The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

If you are looking for a book to curl up in the bathtub with and have your razor and Death Cab for Cutie handy, this is the book to do the job!!! It is set during the Dust Bowl and is about Tom Joad who just got out of prison. He returns home to his family in Oklahoma and finds that they are leaving to go to California to get some jobs that they've seen in handbills. He goes with them and along with the way, some family members die. They eventually make it to California where they find that they are not wanted (and are called "Okies," similar to the N-word for African-Americans) and that jobs are sparse. What jobs they can find pay "starvation wages," so essentially everything they make in a day goes directly to buy food and not much else. More bad things happen, and then more bad things, and then the book ends. If you are looking for something uplifting, do NOT read this book. Grab yourself a box of tissues instead.

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

I thought this was one of the funniest books I have ever read! Obviously, it is touchy material--it is about polygamy and the author is a Mormon--but one of the children, Rusty, is hilarious! A lot of his chapters, told from his eleven year old vision of the world, reminds me of A Christmas Story, when Ralphie has his daydreams about protecting his family with his coveted Red Rider BB gun. That kind of funny. So the story is about Golden, a man with four wives and 28 children, who has a failing construction business and lies to everybody about his current work project. Everyone thinks he is building a senior center in Nevada (lives in Utah, so no one goes to check the facts), but he is really building a brothel, Pussycat Manor II. Inevitably, he stumbles upon the brothel owner's wife (Huila) and they spend time together and he falls for her. But all hell breaks loose when Ted Leo (said brothel owner) finds out. Golden's past is expolored, and the author uses a significant amount of foreshadowing, which isn't obvious at the time, but makes it a good reflection at the end of the novel. It is so sad that this book has only been checked out four times--including my reading--since being available at the library since June, 2010. It is definitely not a book to miss, and introduces one to the theology behind polygamy and why this belief system is still kept even today.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

This book has won awards, people. Why, I am not sure... My friend Hillary was the one who let me borrow this, as John Green is one of her favorite authors ever. She even went to a book signing recently! But anyway... It is divided into two parts: before and after. What happens "in between" is what drives the last half of the book, but the first half is about "Pudge" (real name Miles) who decides to move from Florida to go to the boarding school his father went to in search of the Great Perhaps (this book is semi-autobiographical and Culver Creek is based on a school that John Green went to in Alabama). While there, he has a roommate known as the Colonel and falls hopelessly in love with a feminist, perplexing girl named Alaska (thus the title). But Alaska has a boyfriend that she is in love with named Jake, but she does think that Miles is cute... Anyway, John Green recently released The Fault in Our Stars which is supposed to be amazing. Maybe I'll read that later on this year sometime. 

Enclave (Razorland #1) by Ann Aguirre

Enclave is based in post apocalyptic NYC where people have gone to live underground in the subway tunnels. Everybody's lives have been truncated and they live together in communes called enclaves. This book is about Deuce, a Huntress in the College enclave who is paired with Fade, another Hunter from what they call "Topside." Hunters make up part of the societal system in the enclave; the other two groups are Breeders and Builders. Hunters leave the enclave and go into the subway tunnels where they find food and battle Freaks (they sound like zombie meets animal since they have claws). Freaks eat humans, but Hunters fight them off to protect the enclave. For some reason, they seem to be getting smarter, and Deuce disobeys orders at some point and is sent with Fade to Nassau enclave, which is about three days away. There, they find all of Nassau's people eaten by the fat and happy Freaks that roam that enclave. Terrified, they return to College enclave and report what they have seen and what they think--that Freaks are getting smarter. The elders of the enclave (that are about 25 years old...Fade and Deuce are fifteenish) wave that off and think they are silly. Deuce finds that Fade (a man with a mysterious past of his own) is part of a quiet rebellion against the elders and how the enclave is set up. Deuce believes in the elders and what they tell them (that acid rain burns things Topside, that no one can survive up there, etc), but is appalled when she figures out that Fade is right when one of her friends is framed for hoarding (something that receives banishment from the enclave). Deuce claims that she is the one who framed her friend, a fact that people know is not true, and Fade says that he helped her. They are banished from College enclave and are sent Topside, where Deuce finds that the elders have lied about a lot of things. From there, Fade and Deuce scavenge the remains of NYC and battle against the gangers, as they call them. Eventually they end up heading north, where "Fade's sire" (father) told him that it was safer, but along the way, the run into more Freaks. Will they ever be safe? I thought this was a great book and a fun read, it made me really think I was running around the subway tunnels and battling Freaks. I am pretty sure there will be a sequel to this, and I am looking forward to it!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus is an overly long, drawn-out tale about two children--a boy and a girl--being chosen to outdo the other with the power of magic while being contained within the confines of a circus that is open only at night. Their magic teachers decide this when Celia is six years old and Marco fourteen. Of course, when they both are at the circus, they fall in love, and then are distraught to discover that the winner of this contest of sorts is decided by one of them dying in one way or another (not magic inflicted by either party). It gets very convoluted and confusing, with each chapter jumping between locations and times. It made me want to pull out my hair at points because I did not have a clue what was going on, and so many characters are involved that by the end I just had to read it and go with the flow and assume I knew who the author was chattering on and on about. This book would have been much better if it had been more tightly written, perhaps cutting 100 pages from its girth (387 pages). There are of course a myriad of sub-plots and whatnot, but something I kept thinking of while reading this was Anne of Green Gables when it is said that it is better to use short words than long ones.

