Catcher in the Rye

Holden’s story begins on the Saturday following the end of classes at the Pencey prep school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. Pencey is Holden’s fourth school; he has already failed out of three others. At Pencey, he has failed four out of five of his classes and has received notice that he is being expelled, but he is not scheduled to return home to Manhattan until Wednesday. He visits his elderly history teacher, Spencer, to say goodbye, but when Spencer tries to reprimand him for his poor academic performance, Holden becomes annoyed.

Back in the dormitory, Holden is further irritated by his unhygienic neighbor, Ackley, and by his own roommate, Stradlater. Stradlater spends the evening on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whom Holden used to date and whom he still admires. During the course of the evening, Holden grows increasingly nervous about Stradlater’s taking Jane out, and when Stradlater returns, Holden questions him insistently about whether he tried to have sex with her. Stradlater teases Holden, who flies into a rage and attacks Stradlater. Stradlater pins Holden down and bloodies his nose. Holden decides that he’s had enough of Pencey and will go to Manhattan three days early, stay in a hotel, and not tell his parents that he is back.

While Holden is hiding out in Manhattan from his parents he meets up with his little sister and we see another side of Holden that has not yet been revealed. Holden is a frustrated youth who thinks that adults are phony. Holden plans to run away but when his sister begs him to take her with him Holden realizes that he can't just up and leave.

I thought this was a really interesting book and I thought that it would be a good read for a high school senior class.

The Book Thief

Death meets the book thief, a 9-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger, when he comes to take her little brother, and she becomes an enduring force in his life, despite his efforts to resist her. "I traveled the globe . . . handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity," Death writes. "I warned myself that I should keep a good distance from the burial of Liesel Meminger's brother. I did not heed my advice." As Death lingers at the burial, he watches the girl, who can't yet read, steal a gravedigger's instruction manual. Thus Liesel is touched first by Death, then by words, as if she knows she'll need their comfort during the hardships ahead.

And there are plenty to come. Liesel's father has already been carted off for being a communist and soon her mother disappears, too, leaving her in the care of foster parents: the accordion-playing, silver-eyed Hans Hubermann and his wife, Rosa, who has a face like "creased-up cardboard." Liesel's new family lives on the unfortunately named Himmel (Heaven) Street, in a small town on the outskirts of Munich populated by vivid characters: from the blond-haired boy who relates to Jesse Owens to the mayor's wife who hides from despair in her library. They are, for the most part, foul-spoken but good-hearted folks, some of whom have the strength to stand up to the Nazis in small but telling ways.

Stolen books form the spine of the story. Though Liesel's foster father realizes the subject matter isn't ideal, he uses "The Grave Digger's Handbook" to teach her to read. "If I die anytime soon, you make sure they bury me right," he tells her, and she solemnly agrees. Reading opens new worlds to her; soon she is looking for other material for distraction. She rescues a book from a pile being burned by the Nazis, then begins stealing more books from the mayor's wife. After a Jewish fist-fighter hides behind a copy of Mein Kampf as he makes his way to the relative safety of the Hubermanns' basement, he then literally whitewashes the pages to create his own book for Liesel, which sustains her through her darkest times. Other books come in handy as diversions during bombing raids or hedges against grief. And it is the book she is writing herself that, ultimately, will save Liesel's life.

Close Enough to Touch

Matt Moran has lost his true love Dory, when she died of aneurysm. The book focus' on how he deals with going to her funeral and continuing his life without her. Would he love again? Is it possible? These are some of the things that Matt has to come to terms with. When he then meets a senior named Magaret Chasen and is immediately drawn to her. Would he get past his hurt to love again? Though this book deals with death it shows the different emotion the character is feeling and you feel like you could know this person very believable. A touching read.

The Outsiders

I love this book.
I absolutely fall in love with every single one of the Greaser Boys. I think that the connection that the author makes with the audience is incredible.

