The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Dear Readers,
If you noticed I did post the review of Animal Farm on the same day as this one. It read these books is rapid succession. They both took me about a day. And all I can say is wow. After reading over 900 pages of fantasy in the past to week, the 350ish pages of these two books seemed so much more important.
The Catcher in the Rye also has the unapproachable feel of a classic. You think it is going to be high and lofty and over you head. Well, you thought wrong. The Catcher in the Rye is rather simple. It is just the story of a teenage boy. It is just three days of his life. Three days in which you learn all about his life philosophies, his family, his "friends", his likes, his dislikes. Basically you learn everything about this kid. Holden Caulfeild is his name.
Holden is one of those characters that was written to be hated, and after you realize that the book is rather enjoyable. After you realize what a phony this kid is, you can laugh at his haughty comments and crude mind. He tries so hard not to be corny or phony, but in the end he turns out to be the biggest phony of all. For all of his hard work he is rewarded with nothing. He continually calls everyone else fake, but he can't look in the mirror and see how fake and empty he is. That really irritated me. It made me want to chuck the book across the room sometimes. Holden thinks he is all that and a bag of chips, and it can kinda get annoying. When talking to anyone his first thought is that they are phonies. I want to know how this 16 year old boy can know so much about life.
I truthfully cannot tell you what you are suppose to get out of this book. I can tell you what I got out of it, but I doubt that it is exactly what Salinger intended. I found that after hating Holden I was motivated to never act like him. At the age of 16 he acts like a three year old. He never considers the consequences his actions have. He never stops to think about how other people feel. They are all phonies and fakes and he doesn't give a damn. By trying so hard not to be fake he becomes exactly what he hates. He pushes everyone away. Holden is the perfect example of what I do not want to be.
Maybe there is something different, something deeper that Salinger was writing about, and maybe I am just to shallow and corny to understand. But I feel that it is sort of refreshing to have a main character who you hate and whose sole purpose it to show you how not to live.
So if you ever find out what the ducks go in the winter please tell me.
Lindsey

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Dear Readers,
After the awful, awful fantasy I decided it was time for some real literature. Animal Farm was a very good idea.
I finished this book in less than 24 hours. It is like 114 pages or something really close to that. It is really short, and it goes by really fast. This book is a really unintimidating classic Classic come with the reputation. They are suppose to be hard to read and hard to understand, but Animal Farm defied those stereotypes. It was a very quick read, and you didn't have to understand all of the symbols to enjoy and understand the book.
So the jist of the plot is animals on a farm in England overthrowing their master. It is not a very hard plot to follow. There are not many twist and turns, characters with hard names, or far off places that make no sense. It is a rather simple book to read.
But what makes it extraordinary is the symbols. Now if you have kept up with me from the beginning you know I am not a big symbol girl. I absolutely hate it when other people tell me what to get from a book, so I will keep this brief.
Besides being about animals who learn to talk, read, walk, and run a farm, the book is about the corruptive forces of power. Once a  person or pig has a taste of power they long for more. They want all they can get. After Farmer Jones is over thrown there are promises of a wonderful life with full bellies and backs that are not over worked. Plans are made for happiness and easy lives. The pigs start to take charge, but after they start they can't stop. The easy and peaceful life the animals wishes for is a distant dream over shadowed by the harsh reality of the power hungry pigs.
This book is not just shinning a light on how awful pigs can be. The pigs are meant to represent humans, as a matter of fact every animal on the farm is. I am not going to make a worksheet so you can clearly identify each different part of society represented by the animals, I believe that you can figure it out. I do find it strange how Mr. Orwell decided the represent society with animals. Is he saying something about the human race? Is he using pigs as leader, horse as the mindless workers, donkey as wise but stubborn for a reason? I cannot pretend to know everything Mr. Orwell had in mind for this book, but as you read you can clearly see a statement being made. I will not tell you everything he is trying to say; go read the book and find out for yourself. Hopefully you find as much meaning and wisdom in this short simple book as I did.
Lindsey

