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Matched by Allie Condie

Published September 2011

Summary:  Set in a post-apocalyptic America, called the Society , the novel follows Cassia through her Matching ceremony. In this new world everything is laid out for citizens: their food is premeasured and send to them, their jobs are based on intense aptitude tests and their deaths are pre-planned. Matching is at the center of these plans and involves young people being chosen for each other by a committee. The Matching Ceremony allows the young people to see a picture of their match for the first time and to revel in their new “adulthood.”After the ceremony, the matched are given a computer chip with information about their intended so that they can get to know them. Cassia’s experience is complicated by the fact that she sees someone other than her Match on the computer chip. When this happens she begins seeing all of the things that have gone wrong within the Society.

Bechdel Test?: Cassia doesn’t really have any girlfriends so this is a little hard to determine. There is a female government official with whom she has conversations about the state of things, so I think it passes!

Rating: 3/5

Though I’m late to the party — the third book in the trilogy comes out this fall– I’m glad that I arrived! This is a thoughtful book about how government control can corrupt a society. I was most intrigued by the way the Society interacted with art and culture. . The Society decided that the world was too cluttered by choice so a committee chose 100 paintings, 100 poems, and other things to save and then burned all of the rest. I was appalled at the destruction of important documents but found it amazing that these treasures play such a central role in the novel!

Published May 8,2012

Summary: In this slightly more believable version of supernatural YA, lupine syndrome (otherwise known as becoming a werewolf) is running rampant across the United States. Those infected are sent to containment camps where they live out their lives never able to see their families again. The novel opens after Mackenzie’s best friend Amy has been killed by a rogue werewolf. The whole city of Hemlock is on high alert looking for the beast. Mackenzie has seen the evil containment can do and has mixed feelings about the civilian group who has come to look for the killer. Rather than showing “the daily life of a supernatural being” as all too many YA books do, Hemlock draws connections to what situations in the real world mimic the containment of lupine syndrome.

Bechdel Test?: Though Mackenzie spends most of the novel trying to choose between two guys, she does have conversations with her friends about political issues such as the containment camps and the politics of killing semi-human beings.

Rating: 4/5

I truly enjoyed this book for its wonderful portrayal of how a single factor can make society think a person is evil. To me, this spoke to the HIV/AIDS scare in the 90s, the round-ups during WWII and many others. I like YA novels that bring these issues up in an accessible way to introduce readers to complex issues.

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Gilt

Gilt  by Katherine Longshore

Published May 15, 2012

Summary:  Though I’veread a lot of historical fiction set during the Tudor dynasty, I had never read a book that chronicled Catherine Howard’s rise to the throne. In Gilt,we see the story from Kitty’s perspective. Kitty is a minor noble who becomes friends with Catherine Hoaward when they are both in service to a wealthy Howard relative. Catherine has lofty ambitions and it is clear from the start that Kitty will follow her every move. The novel traces their friendship from servanthood to the Tower. Along the way both indulge in romances that are dangerous, politically and psychologically.

Bechdel Test?: Surprisingly, I didn’t think so. Even though the two main characters, Kitty and Catherine, are strong women in their own right, together they talk only about plotting love affairs.

Rating: 3/5
A solid historical intregue, Katherine Longshore’s novel was exactly what I thought it would be: fluffy goodness.There wasn’t much that the (informed) reader didn’t realize going in but it was fun to see the way that Longshore jazzed up the well-known story. Overall, I wish that the story had focused more on Kitty since she was the more interesting woman. I finished the book feeling as though there was a great deal more that Kitty could’ve done.

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Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity (Elizabeth Wein)
on sale 5/15/12

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Drowned

Drowned (Therese Bohman)
on sale 5/22/2012

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Timepiece: An Hourglass Novel

Timepiece (Myra McEntire)
on sale 6/12/2012

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The Hypnotist’s Love Story

The Hypnotist’s Love Story (Liane Moriarty)
on sale 6/14/2012

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The Malice of Fortune

The Malice of Fortune (Michael Ennis)
on sale 9/11/2012

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Published  2011

Summary: Like many memoirs written since the fall of the Taliban, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the story of an Afghanistani woman who disobeyed the strict regime and made a way for herself and the women of her village. In this case, Kamila sets up a small dressmaking factory in the midst of Taliban-controlled Kabul so that she can provide for her family. Selling through the local tailors, the women’s business thrives. As word spreads among the women’s community, young girls flood to Kamila’s house to beg for work. Determined to help all of them in any way that she can she decides to open a school where she will instruct the girl’s in the basics of tailoring so that they will be able to make their own money. Taking the education a step further, Kamila begins working with the UN to education women about business and the Qu’ran. When the Taliban are overthrown, Kamila works with the new aid agencies to re-establish peace in Afghanistan.

Bechdel Test?: Absolutely passes. The women talk amongst themselves about everything from money, to family, to politics.

Strangest Part?: Hearing about the Titanic fever was hilarious. Apparently when VHS tapes of Titanic hit Afghanistan, men began cutting their hair in “the Leo” and the Taliban had to outlaw the haircut. Any men caught with the floppy hair were taken to the barber for a buzz cut.

Rating: 2/5
I’m not loving it. Maybe it’s because I’m in a class on Afghanistan right now (HIST 391: Afghanistan and Central Asia) but this book feels like a million others only less interesting. There has been a major uptick in books about Afghanistan since 9/11 and this is one in the series. It looks only about the surface-level problems in Afghanistan, like women’s education and empowerment. While I agree these things are absolutely essential to nation building, so are roads, access to clean water and basic medicine!