I came across the Hunger Games from a book club that I joined, I’m saying book club, but it was more like a support group for friends that had read Twilight together and were looking for something else to continue to share, to bring us closer together. It sounded a little bit like an old Stephen King story, the Long Walk, which thrilled and terrified me when I read it during my teen years. (When my goal was to devour anything by Stephen King that I could get my hands on!) I was a little apprehensive but like so many other people, before I knew it – I was hooked and unable to put the book down.

The general premise is that there has been a major upheaval in the United States and when the dust settled Panem is formed there were 12 Districts left, ruled by a greedy and unfeeling Capital. The Districts are kept in isolation and in check by the Capital and while life in the Districts is a constant struggle, the Capital lives off the work of the others in excess and luxury.

However, the Capital isn’t content to have the Districts beaten into submission and subservience, every year to remind the Districts that they are powerless against the Capital they hold the Hunger Games. Each District must send two tributes, a boy and a girl, to compete  in the annual games, where only one tribute will survive and be crowned the victor. So you can see that the future is already fraught with tension and peril right? Enter, Katniss Everdeen a girl from District 12 who volunteers to go to the Hunger Games in place of her younger sister whose name is called.

There is more to say about the setting and much more that could be said about Katniss, but for now I will try to avoid giving too much away and merely focus on the highlights – Katniss goes into the games, she is a survivalist – she  has done whatever she had to do to provide for her family, even going outside the “legal bounds” of her District. In her hunting endeavors, she has a friend in 18 year old Gale and early in the book, before the “reaping ceremony” where Katniss ends up in the Hunger Games you get a sense that there might be more than a friendship between Katniss and Gale. It’s Peeta, the baker’s son, who ends up being the male Tribute from District 12. Peeta who Katniss really only knows from one act of kindness, but feels beholden to nonetheless.

During the course of getting ready for the Games and into the arena itself, a relationship unfolds between Katniss and Peeta. For Peeta, there has always been a special place in his heart for Katniss. He comments at one point that he saw other girls but none of them compared to Katniss. For Katniss, the issue is much cloudier – we get the sense that she really wasn’t thinking about relationships until she found herself pushed into one for the sake of the game. However, it’s the relationship that blooms there that saves not just Katniss’ life but Peeta’s as well.

The second book in the trilogy is Catching Fire – the tension mounts. The President is displeased with the results of the Hunger Games from the year before and he places demands on previous Tributes that no one anticipated. It’s hard to really talk about this book without getting too much into the details of the last book, but this year is the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games and so the President says that the game creators have decided to select Tributes from the existing pool of winners. The President hopes to quell the unrest that he blames on Katniss for her rebellion of the year before, but unrest proves hard to be calmed. Again, our star crossed lovers, Katniss and Peeta are back in the Arena. Katniss because she was the only female victor from District 12 and Peeta because he volunteers to go back in so he can be with, and defend, Katniss.

There is more personal and emotional conflict for Katniss in this book, because now she knows that she did have feelings for Gale, feelings that she’s not free to consider, let alone explore. However she also has feelings for Peeta, and how could she not? Aside from the life and death situations that they find themselves in, Peeta is so earnest in his affection for her and he’s such a decent guy. For me this is where we get to the root of the problem…For many fans of the book the choice is Katniss’ true love, Gale, and the choice she’s being forced to make by the Capital Peeta. I don’t see it as quite so simple.

First and foremost, Katniss is a teenage girl who wasn’t even sure that she ever wanted to be married and she definitely didn’t want to have a family. (A family with children that one day might be forced to enter the Hunger Games themselves.) However, she’s spent plenty of time with Gale in the years before the book opens, if they were going to cross that line from friends to something more, wouldn’t it have happened already? They spend so much time together and alone, and there are indications everyone else has kind of thought they would be an item – what stopped them?

The other issue in the Katniss-Gale side of the love triangle that has always bothered me is that if Gale loved her so much and wanted to be with her, why didn’t he volunteer for the Hunger Games? The two had spent years hunting together and working together, wouldn’t that have made them a force to be reckoned with in the Games? I suppose it’s more mature and noble to think he stayed behind for her, that his plan was to take care of her family along with his for the rest of his life. However, just once I would’ve liked to have heard him tell her that he wishes it had been him, that he had been the one to go into the Games with her, to have her back, to fight for her with his life. He never says that to her though, they share one intimate moment when she gets back and that’s that.

