33. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins.

Book 3 in the Hunger Games trilogy.

Katniss is out of the arena, but is distraught when she realises that not only is Peeta in the Capitol's hands, but her home, District Twelve, is bombed and broken. All the survivors have been taken in by District Thirteen, but the rebellion is past the point of return, and she needs to decide if she will be the Mockingjay that everyone wants and expects, or whether she will accede to the Capitol's wishes and try and defuse the situation.

This book is the best of the series, as final books often are. I like this one because it branches out from Katniss in some ways, bringing in more victors, but also homes in on her, while she is struggling to cope with the knowledge that anything she does will be taken out on Peeta by the Capitol. I like how they don't shy away from describing her difficulties, and it makes her pretty easy to relate to in some ways. It also draws some interesting parallels between the Capitol and District Thirteen, in how Katniss is treated as a TV star not a rebel.

32. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins.

Book 2 of the Hunger Games trilogy.

This time around, Katniss expects to be mentoring the Hunger Games, and is caught up in trying to figure out her feelings for Peeta and Gale, amongst a whirlwhind background of feasts, speeches, and tours of the other districts. When it is announced that the 75th Hunger Game tributes will be reaped from the pool of victors, a lot more problems become apparent.

This book shows the momentum of the growing rebellion within Panem. While Katniss is trying to do anything she can to protect the people she loves, she is scurrying around in all directions, making plans and working out how to survive - but the fire is spreading fast, and there's not really a lot that she can do to stop it.

31. The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss.

Book 2 of the KingKiller Trilogy.

Kvothe continues telling the tale of his past, while in the present day, he appears to be having some difficulties balancing his life within the inn and his old life. Highlights include time spent with Felurian, a fae creature, and training in Ademic fighting, as well as Denna, Denna, and more Denna.

The difficulties facing Kvothe as he tries to realign himself with his role as a mere inkeeper after immersing himself in his vastly more impressive past make me think that this trilogy is going in some interesting directions in the last book. I'm excited to see what will happen next - both within the present day conclusion, and within the final third of Kvothe's adventures leading up to where he is now.

30. The Name Of The Wind, Patrick Rothfuss.

Book 1/3 of the KingKiller Series.

Kote is an innkeeper with a mysterious past. After a scraeling attacks his small town, and upon the chance arrival of the Chronicler, he consents to share the true story of his upbringing and past, including the truth behind the many rumours and stories surrounding Kvothe, aka himself, before his disappearance.

I really like this book, and recommend any fantasy fans give it a read. It's fairly generic, but there are a lot of twists, and it's very, very carefully written. All the loose ends have that going-to-be-tidied-up-in-the-rest-of-the-trilogy feel to them, and there aren't really any wasted words or pointless scenes. I'm getting a lot more of the hidden stuff this second read, but I'm sure there's still stuff I'm missing.

As an added bonus this is one of the books I have as a paperback and not on ereader, and I've been wanting the tactile feedback of reading an actual BOOK for a while, so this one was a win-win for me.

Recommended book: Summerland, by L. Dean James.

I'm currently teaching myself to touch type, and am in the awkward sore-finger-muscles stage, so I'm going to get some practice in by writing up some books that I haven't read recently, but enjoyed a lot when I did read them, and would like to have a record of for those days when you need to know that the book you're reading will be a good one. So.

Summerland is set in a world where it hasn't rained in decades. Jamie has been sent on a 'quest' by her meteorologist father (who has since disappeared) to find the rain, with the help of a guide stone and some unlikely companions.

To be honest with you, I'm not sure if this is a good book or if it just has nostalgic appeal for me so I overlook its flaws. I read this book in a library when I was a young teen, and eventually - years later - tracked down a paper copy. I enjoy reading it because there are a lot of interesting characters, who interact well with each other through most of the book (one scene is rather clumsy but no book is perfect, right?) and a few of the plot devices are quite unusual. It's not a great read, but it's a good one all the same.

29. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

Book 1/3 of the Hunger Games series.

The Hunger Games is set in the Capitol of Panem, which is surrounded by - and rules over - twelve oppressed, starving Districts. As a symbol of their second-class nature, the Hunger Games are a yearly event - two children, twelve through eighteen, are drawn by lottery from each district and sent to an arena to fight to the death. This is televised and treated as a sporting event, but Katniss can't sit by and let that happen to her little sister.

I really like this book. It's the third time I've read it, because I like how Katniss expresses her thoughts, and how she faces the challenges before her, including that of what she's going to do about Peeta, her fellow tribute from District 12. Katniss is practical to the point of indifference, but that changes over the book as her true personality starts to surface, and as she's forced to contemplate a purely emotional world, where her skills in the field don't help her make the correct choices - not only for the short term, but for the long term as well. It is a young adult book, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a fast-paced emotionally charged read.

