Friday I'm in Love: Divergent

I fell in love with Harry Potter grudgingly. I'd had the first three books for months; a not especially favored gift from my mother. But one weekend (before kids, before Hot Guy) I was home sick. Like, really sick. Too sick to go anywhere. And I was out of reading material, because that's the kind of challenge we faced back before Kindles, children.

I picked up the first book and got hooked. The first thing I did when I got better was go out and buy the fourth book. And now, when people talk about a YA series, I don't tune them out. Unless that series is Twilight. Then not only do I tune them out, I probably inch away from them.

Divergent is like the anti-Twilight.

I wasn't all that inspired to read it, actually. The descriptions didn't grab me. Plus, I'd already read a trilogy about a teenaged girl surviving in a dystopian society. I enjoyed it, but not so much that I thought I needed to read ANOTHER one.

But then my book club was reading it. And I had promised myself that I was going to get myself back to my book club, because I so love it every time I go. So I picked up Divergent  last weekend.

I fell in love with it. I got Insurgent and Allegiant  as soon as I could. I cannot wait until my kids are old enough to read them; I cannot wait until I make everyone I know read them. I am sorry that it took me so long to get around to reading them, although they have definitely improved my crappy January.

Also, they should be required reading for every teenager who has adored Twilight, Flowers in the Attic and all those Sweet Dreams romances I read when I was a teenager.

PS: I also loved, loved, loved this post at Momastery this week.

Friday I'm In Love: Books, Books and More Books

So all (two) of my gift guides have focused on kids' stuff. Being an ex-elementary teacher in the middle of raising kids will do that to a person. But I realize that some people actually buy gifts for other adults, so I wanted to give some adult suggestions.

My go-to gifts (were I to have an income that allowed me to buy gifts for all the people I love and not just my children and parents) would be vibrators, booze and/or books. And since I don't recommend buying booze or vibrators online. . . .

Books for people who love Game of Thrones:



This fantasy series has fewer characters, story lines and bloodshed than George R.R. Martin's, but has the same dark humor, shocks and long waits between books. Reading these three probably won't keep you entertained all the way through until Martin's next book, but they will definitely help.



Okay, I discovered Robin Hobb while I was stalking  casually looking at Martin's blog waiting for A Dance With Dragons to come out. There's a lot more magic in these and maybe a little less violence, but the characters are what grabbed me. And all the series are complete - no waiting around! Woohoo!

But I'm actually not a huge fantasy fan. I'm more of a mystery person, especially well-written series. I'm just going to share the first book (or, at least an early book) from some of my favorites, otherwise this post will go on forever.



Not everything I read is dark and violent. Really. Those just happen to be my favorites. But I like funny people too.





Books for writers:




I just realized that this post is extremely long. I could keep going, but it's possible books I love is just going to have to be an ongoing series. What do you guys think? And what books have I left out of the genres I've already covered?