Dream City

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Written by: Brendan Short
I’m going to be honest about this: I picked up this book based only the cover with no knowledge of what the book was about, so you’ll have to forgive for expecting a two-fisted tale of rollicking adventure in the vein of the mid 30’s pulp fiction.
At this point you maybe asking yourself “What is this pulp fiction you speak of?” And before you ask, it is only tangentially related to the Quentin Tarantino movie of the same name. Pulp fiction was a style of writing that emerged onto the scene in the 1920s, featuring a variety of stories printed on cheap stock. Back in the day, pulp content ranged from the Cosmic Horror of H.P. Lovecraft to noir pieces to the over-the-top action of Doc Savage to the sword-and-sandals fantasy of Conan The Barbarian. The pulp era kind of died down by the late ’50s, when the leading distributor of pulp, the American News Company, went bankrupt.
As of late, however, authors have begun to revive some of the tropes and themes of the genre, focusing mostly on the over the top, cigar chomping, Nazi punching, gang busting, parts in the vein of heroes like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Phantom. These pulp revival stories are known as Two-Fisted Tales of ACTION!

Now that you  know some the expectations I had going into this novel, let me tell you what Dream Cityis not: It is not a story of Mad Science run amuck. It is not a story of Crime Busting lantern-jawed heroes. It is not a story of hard boiled, monologuing PI’s. There are no lost worlds, or secret societies, or  half-dressed damsels in distress, or plucky kid sidekicks, or intrepid reporters. There is nary a Nazis to be decked. 

Dream City is not a story where the good guy, no matter what the odds, somehow manages to pull through. If you had to ask me about what kind of story Dream City is, I’d say that in the story, one of the main characters goes to buy a car. The previous owner of the car, with no outward prompting, goes on to say that  he accidently ran over a homeless man with it during his youth, and since has been haunted by the memory.

It’s that kind of story.

This is the kind of story where people mistake physical objects for immaterial ideals, and then promptly spend their lives chasing unattainable dreams. This is the kind of story where all of the characters accomplishments are either Pyrrhic victories or rendered totally moot soon after.  This is the kind of story where the characters are not just doomed to failure and senseless deaths, they are not even afforded the luxury of facing a tangible antagonist and so spend the rest of their lives angsting over what could have been.

In short, this is the kind of story where the only thing that happens in two hundred odd pages is that a few ineffectual people have die… Some of whom were the protagonists.

It seems as though the point of this novel was to show cynically show how uncaring and tragic life can be, it missed the mark because it made the mistake of nullifying itself by making it impossible to care.

There are some who probably enjoy that kind of story. For those who do, I heartily recommend Dream City. For those who don’t, why not pick up something like Doc Sidhe by Aaron Allston?
~Luke

The Watsons go to Burmingham 1963

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written by  Christopher Paul Curtis
This book book is great, and also has some history in it!
Kenny Watson is about 10 years old and he is one of the main characters and also the narrator. Kenny has an older brother Byron and a younger sister Joetta. Byron is a huge trouble maker! So big that his parents threaten to send him to live with his grandmother Sands in Birmingham Alabama. Which eventually they do in their old car which they named the “Brown Bomber.” I found the book sometimes hard to understand and a little confusing but if your looking for an easy read, pick this one up!   ~Devon

MAX: A Maximum Ride Novel

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written by James Patterson
This book was fantastic.  After reading it, I was absolutely in awe that such a magical piece of literature could be put on paper.  The book begins with Max being kidnapped, by a nefarious Mr. Chu.  She is asked to break all ties with CSM (The Coalition to Stop the Madness) which is an environmental group.  The plot of the book unfolds into a battle with Mr. Chu, with the help of a Krelp (a mound of undersea mass, angered by radioactive waste being dumped into the ocean).   It was a great book, and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat (or wherever else you are reading).   ~Ian

