "I cannot live without books.", A set of four magnetic bookmarks, a 10$ Barnes & Noble giftcard, ARC of Timelock, ARC of The Doom Machine, A signed edition of Fablehaven book 4 (which is perfect, I'd read the first 3 books in the #48hbc and lamented that I didn't have the 4th), A copy of 100 best-loved poems, a copy of The Art of Reading, a copy of Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival, and a lovely little necklace made by MotherReader herself.

Book Review: Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Format: ARC
Length: 391 pages
Ages: 12 & up
Grades: 7 & up
Summary:

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge

I was excited to find my ARC of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins in the mail today. I'd won a copy of it from MotherReader's 48 Hour Book Challenge thanks to a gracious extra donation of the book. So, first thing, I ripped the book out of the envelope and examined it thoroughly. I've never read through a book as fast as I did Catching Fire. Anyways, on to the review.

Suzanne Collins continues the storm she began brewing with The Hunger Games. It doesn't relent for one second the entire book. Katniss continues to grow in multiple ways. She becomes more aware of her own feelings and more aware of the forces in play around her. Unfortunately, the other characters don't share as much growth or shine nigh as bright as Katniss. This is perhaps reflective of Katniss' world in general. She is very self-focused and she being the one telling the story, it's perhaps meant to be that way. There's no real complaints cause as I was reading I was enthralled. Only in hindsight writing this review do I even bother to think about how each individual character changed, if at all, throughout the story. The worst part is that there's more to come in another book that won't be available for quite some time and I'll be pining for more the entire time till then.

I will say that if you've read The Hunger Games this is a must-read book. If you haven't, then you definately should, and then read Catching Fire.

How do you guys keep up?

So, due to the 48hbc and all I've discovered a corner of the internet I hadn't known about before, namely a large group of blogs interested in YA fiction and reading in general. But, there's so many great blogs to keep track of, how do you guys manage it?

Contest at http://thereadingzone.wordpress.com

Win a copy of the Dork Diaries at The Reading Zone.

Suzanne Collins - Gregor the Overlander

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins is about 11 year old Gregor and his 2 year old sister who inexplicably find themselves in the Underland. A place inhabited by oversized intelligent cockroaches, rats, and bats.

The book was a great read, and kept me turning pages from start to finish. Well... almost. The very beginning was very mundane and unexciting, but, that only lasts for a small while until Gregor and his sister get whisked away to the Underland.

The characters are fun, especially Gregor's younger sister. While there's action and the plot is serious, the slightly over-used device of adding in a child cared for by a child does add some levity with her naivette and care-free nature. That being said, I'm getting a little tired of seeing children care for children. City of Ember, The Hunger Games, and countless others are very guilty of this trope of YA fiction. I think it's mainly tacked on to throw a bone to young girls that want their dolls and the like, but, past that I'm a little clueless as to what the point of including such baggage in such books is good for. Often they're not even hindrances, but, somehow magically help solve the problem in an unexpected way. I trail off topic on that though cause even though I'm reaching my tipping point on that particular bit, it wasn't that horrible in this book.

The book's plot moves fairly fast after he reaches the Underland and as I'm fond of saying of the books I like, it's over too soon and I was left wanting more.

Just had my life saved cause I adopted a cat.

So. Today I was following normal routine, but, had to stop by Pet'sMart to buy rat food and flea & tick shampoo for the dog. Pulling up to one intersection before getting to the store, I saw a lady try (and fail) to catch a stray kitten that was around a drainage pipe. We watched for a bit until that lady gave up, and I asked my wife if she wanted me to try and catch it. She nodded meekly and so we pull around, and thus the thought had been planted to get a kitten. I couldn't catch the kitten either it had scurried far into the drainage pipe. So, we reluctantly left and were browsing around Pet'sMart at different things and this cat was there at Pet'sMart, he caught both of our eyes cause he has beautiful blue eyes, and just a semi-unique color. We checked out with the rat food and F&T Shampoo, and I noticed my wife just dragging along, we couldn't really afford a cat could we? I ask if she really wants it, she says yes, and we adopt. As we're filling out the paperwork, a storm hits, and if we hadn't adopted the cat, our next destination was the farm where the horse is boarded and such. However, since we were getting the cat, we called ahead and asked the owner to take care of the horse for us. Shortly after we got home, we got a call from the farm, a tornado had hit the farm. Lot's of property damage, all the animals and all the people are okay though. However, if we'd gone to the farm, we would have been out in the middle of it when it hit.