Monday, January 30, 2012

Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games by Susane Collins is a very good book. It is about a 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeen, who was chosen (or was she?) to go into the annual Hunger Games. The back story of Panem (where Katniss lives) is that the people of north America got into a huge war, and one group won. They turned North America into a shining Capitol with 12 towns circling it (13 "districts" in all).  The Capitol is called District 1 and the inner most ring is District 2, and they go in numerical order 1-13. The lower number district you are, the poorer you are. When the districts tried to rebel against the Capitol, they destroyed the 13th district and started hosting these games called the Hunger Games. In the Hunger Games one boy and one girl from each district must go into the "arena" and fight each other to the death. When the 74 Hunger Games starts, you can be sure that her life was never the same again.

My favorite character is Gale. He's Katniss' friend from district 12. I think I mostly like him because all my friends will at some point in time come up to me and ask me "Gale or Peeta?" (comparison: "Edward or Jacob?" I personally think Peeta is a jerk. I think that I don't like him because of all the kissy-uppy things he does during the book. Like, confessing his love to Katniss at the most inappropriate times. Also a thing to note is that my mom didn't want me to read this book. So if you think a parent would have a problem with it, CHECK WITH THEM FIRST. This book is very violent and some stuff happens in the 2nd and 3rd books that caused my mom to say no.
I hope you like this book as much as I did!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Fullmetal Alchemist By Hiromu Arakawa

This post might be on more material than the first book contains.

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa is a manga with highly addictive qualities. It is about two brothers, Edward (Ed) and Alphonse (Al) Elric who live in a different world where alchemy exists, and the technology isn't as advanced as ours. It starts with Ed and Al walking through a desert and finally finding a thriving desert city (in the middle of nowhere), called Liore. The people told them that the city was a dump until Father Cornello came and got them on "The Sun God, Lito's" good site, thus him being able to preform "miracles". Ed and Al's back story is that they grew up in a little town in the suburbs. Their dad left when the were young, and they spent most of their time at their dad's friends house with a childhood friend, Winry. When their mom died they tried to bring her back to life, costing Ed an arm and a leg (literally). It took Al's body resulting in him turning into an empty suit of armor.

My favorite character is probably Al. I like him because he's a cute little kid, when he has his body. When he's a suit of armor, he keeps his brother from doing anything too stupid. I also like Winry, who supplies Ed with regular "auto-mail (artificial limb)" check ups and comes on a few of their adventures to assist them. Her parents were both doctors in "The Ishvalan War" and they got killed, causing great grief for Winry. My favorite part of the physical books is the extras. They're normally about some part of the book that could be made fun of or misunderstood, causing the ability to be made fun of. My favorite one is when they make fun of Ed for being short, so what happens is Ed finds a genie and he wishes to be taller. When it refuses to do that Ed gets very mad and tries to combine all his wishes to make him at least "a few centimeters taller".

Just a thing to note, if you want to watch the anime, there are two series. The first one is the english one, which only goes up to a certain point (no, I'm not telling you when) then takes a very sharp turn, and ends. The second one, which is titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, seems (I haven't seen it) to stick to the manga more than the other one does. Seeing as the manga is still going on, I don't know if the second series is still going or if it stopped. So, what I find interesting is that I think this is the first book that I know of that has two T.V. series, two movies about what happens after the first T.V. series, a game, an app, and a series of written books based on it.
I hope you like this book as much as I did!
This series is still coming out and I think they are up to book #27.
Keep an eye out for the others!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Post Themes

Just as a heads up, I'm probably going to be doing a lot of posts on manga right now because:
1)I'm helping a friend learn to read English, and I think manga is a good media.
2)I like them.
3)MY BRAIN NEEDS A BREAK FROM ROBERT JORDAN!
So, I'm going to have many posts on manga in the near future.

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch is an extremely funny book. It is about a girl named Cassandra (Cass) and a boy named Max-Ernest who go on an adventure that brings into account the fact that most people can't keep a secret. The book begins with you meeting Cass, a survivalist, who carries around a back-pack that contains everything you would ever need in the case of an natural disaster (volcanoes, floods, radio activity, etc.). When a real estate agent gives Cass' uncles a box from a dead woman's home she makes a very interesting discovery. Along the way she meets a kid named Max-Earnest (named that for specific reasons) who seems to be an allergic to everything book-nerd, who helps Cass greatly over the course of the book.

My favorite character isn't in the first book (Yo-Yoji), so I'm going to write about my second favorite character, Pseudonymous Bosch. I know, I know, he's the author, allow me to explain. During the book, he makes all these really funny comments about what the kids are doing at that point in time. Also, he makes some pretty amusing footnotes on the bottom of the pages. Also, in the beginning of some of the books, it has a little bunch of pages that are mostly him going "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm chocolate.....". Also in the first few books he has an appendix that has a lot of things that he mentions in his footnotes. My favorite thing in the appendix is the recipe for Cass' banana chocolate chip trail mix. I never tried it, though it sounds really good!
I hope you like this book as  much as I did!
Keep an eye out for the sequel, If You're Reading This, It's Too Late!