68 thoughts on “Blog #17 – What are you reading now?”

1. Fred Ayres May 1, 2011 at 1:48 pm

   Recently, when I have time, which is becoming rarer and rarer, I like to read ‘Outlander’ by Diana Gabaldon (http://www.dianagabaldon.com/writing/the-outlander/outlander/) on my Kindle. I mentioned the last part because I’m feeling very pretentious today. It’s a great romance novel about time-traveling and falling in love with a person you’d least think you would. But beyond the romance, there’s an intricate story about science as well. Due to my immense lack of time, I’ve only read the first three chapters. There are a total of 41. I sure am in store for it! I decided I’d read it because it takes place in my homeland of Scotland– that is to say, my fake homeland of Scotland. God, I wish I was Scottish! The story is deep in old Scottish folktale and Gaelic chants. If I were Scottish, I would understand every word of it!

   There is a considerable amount of sex in ‘Outlander’. But most of the time the chapter ends with ‘He pulled over the covers,’ or something lame like that. Seeing as I’m only about 6% of the way done with the book, I have no idea what’ll happen. ‘Outlander’ is actually the first in a series of books. There’s about eight now. Each book is more than 800 pages long. The sad thing about me and books is that once I get hooked, there’s no stopping me.

   I finished ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ by John Green not too long ago. John Green is the king of young adult fiction, but this one didn’t quite hit the spot for me. Even so, with Green’s great writing style, I couldn’t put down my Kindle. Yes, I mentioned that again.

   In the far-off future, when I suddenly have time, I’d like to finish ‘Outlander’ and begin reading ‘Godless’ by Dan Barker. It tells the true story of an evangelical preacher who slowly, but surely, becomes an atheist. I can completely relate to that as my eerily similar. Non-fiction seems to interest me just as much as literature.

   There’s also this really cool website called Shelfari. Check it out! http://www.shelfari.com/fredgamer12/shelf
2. Allison Roche May 1, 2011 at 7:51 pm

   I read Cartwheels in a Sari a few months ago. It’s a true story (memoir) about a girl growing up in Sri Chimmnoy’s cult. Her parents joined the cult and were married in a sacred marriage mandated by Sri Chinmoy (the guru leader) and were told to be celibate. That didn’t work and they got pregnant. Since the couple was his right hand assistance at the time he told every one that he chose a special soul for the kid and that they would be his “Chosen One”. He names her Jayantii and she is raised a perfect little disciple. It’s interesting that as she grows up she thinks its perfectly normal to have a guru and to have every single thing you do in life to be for the purpose of pleasing him. Her one life goal is to reach enlightenment and when she was younger she was very anxious about the fact that she hadn’t reached it yet. Once she got older and began to act out she started to question Guru’s actions and motives. She eventually broke away from the cult and was cut off from her friends, family, house, and means of funds. Eventually her family (minus her brother) left the cult too. It made me think that in way we all must be brain washed to some extent. If you grow up thinking something is normal and then find out that most of the world does something completely differently are you going to think that you are wrong and the rest of the world is right? You probably aren’t. This was a really good book although sort of sad. But it ended happily which I was a big fan of. I picked this book because I read a few other books that I liked and a list of “If you Read You Might Like…” suggested it. I’m glad I did.
3. Eli Sherman May 1, 2011 at 9:34 pm

   I am not currently reading anything for pleasure. I have never been a big reader not because I don’t like reading but because many books do not interest me. I do, however, know that the next book I read outside of school will be Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Since the book is well over 1100 pages, I’m planning to start reading it after school gets out when I actually do have some time on my hands to read and comprehend this complex book. The book was first suggested to me by my father, who upon hearing that they were making a movie out of the book decided to reread Atlas Shrugged for the first time since he was in his early 30s (he’s well past the social security age). He commended the book as being wonderfully done and extremely influential. At first I was very skeptical, especially when he claimed that all my friends would be reading it (yeah right, a bunch of high schoolers are reading a conservative book about the abuses of the government), but after slipping the title of the book or Ayn Rand’s name into conversation I realized that quite a few people had read the book. At this I decided to go see the movie with my parents when it came out. After seeing the movie (which incidentally came out on tax day, April 15), a pleasant surprise in both story and quality compared to other movies I’d seen recently, I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet and read this “masterpiece”, named the second most influential book in history only behind the bible.
   Atlas Shrugged, in short, is about what would happen if Atlas (the Greek god that holds up the earth) shrugged, which is a metaphor for all the producers in the world simply quitting and leaving it to be run by those who are constantly asking for a hand out. The book follows Dagny Taggart, the Vice-President of her grandfather’s railroad company, who tries to fight unfair unconstitutional control over her line. She meets Hank Rearden, a steel manufacturer, and together they build a new, faster rail line in order to prove that Hank’s “self-made man” brand of business is better than the government controlled business that the book’s antagonists support. From what I saw in the movie, a mysterious man named John Galt is very prevalent in the story, convincing many of the producers in society to join his secret alliance in a place called Atlantis, where all of the people recognize each other as providers for the rest and each other. The movie only depicts part 1 out of 3 and ends with Dagny Taggart crying out in despair as a close friend and fellow creator of her new “John Galt” rail line disappears as he (the following is dramatic irony as only the audience is aware while Dagny is not) joins John Galt and heads for Atlantis.
4. Jacob Seid May 2, 2011 at 8:34 am

   Normally, I only read for school and rarely for pleasure because I find that no long book seems to hold my attention unless I really like the subject I am reading about—which is normally cars. Recently, however, I stumbled upon the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Normally a book with a title like this not only sounds uninteresting but is usually boring; I would completely glance over it at any bookstore, put it down and carry on my way except for that day, because I wasn’t at a bookstore, I was online on my kindle. I read a little bit about the book and how it was so well written and had great life messages and I absolutely love philosophy and life messages and morals so I decided to give it a go. As I began reading this story which is about a boy following his heart to find his life’s treasure became a story which I could not only relate to, but fully understand and take out the messages in which the story was given. The cool part for me was that I didn’t lose my attention while reading this book due to Coelho’s fantastic writing abilities. In fact I enjoyed it so much, I recommend this story and refer back to it when I have trouble figuring things out in my life. It really works. I also found this book to be inspiring for me to always do what my heart tells me to do, and so far, like the boy in the story, my heart has not failed me yet—which is fantastic in my opinion. I think that when a book can transform someone who doesn’t enjoy reading to someone who kind of does, it is really a magical thing. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. You can stay up to date with Paulo Coelho and hear some fantastic stories and quotes by googling Paulo Coelho blog or by clicking http://www.paulocoehlo.com
5. Brandon Herman May 2, 2011 at 3:57 pm

   As you may not know i like to read very much. It helps me escape the chaos of the world. The book i read most recently was called pirate latitudes by Michael Crichton. “http://www.michaelcrichton.net/books-piratelatitudes-us.html’. I picked the book because it was a national top seller, and it was very portable which would be good for my travels. Also i believe that pirates are and can be very interesting, so this sparked my interests. It was an unbelievably good book. I read it during spring break on my trip to Arizona. Although it was not the longest book i believe it had just as much detail about as a longer book. The book is about the Caribbean in the 1600’s. It is very interesting because it is about how colonies lived and thrived off of piracy, murder, and looting. It is also about the vast power, and the supremacy of the Spanish empire. The main scene is in Jamaica and is about how it is English and does dirty deeds of the king. This book in a way seems to Remind Me off pirates of the Caribbean, except with a twist. One of my favorite parts of the book is that it seems to do a very good job off having sci-fi and fantasy, and be somewhat factual. For example it explained the lives of people in England, the colonies, and also throughout the entire world. As i was reading the book i noticed that the book was very hard to put down. It had a large amount of plot twists and was constantly full of surprise suspense and action. The only issue that i had with this book was that it portrayed the Spanish empire as being one of the most evil empires, and that it was all pirates. But overall i would rate this book a 9.5/10, and would recommend it to anyone who likes pirates.
6. Riley Landgraf 5th hour May 2, 2011 at 4:19 pm

   The Bucolic Plague
   I love love love to read and with so much going on lately I can’t read as much as I used to but I still try. I love fiction and memoirs and the next book I am reading is a memoir of Josh Kilmer – Purcell and his partner Brent, who a few years ago left the hectic city of New York to a run down farm in a small town a few hours outside the city. I came across their story about 7 months ago when their TV show The Fabulous Beekman Boys (Beekman being the name of their farm) on Planet Green premiered. They have the most hilarious relationship and are always bantering back and forth. They have a herd of goats , a lama (polka spot), 2 pigs, chickens and a huge vegetable garden. I picked this book because I love them first of all and second Josh is definitely the funniest one and I know there will be tons of hilarious stories inside. I cant wait to read it!
7. Cameron Crawford-Mook May 2, 2011 at 6:27 pm

