The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

7.8 Stars

After North America was destroyed, the people who remained founded a country called Panem.  It consisted of a capitol city and 13 districts.  The districts rose up against the Capitol's harsh treatment but lost the war.  To punish the residents of the districts and remind them who held the power, the Capitol founded The Hunger Games.  Each year, one young man and one young woman from each district was selected to participate in the hit reality TV show where only one of them would walk out alive.  That is, until Katniss Everdeen enters the arena and ends up inadvertently becoming the Mockingjay, the face and inspiration of the rebel uprising once again seeking to bring down the ruthless, dictatorial authority of the Capitol.

I am close to giving the trilogy an 8 but I'm not quite there.  My favorite was the second book, Catching Fire.  That may be because I already had a general idea of what was going to happen in the first book but I wasn't really sure where she would take the second.  For whatever reason, I didn't feel the emotion I should have during the first book.  I would give The Hunger Games 7 stars, Catching Fire 8 stars and Mockingjay 7.3 stars.  Somehow that averages to 7.8.  Lay off, math wizards.

They are easy to read.  All of you could read these in a day or two if you had nothing else to do.  They are interesting enough that they're worth reading once.  They are very violent but not in a disturbing, creepy way where you feel like the author is just trying to make people queasy.  The story would fall very short if it weren't extremely violent simply because of the material it deals with.  However, I think the author does a good job of tying in not just the outward violence, but the inner psychological struggles and interpersonal relationships.

And thus ends my brief foray into fiction.  Now I'm off to keep reading Steve Jobs' biography.  G'night.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

The picture is tiny because this is the only one I found of the version I read (Signet Classics)

10 Stars

From CliffsNotes (the first paragraph):  Jean Valjean, after spending nineteen years in jail and in the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread and for several attempts to escape, is finally released, but his past keeps haunting him. At Digne, he is repeatedly refused shelter for the night. Only the saintly bishop, Monseigneur Myriel, welcomes him. Valjean repays his host's hospitality by stealing his silverware. When the police bring him back, the bishop protects his errant guest by pretending that the silverware is a gift. With a pious lie, he convinces them that the convict has promised to reform. After one more theft, Jean Valjean does indeed repent. Under the name of M. Madeleine he starts a factory and brings prosperity to the town of Montreuil.

And that's all you get for a summary of the story.  The book is 1200 pages long so I'm not going to pretend that I can adequately sum it up for you.  All you really need to know is Jean Valjean is da bomb.  What do you know?  Maybe I can adequately sum it up.

Victor Hugo is known to wander in his writing but it is so amazing to watch him tie all the meandering together.  However, somewhere around page 800 or 900 I started getting mad at him every time he would go off into the woods of his literary mind to give more details about French history.  The action was finally picking up and I just wanted to know what was going to happen!  For this reason, I don't know if I would read the unabridged version again but I could definitely read an abridged version at some point.   

The story is fantastic, the characters are unforgettable, and the writing is stupendously brilliant.  If you haven't read it, you should.  So says I.

Life...It's As Good As You Make It by Ron Woods

8 stars

This book became so big (in Japan) that I couldn't even find an image of it. Picture this:

• Thin blue hardcover book with a blue dust cover
• In big red letters it says "Life..."
• Then in yellow not-as-big letters it says "It's As Good As You Make It"
• Below that is a shadow of a person holding a trophy in the air with victory aglow. No, really, the trophy is all blingy like the sun is behind it just poking through, ie: victory aglow.

Now you have a picture of the book.

The subtitle of this book (yes, it has a subtitle. It has two apparently) is "practical advice on dealing with the past, enjoying the present, and preparing for the future". That is all the description it needs.

I'm a sap for books like this so when I saw it at my parent's house I decided to pick it up.

8 stars may be a little high if we're judging on literary mastery. What I really like about it, though, is its simplicity and lack of literary mastery. I've read lots of "self-help" books where the author feels a need to prove they are right or where they seem to be guilting the reader. This book does give suggestions but it never comes off as overbearing or preachy. I really like that instead of explaining concepts he uses fictitious life experiences to demonstrate the concepts in action. Even better, he uses a lot of the stories to promote questions, not necessarily to give answers. There were a lot of thought-provoking "ah-ha" moments in it.

