like reading... or writing. But definitely not staring at my stomach waiting for the baby to move.

How exciting - my first book for this challenge arrived today, If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Having read the blurb and the cover reviews, I am really looking forward to reading it. Yesterday, I watched The Lovely Bones and this is supposed to be very much in the vein of that book. I really hope I'm not disappointed. I have found that, lately, I have picked up books and anticipated a really good read only to finish them feeling a little cheated. The blurb and the cover promised an exciting, thought-provoking, interesting read but the reality was much different.

One book that definitely did not leave me feeling this way was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Fantastic. I read it in a day - eating my breakfast, delaying my lunch. I was completely captivated by the world she had created, the characters and their lives, the concept of a government controlling it's people by holding annual games whose end result was a child victor who had, in all likelihood, killed other children in a primal quest for survival. I cannot wait to read the next book in this trilogy - at the end of this book, I actually said out loud, 'No. No, no, it can't end there.' Such disappointment - but in a very good way.

Anyway, I digress from the Summer Reading Challenge - the other three books on my list are:

After You - Julie Buxbaum
Lockdown - Sean Black
Prep - Curtis Sittenfeld

I will aim to get If I Stay read and reviewed by the end of next weekend, however I do have quite a reading/writing list to be getting on with. Critiquing a friend's book, reading my book group book in time for meeting two weeks today, redrafting my own book (again), reading library book due back on Friday (I should probably start reading it. Or renew it at least).

Oh, and a recommendation  - the Into the Wild soundtrack is amazing. I can't believe it's taken me such a long time to get round to buying it. I love it. And I think the baby rather likes it too. Eddie Vedder is genius - if you like the slower, more acoustic Pearl Jam stuff, you should give this a go. Incidentally, the film is rather good too and I bet the book is outstanding. But I really don't have time to add this to my reading list too. Do I?