Book+Reviews+1A

**__Harry Potter 2: Chamber of Secrets__ by J.K. Rolling** Margaret Ehrich I loved it, I wasn't sure that the second book could be as good as the 1st book because it was so awesome. However I could not put is down. J.K. Rolling is a very gifted author, she did a good job of effectively describing the setting in the book and harry's life at Hogwarts. I feel that if the author had not written the book in third person and written it in forst person the book wouldn't have been as good. I especially liked how we got more back story into Voldemorts time in Hogwarts, with the name Tom Riddle 11/10 __Harry Potter 1; The S____**orcerer's**__ **__Stone__ by J.K. Rolling** Margaret Ehrich This novel was amazing. I am addicted to Harry Potter!! In this book harry finds out that he is not only a wizard but a very famous one. He also finds out that he was the only survivor in an attack by the Dark Lord Voldemort (he who must not be named). Harry was an orphan who was forced to live with this uneprecating "muggle" aunt and uncle who act like he is not there. I liked how J.K. Rolling used juxtaposition with harry and Dudly, in the way that he is treated by the Derslys. My favorite character is by far Ron because he brings humor it at some times is a very serious book. One think I didn't like as much is it was almost a mystery novel rather than a fantasy. Over all I very much enjoyed this book 11/10 __And Then There Were None__ is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie. It takes place in a luxurious island. Eight seemingly unrelated people were essentially “invited” to the island. Each one of them have a past that they would rather not bring up. They each go for their specific reason. When they do arrive to the island, they found out the millionaire, Mr. Owen isn’t there at all. They were greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers who are their butler and housekeeper. On the first night, as they started talking, they realized that no one knew about this “Mr. Owen” character. As they start to panic, one of the guests chokes on a poison and dies. One of the guests notices the similarity of the first death to a nursery rhyme that is hung in each one of their rooms. The nursery rhyme ends when each one of the little Indians die. One by one, they all die. I really enjoyed this book. It’s not like the traditional mystery novels where there’s a detective looking for clues. This novel centers around ten people and each one of them is a possible killer. I found the novel very suspenseful and didn’t have any idea as to who the killer is until the book revealed it. I bet Christopher Boone would have liked this novel as well. __Starship Troopers__ is a sci-fi military adventure book. It follows the protagonist, Rico, who goes through a tough boot camp and finally becoming a member of an important platoon. The book actually touches rather lightly on battle scenes. It has a stronger focus on the political themes and views that Rico is taught by General Dubois. The book starts out with a raid against the Skinnies, an ally to the Arachnids who are against human. The story then flashes back to Rico’s decision to join the military, even with his father’s disapproval. The story concludes after Operation Royalty where they launched a massive assault on the Arachnids. I thought the book was quite boring. It seemed like the book was more focused on developing Heinlein’s themes than it did on the story itself. One of the major theories of the book was that full citizenship should be only earned through servicing in some sort of Federal Service. Heinlein used to be in the military and has great opinions on it. He believes that a citizen should only be able to vote after their service. Because the book’s themes don’t relate to me at all, I didn’t find it particularly interesting. However, I do think Heinlein make sense. Even driving requires a license, why does holding the power of vote comes with no requirement but age?
 * __Harry Potter 3: Prisoner of Azkaban__ **by J.K. Rolling**** This is book three of the Harry Potter series. The book starts of with Serious being thought of as a murderer who broke out of prison and finish up with Harry, Hermione, and Ron finding out who the real murderer was; Peter Pettigrew. When Serious escapes from Azkaban, everyone assumes that because he was Voldemorts "sidekick" that he is trying to kill Harry. After Pettigrew confesses to the murder of the "muggles" Harry learns that Serious is in fact innocent. Unfortunately, they find this out too late because Pettigrew escapes from their grasp and is never seen again. As a result Harry and Hermione turn back time and rescue Serious from the dementor's kiss of death. I thoroughly enjoyed this one because we got to know more about what Harry Potter's family was about.I like that we find out the Serious Black is Harry's godfather, I would not have predicted this in the first two books. I would have liked to see more humor in this book, as sometimes I felt it was too serious and gloomy Over all I can not wait to keep reading the rest of the series. 11/10
 * __And Then There Were None__ by Agatha Christie**
 * Philip Siu**
 * Score: 10/10**
 * __Starship Troopers__ by Robert A. Heinlein**
 * Philip Siu**
 * Score: 7.5/10**

The book centers around Guy Montag who’s a fireman. However, he isn’t the kind of fireman we know. In the future, firemen don’t put out fire, instead they burn books. Books are illegal and are burnt. Independent thinking and thought has nearly been wiped out from people’s mind. Guy Montag has been loyally carrying out his job for a decade. He never questioned his job until he met a seventeen-year old girl, Clarisse and a former professor. They tell him of the past where books were read and enjoyed instead of burnt. From that point onwards, Montag starts to question his role in society and strives to preserve books that contain knowledge. The book touches on the theme of government censorship and the lack of independent thinking. Montag himself have been blind until he met Clarisse. Since censorship plays a big part in China, I find the story very relatable. I also read __1984__ by George Orwell back in Quarter 1, so the concept of censorship is rather familiar with me. However, I didn’t find the book to be immediately interesting. To be honest, I’ve tried reading it three times before I finally finished it the fourth time I tried reading it.
 * __Fahrenheit 451__ by Ray Bradbury**
 * Philip Siu**
 * Score: 7/10**

__Of Mice and Men__ is a novel by John Steinback. It follows two migrant workers called George and Lennie. While George is small, Lennie is really big. Lennie is also very strong but has some mental disorder. He’s attracted to “soft things” and because of this, he was wrongfully accused of sexual harassment. Because of this, George and Lennie have to move to a new ranch for a new life. They dream of having their own land, farming it, and owning rabbits. In the new farm, they’re introduced to characters such as Slim, Curly, and Curly’s wife. Curly has a thing against Lennie. After an unfortunate event that resulted in Lennie accidentally breaking Curly’s wife’s neck, Lennie fled to George. George knew that the world is no longer suitable for Lennie, so he killed him out of love. I thought the story is very sad and tragic. I didn’t find it particularly boring and I think that a lot of people would find it enjoying as well. I think the book shows the sacrifices you have to make when you love someone. George killed Lennie not out of spite, but because he wanted to protect Lennie.
 * __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinback**
 * Philip Siu**

__Old Man and the Sea__ is a short book by Ernest Hemingway. The story takes place in Havana. The Old Man is a fisherman but his bad luck has made him go eighty-four days without catching a single fish. On the eighty-fifth day, his lucky day, he sets out to sea again. He hooks a gigantic fish, but isn’t able to catch him in yet. The giant fish doesn’t give up and fight against the Old Man. The Old Man **doesn’t give up and doesn’t admit defeat.** He struggles against the fish for three days while enduring some pretty harsh sufferings. The Old Man always associated himself with the Marlin because they were both very noble, glorious, and persistent. The Marlin possessed attributes that the Old Man shares. I thought the book was quite uninteresting, even if it was a short read. I felt that it wasn’t much of a story, but more of an “essay” that explores Hemingway’s ideas and themes.
 * __Old man and the Sea__ by Ernest Hemingway**
 * Philip Siu**
 * Score: 7/10**

__The Kite Runner__ is a novel following Amir’s life. Amir’s dad is very wealthy, and their servant’s son, Hassan, is Amir’s best friend. They had the tightest friendship. Hassan was the best Kite Runner in town. After kites are cut from the sky, he would run it down for Amir. Together, Amir and Hassan, they win a kite fighting tournament. When Hassan was running down the last kite for Amir, he was cornered by Assef and his friends. Assef and his friends violated Hassan. Amir saw Hassan in trouble, but didn’t help, he ran away instead. Afterwards, Amir returns home with Hassan with the last kite in his hands, finally winning the approval he so desperately seeks from his dad. Amir doesn’t forgive himself for what happened and his friendship with Hassan soured. He eventually goes to America with his dad when the Russian invades. He leads a happy life there, but the past still haunts him. When an opportunity arises for him to redeem himself, he takes it. He goes back to Afghanistan to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban, which made it a very dangerous place. In his quest to save Sohrab, he encounters Assef again. They fight but Amir is very badly injured by Assef. However, Sohrab saves Amir by planting a ball in Assef’s eye with a slingshot. The rest of the book deals with the challenges Amir faces while trying to include Sohrab as one of his. I thought that the book was very interesting and very thought provoking at the same time. Amir and Hassan seemed to harbor a (near) perfect but Amir had turned his back to Hassan when he needed help. It makes me wonder which of my friends, if any at all, will be there to save me when I hit the lowest point of my life.
 * __The Kite Runner__** **by Khaled Hosseini**
 * Philip Siu**
 * Score: 8/10**

__**And Then There Were None**__ **by Agatha Christie** Eight people, all complete strangers to one another, are all invited to the mysterious Indian Island. All are under the impression that they know the person who invited them, a strange 'Mr Owens'. Upon arrival, the eight guests are greeted by a butler and his wife, and are informed that Mr Owens will be late. In each room, written on parchment, is an old nursery rhyme called //Ten Little Indians.// The next morning, one of the guests is found dead. The manner of their death is most strikingly similar to the way the first indian died, according to the nursery rhyme. As the guests attempt to figure things out — surely the killer must be one of them — more and more of the guests are killed off until then, there are none. Every time someone dies, one little indian figure goes missing from the dining room. This novel is suspenseful and difficult to put down, and there are lots of unexpected things, hence why this summary is so short (I don't want to give anything away). I did find the writing style a bit generic. And, seeing as it's a mystery novel, it's not entirely relatable, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys mysteries, or Agatha Christie's novels, or just a bit of a different read.
 * Eleen Wang**
 * Score: 9/10**