Ron Wood is LDS and the book is very much written to an LDS audience. The concepts apply to those who are not LDS but he uses LDS jargon throughout. The simplicity of the writing, the short life stories throughout, the moments that made me review my internal motivations and challenges, and the fact that it is short (110 pages of large font) make it a book I hope to read again in a few years to garner new perspective.

The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C Wrede

7 stars

Summary: Eff's father is a 7th son. Eff's twin brother, Lan, is the 7th son of a 7th son. As everyone knows, everything in life comes easier to them because they are blessed with good luck. Eff, on the other hand, is the 13th child which makes her unlucky and likely to grow up being evil and a menace. Eff's uncle never lets her forget it. She finally gets away from him when her family moves to the frontier of the wild west. There, near the Great Barrier magic spell set up by the Founding Fathers to keep Eastern Columbia (The United States) safe from magical creatures roaming the Old West, Eff struggles to overcome self-doubt and a concern that maybe her uncle was right.

Review: This is my first Patricia C Wrede book and I liked it. Its no masterpiece. It doesn't even have that fantastic of a plot and the climax is fairly short-lived. However, it is exactly what I expect a good book written for middle school kids to be. Its fun. Its creative. Its fairly fast-paced and entertaining to read.

Patricia Wrede creates an entire new history of the United States (known as Columbia in the book) where magic and all the magical creatures it brings with it have always existed. She doesn't try to explain that new history, she just acts as if its common knowledge and throws in enough information to make the world believable. Its that sort of writing that makes this book enjoyable. If I wanted to read amazing descriptions of a new world I would pick up Lord of the Rings.

Overall, the book was an enjoyable read written with creativity, good dialogue, and with interesting characters and interactions. Its a short read that would be good to pick up on a lazy summer weekend. Its something like 340 pages but with big font and easy language to follow.

Emma by Jane the Austen

6 stars (-2 because the first 300 pages are (almost) pointless)

We read this a few months ago so let me see if I can remember what its about. Rich girl thinks she's the bomb diggity. Rich girl is a brat. Rich girl tries to set up her not-rich friend with some rich dudes and fails miserably making everyone else's life...miserable...did I use that word already? Rich girl decides to be not so bratty but instead tells her not-rich friend off for liking on her man even though she would never admit he was her man. If you want to know the ending, you'll just have to read it. Better yet, watch the movie. This may be one of the few instances where I will say the movie was better.

Yeah, that about sums it up. If you can't tell, Emma is not my favorite person in the literary world. Although she is slightly higher up than Bella (of Twilight fame. As if there were any other Bella to confuse her for).

I think I like Jane Austen. She seems to be witty and writes great dialogue. However, I'm not too sure I want to read another Jane Austen book because Emma was SOOOOOOOO long. The story was alright and, as mentioned, the writing was good but every time Amanda or I started reading it just seemed to drag on...and on...and, you get the drift. In fact, when Amanda looked at our copy to tell me how long it is I was flabbergasted that its only 380-some-odd pages long. It seemed like there was so much more book while we were reading it.

I suppose that's my only complaint. It seems rather petty now that I look back on it but I very clearly remember feeling great disdain towards the first 300 pages of this book. When you're entrenched in 300 pages of blah to get to 80 pages of a good story that is well written, the clock ticks just a little bit slower. And that, my friends, is enough to knock poor Emma from her high horse.

Was I too harsh?

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

Expert Rating: 9 stars

Newcomer Rating: 5 stars

"It is the winter of Warren's ninth year. Outside in the yard, he and his little sister, Bertie, are playing in the snow. Warren is catching snowflakes. One at a time at first. Then he is scooping them up by handfuls. He starts to pack them into a ball. As the snowball grows bigger, he places it on the ground. Slowly it begins to roll. He gives it a push, and it picks up more snow. He pushes the snowball across the lawn, piling snow on snow. Soon he reaches the edge of the yard. After a moment of hesitation, he heads off, rolling the snowball through the neighborhood. And from there, Warren continues onward, casting his eye on a whole world full of snow." (Taken from page inside book prior to Table of Contents)

The Newcomer Rating is so low, not because the book wouldn't interest lots of different people, but because it is 838 pages long. At that length, you have to be pretty interested to pick up the book.

