Divergent review

Written by Veronica Roth
I absolutely LOVED this book. It met every expectation and then some. The only problem I have is that is is a trilogy and books 2 and 3 are not out yet!
The book was set in a time after the fall of our economy and everyone blamed it on different things. The people who thought the fall was based on Lies are called Candor, Selfishness is Abnegation, The cowardice is the Dauntless,  Conflict is Amity, and then Stupidity is Erudite. Each different group is a Faction. All of the kids of each faction go to school together until the age of 16. Then they get to choose which one they want to join for the rest of their lives. If they decided to leave the one they were born into, they choose to lose their family. Happiness or your families happiness? Tough decision.
the tension between 2 characters is awesome. It shows a love blossoming a midst an upcoming war. One of the factions decides they don't like the way things are and try mind control on other factions to kill all of the political leaders. The "serum" for the mind control does not work on the "Divergent" people. So, they try and disarm the mind control from the other people.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Hunger Games Trilogy.  This book is also a trilogy but book 2 doesn't come out until next month! And I will be on the waiting list to get this book ASAP!

Here is the official book description:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

The Night Circus Review

Written by Erin Morgenstern

The book sounded pretty awesome. It's set in the late1800- early1900's in a very unique circus that is only open at night. There are a couple of illusionists that battle each other. Sounds pretty good right? 

Here is the official book description: 

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

THE BOOK WAS HORRIBLE! I only got less than half way through it and I refuse to finish. Only one person in the book group decided to finish it JUST because she decided she didn't want to just QUIT. 

The book is terribly over written and the so-called "battle" is 2 magicians making new circus attractions. The book started out interesting when a magician finds out he has a daughter after the mother dies. The little girl has powers just like the father and he uses and abuses her to make a bet with another magician. Then, it gets very DULL. Some parts and characters were good and interesting, but only for a page. The story jumps around and follows too many people at the same time so just as your getting interested in what one person is doing it stops talking about them and jumps to someone else and NEVER comes back to finish where it left off on the interesting parts. They say you either LOVE this book, or you HATE it. Well, I guess you can say I HATED it. I do not suggest this book to anyone.

The Maze Runner

Well... First off let me start by saying.. Wow. What a crazy book. Overall it was a great, interestingly crazy and weird book.  Dashner's over use of words threw me off for the first maybe 15 chapters. After I got passed his excessive over explanatory uneventful parts, emotions, and feelings it was a little easier to read. Around chapter 16 it became exciting to read.
This book was recommended to The Hunger Games (THG) readers. I can kind of see the relation to it, but it is not even close to being written as well as THG. With THG I woke up thinking about reading the books, had dreams about it, looked for reasons to sit down and read them. I had to kind of talk myself into reading this book, but once I started I could sit and read for hours. Though if I got distracted by something or someone, it took me a while to get back into reading it.
I am glad I read this as a group though. I would have discarded it before reaching chapter 10. Ha ha.

So, overall I give this book 3.75 stars due to the crappy start. :o)

Here are some discussion questions we will be going over on Thursdays group meeting:

In General

1. What did everyone think?  Rate it on a scale of 1-5.

2. Did you like the book?  If so, why?

3. If you didn't like the book, what were your reasons? 

The Characters

1. Were you able to identify with any of the characters?  

2. What stood out about each character?

3. Who was your favorite character?

4. Who was your least favorite character?

The Scenes

1.What was your favorite part in the book?

2.What was your least favorite part?

Comparison

1. How did this book compare to the other books we've read?

2. Would you read other books like this one?

Where do I begin...

So far I have read about 90 pages of The Maze Runner. Which is about 11 chapters. I am not in love with it. It has a slow start. There are so many questions and even the main character can't get answers! lol. Their language is kind of annoying. Though tolerable. It took almost 60 pages to get to day 2 of the book.
The reviews say it starts getting better. I hope so! It's hard to get through this book so far. Not saying its a horrible book... I just cant get into it.

The Maze Runner WK1

It has 374 pages broken into 62 chapters. Very small chapters. Only about 4 pages each! So, the first week we are reading 21 chapters. The same with week 2 and then 20 chapters for week 3.

Maze Runner

So, our first offical book is going to be 'Maze Runner' by James Dashner.  Here is  a brief summary:

Thomas wakes up to find himself in a box. When he reaches the top, he is pulled out by a group of boys. The only thing he remembers is his first name, nothing else.

