I finally caved.

So, if you know me or have ever read this blog then you know I don't do mainstream and I don't usually follow the trends. In this case however, I could not escape the hype and constant barrage of comments like "No, really, you have to read this." and "It's sooooo amazing." Last week I finally downloaded The Hunger Games and I must say I was not steered wrong.

The story centers around a society in the future where districts (states) must send one boy and one girl into an arena annually during an event called the rapture to battle to the death as a penalty for a failed uprising against the government 74 years ago. 24 go in, 1 comes out. The entire event is televised and watched by the whole country as a barbaric series of obstacles and circumstances attack the tributes in the arena. 

The heroine of this story is Katniss Everdeen; a head strong, tactful, and very strong young woman. She ends up in the hunger games and faces unthinkable choices in her quest for survival. Katniss is a great literary role model for young girls, hopefully with the launch of the movie franchise she will gain more popularity and girls will realize they can be self sufficient and can do amazingly well by just relying on their instincts and their skill. Her best friend Gale and new friend Peeta are also great characters who create a dramatic sense of tension and conflict emotionally for themselves and the nation.

The Hunger Games is a very quick read with nothing complex at all. If you let it, it can get you thinking about government control and human psychology but if you want to stay on the surface of this one you will be entertained all the same. There is a love story and emotional tension in the spirit of the Twilight Saga but I found this first installment in the series to be much more full fledged and well thought out and interesting than anything found in Twilight so don't let that scare you off.

If you want to be entertained and "in the loop" with a  head start on the movie set to premier in March, then pick up The Hunger Games. It is a fun, fast paced, thrilling ride that will suck you in and allow you to escape the real world for a while, even if it isn't a masterpiece of American literature. It's okay to mix it up and go for fun once in a while and this one is a good place to start. 

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

A phenomenal debut novel.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is an incredible debut novel from author David Wroblewski. The book centers around a boy named Edgar who is born mute and trains dogs through sign language. His family owns and runs a very prestigious kennel of "Sawtelle" dogs, a highly specific, highly trained dog that gives new meaning to the word companionship.

Edgar has a passion and a true calling for training these dogs and it becomes very clear that he needs them as much they need him. His unwavering companion Almondine is the other half of his heart outside his body. The relationship of Edgar and Almondine will hit home with anyone who has found that special companion in a pet, it is a relationship hard to describe but of which the importance can never be understated.

One day an unforeseen tragedy occurs and changes the entire course of Edgar's life. He is forced to flee the only life he's known for one in the wilderness of Wisconsin. He finds himself lost within himself as a person but also on a quest to discover the truth and determine whether there is a path to reconciliation. He is forced to decide if he shall run forever from the past or find his way back home to confront it and the mysteries that lie there. Along his detour he finds fear, truth, wisdom, courage, and redemption in the most unlikely of places and people.

This book is extremely dense and will take some time to read through but the end result will leave your mouth open and your mind reeling. It will make you decide how and what you take away from it. The pages will teach you only what your willing to learn from it. It resolves itself but does not wrap up in a shiny bow with a typical "The End" cliche. It will challenge you, leave you potentially unsure, but all the while capturing little bits of your heart, mind and soul. Rarely do I find this kind of intellectual depth in novels and to me that's what makes one memorable; not the story itself, but the story it creates in my mind after the back cover has been turned over.

"Life was a swarm of accidents waiting in the treetops, descending upon any living thing that passed, ready to eat them alive. You swam in a river of chance and coincidence. You clung to the happiest accidents-the rest you let float by."

One of the better novels I've read period, certainly the best in recent readings. This one is something special.


The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
By: David Wroblewski
562 pages

NERD ALERT!

OKAY! OKAY! I'll admit it.....I am a nerd. There, now it's out in the open. Anyways, if your like me and have a soft spot for semi-cheesy, British Science Fiction, then join me fellow Whovians! That's right, our favorite, incomparable, shaggy haired, bow tie wearing, timelord is back in Hunter's Moon.