The expert rating is not a 10 because the last few chapters are almost entirely about Susie Buffett's battle with cancer. Those chapters were pretty long and drawn out. Some of the other chapters were more detailed than they needed to be but they didn't seem as drawn out as the last few.

Warren Buffett may be the only man to become a myth during his own lifetime. Even Elvis waited until he was dead. That is one of the reasons I love reading biographies. It is easy to forget how similar we all are as human beings. It is also easy to look at someone living a lifestyle like Warren Buffett's and forget the work (and craziness) it took to get to that point. Biographies give you a look into the thought process, the hidden actions, the overlooked details that make a person who they are.

This biography points out a lot of the small, cumulative, dedicated things that Buffett did that led to his success. The fascinating part of it, however, is looking into his personality. You get to see his relationships and how they affected him. It becomes apparent how Buffett became not only one of the wealthiest men in the world, but also one of the most respected. His extreme dedication to his pursuit of money caused him to hurt those closest to him without really meaning to. He spent many years recovering his relationship with Susie (his first wife) and their children. However, that same dedication made it so he built his life honestly and in such a way that no one could fault him for the incredible success he has had.

In the book he makes a comment about how he always read books about great people and tried to glean wisdom from their lives. He tried to learn from great men and women's lives so that he could be better. That is another reason I love biographies and one of the reasons I love this book. Warren Buffett's biography holds many little tidbits about life, business, money, relationships, dedication, and honesty. Some may read it and be motivated to pursue his ambitious goal of accumulating great wealth. Others will come out having learned lessons about "the business of life" and the things that really matter.

In Pursuit of the Common Good by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner

Expert Rating: 7

Newcomer Rating: 4

Soooo...I have a few comments before I begin my first official novelnovels blog book review. 1) I have to go back to September 3 to find an entry by anyone other than Anthony or Amanda. That's a little sad but I don't know that my being able to post will change the dynamics all that much. We'll see. 2) I'M ABLE TO POST! It's nice to no longer be the leprous one in the family. 3) Am I the only one who is kind of paranoid about posting lousy grammar or typos on a blog about reading? 4) I get the feeling that lots of my posts will use Anthony's "Expert v Newcomer" rating system. Prepare yourself for a bunch of nonfiction you've never wanted to read!

It was 1982 when Paul Newman and A. E. Hotchner made their foray into local gourmet shops with bottles of their homemade salad dressing. The venture was intended to be a lark, a way to poke fun at the traditional way the market operates. Hurdling obstacle after obstacle, they created the first company to mass-market all-natural products, eliminating the chemicals, gums, and preservatives that existed in food at the time. This picaresque saga is the inspiring story of how the two friends parlayed the joke into a multimillion-dollar company that gives all its profits to the less fortunate without spending money on galas, mailings, and other expensive outreaches. It also serves as a textbook for foundations and charitable organizations looking to do the most good they can with what they have.Told in alternating voices, Newman and Hotchner have written a zany tale that is a business model for entrepreneurs, an inspirational book, and just plain delightful reading. (Copied from the Google search...which is the back of the cover someone else so kindly typed for me).

I liked the idea of liking this book. And, in reality, I liked the book quite a bit for the first half or so. The biggest problem is it gets pretty repetitive. Newman and Hotchner are (or were) probably pretty funny guys but their quirky sense of humor comes across a little too well and a little too often throughout the book. The story behind the company is fantastic. The business model they created is one I've always admired. The fact that they were really stubborn and wouldn't change how they ran their business even when everyone told them it couldn't be done is amazing. The success they've had blows my mind. The good they've done and the lives they've impacted is admirable. All in all, the book was OK but needed more editing to make it more enjoyable and accessible to those looking for a good story. Right now, I could really only recommend it to those wanting to know more about Newman's Own business model. Off the top of my head I can think of two people who fit that criteria (counting myself...and the other one loaned me the book). That statement makes it seem pretty harsh but if you're not interested in business or how people create successful (if insane) business models you probably wouldn't enjoy much in the book...besides some of the comics.