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Dear Readers,

Wow what can I say?
I normally like the books I read, but this one was a struggle and not in the good way. It was almost painful to read. It just really wasn't good at all. I normally don't like to trash authors or their books, but this book kinda deserves it. After making it through the first four books in the series I should have at least been rewarded by something good. After the long wait for this book it wasn't even worth it.
Let me plunge into my criticism of this book by starting out with a comparison to the rest of the series. The first four books were pretty good. The first three I loved. They were enticing. They were exciting. They were different. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. The fourth one was sub-par, and I was hoping that the fifth one would get better. But it didn't. I believe there is a direct connection between the covers of the books.  The first three books had bodies but you couldn't see their faces, but on the fourth book Cassandra got cocky and the cover art starting including the faces. It left less up to imagination. It also just pissed me off.
The prequel series is rather good. Maybe because the main character isn't the dumbest person ever. The Clockwork Prince which I blogged about before is a pretty good. The plot isn't muddled with stupid actions by stupid characters. But City of Lost Souls definitely is.
Okay lets start out by bashing the character. I don't think I have read a stupider character than Clary. At first she seemed adventurous and fun, but as the series continued she started to take unnecessary risks and make very very stupid mistakes. She acts like she knows things, but everything she thinks she knows ends up being wrong. At first I thought that her relationship with Jace was cute, but that also faded as the series went on. As Clary's mother pointed out in this book, her and Jace are just not meant to be together. They have gone through so much. First they couldn't love each other because they weren't the same race. Then they didn't know that they liked each other. Then after confessing their love they found out they might be siblings. Then after that found out they weren't related Jace was possessed by a Greater Demon. Then Jace was connected to Clary's evil sick mined brother. And here is the kicker this all happened in the first six months of their relationship. So clearly they just need to stop, but they don't get the hint. Clary is willing to risk everything, every innocent human life on earth, for her lover Jace. That is not healthy. The relationship is just weird.
Jace is also a very annoying character. He is soooooooooo full of himself. He believes he is the best thing since sliced bread. I just can't stand him.
Basically every other character in the novel runs around like a chicken with their head cut off. They make plans that make no sense and have about a .0001% chance of working. All of this up to do is about Jace, who has on multiple occasions been a complete asshole to everyone. But lets not forget that Shadowhunters make stronger bonds with each other than humans, so their unreasonable and retarded actions are completely called for.
The only redeemable character in the book is Simon. Not only his he hilarious, he is the only person with sense in the book. He lets Clary go, but agrees to take the ring as a life line because he realizes, unlike Clary's mother, that he cannot stop her. When everyone is freaking out about how they are going to find a weapon, Simon puts on his big boy pants and takes action. Simon is really the only person who makes sense in the books. He is also the best comic relief. He is a nerd who makes many references to comics, movies, and t.v. shows. He is way better than Jace, but Clary should not have ended up with him because she doesn't deserve him. Cassandra said that she had thought about leaving the series with book 4 and making a graphic novel about Simon. I have one question for you Cassandra, WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT???? It would have been infinite times better than the shit you ended up writing.
The plot is basically all of the retarded characters running around doing retarded things. Nothing they do really makes any sense. They all act on impulse without thinking about the consequences. Not much more needs to be said about the plot.
This is just a really bad example of fantasy. It makes me want to throw up. I am sorry that this book is out there for the public to read. So don't pick this one up. Just leave it on the shelf in the Paranormal Teen Romance section because that is where is belongs.
Lindsey

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Dear Readers,

After finishing Lord of the Rings, I felt I deserved some mindless teen fantasy, so I read Bitterblue. Just because it is mindless doesn't mean it isn't good though.
Bitterblue is the third book in a wonderful series by Kristin Cashore. It is the sequel to the book Graceling and the companion to Fire. Both of those books are also wonderful. The have a different story that I have not read in many other fantasy books.
I will give you a brief over view of the other two books and some background info before I tell you about Bitterblue.
Graceling centers around a girl named Katsa. She is "graced". In the Seven Kingdoms there are people who are born with two different colored eyes. These people are born with special gifts like not having to sleep, mind reading, baking, reading, being strong, and many many many other things. Katsa is said to have the grace of killing people. The first book follows her story and near the end you met the main character of Bitterblue, Bitterblue. Katsa returns in Bitterblue.

