Ship Breaker
Ship Breaker was my Christmas present from Kevin this year - the random book with a cool cover that he saw at the deep-discount store. As this tradition goes, it was better than most. Though the awards on the cover indicated that it might be. This is dystopian YA from the height of the dystopian YA phenomenon. When it seemed like everyone had something to contribute to that particular genre and it all started to blend together. So I was pleasantly surprised that this stood out from the pack. First because it posits a world that I could actually see coming to pass (unlike the Hunger Games, which are a bit too far removed from reality, though they serve as an apt allegory). And second because it doesn't slot white characters into the oppressed group. After global warming melted the poles and we ran out of oil, the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept getting poorer. Out protagonist, Nailer, works stripping copper wire from old ships and oil tankers that now dot the coast o...