We canceled our cable a few months back and I’ve been on a little bit of a hiatus from television in general.  I’m sorry to my followers who’ve been missing my trashy reviews!  This has given way to an absolute reading frenzy in my household and I thought I’d post a few of my favorites from the last couple of months.

(Just so you’re aware I’ve been really into Ya fiction lately so most of these come from those shelves)

So do you love Shannon Hale as much as me?  My love affair began with Princess Academy, continued with “Book of a Thousand Days,” and hit an all time high with “Austenland”.  I’ve already read the cover off of “Austenland”- buy it, read it, love it.  It’s just as the name implies, for those of us that can’t get enough of Mr. Darcy and anything related to “Pride and Prejudice.”

I finally finished her Books of Bayern.  “Enna Burning” was probably my favorite of the series- Enna being by far my favorite character.  I love a strong female lead and this series has three of them.  This would be a great gift for the teenage girl in your life.  Have you read them?  Who was your favorite character?

I then dove right into “The Actor and the Housewife.”  I know this book has taken some serious critical hits from the mommy world.  I’ll just throw my opinion out there.  I really enjoyed this book- I laughed and I cried.  I didn’t feel like she was having an emotional affair on her husband.  The relationship in this book between the husband and wife, wife and friend, may not work for everyone- but it’s fictitious and it worked for the character Hale presented.  It made me think about my own relationships with the opposite sex- past and present, how they affect my own husband and how his “relationships” affect me.  It made for an enjoyable read, and a good discussion.

Have you read the “Hunger Games” yet?  I hope so, because this next book is one part “Hunger Games”, two parts “Lord of the Flies-” with a little bit of originality thrown in for good measure.  “The Maze Runner” by James Dashner  is the first in a trilogy.  Don’t let that scare you off from reading it- the first book will give you plenty to think about, and is a complete enough story in itself, not to leave you absolutely salivating for the next one.  My dreams have been spinning the last few nights filled with this book.  If I could make one request from the author it would be to see the next book in the series switch perspectives- not that I didn’t love Tom.  The world was just so fascinating that I want another view of it.

Speaking of the “Hunger Games,” I finally finished up Suzanne Collins “The Underland Chronicles.”  I still need to go and check some Q&A’s to see if “The Code of the Claw” was really the last book.  There were just too many questions unanswered in the end to be “the end.”  These would be great reads for the 8-12 year old boy set, and great read-alouds for younger kids.  I enjoyed them too even though the entire time I read them I had a serious case of deja vu.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but they feel like books you’ve read before.

I begin “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” by Carrie Ryan tonight because I’ve been in the mood to curl up with something a little scary after “The Maze Runner.”

Have you read anything good lately?