by Shea Megale

This is the story of a bunch of Englishmen with rifles. 

Really, how can you go wrong?

You can't. Especially not if you imagine the British accents the whole time. Which I highly recommend.

Anyway, our story begins with a fancy black-tie affair, a grumpy dad and a lovesick half-sister, some raspberry sauce, and a possibly nonexistent---nooo, that would be giving too much away. 
And, of course, the Emporium. The world's last remaining zoo, created after world war was barely staved off by the release of a dreadful poison that nearly destroyed the natural world. The toxin leeched into the world's ecosystems and destroyed nearly all animal life. Youths from all over the world flock to the Emporium to become Hunters, brave and reckless souls who venture into the wild to win fame and fortune by bringing back the world's last animals. And who, often, don't come back.
Tyber has the bad luck of being the son of two of the most famous Hunters of all, the captors of the polar bear. As such, his father expects a good deal more of him than photography, mastery of sign language, and bearing the daily shame of his illegitimate birth.
90 years after the near-annihilation of the natural world, the glory of the Emporium and the Victorian era has all but ground to a halt. But one evening, a deadly new Hunt is announced. And Tyber, as caged as his father's polar bear and burning with resentment, takes destiny into his own hands. 

I had the great pleasure and privilege of reading this book, written by my authorly friend Shea Megale, before almost anyone else, as it is not yet published. That's right, you have to wait. I wrote a CLIFFHANGER book review, for which I must beg your pardon, while giggling evilly inside. Bwa-ha-ha. Anyway. When Emporium comes out, I highly recommend you read it! Well and sensitively written, with an original Victorian-Steampunk-safari (betcha never heard that phrase before) setting and storyline, and a new twist on issues as old as humanity itself. Love the characters, especially Sandy...well, you'll find out. And per Shea's insistence, I must add, Xander is hot. 

for: teens and adults
Content rating: I'm gonna say 3/5. This one is tricky, since one of the book's themes is homosexuality, which many including myself consider erroneous for moral reasons. If you find homosexuality offensive or immoral, this book may not be for you. However, nothing at all of an explicit nature occurs. Aside from that, there are a few swear words and mention of cheating/an affair.
My enjoyment: 4/5 Loved Emporium, but my heart really belongs to Shea's next book series Starborn. Look for the review!

by Lois Lowry

I first read The Giver in 6th grade. It...it gave me faith in the books teachers choose for their students. (Needless to say, that faith died early in high school). Still, I have long appreciated my middle school teachers' good tastes.
The Giver is about a boy named Jonas living in a utopian community. Everyone is happy, everyone has their place. No pain, no fear, no inconvenience. As one who is just finishing college applications, I've gotta say, that sounds pretttty nice.
But it's only when Jonas comes of age and receives a unique and important task that he realizes, there are other things missing too...

This was a beautiful moment in my childhood. One of those times you always remember, you know? When your teacher actually places a really good book into your hands. And then issues the instruction, "Now we're going to read this as a class. We'll spend this week reading and discussing chapter one."
.
..
...
Yeah, right.
I tried. I really did try, okay? But you don't...you just don't do that. You don't hand me a book and tell me not to read it. I paced myself. I started with only one chapter. Okay, two chapters. I even read it in class, though not exactly with the class. I sort of listened to the discussion, with one ear, but there was a buzzing in the other. That book was crumbling my willpower.
The next day I read to chapter 5. Then a few more. Less than a week in, I cracked. I was gone. Smoke floated up from the frantically flipping pages, which would've made my teacher wonder except she was going over some fascinating symbolism with the class. 

So much for pacing myself. Anyway, Lois Lowry is a fantastic author. The Giver is insightful, entertaining, and sometimes frightening. It's a book that makes you think, and leaves you wondering. The characters are believable and well-developed, the setting and atmosphere of the community so clear that you feel like you're there. It's a great commentary on what we lose when life becomes too perfect.
The companion books, Gathering Blue and The Messenger, are equally insightful in their own ways. This is one of those magical sort-of series in which each book can stand alone but they fit together. There's a newly released fourth book too, called The Son. I'm itching to read it, but hey, look, there's another application essay calling.
Happy reading.

for: older kids on up
Content rating: 4/5  Quite clean, but there are issues brought up that many find disturbing. Apparently this is a challenged book, whodathunkit? Anyway, I don't want to give anything away but there's some sad deaths and some mild sexual attraction. I had no problem reading this as a 6th grader, but parents of aspiring younger readers may want to check it out.
My enjoyment: 5/5 

Recently, I've had the vicariously exciting experience of having a friend of mine visit the Catching Fire filming set and meet the actors as well as the author of Hunger Games. My friend faithfully passed on my message to Suzanne Collins that Gregor the Overlander is still closest to my heart (particularly Ares). I didn't want the Underland Chronicles to be neglected, you see. That said, I feel it would be unjust to neglect mention of Collins's equally amazing, and much more popular, Hunger Games series.
The Hunger Games is pretty awesome. No doubt you know all about it because of the Harry-Potter-and-Twilight-like status it's achieved. I'll run through a quick summary here:

Katniss Everdeen lives in poverty-stricken District 12 with her family, who barely scrape by on what Katniss can shoot and forage in her illegal excursions to the woods. Katniss's world is turned upside down when her little sister, Prim, is chosen as a tribute during the annual Reaping held in each district by the tyrannical Capitol of Panem. Desperately, Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place and becomes a contestant in the 74th Hunger Games: a televised, forced fight to the death between youth from the various districts. Of 24 tributes, only one will leave the arena alive and be showered with wealth and glory. The districts, crushed in the rebellion against the Capitol 74 years before, have long been resigned to this state of affairs. But in the second and third books, the flames of hatred between districts and capitol are fanned, and Katniss Everdeen emerges as the face of a new rebellion.

This series is great, the characters are imaginative and well-developed, the intrigue is intriguing, the plot and love triangle original and captivating. It is extremely violent though. Graphic in parts. I'm just impressed and delighted they kept the movie PG-13. 
Fun to read, and grimly told in Katniss's sarcastic tones. 
Make sure you have Dr. Seuss or something happy to read when you're done.

Genre: futuristic/sci-fi/fantasy/romance
for: teens and adults
Content rating: 2.5/5 For violence, hatred and depression, some nudity (not sexual), and some mentions of forced sexual relationships.
My enjoyment: 5/5

by James Patterson

Imagine a teenager. Not just any teenager--a really annoying teenager with an attitude. Okay, any teenager. You know what? Better yet, picture yourself as a teenager. (This is easy for me to do). You're annoying. You're probably at about a 7.5 out of 10 annoyingness level, right? So much attitude that you're annoying yourself, right?
Good. Now multiply that number by one thousand six hundred and thirty two point five.
That is Maximum Ride.
A book about possibly the most rebellious teenager in existence (Max), and rife with a bunch of                  
                                                                others contending for the crown.
It's kind of fun to read, actually.

The adventurous, if not too original, plotline, features aforementioned teenager Max and her family, the Flock. Why the avian imagery? Well, the members of this particular family are 2% bird. Born in test tubes of recombinant DNA and raised (held captive) their whole lives by (who else?) mad/evil scientists, our heroes escaped their captors and (here's where the book starts) spend the rest of their lives running (ahem, flying) away to avoid recapture. Pretty crazy existence, right? And yet I suspect that most of us would put up with it if we had wings thrown into the deal.

So Max leads her jolly little band all over the world, and eventually the Internet, in this captivating (you see what I did there?) series.
Yes. All very awesome. And I enjoyed it very much, I daresay I can still enjoy it very much, yet after reading the third or fourth book I realized the following things:

1) It never ends. The story goes around and around and around so much that I lost track of how much tail-kicking of Erasers (the mad scientists' werewolf thugs) actually goes on. It's a lot.

2) It isn't a book. 
I don't recall when I realized this, but when I did there was no going back. James Patterson doesn't write books. He writes action movies. You know those ones where the taking names never ends, and the sound bites that are thrown in between the action sequences are either banter or explosions? This is not a book series. It's a movie script writhing in its paper prison.

3) It's inconsistent. Wait...where did Fang get that laptop? Do we ever actually establish whether Jeb's a good guy, a traitor, a good guy pretending to be a traitor, or a bad guy pretending to be a traitor pretending to be a double agent? How does all this tie in? That sort of thing. Does Patterson even remember what he wrote in the last book?!

4) After the third book it just drags on...and on...saying the same things over and over. What is the Flock trying to accomplish, again? And the action gets less believable.

So. Good book series, but not amazing. Read the first three books if you like teenage sarcasm and action movies and want to fantasize about flying.

for: teenagers. Don't give it to your 10-12 year-olds. It will accelerate the annoyification process.
Content rating: 4/5 Definitely some swearing in there, especially as the series progresses. The teen angst gets more annoying too.
My enjoyment: starting out...probably 4/5

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I know what you're thinking. Creepy post-apocalyptic book...hmm...your English teacher probably made you read that. Well. Yes. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good book. Classically cynical, really. The story of a nameless father and son traversing a ruined America, with the vague goal of reaching the coast. On the way, they must forage for food and other supplies and avoid other humans--because humans mean a variety of dangers, few of which bear thinking about. It's a grim, gray, and ash-covered portrait of the future, to be sure. McCarthy's writing is excellent; sometimes fragmented but the words melt together like poetry. (Dang it, I sound like an English teacher). Overall the book is slow, but the action parts are well-written and haunting. It gives you a lot to think about. 

For: adults and older teens
Content rating: 3/5  There's some pretty graphic violence and cannibalism.
My enjoyment: 3/5