TGIF, Blog Hop, and Follow Friday!

Hello everyone and welcome to the weekend!  I never thought it'd get here...

The Blog Hop Question

Summer is coming quickly (though not quick enough, it feels like)-- what 2011 summer releases are you most looking forward to?

I have a wee list for you!  I'll put pictures and then put links to their Good Reads pages.

1. "The Art of Forgetting" by Camille Noe Pagan

2. "The Things We Cherished" by Pam Jenoff

3. "She Loves You, She Loves You Not..." by Julie Anne Peters

4. "Before Ever After" by Samantha Sotto

5. "Unsaid" by Neil Abramson

The TGIF Question

Stand Alone Vs. Series: What's your stance?

I'm pretty neutral when it comes to which kind of book I prefer.  They both have their pros and cons.  In a series, you get to know a number of characters very well.  In a stand alone, the author has to be a spectacular writer to pull this off well.  In a stand alone, if it's good, there's no danger of it being ruined by a bad sequel (it's very much like movie sequels).  In a series, the author has a lot to live up to if his or her first installment was absolutely phenomenal.  Stand alone novels are nice because they are stories you don't necessarily have to wonder about afterwards.  They have a handful of great feelings and central points that you can ponder later.  In a series, the central points can be so plentiful and they can vary from book to book, those themes and feelings and ideas can drown each other out or lose balance with each other and make it so that you miss several things the first time you read it.  On the other hand, this ensures that you're reading a different novel, in a manner of speaking, every time you pick up one of that series.  So I'm pretty even-keel when it comes to Stand Alone books and Series novels.  Both are equally great and horrid, it just depends on what kind of story is being told.

The Follow Friday Question

Keeping with the dystopian and apocalypse theme that seems to be running rampant on parajunkee.com, I have one very hard question for you: If you were stocking your bomb shelter, what books would you HAVE to include if you only had space for ten?

1. "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (to have something to think about whilst the bombs are going off)

2-8. Harry Potter 1-7 (something to entertain me, something to guide me in survival, etc.  Harry Potter has tons of uses!)

9. "The Hunger Games" (for obvious reasons, if you've read it)

10. H.G. Wells Anthology (just in case of alien attacks)

So that's it for me!  But how about you guys?  I would love to read your answers!  Leave a comment and your web address below and I'll at least respond to you in the comments if not visit you.  Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

--Jude