Books 157: Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Running With Scissors is the memoir of Augusten Burroughs, chronicling the insanity that is his life from the age of nine to seventeen. From a mother prone to frequent psychotic episodes involving throwing Christmas trees off of the back porch, to his fascination with shiny objects and doctors, Augusten's life is anything but ordinary. However, things take a turn for the extremely strange when Augusten beginning with his mother's rather unorthodox psychiatrist, Dr. Finch, and his equally odd extended family. At the Finch residence, where schizophrenic patients live in the upstairs bedrooms and it's perfectly acceptable to eat dog food and make a homemade skylight in the kitchen ceiling, Augusten learns that any shred of normalcy that had been left in his life was now completely gone, and he liked it that way.

I absolutely loved this book. It was completely hilarious and legitimately had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. There are so many things that sound too weird to be true until you remember that what you're reading is a true story, and then you mind is totally thrown for a loop. I swear, this guy had the most interesting life in the world, though I'm not exactly sure if I'd want to switch with him... Needless to say, I highly recommend it. 

Little did I know, there was apparently already a movie made of this book! I am so late on this bandwagon... I'll definitely have to check it out from the library as soon as possible. According to IMDb, it has Alec Baldwin, Gwenyth Paltrow, Evan Rachel Wood, and Joseph Fiennes, so definitely not too shabby of a cast.

Other books by Augusten Burroughs:

• Magical Thinking
• Possible Side Effects
• A Wolf At The Table

Happy reading!

Books 153: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

"I listen to the tick of an unseen clock marking moments of time long passed. It takes me and it holds me and it carries and keeps me like the slow swing of a pendulum before the eyes of an idiot. The World has stopped not like before and not in a good way. It has stopped and is not going forward the same way my life has stopped and is not going forward. It is not going forward or backward or anywhere at all it has just stopped. It has just stopped. This moment and this chance they are the same and they are mine if I choose them and I do. I want them. Now and as long as I can have them they are both precious and fleeting and gone in the blink of an eye don’t waste them. A moment and an opportunity and a life, all in the unseen tick of the clock holding me nowhere. My heart is beating. The walls are pale and quiet. I am surviving."

 

A Million Little Pieces is a memoir of addiction and recovery, authored by James Frey, who records the time he spends in a Minnesota Rehabilitation Clinic at age twenty three. He wakes up on an airplane weak, thin, and malnourished, wielding a powerful dependency on alcohol and crack as well as a broken nose, a hole in his cheek, missing his four front teeth, but with no recollection of how he got there. After years of wrecking his body beyond repair, the doctors give James an ultimatum: either get clean, or die. The book is  raw and real, a detailed account of his struggles, from the painful detoxification process, the constant desire to do the one thing that will kill him, and a forbidden relationship with a fellow patient at the clinic. 

 

I should warn you that this book is pretty intense, with a lot of gruesome descriptions and crude language, but considering it's about a recovering addict you probably have guessed that already. Not exactly a lighthearted summer read. Nevertheless, it was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and would most definitely recommend.

Books 149: The Jessica Darling Series by Megan McCafferty

Megan McCafferty's young adult series is about the life of one Jessica Darling, beginning with the summer before her junior year of high school at the age of 16 and up until the final book ends as she turns 26. The series touches on all of the major milestones that young adults face, from prom, first sexual experiences, choosing a college, and eventually a career.

The books are written as Jessica's journals, where she details all of the dramatic, exciting, depressing, and humiliating events of her life. She's intelligent and writes with witty sarcasm and dry humor that I can't get enough of. You might be inwardly groaning and thinking "oh man, not another stupid girly teenage fiction series..." but I promise you, this series is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Obviously I must really enjoy them or else I wouldn't bother to share them here. :)

So far I've only read Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, but I'm so incredibly excited to get my hands on the next three books. They've been around for quite a while, taking place during the early 2000s, so I'm not sure why the heck it's taken me so long to read them. If you're looking for a fun read this summer, definitely consider these.