The Hunger Games

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written by Suzanne Collins
Panem, or formerly known as North America, is the home of the hunger games, a competive rivalry between the twelve districts in the nation. Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl who lives in district twelve, lives with her mom and little sister. The hunger games is a competition that tests it’s players skills in a wilderness battle of survival. Each contestant must fight the others to the death so that only one player remains. One boy and one girl get picked to compete from each district. when Katniss’s sister gets chosen to go to the hunger games, Katniss steps in for her. Now she has to say goodbye to her beloved district and everyone she knows and loves to fight to the end with 23 other kids who are much stronger than she is. With no hope and ultimate fear, she will soon enter the arena… if you like suspense, romance, and a love of nature, this is the book for you!!!! –Caroline

A Hat Full of Sky

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written by  Terry Pratchett
“A Hat Full of Sky” is the second book in the “Wee Free Men” trilagy, and continues fallowing Tiffany Aching on her adventures. In this book Tiffany is learning how to become a proper which. Whiches aren’t the evil, laughing green things people think they are. They are kind and go around their villages caring for the sick and old, making sure there are no arguments over animals or land, and do other little bits of kindness. While Tiffany is learning how to do this propally, an evil, deadly creature enters the world she’s in. It is a hiver. Hivers can’t be seen or killed. They enter your head and control your brain, and you go mad for power. Eventually they take over all of you and then you die. Tiffany gets a hiver in her head and goes crazy with power. She steals and threatens all of the village, but part of her remains in her head. That part waits and watches as the hiver, in Tiffany’s body, takes and scares. Eventually that part of Tiffany thrust the hiver out when it does’t expect it, but it wasn’t in time. Half of Mrs. Leavl ,another which with two bodies, was killed. While Tiffany and some of her fellow whiches try to settle back down after Tiffany is back to normal, the Hiver lurks in the shadows, and waits for its chance…
~Collen

Bloomability

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Pack, then move, unpack. Pack, move, unpack, pack. This was the constant pattern Domenica Santolina Doone, (Dinnie, for short) was forced to live by, in Sharon Creech’s BLOOMABILITY. Dinnie’s father simply could not hold down a job, so their little family of five was always on the move, in the search of his next “great oppurtunity”. But this was not the worst. Stella and Crick, Dinnie’s two older siblings did not lead great lives themselves. Stella one night eloped {marry without anyone knowing} and then became pregnant, and her husband/her son”s father left to join the military. Crick was always in-and-out of jail, all the time!!!  Despite those little bumps in the road, Dinnie loved her family, and quite enjoyed this unique life. That love did not hide the obvious fact that this poor family {just full of bad examples} was not the propper upbringing for a child. The family’s mother knew that very well, which prompted her to have her only sane child to pack her things–because she would be living with her middle-class Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max. Uncle Max was the headmaster at an American school, located convientally in…SWITZERLAND!!!! The home of swiss cheese! And now, the home of Domenica Santolina Doone. She was not fond of this idea…not one little bit! Luckily Dinnie was able to ’see the sky’ when she makes a group of very close friends, including the ever-sassy, not to mention RUDE Lila {why was Dinnie friends with her???} the sweet Mari, the ’stew-pod’ Keisuke, and most important–the super-amazing, Guthrie!!! He was the first person who met and befriended Dinnie…but will they become more than just that?
Though this seemed like one of those books that would be total jank, that after the first thirty pages you absolutley cannot stand, I could not put BLOOMABILITY down! It was really amazing!!!! I would absolutley reccomend this book to anyone who is looking for a breath-taking page turner. This is possibly one of the best books EVER written–so what are you waiting for? Explore all the bloomabilities of this fantastic novel.
~~Shannon