   In the few minutes I actually have to read, I love reading books by Jodi Picoult, the author of My Sister’s Keeper. My favorite book by her is A Change of Heart. It’s a beautifully written story about a Michael, a math major turned priest who sat on the jury to convict a man of murder and sentence him to death. Now, its 13 years later and Shane, the convicted murder is now on death row, all appeals rejected and about to be executed. The story is told from 4 different perspectives: the priest, the ACLU lawyer trying to help the man die on his own terms (which involve donating his heart to the sister of the girl he killed, who is desperate for a transplant), the mother of the girl killed and the inmate who is in the cell next to Shane. Only catch? Shane suddenly appears to begin to perform miracles of a certain biblical nature. The book has many different themes—everything from accepting yourself and being proud of who you are to forgiveness if you can ever really forgive someone to how much of the bible is true. No matter how many times I read this book, I always find new things to think about. What I love about Picoult’s work is that she layers many parts to make her stories. Each character is fully developed and you feel compassion for all of them. I also love how her stories don’t tie up neatly…there are always a few loose ends for you to tie up on your own and you never can see quite what will happen at the end until you get there. This is easily one of my favorite books and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Warning though, this is not a book you want to read if you’re just looking for a light read.
8. Mallory Moss May 2, 2011 at 6:59 pm

   A couple weeks ago I started the book Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, but I haven’t had time to finish it. This book is a true story about a family living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. I picked this book because I enjoy reading about things that actually happened to real people, as I can learn about what it must have felt like to be in their shoes during this upsetting event. The story is based on Abdul Zeitoun, the owner of a very popular painting and contracting company. He is originally born in Jableh, Syria to a Muslim hardware store owner. He spent ten years working as a fisherman, crewman, and engineer at sea while he traveled the world until he settled in the United States in 1988. He met his wife, Kathy and had four children. The book starts out two days before the storm with Abdul and Kathy going to work. There were storm warnings on the radio that day but Kathy and Abdul ignored them as they thought the storm would pass. Once they realized how serious the warnings were, they knew something had to be done. When hurricane Katrina came, Kathy and the four children left for Baton Rouge while Zeitoun stayed behind to watch over their home and his rental properties. Once the storm hit, their neighborhood was flooded up to the second floor of most houses and Zeitoun explored the city in a canoe bringing the little supplies he had left. This is the part where I left off, as I haven’t had the chance to finish the book. I enjoy the way the story is told so far and it has been interesting throughout the whole book. It fascinates me how this is a true story and how horrible this hurricane was. It is an event in history that will not be forgotten.
9. Ben Hafen May 2, 2011 at 8:10 pm

   Out of boredom (and because I needed a new book for independent reading in Honors English), I decided to pick up a book that I’d heard good things about, and seemed like it would be a fun read.

   The book?

   “Zombies vs. Unicorns”, a short story anthology compiled by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier.

   Black and Larbaleister are each head of their own “team”, Team Unicorn and Team Zombie, respectively. Each recruited a number of authors to join their team and to write a short story about their creature of choice.

   Team Unicorn features short stories by Kathleen Duey, Meg Cabot, Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan, Naomi Novik, and Diana Peterfreund.

   Team Zombie, on the other hand, has short stories by Libra Bray, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, Scott Westerfield, and Carrie Ryan.

   Are you maybe recognizing some of these names? Off the top of my head, Meg Cabot wrote “The Princess Diaries”, Garth Nix wrote “Keys to the Kingdom”, Cassandra Clare wrote “The Mortal Instruments” (I know this only because of Mr. Wickersham’s post), and Scott Westerfield wrote “Uglies”. As you can see, some of the writers selected are quite prolific.

   Because this book is an anthology, it’s difficult to discuss plot and other such things. After all, different authors tend to write in different ways.. The plots are quite varying in terms of style, tone, themes, and subject matter. Although, as you could probably guess, each story has something to do with zombies or unicorns. Only one story features both, and it’s on the unicorn side. Sorry, zombies.

   The stories in the book vary in length, the shortest being 18 pages long and the longest being 56 pages long. This way, it’s easy to read in short bursts. Each story is also clearly marked at the top of each page as a Zombie or a Unicorn story, so zombie lovers don’t have to read unicorn stories, and vice versa.

   Personally, I still have yet to decide on a Team. The sheer awesomeness of the stories isn’t helping the decision any…
10. Hannah Voigt (the one and only) May 2, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    Finally! A blog that makes me think. Growing up in a house with an English teacher I was defiantly well read, not only in books but also in the stories my parents and grandparents as well as other relatives would tell. The book I am reading now is one I have read many times (I always believed that a good book, like a good story or even a good TV show can be repeated several times without getting boring.) The book is called is called Tricksters Queen and is the sequel to Tricksters Choice. Tamorea Peirce writes it, and all of the books take place in a world she has created. It is amazingly detailed and the characters have much depth that I strongly suspect she has based them off people she has known in real life. Tamorea often has strong female roles and male sidekicks and the books are action packed, witty, and most importantly interesting.

    I first discovered Tamora Peirce’s books when on a long vacation my mother brought me home an adventure book that she hoped would keep me quiet on the plane it was so good that I finished it that day and still had time to irritate everyone on the trip☺. Since then I have read the majority of her books and read them several times over. I fell in love with Aly, Dove and all the rest of the bright, brave, and funny people. Although some themes may be considered a little to inappropriate for younger audiences (mainly pre pubescent guys who can not handle brief interludes about menstrual cycles and sex) but these books are a work of genius and are a terrific companion for a rainy day or (as I prefer to enjoy them) a sunny day in a big field. READ THEM READ THEM NOW!!!!!!!! STOP READING THIS

    http://www.tamora-pierce.com/
11. Philip Johnson May 2, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    It persuaded me to read it. When Mrs. Moore Cove took us to the library to listen to book talks, the librarian told us about this book. She described it as a science fiction, futuristic book in which the author, Suzanne Collins, created an imaginary country in North America that resulted from natural disasters all around the continent. The main thing of the book is that there was a rebellion by the original people which resulted in the country being split into 12 districts so the resulting country created a battle-to-the-death, called the Hunger Games. In this battle, 2 kids from each district are chosen and they have to fight in an area until there is only one person left. This was designed to remind the citizens that rebellion isn’t an option. Since I like science fiction books that have cool ideas that I’ve never really thought about before this book sounded really interesting to me and I knew I Would like it. I thought that the book was really good because it stayed exciting the entire time; every other page that I read there was some crazy twist that made me not want to put the book down. Surprisingly, even though it was 374 pages, it hardly had any dull parts at all. Each chapter that you read leaves off with a cliff hanger at the end that makes you want to just continue right on to the next chapter. The author really helps you get inside of the main character’s head and I got so into the games that I felt like I was the person fighting in this battle and it made me think in my head of what I would do if I was placed in these same tough situations. For anyone who likes an exciting page-turner, The Hunger Games is a perfect book.
12. Elizabeth Benedetti May 2, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    I have always read books with a happily ever after ending, where everyone smiles and waves good bye as you turn that last page, but I was bored with this. I needed something new, so as I wandered around the back of an airport bookstore I stumbled upon Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. This was something I had never read before and I immediately bought it. I was right to do so, because the story is a touching one and the refresher I was looking for. It relates how an American woman in present day Paris has her whole life turned upside down because of a small Jewish girl living in World War II Paris. This story is not for the faint of heart and it is one of those that leaves the ending up to you. I know some people hate those and depending on the circumstance I do too, but this time I was glad the author did that. It made the story more real and made me think about how thankful I should be for my family. Most World War II stories I have read have been from the point of view of an adult or a young naïve boy that was a son of a Nazi and they stopped right when the war did. This time, though, the book carried on to present day and showed that people today are still affected greatly by the Holocaust. It made the book more realistic and it was easier to relate to what the characters were dealing with as they uncovered secrets that had been kept in hiding for decades. This book was for sure not a happy book, but the way it was written and the story it told made it a real page turning and an outstanding book.
    Here is a link to the author’s website and Sarah’s Key:
    http://www.tatianaderosnay.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=68
13. Michael Nona May 3, 2011 at 7:59 am

