The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Published in 2008. 374 pages.


Midway through 2009, I'd heard such good things about The Hunger Games that I recommended it to my "book lunch girls" without actually having read it myself. I think we all loved it, as did both of my teenage daughters. Later in the year, I picked The Hunger Games for my book club too. Again, it was a hit - even with those that had been skeptical.

I've since read the sequel Catching Fire - which won 2009 Goodreads Choice Awards for both Favorite Book and Young Adult Series - and I'm eagerly awaiting the third book in the trilogy.

There were three topics of discussion that I raised with my book club:

• What did you think about the characters of the book? Were they believable? Who were your favorites? Are you "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale"?
• What does The Hunger Games imply about present society's obsession with "reality games"? And is there other social commentary in the novel we should consider?
• What does The Hunger Games teach about the impact of choice, about right and wrong? Specifically, what did you think about some of Katniss's choices during the games?

If perchance you haven't yet read The Hunger Games, by all means, do it now!

2009.37

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Published in 2008. 422 pages.


This was the third of Dessen's books that I've read. (I recently finished my fourth, Keeping the Moon, as well, and I've also started That Summer.)

I really liked Lock and Key. I'd heard someone say that the ending was disappointing, so I was expecting that - but I thought the the ending was terrific. It gives hope for the future, but uncertainty too - so we can imagine it in a lot of different ways (or Dessen can write about it, which I would love).

I like Dessen's writing style, especially that it's easy to read. She doesn't avoid difficult topics, but she isn't in-your-face about them. I like the symbolism and metaphors.

Check out some additional information about Lock and Key on Dessen's website.

2009.51

An Abundance of Katherinesby John Green

Published in 2006. 215 pages.
2007 Printz Honor Book.


From the book jacket: Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself by Printz medalist John Green.

For my inner geek: As one might deduce from the cover, math plays a role in the plot of this young adult novel, as protagonist Colin Singleton works to devise a Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. (There is an appendix by mathematician Daniel Bliss that expounds upon the mathematics of the Theorem.) Colin is also a master of anagrams and a lover of trivia, much of which ends up in periodic footnotes.

For the Dewey's Books Reading Challenge: Dewey wrote a review of An Abundance of Katherines in 2008. Two challenge participants who have also reviewed it are raidergirl3 and Bart.

All in all, a fun read!

2009.7

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Published in 2005. 552 pages.
2007 Printz Honor Book.


The Book Thief, which was Salt Lake County's 2008 "One County, One Book" selection, has been on my to-read list for ages! Because it was January's pick for Becky's Online Reading Group, I decided that that would be the month I'd finally read it. When my friend and colleague Natalie decided she wanted to do a "book lunch" group and picked The Book Thief as the first book, I definitely had to get it read - and I did. Now - more than three months later - I'm finally getting my review posted.

While I didn't find the book to be the "life-changing" experience that some have, I did like it a lot. The characters are fabulous - including Liesel (the book thief of the title), her foster parents, her best friend Rudy (who wants to grow up to be Jesse Owens), the reclusive mayor's wife (who has a fabulous library), and Max (the young Jewish man that Leisel's family hides in their basement)! I loved discovering the various layers of who each of them were as the book progressed.

What I loved the most was the message of the power of words, both for good and for evil. In author Markus Zusak's words, from "A Reader's Guide" at the end of the paperback version of the book:

I ... realized the importance of words in Nazi Germany. I thought of Hitler destroying people with words, and now I had a girl who was stealing them back, as she read books with the young Jewish man in her basement and calmed people down in the bomb shelters. She writes her own story - and it's a beautiful story - through the ugliness of the world that surrounds her.

2009.5

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Originally published in 1974.
Unabridged audio book published in 1993;
narrated by George Guidall.


This book has been described as "a brilliant, unflinching portrait of vicious mob cruelty and conformity in an exclusive prep school."

I think my expectations of The Chocolate War were too high. Although I found parts of the novel to have been brilliantly conceived - particularly the idea that something as banal as chocolate could be the cause of so much violence - the whole thing just didn't come together for me. I wanted to go away with some new insight or having been changed in some way. That just didn't happen.

The book has been widely challenged over the years. The book is second on the American Library Association's list of the 10 most challenged books of 2007. The reasons given are as follows: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence.

While I didn't find The Chocolate War to be all I wanted it to be, I'm still glad I read it. First, I think it's worthwhile to read books that are considered to be "classics." Second, it's important to me that I be allowed to judge a book for myself and not let those who would decide what is "good" or "appropriate" for me - and the rest of us - to do that.

Other book bloggers' reviews of The Chocolate War: If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

• raidergirl3 (April 30, 2008)

2008.64

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlistby Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Published in 2006. 183 pages.


First sentence: The day begins in the middle of the night.

Last words: Ready. Set. Jump.

Plot summary (from the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data): High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.

Why I read this book: In and of itself, the "gimmick" of this book - that authors Cohn and Levithan alternately wrote from the viewpoints of Norah and Nick, respectively - intrigued me. That it's a YA romance with a musical bent sealed the deal. I requested the book from my local library, fully expecting to fall in love with it.

