Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found it inspiring and uplifting to read this book. I had new insights and couldn't help but turn down the corners of a few pages. It was also great to get little glimpses into the lives of Relief Society sisters from the past, and to learn some new things about what Relief Society sisters and leaders were involved in over a span of 170 years.

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Seven Miracles That Saved America: Why They Matter and Why We Should Have Hope by Chris Stewart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great book with a great message. God has not given up on America, and the authors use seven situations dating from Columbus to Ronald Reagan to illustrate the point. Within each of the chapters is a dramatized "story" retelling some of the events, and my only complaint about the book was that sometimes (not always) I found this distracting/annoying. Other than that, I loved it. Definitely a book worth recommending to teenagers to get a more interesting and insightful analysis of history than is found in textbooks!

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Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

See my general review of the series under "The Hunger Games."

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Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

See my general review of the series under "The Hunger Games."

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'll briefly compare The Hunger Games series (which I liked) to the Twilight series (which I didn't like, and only read the first one and three-quarters books because my daughters wanted to read them so I wanted to see what they were like). Twilight has a lot of negative "emotional baggage" issues wrapped up in it (would you really want your daughter to emulate the main female character??), and the quality of the writing was disappointing. The main female character in the Hunger Games felt far less dysfunctional to me, although of course the setting is a futuristic nightmare, and she was necessarily dealing with less than desirable circumstances. I found the themes of The Hunger Games more interesting, the characters more whole (yet very human), and the subject matter more appropriate for younger readers than Twilight. It's not that I absolutely loved the books, it's just hard not to compare the two, and to me there's an obvious winner and loser. I just hope the upcoming movies honor and do justice to the books, not exploit them.

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