Use the following format to complete this journal:
Q4 Outside Reading: (Title)
Author:
Review: (4-5 sentences; give genre, best and/or worst qualities, and your rating 1-5 w/five as MUST read no matter what)
Summer Recs: (list three books and authors that you'd suggest for summer reading; provide a sentence or two to sell the book)
Free Rice! Cool Words!
22 comments:
90 Minutes In Heaven
by Don Piper
I would classify this book as a memoir. The best quality is that it is about a man who had no pulse for 90 minutes and believed he had gone to Heaven and back. It's such an interesting and unique story, one you can't find in many other places. The cool thing is, to enjoy the book and understand its messages, you didn't even have to believe it. The worst quality was that I had trouble connecting to it because it was mostly geared toward a Christian audience. Rating: 3
oh I forgot to give recommendations.
Twilight By Stephenie Meyer. The first book in a fantastic series. The relationships are so real and even though some of the characters are mythical, you can relate to them easily. This is the kind of book you never want to put down, even when its over.
19 Minutes By Jodi Picoult. I'm not someone who loves Jodi Picoult and reads all of her books, but I loved this one. It is something high schoolers would find really interesting and again, there is amazing character development.
Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card. I'm sure most of you have heard of this but if you haven't read it yet, you really should. It's a really cool story and incredibly well-written. I've never read anything like this.
A Spot of Bother
by Mark Haddon
This is a realistically fictional novel about a retired man going insane. One of the best things about this book is that it has many, many different conflicts. For instance, the daughter has a child but no husband and is marrying another man but calls the wedding off and then back on again, the son is homosexual but no one in the family wants to believe it, the mother is having an affair, and the father is going insane and cuts part of his own leg off with scissors. One of my few complaints is that the ending is too happy-happy-joy-joy. It ends too cliched and unrealistic given all the problems still present about 10 pages back. My overall rating: 3.5
SUMMER RECS:
1. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I read this for Q3 outside reading, and absolutely loved how different yet real it was. It's a memoir about Jeannette growing up in a migrant family, and it's one of those books that reads itself. I did it in 4 days.
2. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. No, I don't have some weird obcession with harming oneself with scissors (yes, it came up twice in this post). This book is disturbing, mostly because it describes the actual childhood of the author. Fun fact: it takes place in Massachusetts.
3. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I actually read this back in 7th grade and was in love with the novel. The reason I included it here, however, is because I'm planning on reading it again this summer in preparation for the movie that's coming out. I'm also curious to see why I loved it so much. Obviously, things change, so I'm looking forward to reading it again. Anyone want in?
Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
The genre of this book is fantasy. The best part in the book is that this story revolves around a poem by John Donne, Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star. The two main characters in the novel have very contrasting personalities and in the end they helped each other to overcome their obstacles. Despite it's set in a surreal world, many of the characters' problems can be related to real life. Rating: 3.9
Recommendations:
1) Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. It's written by the author of The Da Vinci Code. The plot is fast-paced, and details scattered in the book are brilliantly connected in the end.
2) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. It's a touching, mirror/ window book because it allows you to look into an average person's life and see the impacts small things can make and, at the same time, allows room to self-reflect.
3) The Land by Mildred D. Taylor. It's the prequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The book is a memoir of a mixed child growing in the 188os, in Mississippi. It's a very powerful book that allows readers to feel the emotions and drama within one man's life.
Nectar in a Sieve
by Kamala Markandaya
I think this is a great fiction novel to read during stressful times (such as this past month before finals) because it is not only easy to read (the writing not too wordy, dense, or complicated) but also enlightening about the strife of others much worse off than we are. The story is a narrative told by Rukmani, an Indian girl who we follow through her life first as a frightened young bride married to a stranger in a foreign land to a full grown woman undergoing disaster and famine. This book itself is very moving and exquisitely written; it brought me so close to Rukmani's world that I could almost taste the bitter poverty of the Indian tenant farmer. One negative quality is that I felt like the story never acquired much depth. Mainly the story is about a woman's hardship in a different culture but I feel like I never really got close enough to Rukmani's soul. Anyway, I would give it a 3.
Here are my recommendations for summer reading!!!! :)
1) The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Want to read something infinitesimally better than "Twilight?" This chilling novel by reknowned author Anne Rice is really the best- in my opinion- predecessor to the common vampire novel and you should really see what the "best" is all about.
