I loved every single book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I was expecting another cheesy, sappy love story young adult book. I was so wrong. These books are seriously brutal at times and are a testament to the folks who cannot overcome poverty because the government won't let them. I can't describe it well enough to do it justice. I have read a lot of books in my time, mostly supernatural/scifi/fantasy/horror, and this trilogy made my top 10. I apologize if I've talked it up too much and set your expectations too high
I began reading the Song of Ice and Fire series in 2000, just a bit after the third book was released. Martin didn't release the next book until 2005 and the 5th book was released just last year. It is a testament to how awesome those books are that I didn't give up on them with such a huge gap between them. I don't know how far into the series you are, but the show is so true to the books. I have never seen a television show or a movie that was based on a book that followed the real story so closely. True Blood, Legend of the Seeker, The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle are all examples of shows that absolutely butchered the books they were based on. All of them, with the exception of Legend of the Seeker, are good enough shows to make up for it. Well, I still haven't made up my mind on The Secret Circle, but I'm holding out hope that it will improve since I read the books countless times when I was a teenager.
Speaking of True Blood, if you guys like the show, you'll like the books. Unless you're not comfortable reading a steamy romance novel. The series is more than just a bodice ripper, though. The story is really compelling, the characters are a lot more likable than in the show (True Blood Sookie annoys me) and the mysteries are very well executed. The books are short, too, so you shouldn't have a hard time catching up. I can read one in a day easily. I have read the series several times but I'm a serial reader

Charlaine Harris is really good about releasing a new book every year, which is a big plus. The books are just about as brutal and crude as the show, too.
On a side note, if you like the show The Walking Dead, you would really enjoy the comics. I read all of them recently along with Rise of the Governor which is a novel created by the guys who made the comics and covers the history of the character called the Governor, which is the villain in the upcoming season of the show. All of them were amazing. I managed to save money by borrowing all of them from a comic book geek friend that was a fan of the series before the show came out, lol! The show follows the comics fairly well, but not so much that it is pointless to read the comics. The characters have quite different personalities, but I think the show wants show a character evolution to make it more interesting for the average viewer. The story is a lot darker and definitely more violent and NC-17 than the show. I highly recommend it. The volumes can be downloaded as apps for both Android devices as well as ipod/ipad apps and have several comics in each of them. They're cheaper than buying each comic separately or buying the physical copies of the series.
That's it for today. Join me next time when I write 5000 words about the merits of dog earing your pages instead of using bookmarks, which are for wimps

Typed this on my tablet, too. My poor thumbs!