Book to Film: Divergent

Divergent Film to be released in early 2014.  Divergent is the movie based on the novel of the same name, a dystopia in the vein of Hunger Games.  The second book in the series is called Insurgent and the third, Allegiant, will be released this October. I'm excited to see Shailene Woodley playing Tris.  She was excellent in The Descendants.

Which series do you like better, Divergent or Hunger Games?  I liked both, but Hunger Games captured more of the emotional aspects and the characters were better drawn than in Divergent.  Divergent was action-packed and a little easier to read than HG.

Out of the Easy, not your typical historical teen read

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys.  I picked this up recently as I had really enjoyed Sepetys' debut Between Shades of Grey (not to be confused with 50 Shades).  Between Shades of Gray was a well-written and poignant novel about the often unknown plight of Lithuanians during World War II.  Gray was emotional and hard to read at times due to the horrific treatment the family faced in Siberian work camps, yet is not to be missed.

I was not disappointed in Out of the Easy, although a different time period was explored, it proved to have strong characters and  emotional content as Gray did.  Easy explored class, and race through the lens of a teenage daughter of a New Orleans' prostitute set in the 1950s.  The main character, Josie, is a smart and sensitive girl who is determined to rise above her beginnings and go to college.  Her mother's volatile choice in men as well as a lack of maternal feeling snares Josie time and time again.  Readers will devour this page-turner that is part mystery, history, and noir romance.  Ages 14 and up.