2) The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
Another wonderful book written by my favorite author. It's about an extremely old southern family with a dark secret to hide. This book is so frightening and addictive (as well as frighteningly addictive), I don't recommend it to paranoid people with little self-control. (which is like our whole class)
3) REREAD ALL THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS!!!! At least, this is what I'm going to do. Now that a year has come and gone since I've last read "Harry, Ron, and Hermione" in the same sentence I'm really getting sick of real life. The first thing I'm doing once school ends is read book 1 to 7; I strongly suggest you do the same or risk serious psychological damage.
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis
Well I would only reccomend this book to people who have a lot of time on their hands, because this was probably one of the most difficult books I've ever read...but aside from that, it was still extremely interesting. I don't exactly know what genre this book is, but basically it just just a series of letters written from an experienced devil adivising his nephew (devil in training) how to ruin some man's life/ "convert" him.
Best quality: It was just overall really interesting to see how some people's minds can actually think in a really "devilish" way.
Worst: EXTREMELY DENSE. read with caution. During the whole book I was literally like "wait I need to re-read that..."
Overall rating: 4
Summer Recs:
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd: I read this book probably in 8th grade but I found it really touching and super inspiring. Long story short: girl at honey bee farm with an abusive father.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon: I'm sure everyone has read this book by now...but for the people that haven't...read it! It's about an autistic boy who tries to deal with his mom and dad getting a divorce..and the whole "traumatic" story actually begins with a dog...it's pretty exciting.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi: I read this book in maybe 7th grade, but I remeber it being really interesting...maybe it's a bit amateaur for 10th grade, but whatevs. It's about this girl Charlotte, who takes this really long voyage on a boat and murder happens and someone is wrongly? accused..I can't really remember the ending (since this was almost 4yrs ago), but I do remember liking it.
I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.
This book is in the genre of realistic fiction. It's about a girl, Melinda, who has called the police at a party and now everyone in high school hates her. No one, though, knows her actual reason for doing this. What i loved about this book is that the author wrote Melinda in a way that one can easily connnect to her. She's funny, poignant, and as a reader I wanted her to be able to have the courage to tell her ex-friends what happened. My low point for this book is not the book's fault at all, but I read a book similar to this one, entitled Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, very close to this one. So some of the ways that the Melinda dealt with her problems were already very simlar to me. Overall, though I give this book a 4.3, not a must-read, but I promise once you start you will not want to put it down.
my three recommendations
are:
1)Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier- this is the classic romantic mystery about a young girl who marries a widow and gets to live in the great Manderly, with a creepy housekeeper who still is obsessed with the late Rebecca. This book is quite chilling and has tons of great description. It's a little hard to start but totally worth it!
2) My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult- I say of you are going to read any Jodi Picoult book this is the one, it is amazingly written and very captivating. For those of you who haven't read it, it's about a girl who is bornnly to give her sister bone marrow and how she wants to become medically emancipated at the age of 13. this has an amazing twist!! this is definetely the best JP book, another great one is 19 Minutes!
and 3) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak- this book is set in the time of the Holocaust, and is narrated by Death. The main character's (Liesel a young girl) hides a Jewish man. It is so interesting and it has a totally different perspective of the Holocaust, everyone should read this book!!!!
Goblin Market and Other Poems
Christina Rossetti
Rossetti's work is a collection/volume of poetry. The best aspect of this book was essentially the poem, Goblin Market. What I found intriguing about this poem was that it was set up like a verse fairy tale, which is quite unlike today's poetry that is written in a more "symbolic" way. Also, Goblin Market had outstanding imagery, so that I could perfectly picture each scene in my mind. The worst (or rather, the "low") aspect of the book was that some of the poems were a little predictable (i.e., a poem about the beauty of spring), but I would still rate this book a 4.5 out of 5 because it was overall superb.
Summer Reading Recommendations:
1. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (or ANY Amy Tan book, actually) - Centers on four Chinese American immigrant mothers who start a club (the "Joy Luck Club") that involves playing Mahjong for cash. The book provides a glimpse into the lives of each of these mothers and how each strive to raise their children and families in an unfamiliar country while staying true to their Chinese values.
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte -Tells the tale of the vindictive, orphaned Heathcliff and the love that he grows to have for his foster sister, Catherine Earnshaw, in 19th century England (okay, it sounds sappy and cliched, but I promise it is AMAZING).
