Mockingjay Word Search

Weekly Geek 6/30/11

Music is a pretty amazing thing. It can take us back to the past, make us want to dance, put us in a romantic mood, or simply lift our spirits. But sometimes, music does something a little different for me: it reminds me of a book.

Yes, there is nothing more geeky than to be riding down the road listening to the radio and suddenly thinking "That song matches [book title] perfectly!". But that is exactly what happens to me sometimes. 

So, my fellow Weekly Geeks, your challenge this week is to come up with at least one song-book match. It could remind you of a theme from the book, a specific part of the plot, or even one of the characters (a sort of theme song, if you will). Be sure to include samples of the lyrics and the reason why that song reminds you of that book. If you can provide a link to a recording of the song so that other geeks can hear it that would be great as well. (One good place to look for links is last.fm, there are others, too).

Monday Musings 6/27/11

If you’re a mood reader, what (genre) do your moods usually call you to read?

Usually, when I feel compelled to read something specific, it ends up being fantasy. I like being in another world, I LOVE the paranormal, otherworldly beings, things that I won't ever experience in my own reality.  Not quite sure why my brain just gets fried on a daily basis and I can't wait for my "break".  I don't by any means absorb new information, I just get to relax in someone else's world.

Sometimes I get pulled into nonfiction, but not so often.

So, people, what genre do your moods call you to read?

Sunday Salon 6/26/11

This week I'm talking about all those books I probably wouldn't have read had it not been for the prodding of some other bookish people. So, here's my top ten books I'm glad people recommended to me because I would have for sure skipped over them/not have known they existed/judged based on the cover alone.

1.  The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer

2.  Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins

3.  City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

4.  Goddess Books by P.C. Cast

5.  Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

6.  Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

7.  The Hollow People by Brian Keaney (series)

8.  Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

Favorite Novel of all Time:

Okay, people, it's time to share. What is your favorite novel of all time?

It doesn't have to be intellectual, a work of art, or an established favorite.  It can be trashy, funny, sentimental. Say why it's your favorite of all time!

Catching Fire Discussion Questions

Book Covers

A Weekend to ReCOVER is a meme hosted by Her Book Self that is dedicated to analyzing, comparing and discussing cover art.  Feel free to share your thoughts on any book art that strikes your fancy!

Weekly Geek 6/23/11

Though I'm really not very good at it, I love trivia. Put books and trivia together and you've got a perfect match. So I thought it would be a fun Weekly Geek activity for us to come up with some book trivia questions to ask each other.

So take a moment, don't stress about it all, and write down five to ten questions that pop into your mind. You could center all your questions around a particular theme or genre, maybe something in which you specialize. Or ask questions about one certain book. Or teach us about your favorite author through your questions.

You could do really easy ones that you know we'll all get or really hard ones that will challenge even the best of us.

Once you post your questions and add your link here, be sure to go around and answer the questions posted by everyone else. Remember, no fair Googling! At the end of the week, don't forget to do another post with the answers to your questions.

And most importantly, have fun!

Roman Gladiator's Gravestone Describes Fatal Foul

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor
LiveScience.com – Mon Jun 20, 8:05 am ET

An enigmatic message on a Roman gladiator's 1,800-year-old tombstone has finally been decoded, telling a treacherous tale.

The epitaph and art on the tombstone suggest the gladiator, named Diodorus, lost the battle (and his life) due to a referee's error, according to Michael Carter, a professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada. Carter studies gladiator contests and other spectacles in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

He examined the stone, which was discovered a century ago in Turkey, trying to determine what the drawing and inscription meant. [Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal With the Dead]

His results will be published in the most recently released issue of the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik(Journal for Papyrology and Ancient Epigraphics).

Tombstones talk

The tombstone was donated to the Musee du Cinquanternaire in Brussels, Belgium, shortly before World War I. It shows an image of a gladiator holding what appear to be two swords, standing above his opponent who is signalling his surrender. The inscription says that the stone marks the spot where a man named Diodorus is buried.

"After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately," reads the epitaph. "Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."

The summa rudis is a referee, who may have had past experience as a gladiator.

The inscription also indicates Diodorus was born in and fought in Amisus, on the south coast of the Black Sea in Turkey.

Though Carter has examined hundreds of gladiator tombstones, this "epitaph is completely different from anything else; it's telling a story," he told LiveScience.

The final fight

The story the tombstone tells took place about 1,800 years ago when the empire was at its height, its borders stretching from Hadrian's Wall in England to the Euphrates River in Syria.

Gladiator games were popular spectacles, many of them pitting two men against each other. Although deaths from wounds were common, the battles were not the no-holds-barred fights to the death depicted by Hollywood, said Carter.

"I believe that there are a number of very detailed rules involved in regulating gladiatorial combat," Carter said.

