2016 Challenge - Book 8, The Plague

For Book 8 I chose

The Plague

Under the category:  A Book by a Nobel Peace Prize Winning Author

This book was about a bubonic plague that struck a North African town called Oran.  The people in the town ignore the signs that what is going on is a plague until over 300 people are dying a day.  A Dr. Rieux finally convinces the town's authorities that there is definitely a problem and they gate off the town.  No one can come in and no one can come out.  Dr. Rieux has just sent his unwell wife off to a sanatorium before the plaque broke out, and now his mother - who he called to help him in his wife's absence - is in the town with him.  Dr. Rieux and several of his companions work 20 hours a day to try and help, but what really happens is they watch helplessly as 100's of people die.  In the end - not all of the main characters survive the plague, but the town does come out on the other side and opens its gates once again.

This is a pretty good book.  It took me awhile to get into it because it is intense.  I found that like some other books, I couldn't have the TV on in the background or I found myself re-reading passages several times.  It was not a difficult book, it just requires your full attention.  The main characters are great, and each of them struggles to find the meaning in the plague.  The book makes you think about what you would do if the plague to place in your own town.  Would you try your best to get past the gate and get out (like one character did)?  Would you hide?  Would you help?  These days we live in a world of immediate over reaction, that I wonder what the majority of people would do in this case.

I think it is a book worth reading.  It is an old book, but I recommend picking it up and making it one of those books you read in your lifetime.

Stars:  4

2016 Book Challenge - Book 7, Looking For Alaska

Book 7 was

Looking for Alaska

This was under the category:  A  Book Less Than 300 Pages

This is a story of Miles (who gets nicknamed Pudge in the book) who goes off to a boarding school in Alabama.  He didn't have much of a social life in high school, and he was glad for the change.  His new roommate Chip (nicknamed "The Colonel) is a super smart, poor boy who loves to prank others.  Alaska, is the beautiful, tortured girl that Miles falls for.  He, Chip and Alaska quickly become friends (along with another guy), and for the first time, Miles has friends he can count on.  Then a tragedy occurs leaves the circle of friends rocked to their core.  They are left in grief and confusion and spend the rest of the school year trying to figure out "Why".

This was a pretty good book.  I loved "A Fault in Our Stars" and how John Green wrote.  So many great lines in that book.  This is his first book, so I didn't hold it to high expectations.  IT was enjoyable, and very short.  It is a Young Adult book, and I did find myself rolling my eyes at some of the things the teenage characters said and did.  The Colonel (Chip) was my favorite character in the book.  He was funny, and had some of the best lines.  Alaska was a bit of a tease and really not that developed of a character as you would expect.  The characters just didn't really act their age.  Sometimes they acted quite a bit older and said things you know no teenager would ever say.  And other times, they were so immature you thought they were more middle school aged.  It was all over the place.

You do know something big is coming from the beginning of the story - you just don't know what it is.  I have to say, when I got there, I was surprised.  Well, when I got NEAR there, I was surprised.  There were a few hints a few pages before, and I had my theory.  But at the beginning (the titles are called "180 days before.....76 days before......") I wasn't sure what was coming.  True love?  Expelled from school?  The author did well keeping it a secret.

I am a little torn.  There were parts I liked, and parts I didn't.  I found myself skipping small parts of the book and thinking "yeah yeah yeah".    If you like John Green, and are looking for a quick read, then give it a try.  It isn't terrible.  And you may find it better than I did.  It did get 4000 reviews on Amazon, and 86% of them were 4 or 5 stars.  So there is that.

Stars:  3 1/2

2016 Challenge - book 6, Fish In A Tree

A long weekend with a small snow storm means lots of time for reading.

The book I am reviewing today is called:  Fish in a Tree

This was under the category:  A Book With a Metaphor in the Title

This book is based on the quote "Everybody is smart in different ways.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believe it is stupid".  The main character is a 6th grader named Ally.  She has spent her whole life struggling to read.  Instead of admitting she has a problem, or knowing that she isn't dumb, she just needs help - she avoids school work to the point of getting into trouble.  She doesn't have any friends, and the class bully has it out for her.  Her teacher leaves on maternity leave, and in comes a new teacher - a Mr. Daniels.  He realizes right away that something is wrong with Ally and starts to get her the help she needs.  Ally starts to make friends - a tough girl named Keisha and a smart boy named Albert.  She gains confidence, and she realizes that it is okay to be different.

This was a great book.  It had a valuable lesson.  It shows that some kids who have an underlying diagnosable problem can be labeled as "trouble makers" and never given the help they actually need.  But when that help is given, they thrive and become the people they are supposed to be.

It made me think a lot about Finley's teacher that she had last year, Mrs. Holm.  For two years, Mrs. Holm made Finley the person we knew she was underneath all the anxiety and worry.  She gave her the tools she needed to become a confident learner, and showed Finley that she isn't alone in her struggles.  That there are adults that will be there to help.  Good friends that will be by your side.  We will always be grateful for that.

I really liked this book.  It wasn't a very long book, and it was written on a level for you tween/teen.  (my daughter, Arlington said their teacher read it to them in class).  But the message was great, and I recommend it.

