Let the Games begin...

The Hunger Games Trilogy ★ ★ ★ ★

by Suzanne Collins

I first borrowed The Hunger Games from the library a couple months ago, figuring I'd finally see what all the fuss was about. I didn't like the book immediately; the writing is stark and narrated by a no-nonsense, survival-minded girl. Then the story picked up, and I finished it in two days. The quote from Stephanie Meyer (yes, her) on the back cover about summarizes my experience: “I was so obsessed with this book I had to take it with me out to dinner and hide it under the edge of the table so I wouldn't have to stop reading. The story kept me up for several nights in a row, because even after I was finished, I just lay in bed wide awake thinking about it...”

The Hunger Games is set in North America, in a future where nuclear war has wiped out most of the population. There's a semi-Star Wars (or Firefly, if you like) government in which the Capitol, the victor in the war, tightly controls twelve districts, oppressing the people and punishing the rebellious districts who lost the war by starving them. In addition, every year there are gladiator-type games where two children from each district are sent into the arena to kill each other for public entertainment.

I don't think it's a big spoiler to tell you that the main character, Katniss Everdeen, ends up as a player in the Hunger Games. The first book chronicles her struggle for survival, which includes both avoiding a violent death by her opponents and playing up to the audience to gain favor. More importantly, Katniss struggles to keep her humanity and to deny the Capitol the satisfaction of playing by its rules. Katniss is a rebel at heart, but if she goes too far, the Capitol will kill her and her family without hesitation.

There's an urgent sense of the necessity for survival that runs through the first book. Katniss is quick, clever, and an expert hunter. She's also strong in a way that I think we all wish we could be, and it's impossible not to be on her side and desperately want her to live.

Although the first book is the best of the series, the other two do not disappoint. I never tired of the characters, and there's always a good surprise around the corner for the reader. There are also psychological issues, politics, and more angsty romance than one would expect (but well-written angst), especially in the later books. I honestly can't think of any major issues I have with the series; most bad reviews seem to think the themes are too disturbing... but if you've been through freshman literature, you've read darker stuff.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who wants an intense, seat-gripping, chill-down-the-back-of-your-neck experience.

In Defense of Twilight (by Taara Rangan)

I thought about the way I acted in book club last Friday. I believe that what I said about Twilight and its fans was very inappropriate, and I apologize to anyone who was offended.

As atonement, and as an exercise for myself, I have decided to write my next blog post focusing purely on the positive aspects of Twilight. I have not seen the movie, and I will not review the series, though I have read the other books. Before I begin, here's a quick timeline of my relationship with Twilight (feel free to skip it if you find it uninteresting):

1. I pick up Twilight around 2008,in freshman year. I like it a great deal.
2. I read New Moon and Eclipse shortly afterwards. Although I don't like them quite as much as I liked Twilight, I still like the series as a whole.
3. I read Breaking Dawn over the summer and proceed to become anti-Twilight.
4. I read the leaked chapters of Midnight Sun, which remind me of why I liked Twilight in the first place.
5. I spend both my sophomore and junior year picking out the flaws of the series without really reading the books.
6. In senior year, Meena Vempaty lends me Meyer's latest novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Prior to reading it, I decide to re-read Midnight Sun to understand what drew me to the Twilight series in the first place.

And so, we come to his point. I will only be listing the positive points of Twilight in the following blog post. Please keep in mind that, while I am not directly reviewing the future books, some of my opinions have been colored by the additional character background information I found via the later installments. Here goes:

1. The entirety of Twilight is based around a solid idea. It's genuinely interesting to read about two characters who are both repelled and attracted to one another.
2. Edward Cullen may have roughly a century's worth of experience, but, as later books mention, his sensibilities were frozen in time when he changed into a vampire. So, though he may have the eloquence of someone born several decades earlier than his classmates, he still reacts to situations in the same way that a 17-year-old would. He's slightly awkward, and a little unsure of how to deal with his feelings toward Bella.
3. Alice is so lovable. She's the most excitable little ball of energy in the entire series, and I adore her for that.
4. Sparkling in the sun is a genuinely creative way to get around the rule that vampires can't be seen in the sunlight. I thought (and still think) that was inspired.
5. Back to Edward: he's actually what a lot of girls look for in a boyfriend. He's musical, intelligent, and completely involved in his relationship with Bella. I also enjoy his occasional sarcastic quip: "Afraid of a needle. Oh, a sadistic vampire, intent on torturing her to death, sure, no problem, she runs off to meet him. An IV, on the other hand..."
6. Jacob (pre-wolf) is seriously the most realistic teenager in the novel. He speaks and acts like someone our age, and I have no problem at all picturing him in our high school.

That's it for now! It's been a while since I've actually read the book, so I probably missed quite a few, but I'll add to this list as I think up more reasons.

Invisible in My Pants (doesn't work that well there) by Pete Hautman

I've read other fabulous books by Pete Hautman, but this particular one only merits two stars. While he paints his main character extremely well, the plot is weak.

The main character, Dougie, comes off as a bit disturbing. Even from the beginning of the book, there's something about the way he speaks that seems a bit off. After scanning the chapter, one might notice that he uses contractions sparingly. This is not how normal teenagers talk. When I speak, I swallow about half of my words, unless I'm speaking during speech and debate. Even then, I use the words can't and don't and won't. However, I let this pass. Maybe Hautman's keyboard is mysteriously missing an ' key. Even ignoring the syntax, the way that Pete describes the world around him gives the reader hints that Dougie is not quite alright in the head.

The other character, Andy, is pretty cool. He's the kid who does football, participates in plays, and maintains great grades. He's Dougie's best friend, and the two talk pretty often.

The plot twist, however, is kind of lame. It's one of those moments in which an author attempts to keep the reader in the dark, dropping subtle hints. This would have been effective if the hints were at all subtle. It takes just a couple of chapters to figure out that Andy died a while back, and that Dougie is merely speaking to a figment of his imagination. So, when the plot twist is revealed and Dougie comes to the realization that his friend died in a fire, I wasn't too impressed.

Over all, I wouldn't recommend this book to others, unless you plan to read purely for the characters. That's all.

~Taara

thisisnottom

I finished it. Well, what was there of it. ★★★★★

This is Taara. This is most certainly not Tom. And this is a totally awesome story! (AVPM? Anyone? Anyone? No?) Okay, so the story is told through a series of puzzles. I believe that the most recent chapter is 3.2.1 (I forgot how the numbering system works, but I think there are at least twenty-odd chapters right now.) Unfortunately, the most recent chapter was uploaded ten months ago. John Green says that he wants to continue the project, but he's a little busy right now.

Right, so thisisnottom is not, in fact, about anyone named Tom (at least as far as I can tell). It's about a girl whose name I can recall (but if I recall correctly, she can't recall her name any more than I can) who is apparently an escapee from an underground computer system that uses people as a power source.

I'd love to say more, but it's a bit complex, and it'll ruin the fun. This story, as I said, is locked behind a series of puzzles. Unfortunately, the puzzles are varied and highly complicated, so it's pretty much impossible to get to all the chapters without crowd-sourcing. One of the tacitly acknowledged "rules" of thisisnottom is "never reveal the answer." The Internet, however, will provide you with a series of hints. Best of luck, you guys.

Hint 1: What's missing from the sentence?

http://www.thisisnottom.com/

Looking for Alaska (in My Pants) by John Green

Ummm...★★★★1/2

So, for those of you who read my book review on An Abundance of Katherines (in My Pants), screw it. That book is good, but this book isgreat. (Following Meena's lead, the spoilers will be in white, so you'll have to highlight to get the story.)

I can now proudly say that I have read all of John Green's books. So far. He's coming out with another one. This time with a female protagonist. And a desert island. And a boy. And...I'm going to stop talking about that now and actually write the review of this book. "Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia," after all.