What I loved about this book: Both Norah and Nick are likable characters, and I thoroughly enjoyed their "voices" and their interaction. The alternating viewpoint thing met my every expectation. The romance is sweet; I laughed out loud a few times; and the occasional dips into something more serious were meaningful to me.

A favorite "serious" passage: Nick asks Norah, "What are your favorite things about [being Jewish]?" Norah tells him about the concept of tikkun olam, which, as she explains it, is the idea

that the world has been broken into pieces. All this chaos, all this discord. And our job - everyone's job - is to try to put the pieces back together. To make things whole again.

As they sit and ponder the concept a little, Nick gets a bit of inspiration:

"Maybe we're the pieces," I say.

Norah's head doesn't move from my arm. "What?" she asks. I can tell from her voice that her eyes are still closed.

"Maybe that's it," I say gently. "With what you were talking about before. The world being broken. Maybe it isn't that we're supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we're the pieces."

She doesn't reply, but I can tell she's listening carefully. I feel like I'm understanding something for the first time, even if I'm not entirely sure what it is yet.

"Maybe," I say, "what we're supposed to do is come together. That's how we stop the breaking."

Tikkum olam.

What I could have done without: Norah admits to having a "potty mouth" but the continuous profanity from both Norah and Nick as well as other characters in the book - especially their use of the f-word - made me uncomfortable. While I don't object to some "contemporary" language in the books I read - and I will say that it's the characters and plot of the book, not the bad language, that have stuck with me in the couple of weeks since I finished reading - I still don't think that it was necessary. I definitely wouldn't have missed it at all.

Two additional things: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is going to be a movie on October 3. (I'm almost thinking that I might like the movie better than the book simply because of the language restrictions. For example, in the movie, Nick's band is called "The Jerk Offs" instead of what it's called in the book.) Nick and Norah have a website at Random House.

Other book bloggers' reviews of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist: If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

• raidergirl3 (March 8, 2008)


• lisa (August 19, 2007)

2008.49

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Published in 1999. 198 pages.
2000 Printz Honor Book.


First sentence: It is my first morning of high school.

Last sentence: "Let me tell you about it."

Basic storyline: A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.

Why I read this book: I put this book on my to-read list last year when I found out about Laurie Halse Anderson's work at The Hidden Side of a Leaf. (Here is Dewey's 2006 review of Speak.) I even picked the book up at the library, but other things took priority and I didn't get to it before I had to return it. As I was compiling 2008 challenge lists, I put Speak on my lists for the Cardathon, the Printz Award Challenge, Every Month is a Holiday, and the Young Adult Challenge. I was determined to read Speak at some point this year! Luckily for me, the host of my IRL book club choose Speak for our April group meeting - and the rest is history.

Why I loved this book: There are several reasons why I really loved this book. First, Melinda's voice is the perfect mix of sarcastic wit and honest pain. She is just so "real." Second, the subtle symbolism and literary references were so great. My favorite was a poster of Maya Angelou on the door of Melinda's secret hide-away; like Melinda, Angelou suffered a trauma as a child and stopped speaking for a time. Third, Anderson's writing is just so powerful. Here is a passage that my IRL book group host particularly liked:

Our frog lies on her back. Waiting for a prince to come and princessify her with a smooch? I stand over her with my knife. Ms. Keen's voice fades to a mosquito whine. My throat closes off. It is hard to breather. I put out my hand to steady myself against the table. David pins her froggy hands to the dissection tray. He spreads her froggy legs and pins her froggy feet. I have to slice open her belly. She doesn't say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut - I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, leaves in my hair.

Finally, I loved this book because it deals with a serious, important issue with such humor.

A note about censorship: Because of its controversial subject matter, Speak has been challenged in a number of schools. The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) reports that "according to Anderson, in almost all the challenges she has heard about, the book remained in the curriculum." Read more about the challenges Speak faces and about Anderson's efforts to fight censorship at The Banned Books Project. (One of the posts there about Speak is mine.)

2008.23

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Published in 2005. 425 pages.


First Line: The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.

Why I Chose This Book: My daughter Jelly Bean had read this young adult novel and recommended it to me, so when I saw it on Faith's List in the "Something About Me" Challenge, I jumped at the chance to "have to" read it. More recently I put Scott Westerfeld on my preliminary list for the Unread Authors Challenge, so reading this book counts "double."

What I Thought of This Book: This was a great read! Compelling and quick-moving, I had fun with this tale of a dystopian society. At the same time, I appreciated so much its message about beauty and body image - a particularly good topic for teens to think about.

For More Information: Scott Westerfeld's website is here. I particularly enjoyed the transcript of an interview he did about Uglies (find it here).

What Is Next: Uglies is the first in a trilogy - and it ends with a cliff hanger - so I've definitely got to read books two and three, Pretties and Specials. Jelly Bean also tells me that her favorite of Westerfeld's books is the Midnighters trilogy - so I'm going to have to put those on my to-be-read list as well.

FYI: As soon as I have time, I'll be posting about Uglies on both the Something About Me Challenge blog (click here) and the Unread Authors Challenge blog (click here) too.

2007.55