53. Zeroes by Chuck Wendig

read on my iPhone
2015 Harper Voyager
432 pgs.
Contemporary mystery
Finished June 16, 2018
Goodreads rating:  3.62 - 3197 ratings
My rating:  3

First line/s:  "The train clacks on the tracks, rocking side to side."

My comments:  Creepily interesting
          Great characters. The story/plot either left out some information or took it for granted I understood some that I didn’t.  Since it was about hacking and disturbing government agents and agencies, probably both apply! The first and second halves of the book were very different – I much preferred the first half, and would have rated the book higher if it had continued in the same vein.

Goodreads synopsis:  Five hackers—an Anonymous-style rabble-rouser, an Arab Spring hacktivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll—are detained by the U.S. government, forced to work as white-hat hackers for Uncle Sam in order to avoid federal prison. At a secret complex known only as "the Lodge," where they will spend the next year working as an elite cyber-espionage team, these misfits dub themselves "the Zeroes."
          But once the Zeroes begin to work, they uncover secrets that would make even the most dedicated conspiracy theorist's head spin. And soon they're not just trying to serve their time, they're also trying to perform the ultimate hack: burrowing deep into the U.S. government from the inside, and hoping they'll get out alive. Packed with electric wit and breakneck plot twists, Zer0es is an unforgettable thrill ride through the seedy underbelly of "progress."

73. Homeboyz - Alan Lawrence Sitomer

Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2007
$16.99
283 pages
for: YA/High School
Rating: 4.5

Although this book is the third in a series about siblings living in the inner city of LA, I have not read the first two and did not need to. It stands alone. And it's good. Impossible to put down. I inhaled it in two evenings.

Teddy Anderson's 14 year-old sister has been killed - an innocent bystander - in a gang killing. 17 year-old Teddy, who is more-than bright and a computer hacker extraordinaire, is driven by revenge. He's not part of a gang, but he knows them, understands the mentality, because he's always lived in the 'hood. His brilliant plan has one tiny, microscopic, unforeseen hitch, and he is caught and incarcerated. It's the punishment that "makes the man"....and saves a 12-year old wanna-be gangsta as well.

You see a little bit into the reason that gangs still blossom and grow. It's difficult to understand, but you can see why it happens and what its enticements are. Powerful book.

Sad stuff. Good stuff. Fascinating stuff. Viva la biblioteque! A well written story with a happy ending, redemption... and a little bit of mystery still left. A fourth novel, perhaps?

56. Little Brother - Cory Doctorow

For: YA
Published: April, 2008
384 pgs.
Rating: 3.5
Finished Nov. 8, 2008

Set in San Francisco just a year or two in the future, Marcus Yallow is a 17 year-old techno-geek high school senior. One afternoon he and his three best friends skip out of school to play Harajuku Fun Madness when they hear a huge explosion. A bigger-than 9/11 terrorist attack has destroyed the Bay Bridge, killing thousands. But they are in the wrong place at the wrong time - they are picked up by an unmarked white van, hooded, bound, and taken in a boat to an old prison. There they are held separately in deplorable conditions and questioned mercillessly, without any rights at all. This is what sets up the premise of the book.

Marcus, once released, becomes w15t0n, the head of XNet. Together with one of his buddies, Jolu, and his new girlfriend, Ange, he comes up with plan after plan to try to point out to American citizens that they are now living in a police state and that many of their constitutional rights are gone - or at least being ignored. Teenages begin working together to overthrow the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), who have become a ruthless, overbearing, self-righteous group of our-way-or-the-highway clones.

CONS
-Endless technical explanations
-Paced well in places, very slow in others
-No goodness showed in any of the bad guys -- come one!
-No texting? Hard to make a book set two or three years in the future believable without texting.

PROS
-Makes you think......HARD.....
-Deals with a very important, timely subject
-Keeps you guessing
-Raises questions that need to be asked
-Marcus' reactions are very real: elation, crying, being over-the-top scared, horny - you do get to know, and understand, and root for, this young man
-Lots of references to interesting things - the beat writers, places and areas in San Francisco (yeah, City Lights Bookstore!), hippie and yippie history, Orwell's 1984

PRO AND CON, both
-The sex scenes. I really want some of my 7th and 8th graders to read this. I have two in particular in mind, but the sex scenes, which I think are important and very well written. are not appropriate at all for these two young techno-geek men who would otherwise eat up this book. No objections for the readers who can handle and understand this VERY smartly written (and really, quite small) part of the story.

And, hey, this is my ONE HUNDREDTH post!