I liked Maybe This Time, but Crusie is also someone I really like who is starting to repeat various tics and plotlines.

I just thought Passage was depressing, but I really liked Blackout/All Clear, particularly since there turns out to be a reason for all the missed connections. In was an unabashed paean to the courage of ordinary people during the war, but I have a strong sentimental streak about that kind of heroism. Also, I was charmed by the possibility that they were fixing something Mr. Dunwoody had done.

I enjoyed Blackout/All Clear, but definitely agree with (Suela?) whoever said it could've been seriously cut down. Mostly, more than the missed connections I just thought it was overly complicated, with so many people having all these different names, and so on. And of course then you're trying to make connections even where there aren't, because there are so many. (I know from reviews that I"m not the only person who thought that surely the actor guy and Colin were related somehow )

I liked Maybe This Time okay enough, but it just didn't grab me the way her other books did (though of course I did read it in one straight runthrough -- a gulp I guess).

Now I'm reading Mathilda Savitch and enjoying it. Video of some of the text from the book: [link] I think it's true that I like it so much because I like girls that age...think they are funny.

I read Room two weeks ago and did really enjoy and then read Stars and passed it on to a student.

Steph, thanks for linking to Mark Reads the Hunger Games! I'm enjoying reading them too!!

And Polter-Cow, thanks for the tip that they are all half-price on Amazon. Christmas present for brother purchased!!

A Swordspoint story - from Ellen Kushner and Tor.com.

Ha, from the latest Mark Reads:

REALLY, COLLINS. Like...WHERE DOES THIS EVEN COME FROM and DOES EVERY CHAPTER END WITH A RIDICULOUS CLIFFHANGER and WHY DON'T PEOPLE WRITE BOOKS THAT ARE EASY TO REVIEW A CHAPTER AT A TIME.

Hee. Collins's chapter endings really are evil, but they never feel particularly cheap or contrived. Because the danger they tease at is real, and it continues to be real in the next chapter.

I'm close to halfway through Catching Fire, and eeeeeeee, District 13 !!! I totally kind of forgot about that, but yeah! Maybe THERE ARE NUCLEAR FALLOUT ZOMBIES. I am loving the misinformation campaign. If everything you know is what the Capitol tells you and the Capitol is FULL OF LIES...what do you really know?

That was going to be the most important thing to post about, but then I read the chapter where they read out the Quarter Quell. WHAT THE FUCK. I was assuming that the third book would show us the Hunger Games from Katniss's POV as a mentor, with maybe Prim in the arena this time, but HOLY SHIT THIS IS AWESOME AND TERRIBLE.

::pets P-C::

P-C, to quote Mark (of Mark Reads), SHIT JUST GOT REAL. t edit Again.

This might be the wrong thread, but does anyone want to recommend good graphic novels? I'm asking for Ben, who's not yet fourteen, but I'm okay with him reading fairly graphic stuff.

He's read The Umbrella Academy, and Batman: The Dark Knight, and he wants to read Watchmen and V For Vendetta. Any others he might like?