I’m pulling for Peeta all the way. His background is very different from Katniss’, her family is from the working class of District 12 and his family is from the merchant class, but he puts his whole heart out there for her and loves her enough to want the most unselfish things for her. Peeta breaks my heart over and over again because I want him to have his happily ever after, and I want it to be with Katniss. He tells her that if only one of them can win, he wants it to be her, because there is nothing for him without her and she can still have a life. (Implied in his meaning is a life with Gale.)

The ending of Catching Fire left everything in Katniss’ world on the brink and yesterday came the release of Mockingjay, the third and therefore final book in the trilogy…

I’ve been looking forward to this book but I’ve been fretting it too. I’m pulling for Peeta but I have my doubts, I’m not sure that Peeta is going to survive Mockingjay to get the girl. Peeta is the nice guy and you know the old saying – “nice guys finish last.” In this case though, not only is Peeta the nice guy but he’s the “soft” guy. Peeta wasn’t raised with much in the way of survival skills, he’s an incredible speaker and can bring people to his cause but in the Hunger Games arena or in battle, Peeta’s skills may not be up to snuff.

However, beyond the conflict of blood, there has to be a great character or else, the vampire is hardly worth getting to know. Vapid silly people, make vapid silly vampires that are entertaining for short period of time but that quickly grow annoying. Inspired by reading an interview with Anna Paquin who said that she doesn’t really understand why some people are drawn to vampires, I thought I would take a moment to introduce you to some vampires that I think any good vampire fan should get to know:

Vlad the Impaler (Portrayed by Rudolf Martin in USA Network’s Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula) the man behind the legend, Vlad Dracul was famous for his exceptionally brutal treatment of his enemies at a time when brutality was almost common place. (Though apparently his actions were also grossly exaggerated in a PR campaign his enemies waged against him making it hard to tell fact from fiction.) USA’s movie has some historical inaccuracies but Rudolf Martin’s portrayal of Vlad is compelling and at times heartbreaking, particularly when his first wife commits suicide. Oddly, Vlad seems more horrifying to me than many of the vampires that have sprung up in his wake, even though in his native Romania he is considered a folk hero of sorts.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and Portrayed by Gary Oldman) The story of Vlad the Impaler is not without tragedy and heartbreak, and in this portrayal of Dracula the heart of the man was brought into the legendary monster. In the opening scenes we see Dracula’s first wife end her life, and it is in his utter heartbreak that Dracula turns his back on the church and embraces the darkness. In this version of Dracula, when the Count sees Mina Murray’s picture he realizes that his love has been reincarnated and he seeks her out. The movie is pure Coppola, dark and Gothic, the world is beautiful and richly textured but when Gary Oldman’s Dracula tells Mina – “I have crossed oceans of time to find you.” I cannot help but cheer for the villain and wish that he may have the love he lost and the peace he was denied.

Interview with a Vampire’s Louis de Pointe du Lac (Written by Anne Rice, Portrayed by Brad Pitt) I suppose that most people fell in love with Lestat, flashy, unapologetic, moving from one disaster to the next (perhaps more accurate to say creating one disaster after another). However, Louis who we first meet in misery talking about the loss of his wife and child and followed him through the grief and conflict he felt over being forced to take human life. (Even resorting to feeding off animals at one point.) I’ve heard it said Louis is an anti-hero, but I don’t really think that he does anything truly heroic, however his refusal to just accept that he is now a soulless predator and to embrace killing makes him a vampire that it’s hard not to be moved by. I suppose that Louis will always hold a special place in my heart because he was also one of my first vampires, the first with a conscience by any degree.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike (Portrayed by James Marsters) Spike wasn’t the only vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in fact he wasn’t the only vampire to capture Buffy’s attention (if not her heart) but he was hands down my favorite Vampire. He came into the series as a villain and over the course of the next several seasons evolved into one of the most glorious anti-hero. In contrast to Angel, the vampire who was *cursed* by having his soul given back to him, Spike falls in love with the Slayer and fights to be the man that she deserves. He is a deeply complicated character, I don’t think he ever has any qualms about people being his source of food, but the desires of the man conflict over and over with the desires of the demon causing Spike to give viewers their most heart wrenching moments. He is also hysterically funny since he very rarely feels the need to hold back. Dark and glorious, astute and passionate, there is no vampire in the whole of the Buffyverse that holds a candle to Spike. I think one of my all time favorite Spike quotes happens when he’s still very much into evil, and he confronts Buffy and Angel about their attempt at just being friends:

“You’re not friends. You’ll never be friends. You’ll be in love till it kills you both. You’ll fight, and you’ll shag, and you’ll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you’ll never be friends. Love isn’t brains, children, it’s blood…blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be Love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.” (Lovers Walk, Season 2, episode

How can you not appreciate a man who is insightful enough to set a friendship ablaze in a paragraph and then make you laugh when he admits that he’s man enough to be love’s bitch?

Eric Northman (Written by Charlaine Harris, portrayed by Alexander Skarsgard) I love the True Blood TV show, but Eric the way he is written for True Blood is only starting to scratch the surface of the vamp that readers of the Southern Vampire mysteries know and love. Eric is old, powerful, and confident but he’s also sometimes shockingly vulnerable. (I admit, he’s easy on the eyes and that’s nice.) There’s a scene with Sookie where he tells her – “you’re mine” and then follows it up with “aren’t you?” and to me that epitomizes the very reason why I am so enamored of the viking vamp – the confident assertion followed by the uncertainty. Eric really sees the object of his affection and he wants to give her everything and protect her. I suppose in the days of liberated women who can do for themselves that’s a trait that some people don’t appreciate but still his fiercely protective nature does make him endearing to me. However, I also love that he is such a contradiction because just as he is fiercely protective he also doesn’t sell Sookie short, he appreciates her strengths. The struggle for Eric is to be the vampire he has to be to get the things he wants and to be the man he wants to be for the woman he loves, and frankly I love that about him.

“I hurt with you. I bled with you – not only because we’re bonded, but because of the love I have for you.” (Dead in the Family)

Did I also mention that he’s easy on the eyes? I would be remiss to leave that detail out.

Bill Compton (Written by Charlaine Harris, portrayed by Stephen Moyer) if I think that True Blood is selling Eric short, I have to say that they’ve done a bang up job breathing life into Vampire Bill. In the books, I find Bill to be a hindrance, I feel like he’s always in the way of Eric and Sookie (who Harris may not let stay together but dang it – I’m perfectly happy with them that way right now.) but in the series Bill is somehow more, well just more. He’s not my favorite character but I appreciate that he is a strong and noble character. Bill is constantly just bailing on Sookie in the books, content to have someone else in his bed while he gives her longing looks from across the room, but TB Bill doesn’t take set backs in his relationship without a fight, as is evidence in the speech he makes to Sookie when she confronts him about a tiny little murder he committed for her:

“Sookie! I cannot and I will not lose you, for all the ways I have dismayed and grieved or failed you, I swear, I will atone. But I am not sorry. I refuse to apologize for what you have awakened in me. You (his voice breaks), you are my miracle, Sookie. For the first time in a hundred and forty years, I felt something I thought had been lost in me forever.”

Bill is conflicted, he wants to “mainstream,” he wants to be a man and not a monster but he knows that his need for blood, his thirst, his very nature will always be his Achilles heel. Watching him struggle with who he is and what he wants, is captivating.

I can’t tell a lie, if I had to chose between Bill and Eric – for me it would be Eric hands down, but I can’t just leave Bill off the list, he’s far too great a character and he brings too much to the table to not bother including him at all.

I suppose aside from the great characters and the interesting conflicts, I have to admit that maybe Spike was right and the reason we are captivated by vampires all comes back to blood, I leave you with his words of wisdom:

“Blood is life…It’s what keeps you going. Makes you warm. Makes you hard. Makes you other than dead.” (The Gift, season 5, episode 22)

I must confess, I’ve been known to read the last page first. I’ve been involved in the argument about whether or not that’s fair or not, but my side of the argument is that I don’t believe knowing the destination keeps you from enjoying the journey. Frankly, in some cases knowing the destination makes the journey more enjoyable for me, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I don’t always read the last page first, there are two different occasions that tend to cause me to “take a peek” at the last page. The first is, if I’m reading a book and having a hard time getting into it – then I’ll peek. In the interest of being completely honest, I tend to read the last few pages when that happens. I want to know if the book is going somewhere I want to go before I invest any further time in it. I confess I can count on one hand the times I’ve decided not to go ahead and read the book all the way to the end, but there are some books that are so tedious in the beginning that with that peek I might not make it to the end.