Though the exact rules are not well understood, some information can be gleaned from references in surviving texts and art. 

For starters, most, if not all, of the fights were overseen by the summa rudis.

Among the rules he enforced was one in which a defeated gladiator could request submission, and if submission was approved by the munerarius (the wealthy individual paying for the show), the contestant could leave the arena without further harm.

Another rule that appears to have been in place was that a gladiator who fell by accident (without the help of his opponent) would be allowed to get back up, pick up his equipment and resume combat.

Death of Diodorus

It's this last rule that appears to have done in Diodorus. Carter interprets the picture of the gladiator holding two swords to be a moment in his final fight, when Demetrius had been knocked down and Diodorus had grabbed a hold of his sword.

"Demetrius signals surrender, Diodorus doesn't kill him; he backs off expecting that he's going to win the fight," Carter said.

The battle appears to be over. However the summa rudis — perhaps interpreting Demetrius' fall as accidental, or perhaps with some ulterior motive — thought otherwise, Carter said.

"What the summa rudis has obviously done is stepped in, stopped the fight, allowed Demetrius to get back up again, take back his shield, take back his sword, and then resume the fight."

This time Diodorus was in trouble, and either he died in the arena or Demetrius inflicted a wound that led to his death shortly thereafter.

This event would have happened before a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, of people in a theater or in part of an athletic stadium converted into a sort of mini- Colosseum.

After Diodorus was dead, the people who created his tombstone (probably family or friends) were so upset, Carter suggests, that they decided to include some final words on the  epitaph:   

"Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."

Previously Posted "Sunday Salon"

I'm trying out a new weekly blurb.  Sunday evenings are usually a down time for me so I have time to ponder and write and read and snack...ok, getting back to the point.   I came across a blog that posts their weekly blog on Saturdays called "Saturday Evening Post".  I thought it was kinda catchy, wanted to try something like it but for Sunday.  Took a while, but I am introducing my new weekly post called "Sunday Salon".  For this week, I have a question for all of you.  I was shown someone's library today, stacks and stacks of books (it was quite impressive).  And while sitting here looking at my shelves starting to fill up with books, I started wondering...what are people's book buying habits or accumulating habits?  How bad of a problem do others have?  Is it as bad as mine? Or worse!

Share your buying or book accumulating habits - how bad of a problem do YOU have?!?!?

Ever Throw a Book?

Ever throw a book? I nearly tossed my book across my room late one night. In my case, it wasn't about  the book’s heroine but the death of an ally.  It made me so MAD and angry and sad and shocked, I kinda felt betrayed.  I'm not even sure anymore, but I was a mess.  And to top it off, when I finished the trilogy, I felt so let down I tossed the book as well.

What gets us so riled up that we want to throw a book across the room?  Is it anger … revulsion … disappointment … fear? And what sparks those emotions?

• graphic sex?
• graphic violence / brutality?
• offensive language?
• over-the-top suspense?
• injustice—characters treated or judged unfairly?
• irritating characters?
• predictable plot lines?
• unrealistic coincidence?
• bad writing?

The question is:  how does literature evoke such passion?  Think about the wonder of it all—literature comes to us as small black letters on a flat white page…which we use to create meaning…which in turn inspires powerful responses. Astonishing…when you think about it.

Ending one book...Starting Another

Do you ever find yourself mourning the end of a book?  You finish the last sentence and you're not quite ready to say good-bye?  I've been reading "The Hunger Games Series", I finished book 1, went straight to book 2 and then book 3.  I had no problem finishing the first and second book because there was another one to continue on to.  But by the time I reached the end of the last book, I'd been so caught up in Katniss's mind - her life, her thoughts - it was hard to leave her.

Then I turn around to start a new book.  It was hard, it took energy and commitment.  What about you?  Which books have been hard ones for you to end?

Is there redemption for fallen angels?

Came across this blurb from my twitter account.  I thought it was too interesting to pass up.  It will make you wonder...

Does Love Win for Demons?

While studying the doctrine of angels last week, an interesting 
question was brought up.

Is there redemption for fallen angels?

Though there have been a few voices which affirm there will 
be, such as Origen, the overwhelming consensus of the 
tradition is that demons have no second chance.

Now this is not a question which occupies much of our time, 
in part for the perfectly valid reason that we actually know 
quite little about the angelic realm. But perhaps it deserves
 more carful consideration.

Angels are rational beings, made by God for his glory, and 

they therefore have value just as we do. And so, if some of 

them fell, would we not expect an act of redemption which 

includes them as well?

In other words, does love win for the demons too?

The problem of course is that the text, as far as I can tell, 
gives no indication that we should expect such a thing. In 
, the pressure of the narrative seems to imply just the 
opposite.

My question then is this, should that influence our larger 
debate on hell?