__**The Old Man and The Sea**__ **by Ernest Hemingway** This story, short but classic, is about an old fisherman called Santiago. Santiago as not had any luck for 84 days, however, believes he will have luck on the 85th. So on the 85th day, he sails far out to sea and baits a massive marlin. Unfortunately, the marlin has lots of strength and Santiago can't reel it in, thus struggling for two days and nights, until on the third day the fish gives in. On his way home, Santiago encounters difficulties that involve him having to release the marlin to sharks. The story, while a bit hard to get through at times, has a moral story of constant perseverance. It's a good read, however.
 * Eleen Wang**
 * Score: 9/10**

__**The Learning Curve**__ **by Melissa Nathan** This story is about a thirty year old teacher called Nicky Hobbs, who, at the beginning of the story, starts the beginning of a new school year. As the school year progresses, Nicky is absolutely adored by her students, and she herself absolutely adores one of her students Oscar, whose father is never around and always working. Nicky is convinced that Oscar's father, Mark Samuels, is unloving and way too into his work. Mark, however, based on what he knows about Nicky, thinks she's an old, uptight teacher who doesn't know how to relax. (Ironically, Nicky is also a workaholic, but in a different way, and Mark is always tense and never relaxes.) The headmistress of Heatheringdown Primary, Miss James, is quirky and enjoys repeating words (for example, "Excellent, excellent, excellent!") and has a massive puzzle on a desk in her office. (Before anyone is permitted to leave her office, they have to put a puzzle piece where it belongs, which is pretty cool.) The story is really fluffy and somewhat predictable, but it's also humorous and witty and, near the end, moving. I'd recommend it to anyone who needs a break from reading heavy books, seeing as it's light (but still somewhat challenging).
 * Eleen Wang**
 * Score: 8/10**

The missing book 1: Found

Margaret Haddix Adrian Cheung 1A

This book is about Jonah, a normal teenager living in the 21st century in America, experiencing an event that would change his lifetime. Jonah is adopted, and he has known that since he could think, never denying this fact. One day, however, he finds a letter sent to him, and it says, “you are one of the missing”. He thought it was just a prank referring to his adoption. He was even more surprised when his friend, Chip, also got the same later, and Chip soon discovered that he was adopted. As Jonah begins to question his identity, his mother and father (Not birth parents, but who adopted him) and sister went to seek an FBI who knew the situation. However, the FBI denied releasing any information, but Jonah managed to get a list of all the adopted kids. Through research and contacting each of the kids, they managed to reach a women named Angela, who was somehow a witness of whatever happened a long time ago. From a meeting with her, they disc3overed that they were all passengers of an airplane that appeared out of nowhere 13 years ago, and they were all babies. Angela saw the plane come and go. Jonah, Katherine, and Chip were so surprised, when they went to a orphanage meeting of kids from all the nearby regions, they found their ultimate secret. They were the children of the past that couldn’t be cured, so they were sent through a time machine into the 21st century. Now they are faced with 2 choices, to be sent back to the past to heal the wound of time, or to be sent to the future. Jonah is like the main character of this book. He went from being in a completely peaceful family to discovering that he was part of this huge mysterious. He was initially very reluctant about searching for the truth, but in the end he was also really into finding his true identity. The theme of this book is again “government control”, because the FBI, who are supposed to serve the state, decides to hide things from Jonah, who definitely has the right to know about his life. The strength of this book is mainly the simplicity of the language and the suspense building, however, the simple language caused the book to seem like it was for younger kids, while the theme is much more mature. I would suggest that the author put more effort in putting some good vocabulary and play with some sentence structure. Ultimately, I would give this book a 7/10.

I am the cheese

Robert Cormier Adrian Cheung 1A

‘I am the cheese’ is a book about a boy named Adam farmer trying to his past, especially about his parents, which just disappeared out of his memory all of a sudden. The setting of this story is in a hospital. The story is told in 2 perspectives, a perspective of which he remembers things in his mind, another perspective with him sharing what discovers with a mysterious therapist, Brint. Brint helps Adam reveal the earliest part of his missing memory, that his family is not as normal as it seems. His parents were hiding something away from him, and later on Adam figured out that he has another family member, which was the opposite of what his parents told him. Furthermore, he found another birth certificate of him, which means makes him truly wonder about his past history. As he got deeper and deeper into his memory, he felt insecure about where he is, and he also starts to worry about Brint’s identity. However, his memory is still coming back to him. He discovers that his dad was a reporter, and life with him and his mother were perfectly. Until one day, until one day he decides to uncover a story that should never had been uncovered, and the whole family had to hide from the consequences. Adam is the main character of the book. He is a really ordinary child but with very different experiences. He was at first very accepting of his family’s situation, life was calm. However, he uncovered some secrets that led to a series of his own personal investigations. All of the actions took place in his brain and memory, and his physical body was in a hospital, location was unknown, meaning that Adam might have suffered through some injury. If we’d look at the end of the book, we would know that Adam is infact under the control of a certain government agency, and they are trying to get information out of him. The theme of this book is “sometimes searching for the truth is not the best option”. Adam’s father went to search for a corruption case of the government, which in the end caused a huge pile of trouble for his family. If he never uncovered the truth, he would be very well in a good condition and living a good life. I do not relate to this theme because I usually try to get to the truth, no matter how difficult things are. However, I guess in this book’s case, the consequences are harsh, and I might have to think through what to do if I were in Adam’s dad’s shoes. The strength of this book is mainly the different perspectives, it made the book somewhat more interesting. The writing style again, is short and clear, the style that I like. However, the perspectives can sometimes be confusing, that is why It is also a flaw. In addition, when the main character is about to reveal something to Brint, he always feels tired and has a headache. This is the author’s use of suspense, getting the readers anticipating about whats next. However, I believe that an overdose will not get a good effect. There were too many situations like that. In the end, I would give this book a 8/10.

Night Elie Wiesel Adrian Cheung 1A This book is about a Jewish boy Eliezer and his family that has been unfortunately involved in the Second World War. They were living in Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania. His life was peaceful before the Nazis occupied Hungary in the spring of 1944. They were taken into ghetto, then to the concentration camp Auschwitz. Through the process of this, his father and him were grouped in the male section, whereas his mother and sister were sent to another location because they were females, Eliezer never saw them again. Him and his father were transported from camp to camp in harsh conditions, many of their friends died along the way. They were practically in living hell. Eliezer serves as a middleman between the author and the reader. Everything the author wants to say about his own past is described through the eyes of a fictional character Eliezer. This young boy in the story stood up strongly against all that is happening, and yet he often asks god why the Jewish race had to suffer through all this. His journey in the book Is really remarkable. All the despair and fear of death prepared him for whatever lies in his life after the liberation. The main theme of this book is “Even a good soul could change”. Eliezer initially took care for his father during the camp, teaching him how to properly march so he wouldn’t get beaten, sharing his own ration of food so that his father wouldn’t be hungry. However, after he witnessed how a teenager just like him gave up on helping his father in order to help himself, the evil spurts out of his heart. He still cared for his father but deep down inside, his initial love was gone, replaced by a heart that values its own conditions more than anything else. The strength of this book is that the description is really realistic due to the fact that the author somewhat experienced it himself. It puts you to a point where you could feel the fear and despair of the prisoners in the camp, and the atmosphere the author created was just stunning. In addition, he uses clear, simple language so that the readers could understand more. The only weakness of this book I think is that it is a bit too short, and that the ending came all in a sudden. However, the author should not be blamed for this as it was from a personal experience, not imaginary. I would give this book a 7/10 for anyone who is interested in reading a person’s journey through a living hell.

Catching fire Suzanne Collins Adrian Cheung 1A Catching fire is the second book of the Hunger Games series. Its setting is right after the what happened in the first Hunger Games book, and Katniss Everdeen was still the protagonist. After the games, her life changes quite dramatically. Her district, family, friends were all fed well under the Capitol’s promised supplies for the victors. However, under all the positive changes, her relationship with Gale has been really awkward because of the romance strategy her and Peeta had to put up in order to survive the last hunger games. It gets even more awkward for her when Peeta and Gale, two different human beings, both declared that they love her. While things seem to settle, a spark of rebellion is slowly closing in on them. President Snow threatens Katniss before she went on her victor’s tour around the country with the possibility of hurting her friends and family. So this causes Katniss to deeply hide her rebellious thoughts. However, while going on the victor’s tour, she felt so much emotion and synchronized the people, and basically sprung a possible rebellion into something that will eventually ignite. Slowly, Katniss realizes that running away may be a good idea. She shared this thought with Gale, who liked it at first, but disagreed sonly after Katniss told her that there was a possible rebellion already in district 8. Gale wants to join them. He was later on whipped in public due to the fact that he disrespected the law. When everything seems to have tensed up, news from the capitol reports new hunger games being held, a special game called the “Quarter Quell” and that the contestants are chosen among the victors of ordinary hunger games. Being the only girl in district 12, Katniss is no doubt chosen. Haymitch, an old victor from district 12 was originally chosen, but Peeta came to replace him. The two are back into the game. They trained and prepared. In the games, they allied with Johanna, Finnick, Beetee, and some others. Together, they face the mighty Careers, who is trained to participate in the games, and the new special format of the arena. Katniss also learns that the whole game was part of a huge plot, something so huge and mysterious, something that might take the capitol down. Katniss is still the most important character in this story, and in this book, she became more mature and developed a more rebellious thought. She walked down a path of unknown danger despite all that she has to carry on her shoulders; we now know that she is truly very courageous. Gale in this book showed even more hatred towards the capitol, and he probably hated the capitol when the new peacekeeper in the district whipped him for not respecting the capitol. A big theme of this book is government control. In the first part of the book, the government showed no mercy to which it didn’t like, especially president Snow, who didn’t like Katniss, and even threatened to hurt her family. The government is so powerful and so dislikable in this book, that all the characters or plot have something to associate themselves with. I can somewhat associate to this plot because I live in China, where many things are censored. However, I live in a country where things don’t get that extreme, and the president obviously do not threaten to kill people, or throw people into hunger games. The strength of this book is that it has a really good opening, and it really attracted me to read it. In addition, the book still placed the characters in the hunger games, yet has a bigger plot of a rebellion. This made the story ten times more interesting whereas if the author still implants the games as the one and only big event. The book is fast paced, with short sentences that could be understood very clearly, it is thought provoking, and has a great opening for the third book of the series. I think it only flaw is that some of the characters were implanted too quickly and it is hard to picture them when there are so many of them. Besides this, I think this is a very good book. I would give it a 9.5/10, for it is better than its first book, which I gave 9 to.

