Matched is a young adult/borderline children’s book that wants very badly to be either The Giver or The Hunger Games. Set in a futuristic world remarkably similar to that of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, all of our free will as a human race has essentially vanished. Calories and food are predetermined, jobs are assigned based on relative strengths, and romantic relationships are determined by the appropriate match of personalities. Cassia is 17 and headed to her Matching Banquet, and to her delight, is matched with her best friend Xander, in a match that everyone classifies as perfect. But the next day, just for a split second while reviewing her “courtship guidelines” the face of another boy shows up, and she knows him too: Ky. So, the question becomes, somewhat predictably, does she go with what is planned and reliable: Xander, or what may actually be her perfect, but unauthorized Match, Ky?
First, let me say for the record that I liked Matched. I like the concept, I like the main character, I like the future world. I was annoyed by the love triangle. Where Divergent was clearly a Hunger Games wannabe and I could not have cared less, this one is more obviously trying to target the audiences of mainstream teen books with its teen love triangle. I wish the author had focused more on the world around the characters, the choices Cassia and her family do have to make that aren’t already predetermined, and the ethics of having a Society that makes your life easier but steals your free will. It’s an interesting concept. I wanted to know more about it.
All in all, a good book and a good use of my time overall. I’ll be reading the sequel eventually, I’m sure. This one was somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me. But in order from favorite to least favorite of the recent dystopic fiction trilogies, my ranking would be: Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched.
Where She Went, the sequel to If I Stay, is my typical type of audio book. Not complex by any means, but a good and engaging story, something that I had no problem listening and paying attention to. Spoilers ahead for If I Stay, which is a YA book that I read several years ago.
Where She Went continues the story of If I Stay, picking up several years after the tragic accident that left Mia without an immediate family. This book is told from the point of view of Mia’s high school boyfriend, Adam, who, we discover fairly quickly, is not with Mia anymore, but is still pining away for her. He has made it big with his band, Shooting Star, but is unrecognizable as the character from If I Stay. Throughout the book, we find that he has become a shell of his former self without Mia, and has very little joy in life, until a chance encounter with her brings him back.
I liked this book, but it was really nothing special. It was interesting to see the fallout from the accident, of course, and to see the way that the characters of If I Stay were affected. It was a good amount of closure for the first book. Solid 3.
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman whose cancerous cells were taken in a sample at Johns Hopkins and grew to become the most prolific and first “immortal” strain that science had seen. With Henrietta Lacks’ cells (HeLa), scientists have cured polio, and made other unbelievable advances in medicine. But how were these cells collected? Why doesn’t anyone know the story behind the woman who made all of this possible? Rebecca Skloot is a white journalist who takes us on the journey of discovering who Henrietta was, why her cells are so important to science and history, and takes a (mostly) objective look at the ethics of what has been done to her and her descendents in the name of scientific progress.
This book was our book club’s March pick. It’s not something that I would usually read, as for the most part I’m a fiction kind of girl. But I’m very glad that I was out of my comfort zone and reading this one. I’ll admit, for the first half of the book or so, I was a little bored. The reporting of Henrietta’s background and her family was fine, but a bit bland. When we discovered things like the unethical treatment of African Americans at Johns Hopkins, and how cancer radiation was treated back then, I was downright disturbed. But I admit all of this was necessary to have the third part of the book, a look at Henrietta’s immortality, and questions about the ethics of how HeLa is used and distributed, which was much more engaging, in my opinion.
I’m still not sure I have a strong opinion either way on the events of the book. In general I think today the biggest problems of the situation are more regulated: informed consent, privacy laws, etc. I won’t go into it now, and will let you draw your own conclusions. Suffice it to say, this book made for good conversation at our book club meeting. Highly recommended if you have someone to talk it over with.
I’ll give it a 3- I liked it more than I thought I would, and I’m happy I read it.
Fast paced, well written, and very original, Ready Player One is my favorite book of the year so far. I haven’t been sucked into a book like this one in a long time… maybe since I discovered The Hunger Games. What is truly astonishing to me, is that this was my latest audiobook, and I blew through it so quickly that I was done with 13 parts all over an hour long within a week. It was an obsession. I want to purchase it and read it over and over again. Go read it now.
You’re still here? OK, how about a quick summary? Ready Player One is a book set in the not so distant future, around 2040, where society is basically run through a virtual reality/ online multiplayer game called the Oasis. People work and go to school in the Oasis, make money there, essentially live there. The best part? It’s free for anyone to use. So when the creator of the Oasis dies, leaving his billions to whatever person who finds an Easter Egg within the Oasis first, the world goes a bit crazy. Wade Watts, the protagonist and narrator, is one of the many treasure hunters looking for the egg, and we follow his journey throughout the search as he solves puzzles, plays games, and sifts through millions of 1980s references (the creator’s obsession), all the while trying to stay clear of the sixers, the villains of the story, who are desperate to win control of the Oasis and monetize it.
This book was unbelievable. I loved it so much. Even without knowing and catching on to a lot of the 80s references, I was along for the ride the entire time and completely engrossed.
5- you have to read this. Go right now.
This was the third time I’ve tried to get into Game of Thrones. The cast of characters, events, and relationships are so complex and numerous that the first two times I stalled and lost interest. But everyone has to love this series for a reason, right? This time I made my own character chart, stuck it out, and was happy that I did.
I actually think this being the third try on this book helped immensely, as I picked up things this time through that I hadn’t understood in the slightest the first two times. The charts and discussion of characters at the end? Didn’t help me at any point, which is why I made my own, which is available if anyone else needs the help. Ha.
As you can tell, Game of Thrones is a fantasy novel full to the brim of interesting characters that are all interwoven in a medieval England- type world. Most emphasized throughout the book are the Starks, Ned and Catelyn, their children Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Rickon, as well as Ned’s bastard son, Jon Snow. The book rotates perspectives between the majority of the Starks, as well as several other characters from the other families. At its core, this book is about power, and ruthless characters who will do anything to get it. I almost can’t even say any more than that, because to explain further would be to take away some of the genius of the book.
4- really liked this one, finally, although it’s definitely not for everyone. It’s long and complex and bloody. But in the end it’s pretty fantastic. I’m definitely going to keep reading the sequels!