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel

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THE ALCHEMYST by Micheal Scott has the perfect balence of mystery, suspence, action, and love (brother sister love…there’s no Edward and Bella here! The same emotion one has to a newborn baby sister or a pet cat). This is a can’t-miss novel about the legend of Nicholas Flamel. According to these legends, Nicholas was born in 1330, and even though he should have died somewhere in the 1400’s, he is still very much alive-due to the Book of The Abraham of The Mage. This sacred text contains the secrets of ‘enternal life’. These legends are 100% true.
The manuscript has been safe for many, many a year, but now the fate of the document, not to mention the human race is at stake, because of one man, Dr. John Dee, who recently sent monsters to steal the Book of The Abraham of The Mage. He not only has the key to life as we know it, but now he has Nicholas Flamel’s wife, too. He musn’t just be stopped, he needs to be ended.
Nicholas quickly lines up Josh Newman and his twin sister, Sophie, two mere, untrained mortals to get his book, and wife back, and to save all of Humanity.
Will Dr. John Dee be stopped? Will Sophie and Josh pull through? What will happen next? Read THE ALCHEMYST: THE SECRETS OF THE IMMORTAL NICHOLAS FLAMEL, to find out!

World War Z

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by Max Brooks
World War Z is a series of interviews of survivors of the Zombie World War (which ended 12 years ago, and lasted 10 years). A nameless interviewer interviews about one hundred different people, and each interview adds to the story. No one knows how The Zombie World War began. The first known case of “African Rabies” (which is what they called it, before they found out that it wasn’t rabies) was discovered 22 years ago. A doctor was called in. He was asked to treat 5 patients. They have been bitten by someone human, and are dying. The doctor (the first interviewee) speaks of one patient in particular, called nowadays, Patient Zero. When the boy had his pulse checked, there was none, yet, he was still able to function. The book proceeds on from there, as the disease grows. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat, and by the first 30 pages, you are gripping your book (or in my case, Kindle) so tight your knuckles turn white. It is a bit graphic, and at times, pretty darn freaky, but it is worth the commitment (which isn’t that big, considering it’s only about 300 pages.)
~Ian

One Red Paperclip: or how an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dreams with the Help of a Simple Office Supply

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                                 written by Kyle MacDonald.
This was a fantastic book. It is about a guy, he can barely afford to pay his rent and is mooching off his Girlfriend. When he was a kid, he decided that he would play this game, it is called “bigger & Better!”. The game says that you can trade things for anything bigger or better. The guy decides to start out with one Red Paperclip. He is trying to make enough trades to go all the way up to a house. In a year. Some of the things he trades for include: A Coleman camping stove, and doorknob that looks like ET, and a chance to meet Alice Cooper. This book was REALLY good. I would suggest it to anyone over the age of 13.     ~Ian

Rainbow 6

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Rainbow 6 by Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 is an excellent military thriller. Its beginning is a bit dry, but once you get past the military jargon and exposition, you can’t stop reading.

Summary:
In this book, the USA, Great Britain, and other NATO nations work together to create the ultimate multinational counter-terror team, which is codenamed “rainbow”. This team is managed by star of previous Clancy books, John Clark. Clark’s son-in-law, Domingo “Ding” Chavez leads a strike team across the world, from England, to Switzerland, to Spain, to Australia and beyond to curb a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks. These attacks however are all part of an overarching threat to mankind, coordinated by Dmitry Popov, an ex-KGB intelligence officer who has no idea what he has gotten himself into. While Ding leads “Team-2” across the world, Clark and Popov fight through military intelligence.

Long review:
This is one of those excellent books that many people won’t read past the first 100 pages. Admittedly, I picked it up at a book sale, read 20 pages, got bored, and put it in my bookcase to collect dust for a year. I only picked it up again after a conversation on the strategy of the video game Counter-Strike, when someone recommended I read Rainbow 6, along with any other book by Tom Clancy.

The book’s formula goes something like this:

P. 0 – 100: Exposition
P. 100 – 200: Combat
P. 200 – 300: Exposition
P. 300 – 400: Combat
And so on.

After reading 200 pages, I loved the book. By the last 200 pages, I couldn’t put the book down.

My recommendation:
Read it. The beginning is a bit boring; however, you will love it after the 200 page mark.

Also, reading this book will dramatically increase the reader’s skill at strategic squad based shooter games like Counter-Strike, Rainbow 6, Call of Duty etc.
~Dennis