The Hunger Games movie is coming out in just over a month, and I'm pretty excited. I really hope that it captures the essence of the book (and doesn't just go for the easy-to-film appeals-to-target-audiences butchery as usual).

28. The Devil's Alphabet, by Daryl Gregory

Over a decade ago, the small town of Switchcreek was struck by an unexplained affliction that swept over its inhabitants in waves, changing their bodies entirely - both from one another, and from  the normal humans. This results in three distinct clades - the giant Argos, the bald-headed, nearly exclusively female Betas, and the enormously rotund Charlies. A few people are lucky enough to be skipped, but then don't really fit in anywhere at all. When Pax's childhood friend dies, it's all he can do to return to Switchcreek for her funeral - somewhere he hasn't been since the disease ended.

I liked this book quite a lot. The disease it features is unusual - both in its specifications and in its vectors of transmission - and while the book doesn't go into that much detail on the scientific side of things, it's possible to see that the course described by the author seems to hold up (given that it's feasibly possible for it to start, that is). It's an interesting look into the mechanics of a small-town society further isolated from the world, and the threads of the storyline all tie in together very well.

27. Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett.

Another Discworld novel, this one's about a six-foot-tall adopted dwarf that goes to Ankh-Morpork to join the noble profession of the City Watch, just in time to help deal with the dragon.

This one was very slightly mediocre, but still pretty decent. I enjoyed the storyline, and how it wasn't quite as I thought it was going to be, but it wasn't anything particularly memorable in this particular novel. A few interesting story points, and the usual amounts of humour applied, though.

26. Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett.

Pyramids is written in the classic Terry Pratchett style, with all the quirks and foibles thereof. An heir to a small river kingdom suspiciously similar to Egypt  ends up teaming up with a camel called You Bastard in order to save said kingdom from a strange and bizarre cataclysm.

I enjoy reading Terry Pratchett books because they're so humorously unserious, but they still manage to address some seriously large ideas, like the concept of change. I like reading books that make me think, and this one  has made me think harder than I was initially expecting, while covering its depth with a shiny cover of mischief.

25. The Drowned World, by J. G. Ballard.

The Drowned World is set post-global-warming, in a world where the polar ice caps are the only habitable places at a balmy 80 F. Dr. Kerans is charting the swamp as part of a survey unit, a pointless, ever-changing task, and the effects on him and his colleagues - of the heat, and the surroundings, and the company, and the wildlife - are intruiging. A good read, and one that I'm glad I got around to reading (I've had my eye on it for a while).

I will admit that I somewhat rushed the last part of this book. I had just enough time to finish it before work if I read at a reasonably fast pace, and I didn't want to end up having to stop reading just thirty pages from the end, but I very much enjoyed the story nonetheless, possibly due to the amount of Frozen Planet I've been watching lately.

24. The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks.

 This is the second book Iain M. Banks wrote about the Culture , and it's  a very utopian sci fi society. Nothing is forbidden, and everything is provided, with the Culture living on giant ships or fake planets built by machines, that are incidentally way more brilliant than humans can possibly achieve. Gurgeh is a master game player, who gets convinced to travel to play an ultimate new game on a distant planet.

I really enjoyed this book. I've read the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, and found it most excellent but rather squeamish to read (more on that later)  and this has all of the excellent with none of - well, a huge amount less than - the squeam. The story pulls you in, and I get the feeling that there's a lot more hidden link-ups and tricks in the text than I picked out when I read it. Very entertaining to read, and hard to put down.

23. Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach.

Packing For Mars is a book revolving around the core questions of how to care for astronauts in the void, based on the idea that they are going to Mars - a two year mission. A fairly comprehensive list of important considerations has been covered, including the psychological impact of living in a box for two years, the effects of zero gee on bone mass and muscle formation, the dangers of cosmic radiation with regards to possible or accidental pregnancy, the issue of how to pack, store, and eat enough waferised food to last two years, and the less savoury but almost more important question of what to do with human waste at the end of it all.

I was pretty impressed with how thorough this book was. It covered questions I didn't even know I had in a tasteful manner without compromising on the details. There's an amazing amount of research into it all, and the author's written as much as she can from her own perspective, even going up in a research plane flying parabolic arcs that allow zero gravity for half a minute at a time. The writing's also humorous and helps point out that yeah - space is difficult to manage, and hard to work in, and expensive to deal with, and deadly if you get it wrong...but it's still AWESOME.