When Ponyboy Curtis and his friend Johnny are jumped by a group of drunk Socs, kids who have money and nice cloths and cars, Ponyboy almost is drowned in the fountain at the park. Johnny acts in self defense and one of the Socs ends up dead. These two young boys are forced to run away so they can stay out of trouble. Ponyboy and Johnny are the little brother figures and the two boys that all the hardend boys try to protect.
Ponyboy lives with his older brothers Darry and Sodapop, after both his parents die. Ponyboy ends up having to put aside his differences that he has with Darry when Sodapop, the favorite of both Darry and Ponyboy, can't handle it anymore.

I love this book because it delves into relationships and friendships and the bonds that hold people together.

Love that Dog

I thought this was a really clever book that helped show how easy and how difficult poetry can be. I thought it did a great job of showing how you can work through things that are really bothering you without realizing that is what you are doing. I really liked the narrator and the fact that the story was told in a poem form, but yet you still got to know the personality of the narrator.

The Hunger Games

THIS WAS AMAZING!

The United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives. When rules change Katniss and Peeta partner up in order to survive and with everything out of sorts, Katniss begins to fall for Peeta, but how real are her feelings with all of Panem watching and so much of how they are portrayed determines how much they are helped by sponsers. In the end Katniss is left to figure out how to put her life back together and survive normal life.

Uglies

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

When Tally is about to turn 16 she meets Shay, they both are Uglies about to turn 16 and get a special operation which will make them Pretties. But when Shay decides she doesn't want to become a pretty but instead wants to run away with David, someone Tally doesn't even believes exists, Tally gets dragged into an investigation which has been going on for a while. When Tally is told that she can't become a Pretty until she helps the Special's find the group of people who have escaped to a place called the Smoke, she is forced into becoming a spy for these people she is afraid of. When Tally follows Shay's directions and finally gets to the Smoke, she learns that you don't have to have an operation to be pretty. Tally falls in love with David and so when she accidentley sets off the tracker that the Specials sent her with, everything goes crazy. Tally knows none of this would have happened if she hadn't come to the Smoke and feels responsible to fix everything.

First Part Last

I thought this was a really good book. I loved the connection you felt with Bobby. Bobby is a sensitive, caring 16 year old boy who is now a father. His daugher, Feather, is a new challenge that he had never anticipated. When Nia his girlfriend told him she was pregnant, Bobby felt that he needed to support her and we slowly find out through a serious of flashbacks what the story is with Nia. At first you think that she has just run off, but you begin to realize that this is not the case and that the situation that these two young teens are put in change their lives forever. I thought this was an incredible book and I would probably recommend it to young teens, so they can get a glimps at what having a baby at a young age would be like.

First Boy

Cooper Jewet is fourteen years old and has been raised by his grandparents after the death of his parents in a car accident. Living on a dairy farm Cooper has learned how to be independent and self sufficient so when he grandfather dies Cooper is left to take care of everything on his own. But when there are mysterious black sedans that show up in the small town Cooper begins to realize there is something suspicious going on. When a presidential candidate takes a special interest in him, Cooper has to learn that you can't always trust people who seem to be interested in you. Coopers elderly neighbors jump in to help Cooper anyway they can and it seems as if everything will be okay. With a twist at the end and some crazy driving, Cooper learns to stand up for himself and that he has people who love him, no matter what the truth is about his parentage.

The Thief

Stuck in the King's Prison for stealing, Gen has little to no chance of being able to escape. With the little chance that he does have it will take him a long time to accomplish his escape. When the King's Magus sends for him, and forces him to join them in the quest for the Hamiathes's Gift, which is said to identify the true ruler of the country. The Magus is determined to get this and give it to his King so that he can unite the country, but the King is not a good ruler, so his ownership of the Gift would be detrimental. Magus is certain that he can get Hamiathes's Gift by using Gen to retrieve it for him, because Gen is an accomplished thief.
I enjoyed this book and thought it was good reading. I would definitely recommend this book to the adventurer.