Angry teens, sadistic rulers and a deathly game. This is the Hunger Games. And they’re doing it all over again. After being both declared Victors, Katniss and Peeta were supposed to live out the rest of their young lives in comfort and luxury. They had mad it. They had survived. Now life was supposed to get easier. That’s not what happened.

After returning from the Games, Katniss and Peeta are forced to go on a Victor’s tour, where they’ll be visiting the homes of all of the districts, including the victim’s families. As the book progresses, we learn that all is not happy at home either. There’s unrest. The people are tired of a lying and manipulative government. They’re ready for a revolution. They only need someone to lead them.

The only thing worse than talking to the families of the people you killed is having to relive the nightmare all over again. And that’s what happens. Welcome, to the Quarter Quell, where previous Victors are forced to compete against each other. The competition is more brutal than ever before.

Sequels can be hit-or-miss, but Suzanne Collins always manages to hit it out of the park. Taking off right where The Hunger Games ended, we’re immediately reconnected to the world of Panem. Collins continues to sculpt and unearth the nuances of our beloved characters. We can’t help but be simultaneously frustrated and adoring of these deeply flawed people. Most importantly, we can see ourselves in them. Both terrified and lonely, but resilient and kind. These are the teens that started a revolution and “Fire is catching”.

Fahrenheit 451. The temperature at which books burn. Fahrenheit 451, the book about the temperature at which books burn. Ray Bradbury’s story introduces us to a future America, where noise is constantly being played, televisions dominate living spaces, and people are too busy zooming by in cars to notice anything else that goes on around them. Sound familiar? But not only do people not read books in this dystopia, the books are burned. Firemen set fires instead of putting them out. This story is about one particular fireman named Guy Montag.

Through Montag, we learn about this peculiar world he’s living in and the peculiar rules that follow. It is illegal to walk about town, aimlessly, as his friend Clarisse McClellan soon learns. She is one of the few people who is not indoctrinated by the TV “parlors” that are installed in citizens homes. It is a fast-paced life where the pursuit of happiness is an alienable right. Anything that causes unhappiness is bad. It should be avoided at all costs. As tragedy begins to strike, Montag becomes increasingly aware of the world around him. A void is slowly filled. Not with books, but with knowledge.

Fahrenheit 451 was written in the 1950s, when the revolution of TV was on the rise. Suddenly, every household had one of these devices. This story is a cautionary tale against the consummation of anything that tries to tell you what to think. Even Bradbury’s story should be taken for what it is, a fictional story. So, we should read. We should read newspapers. We should read novels and nonfiction. We should read to entertain, inform, and enlighten. Above all, we should read to learn and have knowledge because when all the books are being burned, knowledge is the only thing that can’t be taken away. 

They Went Left is the unbelievable journey of Zofia Lederman, a Polish Jewess, who is trying to find her younger brother, Abek, after their concentration camps are liberated. The two siblings promise to find each other after the War and Zofia is going to travel the continent to find him. 

Along the way, the story intertwines with the lives of Esther, Breine and Miriam, women Zofia lives with at a Displaced Persons camp where she hopes to find Abek. Here we learn more about the women, where they came from, where they hope to be, and what their dreams are for the future. They Zofia under their wing and there is a strong sense of connection between them. 

While many liberated Jews did travel far and wide to find their family and loved ones, I believe Zofia’s journey is as much a mental and emotional journey as it is just physical. Healing from the scars inflicted on her seems an insurmountable task. But it is not impossible. The only criticism I have is that sometimes Zofia seems unbelievably self-aware for her character’s story arc. Otherwise, the characters are believable and their struggles, even more. 

In the story, we see how every person fights their own battles, even if it is just within themselves. The writing may be simple, but it never sacrifices emotion.

Do you ever feel like everyone is watching you? Watching for your mistakes and fears? That’s exactly how Esther Greenwood feels in The Glass Jar. Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical story tells the journey of a young woman in a cruel world, trapped by the inner spirals of her mind.

    A ‘scholarship girl’, Esther is awarded a dream internship in New York after winning another writing contest. Along with eleven other girls, she seems to be living a dream, exchanging one posh soiree for another.

    In her heart, she knows she should be happy, but in her mind, all she can think about is her misery. As Esther finally concludes her month-long adventure in the city, the façade of happiness soon disappears altogether. Without any aim, purpose, or contests to enter, Esther is left to wallow in her relentless thoughts and anxiety.

    Plath artfully and beautifully uses common language to paint a picture that is at once horrifying as it is intriguing. During a time when mental health was taboo, she broke down the boundaries, helping normalize a once forbidden topic.

    We are right alongside Esther as her feelings of helplessness and powerlessness consume her. The characters in Plath’s novels walk in and out of Esther’s life with the same uncanny peculiarity of our own lives. The writing glides off the page. 

    After everything Esther has been through, we are left with the belief that things may turn out alright after all. What is literature if not to provide the tiniest ounce of hope?

Angry teens, sadistic rulers, and a deathly game. This is the Hunger Games. The post-apocalyptic dystopian follows sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen into a future where the country Panem (formerly North America) is divided into ‘districts’ and the leaders are oppressing tyrants who hide away in ‘the Capitol’. To prevent their poverty-stricken citizens from further uprisings, children between the ages of twelve and eighteen are forced to enter a lottery to be in the Hunger Games. One male and female are chosen from each district.

The game challenges contestants as they are faced with physical, mental, and emotional obstacles. The entirety of the competition is broadcast across the nation for all to see. Taking place in a controlled environment, game makers dictate everything from weather, to terrain, to what foods are available. It is a fight to the death.

