Books

Well, I'm a little behind on updating my book club updates, but we met last week to discuss The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I think I posted a synopsis of this book here early in January.  We all loved it!  Each of us rated it an 8 or 9 out of 10, which is pretty good for seven women who probably never would have picked up this book unless forced to.  Ah, the beauty of a book club.  Few of us are fans of teen novels or science fiction, but this book is remarkable - a well told story that captures the imagination and has you dying to read the next book in the series (Catching Fire, which fortunately is already published.  The third book comes out in August, 2010).  And it's a fast easy read.  Definitely recommended.

I got to pick our next book, and it was a tough decision because there are many books that I would love to read and discuss. But I settled on this:

It's an award winning crime novel translated from Swedish.  It's supposed to be an absolutely incredible book with such a good mix of suspense, mystery and passion, that it is almost impossible to put down.  I'm quite looking forward to reading it.  And although the author died in Dec 2004, this book is also the first of a trilogy because  Mr. Larsson handed in three manuscripts before he suddenly passed away of a heart attack.  If you're shopping for it, it's only $6.75 at Chapters online (link on the right side of this blog).  I ordered it for everyone in my book club to get the free shipping over $39.

While I was on vacation, I had a chance to read a couple of other books:

Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton - recommended by Rhonda on her blog

The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie - I think I read this thirty years ago or more and really enjoyed it;  I had forgotten how clever Hercule Poirot was  ;-)

Innocent in Death and Survivor in Death by J.D.Robb - I picked these up at the library for a light beach read, not expecting too much, but I really enjoyed them!  Placed slightly in the future (2059) with a good mystery and interesting characters.  I'm going to read more in this series, there is a lot to choose from!