This World We Live In

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer is the third book in The Last Survivors series. It follows up on the stories of Miranda Evans and her family from book one and Alex Morales and his sister from book two. All of the survivors have lived through a year of disaster and life changes after the moon, hit by a comet, moves closer to the earth and disrupts the weather, tides, volcanic eruptions and more. Miranda's world has become very small. It consists of her mother and two brothers. They've survived near starvation and are finally getting regular food from the government. Then, unexpectedly, Miranda's father returns after leaving with his pregnant wife in book one. With him are new strangers, new mouths to feed and new problems for Miranda. Can Miranda find a way to survive and fall in love at the same time? Can strangers become family? Can things get even worse?

I have really enjoyed this series and the newest book is no exception. I love the way the characters deal with the every day effects of a major disaster while, at the same time, try to make decisions between two or more terrible choices. Miranda and Alex, as well as the other characters deal realistically with the crazy world they live in while also looking toward the future and trying to figure out where they fit in.

I highly recommend this series!

Mockingjay: Part 2

I finished Mockingjay during middle school camp and, although I was satisfied at the end, I had a really hard time getting through the first section of the book. I felt the author spent too much time describing what happened in the past and having Katniss think about what was going on in District 13. I would have enjoyed a lot more action. When the second part of the book started, so did the action and my interest increased. I thought the authors portrayal of the reality of war was spot-on. There is never really a winner in a war...everybody loses and if you have to do horrible things to win a war, are you any better than the supposed evil you are fighting against? I also thought that the consequences of war on the characters was realistic. I won't go into details, because I don't want to give away any spoilers, but if you're a Hunger Games fan and you haven't read Mockingjay, I definitely recommend it.