The second occassion is the exact opposite, if it’s a book that I am really invested in (usually one in a series) and I find myself  getting stressed out about what’s coming down the road for the characters that I love – I’ll peek. In those cases I tend to not read very much, I just scan the pages for confirmation that the book doesn’t end with – “they all die.” Otherwise I’ll miss details in my hurry to get to the end.

I maintain my position that knowing the destination doesn’t keep you from enjoying the journey, in fact, I would go so far as to say that sometimes it makes the journey more enjoyable.

I peeked at the last page of Linger, but quite honestly it was the first time that I wasn’t enticed by either of my usual motivations. This time I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about. What was ruined by reading the last page first? Honestly I like Maggie Stiefvater, I enjoy her books and her blog posts are usually quite entertaining, but I don’t see what all the fuss was about. There was no “sixth sense” kind of twist at the end, it did have an “Empire Strikes Back” kind of ending that left me teary eyed and then immediately scanning the Internet for news of the release date for the last book in the series.

I think if someone reads the last page first, it’s a powerful testament to how much people enjoy the author’s work. If something in that last page didn’t get your attention, you would put the book down and walk away or it’s because you have so much invested in the characters that you can’t stand the stress and tension of worrying about the characters.

It’s okay to read the last page first – just keep reading and make sure that you enjoy the ride.

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Hardback Complete Set

For Christmas I got the complete Percy Jackson set, and I love these books – they are technically children’s books (the age range is 9-12) but if you are in touch with your inner child or if you have a vivid imagination the series is captivating.

I love that the whole series is steeped in Mythology. (I am shocked by the negative reviews that comment that there are plot elements similar to Greek mythology – hello, Percy Jackson is Poseidon’s son, really you didn’t see that coming?) I’ve always loved Greek and Roman mythology so these were right up my alley. Once I picked up the first book it was almost impossible to put the series down until I was finished. They are fast paced and so much fun. Yes there are elements in the book that give a nod to some of the old school Greek Myths that we know and love, but I think it’s a respectful nod, not an issue of Riordan stealing from the classics.

I really enjoyed the characters, I liked that the series was chock full of heroes and heroines who were amazing warriors. I also liked that the characters were incredibly complex – the good guys weren’t without flaws and the bad guys were not bad beyond the point of redemption. I liked the dimension that this added to the characters and how, despite their super powers, it made them more real.

Now that I’ve read the whole series I am chomping at the bit to see the movie, I can’t wait to see how faithful they were to the plot and characters I’ve grown so terribly fond of.

Kim tried planting little seeds to pique my curiosity – “vampires, you like vampires.” Me, yes I love vampires – I’ve loved them since I was in grade school and we went on a field trip to St.Louis cemetery and I imagined all the little “houses” inhabited by sleeping vampires, waiting for the sun to set. I viewed vampires like stray dogs, you don’t have to be afraid of them but you have to be cautious and respectful until you’ve established a rapport. Nope, vampires had been in my life forever, I wasn’t interested in the “propaganda” that had suddenly made them part of the mainstream. I would not read Twilight.

Kim tried to draw parallels between myself and the author, mentioning how well read we were and how Stephenie Meyer and I seemed to read  the same books. I believe she saw this as a huge compliment. I was unmoved. I would not read Twilight.

Finally after almost two years and three of the four books being published later, Kim threatened me that our friendship was in peril if I didn’t read the books – I read Twilight.

I am shocked by how polarizing these books seem to be. People love them with a religious frevor – the disciples of Twilight study them, reread them, analyze them, debate them, and devotedly defend them. While people who hate them seem to crusade against them with an oddly intense zeal. I can honestly say that I’m in the middle – I read them, I enjoyed them, and I put them on the shelf and moved on to something else. Like many books in my life I revisit them on occasion, but I have yet to join the fight, on either side.

I don’t care that Bella might not be a great role model. I’ve never really looked to books for role models, well definitely not fiction books, if I encounter one I consider myself to be fortunate. I think Bella is a great “everyman” kind of character – she’s not flawless, she’s not the prom queen, she’s not a gifted athlete, she could be one of millions of girls. In fact I would venture to say that’s why her story has reached millions of people.

