It's August!  That means Mockingjay comes out in 22 days!  21 Days, 16 hours, and 18 minutes from right now! :)  (That's the official Scholastic time.)

Here's some fun stuff:

The trailer

Interview with Suzanne Collins

Free download of the Hunger Games audio until 8/4

• August 23rd -- Books of Wonder in New York, NY. See previous post for info.
• August 24th -- Barnes and Noble in Huntington Station, NY.
• August 26th -- The Scholastic Store in New York, NY. Credit goes to My Hunger Games.
• August 26th -- Oblong Books & Music in Millerton, NY.
• August 27th -- First Congregational Church in Madison, CT. Thanks to HGT.Net!
• August 30th -- Borders in Braintree, MA. Credit once again goes to My Hunger Games.
• August 31st -- Wellesley Free Library in Wellesley, MA. Thanks to My Hunger Games.
• September 22nd -- Harleysville Books in Harleysville, PA. Credit to My Hunger Games.
• September 21st -- Barnes and Noble in Fairless Hills, PA.
• October 4th -- Borders in LaGrange, IL. Many thanks to My Hunger Games.
• November 3rd -- Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, CA.
• November 6th -- Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, WA. Thanks again to My Hunger Games.

• August 2nd -- Galleysmith
• August 4th -- SciFiGuy.ca
• August 6th -- WORD for Teens
• August 9th -- GreenBeanTeenQueen
• August 11th -- Dear Author
• August 13th -- Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
• August 16th -- Novel Novice
• August 18th -- Jenn's Bookshelves
• August 20th -- The Compulsive Reader
• August 23rd -- Presenting Lenore
• August 25th -- Mundie Moms
• August 27th -- The Book Smugglers
• August 30th -- Beth Fish Reads

Many thanks to the Official Hunger Games facebook for the sites and dates.

All of my links are from HungerGamesTrilogy.com

Did you see that there is a Hunger Games strategy board game??!! 

Link

That looks cool.  I wonder what the game will be like.

3 more days!

Technically it comes out in 16 hours!  How crazy is that!?!?  It's weird to see the countdown clock with 00 for the days.

In this new video, Suzanne Collins answers five questions about The Hunger Games.

Here's Suzanne Collins reading the first chapter of Mockingjay.  I listened to about 3 minutes of it, but I couldn't handle her terrible attempt at a southern accent.

there are people that already have it!! apparently Amazon preorders are already coming in!

Yeah, it looks like some people got it early and others didn't.  I had an Amazon pre order but decided to cancel it yestereday because it still said expected delivery on 8/26 for me.  I will download the Kindle version after midnight tonight and get a paper copy at Borders sometime tomorrow.

I got notice from Amazon that mine was shipped today. Now I have to start the countdown till it gets here!

Okay, no actual spoilers yet, but I thought this would be a good place to discuss the book as people finish it without spoiling others in the What are you reading? thread.

A friend pre ordered it for my birthday and it's on it's way to me with an expected delivery date of August 25th. ACK! I can't wait that long. *cries*

I just finished it!  No spoilers yet, but I thought it was really good.  I have lots ot think about now!

I checked my pre order from Borders and it was shipped yesterday, expected delivery tomorrow (25th), which is ok by me because I just re read Hunger Games and I'm halfway through Catching Fire!  I wanted to be reminded of the whole story before I begin to read Mockingjay, I wanted the people to be fresh in my mind.  I'm so excited and really glad to take the time to reread them, I'm enjoying them all over again and finding out new little details that must have escaped me the first time.

Yeah, Marilyn, I am really glad I read the first two again before I read Mockingjay.  I think I picked up on more from them, and I picked up on little call backs to the previous books in Mockingjay.

Mere hours before it's here tomorrow. I am so excited! 

My tracking number from Amazon shows delivery date of the 27th! Ughhhh!

I just finished it. I want to say how I felt about it, but I can't do that because I don't want you guys to go into it with any preconceived notions thanks to me. But if anyone else has also finished it and wants to discuss with someone, feel free to PM me.

I was thrilled to find my copy waiting on my doorstep this afternoon.  Therefore I promptly sat down and read until I finished it!  I also don't want to spoil it for anyone, but am itching to discuss it...  I think I'm just disappointed that it's over now.  I want another book

Sara

A review of sorts of Mockingjay.  I really liked this comment - "By the time I finished, the book left me conflicted but satisfied, ruminating on the implications of what I read. Thankfully, it was a virtuoso performance I will not forget in a hurry. And not many books can do that. In a sense, young-adult literature has some startlingly powerful messages to deliver, even branded for a younger generation."

I am so upset, I pre ordered the book from Borders last May and they didn't even ship it until the 26th, needless to say it is Sunday and I don't have my book yet!  I am so ready to read this, it makes me very sad that Borders handled it this way.  They printed the stupid shipping lable on the 24rd, but didn't ship until 3 days later.  I will never pre order from them again.

I have my copy of Mockingjay in my hot little hands, but I'd love it if one or more of you could give me a little recap of Catching Fire.  I traded away my copy & I don't want to wait until I can borrow DD's copy (might not see her for a week or more), so please...any reminders about how Bk. 2 ended before I begin Bk 3?

That's so weird Marilyn! A friend pre ordered it for my birthday a couple weeks ago and it shipped on Monday and I had it Wednesday. We were on vacation for 3 days, so not a lot of time to read, but I am almost done with it. 

Leslie, the end of Catching Fire: During the Games, Katniss and Peeta join up with two other victors, Finnick, a 24-year-old man who successfully survived the Games at the age of 14, and Mags, an 80-year-old woman, both from District 4. After Mags' death, Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick join forces with Johanna Mason, a sarcastic and often cruel victor from District 7, and Beetee and Wiress, an older couple from District 3 who are said to be "exceptionally smart". Wiress soon proves her genius by revealing to Katniss that the arena is arranged like a clock, with all of the arena's disasters occurring on a timed chart. After Wiress is killed, Katniss learns of Beetee's plan to harness lightning in order to supposedly electrocute two other contenders. In the final chapters, Katniss directs the lighting at the force field that contains the arena, thereby destroying the arena and resulting in her temporary paralysis. When she wakes up she is being transported to District 13, a place that is widely thought to no longer exist. She is joined by Finnick, Beetee, Gale and Haymitch but learns that Peeta, Johanna and Enobaria (Johanna was the only one to be aware of the plan) have been captured by the Capitol. Katniss is informed that there had been a plan between most of the contestants to break out of the arena, and that Beetee had been attempting to destroy the force field in the same way that she did. The book ends with Katniss's best friend Gale informing her that though he got her family out in time, District 12 has been destroyed.

Oh my. My, my, my. Spoilers ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you.  I honestly can't believe Prim died. I mean, I get why Collins did it. It really makes sense to the story, but out of everyone I thought she was the 'safest' especially out of Gale and Peeta. 

Jenna, thank you, thank you, thank you!