Farenheit 451 Ray Bradbury Adrian Cheung 1A Fahrenheit 451 is a book set in the future, in a future American society where reading books or having any books are illegal. This book is hard to discuss the plot without summarizing the setting first, so I will first explain this world. In this society, there is illegalness in individuality, independence, or even thinking. People watch a lot of television. Firemen are people who burn the books, so instead in our world where they extinguish fire, they are more known to start them in this world. Books are considered to have a meaning, and provoke thoughts, and therefore are illegal. Montag is a person who works in a town and is a fireman, and his job is of course to burn books. One day on his way home he encounters a girl, Clarisse, which seems like a crazy person to him at first because she questions the society. She is different, she likes conversations. This girl makes Montag to truly wonder about this world. He met Clarisse the next day, and again the girl left him something to think about in this society. For me, the whole story starts when he was assigned a mission as a fireman. He was told to burn down a house of an old woman who has books in her house. Before the house is burned down, he warns the old women to leave, but she refuses to leave her precious books behind. Eventually the house is set aflame, but Montag managed to steal one of the books. Montag is deeply interested by the book, however, his fellow firemen Beatty came and tried to convince Montag its okay this time because at some point, every firemen will want to read a book, but he also says that Montag should return the book next time he goes to work so the book to be destroyed. Because his wife is not interested in the books, Montag turns to his friend Faber, a professor, and a genuine book lover, to help him understand the books secretly. But as he gets more fascinated, he begins to scare the people around him, especially two of his wife’s friends. Montag eventually has to choose between letting go of the books and continue his life or continue to pursue his passion, even if that means being banished from his society. Montag is the protagonist in this book, you watch him turn from a firemen to a person that questions the world to an outlaw. His journey triggers from Clarisse, and fully encounters his life-changing event when the old women swears to protect her books despite that she might be burnt down herself. You can see his change when he burns his television and his house down with pleasure when he was placed under arrest. If he had never questioned these questions, he would not be happy. The theme of this book is that a society has many things to cover up, and that in order to do so, limiting freedom is bound to happen. We can relate this to many other books such as The Giver, and even current countries like China, where censorship is practically everywhere, just not that extreme. This book also shows how powerful a person can change another’s thoughts and beliefs. Clarisse successfully transformed Montag into a person who wonders about his life just by having conversations with him. I relate to this theme only in some point, where the government has censorship among us, but again, not that extreme. When it comes to Strengths of this book, I believe that it is the interesting setting. A world without books has never interests me that much. On the other hand, there are many weaknesses in this book I would highly like to stress. First of all, this book is terribly hard to understand, I had problems understanding many parts of the book. The descriptions uses may be considered effective to some people, but I just think that it is too much for me. Secondly, I think that the story mainly consists of dialogues, and that makes the story more like a conversation. To me, reading this is really tiring. This story, in the beginning especially, appeals to me as a lot of movements and action, and again, it gets me really tiring somehow. In the end, I would give this book a 6/10, and if you are somebody who likes mainstream books such as the Hunger Games, I suggest you to not read this book. If you are one that really likes to look at an unique piece of literature, this is the book for you.

**“Lone Survivor” - Book Review - Gero Kassing - 8/10**

This book is based on a true event, of Navy SEAL Team 6, written by the Ex-Commanding Officer of SEAL Team 10, Marcus Luttrell. Him and his 3 team membe10s, were put in some of the most dangerous territory in the Afghan mountains. The book first just describes his team members, on how many different missions he fought with them. On their last deployment, the SEALs get seen by a group of farmers, however, the SEALs decided to let them go. About an hour later, over 400 Taliban came running over the mountain, armed with heavy weapons and RPGs. The SEALs killed over 250 of them before they got overrun, one of the sailors took an RPG rocket to the body and was still fighting, however he then died. The rest of the Captains’ team were killed as well, until only he was left. This book was very touching, because it is about real people, who had families and who were killed in action, I think this book is not for everyone because not every would like what it is about. Still, this book is great and I would recommend it to my friends, like William, I told him to get this book, he liked it too.

**“The Kite Runner” - Book Review - Gero Kassing - 9/10**

The Kite Runner completely changed my view on the Afghan conflict, at first I believe that fighting in that country has no point at all, and that if they want to kill each other off, then they should do it. However, when I finally read this book, I realized, that the people that live there, like Hassan, have no rights, and fear for their life every single day. This book is about Amir and Hassan written by Khaled Hosseini, Amir is a rich kid, and his fathers servant has a son, named Hassan. Amir and Hassan naturally become friends, they love to attend in the annual Kite war, and when Amir and Hassan take down another kite, Hassan ran to get retrieve the kite, there fore being the Kite Runner. but when the conflict erupts and civil war is started in Kabul, Amir and his father flee from the county. Years later, Amir comes back, and finds out that Hassan has been killed, trying to protect Amirs house from the Taliban that wanted to tear it down. Amir returns back to his new home and forgets about Afghanistan and his best friend, The Kite Runner.

**“Black Hawk Down” - Book Review - Gero Kassing 10/10**

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden is a novel about the Battle of Mogadishu. Its based on a real event, where U.S Rangers, Delta Force, and the 160th SOAR, plan a sabotage mission that turned bad and became a rescue mission. The first half of the book only concentrates about how they are planing the mission and how they will manage it. When the launch begins, the Black Hawk Helicopters and Hum-vie extraction force moves out. However, when the four helicopters reached their targets, and the Rangers are supposed to rappel down, one of the soldiers falls from the rope and crashes down more than 30 feet, breaking his neck and back. The U.S. Rangers have a code, which is: LEAVE NO MAN BEHIND. As the Rangers try to bring PFC. Blackburn back to safety the whole mission goes wrong, because now they don’t have enough space to exit with the Hum-vies. More and more platoons get ambushed by the local militia and many get injured. When everything seems to be remotely under control, a helicopter gets hit, the radio message comes through: We’ve got a Black Hawk down, I repeat, we’ve got a Black Hawk down. The Platoon moves out to extract the injured pilots but that doesn’t go to well, so after a long fight they finally manage it. In that process, another Black Hawk goes down and the rescue missions pulls itself into the night. When finally the 10th Mountain of the UN in the Mog turns up to help the Rangers to safety everything is good again. In the Mogadishu raid, over 3000 Somalis lost their were killed, and 19 U.S. Soldiers lost their lives. This book was great, the reason why I decided to read it was because the movie fascinated me so much and I wanted to read the full detail of it, it is a complicated book but is still worth reading.

**“The Five People You Meet In Heaven” - Book Review - Gero Kassing 8/10**

This book by Mitch Albom opens at Ruby Pier on Eddies 83rd birthday. Like always, he goes on his normal routine making sure the ride is okay and safe. However on of the carts of the roller coster break free and fall to the Pier. Eddie jumps to save a girl standing there where the cart will hit, he saves the girl but doesn’t manage to get out of the way quickly enough. Eddie travels to heaven and meets his first person, who is the Blue Man. The Blue Man tells Eddie that he will meet 5 people in heaven, that have somehow affected his life. The Blue Man tells him that it was Eddies fault that he died, due to a car accident. The next person Eddie meets is his former war Captain in WWII. When Eddie fought in the war, he saw a small body crawling, as he tried to run after it to save the child from the flames, the Captain shot him in the leg in order to save him from the flames, due to the fact that Eddie did not want to leave the kid behind. The third person he meets is Ruby, she tells him the story of how Eddie got into a fight with Mickey and threw him off a bridge into the water. Eddies father jumped after Mickey to save him and caught pneumonia which killed him the day later. Marguerite is the fourth person he meets. She was Eddies love and she tells him that even after she died, she still continued loving Eddie. The last person he meets is a little asian girl named Tala. Tala explains that Eddie killed her during a fire in the war. It was the little child that he saw which he wanted to save. Tala shows Eddie the real reason why he lived and why he worked at Ruby Pier, it was too keep the children safe, and that is what he did. I like this book a lot, because it seemed kind of realistic, I don’t think that everybody should read this book because its not the funnest, but it did make an impact on me.