    I am currently reading the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan. They are books set in the middle ages. The areas are similar to Earth but the names are different so it’s hard to tell. It is about a boy names Will who always wanted to be a knight but wasn’t big enough so wasn’t chosen to go to Battle School. An upset Will decided to sneak into the castle to beg the Baron to allow him to go to Battle School. He snuck across an open field and scaled a hundred foot wall without being noticed by the guards but once inside he was caught by Halt, the Ranger. Everyone feared him because Rangers were thought to posses mystical abilities because they could sneak just about anywhere and hit a target an inch wide from more than 100 yard away. They were legendary and Halt was the most famous and possibly the most feared. He grabbed Will and exposed him to the Baron but when the Baron asked Halt what the punishment should be he said he wanted the boy as his apprentice. Any mere child who could break into a castle undetected would make a fine Ranger. At first the boy was skeptical but after seeing Halt’s amazing abilities and realizing his natural skill in concealed travel, he realized he would make a good Ranger. After training for months the two were called on a mission far away and Will met Tug, his Rangers horse. Ranger’s horses were trained to run quickly for long periods of time and detect anything that could be harmful, all while being silent. After a series of events Halt realized how truly brave and skillful Will was after killing a beast right before the beast killed Halt and a fellow knight. This series is very interested and keeps you on edge while reading it. A recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy books.
14. Saul Levin May 3, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    Here is what I am reading right now:

    1. Harry Potter y La Piedra Filosofal – J.K. Rowling

    I am a huge fan of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Unfortunately I cannot read any of the books a second time because I know what exactly is happening and the fun is taken out of the reading. When Sra. Hoinka assigned the first book of the series in Spanish class I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know whether I would be able to enjoy or even read the book. But the homework due tomorrow is to finish chapter 5 and I finished it two days ago. Reading the same book in a different language gives it a slightly different twist but keeps it interesting and new because of slight differences and vocabulary. I’m enjoying the book so much that I can barely put it down.

    2. Economics For The Rest Of Us: Debunking The Science That Makes Life Dismal – Moshe Adler

    I picked this hilariously titled novel that perfectly described my confusion about economics surround the Great Depression and the 2008 depression as well. After trying to read An Empire of Wealth and confusing myself more I decided to try a beginners approach to learning more about the topic. The book, although somewhat slow-moving has combined with our discussions during class to marginally increase my understanding of economics. Although it is tough to understand I think by the end of the APUSH trimester I will have a solid grasp on the topic. I wouldn’t say that I’m enjoying the reading but I do think that my perseverance in relation to this area will eventually pay off.

    3. Half Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls

    This is a novel I just picked up and started the day before yesterday because my mom loved it after reading it with her book group. Although I’m less than ten pages into it the writing feels powerful and draws the reader in. I look forward to continuing it.
15. Ben Cooper May 3, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    A book I finished reading about two weeks ago is Leviathan by Scott Westerfield (Author of the Uglies series). The story is an interesting bit of alternate history for World War 1. In the world of Leviathan, the methods of warfare are different. The British and the French have utilized Darwin’s theory of evolution to fabricate beasts of war such as sky born war ships (Hydrogen filled floating whales) and even a real kraken for naval defense. The Germans, Austrians, and Eastern Europeans however, utilize mechanized machines of war such as battle walkers, and even enormous spider like land ships. The story starts off with a boy named Alek, who just so happens to be the son of the very recently deceased Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand. Soon enough Alek is on the run piloting a battle walker with a loyal crew trying to escape to Switzerland, while avoiding German capture. There is also a girl named Deryn who is disguised as a boy in the British air force. Alek and Deryn’s paths inevitably collide and I really enjoyed the book. What I thought was cool about the book is that when I read it we had just finished our unit on World War 1. Even though this story is a fiction, it is cool how much I already knew about the subject before I read the book. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about adventure and fantasy.
16. Stephanie Dudek May 3, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    A while ago I read The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls by Elise Primavera. I read the book because my mother told me to and she wouldn’t stop nagging me so I finally just read it. But I have to say my mother was correct it was a very good book. It was also completely bizarre. It was really good but it was just downright weird. Basically The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls is about four young girls- Ivy, Pru, Cat, and Franny-who all live on Gumm Street in the perfect town of Sherbet. It is loosely based on The Wizard of Oz, so includes the ruby slippers, green witches, and random mystical lands. I would read it before I would sleep and have dreams, scary dreams, about the events that took place in the book. I am still not sure if everything that happened in the book was a dream like Dorothy’s trip to Oz, or if the girls actually experienced the events. There was also a hint that one of the characters in the book Mr. Staccato, who was giving Ivy piano lessons, was immortal and was on the movie set when they were filming the movie The Wizard of Oz. Ivy is plagued with a so far 7 year curse of bad luck. And really the whole book is just bizarre and I still am not sure I understood all the different places they went and things they met (talking potatoes) but I do understand the friendship the girls create. Usually I don’t read this type of book I like either completely fluffy romance girly books with a happy ending or completely different worlds that have a happy ending. Both ways I like a happy ending, and I am just not sure if this book had a happy ending or not. I can normally follow a plot ling really well and always know what’s going on but not with this book.
    Here is a link the author’s website with more info about the book:
    http://www.eliseprimavera.com/books/the-secret-order-of-the-gumm-street-girls
17. Claire Fisher May 3, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    The most recent book I read, other than picture books and Captian Underpants, was the book The Soloist by Steve Lopez and this was the closest thing I could find to a book website “http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez-skidrow-nathaniel-series,0,1456093.special” I began reading the book for a non-fiction book project for English in which we were able to pick our own book. I picked the book because of my uncle who was a musician until he became sick with schizophrenia. Another reason was because the book was about music, musicians, and a reporter. In the book, Steve Lopez, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times meets a schizophrenic street musician living on Skid Row named Nathaniel Ayers. He later finds out that Nathaniel was a brilliant musician and had gone to Julliard. The story is about the friendship between the two men. It also dealt with a lot with controversies, such as mental illness, being homeless and how to deal with these problems. Nathaniel plays music to silence the voices in his head, using it as a way to escape his mental illness. I liked that I could relate to this story, not only because of my uncle, but also because of my love for music. Lopez writes with humor, but also kind of a poetic sort of voice that I really enjoyed. Lopez was refreshingly honest; he admitted that most days he did not want to go see Nathaniel. I also liked the quotes of Nathaniel’s scattered train of thought, he skips from topic to topic sometimes touching on deep topics and suddenly jumping somewhere else. I would definitely recommend this book to others. I would also recommend the movie, although it had much less about mental illness, it accurately displayed what Lopez was trying to get across when he wrote about music.
    One of my favorite quotes from the book was:
    “I wrestled with definitions of freedom and happiness, and wondered at times who was crazier—the man in the tunnel who paid no bills and played the music of the gods, or the wrung-out columnist who raced past him on the way home from sweaty deadlines to melt away the stress with a bottle of wine.”
    -Steve Lopez
18. Molly Sovran May 3, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    In 8th grade I read the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I don’t typically like to read for enjoyment, but when I’m bored and or trying to fall asleep, I will pick up a book and read. This book instead of helping me fall asleep made me stay up late every night. When I first saw the book at Borders I thought what a weird book name. Then when I read the back, I wanted to buy the book and read it. Those words that read on the back were: “you can’t stop the future; you can’t rewind the past; the only way to learn the secret is to press play”. In this book, a high school boy named Clay Jenson found a tape recorder with tapes to go with it. There was a note that said it was from Hannah Baker, and that he had to listen to them in order. In other words, he couldn’t start with the first tape, get bored, and then go to the last one to find out what happened to her. Another piece of information is that Hannah has committed suicide. She sent 13 people these tapes, and every person is a reason why she has ended her life. Clay, not knowing why he received this because he didn’t even know Hannah, learns that you leave an everlasting impression when you don’t realize it. The way he acted towards Hannah in that one class they shared together made her in one way end her life. When I read this book, I was also at the age of thirteen, but that’s totally coincidental. I always want to read this book, but it lets me read the pain some kids go through today. Not everyone is the same, and sometimes we never want to know the truth about ourselves, the way others see us. This book was a true eye opener, and a page turner.
19. Rob Swor May 3, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    Of the books I’ve read recently, I think the one that I liked the most was probably The Hunger Games, by Suzanna Collins. It’s a story about a girl named Katniss Everdeen whose little sister gets picked to be entered in this government-held game show type thing called the Hunger Games where 24 kids are picked from around the country, a boy and a girl from each district, to fight to the death, and she volunteers to take her sister’s place. Later on, she find out the boy from her district had a mad crush on her for years. However, they’re forced to fight to the death by the rules of the competition. I picked this book initially because its concept seemed interesting when we heard book talks at the beginning of the trimester in my English class, and then I decided that I definitely was going to read it when some people in my English class were talking about how amazing it was, and the book basically got a cult following in said class. I, personally, thought that it was one of the best books I’d read in a long time, as not only is it well written, but the story and characters are very compelling. I definitely would read it again later.
20. Eleanor Chalifoux May 3, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    I haven’t had the chance to read books of my choice recently until the beginning of third trimester when my English teacher assigned independent reading on the side as a trimester long assignment. At first I was horrified of the extra work but it has turned out to be my favorite part of the class. I have read two book so far and am searching for my next. I’m planning on reading 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult. I enjoyed the past two books I read, just looking for something a bit more challenging. Reality Check by Peter Abrahams was about Cody, a sophomore in high school from Colorado. His recently ex-girlfriend disappears and he sets out to find her. Cody’s mom died when he was young and he lives with his distant father and lives a tough life compared to Clea. Clea lives a very prestigious life and is on track to attend an ivy league college. Cody is recruited by colleges to play football but his grades hold him back from even graduating high school. He travels to Vermont to find Clea and helps solve the case that was a lot more complicated than anyone thought. My second book, The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney was a very eye opening story about a high school girl, Alex, at a prep school that gets date raped by a fellow student. Alex has a hard time with what happened of course and the aftermath and scarring is pretty bad. Alex hides from the boy and loses interest in what she used to love. She turns to the Mockingbird, a secret council of students that help bring justice to others because the school fails to recognize wrongs because they are naïve and think that their perfect students would never do anything wrong. It’s a great story of doing what’s right and getting through tough times.
21. Alex Cooper May 3, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    Recently in the past months I read 29 Gifts: How one month of giving can change your life by Cami Walker. This was an assignment for English class to read a non-fiction book and having received this book for Christmas I thought that it would be a good fit for the assignment. Cami is the narrator of the novel and it is set up as a sort of diary of her life for 29 days. She is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and is very bitter and miserable about this affecting her daily life. Her friend who was also a spiritual mentor gave her advice on how to help her relieve some of the pain and symptoms coming from her multiple sclerosis: give 29 gifts in 29 days. Cami tells her readers each step into her time in giving the gifts. She brings humor and sarcasm to the book making it much more enjoyable to read. The gifts didn’t need to be big or anything too special, but they had to have meaning to them, and not just her way of trying to get out of her prescription. Some of the gifts would vary from receiving consciously to giving money to a homeless man, or to chanting in her yoga class. They didn’t have to be gifts to any person, they could also be gifts that she was giving herself. Over time, she gradually gets better, even though she still lives her life with multiple sclerosis. She used to not be able to walk by herself and near the end of 29 days, she is going on a hike with her husband. She still suffers, but not as much and she has a different outlook on life. She also makes a website, 29gifts.org, in which there are thousands of givers today that keep track of their giving and can help each other if any of them are having any problems. This book was very inspiring and I would recommend it to anyone to read.
22. Kaylee Brown May 3, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    Currently, I am reading the Justin Bieber book: First Step 2 Forever. No lies. I really am. However, I will spare all the non-beliebers and write about a book that would be more widely appreciated and interesting. Recently, I read Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. (http://johngreenbooks.com/will-grayson/). In all honesty, this book is like my Bible. This book is truly hilarious. It’s about two boys who couldn’t be more different but with one really important thing in common – their name! When the two boys meet their worlds collide. They meet in a spot both of them don’t really belong in and wound up there for two different reasons both of which don’t make sense. This book is partially about betrayal and true friends, more importantly the difference between them. Both Will Grayson’s are hilarious but personally I loved the one that did not use correct punctuation. True Story: me and my friend read this book at the same time and we spent two days together reading and highlighting our favorite parts of this book (She was actually why i read the book). It was SO funny. Or maybe just really relatable. I honestly think the author did a really good job of capturing teenage kids. It didn’t even matter that they were the opposite gender for me. It was really just their attitude towards life and I related with both the depressed Will Grayson and the “average” Will. I also liked this book from the standpoint that sure, it was funny and i laughed out loud but really it wasn’t a light book. If you really read what you were reading it was kind of sad. And I felt so bad for Will even though nothing like what happened to him had happened to me. I still knew how he felt because i’m sure stuff has happened to me and pretty much everyone else that triggers similar feelings. Even though this review probably didn’t make much sense I HIGHLY advise you to read it. It was the first book I really enjoyed reading in awhile that kept me turning pages.
23. Evan Daykin May 3, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    1. The most recent book I have read is “Alas, Babylon” by Pat Frank. It is a fictional account of a group of survivors in a small florida town coming to grips with a nuclear holocaust between the US and Soviet Union. In 1959, this was not an unrealistic prospect, and “nuclear combat toe-to-toe with the ruskies” seemed almost inevitable. My dad recommended this book to me as a quick read, but told me not to read it before bed, for one because it is terrifying, and two because it is impossible to put down. He was right about both. I spent about 4 sleepless nights either laying in bed awake waiting for a white flash outside my window or just doing the “ok, one more chapter” routine.