Books 147: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

At this point I think it's safe to say I've gotten into a pattern of bringing up books that have been or are soon being turned into movies. Let's just face the facts here. But it's not my fault that movie producers apparently haven't thought of very many original ideas lately, is it? Haha.

Which brings me to The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. We learn about a freshman boy named Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. While Charlie would not be considered the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular either. He's what you would call a wallflower; he is shy and introspective and intelligent beyond his years, despite not being very savvy in the art of socializing. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school. Making friends, first crushes, family tensions, deaths of loved ones, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs, as well as dealing with his best friend's recent suicide.

"And all the books you've read have been read by other people. And all the songs you've loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that's pretty to you is pretty to other people. And you know that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing 'unity'. It's like when you are excited about a girl and you see a couple holding hands, and you feel so happy for them. And other times you see the same couple, and they make you so mad. And all you want is to always feel happy for them because you know that if you do, then it means you're happy, too."

I read this book for the first time in my freshman year of high school and I wasn't incredibly blown away, but I decided that, in preparation for the movie that I think is coming out in 2012, I should try rereading it one more time to refresh my memory. I've heard so many people express their love for this book over the years, and I was thinking that perhaps my opinion of it would change this time around. For some reason I can't seem to be able to make myself feel the exact same way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about Chbosky's style just doesn't agree with me for some reason. Not to say I didn't enjoy this book, cause I did! Just not as much as I wish I would have. But don't take my word for it, because you might end up absolutely adoring this book to pieces. Read it and see for yourself. :)

I'll definitely be seeing the movie, too, to compare them and all. It's starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, which is certainly sounding like a promisingly good cast. Since the book is set near the Pittsburgh area, which is in fact where I live, it's been kind of exciting to hear about places that they're filming at. I'm determined to somehow get Emma Watson's autograph. Somehow....

Books 146: Water For Elephants

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen 

 "Water for Elephants is the touching story of Jacob Jankowski, a ninety-three-year-old man, who is reminded of his colorful past when a circus sets up next door to his assisted-living center. When Jacob overhears a man at the assisted-living center claim to have been a water boy for the elephants on a circus, Jacob knows the man is lying because Jacob himself once worked as a vet on a traveling circus. The lie causes Jacob to spend much of his time remembering his colorful past, wishing he could move back in time and return to those days of camaraderie and excitement. It is a story of coming of age, of facing the realities of death, and living despite it all. Water for Elephants is an adventure for readers of all ages." (Summary via BookRags)

Yes, I've brought you yet another book-turned-movie. But this time, I've actually both read the book and seen the movie! This book has always been one of my favorites. It's not just some typical romance novel, either. It's an intriguing adventure that you're reminiscing back on along with Jacob. But when my friends and I went to see the movie, starring Starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson,  I have to admit that I was a little worried that they were going to end up messing up the book entirely. Luckily, I am very delighted to say that they didn't at all! In fact, I really enjoyed this movie, and it even made me tear up in a couple of places. And, going to be honest here, Robert Pattinson was looking pretty attractive here. I definitely prefer him as Jacob than as Edward Cullen. There were a few differences between the book and the movie, but nothing too major that interfered with anything too much, so I was pleased. 

Anyways, I would most definitely recommend this book, and the movie as well! Enjoy.

Books 141: The Hunger Games

I have been hearing so much about The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins lately, but in spite of that I unfortunately have not gotten the chance to read any of the books yet. I feel like I'm the last person on the internet that still has yet to do so... haha. And to make matters worse, apparently they're already making a movie out of it! No, wait, hold on a minute -- they can't make the movie before I even read the books yet! I have virtually no free time these days, but with spring break coming up perhaps I'll finally get a chance. Here's a summary of what I have in store for me:

"It's in the future, when the United States, now Panem, is divided up into 13 districts, and each district is has one thing they export. At the center of the society is the Capitol, where the President lives in luxury while the rest live progressively worse. The protagonist, Katniss, lives in the worst district, District 13, where almost everyone is poor. This society is extremely strict, but not all people follow the rules. Every year, all of Panem takes part in the Hunger Games, during which one boy and one girl from each district go to an unknown location, and fight to the death, and the winner gets money, food, anything they need to survive, and live in luxury for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, Katniss's younger sister is chosen. In order to save her life, Katniss takes her place in the contest, and the game begins."