**“The Hobbit” - Book Review - Gero Kassing 10/10**

The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien is the introduction to The Lord of the Rings, and that is why I loved it. Bilbo Baggins is a ordinary Hobbit, who loves his mealtimes, and his pipe, and his peace. Hobbits aren’t big adventurers and so, when one day old Gandalf the Grey pops up, and forces Bilbo on an adventure, he is very upset. He has to travel with dwarfs in order to regain their home in the Lonely Mountain from a Dragon. So Bilbo travels east with the dwarfs that he has been put together and they travel all the way to the Misty Mountains, which split Middle-Earth into east and west. During the passing, they get captured by goblins and Bilbo suddenly finds himself all alone in the dark. Touching his way around, he finds a little ring on the floor, and puts it on. He walks on and as a goblin runs in his direction, and he is sure that he is doomed, the goblin runs right passed, and Bilbo learns that it is a ring, which makes you invisible. Bilbo travels on through the dungeons when suddenly a grotesque creature appears. Bilbo and the creature play a game, deciding weather to let Bilbo live or die. Bilbo wins the game but the creature attacks him anyways, Bilbo slips on the ring and runs out of the dungeons. Somehow Bilbo manages to meet up with his group of people again and they travel on to their goal, the Lonely Mountain. The group also travels through the forest of Mirkwood, but that is a very complex story so to make it easy, they get out alive and are now close to their objective. Once they reach the Lonely Mountain, they attack the Dragon and all hell breaks lose. The battle of the five armies takes place, which is between: A Dragon, Goblins, Men, Dwarfs and Elves. Elves, Men, and Dwarfs both fight the Dragon and Goblins, they win the battle and the dwarfs finally can return to their home. Bilbo travels back home and everything is perfect again. This book was good, but it is too complex to explain, I would rate it a 9/10 because I love fantasy and it really explains the story of how Bilbo got the ring, and then later gave it to Frodo.

**“Mockingjay” - Book Review - Gero Kassing**

Mockingjay is the third book of The Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss is now in District 13, and she is about to enter he old district which has been completely ruined. Once she’s done that she returns to the hovercraft and they fly back to D13 where she is to become the Mockingjay - a symbol of the revolution against the Capitol. The rebels then free Peeta because they realize that Katniss can’t cope with the guilt of him being impersonated. After they save him, they realize that he has been brainwashed so they launch their attack at the capitol. One by one, the rebels take control of the Districts and finally they attack the Capitol, however on a attack on a part of the Capitol things go wrong, and Katniss proceeds towards Snow’s mansion with her team - all of whom die. Katniss’s sister Prim somehow gets killed due to bombs, which Katniss believes was Snow’s fault, but in fact its Coin’s fault, so Katniss kills Coin instead causing a riot, causing a lot of people to die, including Snow. When she realized what se did, Katniss tried to kill herself, but then Peeta stops her. She then returns home to D12 with the other people who are willing to rebuild it, and Peeta, Katniss, and Haymitch write a book filled with the stories of the other tributes in their honor. In the 20-years-later epilogue, Katniss is married to Peeta, and they have two children, the only thing she fears now is for them to find out about the war and her involvement in it. This book was also just as good as the first and second, I would recommend this book to anyone no matter what they are interested it.

**“The Firm” - Book Review - Gero Kassing 8/10**

The Firm is a thriller novel by John Grisham, it is so good that it later became a movie starring Tom Cruise. Mitchell Y. McDeere is a law student who graduated third in his class of Harvard. His wife is Abby and they attended college together. Mitchell was offered jobs in New York and Chicago but ends up joining Bendini, Lambert and Locke in Memphis. He decides to join the firm because they offer him a large sum of money and a new BWD, as swell as a low interest mortgage on a house. Just as Mitch passes his bar exams, a FBI agent named Wayne Terrance approaches him, and tells him the truth about the firm he is working for - they are part of the Chicago mob and the firm is only a gate in order to make drug money get filtered through it and become legal. Mitch starts to work undercover for the FBI and steals information in order to allow the FBI to file an arrest warrant. After a couple of months, the firm is taken down, but the mob knows that Mitch was behind it, so the FBI give him and his wife a fake identity and the move away. The book ends with Mitch and Abby on a boat, when suddenly a bullet hits Abby and she dies in Mitch’s hands. This book is a great thriller, I loved it and it was really worth the time to read.

This is a book about slavery in the Southern US in the times before the Civil War. We are introduced to Mr. Shelby, who has no choice but to sell two of his slaves because of debts. Overhearing a conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, Eliza, whose child is to be sold, runs away in the middle of the night with her son. Their entire household, including the servants, attempt to deter the slave trader when they find out to give Eliza a chance to escape. The other slave, Tom, is not as unfortunate. This story switches between these two storylines throughout the whole book. We see acts of cruelty and also those of compassion from a number of characters. One of the most moving things is Tom’s unshakable faith in God. He is contrasted with his cruel third owner, Simon Legree. Stowe shows how human nature is dynamic and how skin color does not decide what kind of person you are.
 * __ Uncle Tom’s Cabin __**** by Harriet Beecher Stowe **
 * Cindy Ling **
 * Score: 10/10 **


 * __Mockingjay__ by Suzanne Collins**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

Now is the time for real rebellion. Katniss sees her hometown completely destroyed and join the rebellion group in district 13 to fight against the Capiol with Gale and other winners of Hunger Games. Katniss decides to become a symbol of Mockingjay and plans to rescue Peeta, who is captured by the Capitol. Peeta is hijacked by the Capitol that he loses memory of Katniss and hates her. Gale uses all these inhumane weapons to kill the opponents and Katniss suspects Gale for her sister, Prim’s death. She is in such a deep sorrow for losing her and all the death followed by to win against the Capitol. Finally, the rebellion group captures President Snow and Katniss gets the right to kill him. However, she shoots Coin, the head of district 13. President Snow dies anyways and for not accomplishing her right, Katniss is locked up and sent to District 12 later. She marries Peeta and they have their own children. The long trilogy is over by now and Katniss is not alone, she has Peeta. The plot line was not bad, but I didn’t like the part when the rebellion people decide to keep the Hunger Games, with the victims selected from the Capitol instead. Of course, we understand the pain the district people had to suffer but the goal of the rebellion was supposed to be stopping the Games and rebuilding Panem with peace. Maybe it’s what the readers expect from our government these days that some people might think about this part a little bit disappointing. However, on the other hand, I think the author, Suzanne Collins, was pointing out the current situation of the policy and the evil side of the people’s mind. For that part, I think the story was very realistic, but the conclusion wasn’t my type.


 * Score: 9/10**


 * __Fahrenheit 451__ by Ray Bradbury**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

This book is about the fireman, Montag, whose job is to burn the books in America in future. Nobody reads books and sees no point of reading them. Without any literature in the society, people think dependently and just enjoy the shows in the huge TV and listen to radio attached to their ears. One day, Montag meets a girl named Clarisse McCllean and realizes an emptiness inside his heart. Over the next few days, he goes through various kinds of incidents and to fill up his heart and have an enjoyable life, he starts to search up something that can satisfy him. His chief, Beatty, tells him to keep an eye on the books that will be burned but he reads instead. His overwhelming happiness of reading books leads him to remember a retired English professor, Faber and they make a plan of reproducing the books with Faber helping Montag with his reading. Still, Montag’s wife and her friends consider him as crazy for reading books and Montag sees his wife, Mildred, betraying him. Beatty forces him to burn his own house and arrests him. After going through dangerous attacks and the whole city chasing him, he finds a group of the “Book People”, who have memorized many great works of literature and philosophy. The whole city is burning with bombs and Montag and his friends move on for rebuild civilization with literature. These days, a lot of books are substituted by e-books and laptops. A lot of media sources are digitalized with a lot of nature destroyed for humans’ own comfort. This book is criticizing the current situation that are full of digital with no books existing at school except some in the school library. I personally enjoyed this book except that the story was a little bit heavy but the theme and the concept is very important and straightforward. Therefore, I would like to strongly recommend this book.


 * Score: 9.5/10**


 * __Red Glass__ by Laura Resau**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

This book is about how Sophie overcomes her own fears and grow up as an adult with Ángel. Sophie is afraid of car accidents, cancer, becoming an orphan, infected by germs and etc. She is such a non-social girl who is very kind in fact, and takes care of Pablo, a six-year-old Mexican boy, who is the only survivor of runners from Mexico to USA. Her family members are related to Mexico as well and try to make a choice; either live with Sophie’s family or go back to his own family. Meanwhile, Sophie’s aunt, Dika, meets her true love, Mr Lorenzo and Sophie meets his son, Ángel. These four travel to Pablo’s hometown and after the arrival, Sophie travels to Guatemala to find Ángel, who went there to find his mother’s jewelry. After going through a lot of incidents, their love bears fruit and Sophie feels something different from inside. She is stronger, she’s not a gringa who is afraid to face the world. Then, why is this book’s title ‘Red Glass’? It’s one of the two sources of this book. Sophie’s aunt, Dika, was in a POW camp in Serbia and she saw her house being bombed during the war. The only way to protect herself in the camp was a small shard of red glass, which she took from her bombed-out house. The red glass she collects bring back the memories of the war and shows different side of active Dika. The other source is about Ángel and his mother’s jewelry. On the way to Mexico, he talks about how women saved him three times and this carries on the plot because Sophie gets really curious about this. Also, something uncertain about his mother’s life or death with her precious jewelry hidden somewhere also create mysterious tension about Ángel’s past time. It’s interesting to see how desperate the Mexicans are and compare the culture of Mexico and my own country’s. Thanks to my knowledge of Spanish, I didn’t have a hard time reading this book because it contains quite a lot of phrases of Spanish and sometimes they are not translated. However, by looking at how Sophie grows up to become a true adult and deals with a new environment against her fears made me feel really proud of her. This is also a great book for telling how great the love, how people can change and the current situation of Mexicans.