I’ve noticed Edward gets called a stalker and accused of being abusive by his detractors. I guess I’m terribly short sighted because I didn’t really see that either. He seems moody at times, but he is eternally a teenage boy so that seems fitting. He watches over Bella, but I never felt threatened by his presence in her world – on the contrary it seems to help her for more than hurt her.

I’ve heard complaints about Meyer’s reinvention of vampire lore. Chief among them seems to be “vampires shouldn’t sparkle” to which I would maturely respond with an exasperated whatever. The beauty of being an author is that you can create your own world and people it with whoever you want, as readers we have a choice to read or not to read. If your vampires *have* to be blood thirsty creatures, why would you even bother picking up the series? (I, personally, found John Carpenter’s Vampire Lore to be much more offensive…really, ask us to believe that vampires are hundreds of years old and yet sleeping in the dirt and hardly able to string a cohesive sentence together, please! He made them glorified cockroaches! I digress…)

I asked Kim once before I read Twilight what the appeal was and she told me it was all about the love that Bella and Edward share, and that he would do anything for her. It’s simple and straightforward but I think for all the Twilight Disciples – that’s it, and in today’s world I think many girls need to believe that there is an Edward out there.

We live in a world where a girl was brutally beaten and raped, a few scant yards from her school. Young men kept coming outside, some of them to join in, and not one of them to alert the authorities or get involved. I wish there could’ve been a gentleman with a conscience among any one of those men, he didn’t have to love her or be willing to die for her, but how about recognize that she was a human being and this was a terrible act of violence.

How can you blame girls who live in a world where that kind of thing can happen for taking solace in a character who watches over the girl he loves? He risks his life for her. Once he reconciles his feelings for her he treats her gently and with respect. He doesn’t constantly try to maul and paw at her – he romances her.

Twilight extols the virtue of love and respect and while I am not a Twilight disciple – I am a disciple of love and a firm believer in respect as it applies to humans, undead, and immortals alike.

In was my desire to get a peek into the Middle East that caused me to pick up – Reading Lolita in Theran which I was less than impressed with. I think that the book was trying so hard to be one of the great works of literature in discusses and dissects in the book that it failed to entertain me. I was very impressed by how smart the author was, but my understanding about things in Iran was hazy at best. The meat of the story – the women and their relationships, left me feeling empty and unfulfilled.

My next attempt was Kabul Beauty School which was entertaining but it was the voice of an outsider looking in, and so I still felt like I didn’t quite get the inside view I really wanted. (I also though the author was a little off her rocker – marrying a man she could barely communicate with who was married to another woman but that’s a whole different issue all together.)

Finally along came Mahbod Seraji’s Rooftops of Tehran, here is the book I waited for!

First off this book is Fiction so there can be no shocking expose later to reveal that characters were fabricated causing me to question what else might have been fabricated, (Ala Kabul Beauty School) but the story was beautiful. I lived on that alley, and I laughed at the rash of pranks that erupted amongst the kids there, I cried at the loss of innocence and the loss of love. I carefully considered my own culture as it was reflected to me through the storyteller. (Seriously there have been times I wanted to wail with grief, why is that frowned on here?)

I took my time and cherished this book, I savored the highs and I mourned the lows. I almost wish there was a sequel so I could find out what happened to these characters that I grew to love but the ending was so perfect that perhaps it’s best to leave well enough alone.

This is a book I will reread and every time I expect to laugh and cry, just the way I did this time. What a fantastic book!

Mr.Fitzwilliam Darcy

Last month I got to pick and selected Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, so I suppose it’s inevitable that the conversations turned to Jace. I was fascinated and intrigued to see that my friends were cheering for Jace and Clary, just the way I was. As the discussion went on and on somehow comparisons were made from Jace to Jane Austen’s Mr.Darcy and my friend Lisa wanted to know what it is about men like Jace and Mr.Darcy that makes women like them so much. I have contemplated Lisa’s question for days because frankly of our triumvirate, I am the one with the most dating experience and I have come to this conclusion – Mr.Darcy has gotten a bad rap.

I admit that Mr.Darcy is a bit of clod, but I don’t really think he’s quite the literary bad boy that he’s made out to be. His time was a time when there was a very definite class system in place, a class system that people lived and died by. I mean really think of all the drama that surrounded Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles and that was in 1990′s, Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in the 1800′s.