Courtesy of this kind soul here. Thank goodness for Yahoo Answers! What a lifesaver.

There are three books in the series: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay.

If you've read these, what did you think?

Books 140: Fight Club

The first rule about Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club.
The second rule about Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club.
The third rule about Fight Club is two men per fight.
The fourth rule about Fight Club is one fight at a time.
The fifth rule of Fight Club is no shoes, no shirts in the fight.
The sixth rule about Fight Club is the fights go on as long as they have to.

Many people seem to be surprised to learn that the rather popular movie Fight Club starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter was actually based off of the book by Chuck Palahniuk.

As I am running out of time to write this, here's a quick summary by David Loftus:

"The narrator, an insurance investigator prone to depression and insomnia, finds temporary joy and distraction by attending various support groups. But he keeps running into another support group fraud named Marla, which spoils his fun. Meanwhile, he also meets a free-lance projectionist named Tyler Durden, who splices frames from porn movies into mainstream features and suggests they undermine capitalist society with dangerous pranks and the Fight Club -- a group devoted to bare knuckles, all-out battles between similarly confused and frustrated young males. Someone bombs the narrator's apartment, and he has to move into an abandoned house with Tyler. Eventually clandestine fight clubs spring up all over the country, and our hero finds himself uncomfortably stuck within a passionate triangle between Tyler and Marla. Something's gotta give, but what? Palahniuk's strange, offbeat 1996 debut novel came to a deservedly wider audience when it was made into a movie starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter."

This is one of those cases where I find it really hard to say whether I liked the book or the movie. better. The two are very alike in some aspects, but also differ quite a bit in others, especially the ending. Well, at least the way I interpreted the ending... I'd say it's one of those times where you really just have to see for yourself, honestly.

If anyone else has both read the book and seen the movie, what are your thoughts on this? Did you like one better than the other?

Happy weekend!

Books 136: The Lover's Dictionary

Author of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist David Levithan's newest novel caught my eye while browsing Barnes & Noble the other day. I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, and still haven't had a chance to start reading it yet, but the inner book jacket description certainly sounds promising.

"basis, n.

There has to be a moment at the beginning when you wonder whether you're in love with the person or in love with the feeling of love itself.

If the moment doesn't pass, that's it--you're done.

And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it's even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover's face.

How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our every day lives and and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique perspective on the universe, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time."

I personally am rather intrigued by this, and can't wait to start reading. Perhaps you'll feel the same!

Books 132: Slaughterhouse-Five

We just finished reading Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut in English class, and I am definitely adding it to the list of required reading books that I actually loved (along with To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye, for example). This was my very first experience reading Vonnegut, and I'm wondering why the heck it to me so long.

It's one of those books that's really hard to summarize, because it's kind of just something that you have to read for yourself, you know? But here's a quick one just so you kind of get some sort of idea of the nature of the novel.

"Slaughterhouse Five follows the story of Billy Pilgrim, optometrist and time traveler. The novel jumps through time with Billy as he lives the events of his life over and over again. In this dynamic framework, the reader sees the terrors of war, the quiet desperation of suburban life and the breakdown of the psyche through Billy's time jumping eyes. Just before he is captured as a prisoner of war, Billy experiences his first time jump. Here he sees his whole life, past, present and future, unfold. After the war, Billy returns from Europe to resume his civilian life, but does not cease moving randomly through time, witnessing his birth, his death and events in between. He is eventually abducted by aliens who experience time in much the same way as Billy except that they prefer to look only at life's more pleasant moments. Despite his family's objections, Billy tells the world of his time traveling and of his abduction, highlighting the story with a detailed account of his death." -- Lauren McLaren

I really loved this book, though. I definitely highly recommend it.