This is John Green's first book. The one that earned him critical acclaim and a heck of a lot of fans. And after reading it, I understand why. The book starts off like a seemingly typical High School Novel. There's a kid who's new to boarding school, and he makes friends with this group of students who are troublemakers but are basically nice people. And there is, in that group, a cleverfunnygorgeous girl who has a penchant for pranks, smoking, drinking, and poetry. Mayhem ensues, and Miles, the main character, becomes more and more infatuated with this cleverfunnygorgeous girl, and she seems to flirt back a bit, despite the fact that she has, as she is constantly reminding him, a boyfriend.

You think you know where this is going. After a bunch of mayhem and pranks and drinking together and sharing each other's life stories, they hook up and everything is happilyeveraftertheend. Right?

Right?

Wrong. If you were paying close attention from the beginning of the book, you noticed the chapters. They're counting down.

One hundred thirty-six days before.

Sixty-seven days before.

Eight days before.

The last day.

You reach that day in the middle of the book. Alaska, the cleverfunnygorgeous girl, wakes early that morning, yelling that "she forgot," then drives off and crashes her car. She is killed instantly. Every page after that is marked as just a day after the event.

The day after.

Twenty-eight days after.

Sixty-two days later.

One hundred thirty-six days after.

Most books just spend the rest of the story telling you about how people were sad, but then they moved on with life and realized that life is beautiful, and get all touchyfeelysentimental. This one...talks about the most EPIC. PRANK. EVER. So brilliant that it could only have been devised by said cleverfunnygorgeous girl. And yes, it is about discovering yourself after someone important passes away, but it does so without being over-the-top.

The reason that this book lost half a star is because a) no book is perfect, b) John Green does have a few stylistic points he could work on in this book, such as c) his dearth of funny, quotable lines, but come on it's d) his first published novel.

One of the real joys, though, is to see how much of himself John Green put's into the book. For example, the book's most famous quote,"Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia," is something that his wife, Sarah Urist Green, actually said to him on their first date. Furthermore, the prank that the gang pulls near the end is actually a prank that John Green pulled with his class when he went to high school. For that video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lht_JH2xi6w. John puts so much of his life into his novels, and it's all the more fun to read them when you can spot the references.

That's all for now! PDBAZ and DFTBA!

~Taara

An Abundance of Katherines (in My Pants) by John Green

If you don't get why I added "in my pants" to the book's title, then I strongly suggest you check out the vlogbrothers on YouTube. I think you've all heard me extol the virtues of John Green enough, so I'll leave that be.

I think I'll start this review off with an anecdote: I took this book with me on my trip to Pittsburgh, and I was reading it on the sofa when my brother noticed the title. Our conversation was as follows (feel free to skip it if you like. I've outlined it in a different color so it's easier to spot.):

Soorya (S): "What's that about?"

Me: "...I'm not really good at summarizing things."

S: "What, you can't just tell me?"

Me (internally): No, Soorya, I cannot. The best books can't be summarized in a blurb. That's what makes them good.

Me (speaking): "It's about this guy who's been dumped by girls named Katherine 19 times, and now he's on a road trip with his friend to cool off after the latest breakup."

S: *snorts* "You actually read that kinda stuff?"

I am fully aware that I did not at all make that book sound cool. I can't. I'm not good at summarizing stories. If you asked me to sum up Harry Potter, I would say, "It's about a boy who never quite fit in to the real world, then found out that he was a wizard and fought the dark forces of evil with his friends." After a summary like that, most sane people would say: "Okay, let me just take a second to grab that clichéd plot by the throat and hurl it off a cliff." However, if you actually read Harry Potter (which, to be honest, you should be doing instead of just getting someone to summarize it for you), you'd know that it's about so much more than that. What makes the book enjoyable is Rowling's attention to characters, the care with which she crafts the world that they live in, and, of course, the occasional madcap quote ("Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!").