 * Score: 10/10**


 * __A Stone in My Hand__ by Cathryn Clinton**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

Malaak’s best friend is Abdo, a bird. She always stays with Abdo on the rooftop and express her feelings and thoughts. She believes that she can fly with Abdo by its eyes and wings. Her life seems to be okay except when her father went to Israel to get some job and never returns. It’s only her mother, her sister Hend and her older brother Hamid left without a head of household. She seems people fight each other and Hamid and his friend, Tariq joining this seemed-to-be-never-ending war. She feels that there is something wrong with this with all the people getting hurt and gets nervous of Hamid getting hurt or being dead just like her father. She imagines some conversations and scenes with her father and even recall some of the memories. She wishes and wishes for Hamid not to get hurt every time when his friends or their families get killed. After all, Hamid gets hit by the gun and stays in the hospital. She promises to send her thoughts to him every morning and she hears her father’s voice. This book shows tense conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians that leads to the war. People fight for their own sides, using weapons to kill each other and spill blood. To Malaak, it’s just scary and useless for taking away someone’s life to achieve something. Instead, she talks with her father with Abdo. We can see how innocent the children are; Malaak sees the world through Abdo’s eyes and the readers see the war through these pure eyes. The author was trying to tell the people view of war, the impact of the war and how we should never give up by showing Malaak overcoming the sadness of losing her father and Hamid getting hurt. The story flowed pretty well and I liked the theme of the story. However, the book was pretty boring to me with not many incidents that keeps tensions in the story.


 * Score: 8.5/10**


 * __Pure__ by Caren Krossing**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

The whole story occurs in the future, a place called ‘New Canadian North’ in Dawn, where everyone is genetically unaltered. Everyone is healthy and the “Purity” rules the town and constantly checks people’s genomes so that they are not making any illegal DNA alterations to keep the ‘purity’ of the race. Lenni, the main character of this novel, is such a good artist but she has such a skill for healing others. The “Purity” is after her, thinking that she has altered DNA that she should be labeled skidge, which follows to those who have broken the rules. Lenni thinks that the society is not talking about the true purity but just trying to control over the people with perfect DNAs so that they can take control over them easily. Redge, Rue, Duke and Lenni takes a step forward to find their won purity, for their own right and their future. When I read the introduction, it reminded me of the movie called Nakata (I am not sure about the movie, but it is similar). It’s about a man who buys a perfect swimmer’s DNA and blood constantly and goes into space related organization to go to universe. This movie also shows some part of future and the problem of being ‘perfect’. I personally don’t like these kinds of Scientific Novels and the whole story didn’t flow smoothly even though it has a set of good inciting incidents. However, I like the theme of this book, because I believe at least in 50 years, we are going to be having a completely different life from right now with everything scientific and perfect. Even though there are developments and better life, there’s also the shadow of these lights.


 * Score: 8.5/10**

**__Speak__ by Laurie Halse Anderson** **Nazifa Wazirzada** Speak is a book about a teenage girl named Melinda Sordino she used to be a popular kid hanging out with the the popular kids, and going to parties up until the end of summer when she was at a Party and a friend of hers named Andy Evans raped her. She woke up laying in the backyard alone. She ran inside and called the cops. When people found out it was her, she became a "loser" nobody talked to her, all her friends turned there backs away from her. So Melinda resorted to her mind, where she stored her feelings, and never talked about them. This was such a good book, I got wrapped up in her mind and her thoughts, and I couldn't wait till the end to see what she did about her situation. I do recommend this book for a good read :) **Score: 9/10** Sophie’s World is a book about philosophy by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder. The protagonist of the book, Sophie Admunsen, discovers a mysterious letter one day. In it, two puzzling questions are presented to her: “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?” She soon receives another letter, thus beginning her philosophy course. Gaarder uses the voice of Sophie’s teacher, Alberto Knox, to give short and easy to understand lessons on the history and basic thought of philosophy. As Sophie learns more, she starts to see that her world is not as simple as it seems to be… The plot is extremely suspenseful and has a surprising twist near the end .The “lessons” are rather brief and only about the fundamentals of philosophical thought, but the examples used easily demonstrate the point. This is an excellent book for people who want an introduction to philosophy while enjoying an interesting plot at the same time.
 * __ Sophie’s World __**** by Jostein Gaarder **
 * Cindy Ling **
 * Score: 9.5/10**

**__Night__ by Elie Wiesel** **Jae Kwan Lee** Night is a book written by Elie Wiesel, and it’s about the Holocaust. The narrator/main character of the book is Eliezer, a Jewish teenager boy who lies in Transylvania, Hungary. Eliezer lives a normal, ordinary life in his hometown, until 1944, when the Nazis dominate Hungary. Eliezer’s family gets sent to Auschwitz (a concentration camp for Jews), where he gets separated from his mother and his three sisters. After the separation with his mom and his sisters, his dad and Eliezer never meet them again. This book is very tragic, filled with vivid imageries of the cruelty of the Nazis. Eliezer’s dad dies in Auschwitz, just before the American military comes to liberate them. Eliezer gets liberated after the American troops arrive. This book gives us the readers a much better understanding of how it was like back then, during the Holocaust. It is in a Jewish perspective, so the book is very heartbreaking. This book is filled with vivid imageries of the cruel Nazis and their actions, so I don’t recommend this book to people who can’t take these filthy graphic imageries. I recommend this book to people who want to learn more about how it was like for the Jews, during the Holocaust. **Score: 8.5/10**

**__I am the Cheese__ by Robert Cormier** **Jae Kwan Lee** I am the Cheese is a novel written by Robert Cormier. It’s about this boy (main character) Adam riding a bike to a hospital, trying to find his father. Adam is a teenage boy who lives in Monument, Massachusetts. Adam lives an ordinary life until the discovery of his family’s true identity. There are three parts to this novel, first one being Adam riding a bike to a hospital, to find his dad, second one being an interrogatory trying to help Adam reveal his memory, and the third one being Adam’s memory from the past. In my opinion, this book was very confusing because Cormier alternated the plot lines in the novel, and also the narratives. The story is also very fascinating as it shows how one’s identity can affect his behaviors, both internally and externally. I recommend this book to students/readers who enjoy unique books, which are written in an unusual way. **Score: 8/10**

**__Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck** **Jae Kwan Lee** This novel, written by John Steinbeck, is about these two workers, George and Lennie. Steinbeck uses juxtaposition with George and Lennie, so the readers can tell that the two workers are exactly the opposite. George is a small but intelligent man, while Lennie is a very big but unintelligent man. Throughout the story, Lennie makes a lot of mistakes and unwise decisions, and George complains about how Lennie had made his life miserable. Later in the story, George and Lennie spend time together helping each other since they have the same common goal, a dream of owning land for farm. The relationship between George and Lennie becomes more tightly bond as the story moves on. Once George and Lennie gets their new job, George warns Lennie to resist himself from causing any trouble, however, Lennie eventually makes a unwise choice by accidentally killing Curley’s wife, ending the story with tragedy. I recommend this book to people who enjoy like reading books about devoted friendship, and also a book about achieving goals. **Score: 8.5/10**

**__ Of Mice and Men __ by John Steinbeck ** ** Dana Tung **

In the novel __Of Mice and Men__, John Steinbeck evokes strong friendship through a tragic journey of George and Lennie. George is a small, smart, and caring guy who seems to be the exact opposite compared to Lennie who is big and unintelligent. While Lennie always makes mistakes and takes unwise decisions, George always complains about how Lennie has ruined in his life. However the common dream of owning land for farm that George and Lennie share strengthens their relationship throughout the many years they've spent together. When the pair gets their new job, although George warns Lennie again to stay out of trouble, Lennie doesn’t resist his trouble-making habits. In the end, Lennie accidently kills his colleague Curley’s wife leading to the tragic end. Throughout this journey, Steinbeck continuously uses foreshadowing to create tension leading to the tragedy of the story. Steinbeck also writes this short novel to deliver his themes of man’s predatory nature and male friendship to the readers. After all, despite the tragedy in __Of Mice and Men__, it is an insightful and suspenseful novel that I believe most people would enjoy reading. ** Score: 9/10 **

__**High Fidelity**__ **by Nick Hornby** **Eleen Wang** //High Fidelity// is a witty and quick story written by Nick Hornby, which features a thirty-something-year-old man called Rob Fleming. He's the owner of a record shop (Championship Vinyl) with only two employees, called Barry and Dick, whose personalities contrast deeply (though that could just be the juxtaposition of the characters), but is relatively cranky in the beginning of the book, due to the fact that Rob's girlfriend, Laura, left him. Business, like Rob's relationship, is not boding well. Rob constructs all sorts of lists along with Barry and Dick, the first of which include his most noteworthy break-ups (Laura, by the way, doesn't make the list). Having created that list, Rob goes on a sort of 'reconnecting' spree, in which he attempts to contact all of the girls in his top five memorable break-ups. This eventually helps Rob get back together with Laura, in addition to other things that have occurred. The relationship, now on track, helps Rob in his happiness, in his business, and in his (somewhat) new career as a DJ. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes music, or reading, or Nick Hornby's novels — anyone, really. It's funny and interesting and relatively relatable, seeing as some of Rob's emotions as a thirty-year-old are similar to those of teenagers. The plot, however, was a bit buried under the words and lists and subplots, so, as a reader, I sort of had to pick it out. **Score: 9/10**