    2. Before “Alas, Babylon”, I read “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. It is about an angsty guy who hates being a “sheep”, otherwise known as having a very good life at an ivy league school and a $25,000 savings account. Because it is way too conformist to roll with it and appreciate his circumstances, he decides, one day, to just get up and leave. He donated his Money to OXFAM, burned his wallet, and left. Now, I’m not saying this was a terrible book, but being forced to read it and “analyze” it and mercilessly beat what the author actually meant with the aforementioned “analysis” made reading the book a total chore. it probably could have been good if we weren’t forced to nit pick and otherwise disregard what the author intended to mean.
24. Braxton Allred May 3, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    Blog #17
    Braxton Allred
    5/3/11
    Wickersham 3rd hr
    I have read a extremely large number of books in my lifetime, and one that I have now read multiple times and hope will always have a good time reading is The life and time of the Thunderbolt Kid by Billy Bryson. I began reading this book because of my father. Several years ago when my dad came back from England, he told me he had a book that caught my eye with its strange cover and title. My father told me what it was but didn’t let me read it because of its “adult” humor. But every fricken night he would laugh out loud as he read it and soon when my mom started cruising thru it, she had the same symptoms of non- stop, random laughter. I was so curious about what made that book so funny that finally my dad let me read it ( I also remember him wanting me to read Pillars of the Earth but luckily I never go to it) and within the very first pages I was laughing hysterically and was hooked for life. The book is a semi educational, almost biography of the author in his distant, hilarious childhood. He specifically talks about the glory and awesomeness of growing up in the 1950’s, with its many wonders, believes and events. Although a good portion of the book is him retelling funny things he has experienced and most likely exaggerated on, some of the book is about many of the important events and items of the 50’s. For example, there is an entire chapter dedicated to talking about the history of comics and its rise and fall throughout his life. I know that the book sounds kind of boring, but Mr. Bryson writes with a very beautiful, awesome vocabulary that makes you think he’s a genius and the words flow perfectly throughout. Also, his perfect balance of telling the history of important things in the 50’s with his personal, comical stories and comments, make for a very enjoyable reading. Plus, it makes you feel good about yourself that you’re reading something educational and combined with the laughter that goes with the book, you’ve chosen something that helps with your physical (the laughter and rolling around) and the mental/educational part of it.
    *Bill Bryson has a few other favorites of mine like A Short History of Nearly Everything and A Walk in the Woods, both very much like the thunderbolt kid but with different subjects and slightly more amusing characters
25. willy thompson May 3, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    The book I am currently reading is The Beckham Experiment by Grant Wahl. Grant Wahl is a Sports Illustrated writer who has been covering the growth of Major League Soccer since it’s birth 1996. I have always been fascinated by the MLS and have wanted to know the inner workings of what most overseas describe as “A pub league.” I was shocked to hear that Beckham was moving to the US, let alone move to the US AND play soccer. I saw this book in an airport in Dubai the week it was released and snapped it up for the plane ride home. This is the 2nd time I’ve read this book, but the first time I’ve actually cared about the contents inside it. The book follows the worlds most famous athlete, David Beckham, across the Atlantic and to LA. Grant Wahl spent 3 years traveling with the LA Galaxy, conducting interviews with Beckham’s teammates, coaches, hotel maids, drivers and anyone else of relevance. The title, The Beckham Experiment, sets a rather strange tone to the book. It seems that Beckham’s move to the US was not just relocation, but rather an experiment that was being conducted by forces outside of the Beckham household. The book goes deep into the LA Galaxy locker room, and shocked me to find that many professional athletes are not earning enough money to live off of. Young players, fresh from college, make as little as $12,900 before taxes! The main conflict of the book so far is the difference in salary between Beckham and the rest of his teammates. A whole page is dedicated to showing the players salaries, and on that page I saw that Beckham’s salary alone was that of 18 out of his 19 teammates COMBINED. I am half way done with this book and would highly recommend it to any soccer fan.
26. Ophelie Ovize May 3, 2011 at 6:55 pm