3. The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough - Set mainly in the Australian Outback, this novel chronicles the life of the Clearys - a poor Irish family - from 1915-1969, and especially focuses on the romantic relationship that develops between the youngest Cleary daughter and a Catholic priest.
Change of Heart
by Jodi Piccoult
This novel is about Isiah Matthew Bourne (I.M Bourne ... clever?), aka Shay, who was caught with a gun and the dead bodies of June Nealon's husband and daughter. Shay was brought under trial, and under the last vote of jurrymember Michael, condemned to death row. 11 years later, Shay has not yet been executed. However, June's daughter's heart is failing and is searching for a transplant. Miraculously, Shay's heart is a perfect match, and his dying wish is to give her his heart. Never has an organ donation been surrounded with so much controversy or so much religious tension.
The story of Change of Heart seemed really interesting to me. I wanted to know what happened, even though I could guess the ending early on. Religion - the novel's core theme - was not very subtle, and its regular appearance started to irritate me. Compared to other Picoult books, this ending did not shock me nor leave a massive impact on myself as a reader. Picoult also tends to lose her voice when taking on the role of other characters and sometimes they seem unbelievable. Still, reading Change of Heart kept me up late at night due to the story and my faith in Picoult as a writer.
Rating - 2.99
RECOMENDATIONS
1. Caucasia by Danzy Senna - I read this book in 7th grade, so I don't remember all of the details perfectly. The book is about two sisters - one darker skinned, one white - who are the daughters of biracial lovers. Taking place in Roxbury, the book explores the issue of race and the true definition of belonging. It's really good!
2.How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill - Ignore my not-so-large obsession with Starbucks and hear me out on this book. It's about this buisnessman who lost his job, family, and money abrubtly, leaving him with memories and a Yale education. He ends up working at Starbucks in a foreign section of New York City under a young, African-American woman. Michael's story is very thought-provoking and genuinely interesting.
3. Luna by Julie Anne Peters - This novel follows Regan, the narrator, who is also a sister to Liam. For as far as anyone can remember, Liam has been different (think the second grade boy who played with dolls). It turns out that Liam is actually Luna, a transgender female, and during the story, Liam's transformation takes flight. Peters' story opened my eyes to what life must be like for someone who struggles so much to just be themselves. Luna is a true "mirror" and "window" book that questions what you would do if you were put in this dilemma - what was right, or what was simple yet cruel.
Cora, I'll reread The Secret Life of Bees with you. I read it in sixth grade and cried like crazy.
-Mel (using a different I.D)
The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
This book is fantasy. The book is really intriguing, but the ending did not live up to expectations. The plot is really well-written that it doesn't really feel like fantasy, it almost seems like reality, but that might be because I have a wicked imagination. Also, if you like history, there is a lot of it in the book too, which is really cool because usually fantasy and history don't mix.
Rating : 3.5
Summer Recommendations :
Twilight
by Stephanie Meyer
It's a fantasy book, but it still has an everyday tone to it that makes it seem that it could happen to anyone. However, it is geared toward girls, as the protagonist is a girl and all the major male characters are "perfect". It's all about the revolving relationship between a normal everyday girl and a anything-but-normal vampire.
(There are two sequels to this book that are already out : Eclipse and New Moon. Also Breaking Dawn will be coming out soon)
The Great and Terrible Beauty
by Libba Bray
It's about a girl, who is wishing to move to England, but is stuck in India. However, she moves there after some unfortunate circumstance (which I won't say what because it would ruin some of the plot of the book). As she leaves India and enters her new School, Spence Academy for Young Ladies, she receives some mysterious visions. There is a lot of fantasy parts of the book, but the relationship between the characters are more like everyday life.
(There are two sequels to this book, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing)
Angels and Demons
by Dan Brown
It is really a cool book and despite some of the gory parts, has really interesting plot. It is really hard to relate to any character, so it is more like watching other people do stuff rather than being personally entwined in the book. Every little detail comes together in the end. The best part is that even if you think you figure out the answer (because the book is a mystery), the truth will surprise you.
Interpreter of Maladies
by Jhumpa Lahiri
It is a collection of short stories(realistic fiction) that all connect to each other in the sense that they all have to do with families, relationships, immigration, but all speak with such distinctly unique voices. I really enjoyed reading this book because it was a very laid-back, relaxed sort of prose that didn't overwhelm the reader with excess verbiage and simply told the story. The style of the writing made the stories relatable and easy to imagine. The only low point was that some of the stories ended abruptly when it seemed like there was more to say. Rating: 4.5
Recommendations:
Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
An amazing fantasy book that challenges opinions on society, peace, war, and utopia.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A book that explores the cruel twists of fate and how from hardship, hope and friendship emerge.
