First things first, what matters most is whether or not this story can be trusted in the abilities of Jennifer Lawrence. Because this movie hinges on her.

YES.  SO SO MUCH.  YES.

She IS Katniss. She is extraordinary. She makes up for the parts in the book that they couldn’t translate to film or was left out completely.

The world they’ve recreated from the visionary mind of Suzanne Collins is perfect. District 12 is perfect. The house Katniss shares with her mother and Prim is exactly how I imagined it. I felt just as profoundly unsettled about the Reaping as I did when reading the book, and watching it in full scale was amazing.

There is a triangular love story here, but it is not the focus. This is a story of survival and uprising. So glad they didn’t push a love story angle. Gale is her best friend and hunting partner (and an absolute stud). You can see hints of jealousy as he watches Katniss and Peeta in the arena, as mandated by the Capitol. Peeta admits his feelings for Katniss in a pre-games interview with Caesar Flickerman. Caesar Flickerman is played by Stanley Tucci. I love him as Caesar. SO MUCH! Katniss plays along as Peeta’s star-crossed-lover to get sponsors. It’s about survival for her. Maybe not for him.

Book purists will notice how they’ve tweaked Haymitch’s character. This Haymitch is less drunk and more active behind the scenes. Because it is a movie, we can’t get to know Haymitch’s motivations through Katniss’s thoughts. A voiceover wouldn’t cut it. A visual then becomes necessary. Haymitch at work is something new where the movie departs subtly from the book. This worked for me, totally.

The visual effects were pretty awesome, but I’m a snob and think they could have been better. I did enjoy seeing Katniss as the girl on fire. I promise you’ll enjoy it too. Overall it was a good movie. Really good. I think the violence was toned down, probably due to the targeted audience. You still feel the gravity of each district forced to send their children into an arena to kill each other as a reminder of the Capitol’s stronghold.  My main complaint would be that they opened up a lot to non-readers, but some very significant things they assumed to be understood. Like the symbolism of the mockingjay pin or the reverence of the three fingered salute. As a true fan I felt the full weight of the three fingered salute.

Is it just me or does Donald Sutherland as President Snow seem to lack a certain chill? I like my villains ice cold. So cold their smile sends a glacier down your spine as they dare you to defy them. And Katniss does by suggesting she and Peeta eat the poisonous berries together, leaving no victor for Snow to parade around. Essentially throwing “the games” back in his face. This was a risky move. It works, they both get out alive, but not without consequences. We’ll have to wait for Catching Fire to see the full extent of those consequences. I can’t wait! Can you?

Click here to check out more Hunger Games items including the motion picture soundtrack, companion guides, and unofficial cookbook at our library.

After a 4 year hiatus, Richelle Mead is back and picking up where she left off in the Vampire Academy series.  Bloodlines is written from Sydney’s perspective.  Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, an ancient group sworn to protect humans from Vampires.  Because of her “close” association with a dhamphir (a half-human/half-vampire) in the Vampire Academy books, Sydney’s place among the Alchemists is tenusous.

However, Jill Dragomir – the fifteen-year-old sister to the Moroi queen – has been attacked and needs protection.  Sydney is asked to room with Jill at a prep-school in Palm Springs, California acting as her older sister.

The “easy” assignment turns out to be dangerous – to the point Sydney nearly dies.

Will she be able to protect Jill AND herself at the same time? The only way to find out is to pick up the book!

Bloodlines sequel, The Golden Lily, is due to release June 12, 2012.

Though she’s had many successes, she struggles with mental illness. Her psychiatrist, Dr. R, treated her after a suicide attempt. She credits him with saving her life. Unfortunately, he died suddenly of cancer. Your Voice In My Head is a tribute to her therapist, and an attempt to remember his guidance as she navigates “those cold, deep patches of the sea where people lose their lives.” It’s as much about self-preservation without him as it is about honoring his great work.

This book has gained a lot of attention for her relationship with actor Colin Farrell. She intimately describes how intensely he loved her, how he charmed her family, how his desires for their future became her desires, and the immediacy of his leaving and detachment from her. She never uses his name in the book, referring to him as her gypsy husband.

Her personal account of depression is irreverent, honest, and funny. In writing her story the way she did, there is a thread of recognition in her pain, whether or not you’ve been enveloped by it before yourself. Even buried under the debilitating weight of something that not everyone can understand, she manages to show you that we all connect somewhere, despite the fact that our way out of those places can take very different turns.

Click on the link below for a short video of Emma discussing her book.

Emma Forrest interview on Your Voice In My Head

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 NoveList, a readers’ advisory service, not only provides access to information on 155,000 fiction titles, but it will provide you with similar authors to those you already love (read alikes), reviews, reading level appropriateness and so much more!

NoveList^® Plus includes:

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Literary Reference Center is a full-text database that combines information from major respected reference works, books and literary journals, as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing. Literary Reference Center contains full text for more than 35,000 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews; nearly 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism; more than 252,000 author biographies (including more than 22,000 in-depth bios); 450 literary journals; more than 693,000 book reviews; more than 78,400 classic and contemporary poems; more than 19,700 classic and contemporary short stories; more than 6,600 author interviews; more than 8,200 classic texts; and much more.