    I have recently read for pleasure Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I honestly devoured the book in a weekend. I couldn’t let it go. The story takes place on a circus train in 1931. Twenty-three year old Jacob Jankoski finds out that his parents were killed instantly in a car accident. Caught in his emotions he runs away from his university the day he’s passing his veterinary exams. He hopes on a train and falls asleep. He is later awoken by the conductor and that informs that he is trespassing on a circus train. He realizes that he is completely lost and has no money on him so he asks the director of the circus for a job; he is hired as the circus veterinary. He meets the animal trainer August and his beautiful wife Marlena; he quickly becomes friends with the couple. After taking care of the animals, Jacob realizes how demonic August is towards animals. Sadly with all the traveling and animals, the circus starts to lose money and doesn’t feed their animals properly. Their last hope is to introduce something no other circus’ have, an elephant. Jacob has the task to train the animal, he is helped by equestrian Marlena. Part of the story is how they start to fall in love. Marlena is a woman who is abused by her husband and that is in search for freedom and adventure. The love that blooms between Marlena and Jacob creates a lot of drama on the train.
    The characters are well built. I felt very atttached to them by then. Sara Gruen does a good job on the character of August. He is a very two-faced man, and the author hints it slightly from the beginning and shows it more and more. I also liked that theres are good morals attached to the story. Gruen insists on the concept of chasing your dreams and fight for whats right.
    I picked this book off the shelf because it was soon to be in theaters. I was not tempted at first honestly. I dislike circuses but i am glad I did, this book was fabulous from the first page to the last. I couldn’t put the book down. The story is tailed by a ninety-three year old Jacob that looks back in his past. The author did such a good job in building the intensity of the plot. I really suggest this book to everybody, even guys. Guys, its not that much of a chick-flick type book. Theres actually murders and action! Anyways, I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I cannot wait to see it!
27. C.McPherson May 3, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    A current book that I am reading is titled the Child of God by Lolita Files. I actually didn’t choose this book, my mother kind of did, and well no not kind of she did. She read the book and thought I might like it. It turned out that I did so far. Although I’m not done reading it has been really good so far. This book is definitely a page turner. The story basically describes tragic events in the South that has happened to the Boten family. They go through trials and tribulations that was passed three generations down. Files does an amazing job capturing the emotion and you can really connect with the characters. The way she writes you are able to get a full on experience of the family. Files also has this page turner novel with characters that are well developed. I was able to get a pretty good idea of the characters of who they individually and their thoughts. This book teaches you amazingly life lessons, and should be recommended for people who enjoy drama, and finding mysteries with the characters as well. The life the Boten family goes through is absolutely insane. Many will go through ups and down as the book makes references going to slavery to the 1960’s. Many will enjoy the reading of what caused this spell on this family and how they overcome the secrets that has been hiding wit this family for generations. If you would like to know more information about her here is the link below
    http://www.lolitafiles.com
28. Patrice Bell May 3, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    This is definitely my favorite blog, since I’m constantly reading (when I have time). But anyway, a book that I’ve recently read is The D.U.F.F. (Designated Ugly Fat Friend). My friend and I go to the book store and pick books for the other to read and then we switch. She picked this book for me based on a recommendation from another mutual friend. It started off kind of slow, and it wasn’t the type of book I would have picked up myself, but I have to admit, it was really good. It’s about a girl who’s two best friends are insanely gorgeous and she classifies herself as the D.U.F.F. One of the “high school royalty” boys begins to hang out with her to get to her best friend, but she starts to fall for him. The book was a bit more sexual than I had anticipated. It wasn’t very graphic, but some parts were definitely unexpected. Another thing that I liked about this book was that it was written by a senior in high school. I feel that since it was written by someone generally close to my age made the character a bit easier to relate to. There were also times when I’d be reading and I would literally have to put the book down because I was laughing so hard. But even with the funny parts, the book definitely had a serious side. The main character was struggling with many of the pressures that we as teenagers face every day. This book was a bit out of my comfort zone. I prefer books that are pretty relaxed. Just something to escape with, but this book was beautifully written and I’m very happy that I read it. I would definitely recommend it.
29. Jenny Richter May 3, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    I only recently got back into reading for pleasure because of our Independent Reading assignment in Ms. Moore-Cove’s class. Basically, you can read whatever you want, but you have to do Book Logs and Book Talks about your book. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading things for myself, so I went on a John Green binge. When that source dried up, I decided to follow a recommendation of a friend and read The Book Thief, by Mark Zusak. When I picked it up, I didn’t even know that the plot circled predominantly around World War II, specifically those living in Germany at the time. As a general rule, I avoid anything historical or heart-wrenching. This story was both, but it was actually one of the best books I’ve ever read. The story follows young Liesel Meminger whose brother has just died and is abandoned by her mother to live with foster parents Rosa and Hans Hubermann. Hitler is everywhere and their town is eventually bombed. Sounds like a bundle of laughs right? Not only that, but her foster father decides to hide a Jew in his basement in a town where if you had painted a Jews door for him (and he had), you were looked down upon as a “Jew lover”. Two interesting things about the book were the narrator and the writing style. The narrator was Death himself, commentating on the numerous dead he carried to wherever it is the dead go (the book isn’t specific about that. The author avoids it like a politician avoids thought-provoking questions.). Death tries to remain uninterested in human affairs, but the good of Liesel pulls him in. The author has a writing style that I enjoy immensely, using obscure metaphors and personification, but not to the point of excess. If it had been written more plainly, I don’t think that I could’ve handled it. The misery was overwhelming at points, even though it wasn’t particularly graphic. On the whole I loved it, and I may have even learned a thing or two about history. Although… not much.
30. Emily Kakos May 3, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    THIS IS THE RIGHT ONE! DELETE THE FIRST ONE PLEASE!
    I have to admit, I’m definitly a book nerd. Mostly I like nonfiction, sappy books, with predictable endings. Books I can read by the pool or warm in my bed. Fluff.
    Sometimes I’ll come across books that actually mean something and are really moving. Examples of these would be the Jodi Picoult books, all of which I read, and most of which I loved. The thing about her books was, once I got through the fifth or sixth one, I noticed a pattern in her writing, so then they got moved into my fluff book section.
    The book I just finished reading is called the Lincoln Lawyer. It was definitly one of the best books of all time. The reason I picked it up was becuase Matthew McConaughey was on the cover and I seriously love him. Anyway, it was about an apparetnly greedy lawyer, who took cases just for the money and didnt care if you were innocent or not. Then he gets a really high profile case, and he goes through a journey that leads him towards a case in his past and a psychotic killer in his present. He has to deal with the Lawyer Client Confidentiality so even though he knows certain things, he isnt allowed to say them. This causes him to become paranoid and freaked out for his family and friends. I dont wanna give away the ending becuase its such a good book that everyone should just go read it. It will change your life. Another thing I liked about the book was that the ending was realistic. Happy endings in cases like these are so not realistic and that annoys me when i’m trying to read a book that isn’t fluff. This book had an ending that made sense and would probably happen in real life.
    Also, if you dont wanna read the book, Matthew McConaughey is in the movie…they just came out with it, I think, and I hear its realllyyy good.
31. Tharron Combs May 3, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    I have just finished “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, and I am currently reading “Ranger’s Apprentice Book 10: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja” by John Flanagan. I picked Pride and Prejudice because I had just finished reading “Sense and Sensibility” by the same author, and I had heard good things about this second novel. I did enjoy reading “Pride and Prejudice”, but I didn’t feel that it measured up to the previous works I’d read by Austen, even though it is significantly more popular, which is probably due in large part to the movie adaptation starring Keira Knightley. This novel was enjoyable for me, not because of the romantic drama in the story, but because of the interesting characters and the insights on society that are written in this story. I would recommend this story to girls my age, but almost never boys. The romantic drama was boring to me and it renders the book almost unreadable for boys my age due to a complete and total lack of testosterone. Which brings me to my next book.
    The tenth installment of the Ranger’s Apprentice series, the story of a young warrior from the fictional country of Araluen, has not disappointed me yet. This book is like a cross between “300” and “The Matrix”, but set in mid 11th century Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. Pretty sweet, right? I chose this book because I can’t start a series without finishing it and because I felt like I needed a serious dose of testosterone after reading “Pride and Prejudice”, and this book delivers. I would recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy or action/adventure and who can stomach an almost complete lack of substance in exchange for epic battle scenes (in other words, anyone who enjoyed the Transformers movies).
32. Courtney Stewart May 3, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    A book that I truly enjoyed was the Time Travelers’ Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. My good friend Maddie recommended it to me and we planned to both read the book before we went to see the movie which was going to be in theaters in a few months. I hesitate to read the book at first because it was summer and I had a TON of other things that I would rather be doing, but once I picked up the book I couldn’t put it down.
    I loved the book because it wasn’t just an ordinary love story. It started off with the Main characters (who are destined to be together) at totally different times of their lives. They were in a meadow in the girl Claire’s backyard who was around six, and her future husband Henry was in his thirties. You may be thinking this is a child predator but in actuality the Man is a time traveler and who is the young girls husband when shes older. Through Claire’s childhood she meets up with Henry in the meadow and she slowly falls in love with him. One day when they meet up in the meadow Henry tells her that he will wont be able to time travel to her for awhile and he writes down on a sheet of paper a date and a location where they will meet again.
    When Claire arrives at the location she runs up to Henry and gives him a huge hug and kiss, but Henry does not know her. He doesn’t know her because this is the first time the actual Henry and Claire have met. Throughout the rest of the novel the too are falling madly in love while Henry time travels and Claire peruses her art dream. You would think that this is a happily ever after type story but at the end there is a heart clinching twist Henry is shot and killed while time traveling.
33. Erin Lammers May 3, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    Recently, I read a book called Mimus, translated to English by Lilli Thal from its original German version by John Brownjohn. Usually, I only read over breaks or long weekends, so I found myself at the Southfield library during spring break, trying yet again to pick books I might actually like. I’m afraid to go to the adult section for fear that I’ll fall asleep reading a horrible book that I thought looked good at first, so I still shuffle over to the “teen” section. Many of those books are classic angst-filled teenager novels with repetitive plots, but some are worthwhile – Mimus would fall under the worthwhile category. I try not to judge books by their covers, but I easily break that promise, so most of my evaluation comes from the synopsis on the back. Thankfully, the cover looked interesting enough, and the back just further hooked me. I’m glad I chose it. Mimus takes place during the Middle Ages and tells of the long-standing vendetta between two ancient kingdoms. Though that sounds fantastically boring, the story follows the prince of one of the feuding empires, twelve-year-old Florin. Under the pretense of signing a treaty after years of bloodshed, Florin and his father are invited to the lair of the enemy where they are unsurprisingly taken prisoner. While his father is confined to the dungeons, Florin is forced to reside as the lowest level of being – an assistant to the court jester. During medieval times, jesters were laughed at in court and treated like animals, and the prince was brutally subjected to this, being the enemy. You would assume that the tale consists of father, son, and their loyal subjects devising an escape, but the true trial is just trying to survive one day at a time. Though the setting invites archaic thoughts, the humor and sheer wit are astoundingly sophisticated and modern. Mimus, the jester under whom Florin is forced to study, doesn’t only provide comedic relief to his audience, but wows them in all varieties of entertainment. Mimus teaches Florin that just as jesters must move quickly in their jokes, tricks, and acrobatics – for fear that His Majesty may unleash his wrath if not immediately amused – they must have an equally quick tongue. As much as these two get in trouble for it, thankfully their quick-wittedness saves them from major danger. The ensuing battle for simultaneous survival, romance, and freedom is enough to make you stay with Florin to the very end. Not everyone likes subtle sarcasm in the novels they read, but I loved every second of it; it does have a bit of a predictable ending, but, nonetheless, I would recommend it.
    http://site.annickpress.com/catalog/catalog.aspx?Title=mimus
34. Rachel Goldstein May 3, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    Usually I read like some people breathe, but I’ve been really busy lately and haven’t had enough time. Happily, last week I did have time and read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. An Abundance of Katherines tells the story of Colin Singleton, a nineteen-year old prodigy. It begins with Colin being very depressed because A) he is not a genius, he has never created anything, just learned, at a freakishly fast pace, what other people have already discovered. He knows a plethora of random, slightly useless facts (like the name of every senator from every state since 1783), but because most people find facts like them boring, they find Colin boring, too. He thinks that if he could discover something and achieve genius status, he could become a more interesting person; and B) because his girlfriend Katherine just broke up with him. In his life, Colin has dated 19 girls, each one named Katherine. And in his life, Colin has been dumped by 19 girls, all named Katherine.