__**The Emperor's Children**__ **by Claire Messud** **Eleen Wang** //The Emperor's Children//, by Claire Messud, follows the story of three best friends (all thirty-ish) and then two more. The three best friends are Danielle Minkoff, who is quite devoted to her job, but who is never really written about //doing// her job, except perhaps a bit in the first chapter; Marina Thwaite, whose father is a famous journalist, and who is a bit of a celebrity herself, if only because of her father (and who is attempting to write a story based on children's clothes and the parents who buy them); and Julius Clarke, whose relationship has hit a bit of a dead end, even though half of him wants to keep it going and the other one his finding solace in cheating on his boyfriend. It illustrates their life in New York City: how it is being best friends with a celebrity's daughter, overwhelming boyfriends, affairs, and what it's like when Marina's cousin, Bootie (whose birth name is Frederick), comes to New York on his own, out of the blue, trying to make a mark on the world. And then comes that fateful day in September, which truly changes everyone's lives, in both ways that are good and bad. The way Messud writes is absolutely stunning, and the novel, I find, is slightly more character-driven rather than plot-driven, which most stories are, these days. While first starting out, the story is a bit heavy with prose, and seems to lack a particular plot. Sometimes Messud's writing is so descriptive that I lost what it was she was describing in the first place. However later on I got used to this style of writing, and I found the book enjoyable, although at times a bit hard to get through. It's not very easy to relate to, and it's not light and refreshing, but it's something you can really sink your teeth into and really think about (even if, at times, you really, //really// morally oppose to what's happening). **Score: 9/10**


 * __White Fang__ by Jack London**
 * Daniel Xu**

White Fang, by Jack London starts out with two men, Henry and Bill struggling to survive in the wild. They are low on supplies and ammunition which is bad because they are being persued by a pack of wolves. The two men also have 6 dogs with them. Slowly, men realize that they are losing dogs. This is beccause a She wolf has been luring them away. Bill decides to shoot the she wolf which results in his death from the wolf pack. With only Henry left with little supplies and two dogs, he is in dire need of help. However, he is eventually rescued by another group of men in the wild. The story now is shifted to the perspective of the she wolf, who gives birth to several cubs, one being White Fang. With the rest of White Fang's brothers and sisters dying from famine, White Fang becomes one of the strongest in his pack. Later on, White Fang and his mother wander into an Indian camp where they are recongnized by a indian named Grey Beaver. At the camp, White Fang learns to obey man and has his mother taken away from him. White Fang gains the status of being a very ferocious and powerful dog. Then, a man named Beauty Smith tricks Grey Beaver into selling him White Fang. In the hands of his new owner, White Fang is treated horribly and forced to fight to win bets for Beauty Smith. During one fight, White Fang is almost killed but is saved by a man named Weedon Scott who takes White Fang away from Beauty Smith. With his new owner, White Fang learns to be friends with humans and become a civilized dog. White Fang then follows Scott when he is returning home. To me, this book was a great owner and companion story where White Fang slowly changes from a savage killer to slowly respect man. Overall, I recommend this book to all.
 * 9/10**


 * __The Catcher in the Rye__ by J.D. Salinger**
 * Daniel Xu**

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger is a story narrated by 16 year old Holden Caulfield during the 1950s. At the start of the story, we learn that Holden has been expelled from yet another school (his 4th to be exact). Irritated by the people at his school, Holden decides to return to Manhattan a few days early and spend a "vacation" before returning to his parents. In Manhattan he meets up with several people, talks about his wierd depressions and eventually meets his younger sister Pheobe. Holden tells Pheobe that he has been kicked out of another school which makes her dissapointed and mad. At this point, the reader learns that Holden wanted to be the "Catcher in the Rye" when he grew up. Which was a man catching kids if they were to fall off the cliff at their playing spot if they weren't careful. Later on when Holden tells Pheobe that he plans to leave home forever, Pheobe wants him to take her. Obviously, Holden refuses but he knows that she will follow. They end up going to the zoo and Holden buys a ticket for Pheobe to ride the carousel, watching her leaves Holden in tears. In the end, Holden plans to go back to school in the fall. This let me see some of the pains of growing up and having difficult time in the adolescent years. Overall I thought this book was very entertaining and that all teens should try this book out.
 * Score: 9/10**


 * __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck**
 * Daniel Xu**

George and Lennie are two migrant workers that are set out to start work at a nearby farm. With juxstaposition, the reader can tell that George and Lennie are nearly opposites of each other. George is small, cares of Lennie, and is quick tempered at times. Lennie on the other hand is a giant, respects George and is mentally disabled. When the two get to the nearby ranch, George lies to the boss about Lennie so that they would have a greater chance of being hired. On the farm, the two meet Candy, a handyman on the farm, Curley and his wife, and Slim, a very skilled mule driver. During their time on the farm, many of the characters admit at some point a dream they wish they could achieve, for example Curley's wife wishes she could be an actor. One day when when Curley's wife tries to console Lennie because he had killed a puppy given to him earlier, she learns that Lennie loves to pet soft things. Curley's wife offers to let Lennie feel her hair but when Lennie accidentally felt too hard, Curley's wife screams and Lennie breaks her neck accidentally in an attempt to silence her. Lennie flees and soon George joins him knowing what he did. Out of mercy, George shoots Lennie in the head and when the rest of the men arrive, George makes it seem like it was an accident when George tried to take the gun away from Lennie. In the end, only Slim knows that George did and takes him away while consoling him. This book presented me with a caring and devoted friendship between two friends. Throughout the book, George and Lennie look out for each other so they could slowly acheive their goal of earning their own land. This really got me to enjoy the book and I think that others would too.
 * Score: 9/10**


 * __Siddhartha__ by Hermann Hesse**
 * Daniel Xu**

This story narrates the life of Siddhartha, boy that is a Brahmin, which is the highest social class of India. Although he has very comfortable living conditions and a great family, he feels unhappy and questions the things his father tells him. One day when the Samanas are passing through town, Siddhartha becomes interested by their self- discipline and decides to leave to join them, his father approves of this. With his best friend Govinda, the two set out to find enlightenment with the Samanas. However, Siddhartha did not find enlightenment with the Samanas. The two hear about Gotama, the buddha and decide to set out to find him. When they finally find Gotama, Siddhartha disagrees with parts of the buddha's philosophy. As Govinda decides to follow Gotama, Siddhartha goes off to find his own philosophy. Later on, Siddhartha is attracted by materialism, which is almost the opposite of what he was practicing with the Samanas. Siddhartha soon finds Kamala, which he falls in love with. She tells Siddhartha that he should build up is wealth and status. Siddhartha does this by working with the merchant Kamaswami, the two help Siddhartha achieve both wealh and status but Siddhartha realizes that he is unhappy about this. As a result, he spends one more night with Kamala and leaves the next day leaving everything behind. Depress, Siddhartha considers committing suicide at the river. However, he hears the sound of the holy "Om" which seems like it has revived Siddhartha into a new person. After finding his own enlightenment, Siddhartha works with the ferryman Vasudeva. When the buddha is dying and that people must pass through the river to pay homage to him, Kamala passes by with a boy which turns out to be Siddhartha's son. Soon after when Kamala dies, the child is left into the care of Siddhartha. This book reminded me about the story of Siddhartha Gotama with its close resemblance. I also felt that the strong theme of Individualism allows readers to become more independent and seek their own happiness. Overall, I would recommend this book to any of my friends.
 * Score: 8/10**

__Speak__ is a great book wrote by Laurie Halse Anderson, which describes about Melinda Sordino’s; the narrator of the book life in her high school. She was a popular girl before the summer. But after the summer vacation, everyone in her school ignored her including her (ex-) best friend Rachelle Bruin. Here’s why this kind of situation had happened to her. Melinda met Andy Evan at a party before the summer. And Andy raped her, but she didn’t know what to say when she called 911. This had led the police to get to the party and ruins it. Melinda didn’t tell anyone about this happenings, and none of the ask either. But on the end of the book, the story changes from how Melinda had started. I highly recommend this book to the friends which likes to read about the school stories. I liked this book, especially at the end because it seems like it’s teaching us about a lesson.
 * __Speak__ by Laurie Halse Anderson**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 10 out of 10**

__The Infinite Plan__ by Isabel Allende is a book, which talks about the main character, Gregory Reeves and his family’s life. His family isn’t some of the rich people that we rarely see, but was the family which lives a nomadic life. This situations is where the title of the book has came from; __The Infinite Plan__. As the time flows in the book, the family get to live in the barrio and Gregory gets to feel like he is actually in the community. Then he leaves home for the goals that he has; college. This is a book with Gregory’s endless journey and quite a lot of adventures. I would like to recommend this book to the people who has interest in journey or adventures.
 * __The Infinite Plan__ by Isabel Allende**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 8 out of 10**

__I Am The Cheese__ is a fiction book written by Robert Cormier, which talks about it's character, Adam as the first person narration. Adam talks about (during) the bicycle journey; what happens, and what the situation is like. The book also talks about he’s past life and talking with a counselor. The story is quite complicated by Adam thinking and feeling something weird about his life. He didn’t even realize having any cousins when he had an aunt. I strongly recommend this book to the people who likes reading complex books, which needs quite a lot of thinking to understand and get the idea of the book.
 * __I Am The Cheese__ by Robert Cormier**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 7 out of 10**