Doctor Who has been a British institution since the TV show premiered in 1963. He is a timelord who travels in a British telephone booth dubbed the "TARDIS" (you'll have to look up the acronym) and fights all matter of alien and supernatural life forms with the help of a companion and his sonic screwdriver. The tv show is currently operating with its 11th re-incarnation of this beloved character with Matt Smith having taken over from David Tennant.

This particular story takes us to another galaxy when Rory and Amy find themselves having lost the TARDIS and a lifetime of servitude to a shifty card shark. The Doctor must find a way to rescue them and the other citizens who have been placed on the moon as live human prey for rich sadistic men to hunt. All manner of creature, misfortune, and danger stand in the Doctor's way. It's a race to get to the hunted before they become trophies.

So, if you need an easy, easy read and an escape into another world, with aliens, ray guns, and subtle British humor, then take the six hours max this book requires and escape a little bit. It wouln't leave you with any lasting knowledge but it will entertain you.

 

Happy Reading!

Unique, emotional, and engrossing.



Room by Emma Donoghue is one of those rare times when I listen to popular opinion and read a much hyped book. Normally I stay away from the ones that are talked up and on Best seller lists but something about this book made me give it a shot and I am so glad I did.

Room is written from the perspective of a 5 year old boy but not to a degree that it is frustrating to read. It is more the insight of a five year old than the grammar and syntax so don't worry about the structural flow of the story itself. The book centers around a boy, his mother, and a room which completes the entire life experience of the five year old. It has a shadow of Plato's ancient story "The Allegory of the Cave" which, if you haven't read, I highly encourage you to do that. It is great philosophical and metaphorical story that will really get your mind working and make you think of a level everyday experiences don't force you too.

I don't want to describe too much of the story because it is unveiled as you go along and I don't want to take that opportunity away from the reader to discover the details for themselves. I will however say that I felt empathy when reading this book and that is a very difficult emotion to drag out of me. I feel sadness, anger, and happiness of characters in stories but rarely do I truly feel their emotions as my own and in this story I did. The most prominent of these emotions was frustration. I felt the frustration of the mother so much so that I had to take breaks from reading it in an attempt to separate myself from the character.

I don't know how anyone else will react to the story or if readers will identify with my reaction but this book hit a nerve in a large amount of people, enough to get it national acclaim and a spot on the best seller list.

If your looking for something a little different, with an emotional edge, I highly recommend Room. It is well worth the time it will take to read it and will not be a waste of the time you spend thinking about it afterwards.

"For some reason dying men always ask questions they know the answer to. Perhaps it's so they can die being right."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak breaks the mold of the often told Holocaust story. It is actually a young adult fiction but you would never know that by how fast and how hard these pages take you in. It is a sincere, emotional look at WWII through the eyes of a German orphan named Liesel. She is a head strong child who finds herself on Himmel street near Munich at a time when nothing was certain and the world was changing.

When a years old promise made by Liesel's father comes knocking at the front door, the lives of everyone at 33 Himmel street takes a dramatic and potentially dangerous turn. Liesel became the book thief by chance but the habit may just have saved her own life and the lives of those around her.

The Holocaust is arguably the most corrosive and disgusting stain on human history to have ever occured. The story has been recorded in every way shape and form but something about this novel brings it new life. It is an honest look at not so much the atrocities themselves but the everyday changes that happened during that time. With the lead character being a German citizen you see the time period in a different light from people who were just as powerless as the other victims.

Liesel herself is a character that many can relate to and you find yourself caring about her right away. Her relationship with her father is touching and heart felt without being predictable or cliche.  and carried the true heart of the novel.

But the overall surprise of this novel is its narrator....death. Death tells this story from beginning to end. It creates an amazing demention to the entire novel.

This book is a light read but is a fresh and worthwhile look at a familiar subject. It will stay with you long after you turn the last page.



"The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die."