    Colin’s friend Hassan quickly grows sick of Colin’s depression and decides to cure him off it by taking him on a cross-country road trip. The two end up in Gutshot, Tennessee, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere that is home to the final resting place of Archduke Ferdinand. Colin and Hassan spend the next few weeks interviewing every citizen of Gutshot for the owner of the Gutshot Textile factory, which is currently making tampon strings. They also hunt wild pigs and get attacked by a swarm of really angry bees.

    An Abundance of Katherines is really good. It somehow manages to be utterly hilarious and incredibly tragic at the same time.
35. Katie Donnellon May 3, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    The last book that I read was The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. I actually really liked it, it was a book that made you think and wasn’t so simple. At first I didn’t want to read this because it seemed really boring and not exactly how I wanted to spend my weekend, but my brother had to read it and said that I should really give it a chance. I learned that it is the kind of book that you really have to read the whole thing in order to appreciate it. The City of Glass is the first book. The protagonist is Quinn a writer of detective stories. He mistakenly receives a call from Virginia Stillman, the wife of a Peter Stillman Jr., who was locked up by his father as a child. Upon release from prison the couple wants to hire a detective to keep tabs on Peter Stillman Sr. Quinn decides to go forth with the investigation giving the couple the impression that he really is a detective. In the second book, Ghosts, Paul Auster never names the characters, instead giving them colors as titles. Blue rents a room on Orange St. to spy on Black for white. The colors reduce the characters to objects, and so Paul Auster makes them seem less human. The last Book is The Locked Room, Fanshawe has disappeared. He was extremely talented in writing, and when Fanshawe leaves he gives his long-time friend, and aspiring writer, the narrator, his life’s work. Fanshawe’s wife and the narrator decide publish the pieces and it turns out the Fanshawe was a literary genius. When the narrator is asked to write a column about Fanshawe people begin to think that the narrator made him up. The story does sound a little sketchy, Fanshawe disappears leaving behind books and poems that he was never brave enough to publish himself, and then he turns out to be an extraordinary writer, so the narrator decides to write a biography about Fanshawe to prove that he really did exist. The three books, though seemingly unconnected, are actually linked. Paul Auster is a ridiculously creative and brilliant writer and through using wit, he messes with the readers head. At the end you feel almost as if Paul Auster has smacked you in the face. Even still it was a good book.
36. Declan Gibbons May 3, 2011 at 8:55 pm