__ **Water For Elephants** __ **by Sara Gruen** **Ashley Chen** __ Water for Elephants __ by Sara Gruen is a captivating thriller surrounding Jacob Jankowski. The novel has two story lines. In one, Jacob is 93 years old and lives in a nursing home. He describes his encounters with rude nurses who treat him like an old lunatic. Only one of the nurses is friendly to him and treats him like a real person—Rosemary. To pass the time in the nursing home, Jacob recalls his days in the circus. This leads to the second story line. In this story line, Jacob is about to finish his veterinary degree at Cornell and enter into his family’s veterinary business when his parents die in a car accident. Jacob is left with absolutely nothing and spontaneously runs away from Cornell. He winds up accidentally jumping aboard a circus train that belongs to the circus group—Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. While working in the circus, Jacob falls in love with the beautiful circus performer—Marlena. Unfortunately, Marlena is married to August, the man in charge of the animal acts. As the novel progresses, Jacob’s life in the circus is explored and Gruen steadily introduces dangers that threatens everyone in the circus and even the circus itself. Throughout __ Water for Elephants __, Gruen explores the themes of love, confinement, freedom, suffering, the fact that nobody is black or white, and many other themes. __ Water for Elephants __ is a truly fantastic book. It is filled with vivid images, round characters, and numerous points of high tension. Furthermore, all the events, characters, and their actions are seamlessly woven together to lead to one riveting ending. I would definitely recommend this book for others to read! **Score: 10/10**

**__ Lord of the Flies __**** by William Golding ** ** Dana Tung ** ­__Lord of the Flies__ by William Golding sets a suspenseful story of a small group of British boys under thirteen after a plane crash on a deserted uninhabited island. The plane crash left no adults but these boys including Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon. When Piggy finds a conch and Ralph uses it to gather all the survivors on the island, Ralph is voted to be the chief or the leader of the island. Ralph states that they should have fun on the island and keep a fire or smoke so they can be discovered and rescued. At the same time, Jack and his group is assigned to hunt and Simon’s group to make shelters. As these boys try to govern and thrust for power for themselves, chaos arrives with a beast that is created internally in the boys’ minds. This then leads to violent wars and conflicts in the boys. In the end when a Naval officer discovers the boys, it can be clearly seen the loss of innocence in the boys and their brutal behaviors. I was especially captivated by the changes that take place in the boys both internally and externally after having power and authority on the island. After all __Lord of the Flies__ is a symbolic story which successfully creates the theme of contrast between civilization and savagery. ** Score: 9/10 **

**__The Island of Dr. Moreau__ By H.G. Wells****Daniel Xu** The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells, is a creepy science fiction story which even had me disturbed by some of the events in the story. The story is about the protagonist named Pendrick, who is retrieved by Dr. Moreau and his assistant Montgomery when he was shipwrecked in the ocean. They bound for an unnamed island where Dr. Moreau conducts his studies and experiments. Pendrick is kept in an outer enclosure where he grows more curious on what Dr. Moreau studies, however Pendrick remembers that he has heard of the doctor before and that he conducts experiments in vivisection. The next day when Pendrick wanders on the island, he discovers a group of "humans" that have a resemblance to hogs. When Pendrick is walking back to his enclosure, he realizes he is being chased by some sort of hybrid animal man, Pendrick manages to successfully flee and return to his enclosure. On the next day, Pendrick finds a human form in bandages which is believed to be dead. Pendrick jumps to the conclusion that Dr. Moreau is vivisecting humans and that he was his next victim. Pendrick flees and finds a group of Ape men and stays in their colony for a while. When Moreau bursts into the colony, Pendrick makes a run for it to the ocean where he plans to drown himself instead of becoming a half human half animal. However, Moreau explains to Pendrick that he is trying to make complete transformation from animal to human and does not want to conduct tests on Pendrick. As Pendrick begins life on the island, a puma Dr. Moreau was conducting experiments on escaped, as Moreau tries to take back the puma, they end up killing each other. As the Island of Dr. Moreau begins to fall apart, Montgomery gets drunk and is killed. Being the only human left on the island. Pendrick escapes the island by ship. The only problem is that Pendrick finds it weird living with other humans again, so he results in confronting him in solitude, studying chemistry and astronomy. This book was very creepy for me as a imagined all of the horrifying vivisections and deformed animal human people. There was also this sadness that I felt when imagining all the unfortunate animals that were failed experience of Dr. Moreaus gruesome experiments. Overall, this book was delightfully creepy for me and I would recommend to all who enjoy science fiction and don't mind a creepy story. **9/10** **__Lord of the Flies__ By William Golding****Daniel Xu** Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, tells the story of a group of school boys from Britain that have been left plane-wrecked on a deserted island in the midst of a war. As the boys contest for power against each other, they miss the chance of attracting a boat in order to save them. Later on, a firefight breaks out over the island and a dead parachuter falls to the island. Two of the boys in the group, Sam and Eric find the parachuter and believed it was the beast of the island, causing the boys to flee and report their findings to the other boys. At this point, the group of schoolboys has begun to split into two "tribes" with their leaders being Jack and Ralph. As the boys gradually go power-hungry, Simon realizes that the beast does not exist as an actual being, but that it resides inside the body. When Simon returns to the camp, he is killed by his fellow schoolmates. As more fights break out, Piggy is killed and Ralph barely manages to escape. Later on, he is discovered by a Naval officer who makes the boys realize what they have become. This results in all the boys weeping over their actions. This book has a strong theme of decline in morals and reveals the hidden savagery in man. As the book went on, all the boys begin to live by their own rules and hunger for more power. Slowly, many of the boys lost sight of humanity and began to kill each other. I felt that this book was very successful at conveying this theme to the reader and that I would recommended it to anyone who is interested in island survival or themes of savagery. **8/10**

**__Impossible by Nancy Werlin__** **Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

Lucy sometimes remembers her real mother, Miranda. Nobody knows why she has gone mad until she finds an old diary of Miranda. It explains why her mother has gone mad and the curse upon the women of her family throughout the generations. She must complete three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon her child’s birth. However, she’s not alone. She has Zach, who helps to overcome both physical and mental difficulties to clear the mission. The beginning of the book was very interesting with Miranda’s reappearance and throwing the glasses to her own daughter, showing the madness and creating a tension and suspense in the book. Later, by having Gray’s child and being left alone after his suicide by car accident, she feels scared for her destiny but Zach stays besides her and asks her for marriage. However, throughout the journey to complete the missions were rather boring than exciting, emphasizing Lucy and Zach’s love more than using the time limit of the baby born and creating some conflicts between the characters. Also, the conclusion didn’t end in a very smooth way but in a sudden with futility. There should be some improvements in connecting the whole plot and leading to either a short and powerful conclusion or long and flowing conclusion. However, I get the theme of this book, love is powerful than anything else in the world.

**Score: 7.5/10**

__**Sword of Shannara**__ By Terry Brooks James Zhang This is an epic fantasy following Shea and friends in their journey to the Sword of Shannara. Two thousand years ago, man was at its height. Technology was at its peak when a great world war happened with nuclear warfare. The nuclear bombs nearly wiped the entire planet, and the radiation mutated the last surviving humans. The humans then mutated into different forms, which are named after creatures of old. They are men, gnomes, dwarves, trolls, and elves based on their physical characteristics. Instead of science, magic has found its way back into society as the world fell back into the dark ages. 250 years ago, the Warlock Lord came up in an attempt to take over the world. The elven king, Jerle Shannara, with his weapon the Sword of Shannara, was the only way to defeat the Warlock Lord. The Sword of Shannara is the only weapon that can damage him. Only a person with Shannara blood in him or her can wield the sword. In the present day, the Warlock Lord reincarnated and is more powerful than ever. He had wiped out every last bloodline of Jerle Shannara, except for one unkown half-elf, half-man known as Shea. When Shea discovers his destiny of finding the Sword of Shannara to defeat the Warlock Lord, he embarks on a great journey that tests every ounce of his strength. This book is outstanding and a page-turner. It is as good of a plot as the Lord of the Rings, however it isn’t poorly written at all. The most powerful aspect of this novel is the plot. There is huge suspense created within every chapter and there is a lot of action. Readers would automatically want to read every page right when they start. I would definitely recommend this book to others. **Score: 10/10**

**__The Associate__ by John Grisham** **Jae Kwan Lee** This book is based in part of the case of a Las Vegas man who, as part of his Alcoholics Anonymous program, wrote a letter of apology to a woman he raped at a party in 1984. At that time, the woman’s claim to the police and the school officials had been ignored, but nineteen years his admission of guilt resulted in being punished and charged with rape and eventually ended up serving six months in prison. Kyle McAvoy is an athlete star and the editor of the Yale Law Journal who is offered to work for law firms. Kyle’s life has been great until a man; Bennie Wright appears in his life. Bennie has the videotape of Kyle also raping the same woman back in his college year, so Bennie blackmails Kyle. Bennie orders Kyle to steal files from the law firm that Kyle was working in. Later in the story, Kyle escapes from Bennie and decides to get help from the police. In the end, they bring down Bennie. This is a thrilling book that is somewhat scary, but it surely isn’t a book for everybody. I recommend this book to people who enjoy mysterious crimes.

**Score 8/10**

**__Mockingjay__ by Suzanne Collins** **Jae Kwan Lee** This book is the third book of the Hunger Games series, where it is still about Katniss Everdeen and her adventure. Katniss Everdeen is now in District 13 with her family and Gale, while the Capitol has Peeta. In District 13, Katniss acts as the “Mockingjay” (the face of the rebellion against the Capital). District 12 had been bombed and from Gale’s help, now the survivors in the District 12 are all in District 13. Most of the Districts are uniting for a rebellion against the Capital, however later in the story; Katniss discovers that District 13’s leader Coin is an enemy of her. Coin uses Katniss for her benefit and she’s just as bad as the Capital and President Snow. In result of the rebellion, numerous people die, and Katniss ends up killing Coin instead of President Snow. A Snow die anyways later in the story, and Katniss and Peeta marries in the end. I suggest this book to people who enjoyed the previous books of this series. This book is filled with thrilling battles and violence of the rebellion and war, so I suggest this book to people who enjoy reading books that are filled with fighting scenes.

