Outspoken: Friday Wrap-Up

So, I said I’d do this every Friday, and I failed. I also told myself I’d never start a post with the word so again, but I did. So deal with it. Hehe :)
Alrighty, so I haven’t been able to read many books in the last month. Below is a run-down of what I’ve read. After that, I’ll go deeper in depth about a few of them that needed some ranting.

~You Wish by Mandy Hubbard
~The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
~The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
~The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
~Paper Towns by John Green
~Take Me There by Susane Colasanti
~The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien

I’ll start with The Catcher in the Rye. When I first started the book, I absolutely hated it. I’m sorry, but Holden bugged me with all of his random tangents about absolutely nothing. I later realized, however, that the character of Holden not only represented the youth of the 20th century, but it also almost perfectly portrayed the mind of many who grew up as teenagers when the book was written. The character is not supposed to represent a negative, miserable complaining high school kid, but rather a lonely, hurt, typical teenager. With the technology and communication advances that have occurred in the past 30 years, no teenager has truly been able to relate to the character of Holden. My English class had a very interesting discussion about it.

Next, I’ll talk about the Hunger Games. Oh, how this book astonished me. Maggie constantly obsessed over the book and told me it had such a “huge and deep impact in her”. What this meant, I wasn’t sure. But I knew I had to read it. So I did. I purchased the book months ago but never picked it up until a few weeks ago. And I just have to say, I was thoroughly surprised. I didn’t expect to actually be hooked to the book-mainly because I’ve never actually felt truly hooked to a book. I hope she never reads this because I’ll hear a big fat “I told you so!” but…this has now become my new favorite book. I had what seemed like this obsession with the character, engrossing myself in whatever could happen next. I absolutely loved the book, and I highly recommend it.

This post will be too long if I do any more book opinions, but let me know if you’d like to see a more in-depth review of the books I mentioned, or of the ones on the list I didn’t mention.

I originally said I’d talk about what’s been going on with me lately when I first did this post, but I’m not in the mood to write about it. So I’ll show you some pictures. Enjoy! :)