Troy by Adele Geras
A book set in ancient Greece that tells the story of the seige of Troy from the perspectives of the women of the city.
The Glass Castle
by Jeanette Walls
This is a memoir about a girl that grew up in a family that was constantly moving because of their tight money situation. The best thing about this book was how Jeanette's family didn't depend on money to ensure happiness in their lives. The low point of this memoir was at the beginning when Jeanette was a young girl. Her father, eager to please her, asked Jeanette what she wanted for her birthday. All she asked for was for him to stop drinking, which was a major wake up call for him. He felt ashamed, so he stopped drinking. Unfortunatley, this phase only lasted for a month, and soon he began to drink again. Her father was the person that Jeanette looked up to, so reading about how she loses faith in him was really sad. Rating: 5
Summer Recs:
The Glass Castle (above)
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer. I think high-schoolers would find this book enjoyable. This is a perfect beach book: it's very brief and inspiring.
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Definatley the best of Picoult's books! If you are traveling by plane, this is perfect for you! (It made my plane ride last summer very enjoyable) It's very dramatic and it was one of the books you just can't put down.
Ok, so I kind of cheated by using The Glass Castle as one of my recomendations... BUT I just remembered a really good book:
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. This book is all about family secrets, parallel lives, and the power of love for one's child.
The Bachman Books
by Stephen King
The Bachman Books is a series of 4 "short stories". (there like 250 pages each)If I had to rate them overall, I would give them a 4, but I would give one of the short stories, the running man, a 5. The running man was about a group of men that set out on a long walk, and the last man still walking would become extremly rich and famous, but anyone who stopped walking was shot. The plot was clearly the best quality of the book, as it was unique and extremly interesting. If I had to find a low in the book, I guess I would say it is a tiny bit tedious to read because for the majority of the story they are just walking, but it is really a lot more exciting than it sounds.
Summer Reccomendations:
I definitly don't read as much as other people in this class, so I don't know if my recommendations are going to be great ones but here they are in order from best to worst.
1. If you haven't read Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis, the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you definitly should. It is not the greatest piece of literature, but it is a fun and fairly easy read.
2. "It" by Stephen King. I read this book a while ago, and I remeber liking it, but it is a fairly lengthy read (1000 pages or so)and I remeber the movie being better.
3. Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone...not that everyone in the class hasn't already read it. If you haven't read the Harry Potter series yet, you should because there not hyped up as I thought they were going to be. I've only read the first one, but I look forward to reading more of them this summer...
The Count of Monte Cristo
By Alexandre Dumas
This would be classical literature/adventure. I loved the second half of the book where mysterious events were happening to a certain family. I just could not stop reading. My least favorite part was the few chapters after Dante escapes from his imprisonment. These chapters were on other characters and were eventful, but I was not as interested. Because I like classical literature, I'd give the book a 4.
Recommendations:
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Although it is technically considered sci-fi (a category that I don't especially like reading) because it has the whole body snatcher thing, it is actually more about the relationships between people. The idea that one body has two distinct voices with occasionally conflicting interests is extremely interesting. Stephenie Meyer has a way of making her books emotionally powerful and stirring.
Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
Set in the 1920s, this story is about Jacob, who is a few days away from graduating from Cornell but ends up jumping onto a circus train after his parents die. It has a kind of simple plot but his experiences in the circus have this atmosphere of light comedy or horror (not horror as in scary...just some of the characters do terrible things) and the characters are each distinct and memorable.
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This is actually going to become a movie soon. Henry DeTamble is able to time travel, but he has no control over when he does. The book is written in what seems to be a jumbled collection of his time traveling and present day experiences, kind of like how his life probably would've been. However, by the end of the book, you see how all these scenes tie together.
