Maybe it’s because I read Ender’s Game as an adult, but I never ever felt it was a YA book just because the characters are young. It starts off with a pretty horrific violent scene. I was rather surprised to find it on my kid’s reading lists in middle school, but of course they both loved it. I didn’t find Hunger Games inappropriately violent, but I wouldn’t want my third grader reading it. (Though my youngest loved Lord of the Rings in third grade, so he might well have picked it up if it had been out then.) Unlike a lot of people I thought Book 2 of the Hunger Games was the weak link, but really liked Book 3 - especially the less than and they lived happily ever after ending.
I don’t worry about reading levels - never seemed to make much difference to my kids who both went relatively quickly from not reading at all to being able to read pretty much whatever was put in front of them.
Just finished the ** "Language of Flowers’ **, a interesting story, enjoyable book, perfect springtime selection.
It probably helps to be somewhat familiar with flowers, but it’s about so much more. Highly recommend.
Quick read, couldn’t put it down.
I so want to read this book but right now I’m having one of my “so many books, so little time” moments. I plan to read The Language of Flowers … later … but definitely won’t forget the link.
SouthJersey, thanks for that link! Over the years, I’ve bought several copies of the Kate Greenaway book, and I can never locate them when I need them. How nice to know there’s an easier way.
And thanks to the posters who recommended The Fault in Our Stars. I finished it and immediately went back to the beginning and started it again. I think that is a book that will lurk in my subconscious for years to come.
Somehow I had missed seeing anything about Dreams of Joy being published last year and never saw it in my big Border’s before they went out of business-so just took it out of the library. I had seen it listed in the N Y TIMES Book Review as now available in paper. Also reading The Lake Shore Limited by Sue Miller, not finding it as engaging as several of her other books
Just read the most enjoyable book–Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English. So sweet. I just couldn’t put it down until I was done yet I didn’t want it to end! (This is how I stay up past bedtime, some nights.)
Isabel Wilkerson was on NPR yesterday discussing the Travon Martin shooting. I think I might have mentioned her book “The Warmth of Other Suns” earlier in this thread.
Finished the last in the Hunger Games trilogy last night or rather in the wee hours of the morning. Like others have mentioned, I found myself surprisingly caught up in the story and loath to put the books down. I’m still processing that last book Mockingjay though.
parent56: waving back at you. I’ve been on a reading tear lately - can’t slow down though until I’ve read the CC Book Club book The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Discussion starts on April 1 but thankfully the book only has 100 or so pages.
I am always several pages of posts behind you guys… but just finished The Fault in Our Stars this week. I thought it was the best book I have read in ages. It is compelling, nuanced, brilliantly funny, and horribly sad. And John Green “does teenagers” like no other writer I have ever read. D2 just finished it, too (we are college visiting together this week), and we have been discussing it for hours in the car.
Loved the Fault in Our Stars and the Hunger Games series.
I just finished The Magicians by Lev Grossman, a dark more adult fantasy about a boy who goes to magic school to learn to do real magic. Not your typical happy ending fantasy, but definitely a worthwhile and engaging read.
For non-fiction lovers, I recommend Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.
It was fascinating and very moving. It followed the life and (protracted) death of James Garfield. Makes you glad for modern medicine. Everyone in my book group loved it.
Just finished The Submission by Amy Waldman. It was about the (fictional) contest to design a memorial for the Twin Towers, and what happens when the winner happens to be Muslim. It started slow, but I began to really care about the characters and what they were caught up in, until the very last page, when I surprisingly began to sob.
(And that’s bad for my sinuses.) Seriously, a good book.