It's that same quality that makes An Abundance of Katherines so enjoyable. John Green takes what appears to be just another road-trip-to-discover your true self and fleshes it out with extremely enjoyable characters:

• Colin Singleton: He just graduated high school as valedictorian and is a prodigy who picks up knowledge extremely quickly and retains it. You can follow his thought process in footnotes, which are usually random and extremely tangential. His primary hobby is anagramming, and he does so at every possible opportunity. (The word "dingleberries" is, apparently, an anagrammatic jackpot.) Through his 18 years of life, he has been dumped 19 times, each time by a Katherine.
• Hassan [can't recall his last name at present]: He's an overweight Lebanese Muslim who basically acts as Colin's filter to the outside world. The dude is plenty smart (about Saratoga standard), but no prodigy. He injects most situations with his own awkward sense of humor.
• Lindsey Lee Wells: This girl is kind of interesting because, despite being the female that seems, in all likelihood, as though she's going to end up with Colin, she isn't the typical smartfunnypretty character that one comes to expect in these books. She's a pretty deceptive girl who stays stubbornly unremarkable ("because if nothing good happens to me, at least nothing bad will, either") <---[very, very paraphrased] until near the very end.
• The Other Colin: Lindsey's boyfriend. Oh yes. I said boyfriend. Lindsey is taken, and both seem smitten with each other, the little lovebirds. However, TOC himself seems a rather one-dimensional character. He's kind of the typical jock that people will find in The High School Novel that Meena so despises.
• Katrina: Hoo boy. This one...well, imagine a stick bug. Now imagine a more...buxom, blonde stick bug. That's Katrina. Katrina appears to fit into the typical, aggressively shallow popular girl that one has come to expect of these novels, but then...well, you'll have to read and find out. I won't spoil it for you.

You will be glad to know that the entire story doesn't consist of the two mucking about on the road. Colin is, throughout the story, attempting to work out his great epiphany in life, the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. Colin reasons that people are predictable, and so the future must be just as predictable. He makes a beautifully complicated equation that just gets more and more complicated as the book goes on, eventually fleshing out an equation that could tell a person how long two people would be together, and, more importantly, who would do the dumping.

Even more fun to read are the quotes. I can't even list all the instances at which this book made me laugh out loud, but here are just a few bones I'll toss you:

Colin did not laugh. Instead he thought, Tampons have strings? Why? Of all the major human mysteries - God, the nature of the universe, etc. - he knew the least about tampons. To Colin, tampons were a little bit like grizzly bears: he was aware of their existence, but he'd never seen one in the wild, and didn't really care to.

The moment Colin sat down, Hollis asked Hassan, "Would you like to say grace?"
"Sure thing." Hassan cleared his throat. "Bismallah." Then he picked up his fork.
"That's it?" Hollis wondered.
"That's it. We are terse people. Terse, and also hungry."

That's about it. I know I didn't do the greatest job of summing things up, and I certainly left a lot out to leave the plot unspoiled, but I think it's certainly a book worth reading. I would like to note that this is certainly not John Green's best book, but it's still a nice read, earning a total of ★★★. That's all for now!

~Taara

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ★★★

Hi everyone! So The Book Thief is the first book I read this summer, and I would recommend it highly. Because this novel is set in Nazi Germany, I am glad I read it after I learned about WWI and WWII in World History because I probably wouldn't have understood the book very well otherwise.

The book basically follows the story of Liesel, an German foster child, and her various adventures stealing books with her bff Rudy Steiner. Over the course of the novel, Liesel develops a relationship with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann and their family ends up illegally harboring a Jew.

This book would probably fall under the Historical Fiction category I suppose, and I generally don't read books in this genre. Prior to reading The Book Thief I had the impression that historical fiction novels are boring and textbook-like but this book definitely changed that impression.

My favorite part of this book was how it was narrated by Death. I though that was really creative and I liked how Death would tell the reader about all the different places he went to collect dead people. For example, there was this one passage where he goes the Battle of Stalingrad and picks up alot of people which I found interesting since I had just learned about this battle in World History. Although the narration by Death was my favorite part, it was also my least favorite part in some ways because he always ruined the surprise and told you everything that was going to happen before it happened.

I also felt that the storyline of hiding a Jew in the basement wasn't that original since most books of this time period had a Jew hiding somewhere or the other.

In the end, I would give this book ★★★ 3 stars and recommend it to anyone who has taken World History!

--Parul Singh