Also, I love The Great and Terrible Beauty Series and the Twilight series. Since people have already reviewed them, that's all I'm gonna say.l
I read two books and since I couldn't talk about this one in class, I'll do it here :)
A Separate Peace
By John Knowles
This book is certainly a novel. It's the story of two boys at an all boys perperatory school in New Hampshire (the Devon School—I'm not sure if that's an actual school). They have a very close bond and as a reader there are implications that they're more than friends (although similarly to The Merchant of Venice, this is never confirmed). The book takes place during World War II and trails their friendship (and other characters) over the course of two years (school and summer sessions spent at Devon). They battle with internal conflicts, as well as the looming presence of the war and impending enlistment. Best quality: it's griping for every page. Worst quality: it ended. (which was devastating)
I give it a 5
I recommend:
The Secret Life of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd—phenomenal book about a 14 year old girl in the south in the summer of '64 discovering the truth about her mother (who she thinks she killed accidentally as young girl) and simultaneously discovering herself while being cared for by three african american sisters who take her in for the summer after she runs away from her abusive father, and they show her what it means to really live life.
The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald (I know we're reading this next year, but it's one my of my all-time favorite books so I'm recommending it regardless!)
Just read it. It's a very, very, good book chronicaling society on Long Island during the "roaring" 20's. Bizarre, but amazing.
A Separate Peace (read about it up there ^)
A Lesson Before Dying By Earnest J. Gaines
Lousiana 1940's. Essentially a drawn out "conversation" between a town resident slash local teacher and an innocent man on death row. Extremely moving and thought provoking.
p.s. I didn't see Cora's post, but it's the same for me! I read The Secret Life of Bees in seventh grade and it was my favorite book (still is). I reread it last year, and want to again this summer just because it takes place in the summer so it's a good summer read.(aka, I'm in Cora! haha)
I didn't know about the movie though (!!)
The Secret Life of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd
This book is a fictional novel. The best quality of this book for me was the simple sentence structure, I really liked this style of writing and it really let you inside the narrator's head. Also, it was really touching. The worst quality is that it can be slightly dull at times. I would give this book a 3 and a half.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. This is my favorite book. It is a true story and is written so well, you will want to quote it every five minutes. Everyone should read this.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I Read this book a few years ago, but it is so memorable. It takes place in the early 1900s and follows Francie, the main character for many years, so it is interesting to see how she develops.
Death be not Proud by John Gunther. This is a memoir of John Gunther's teenage son who died of a brain tumor. It is able to make you smile even though it focuses on such a grim topic.
The Hours
by Michael Cunningham
The Hours is a novel, a piece of realistic fiction that intertwines three women of different eras, who are all influenced by the same book. The book is Mrs. Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf (who is one of the triad), which chronicles a day in the life of a London socialite who lives simply for the happy details. Each woman deals with similar themes, such as terminal/serious illnesses, homosexuality, suicide, womanhood, and the difficulty of self-discovery over the course of a single day, mirroring that of Mrs. Dalloway. A powerful read, and beautifully written in stream-of-consciousness style.
"She might see it while walking with Leonard in the square, a scintillating silver-white mass floating over the cobblestones, randomly spiked, fluid but whole, like a jellyfish. 'What's that?' Leonard would ask. 'It's my headache,' she'd answer. 'Please ignore it.'"
- Virginia Woolf, reflecting over her mental illness
Rating: 4.5
(Forgot to say, The Hours is also a movie, starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf. An excellent film, with a Philip Glass score to die for.)
Summer recommendations:
1) Atonement, by Ian McEwan
I don't know about the movie, but the novel was beautiful and deeply moving. It explores coming-of-age, the horrors of war, the consequences of a single action, and the terrible burden of guilt.
2) East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Accounts the tumultuous history of the Trask family in the early 20th century. From Adam Trask, abused by his younger brother; to his wife, the strange, cold Cathy Ames, who abandons her family to work in a whorehouse; to their children, twins Cal (Caleb) - moody, jealous - and Aron (Aaron) - popular, devoted. The title references the Biblical story of Cain and Abel - after killing his brother, Cain went into exile "East of Eden." (Also an excellent movie adaptation in 1955, starring the late great, James Dean, Julie Harris, and Raymond Massey.)
3) The Great Escape, by Paul Brickhill.
This is a true story, somewhat a memoir, giving the first-hand account of the famous escape from Stalag Luft III, a German POW camp for Allied airmen during WWII. It tells the story of the daring tunnel project, as well as the fates of the 76 prisoners who escaped through it. Told with dry wit and tongue-in-cheek humor, shows a whole different side of WWII and the men who fought it. (Another movie! One of my favorites, released in 1963, starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough - also acclaimed director of Gandhi - James Garner, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn.)
Wow, sorry my comments are so long. And I just realized that all of my books are also movies. (They're good movies!! Watch them!!!)
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