Whew! That was a long title, my goodness. Let me take a breath…

‘kay.

catching fire

On my fifteen last Friday I mentioned that I read Catching Fire. That wasn’t a lie. I did, and I loved it. It left me hanging more than The Hunger Games did, so now I’m angry  with Suzanne Collins until the next book comes out. BTW, READ THIS BOOK. But make sure you read The Hunger Games first, of course.

writing stuff

This is really cool – MIT’s (that’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology) FREE online writing course. No grades, but you get the syllabus, assignments and course materials (downloadable).

This is where I got that link. There are also free courses offered by Purdue University, UCLA, and the University of Utah to name a handful (minus two fingers).

I learned a lot about writing this weekend thanks to my pal Jenny Martin. She is the librarian who guest blogged for me last week, remember? I learned that one of those courses mentioned above would be a great idea for me. Passive voice, who knew! (It seems like everyone I know knew. ugh.) Also, this one space between sentences is going to take some getting used to. It was the only thing that stuck from 7th grade typing class.  There!  I did it again. oy.

Yeah, I know World Without End is not YA, but it makes a really good bookend

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I read a lot of books.  A LOT.  For me to say that The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the best book I’ve read in the last year…well, it is a big deal.  And it is, the best book I’ve read in AT LEAST the last year.  Lots of caps I know, but it’s worth it.  Think Lord of the Flies meets 1984 meets Survivor, yes, I said Survivor and I do mean the television show.

It is a heart-pounding, edge of your seat post-apocalyptic LOVE story.  Not strictly the kind of love between a man and a woman either.  All kinds of love.

I can’t wait to read Catching Fire, the second in Collins’ trilogy (the third book won’t be released for quite a while-boo).

For those who have read it, I vote for Peeta all the way.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Katniss and Gale are related (don’t hold me to it though).