Glad you’re enjoying it! Recommending books is always tricky because I know I have my quirks and biases so I try to take other people’s preferences into account when suggesting reading material to them. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. But when it comes to The Hunger Games, I rec it to anyone and everyone who’ll listen because I think it has broad appeal.

I would agree, though I suppose readers who have a strong preference for light reads might find it a bit much. But I’m 99% sure Janine will love it, because IIRC she shares my fondness for post-apocalyptic stories. It’s really just such a compelling reading; I mean it when I say I’m kind of dreading it ending. It’s been a while since I’ve felt that way about a book.

I read the first paragraph or two a little while ago and was totally sucked in. But since I have very little reading time, I made myself stop, because I want to read it when I can devote a good chunk of time to it.

You have so much more self-control than I do!

But on the whole, I think Shinn’s Angel series is her best series, and I preferred her YA series (beginning with The Safe Keeper’s Secret) to the Twelve Houses series too. Two of her SF books, Wrapt in Crystal and Heart of Gold, worked better than most of the Twelve Houses series for me as well. I enjoy almost everything Shinn writes because of her characterization and prose, but sword and sorcery isn’t my favorite type of fantasy, so I’ll be glad when Shinn moves on to something else.

Janine, I’m reading The Hunger Games right now and it’s sooo good!

I read the first paragraph or two a little while ago and was totally sucked in. But since I have very little reading time, I made myself stop, because I want to read it when I can devote a good chunk of time to it.

I wish I had read it before so I could put it on my list.

I don’t see why you can’t add it to your list. I think I may do that with any 2008 books I fall in love with in the coming weeks. There are some 2008 books I really wanted to get to and didn’t — The Hunger Games, People of the Book, Fortune and Fate (I know you didn’t like it, Jia, but I’m a Sharon Shinn fangirl so I’m holding out hope that I might) and a few others. If I love any of them, I think I will add them to my list retroactively.

@orannia: I don’t actually think there are teams. That’s just something I always toss out because speculating and discussing relationships between characters, romantic or otherwise, is a much beloved past time of mine. For example, The Hidden City reminded me of how much I adore the interactions between Jewel and Carver. That scene where he handed her the knife but she actually wanted the map cracked me up.