Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Reading Clubs Update: Books for March

The junior high reading club is reading a favorite of mine this month:  Marcelo in the Real World  by Francisco X. Stork (ebook link here).  The coming-of-age tale of an Asberger's-ish teenager, there is a tiny bit of mystery, a dash of romantic interest, and a whole lot of looking at life through atypical eyes.  I wrote enthusiastically about it when I first read it in 2010, and I predict the club members will really like it as well.

High school reading club members voted before winter break to read Jennifer Government, a sardonic futuristic thriller by Max Barry.  To quote from the blurb:
In Max Barry’s twisted, hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly-traded security firms; the U.S. government may only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly. It’s a free market paradise! 
 Three guesses for which entity Jennifer G. works (of course the last two don't count).  She takes the investigation when hapless Hack Nike discovers his contract requires assassinating teenagers to build gangsta' cred for his employer's new line of luxury sneakers.  Another intriguing mystery -- what does the barcode tattoo under Jennifer's eye mean??

The library also has Jennifer Government in an audiobook edition.

Have you read either of these?  Write your review in the comments, please!

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