    In my sixteen years of life I have never really read for enjoyment. The only time I can remember is Harry Potter and the sorcer of stone. I read the book because of the worldwide publicism and the movies seemed interesting, so why not. The story takes place in britian, where there are two types of people: muggles and wizards. The main character is a young wizard named Harry Poetter. He lived at his uncles house for a while because his parents where killed by Lord Voldermort, the most evil wizard in the world. Harry meet two people: hermine and ron who would be friends for life. Harry also meets enemies, like professer snape and luscious mouthvoy. But in the end harry has another showdown with voldermort except odly hes attatched to someones head. Harry defeats Voldermort for a second time and proves himself as a wizard prodigy.It was a good read that killed boring time.
37. Lizzie Davidson May 3, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    The last book I’ve read for fun is Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway. I initially picked the book because my English teacher (Ms. Zimmerman) told me she thought it was a great book that I’d really like. While I typically cannot sit down and just read, with this book I could. It told the story of a normal teenage girl whose ex-boyfriend wrote a song about her. The song because number one on all the music charts and when people realized the song was about her, she became a celebrity and her world was turned upside down. The press followed her everywhere and brought chaos to her family and school. She ended up having to stay in the office the whole day instead of going to classes. While the novel sounds just like any cliché book about a teenage girl, it could be taken completely different if you interpreted the sarcasm. She initially suggested the book to me because it used the same methods of humor as Huck Finn, but would appeal to me a little more. Reading into the characters and their witty remarks made reading this book a completely different experience than I’ve ever had reading. The contrasting characters added even more depth to reading it. I’ve never interpreted a book like that on my own until this. Now, I’m starting to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It was suggested to me by a close friend/obsessive reader who said it was the best book they’ve ever read. (He also has started calling me Lisbeth, the main characters name, because it sounds similar to Elizabeth. I can never escape the nicknames…) I’ve read about 30 pages of it, and it’s pretty good so far. It takes place in Sweden, and while the names are slightly annoying, the fact that it isn’t American is kind of interesting. So far, a reporter has been convicted of publishing damaging information about a financer. It’s intriguing so far, but 30 pages really isn’t enough to tell.
38. Indya Sanders May 3, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    In the past few years I have read a lot of good books. Two authors that I decided to constantly search for their pieces are Ellen Hopkins and Jay Asher. Ellen Hopkins has written many phenomenal books. She is the amazing author who created the Crank, Glass, Impulse, and Fallout. Ellen Hopkins has even written three out of 5 of my favorite books Burned, Identical, and Tricks. I have read all of the books she has written and I am constantly yearning for the next release. Jay Asher is another great author; though he only wrote one book called Thirteen Reasons Why which left you on the edge of your seat.
    Burned was an amazing book about a 17 year old girl Pattyn who lived in Mormon home with her controlling and abusive father, mother, and 6 siblings with one in the oven. After questioning life and purpose, she begins to date Derek who soon becomes her boyfriend. When she ultimately became exposed Pattyn punches the girl Derek leaves her for in rage and sent to live with her Aunt. When staying at her Aunt J’s house in Nevada she begins to feel the love and respect that she was missing, through her Aunt and a boy named Ethan. The messed up part about the book is when you find out that Ethan’s father was Aunt J’s high school sweetheart. They were forced to separate after Pattyn’s father points a gun at them because the boy is not a Mormon. Ethan and Pattyn begin to date and have sex. When she returns home after the vacation, she is welcomed to her father beating the next oldest sister, just like he beat her. She then finds out that she is pregnant with Ethan’s baby. When Pattyn goes to tell Ethan she is overheard and exposed to her mother and she quickly denies it. Ethan and Pattyn try to escape to California, but have been snitched on by the “perfect Mormon boy” that liked Pattyn. They are chased down by her Father’s police friend on an icy road; Ethan tries to speed up but crashes. Ethan and the unborn baby die. Her father then disowns her. We are left with the illusion that she was going to kill everyone who caused her pain.
    Identical was another good book about twin sisters named Kaeleigh and Raeanne. After the accident in which Raeanne and their mother the senator gets into everything began to change. Their father begins to show more attention to Kaeleigh. He is very controlling and decides to monitor everything Kaeleigh is doing but shows no interest in Raeanne. Their mother is never home so their father constantly seeks sexual release through Kaeleigh. Kaeleigh hates it but when she told her mother, her mother brushed it off. To add insult to injury Kaeleigh has to turn to binge eating and cutting as a result of her father’s “love”. All the while Raeanne is begging for attention and even secretly wanting the abuse just to get her father’s attention. Raeanne constantly wants attention so bad that she has been giving advances to a teacher. Kaeleigh feeling that she will never be loved decided that she must block her best male friend’s relationship from getting any closer. When Raeanne goes over the teacher’s house she is stopped by Kaeleigh’s friend. We then find out that Raeanne and Kaeleigh was really the same person. When the tragic accident happened, Raeanne died. Kaeleigh formed DID dissociative Identity Disorder and uses her sister as a coping mechanism. The Mother who is also a judge makes the father go into rehab; she believes the daughter, and stops the campaign to focus on Kaeleigh.
39. Larry Geist May 3, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    I don’t read as often as I used to, probably because I have less time, but a book that I’d like to read would be Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It’s the second book in the Hunger Games series, and after I read the first book for English class, I thought that it’d be interesting to see what happens in the next one. Everyone had to pick a book to read over winter break, so I picked the first book I saw. It was about a girl named Katniss Everdeen and how she had to participate in the government run “hunger games” that were kind of like gladiator fights, if you were to compare them to anything. She has to fight with another person from her sector, a boy who’s had a crush on her for years, but to win she has to be the sole survivor. The whole reoccurring theme in the book, and I assume in the next book is survival and relying on others, which I guess is a good thing for a book to be based on. It makes it more interesting to read, and I would defiantly recommend this book to somebody. I picked this to read because I didn’t really care, and I just had to do it for an assignment, but once I started reading it I got really interested and wanted to keep going ( The Hunger Games ended in a cliffhanger) but I never had the time to continue the storyline. I hope that sometime soon I’ll be able to continue with the second book and find out what happens to Katniss and how the capitol will respond to her winning of the hunger games.
40. Sarah Szekely May 3, 2011 at 9:30 pm

    This book will probably be written a lot about but I think it is currently my favorite book (though because I read a lot this changes often). The Hunger Games by Susan Collins follows Katniss Everdeen, a teenage girl living in the nation of Panem, which lies in the ruins of North America. Every year the nation picks a boy and a girl from each of the 12 districts and forces them into a duel to the death. The story follows the physical and emotional trauma Katniss goes through as she battles her way through the “Hunger Games” in place of her little sister. I picked this book because the author left me hanging on her every word. She makes you immediately emotionally attached to the characters and rooting for them all the way, even the minor ones you don’t see often. It was creative and imaginative, in a way that immediately drew me in because I have never heard of a concept like this before. Every book left me wanting more and made me immediately want the next book in the series. I heard about this book because of all the hype it caused. It seems like everyone has read it and it was constantly talked about, so naturally I had to pick it up and I don’t regret it. It seems they are also adapting it to a movie. Let’s hope that goes well. A book I want to read, well books, is anything by John Green. I have yet to pick anything up from him but I heard his books and writing style, especially Paper Towns, is amazing so hopefully I’ll be able to take some to read a few more good books. Sadly that’s not always possible with the economy and everyone’s busy schedule. I wish everyone would take the time to escape the world into a good book.
41. Erick Dagenais May 3, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    A book I have read is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. It is about a teenager named Brian who is the passenger of a small private plane to visit his father in Canada, when suddenly the pilot of the plane has a heart attack and dies. Brian had no experience in flying a plane and manages to crash it into a small lake. Brian is alone in the wilderness and needs to survive until someone comes to rescue him. As materials he only has his clothes, a ripped windbreaker and a hatchet his mother had given to him as a present before he left. At first I picked this book because someone had recommended the author, Gary Paulsen, to me. They didn’t specify a book, so I decided to go to the library and get any book by him. When I arrived at the library and asked one of the librarians for a book by Gary Paulsen, the book given to me was Hatchet, with the librarian saying that it was one of his best works and one of her personal favorites. As I read the back cover, the idea of survival in the wilderness intrigued me, and I set off to read it. It was a quite interesting book, as it mixed the intensity of the wilderness and the situation Brian was in with flashbacks of Brian’s family memories and significant past events in his life. The book amazed me and to this day remains one of my all-time favorite books. It has persuaded me to read other books that Gary Paulsen has written. His other books have been also very well-written and are great reads. Paulsen later wrote sequels to Hatchet, which I haven’t had the chance to read yet. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone if they had the chance to read it.
42. Maddie Perfitt May 3, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    About a year ago, I started reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle after talking to someone about the idea of an ‘ego’. Recently I’ve decided to try and start it back up again. The concept that Eckhart is trying to get across is that everyone has an inner being that is what they were born with and that doesn’t change, but is masked by their ego which is built up with materialistic things, outer beliefs- essentially societal influence creates the ego. He guides you through everyday things and dissects them to show you just how truly silly it is. “That’s MY cereal!” Is it really though? Were you born with it? What makes it yours in any way possible? He gives you anecdotes that help you identify with what he’s saying so you don’t think he’s just and insane basement dweller that spends too much thinking time. I initially picked the book through recommendation, but stopped because of how condensed the book is. I’ve had to reread, look up words, stop to think about parts of the book often enough that it interrupts the flow of reading, but never have I read a book that makes me think as much as it does. The things he’s said make sense and have changed the way I look at objects and make decisions-I’m only on the 4th chapter. Eckhart has his own philosophy that is widely accepted called Eckhart teachings (naturally). Visit http://www.eckharttolletv.com/about/eckhart/ to read about EckhartNation. And plus, if Oprah recommends it, it MUST be good.
43. Ellen Searle May 3, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    I love to read, but one book in particular that I read recently really caught my interest. Over Spring Break I read The Blind Side by Micheal Lewis. It tells the story of Micheal Oher, a poor boy from Memphis, Tennesse who was taken in by a rich Memphis family, attended an all-white Christian school (even though he was black), and eventually became a professional football player. The book was made into a movie last year, but the book is so much better. I chose to read the book because I love football and I thought it might be a good read. I also had seen the movie, and wanted to see how it compared to the book. While there are always some parts in a movie that are exaggerated, I was surprised about some of things that were actually true. For instance, Micheal Oher really did test at 98% in protective instincts. Also, when he and SJ were in the car wreck, he actually did stop the airbag. Both of these things were things that I didn’t think could possibly be true. The other thing that I enjoyed about the book was that I learned some things about football as well. In addition to telling the story of Micheal Oher, The Blind Side also talked about the evolution of football as a game. It talked a lot about the evolution of the passing game and how the left tackle position became so important (left tackle was the position that Oher played in football). I really liked the part that talked about Bill Walsh and his West Coast offense. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves football or sports or just wants a good book to read.
44. Denny Walsh May 3, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    Well for this particular blog I don’t quite know where to start. The current book that I am reading right now (as in actively reading and not just having started and not having time to continue reading) is 1984 by George Orwell. I may as well start with the inevitable Ayn Rand references I’m sure you were expecting from me for this blog and say that so far this book has reminded me a lot of Anthem. It has a very similar anti-communist message with a slightly different interpretation of the horrors that communism will eventually lead to. there are three main reasons why I chose this book and those are that Rob Swor highly recommended it too me, it was in my house and I needed a book to read for English, and I have heard nothing but good about this book. I’m only about 100 pages into the book right now but although it started off slow it is becoming increasingly difficult to put down. The next book that I am current “reading” is what a shocker The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I’m only about halfway through it and I have found it to be an even slower read than Atlas Shrugged was. Regretfully, I have not had enough time to finish this book yet, but I do plan to finish it along with re-reading Atlas Shrugged over the summer (maybe me and Sherman can talk about it afterwards). Overall I haven’t found the fountainhead to be quite as captivating as Atlas Shrugged was at times. There are moments when it all comes together in The Fountainhead, as is Ayn Rand’s writing style, but it hasn’t really excited me the way that Atlas Shrugged did. The final book I have immediate plans for reading when I get a chance to is Ulysses by James Joyce. I want to read this because my dad started reading it and he said it was very interesting and a cool writing style. I wanted to read this book as more of a challenge because I’ve heard that it’s just about impossible to understand without constantly paying attention and going back every now and then.
45. Samuel Kepes May 3, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    Right now I am reading a book called Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. It is an extremely fascinating book about the company Lockheed Martin, from its humble begging’s, many struggles, leading to the massive industrial and political machine that it is today. Before starting this book I didn’t know much about the company, other than the planes they built since I enjoy learning about airplanes. My brother got it from the library so I picked it up and started reading it. So far the book has surpassed anything I thought it would be. It is so dramatic and intense, while being extremely informational and sincere at the same time. It has given me a great deal of insight on military spending and how much money we waste on things that shouldn’t even be made in the first place. Another thing I learned was about Senators who will lobby hard, or use the influence they have to get bills passed that will specifically help their area, even if it may not be in the benefit of the country.
    So far I am really enjoying this book. I think my favorite part is reading about all the different schemes, or scams some may call it, that the Air Force and Lockheed Martin were using to get money from congress. One I enjoyed reading about was the F-22 raptor fighter jet. Lockheed had invested so much money into the plane, that when congress threatened to cut spending, they put hundreds of lobbyists, and congress men to work, stopping the bill from passing. The sad past about it was the plane was going to end up costing millions more than accepted, and still had many technical difficulties, and computer glitches that made it unsafe. But Lockheed was making money from congress, and congressmen said that jobs were being created by going ahead with the plans to make the plane. It was a very interesting subject.