Fire is a completely different story. This story takes place in a different kingdom on the other side of a impassible mountain range. This story centers around Fire, who is what they call a monster. The monsters have the ability to control peoples minds. Monsters are not only human there are also monster animals. They are known by their strange colors. Fire's hair is a mix of brilliant orange, red, and pink, hence the name fire. She also makes an appearance in Bitterblue. 
Bitterblue takes place in one of the Seven Kingdoms. Bitterblue become queen after her horrible father's reign of 35 years. The kingdom she takes control of is in shambles. King Leck, her father, was graced with the ability to control peoples mind. He did many many horrors as king, and the kingdom is taking a long time to come out of his shadow. At first the task of bring her kingdom out of Leck's fog seems impossible to Bitterblue. She herself does not remember much about her father and her time with him. To bring peace to her kingdom Bitterblue must look into the past to figure out what is happening in the present. Of course she does not complete this task alone. There is a wonderful parade of characters some new and some familiar from the other books.
If you need a quick and easy but wonderful read I would recommend picking up this book.
Read on, dear readers.
Lindsey

Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

It is finished!!!!
There you go Julie! I did it, and I loved mostly every minute of it.
I say mostly ever minute because there were some minutes that I actually considered dropping the book.
I will start out telling you about the things I disliked. Well disliked might be to strong of  word. I will start out telling you about the things that I didn't not appreciate.
Number One: Tom Bombadli. Someone told me that you either love him or you hate him. I have no strong feelings towards this man. He was just kinda of a distraction. When I wanted some real action he kept popping up, and clouding the story line with useless problems. I do not understand why Tolkien decided to add this character in the book. I am glad they left that part out in the movie because otherwise the movie would be super long. Oh wait the movies are long anyway...
Number Two: The first 300 pages of the book. Besides Tom Bombadli there were many other problems that drug down the hobbits from their quest and the plot line. I like description, but sometimes Tolkien had a little to much.
Okay so I really only have two complaints about this book.
Now to the things I liked.
This book is the closest to the perfect fantasy book that I have ever read. First I must talk about the characters.
The characters are one of the things that make a fantasy book or movie a flop or a success. Fantasy needs relatable characters to make up for the strangeness in the book. Many of the characters in this book fill that roll. If you have read The Hobbit, Bilbo feels like an old friend, and it almost comforting to have him at the start of the book. Likewise with Gandalf. The kind wizard has already gained our trust in the previous novel, so now it is easy to like him even though he is a little strange. The new Hobbits you meet come onto the scene and steal the show. Frodo the main hero in the book has fears, dreams, hopes, and hunger pains just like everyone else. Sam who turns out to be another hero in the end shows the character true loyalty. Sam is the most loyal character I have ever read. He is willing to embark on a journey with his master that he knows he will most likely not come back from. Even when the rest of the Fellowship considers leaving Sam stays true. Mary and Pippin are comic relief. They too possess loyalty to Frodo and the quest, but their curious and humorous sides often break the tension in tight moments. The rest of the fellowship is made up of very different characters. There is a dwarf, elf, and two men. The dwarf Gimli is like an old uncle who loves you and would go to great lengths to protect you. The elf Legolas is a graceful, clever helper on the journey. Boromir one of the men, goes forth with courage, but also acts as the needed weak link later. And the last member Aragorn has many rules. He is the person who gets the Hobbits back on track after the excursion in the forest with Tom, he provides wisdom on the fate of the ring, he backs up Gandalf and eventually takes over the roll of guide. So over all the characters are awesome!
The plot line has no equal. Okay, the first part is really boring, but when the plot picks up it has no equal. This is the perfect journey story. Each character has their own motives and yet they are untied by the common goal of destroying the ring. This goal keeps the plot line moving. Plot line great!
Even though the descriptions can be a little lengthy, the writing style is amazing. I really started to enjoy how much was on each page. I would read for what felt like hours, and I would only have read about 30 pages. That could get annoying, but each page was filled with so much wonderfulness that I wanted to keep reading. The way to story is woven together keeps each page interesting and new.
So overall this book is great. I have a few complaints, but they are definitely out weighed by the positives. What ever genre you like, you will love this story. Don't get discouraged by the semi boring beginning. Keep going and you will be rewarded!
Lindsey

