The Water Wars

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

This is another young adult novel. The setting is the US in the future stretching from the mid-west up to the Canadian border and over to the Eastern sea-board. The polar ice caps have melted, aquifers have been poisoned by man or seawater and fresh water is at a premium.

The very few control the water and who gets it. The general public is kept in a sort of slave state by being fed a steady diet of propaganda and bad water that keeps them alive for a time but kills them before they grow old.

A young girl meets a boy who doesn't seem to believe in the propaganda. He doesn't have to go to school and learn about weather, water and the war over the water. He is rich. He has a gasoline powered car and body guards and fresh, clean water - lots of it.

The girl and her brother become friends with this strange boy. When he disappears, they decide they must rescue him. They head out on a great adventure full of danger as well as knowledge of the truth of the world and who controls it and how.

This was a pretty good book although the environmental message felt like it was being crammed down my throat. I keep looking for a book that gives us that great environmental message without feeling like it's so obvious. Being young adult fiction, the heroes are inevitably teen-agers. This time, at least, they are aided by a couple of unlikely adults along the way.

Perhaps it's because I have been reading so many books that are part of a series, but this book (as well as other non-series books) have felt like they ended a little too quickly and neatly. It's the feeling I get with some foreign films where it just ends and you think "they must have run out of money and decided to just end it there." It felt like the author said, "I'm almost out of paper and I don't want to have to run to the store for more so I'll just wrap it up in the next 10 pages."

City of Shadows

City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin

This is a historical novel that begins in 1920 Berlin. It tells the story of a Russian Jewess who immigrated after being attacked in the Pogroms in Russia. It also tells the tale of last Czar and his family and their fate. It tells about the rise of a young politician in Germany named Hitler and how he helped to save the Germans from the poverty and starvation that followed World War I. It tells the story of an ordinary German who turned out to be an extraordinary man.

I really enjoyed this book. Ariana Franklin does a great job weaving a fictional story with factual people. She has done a great job of it with her Mistress of the Art of Death series and continues with this book.

If you are interested in reading more about that time in history, I recommend this book. It gives a good and grim account of life in Germany during that era and the hope that was brought with the rise of the Nazi party, for some. It also makes it easy to see how taking the easy road with one's government can be turning your back on what is right and true.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

This is another selection of young adult fiction. It's possible that there will be a second book but, unlike most young adult fiction these days, it's not obviously set up to be a whole series.

This was about a 16 year old princess who was fat and considered herself to be pretty useless (and she was at first). On her 16th birthday, she is married to the King of the country next to hers and she has no idea why and didn't see him until he lifter her veil after the "I do's" of the wedding ceremony were over.

Elisa is one of those teenage girls in books that drive me crazy. She is clueless about what is going on around her and she doesn't really care at first. Admittedly some of her ignorance is purposeful because of her countries religious beliefs. But she really doesn't start pressing for more information and asserting herself until it is almost too late.

Elisa is a bearer. This means, on her naming day, a beam of sunlight shone on her and a blue jewel was embeded, by God, in her navel. The jewel is alive and warm and pulsing. It pulses more and heats up when she prays. Elisa is supposed to do something great but she has no clue as to what it will be or when the opportunity will arise.

Elisa figures it all out just in the nick of time, of course and disaster is averted. I felt like the author could have done just a little bit more in developing the background of the religion in the book. Everyone seems to be driven by their religious beliefs but I really didn't feel like there was enough depth in the explanations.

This book was okay but even if there is a sequel, I don't think I'll be reading it.