    http://newamerica.net/user/22
46. Alexandre Rochaix May 3, 2011 at 10:33 pm

    A book that i deem the most creative in the last 100 years (or so), this book is a classic that i read dozens of times just to remember how the character speaks. This follows the adventures of Captain Bluebear, who has 27 lives according to popular folklore. This book, though, only goes through his first 13 1/2 lives. I tended to check the map as i was reading just to make sure where i was and to get a better picture. Imagine a boat so long it takes three days for it to pass, with 1239 chimney stacks and milliions of passengers: the S.S. Muloch. That’s what impressed me the most. The maelstrom is the freakiest though, because its a continuous and never ending pit into a different dimension that is miles deep. The main character, the bluebear, also becomes a champion of Congladiator, a competition of white lies. I recommend this book for people who love crazy fiction, eloquent speaches, little pirates, babbling waves, and so much more. In the end the author’s unique writing style and transitions are what really keep you going through this suprisingly long 700 page book. But don’t be daunted, you will love every life he experiences!
47. Devan Moosherr May 3, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    To be honest i really do not have any time to read ever. I can’t think of the last book that I read for enjoyment was. The only things that I seem to read now are articles that I find interesting on ESPN or articles that I get in sports illustrated. I have always wished that I could read more but it has not ever worked out. When I was younger I could read all I wanted to but when I started moving on to middle school and high school things started to change. When I was younger I would read all of the Mike Lupica sports books, those were the greatest. I wish that there were still some books out there now on my reading level.
48. Alexandre Rochaix May 3, 2011 at 10:40 pm

    To add to make the 300 word minimum,the author uses very special phrasing, eloquently explaining specific detail to create the greatest and most delightful picture possible. He characteristically uses multiple synonyms to every description, so whether or not you are a brainiac, you will get the picture. I personally enjoyed the book not only for the fantasy but for the huge amount of occurences and things existent in the book. I also liked how excerpts of an encyclopedia the bluebear helped write explain the different oddities and creatures that exist in this crazy world. Although it will be hard to sell a 700 page book to an APUSH audience, give it a try if you can, because the vocab and grammar will definitely help your next paper, especially when you need to be creative.
49. Brittany Kashat May 3, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    I just had to get my hands on The Lost Hero as soon as it came out last fall. Written by Rick Riordan, it is the first book in the series The Heroes of Olympus, the sequel to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Just like the Percy Jackson series, this series is based on Greek mythology, but unlike the Percy Jackson series, it is also based on Roman mythology and how the 2 intertwine. In both series, Riordan explores many myths and morphs and modernizes them into his own. For example, the gateway to Olympus is through the Empire State Building. Ever since I learned about Greek mythology in 7th grade, it has always fascinated me: the stories, the gods, the myths, the mortals, the creatures, etc. I didn’t know about the Percy Jackson series until the first movie, The Lightning Thief, came out in theaters. Most people might not agree with the fact that I saw the movie before I read the book, but I find that if a movie is based on a book, I enjoy the movie more if I watch it before I read the book rather than after. I fell in love with it, so I had to read the book, and the other ones in that series. Once I finished the Percy Jackson series, I heard that there would be a sequel to it, and I knew I would love the sequel too. The first book in the sequel is called The Lost Hero, as I mentioned earlier. Three demigods, children of a god and a mortal, are taken to Camp Half-Blood where they meet other demigods. Of the three, Leo is revealed to be the son of Hephaestus, Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite, and Jason as a son of Zeus. We still see Annabeth, Percy, and Grover, but they are now secondary characters. However, Percy has gone missing! While Annabeth searches for him and Grover preaches about Pan, the three new demigods receive a quest to rescue Hera, queen of the gods. Along their journey, the three demigods meet Boreas, the North Wind; some Cyclopes; Medea; King Midas; a pack of werewolves and Lycaon; and the Lord of the Winds, Aeolus. Rick Riordan teaches about some myths in this book in a fun and entertaining way, while creating some of his own. This book allowed me to enter the world of mythology and escape the world of reality. I won’t spoil what happens in case anyone wants to read it, but it’s a great book for people who like fantasy and/or mythology.

    http://www.rickriordan.com/my-books/percy-jackson/heroes-of-olympus/the-lost-hero.aspx
50. Katia Lev May 3, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    Probably one of my all time favorite books which I recently re-read is Exit Here by Jason Myers. The book focuses on a young man, Travis, who is in a rut in his life. He failed out of college, only to return home to a demanding father who expects nothing less than the best, a burnout mother trying to keep a good public face for the family, and friends who, at age 23-30, are still immature drug addicts with dead-end jobs partying every night. The book then hints at murky secrets in Travis’ high school past which may be the reasons for many of his poor choices. I picked this book up in a bookstore, to be perfectly honest, because it was 99 cents and the cover (an empty diving board) caught my eye. After reading nothing but the back cover summary though, I was hooked and I ended up going home that night and not putting the book down until I was finished by at least 2 am. I would highly recommend this book, it is one of my favorites and I love the author’s style and language. It’s not very light and happy and fluffy though, and definitely goes through a series of dark and twisted events. I would still highly recommend this book, as long as you keep an open mind and don’t judge the characters’ decisions.

    HUGE DISCLAIMER: If extensive swearing, copious drug references, or occasional graphic sex/violence scenes disturb you, stay far, far, far away from this book.