06 of 2012: The People of Sparks

Title: The People of Sparks
Author: Jeanna DuPrau
Dates Read: Mid January
Date Published: 2005
Pages: 352
Synopsis: The people of Ember walk into the daylight to find they are not alone: there are scattered survivors, and the Emberites quickly learned how helpless they are to exist in this new world.

Review: Overall, this book was fairly dull. Though the last fourth had some action, a great deal of the book is taken up with the Emberites working and the people of Sparks resenting them, without any real action or drive to the novel. A section in which Lina leaves and travels to one of the old cities seems misplaced in the book. The most interesting bits are in finding out how the world destroyed itself in the first place, but even that is pretty generalized.

Stars: **/5
Keywords: Young Adult, SF

04 of 2012: My Name is Mary Sutter

Title: My Name is Mary Sutter
Author: Robin Oliveira
Dates Read: 1/7-1/10/2012
Date Published: March, 2011
Pages: 384
Synopsis: Mary Sutter is a midwife who wants to be a surgeon. After repeated rejections, she finds her chance in the horrors of the Civil War.

Review: This book was very uneven. The portions telling Mary's story were intriguing. Oliveira created a sassy and intelligent woman who stands against the horrors of war with bravery. However, about halfway through the book she begins delving into scenes without Mary, but with real historical figures. These chapters lost me, since they lacked the emotional resonance of the chapters with Mary. They dragged, and made me lose interest and skim through most of the second half of the book.

Stars: **/5 because of the uneven second half
Keywords: Books: Historical