Here we have a man who takes honor and responsibility very seriously, and when he meets our heroine he is practically engaged to someone suitable who was picked out by his family. (Well actually his future wife IS family, a cousin which was a pretty common place event for that time period as well.) He’s in the company of a friend he is dearly devoted to who is kind and very easily influenced by the people around him, and who Mr.Darcy clearly feels like he has to look out for. Can we really blame him for not immediately recognizing the finer points of our Miss Bennet?

Okay, so Mr.Darcy rises above all of his preconceived notions and falls for Miss Bennet and she, rightfully, crucifies him for being such a clod. Now any other man in the face of the telling off that he gets, would slink off with his tail in between his legs and never be seen my any Bennet or friend of Bennet again. However, our honorable and noble Mr.Darcy doesn’t fuss or fight, but he sets about making things right. (I could also point out that Miss Bennet wasn’t entirely right in all of her accusations but Mr.Darcy doesn’t quibble over these things he is a man of action.) So really, how does any of this translate to him being a bad boy? Clod, absolutely, but not a bad boy.

Jace, who I absolutely adore is a bad boy. He is sneering and rude to Clary when he meets her. He’s later seen canoodling with some pixie chick, and rumor has it he’s done alot more than canoodling. He is a fierce warrior with a ton of redeeming qualities but really can you trust him with your heart? I’m not so sure.

So Jace, beautiful and redeemable but bad boy; Mr.Darcy beautiful, akward, but merely a bit of a clod and really how can you not love someone like that?

I love to read, I am a devourer of books. My favorite books are the ones that grip you and don’t let go. George RR Martin has often kept me up until the wee small hours of the morning (quite a feat since I am a notorious early bird), Stephenie Meyer has caused me to sneak a book into the bathroom because my lunch ended before the chapter did, and there are countless others that I have read going down the stairs or at stop lights. My love of books goes beyond genres and crosses age barriers, if it’s good and I like it I’ll read it.

I think the appeal of books written for children and young adults is that since your audience has a wide and vast imagination, so as an artist you are free to tap into your own imagination. The ability to suspend disbelief is so much greater when we are younger, because it’s easy to believe that anything is still possible!

I’m reminded of an advertising class I took when I was in college, the professor told us of one of his advanced classes where he asked his students to draw a tiger, they were asked to draw either an imaginative one or a fantastical one – I’m unclear on the wording exactly. He showed us the results, the drawings were beautiful and elaborate but they were all black and white, or black and orange, tigers. He then showed us the results when a class of grade schoolers was asked to do the same thing and the results were spectacularly different. They drawings from the grade schoolers were multicolor, some even used glitters, there were tigers with wings, tigers being ridden like horses, tigers that reinvented what the word tiger means for most of us. My professor encouraged us to try to tap into that inner grade schooler and call up that kind of imagination.

I think Children’s books are fun to read because the author can out any inhibitions to their imagination aside. Neil Gaiman can’t sell every adult on the premise that a toddler, who has just become orphaned, being raised in a graveyard but a kid would pick it up and immediately accept and embrace that premise. They don’t worry about the legality or the logistics and if you let go of those things you lose yourself in an amazing world of fascinating characters. I truly can’t wait to see where this one takes me!

Likewise, I think I like young adult books because they tap into different kind of emotions, and they straddle the line between reality and fantasy rather effortlessly. They remind me of that first fierce flush of love and a time when the road stretched before me full of limitless possibilities. I love these stories too.

Of course I still read “adult” books from a wide variety of genres – George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire (because I can’t say that I read all fantasy), books about people from other times or other cultures but I like for them to be  told with color and texture that makes me feel like I’m there, experiencing with them. I’ve sampled a few historical fictions, sometimes they are a little dry for me, and I must confess that I’ve developed a new affinity for the classics as I’ve gotten older. I couldn’t stand them when I was younger, but I’ve since decided my big objection was mostly that I was being forced to read them; once I decided I wanted to check them out myself, they were marvelous.

I’m trying to think of an exercise to help me get in touch with my inner child, so I can harness some of the crazy imagination I had back then and put it to work! Hmm, this may require further explorations.

If you’re interested, this is the link to the “trailer” for The Graveyard Book, I encourage you to check it out!