Does it make a difference to the ways we talk about the 
love and justice of God, if other rational creatures have 
no chance of redemption?

Should we posit a salvation for fallen angels?

And if not, and if it doesn’t bother us, what does that say 
about the way we understand God and his saving acts?

Where do you go for Book Recommendations?

-- Where do you go for book recommendations?

It's all from bloggers these days for me. Your influence over me is huge. That and just falling love with authors and then wanting to read everything by them, or things they like. That adds to my list too.

-- How often do you challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone?

Probably not really that often, though I'm not opposed to the idea. My comfort zone is pretty broad I think, so it's hard to find something "out of it" really.

-- How often do you read outside your genre?

Hmmm... so what's my genre? All types of YA? Fantasy? Literary fiction? If I consider these "my genres" then I don't get outside of them often. I have read two non fiction in the past two years, and I loved my choices, so that's something. I have read more horror this year and that's been fun too.

-- How often do you try a new-to-you author?

I love trying new authors, and in recent years, my list of new authors I've discovered every year grows and grows. It's very fun learning about how many authors there are out there to love and read.

-- How often do you take a chance?

Again I would say, not very often! So here goes nothing!

Teaser Tuesday!

This is fun for everyone!  


Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Monday Musings 6/20/11

I was reading about this phenomenon called P.A.B.D. which stands for Post Amazing Book Depression  and means: the over-whelming sad feeling one gets after finishing a great book. 

Yes, I feel this feeling a lot! 

However, if a book has consumed me and made me feel such a part of it's life and world, it's often quite traumatic to be done with it. I do resort to many of the tactics listed in the Weekly Geek post in order to deal with it.

Yes, I've been known to seek out other books with a similar theme. 

Yes, I make other people read the book. (I did this with the ever popular Twilight, Book Thief, Hunger Games, etc.)

Yes, I read other things by the author and follow them around the internet.

No, I don't go seek out fan fiction though. That stuff sort of makes me crazy. And no I don't re-read over and over and over. For the most part anyway. 


Some of the books that have caused this P.A.B.D. for me:

--The Whole Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

--The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

--Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

--The Goddess Series by P.C. Cast

-- pretty much any big epic fantasy
-- pretty much any book where I feel a huge character connection. It's hard to let them go!

How about you? What books have caused you P.A.B.D.?

Hunger Games Word Search

Book Personality

This week we are to list ten things about us with regard to books and reading. Our bookish personality of sorts. Whatever goes. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

1. Do you ever take a book, usually new but sometimes old, and stick your nose completely into it and inhale deeply? Yep, I do that, quite a lot actually. Ah the smell of books. I love it!

2. As far as the actually physical book itself… I like to read trade paperbacks. Mass market ones are too little, and hardbacks are too big.

3. One of my favorite things is to fall in love with an author and then read ALL their books!

4. It used to be I didn’t know how to answer this question: “Are you a plot driven reader or a character driven one?” Hmmm… that’s easy now. Guesses anyone? Yep… characters for me.

5. I can read with all sorts of outside distractions… TV, music, kids, noise, people talking, etc. BUT, I have a hard time reading if there’s any internal distractions going on.

6. Reading in bed at night is great, but I enjoy reading in the morning (on weekends of course) even better.

7. I don’t think it will come as a surprise that I sometimes have more than one book going at a time. You can get more read this way, right?

8. I’m not much of a note taker while reading, and I don’t underline and mark up the book. I find it messes with the flow of things.

9. I’m a surface reader, not a deep one. I read for the enjoyment of it, and not for the underlying meanings. That’s not to say I don’t find the underlying meanings interesting now and then, it’s just that I don’t necessary look for them much.

10. I enjoy both sad and happy ending books. Sad ones tend to stick with me, and have the greatest impact, but it’s best if the story is left with a sense of hope.

Are we the same with any of the bookish habits I’ve listed?  I’d love to know what your bookish personality is.

Weekly Geek 6/16/11

Though I’m really not very good at it, I love trivia. Put books and trivia together and you’ve got a perfect match. So I thought it would be a fun Weekly Geek activity for us to come up with some book trivia questions to ask each other.

So take a moment, don’t stress about it all, and write down five to ten questions that pop into your mind. You could center all your questions around a particular theme or genre, maybe something in which you specialize. Or ask questions about one certain book. Or teach us about your favorite author through your questions.

You could do really easy ones that you know we’ll all get or really hard ones that will challenge even the best of us.

Once you post your questions and add your link here, be sure to go around and answer the questions posted by everyone else. Remember, no fair Googling! At the end of the week, don’t forget to do another post with the answers to your questions.

And most importantly, have fun!

Monday Musings 6/13/11

What’s at the top of your must-buy list, right now? (or, if you don’t wait — if you’re more impulsive — what books have you recently purchased?)