Other Vonnegut works...
Bluebeard
Breakfast of Champions
Cat's Cradle
Deadeye Dick
Galapagos
God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
Jailbird
Mother Night
Palm Sunday
Player Piano
Sirens of Titan
Slapstick
Wampeters, Foma, & Granfalloons
Welcome to the Monkey House

Books 129: Confessions of Georgia Nicholson Series

While the movie Angus, Thongs, & Perfect Snogging starring heartthrob Aaron Johnson may be quite popular, some might be slightly surprised to learn that it's actually the film adaptation of the first two books in the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series by Louise Rennison (Angus, Thongs, & Full-Frontal Snogging and On the Bright Side I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God).

The reason I decided to start reading this series was because I was completely sick and tired of all my free time being sucked up by reading my incredibly dull U.S. history textbook, and needed something completely opposite. What could be more opposite than a series written pretty much exclusively for teenage girls? So I figured, what the heck, I'll try this series out.

The books are written in the format of the diary of the main character Georgia, which also makes it a relatively quick and easy read. Georgia goes through the same worries as many girls: her looks, her friends, bullies, boys, parents, school, and her alarmingly growing bazoomas. (She's also fabulously British, and all of the slang she uses is pretty amusing.) There's also her mad cat Angus, who frequently terrorizes the neighbor's small dog, and her baby sister Libby, who makes a mess of everything she touches.

I mean, the books obviously not meant to be something incredibly deep, intellectual, or insightful, but boy are they entertaining! The series is humorous, witty, and clever. But most importantly, it's just... well... fun! If you're craving a simple yet delightful read, this series might be for just what you're looking for.

Books 124: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

"Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.He is a fifteen-year-old boy with autism, and also a savant genius who knows the capital city of every country in the world, every prime number up to 7,057, and much more. One day he discovers the dead body of Wellington, the neighbour's dog, who has been stabbed by a garden fork.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind."


(I didn't have time to write my own summary, so credit goes to Book Browse for doing a very good job of it!)

Anyways, I got this book from the library and finished reading it in the same evening -- I just couldn't put it down! It was one of those books that left me with a strange sort of feeling that I can't really put into words. One of those books that manages to somehow makes you want to laugh, want to cry, and just want to sit back and reflect on life, all at the same time. I would definitely recommend it.

Books 122: Harry Potter

As many of you are probably aware, today being November 19th is the day that the first of the two-part movie Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows comes out in theaters. Harry Potter fans across the world (including myself) crowded theaters for midnight showings, dressed up in extravagant costumes to showcase their pride, all to watch the final book in J.K. Rowling's epic series come to life on the big screen. "But what's the big deal about Harry Potter anyway?" someone that hasn't read a Harry Potter book before might be asking. Well, as a self-proclaimed Harry Potter fanatic, I'm here to give you my two cents.

I'm sure that everyone is at least familiar with the general concept of the books, as Wikipedia so eloquently describes them: "The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's quandary involving the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical people (Muggles)."

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published on June 30th, 1997. Six more books, eight movies, and millions upon millions of Harry Potter lovers followed. Not to mention an entire franchise worth billions of dollars. According to Tumblr: "The U.S. print run of book one, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, was 50,000 copies. The U.S. print run of the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was 12 million copies. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 8.3 million copies in the U.S. in the first 24 hours. That's 96 copies per second. If you lined up those 8.3 million copies, you'd end up with a bookshelf longer than the Grand Canyon. Harry Potter movies have made roughly $5.4 billion worldwide, more than any other franchise. That averages out to $900 million per film. It's as if every person in the world has spent 80 cents on the franchise."

But there's so much more to Harry Potter than all of that. J.K. Rowling had created an entire magical world that you longed to be a part of. Even though you knew it was just a book, you couldn't help but wonder if your Hogwarts acceptance letter had just gotten lost in the mail or something. You're almost to the point that you would almost give anything to be on that train eating chocolate frogs after changing into your school robes.