In addition, Literary Reference Center includes Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Beacham’s Research Guide to Biography and Criticism(six volumes), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, The Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story, all of MagillOnLiterature Plus™ and much more.

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If you’ve never read a Rick Riordan Young Adult (YA) novel – you’ve been missing out!

The Heroes of Olympus series picks up where the Percy Jackson novels left off, but with a twist.  We learn that not only do the Gods have children (demi-gods) in their Greek aspects, but they do so in their Roman aspects as well.

While we’ve become familiar with Camp Half-blood (the Greek demi-gods) we soon learn that there is another camp for the Roman demi-gods and in The Son of Neptune, Percy Jackson awakes from an 8 month slumber to be chased across the country by monsters and straight into their camp.  His memory has been erased, so he has no idea of who or what he is – he only remembers his name and a very vague memory of his girlfriend, Annabel.

Follow Percy on his new adventure and meet his new Roman demi-god friends (we’ll see a few familiar faces from the previous books too!) – Read the first chapter here.

The Son of Neptune is book 2 in the Heroes of Olympus series.  My recomendation is to read all of the Percy Jackson novels first, and then the Heroes of Olympus series.

Look for book 3 of the Heroes of Olympus Series – The Mark of Athena (Fall 2012)

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Literature Resource Center is a database that offers biographies, bibliographies and critical analyses of more than 120,000 authors from every age and literary discipline.

Rich in biographical, bibliographical, and critical content, the Literature Resource Center contains information on literary figures from all time periods writing in such genres as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, journalism, and more.

The foundation of the Literature Resource Center is built on three hallmark author databases: Contemporary Authors Online, offering biographical coverage of more than 100,000 writers; Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, featuring entries on all authors appearing in CLC since vol. 95 of the print series and complete profiles of 266 most studied authors from editions prior to vol. 95; and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, containing more than 10,000 biocritical essays on authors and their works written by academic scholars.

The Literature Resource Center also includes selected full-text, excerpted, and commissioned critical material from the Literature Criticism and For Students Series. The titles in these series include: Children’s Literature Review, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Drama Criticism, Drama for Students, Literature from 1400 to 1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Novels for Students, Poetry Criticism, Poetry for Students, Shakespearean Criticism, Shakespeare for Students, Short Story Criticism, Short Stories for Students, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. In addition, users can access current, full-text critical essays on major authors via the Literature Resource Center’s link to 74 prominent literary journals.  For complete access to some of these titles, try the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Also provides access to Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature (EOL), which comprises over 10,000 descriptive entries for authors, works, literary landmarks, literary and critical terms, mythological and folkloric figures, fictional characters, literary movements, and prizes.

Video Guided Tutorials:

• Advanced Search (3:56)
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What’s in the LRC? Click here for a list of reference works and click here for a list of journals available in LRC.

All you need is 5 minutes a day and an email address to join one of our FREE online book clubs!

Are you looking for great new authors? Looking for a great book? Would you like to sample a book before you commit to checking it out? Do you like Chocolate Chip cookies? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions then you need to join one of online book clubs. How does it work? Every week we sample a new book. Monday through Friday, a quick 5 minute read is delivered to your email box and waiting for you to peruse with your morning cup of coffee. At the end of Friday’s read the ending page number is given so when you pick up the book from the library you know where you left off. (There is also a link on the emails to quickly and easily reserve the book from the library.)

There’s a book club for just about everyone, including: fiction, non-fiction, romance, mystery, science fiction, audio, business, pre-publication (be the first to see these soon-to-be-released books), teen, good news, and horror. On Mondays and Thursdays, Suzanne, your book club editor, offers a link to AuthorBuzz, where she introduces you to 3 or 4 authors and their books. Suzanne also holds giveaways where you can win funny or cool prizes–and once a month, Suzanne bakes homemade chocolate chip cookies for the winners of her monthly Chocolate Chip Cookie giveaway.

The online book clubs are a fun and stress free way to read. And, as Suzanne always ends her columns, “It’s so good to read with friends.”

Sample Books in Your Email

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Books & Authors is a resource that offers ways to explore the endless possibilities and combinations of books, authors and topics.

Books & Authors is specially designed to complement the browsing habits of today’s Web user, integrating easy-to-follow menus that allow users to broaden and narrow their searches according to author, title, series, awards and other criteria. An “if you like” search connects readers to themes and genres that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

At the same time, its meticulously edited database — developed by a team of genre experts – delivers up-to-date, reliable information not found in the random and unverified results of the Web.

It’s a “best of both worlds” arrangement that combines the depth of Gale expertise in literature with the Internet’s unique capacity to create, build and foster communities of readers.

Readers can use Books & Authors to enhance the experience of the book they are reading; dig deeper into its themes and origins; or learn how the author’s life and times contributed to the work.

Video Guided Tutorials:

• When You Don’t Know Where to Begin (3:50)
• When You Know a Book’s Title (2:30)
• When You Know an Author’s Name (3:30)
• When You’re Interested in a Particular Genre (3:18)