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Dear Readers,

Wow. All I can say is wow.
We are reading this book for my book club, and we have yet to discuss but I have finished the book. And it is amazing! I flew threw this book. It was so good I could not put it down.
This book falls under the Sci-Fi genre, but it is not all futuristic and unrelatable. It is in the future, but it is not the distant future. The chilling thing about this book is that it is the all to near future.
The novel takes place about after the "Heart-land War". This was the second civil war in the United States. As with the first civil war it dealt with social issues. This war dealt with abortion. One side said it was right the other said it was wrong. To stop the fighting a Bill of Life was purposed that supposedly worked for both sides. Unwinding.
Unwinding is a process that can be done on unwanted children between the age of 13 and 18. This process takes apart the body and uses every part in a transplant, so that all of the parts are living and therefore the person is still alive.
Unwinding was created to solve the problem of abortion, but with this solution came different problems. By the age of 13 the unwanted children did not want to die. They did not want to be unwound. This novel follows the stories of three unwinds on their journeys to safety.
Connor was unruly and disrespectful, and his parents were tired of dealing with him. They decided to have him unwound. After finding the slip his parents signed his life away on, he decides to skip town and escape his impending doom.
Risa is a ward of the state. At the age of 13 the state decides that she has not done enough in her short life to show promise for a rewarding future. As a result of budget cuts and over crowding Risa is going to be unwound.
Lev is a tithe. His parents adhere strictly to the belief of giving 10 percent of what you own back to the Lord. Lev their tenth child, is to be tithed to the Lord, and sent away to a harvesting camp to be unwound.
Their paths cross in a rather unexpected way. Connor who is running from the police causes an accident that stop Risa's bus. Lev's car, which is on the way to the harvest camps, is also stopped by Connor. After saving Lev from death by JuveyCops, Connor, Risa, and Lev run into the forest. They escaped their unwinding or so they think. Now they only have to survive until they turn 18, but this task proves harder than it appears.
As different character weave in and out of the book the goal of the three main characters remains the same, escape the horrible fate they were once destined to. They grow and change on their journey, and in the end they hardly resemble the people they started out as.
While following the exciting story of the unwinds, the book brings up many social issues.
In the beginning unwinding is mentioned, but not clearly explained. Through the characters stories you start to understand the inhumanity in this practice. They say that by unwinding a child they are not technically dead, but is that really true? Is it really human to take away a child's future? Their parts are still technically alive, but they have no life. They do not have a chance to contribute to society. They do not have a chance to grow up, to get married, to have kids, to have grandchildren, to live their lives. They really do not have the chance to die either. Everything that should be their's is taken away from them.
This is sickly close to abortion. An aborted child has no chance to live the life they could. All of the things that come with being born are taken away from them. There should not be a discussion of when life really starts. Conception or birth? Does it matter? At either stage they still have potential. They will have things to contribute to the world.
Unwinding was such "a great solution" because by the age of 13 it was said that they could tell whether or not the child would contribute. That is completely untrue. People change, and with that change comes influence. As the main characters travel to safety this becomes very clear. The characters change. They evolve. They become kinder, smarter, important, and needed.
During one part of the novel someone mentions the fact that before the Heartland Wars people started to pick the leaders of the country not because they could leader, but because they had similar beliefs on one subject. This is obviously happening in our society. We are becoming to narrow minded and only seeing the world through our own little view. We put to much importance in topics that will not make a difference to our countries safety or well being. If continue on this path our future may be a kin to Unwind.
By writing this novel Neal Shusterman was making a clear statement on abortion and many more topics, which you will have to read the book to find out. It is a chilling book, that shows the all to near future. The future of our world in which human life becomes disposable, people become immune to inhumanity, and potential is determined to quickly. This book is a must read for everyone. It doesn't matter if you say that you like Sci-Fi or not you should pick up this book. 
Lindsey