Abandon

Abandon by Meg Cabot is a retelling of the classic Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. Now I love, love, love Meg Cabot, but this book didn't hold my interest nearly as much as some of the others. Maybe it's because of the whole Greek-myth-basis. AGAIN. Is it just me, or is EVERYBODY writing retellings lately? Ever since Percy Jackson, people have gotten caught up in the whole Greek Gods thing, and it's getting a little tiring. Maybe I'm being prejudiced, though. If you like the Greek trend, go for it. It is a pretty well-written book, I just couldn't get over the cliche-ed-ness of it.

Little Brother

Here we go again. That's literally all I could think when I picked up Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Another story of little guy versus government. Blah, blah, rebellion, blah, blah, down with the corporation. Sound familiar? Oh, yeah.
And yet-- I loved this book. Okay, so it DOES follow the cliched average-Joe-versus-government, but it does it in such a genius way that I couldn't stick to my preconceived hatred of it. Basically, what happens is that San Fransisco was the lucky recipient of a terrorist attack. Marcus (the narrator) happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he and his friends are taken to a secret government facility for intense interrogation. When they are let go, they realize that one guy didn't get released and the government has gone out of control on his city, sending Marcus into a techno-geek spiral of rebellion in an attempt to find his friend and get the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) to stop treating every person in San Fransisco like a terrorism suspect.
It's full of hacker lingo and a lot of technological ideas, but everything is explained for the readers. This slows down the plot a bit here and there, but not so much that story stops moving. Actually, it sort of gives the reader a chance to catch their breath in between the heart-pounding action sequences.
I highly recommend this book to my fellow teenagers, and anyone who has an interest in computers, the government, San Fransisco, spicy foods, or LARPing.  

Cloaked

Cloaked is by Alex Flinn (the author of Beastly, an excellent book I've read before). It is about a boy who works on shoes, who meets a princess that wants him to go and search for her brother, the prince, that has been turned into a frog. It sounds really weird, but basically it incorperates a whole bunch of traditional and obscure fairy tales into one hilarious mishmash of magic and mayhem.

Beautiful Creatures

This weekend, I read the book Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. A wonderfully written book! The basic plot is that there is a guy named Ethan who meets this girl, Lena, and starts hanging out with her. They find a magic locket that shows them visions of the past--Civil War era--and it is revealed that Lena is a Caster (sort of a politically correct way to say 'witch,' I guess), and that her alignment (Dark or Light) is to be revealed to her on her sixteenth birthday. Much wackiness ensues, including a Caster named Ridley wreaking mayhem on Ethan's best friend and an incubus who turns out to be someone you wouldn't expect. I highly reccommend this book, and I'll let you know about the sequel, which I am going to scour the library for as soon as the doors open.

My Most Excellent Year

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger is the book I just finished. I checked it out yesterday morning and finished it last night. That's right--one day and I read the whole book. Not because it's small or fluffy, but because it was so good that I couldn't put it down. And that's saying something, since it's a romantic comedy and I'm most defiantely NOT a girl who reads love stories with any kind of regularity. Or willingness. It usually takes my friend Jenni practically gluing my hands to a book to get me to read romance novels. And I finished this one in a day. Brilliantly written, very funny--I reccomend this book to everybody. That's right, boys, even you.

Perfect Chemistry

Have you read Perfect Chemistry? It's a Romeo-and-Juliet style love story, which means I automatically am obligated to hate it. And YET! My friend Jenni talked me into reading it, and I couldn't put the thing down!! It was brilliant. Read it. Tomboy to audience, I dare you all.

Maximum Ride

Okay, so have you read the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson? If yes, GOOD FOR YOU! You may skip this entry. If not, GET THEE TO A LIBRARY!!! I just read six of them in three days flat. They are absolutely brilliant. I should also add that I spent the longest time avoiding these books, because the concept just seemed weird to me. If you don't already know, the premise of these books is that there are six kids--Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel-- who have been grafted with two percent bird DNA. They have wings, basically. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty bizzare to me. And now I must relent, because now that I actually READ these books, I know that I was a great FOOL to avoid them in the first place! I wish you luck, my dear Reader, because these books fly off the shelves (yes, pun very much intended) so it's hard to get your hands on them in order. Still, it's worth it if you can actually buy them so you don't HAVE to try to get them back in to the school library by Monday, causing you to shirk all other duties in favor of the books.