Sadly, it's not unheard of, including for much bigger authors and much bigger publishers. Books are no longer Amazon's core stock in trade, and are not managed with as much care as they should be. It's a glitch, a hiccup, and nothing more than a lot of authors have had to grit their teeth through in the last couple of years.

Reiterating: the Amazon issue will be fixed; and in the meantime, you can use Amazon to order directly from the publisher, or just go to your local indie store, place an order there, and have a copy for your very own in about 10 days.

I also saw Sam for sale on Borders website.

Will it be available on B&N?

I know that it's not currently (tried to order, and they couldn't get it for me).

There's a link in Press to order it from the publisher, through Amazon, and I've already gotten feedback from a couple other Buffistas that ordering that way went nice and smoothly. And, the more orders or pre-orders are placed, with any online retailer, the more encouragement the retailers have to get off their butts and stock the thing. So don't let the "not available now" messages stop you.

I thought I was going to plow through Catching Fire the same I did with Hunger Games, and I'm really not. It's fantastic(ally bleak and painful), but the stakes are so different somehow, and it's eating me up.

I can't imagine what's going to happen, and I really can't imagine Mockingjay being ever grimmer. Yikes?

I really can't imagine Mockingjay being ever grimmer.

You have NO idea. The grim goes to 11.

What Teppy said.

I finished Mockingjay. I didn't actually break down weeping in that one like I did in the first two, but you guys are right - bleak bleak bleak. But I wasn't as actively depressed reading it, for some reason. I can't quite put my finger on why, since I am just astounded at sheer number of people who didn't make it but I don't know. Maybe the first two numbed me sufficiently that I stopped feeling feelings.

But I am very sad that there are no more books to read - the characters and their world have consumed my thoughts all day.

Someone said above that the end of Mockingjay was hopeful, but I didn't get that at all. Unless you define "hopeful" as "well, I can't quite work up the energy to kill myself, and I have no way of knowing whether Peeta will suddenly go all Manchurian Candidate again and snap my neck like a twig. Which would be fine with me."

I can't call that "hopeful."