For many, growing up along with Harry throughout his many adventures was such a huge part of their childhood. I can remember doing a book report on the Chamber of Secrets in second grade, all the way up to the point of being thirteen and standing in the huge line at Barnes & Noble for hours before midnight waiting to buy my copy of the last book, and then reading it until my parents forced me to go to bed at five in the morning. That anticipation of waiting and waiting for that next sequel to come out was always torturously exciting.

After seven books, you can't help but fall in love with the characters, becoming incredibly emotionally attached to every single one of them. J.K. Rowling has made us laugh and cry and wonder and dream and think and imagine, and I can't thank her enough for that.

Books 121: The Hobbit

If you haven't at least heard of the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien, where have you been? If you haven't noticed, the successful books have been made into a three award-winning films directed by Peter Jackson, and the fan base behind the popular franchise is just as huge as they come.

But before the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Tolkien wrote an equally successful children's book called The Hobbit. The book follows the journey of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who is recruited by the wizard Gandalf to join a group of dwarves on the quest to retrieve their lost treasure from the clutches of a dragon named Smaug. Their journey is filled with narrow escapes from trolls, goblins, evil wolves, enormous spiders, and other strange creatures, as well as visits with elves, giant eagles, and a man that can change into a bear. It all sounds like a pretty awesome adventure, right? And if you're at all familiar with the series, you might recognize some of the names of the characters too, a few of which show up later in the LOTR books.

When I was little, my dad would read me chapters from The Hobbit every night before I went to bed, so I pretty much grew up with loving the story. And now it turns out that this book is going to be made into a movie too, also directed by Peter Jackson, which is supposedly scheduled to begin filming this February and be released in December 2012. That's definitely exciting news for Tolkien fans.

Books 113: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I'm currently in the middle of reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, which fellow blogger Mayte highly recommended. And although I'm not yet finished with the book, I already completely agree. Thank goodness I managed to grab the last copy at Barnes & Noble, because I was hooked after the first paragraph.

It's pretty fitting that I started reading this on Saturday, the anniversary of September 11th, because the story centers around an extraordinary nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell whose father died during the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. A year after his father's death, Oskar finds a mysterious key in an envelope with the word "Black" written on it in his father's closet. Oskar supposes that this could be a clue to a riddle that his father left him, and makes it his mission to discover the lock that the key will open. And so his search begins. Oskar is determined to visit every person in New York City with the last name Black and find out if they know anything. This is as far as I've read up to at this point, and I can't wait to continue reading.

“We laughed and laughed, together and separately, out loud and silently, we were determined to ignore whatever needed to be ignored, to build a new world from nothing if nothing in our world could be salvaged, it was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn’t think about my life at all.”

Books 112 : White Cat

We've all grown up with Holly Black 's Spiderwick Chronicles. And she's made many of us happy with her fairy tales like Valiant : a modern tale of Faerie. She's back with a new series. The Curse Workers Series.

Curse workers -- they can change luck, emotions, dreams and even more just by touching your skin. And since curse work is illegal, they work as con artists or part of mob families.

In Book 1, White Cat, we are introduced to Cassel Sharpe. He's pretty average. Maybe. Except, his mother is in jail and he's been kicked out of boarding school, and he lives in a house full of con artists. If that's not enough, there is this misery he can't quite overcome. He knows he's done something wrong in his past. He knows he killed his best friend Lila. Its just he can't quite remember it or even know why it happened. And then there is that problem of sleepwalking on roofs. Oh, and that mysterious white cat around the house.

Strange things start to happen when he comes back home and has to live with his grandfather and brothers. Little by little, Cassel begins to realize that the cat is Lila -- someone with the rarest kind of power has transformed her into a cat, and to change her back he'll have to find out who it is. But as he tries to figure out who transformed Lila and why, he discovers the secrets that have been painstakingly removed from his own head -- and the elaborate, deadly scheme that he's being forced into.

And I haven't gotten to the part of all the strange things the curse workers can do when they touch you. Lets say it makes me squeamish to think about.

Black's prose is beautifully put to the test, exposing the dark side of the urban world from which Cassel comes from. She can surely draw you in to her stories, and she makes her characters so memorable. And if you listen to this book on audio, you are in for a treat. Its read by Jesse Eisenberg.



