Cordelia's Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold

I absolutely loved our bookclub's most recent pick, Cordelia's Honor. It is the story of Captain Cordelia Naismith, a scientist/explorer in the mold of Star Trek's Captain Janeway - kind, strong, resourceful, compassionate, and with a powerful moral compass. Cordelia is enjoying a routine survey mission to an unclaimed planet when she and her crew are attacked by a squad of Barrayans, a militant race with a revered warrior caste, the Vor. She is taken prisoner by their honorable commander, Aral Vorkosigan, and the two unexpectedly fall in love. Eventually, Cordelia returns with him to Barrayar as Lady Vorkosigan, where the two are swept up in intergalactic politics and domestic revolution. Powerfully written, with interesting reflections on war, love, gender dynamics, and the stigma of disability. Not your typical romance novel.

Red Rising - Pierce Brown

My bookclub's April pick is Pierce Brown's Red Rising (see our full calendar here). When I first picked up this book, I was turned off by the clunky, dialect-heavy feel of the dystopian Mars mining colony - it reminded me a bit of the feral children's irritating ramblings in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome about "tomorrow-morrow land."

"I's looking behind us now, into history back."

However, the book's scope explodes beyond this point, and I became very engrossed in its exploration of the themes of social control, exploitation, and revolution.

Personally, I thought the movie Hunger Games was insipid, but I would recommend this book to HG fans, and any other survival enthusiasts.