Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

My friend Alyson recommend Hattie Big Sky to me. Set during WWI, it shares the story of a young orphaned girl who bravely goes to Montana to homestead. Sharing her experience through letters to her friend serving in the military, she learns more about family, friendship, and what truly matters as she works her tail off trying to do the work of a whole family all by herself. This was a fast and interesting read and great for all ages.

Favorite Quotes:

"We'd both signed on for something we'd envisioned as heroic and glamourous. The heroiusm and glamour might be there somewhere, btu you had to dig and scrape and scrabble through the dirt, pain and misery to find it. Assuming youc ould find it."

"It's the company, not the cooking, that makes the meal."

"Rather, the lessons this life has planted in my heart pertain more to caring than to crops, more to the Golden Rule than gold, more to the proper choice than to the popular choice."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I'd heard a lot about the Book Thief but just barely read it. Narrated by Death itself, it tells the story of a young German girl during WWII and how she deals with losing her family, finding a foster family, and coming of age in such a difficult time. With the help of her sweet foster father (my favorite character in the book) she deals with her grief through learning and books. The humanity and sadness in this book was almost too much at times but I am so glad I read it (and glad to be me!)

Favorite quotes:
"It's much easier, she realized, to be on the verge of something that to actually be it." Wise insights for a little girl!

"A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequences of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the food sense to die."

Magic Study by Maria Snyder

The sequel to Poison Study, Magic Study by Maria Snyder is every bit as fascinating. I knew things wouldn't be easy for Yelena but was cheering her along and hoping things would work out the whole time. Reading about a new 'country' and culture was fascinating and the ending left my satisfied but excited to read the final book in the trilogy (hurry up library hold list!)

Poison Study by Maria Snyder

I heard about this book on a blog and put it on hold a while back. Once I started reading it I finished the same day because I couldn't put it down! Poison Study is about a young woman named Yelena who is condemned to die but spared in return for becoming the food tester for the 'king'. With recent political unrest, varying factions, no family and no friends to call her own, Yelena struggles and grows as she learns to survive. I couldn't wait to see how the story would resolve and to solve the big mystery- why did Yelena kill someone in the first place and how is she going to come to terms with her life? Between the setting of the story, the relationships, the elements of her past, the food, the physical and mental growth she experiences, I was really entertained and impressed. I loved this book and would recommend it as a coming of age and growing up despite hard times story over the silly Hunger Games any day.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

I wasn't in a huge rush to read this book (having recently neglected laundry and more devouring the Outlander series) but figured I might as well put The Hunger Games on hold and read it eventually- I was number 300 in line so it would probably be next year or something. Apparently, though, people devour these books and the library has a million copies because it came up for me not two months later. After reading thick, historical, adult-oriented books, I flew through this YA novel in about four hours. The story of 17 year old Katniss Everdeen, struggling to survive and protect her family in post-apocalyptic North America was very interesting. I couldn't wait to see how the author would resolve some of the issues presented. Although some of the story was predictable, I still enjoyed watching it unfold. The underlying issues of hunger, desperation, growing up, corruption were difficult and made me think about my own life and how I would react. After I finished the first one I read the next two the next day (unlike Outlander, it actually only takes a couple hours to read one of these, so that was nice). Some of my predictions did come true as the story resolved itself but I was mostly pleased with the way the story wraps up, particularly the resolution of the love triangle between Katniss and Gail and Peeta. I liked the way Katniss explained her final decision and felt it was realistic. Reading the story from her perspective was entertaining, as well- lots of action and good insight into her thoughts.

Did these books change my life? No. They were engrossing but at times I felt like the pace was off- too fast at the end, making me wonder if I had missed things. I felt like the ending flew by. There is a ton of symbolism (often kind of blatant- like she wanted people to rip the books apart and find things barely hidden) and lots to think about. I'm not sure I would want my 12 year old to read them (though I did appreciate that there wasn't a blatant sex scene like I almost expected). I haven't seen the movie since I wanted to read them first but I'm not sure how disturbing the teens killing teens theme would be on screen. For now, I am grateful for my docile, uneventful life.