More at her site, Holly Black.
The Curse workers.

Books 109: Nineteen Minutes

Written by bestselling author Jodi Picoult, who also wrote the movie-turned-book My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes takes place in the town of Sterling, New Hampshire. Ever since his Superman lunchbox was thrown off the school bus on his first day of kindergarten, now-seventeen-year-old Peter Houghton has suffered years of bullying at the hands of classmates. Josie Cormier, the closest person that Peter had to a best friend, now hangs out with the popular crowd that are often the ones harassing Peter.

A final series of unbelievably embarrassing events of bullying ends up sending Peter over the edge. Peter enters Sterling High School one morning, and in nineteen minutes commits an act of violence that forever changes the lives of everyone in Sterling.

"In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn; color your hair; watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five. In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world; or you can just jump off it."

Even those who were not inside the school that morning find their lives torn apart by what happened. There are Peter's parents, Lacy and Lewis Houghton, who are distraught by what their son has done; Peter's defense attorney, Jordan McAfee, whose position has turned the town against him; Patrick DuCharme, the investigative detective who was one of the first at the scene of the crime; Alex Cormier, the superior court judge assigned to the Houghton case and mother of Josie; Josie herself, who was a key witness to the events that unfolded that day, but cannot seem to remember anything.

This highly emotional novel is sure to keep you captivated, understanding the stories behind the different characters, unraveling the chain of events that led up to Peter's attack, and waiting along with the rest of the town for the outcome of the Houghton case.

I read this book for the third time for over-the-summer reading, and I'd read it again in a heartbeat. I definitely recommend it!

Books 108: The Old Man and the Sea

Every so often one comes across a novel that has such a wide variety of allusions, imagery, themes, and symbols that it can be incorporated in practically every essay. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is such an example. One benefits academically for having read this novel. (It's also a great novel to use for the SAT essay portion). Thus, I recommend this novel to all high school students.

In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, an aged Cuban fisherman, goes head-to-head with an enormous marlin. Santiago's adventure at sea is both a physical and moral challenge. Physically, Santiago is in no condition to try to catch a marlin. He is hungry, dehydrated, and alone in the ocean with predators near by. Morally, Santiago has become attached to the marlin. He calls it his "brother." However, Santiago realizes that if he does catch the marlin, he will return to his village a wealthy and respected man. This novel led to Hemingway's receipt of the Nobel Prize in 1954.

There are many allusions to Jesus, so keep an eye out for those. Moreover, the themes range from those about nature and age to time and perseverance. There is so much in this 96 paged novel!

Hope y'all check it out!

Books 107: Happyface

Stephen Emond is back. The wonderful writer who brought you Emo Boy, takes you away this summer with the most engaging story. It doesn't hurt that the book is an illustrated diary that ranges from comics to more fleshed-out drawings. The story is whimsical, thoughtful, slyly sarcastic, and pain-stakeningly beautiful.

Naturally, the story is about a boy. Actually, a very shy, artistic sophomore who is awkwardly coping with life from the sidelines. When tragedy strikes and tears his family apart, he finds himself living in a ratty apartment with is newly sober Mom and attending a new high school. Pasting that big smile of his that everything is OK and being the class clown can only take him so far. It works, sort of. Surrounded by popular friends who don't know his real story. There is also the baffling beautiful Gretchen who keeps giving him mixed signals. And then, all those feeling he's bottled up come like an avalanche, and Happyface is left a chance to come clean. Emond does this all in his special way. His writing is funny, intimate, quirky, wrenching and of course really makes the reader feel exactly whats happening.

Stephen Emond is the creator of Emo Boy, which ran for 12 issues and two collections, and the comic strip, Steverino. He grew up in Connecticut, where he wrote and directed a public access sketch comedy show that only his grandmother watched, or so he claims.