Thomas learns that all these boys live in a place called The Glade. The Glade is surrounded by tall, stone walls with four massive openings. (also referred to as doors) in the center of each wall. These doors close each night to protect them from the monsters that live in the giant maze beyond the Glade's walls. These monsters are called Grievers and attempt to sting the Gladers with their needles. If the Gladers get stung, they must be given a special antidote called the Grief Serum and undergo a painful process called the Changing in order to survive. Gladers who have gone through the Changing claim to gain memories into their lives before the Maze. The walls to the maze move every night so there is a different maze outside each door every day.

The day after Thomas arrives in the Glade, another person is sent up in the Box, the elevator that regularly brings new people and supplies to the Glade. Only boys live in the Glade, but to their surprise, a girl, Teresa, is sent up in the Box. They were also surprised because it was the first time someone new had been brought to the Glade in less than a month. She brings with her a message that she will be the last one to ever arrive in the Glade and that the end is nearly coming someday soon. She then falls into a deep coma. After the arrival of Teresa , the boys blame Thomas for everything abnormal going on, saying everything is all his fault.

In the end, the boys realize that they are against a force called WICKED. The boys believe that they are being put through a series of trials to find the best boys for the job WICKED has planned for them. They realize that the Maze is to be solved.

People called Runners, have studied the maze for the two years, running around their section of the maze each day avoiding the Grievers. Every day the Runners go into the maze and look for changes in the maze. They come back to the Glade and sketch the day's changes. Teresa has a telepathic connection with Thomas and tells him that WICKED is good, and that the maze is a code, and meant to be solved. Thomas is completely scared to tell the others about their Gift, and other people, who have gone through the Changing, claim to have seen Thomas before. In an effort to bring memories back about who Thomas really is and why the Gladers are there, Thomas purposefully gets stung by one of the Grievers. During the Changing Thomas understands why they are there. He and the girl Teresa both helped design the maze, and Thomas finally understands how to escape the Maze. He gets all of the sketches of the maps of the Maze and stacks them over each other for each day and for each section of the Maze that day on wax paper. The maps start to spell a series of words which have to be entered into a computer through an invisible hole off the Cliff, which lies somewhere in the maze. Everyone realizes this plan and Thomas takes a group and leads their final charge against WICKED and in the end types the words in and pushes a button and a door opens letting the remaining 21 Gladers through.

They all meet the Creators of the Maze. Gally, a crazy Glader who had mysteriously disappeared at one point, throws a knife at Thomas, but Thomas's friend, Chuck, dives in front of the knife, killing himself. The remaining Gladers are soon taken by a bunch of people that come in and kill the Creators. They find out that the Earth is now a barren wasteland, burned by sun flares. A disease has spread, called The Flare, which makes people crazy, and it is easily spreadable. He set up the maze to find the smartest people to find a cure to this disease. A group of people who are completely against the idea of WICKED get Thomas and the others away from the Creators. Thomas and his group are told that they are heading across an extremely dangerous part near the equator, called the Scorch, to get to a safe haven to find the cure. Thomas and his friends are given shelter, beds, and food, and fall into a peaceful sleep. In the epilogue, the head leader of WICKED, in a couple of memos, describes how group A's trial results went extremely well in the Maze, and that their next challenge will be to cross the Scorch. Thomas and his friends will be given one day of rest inside the second stage of the trial.

Dustlands: Blood Red Road

When I started this book I didn't know anything about it other than the description on the back, I just thought it looked interesting in the book store. (I know I shouldn't judge it by its cover lol). However after the first 10 or so pages I actually considered not reading the rest of it. The beginning just wasn't doing it for me, and the writing style was getting on my nerves. According to the author, in a post-apocalypse world, everyone speaks like ignorant red necks! The grammar is terrible and i had to actually sound out some of the words to figure out what the character was trying to say or think. It made the book very difficult to read.

After I got past the first little bit and into the story, and my mind started to accept this strange language, the book turned out to actually be really great. The one thing I loved about it is the descriptions. I felt like the characters were going to jump off the page and into real life! Moira laid out every detail of the character so specifically it was like watching a movie in my mind.

In the end, I was disappointed to realize that the second book doesn't come out until October, but when it does I will definitely be ready. I can't wait to find out what happens to the characters, they leave it on some what of a cliff hanger.

Amazon description of book:

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back. 

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba’s unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.