STars:  4

2016 Challenge - book 5, Fangirl

The book I am going to review today is

Fangirl

This book is under the category:  A Book That Takes Place in a College/University Setting

This book is about a set of twins named Cath and Wren.  They are going off to college for the first time.  Wren - a free spirit who wants independence, tells Cath she doesn't want to be roomates at college.  Cath, who is an introvert who writes fanfiction about characters in her favorite book, is now completely on her own and terrified.  She ends up with a roommate she isn't sure likes her and her boyfriend that is always around.  She is taking a junior level Fiction Writing class with a professor that hates fanfiction.  And she hasn't made any friends.  She spends most of her time worrying about her dad who has been alone since their mom left when Cath and Wren were 8, and he has a diagnosed bipolar disorder.  Cath is not sure she can survive without her sister by her side and not even sure she wants to.

The book is pretty fun.  I read Eleanor and Park - another one of Rainbow's books - last year, and really enjoyed it.  This book did not disappoint.  Yes, it is a YA novel.  I read quite a few of those actually.  Mostly because they are easy reads, but also because a lot of Arlington (my almost 13 year old daughter) has friends that read these books, and I want to see if they are appropriate for her age group.  This one I would say is/isn't.  I am not really ready for her to read books with so much language in them.  (although, she would tell you she hears it each day on the bus).  But other than that - it is PG-13 material.

Cath - the the main character - makes you want to punch her in the face.  Just a little bit.  She is witty, but she is also a total hermit.  She doesn't smile much, she doesn't socialize, she barely talks.  She is stuck in a fanfiction world of a book series that would be like Harry Potter in her world.  She wants to be a writer, but she only wants to be a fanfiction writer because it is easier than coming up with her own ideas.  She chooses not to do a project for her Fiction Writing class because she just doesn't feel like it.  Seems a bit......immature.  She is 18, but I don't know.  I would be horrified if I didn't do a project in college - would never have thought about never turning it in at least.  

There is a love story.  And it is a pretty great one.  The boy she falls for is a great guy, and you are rooting for him the entire time she is deciding how she feels about him.  And there is family struggle.  These girls have a lot of deep seeded issues since their mom left, and they start to surface in full force now that they are alone in college and trying to figure things out without the other twin to lean on.

I recommend the book.  It had some really funny lines, and it was a pretty easy read.  Check it out.

Stars: 4

2016 Book Challenge - Book 4, A Thousand Splendid Suns

This is the most I have read in the month of January.  I am proud of myself!

The book I am going to review today is:

A Thousand Splended Suns

This is in the category:  A Book With Weather in the Title

This book covers 30 years of time in Afghanistan.  The story is mainly about two women named Mariam and Laila and it follows them from childhood to adult hood.  The book starts with the Soviet invasion and ends with the overthrow of the Taliban.  The women are separated in age by about 14 years, but when Laila becomes a teenager, they are thrown together in a situation that brings them from being enemies to sisters.  Along the way there is love, heartache, and death in both of their lives.

It is hard to describe too much about this book without giving away the plot, but I think this might be my favorite book of this year.  It is going to be hard to beat, and it is only January.  The Kite Runner was magnificent and ended up being my favorite book last year, and this book as equally as good.  I had a hard time putting it down wanting to read just one more chapter.  There is a love story for Laila that you fight for when the boy she loves is torn away from her.  There is heartache for Mariam that you wish she could escape from, but she never can.  And you learn a lot about what it was like for Afghani women during this time and are thankful for living where you do.

Run to get this book.  It is a must read.

Stars: 5

2016 Challenge - Book 3, Slaughterhouse Five

3 down, 47 to go.

Today I am going to review Slaughterhouse Five

It was under the category: A Book Involving War

This book follows Billy Pilgrim - a soldier who believes he was abducted by aliens.  He believes that through these aliens he has learned to time travel forward and backward throughout his life.   Many times he travels back to World War II where he was a prisoner of war and held in slaughterhouse five in Dresden, Germany.  We learn about his life as a child, whom he married, that he became an optometrist in a successful practice, and where he was when he died.

There are many true aspects of this novel mixed in with the fiction.  The author of this book was held POW in Dresden.  Over 100,000 citizens were killed there in a bombing, and he survived as a prisoner.   The main theme of this book seems to be fate.  The author speaks of it several times.  The aliens speak of it as well.  They tell the main character, Billy, that they know how the world will end, but they will do nothing to stop it.

I thought it was a pretty great book.  Not something I would have ever picked outside of this challenge because the title - just not sure what I was going to read.  But I really liked it.  It is a pretty short book (only 215 pages), so I may re-read it again someday.  It was a great book about time, space travel, death, war, and human behavior.  I hear there is a movie, so I might give that a try.

Stars:  4 1/2

2016 Challenge - Book 2, Jennifer Government

Another book down!  This one was an easy read, so I was able to finish it quickly.

This book was  Jennifer Government

This was under the category:  A Book with a Name in the Title

  This is a world where there are no more taxes and the government has been privatized.   The employees take the name of the company they work for (for example - Hayley McDonalds and John Nike) and when they change jobs, their last names change as well.  Jennifer Government, well, works for the government.  Jennifer is a single mom and a government agent who has to get funding before she can fight crime (if you want your lost loved one found, or a crime solved, you have to pay the government to do it)  In this world, the US controls not only the western hemisphere, but also Australia, England and Japan.  The plot goes from Australia to London to US and back again trying to chase a cyberterrorist and people who are manipulating the stock market.  The book represents capitalism at its worst, and how strange the world really could be.

The book was an easy read.  I found it entertaining and the names of the people in the book were humorous.  There was a little love story, and chasing bad guys, and in the end there was justice.  There were mixed reviews about it on Amazon, and I can see the points those folks make.  It moves pretty quickly, and there isn't much time for deep character development, which can leave you confused.  But mostly it was entertaining, so I say give it a try.

Stars: 4