Great+Reads!

= Share your great reads -- make your recommendations here! =

=
//**The Hunger Games**// **(Trilogy)** by Suzanne Collins. A haunting series for teens (but all ages will love it) that is very hard to put down. "Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The hunger games have begun ..." In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. Acclaimed writer Suzanne Collins, author of the New York Times bestselling The Underland Chronicles, delivers equal parts suspense and philosophy, adventure and romance, in this searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. ======


 * //Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet//** by Jamie Ford. Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents, who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers. This is an old-fashioned historical novel that alternates between the early 1940s and 1984, after Henry's wife Ethel has died of cancer. A particularly appealing aspect of the story is young Henry's fascination with jazz and his friendship with Sheldon, an older black saxophonist just making a name for himself in the many jazz venues near Henry's home. Other aspects of the story are more typical of the genre: the bullies that plague Henry, his lack of connection with his father, and later with his own son. Readers will care about Henry as he is forced to make decisions and accept circumstances that separate him from both his family and the love of his life.

=

 * //Empty//** by Suzanne Weyn. It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be. Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Sage Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought. Teens like Niki, Tom, and Gwen may find what they need to survive, but their lives are never going to be the same again. ======


 * //The Eleventh Plague//** by Jeff Hirsch. The wars that followed The Collapse nearly destroyed civilisation. Now, twenty years later, the world is faced with a choice--rebuild what was or make something new. Stephen Quinn, a quiet and dutiful fifteen-year-old scavenger, travels Post-Collapse America with his Dad and stern ex-Marine Grandfather. They travel light. They keep to themselves. Nothing ever changes. But when his Grandfather passes suddenly and Stephen and his Dad decide to risk it all to save the lives of two strangers, Stephen's life is turned upside down. With his father terribly injured, Stephen is left alone to make his own choices for the first time. Stephen's choices lead him to Settler's Landing, a slice of an old world in an apocalyptic one. What happens therein will change the fate of the residents of Settler's Landing and Stephen's forever.

//**The Fault in Our Stars**// by John Green. Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon her diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, //The Fault in Our Stars// is award-winning-author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. Praise for //The Fault in Our Stars// "A novel of life and death and the people caught in between, The Fault in Our Stars is John Green at his best. You laugh, you cry, and then you come back for more." -- Markus Zusak, bestselling and Printz Honor-winning author of //The Book Thief.// "An electric portait of young people who learn to live life with one foot in the grave. Filled with staccato bursts of humor and tragedy,//The Fault in Our Stars// takes a spin on universal themes -- Will I be loved? Will I be remembered? Will I leave a mark on this world? -- dramatically raising the stakes for the characters who are asking." -- Jodi Picoult, bestselling author of //My Sister's Keeper// and //Sing You Home.// "John Green writes incredible, honest truths about the secret, weird hearts of human beings. He makes me laugh and gasp at the beauty of a sentence or the twist of a tale. He is one of the best writers alive and I am seething with evny of his talent." --E. Lockhart, National Book Award Finalist and Printz Honor-winning author of //The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks// and //The Boyfriend List.//

//**Divergent**// by Veronica Roth. This book takes place in a dystopian version of Chicago. It has been compared and related to the Hunger Games because of its themes and ideas. In the society, the people are split into 5 factions. The Abnegations, who are selfless, the Erudites, who are the intelligent, the Candors who are completely honest, the Amity, who are peaceful, and the Dauntless, who are the brave and fearless. When the people in the factions turn sixteen, they have the option to stay with their faction or go to another faction and leave their families. The main character Beatrice was born into Abnegation and when she reached the age of sixteen, she took a test to find out which faction was fit for her. Her test was inconclusive and it was revealed to her that she was Divergent, which should be kept a secret from everyone. Beatrice chooses to run with the Dauntless, and changes her name to Tris. Through her initiation she faces her fears and meets allies. She finds who she is, and how dangerous the Divergent label can be with the help of her instructor Four. Through her journey she copes with her secret and finds the evil hidden well within the other factions.