When Katniss’ little sister, Prim, has her name drawn, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She is swept first into the world of ‘The Capitol’. It is home to the rich and fashionable where status is key, and food is in abundance. A world away from Katniss’ district 12. Here she is fed, pampered, trained, and eventually sent to the Hunger Games. What ensues is a fast-paced survival story where the real enemies aren’t even in the arena; they’re in the Capitol.

Susanne Collins manages to weave a richly realized world without sounding long-winded and contrived. Everything is natural; from Katniss’ inner ramblings to the criticisms, fears, and anger that plague her and everyone around her. Characters are flawed and imperfect. We can see ourselves in the characters so much it’s scary. The choice they’re being asked to make, kill or be killed is terrifying. Which would you choose?

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“The truth was so terrible… provide the people with better lies,” So argues Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. The meaning of the title is unraveled as the book progresses. Cat’s Cradle becomes more than a game; it becomes a way of seeing the world.

he novel follows aspirational writer, John “Jonah” Hoosier, as he collects material for his iconic book, The Day the World Ended. The novel within a novel refers to the day Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Scientist, Felix Honniker, considered the ‘father of the atom bomb’ dies while experimenting with his newest invention ‘ice-nine’. Ice-nine is said to have the power to freeze any body of water it touches and any body of water that feeds into it. The dangerous weapon soon falls into the hands of his dysfunctional children, Angela, Frank and Newt, who split the tiny capsules between them. Jonah tracks down all three children in an attempt to gain better insight into the life of their odd but brilliant father and the elusive ice-nine.

What follows is a fast-paced novel that dares its readers to keep up and ‘stretch their minds’. The majority of the novel takes place on the imaginary island of San Lorenzo. On his flight there, Jonah is exposed to a group of people with varying beliefs and he later reflects on how they fit into the religion of Bokonism. Bokonism is a religion ‘built on lies’, arguing that lies allow people a better quality of life. Whether that’s true or not is left to the readers to decide.

With a large cast of characters, the voices can start to meld together, however, Vonnegut’s main cast speaks loud and clear, just like his satirical observations. A peculiar book that doesn’t just manage to bring you into the story, you can’t help but stay along for the ride. The language is simple and easy to understand, making the author’s ideas accessible to those willing to listen. For those looking for a sense of purpose or meaning, this book isn’t for you. But for others who are seeking a stimulating and thought provoking book, look no further than Cat’s Cradle.

Wonder is one of those children’s stories that even adults can read and enjoy. The novel follows ten-year-old August “Auggie” Pullman, who was born with a facial deformity. Due to dozens of surgeries and medical appointments, Auggie has been home schooled all his life – until now.

Auggie is accepted into private school, Beecher Prep, where the principal, Mr. Tushman, and several handpicked students welcome him with varying degrees of open arms. Everyone entering middle school is special and unique in their own way but school can be especially difficult when your difference is visible. Auggie is the victim of bullying but survives it with the help of his loving friends  and family.

The author, R. J. Placio, may not be a middle school boy with a rare genetic disorder, but she does understand character development, living with differences, and how young people think.
Diversity of all kinds are being better represented in books and Wonder is a fine example. It never sets out to downplay Auggie’s differences but acknowledges and empathizes with his struggles while holding onto the idea that we are stronger than what other people think about us. That is an important lesson to remember no matter what age we are.

A Separate Peace is a story with a deceitfully simple plot. The main character and narrator, Gene Forrester, ‘accidentally’ knocks his friend, Phineas “Finny” out of a tree. Finny breaks his leg, preventing him from competing in sports, one of his great loves. Gene must navigate through the confusion and guilt of the accident while maintaining his friendship with Finny, getting through high school, and deciding whether or not to enlist in the War. There is jealousy, confusion and pain.

The time period Knowles chose, the Second World War, serves not as a backdrop of the story nor leading character, but as a piece of yarn, adroitly woven into the tapestry of the novel. Hinted at in the title, A Separate Peace is about holding onto innocence in a world of tumultuous unpredictability and violence and what it means to preserve that innocence.

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The Glass Castle is a memoir about the tumultuous and nomadic upbringing of journalist and best-selling author, Jeannette Walls. In the beginning, the traveling gang’s rootlessness is whimsical and exciting, an adventure to find gold and build the titular “glass castle” in the hot dessert of the Midwest.

Walls’ father, Rex, is brilliant and well-versed in science, mathematics, astronomy and many other subjects despite only holding a high school diploma. He captures the imagination and hearts of his children through the tall-tales of his own life and time serving in the Air Force. Their mother, Rosemary, is a free-spirited and troubled artist who is an “adventure addict”, loving nothing more than to paint and read for days on end. It seems an idyllic life.

However, as time marches on, Rex’s drinking tightens its grip on him and the already fragile family begins to fall apart. Rosemary, dealing with her own complex issues, takes on different teaching posts without holding onto any one of them for long and sometimes refusing to work despite her children’s hunger. Through their starvation, poverty, and neglect, the Walls children stick together, taking care of each other, working and saving money to make their escape to New York.

Every member of the eccentric family is written with care, compassion and a distinct voice that allows you to empathize and understand each character beyond just being “bad” or “good”. Walls’ flexes her story-telling muscles with evocative descriptions that transport you first to Arizona, then Las Vegas, San Francisco and other places the family lived. Although the book does not have chapters, it is well structured with short sections, giving you a window into their daily lives. The pace is excellent, speeding and slowing along with the turbulent family and moving on from one thing to another as fast as they “skedaddled” from one town to the next.

What separates The Glass Castle from other autobiographical stories of nomadic poverty-stricken families, is not just the mental illness, neglect, and selfishness the children endured from their parents, but their ability to forgive and create a better life for themselves, even without the help of the people who were supposed to take care of them.