Our Hunger Games Giveaway closed last week-end, and we have a winner to announce!

The winner of The Hunger Games Giveaway is:
Theo

(An email will be coming your way Theo.)

We really appreciate each and every one of you, and to show you just how much we enjoy your visits to our blog we have more great giveaways coming soon!

Be sure to check back in tomorrow when WAGB kicks off it’s holiday Advent Calendar! We’ll have a lot of great things coming your way for the whole month of December!

Thank-you so much for visiting With a Good Book.

*Winner was selected using Random.org

Our November Book Club selection The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, was the 2nd book from our “Can’t Put it Down” poll held back in September. This interesting and fast-paced story

There weren’t too many discussion questions available for The Iron King, so we’ve had to come up with a few of our own.  Please don’t limit yourself to our questions though! We always want to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to bring up anything you would like to discuss about the book. Veering off topic is encouraged here!

The Iron King Discussion Questions

1. Did you enjoy The Iron King? Will you read more of the Iron Fey series?

2. The Iron King puts an interesting twist on the Faery genre by blending technology and mechanical characters into the Fey world. How did you feel about this variation?

3. Did you find Meghan to be a likeable heroine? Why or why not?

4. The Iron King features a variety of interesting supporting characters. Which was your favorite? Why?

5. Did you like the fact that Kagawa ‘borrowed’ some of her personalities from other stories, or would you have preferred an original cast?

6. What other Faery books would you recommend?

And this great question comes from Blog With Bite:

You may remember that back in the Spring Rae and I spent a day at Universal Studios where we got a glimpse of the (then) soon-to-be-opened Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We shared a few pics of what we could see from outside the walls that keep the muggles out, but it was really just a tease.

I’m very happy to report that as promised, we have returned to the magical land of all things Potter and have many more exciting pics to share with you! Since Potter mania is high right now with the release of HP 7-1, I figured this would be a great time to share the wonders of Wizarding World with you!

Due to the fact that I took way too many pictures, we’ll do this in two posts. Today’s pics feature the castle and grounds, next week I’ll share some amazing photos of Diagon Alley.

So, without further delay, come with us for a little virtual trip to Hogwarts!

Like any witch or wizard, we arrived at Hogwarts via
Platform 9-3/4 and the Hogwarts Express.

As we made our way to the castle, we found
the Weasley’s flying car still stuck in the forest.

We also passed by Hagrid’s Hut.

Where Buckbeak was curled up in his nest.

And then…

Welcome to Hogwarts!

Once inside the castle, we came across many exciting things. Like…

the House Points Hourglass that keeps track of who will win the House Cup.
(Looks like Gryffindor is in the lead!)

We passed through the Hall of Portraits.
(And yes, many of them were moving and talking!)

Everyone knows that you need to take the Phoenix Elevator…

if you want to get to Dumbledore’s Office!

Back outside the castle, we were lucky enough to catch
a performance by the Hogwarts Choir.

And there were even a few students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang
on hand for a little show of their magical skills!

And this concludes our tour of the castle and grounds! What do you think? Would you enjoy spending time at Hogwarts?  What would you love to see the most?

If you have ANY questions about Wizarding World or would like to see any of the pictures in more detail, just let us know in the comments below!

Now that Remembrance Day is almost upon us, I figure I should get around to announcing our Halloween Giveaway winner! In case you’ve forgotten, our Grave Reads Giveaway offered up book 1 and 2 of the Harper Connelly series by popular Sookie Stackhouse author,  Charlaine Harris.

The winner of the Grave Reads Giveaway is: Marcie

(An email will be coming your way Marcie.)

We really appreciate each and every one of you, and to show you just how much we enjoy your visits to our blog, we have another great giveaway already on the go! To win a copy of our October Book Club selection The Hunger Games, just share your thoughts on casting the movie!

Thank-you so much for visiting With a Good Book.
*Winner was selected with Random.org

This Friday we have another great giveaway for you! (Yes, we still have to announce the winner from the Grave Reads Giveaway. It’s coming soon, I promise.) This time we’re giving away one gently used copy of our October Book Club selection, The Hunger Games! It turns out Rae loved the book SO much that after she replaced her paperback copy with a hardcover. So now we’re passing the extra copy along to you!

Since it’s Friday we thought we’d have a little fun to go along with our Giveaway, so we’re going to play a little game called Novel Casting!

As some of you may be aware, we’re not big on many of the casting choices going around the interwebs for The Hunger Games movie, so we thought it would be fun to try our hands at casting the movie.

All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is share some of your Hunger Games casting choices in the comments below! And since everybody loves an extra entry here’s how to get ‘em!

• Cast 1 character = 1 entry
• Cast 3 characters = 2 entries
• Cast 5 characters = 3 entries

*Serious entries only please! (Just because you love Lauren Graham doesn’t mean she could play the role of Katniss.)

To get things started, I’ll share who starred in the role of Katniss in my head while I was reading the books… it was Emmy Rossum.  Of course, this was based primarily on looks as I’m not overly familiar with her work. I also think Emma Roberts fits the bill appearance wise, and she’s a little closer to the right age for Katniss.

Who would you like to see take on some of the roles in The Hunger Games movie? Share your thoughts below AND get entered in the giveaway!

Giveaway closes: Sunday, November 21, 2010 at midnight.

If you don’t want another copy of the book, you can still play along in the comments below, just let us know you don’t want to be entered in the giveaway.

Our November WAGB Book Club selection is The Iron King by Julie Kagawa.  I’ve read this one and quite enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to revisiting it and hearing what my fellow book lovers have to say about it! If you’d like to learn more about the book, you can check out my review here.

As you may remember, back in September we had a poll to help us pick our next Book Club selection. Because all the books in the poll were popular, we decided to use each of them as an upcoming Book Club selection! To help those of you who are looking to reserve the selections from the Library (or just organizing your TBR list), here are the selections for the next few months:

December – Stay tuned… we’ll be selecting a holiday book for December!

January – The Duff by Kody Keplinger (Put it on your holiday wish list!)

February – The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg (Perfect timing, the paperback comes out in January!)

You don’t have to have read the book this month to join in the discussion, as long as you’ve read it at some point!  Check back during the last week of November for The Iron King discussion post.