Okay, done whining, but I would definitely put this in the same bin as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

This book is told from the POV of nine-year-old Oskar Schell whose father died in one of the towers from the World Trade Center. Most of the book takes place about two years after his father, Thomas, dies. One day, Oskar is in his parents' bedroom and somehow (I don't remember how...not really a memorable book) a blue vase crashes to the floor and gets broken. Inside, there was an envelope with "Black" written on the outside and a key inside. The entire book is devoted to Oskar finding out what this key opens, and he begins by tracking down every person with the last name of Black in NYC. No. Joke. The book also has random flashbacks that take until the last chapter to figure out who wrote what. Quite daunting, in other words. I am not sure how they made a movie out of this, or why, since nothing seems to really matter at the end. It harkens me back to Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. As in the world of reading, you win some, you lose some. Take note: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/the-15-most-overrated-con_b_672974.html#s123751&title=Jonathan_Safran_Foer. According to this article, supposedly this book is Foer's best book yet. That does not encourage me to read Everything is Illuminated at all! The best part of this book is Oskar's random "inventions." That's pretty much the only saving grace.

Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie

This is the sequal to Matched. Crossed is told from a different point of view than Matched: it goes from third person to first person, alternating between Ky and Cassia's stories/POVs. I found that hard to get used to since the tone is so similar between the two, but whatev.

It starts (and goes) fairly slow compared to its predecessor, but still a lot happens in the book. Cassia is on the hunt for Ky because she loves him and wants to be reunited with him, while Ky is on the hunt for Cassia for the same reason. Ky is bent on getting back to Society, while Cassia is on a mission to get to the Outer Provinces. Cassia beats Ky to the punch and ends up finding him before he finds her. Then the story goes on and on about the Carving, a giant Grand Canyon-eque landmark thing. Cassia is searching/following Ky in it, Ky leaves it, Ky returns into it, Cassia finds him, they go back into the Carving, they meander in the Carving, they leave the Carving, blah blah blah Carving this, Carving that, zzzzz! ANYWAY, they finally make their way out of the Carving and they are on a mission to get to the Rising (an anti-Society outfit). Ky doesn't want to be a part of the Rising, but Cassia wants to be a part of something bigger than herself. Will Ky find it in himself to follow Cassia wherever she decides to go. Will she choose Ky or the Rising?

Nail-biter to the end!

Thankfully, the third installment of this trilogy comes out in November!

Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie

Matched is very similar to the Hunger Games trilogy. It is about a girl named Cassia and how her Society has everything rigged set up. Everything is based off of predictions and control of variables. Everyone is poisoned dies on their 80th birthday, those who chose to be Matched (thus the title) are on their 17th birthday and all sign a marriage Contract on their 21st in the hopes that they start popping out kids when they're 24. They don't even have the ability to choose their jobs, everything is what they test in to and also what they are predicted to be. And when I say predicted, I don't mean tarot card, I mean it is what they are most likely to do or become or to match with. ANYWAY, Cassia gets Matched with her close friend Xander. Later when she looks at the microcard that everyone gets with their Match, she sees Xander and then for a split second she sees Ky, another boy she knows. Of course, then she must explore and find out more about Ky and it leads to her to question the Society and how everything is set up and there are no free choices.

This is the first book in the trilogy, the second one came out November, 2011, and the third will come out November, 2012.

Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu

So I thought that this was a cute book, but very a la Hunger Games and Matched. The plot was fairly simple. It is a story woven around two main characters, Day and June, and the quest for truth about their country, the Republic (which Day knows more about than June, even though June has been top-ranked in the Republic's military for forever). Of course, it is a love story, with June originally pitted against Day and out to capture him because she believes that he is responsible for her brother's death, but when she does meet him (however, she does not know it is Day since his name is never said), she finds him to be a very kind boy. (They are both 15. This is a YA book.) As to be expected, romance blooms and June must either trust Day and what he says, or believe what the Republic tells her is true.

reading roundup: 2011

Okay, folks. I was not too terribly great at blogging consistently about every book I read, but here are the 29 (!) books I read in 2011 by title:

Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker

Around the Bend by Shirley Jump

Carrie by Stephen King

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Matched by Ally Condie

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Sex, Lies, and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson

Sighs Matter by Marianne Stillings

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Art of Marriage: A Guide to Living Life as Two by Catherine Blyth

The Borrower: A Novel by Rebecca Makkai

The Exile by Diana Gabaldon

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The Mercy Room by Gilles Rozier

The Shack by William P. Young

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson

Things I’d Wish I’d Known Before We Got Married by Gary Chapman

This Book is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson

Under the Dome by Stephen King

What Alice Knew by Paula Cohen

Wicked by Gregory Maguire