"Anyway, I'm a creator, I guess you can say. I focused solely on drawing in my youth, wanting to be a comic book artist. Not so much the kind I became, I was more interested in superheroes. Starting with Spiderman, which led to the New Warriors, which led me to following Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, the guys that wound up at Image. I was a huge Image fan until a girlfriend turned me on to indie comics, which read more like the things that went on in my head." Emond says about his writing.
"I went with a darker character-piece called HAPPYFACE. The idea was that a kid suffers a terrible tragedy, puts on a happy face and swallows all the pain. With time the cracks would show and ultimately he'd explode. What exists now as HAPPYFACE has the same general concept, but is not nearly as dark and moody as I'd intended. I pictured seething rage and contempt in every page, but the biggest change came when I decided to use art in the piece." Emond explains about his new novel, HAPPYFACE.

Check your library in the new book section at the YA part of your library. You'll be glad you did.

Stephen Emond.com

Books 106: White Oleander & The Book Thief

So I'm back from Australia, but I never could have survived those days of 12 hour plane rides without the aid of the two books that I brought with me on my journey. I had read them both in the past, but they're the kind of books that I find I can read again and again because they're just that good.

On the way there, it was White Oleander by Janet Fitch.

Twelve-year-old Astrid Magnusson lives a rather solitary in LA with her famous poet of a mother, Ingrid. Her mother begins dating a man named Barry Kolker, but he ends up breaking her heart. Barry Kolker should have known that Ingrid Magnusson is not a woman to be trifled with. Ingrid ends up breaking into Barry's house and spreading a poisonous mixture of oleander all over the surfaces of Barry's home, which kills him. She is eventually charged with his murder and sentenced to life in prison, but promises Astrid that she will come back. From here on, the book follows Astrid over the years on her journey through numerous foster homes, and her journey of finding herself.

There's a movie made of the book as well, if you're interested.

On the return journey, I turned the pages of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Narrated by Death itself, this book tells the tale of little Liesel Meminger, a girl living in Germany in the midst of World War II. Liesel's chronically ill mother decides to take Liesel and her brother to live with foster parents, but her brother does not survive the journey. While at the graveyard for her brother's funeral, Liesel steals her first book: The Gravedigger's Handbook, which the apprentice gravedigger dropped in the snow. Liesel arrives to Himmel Street at the home of her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, and she soon grows to love them. She develops a very close bond with her Hans, who plays the accordion and teaches her how to read The Gravedigger's Handbook, and she even makes a best friend named Rudy Steiner. However, after the Hubermann's take in and hide a Jewish man named Max Vanderburg who Liesel befriends, the Nazi presence and the rise of World War II soon throw all of their lives into turmoil.

If you're not already in over your head with all the summer reading you have to do, I highly suggest either one of these books to you.

Books 104: Tracy Chevalier

I admire great female authors because, well, they're women. One of my favorite female authors is Tracy Chevalier. I love all of her novels, and I've read all of them. I take great pride in that. :] Her most popular work is The Girl with the Pearl Earring, which was made into a film starring Scarlett Johansson as the main character. However, my favorite novel is Falling Angels, and it was the first book by Tracy Chevalier that I read. I was instantly hooked! It was unlike any novel that I've ever read. GoodReads gives a great summary of Falling Angels:


A fashionable London cemetery, January 1901: Two graves stand side by side, one decorated with an oversize classical urn, the other with a sentimental marble angel. Two families, visiting their respective graves on the day after Queen Victoria's death, teeter on the brink of a new era. The Colemans and the Waterhouses are divided by social class as well as taste. They would certainly not have become acquainted had not their two girls, meeting behind the tombstones, become best friends. And, even more unsuitably, become involved with the gravedigger's muddy son.

As the girls grow up, as the new king changes social customs, as a new, forward-thinking era takes wing, the lives and fortunes of the two families become more and more closely intertwined-neighbors in life as well as death.

Against a gas-lit backdrop of social and political history, Tracy Chevalier explores the prejudices and flaws of a changing time.

Sounds interesting? Indeed, it does! Chevalier's novels have one thing in common: historical fiction. Because of her, I love historical fiction. Her novels are entertaining and educational at the same time. It's what my peers would call a "win."

More information on Tracy Chevalier & a list of all her novels: [link]