The Wesnaclama Blog

Sup! Nate here and today I will be reviewing the Hunger Games series. Yeah, I never read this series until a couple months ago. But I finally got around to it, so let's jump right into the review! Summary (spoilers afoot!) The Hunger Games series is a trilogy by Suzanne Collins that is set in a dystopian future. America has been destroyed by war, and Panem is its successor as a nation. The Capitol of Panem rigidly controls its 12 districts ever since they tried to rebel, and as payment, two children are chosen from each district to participate in the annual Hunger Games--a fight to the death that is turned into entertainment. Katniss Everdeen from District 12 volunteers as tribute to protect her sister from having to participate, and a boy named Peeta who she only met once before is chosen with her. The two go to the Capitol and manage to both win the Games with some quick thinking to outwit the Capitol (that's a vast oversimplification, read the book if you want to kno...

This past month, I’ve read a few books, all of them being disappointing, unfortunately. I wasn’t exactly sure why I disliked them, I just knew that there was something about each of them that left me unmoved and bored. However, after some retrospection, I found the sources of my dissatisfaction with one of the books, which was called Shouting at the Rain.              Shouting at the Rain follows a girl named Delsie, and her life on Cape Cod. She lives with her grandmother, and has no recollection of either of her parents, as they left her when she was young. Delsie not knowing who her parents are becomes a main theme in the story and remains as one of Delsie’s biggest focuses in her life. What seems to be the main conflict of the book besides Delsie’s parentage is her summer best friend dumping her for a new friend named Tressa. For the majority of the book, Delsie tries to deal with one of her only friend...

~Emma Murawski         I recently finished Two Dead Girls , written by the influential writer Stephen King. Two Dead Girls is the first book in a 6 part series titled The Green Mile. The Green Mile series had become so distinguished that a movie was made and directed by Frank Darabont in 1999 starring Tom Hanks.         Two Dead Girls is a story told from the perspective of Paul Edgecombe, an ex-prison guard at the Cold Mountain penitentiary. He recalls the events from his time at the Cold Mountain penitentiary in the year 1932. Paul Edgecombe’s job at the Cold Mountain penitentiary included overseeing prisoners during their time on death row, known as the Green Mile. At the end of their time on death row, they are brought to “Old Sparky,'' the electric chair. Reading the book, I noticed the amount of time put into describing all of the aspects and importance of “Old Sparky” author Stephen King put into it. During Edgecombe’s time working in 193...

Hello all! This is Wes, and today I am going to review Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events , the first one at least. I decided to revisit this beloved series after recently binge-watching Netflix's recent adaptation (which is amazing by the way). One issue is that now whenever I'm reading the books, I can only hear the voice of Patrick Warburton (except for dialogue, in that case I hear the character's respective actor). With all of this in mind, let's dive in. --- (no spoilers) The books starts off with the Baudelaire children (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) at a beach. They are having a splendid time when they are approached by Mr. Poe, their family's banker. Mr. Poe doesn't bring good news, rather, he informs the now orphans that they are, well, now orphans. He explained how the children's parents parished, and brings them home. Following the will of the Baudelaire parents, the three orphans are now being whisked away to live with their 3...

Sup! It's Nate here, this time with a review of Airman  by Eoin Colfer. I had previously read Colfer's excellent Artemis Fowl series, and when I saw another book by him in the library, I decided to check it out. Airman is a historical fiction and adventure novel set in the late 1800's. It mostly takes place on the Saltee Islands, a real (but uninhabited) collection of islands in Europe. The story centers around the life of Conor Broekhart, the son of Captain Declan Broekhart and his wife Catherine. Conor was allegedly born while flying in a hot-air balloon, and he has loved high places and always dreamed of flying as a result. The story begins with young Conor and his friend Princess Isabella (son of King Nicholas, king of the Saltees) playing in the castle of the Saltees. However, a fire breaks out, and Conor uses his ingenuity to create a makeshift glider and save himself and Isabella from the flames. After seeing this, Victor Vigny (King Nicholas's friend), who had...

    Hey guys, its Clara back at it again with another book review. This month I read The Outsiders , by S. E. Hinton. The book is told from the view of Ponyboy Curtis, the youngest member of a gang in the 1960’s from the less wealthy East side of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The gang is called the Greasers (from the grease put in their hair.) He lives with his two older brothers, Sodapop, an extroverted and charismatic high school dropout, and Darry, an invulnerable, steely, hard worker who acts a guardian for the two of them after the death of their parents. The Greasers have a rivalry with a higher-class gang on the West side of Tulsa called the Socs, short for Socials. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy and his Greaser friends fight for power in their town with the Socs.      Though much of the book revolves around the gang rivalry between the Greasers and the Socs, the real center of it is the character development of Ponyboy and how he comes to understan...

Emma M.      Silence gives us the power to control ourselves and our reactions to the environment around us. Moments of silence can be unprecedented in the wake of a constantly noiseful world. They can be very strange and unwanted or a breath of fresh air. We need to learn to use silence, not as a form of rebellion or oppression, but as a tool to find ourselves. Silence in the Age of Noise, written by Erling Kagge, gives a summary and guide to finding true silence with ourselves in the hustle-bustle lifestyle of society today.      First, let me mention a few things about the author, Erling Kagge. He is a Norwegian author, publisher, lawyer, and explorer (plus a few other things). His identification as an explorer intrigues me most because we are all explorers in life in one way or another. However, Kagge is a true explorer and takes exploration to another level. In the book, Kagge describes his trip to the Arctic, alone and far away from civilization witho...