Best Sequel Ever!

What an awesome book! Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games, a semi-dystopian novel about an America divided into 13 Districts, run by the Capitol. The Capitol asserts its authority by forcing each District to send two teenage "tributes" to the annual Hunger Games, which are a Mad Max type of fight to the death. Catching Fire picks up where The Hunger Games left off: Katniss and Peeta have won the Hunger Games and are supposed to be enjoying their victory tour throughout the Districts. They gradually become aware, however, that some of the Districts are in revolt, and that Katniss is somehow connected to the uprisings. There is a sharp turn of events, and Katniss and Peeta find themselves back where they never thought they'd be: in the Hunger Games arena. Super fantastic sequel that I liked even better than the first book! 4 out of 4 Bananas!

Firestorm

One of the books I read this summer was Firestorm, by David Klass. Firestorm was one of our freshman summer reads and was incredibly popular both this year and last, so I wanted to give it a try. What I liked about Firestorm was its fast pace and action-packed scenes. I also thought that the dialogue was pretty believable, as was the main character Jack's preoccupation with girls (he is 18, after all!).
Jack is the star of the football team and is with friends at a local diner celebrating his most recent victory, when a strange man walks past him and his eyes start flashing silver. Jack tells his parents about this strange occurrence, which ends up changing his life forever: the strange man is from the future and has been sent back to track Jack down and destroy him. As Jack discovers, his parents are not his true parents, as he also has been sent from the future to try and save the world (yeah, kind of like in "Terminator"-- but I forgave the author this obvious similarity because the rest of the book is completely original). The rest of the novel follows Jack as he eludes shape-shifters and makes strange new friends (a talking dog and a beautiful ninja-girl), while trying to understand his past and come to terms with the present.
Firestorm is really exciting and original, so it is definitely a great read for anyone interested in a relatively easy, action-packed, sci-fi type adventure. It also has some fascinating ecological detail worked into the plotline, so you get a little information along the way. It did take me a while to get beyond the author's writing style, however, because he wrote the book almost entirely (it seemed) in sentence fragments. Short. Sentences. Make it exciting. Although sometimes. It drove. Me crazy. You get used to it after a while.
All in all, I definitely recommend Firestorm and give it a hearty 3 out of 4 bananas!

1984 (or, The ORIGINAL "Big Brother": not the game show kind)

The last book that I read this summer was 1984 by George Orwell. It's one of those classics that you'll find constantly referenced throughout your life, in literature, TV (witness the "Big Brother" reality show), movies, and in general conversation. I'd never read it, however, so I felt like it was high time to get on board with this classic, especially since I really enjoy novels of dystopia. It's important to know that 1984 was published in 1949, so Orwell was imagining life thirty-five years from his present time, when the world is divided into three regional groups (Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia) who are constantly at war with each other. Also, in this future society, Big Brother controls Oceania (the region of which Winston, the main character, is a citizen). Everything that Big Brother says is considered to be Absolute, unchanging Truth, so, when something happens that contradicts something Big Brother had said or done in the past, the past is ALTERED to reflect the new truth (although the new truth is considered to have ALWAYS been the truth). Confused yet? How can you change the past, you ask? In 1984, the past is altered by destroying newspaper articles, fabricating photographs, even eliminating people who may have borne witness to the earlier, contradictory facts. The citizenry is also terrorized and brainwashed by fear into refusing to remember contradictions in the leadership. Human memory becomes alterable, then, because absolute loyalty to Big Brother is the highest goal for all of the citizenry. Independent thought is considered Public Enemy #1, which sets the stage for the plot of this novel: Winston, the protagonist, has independent thoughts. Troubling independent thoughts. And the rest you'll have to read for yourself. 4 out of 4 Bananas