**Score: 8.5/10**

**__Hatchet__ by Gary Paulsen** **Jae Kwan Lee** This book is about a boy named Brian who survives an airplane crash due to the pilot’s heart attack, and is determined to survive in the Canadian woods. Brian is a thirteen years old boy from New York City, who heads to Canadian north woods to visit his father. His parents are divorced, so he spends separate times with both of his parents. On his way to meet his father, the pilot gets a heart attack and the plane crashes into a deserted forest in the Canadian woods. Brian is injured from the crash, but soon recovers and starts to build a shelter, and hunt for food in order to survive. During the end of the book, there’s a tornado, and after the tornado goes away, Brian discovers that the tornado riled up the water in the lake, where the tail of the plane had emerged from the lake. In result Brian swims, and goes into the plane to get the survival pack. In the end a plane rescues Brian. I suggest this book to people who enjoy adventurous books. This book is filled with adventures of Brian. Throughout Brian’s adventure he learns how to survive in the woods. This book is also filled with suspense. I personally enjoyed this book a lot!

**Score 9.5/10**

**“Catching Fire” - Book Review - Gero Kassing**

The book “Catching Fire” is the second book of “The Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It continues the fictional story of Katniss Everdeen and the futuristic nation of Panem. In the first book, “The Hunger Games” Katniss’ sister was forced by law to become a tribute, because she was only 12 Katniss volunteered in order to save her life. She and the other tribute from District 12 both win, which is against the rules because the Hunger Games can only have one victor, therefore Katniss and the other tribute broke the law. Nevertheless, Peeta and Katniss together have to go on the victory tour, in order to pay their respects to the other dead tributes’ parents. During this tour, Peeta and Katniss notice that some of the Districts have a little bit of an uprising. When the tour ends, Katniss returns to District 12 to live her life. Through an unlucky coincidence Katniss is forced to return to the arena and fight again, because this year at the 75th annual Games, its the Quarter Quell. This years Quarter Quell is that the tributes will be chosen from the pool of victors that each District Has. Because Katniss was the only girl to ever win the Games from District 12, she is doomed to return. The other two male tributes from District 12 are Peeta - last years co-victor, and Haymitch. When Haymitch gets chosen, Peeta volunteers because he wants to protect Katniss. When the games finally start, and the tributes are all in the arena, hell breaks lose as the obviously try to survive. Katniss creates an alliance with some people and they all fight together. But Katniss’ allies have something else in mind than just one victor, they devise - without letting Katniss or Peeta know - a plan, in order to break out of the arena. So when the time comes, Katniss takes an arrow with a wire attached to it into the force field that surrounds the arena, hereby breaking the force field. A hovercraft appears and picks Katniss up. When she wakes up, she wonders where she is, she leaves her bed and walks into a room with three people. Haymitch, Flinnick - another tribute, and Pulmitch - the Head Gamemaker. They sit her down and start tell her the story. There is a District 13 that has survived over the last 75 years since the revolution, and that is where they are heading. This is a great book and I really recommend it to anyone. 10/10

**“The Associate” - Book Review - Gero Kassing**

The Associate is a thriller novel written by John Grisham, it does not have any sequels. The story starts off with an alcoholic in rehab, part of their program is to write letters of apology to people that they might have harmed. This certain man writes a letter to a girl that he supposedly raped in college. However back then, the charges against the rapists were dismissed due to the lack of evidence and circumstances - they were at a fraternity party that got kind of out of hand. But due to the letter where the accused had given his admission, the victim re-opened her case, and he was charged with rape. After a plea-bargaining, he served six months in prison. Kyle McAvoy is a star athlete and editor of the Yale Law Journal who is offered to work for law firms as a $200,000-a-year associate. Everything seems to be going just right, when suddenly a man, who goes by the name of Bennie Wright turns up. Bennie has come for blackmail, and Kyle has no choice but to meet his demands. Back in college, Kyle was part of that “rape” but as it was never proven he was never sentenced. But now, Bennie has a video tape, that clearly shows how two of his friends had sex with a girl. Even though Kyle never participated, he was still there, and Bennie, who has somehow acquired a the video threatens to make it public. In order to avoid the release of the video, Kyle needs to steel important files from the law firm that he is working for. Kyle does as he is order for a long time, but one day, he has had enough and he escapes. The story progresses with Kyle finding two of his friends with whom he supposedly raped the girl. They try to find out what to do, and think of going to the police. However, the alcoholic of their group, who actually had sex with the girl, goes to her and apologizes. Late that day, he gets murdered by Bennies people Kyle and his friends are scared to death now, they go to the police and devise a plan on how to bring Bennie down. The plan includes meeting with Bennie and then breaching the room. Its successful and everybody is happy. This is a thrilling and exciting book, but I do not think that its a book for everybody. 9/10

**“The Catcher in the Rye” - Book Review - Gero Kassing**

The Catcher in the Rye is about sixteen year of Holden Caulfield who yet again, is expelled from another school. He leaves school shortly before the end of term and goes to New York to “take a vacation” before returning to his parents’ wrath. Once in new NY, he describes his nervous breakdowns, unexplained depression, and other things prior to his eventual nervous collapse. On one of the nights, he goes to his house again, wakes up his sister and talks to her. Then he leaves again with a bit more cash and some new clothes and remembers the time, when his sister asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he said, that there was a field, where kids would play, but there was a cliff, and if the children were not careful they could fall, so what he wanted to be was the guy who catches the children, he wanted to be the “Cather in the Rye.” The novel ends with Holden going back home with a different attitude because he has realized from the days that he spent alone, that he needs to get his act straight. This book is great for guys who are in their teens, otherwise do not read it because then you can’t connect to the character.
 * __ 8/10 __**

Mockingjay concludes the Hunger Games series with the overthrowing of the Capitol. Katniss is now in the secret District 13, acting as the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion. Peeta, whom she resolved to protect in the previous book, is in the hands of the Capitol and used as a psychological weapon against her. The rebels are able to unite most of the districts, starting a full scale rebellion. However, it is gradually revealed that District 13 and its leader, President Coin, are not exactly the “good guys” either. President Coin uses Katniss to her own ends and there is just as much cruelty in District 13 as in the Capitol. There is much more violence of actual war in this book, which I believe all of us can relate to better than the horrors of the previous books. The story progressed steadily and ended with a surprising twist. The theme of the series changed with this ending, which was a bit awkward, but I liked the idea that it conveyed: no governments are really “good” (Much like one of the themes of Animal Farm).
 * __ Mockingjay __**** by Suzanne Collins **
 * Cindy Ling **
 * Score: 8/10 **

By Charles Dickens James Zhang __Oliver Twist__ is a classic detailing the life of young Oliver Twist within England during the 19th century. Oliver’s mom had died while giving birth to him and now Oliver is an orphan. Surviving through poverty and hunger within the orphanage, Oliver Twist eventually finds his way to London, where he joins a gang of thieves unknowingly. From there, Oliver discovers friends, love, and the truth of his lineage because of the people around him. This book is a truly heart warming story where at the beginning Oliver is near dying from starvation and in the end is surrounded by love. The theme of poverty is evident throughout the whole book. No matter where Oliver went or stayed, he was always still exposed to those in poverty and starvation. In fact, all the thieves within the story were driven down that route because of poverty. As Nancy, one of the thieves puts it, they had no other choice than to continue down that path towards thievery because of poverty. Something I disliked about this book was how badly the chapters were titled. For example, one of the chapters were titled, “Where Nancy tries to keep her promise. She failed.” This title just completely spoiled the chapter and quite frankly made this chapter a bit of a drag for me. This book overall was still a good read and exposes people to the truth on how money was distributed back then through the theme about poverty.
 * __Oliver Twist__**
 * Score: 10/10**

__ **Of Mice and Men** __ **by John Steinbeck** **Ashley Chen** __ Of Mice and Men __ by John Steinbeck is a tragic novel surrounding the friendship between George Milton and Lennie Small. It takes place during the Great Depression in the United States of America. George and Lennie are two ranch workers who travel together from ranch to ranch. George is small, smart, and the leader of the pair, while Lennie is big, unintelligent, and follows George’s every word. At the beginning of the novel, the pair have just ran away from their previous ranch after Lennie unintentionally hurts a woman and are on their way to a job at another ranch. Lennie’s ignorance has a tendency to get him into trouble and George repeatedly warns Lennie to stay out of trouble for they have to save enough money to fulfill their dream of buying their own ranch and being their own masters. At the new ranch, dangerous elements to George and Lennie’s dream are introduced and foreshadowing is repeatedly used to lead up to the novel’s tragic ending. The novel explores the themes of man’s predatory nature, friendship, and the American dream. The first two themes were relatable to me because I often see those themes in life. Steinbeck effectively uses foreshadowing to create suspense in the novel, causing the reader to eagerly keep on reading until the very last page. However, a minor weakness in the novel is that the tragedy of the novel leaves the reader with a dreary feeling at the end of the book. Overall, __ Of Mice and Men __ is a powerful book that most people would appreciate. **Score: 9/10**

__ **The Reader** __ **by Bernhard Schlink** **Ashley Chen** __ The Reader __ by Bernhard Schlink is a novel about Michael Berg, a 15-year-old boy, who falls in love and has a relationship with Hanna Schmitz, a woman twice his age. They have a passionate relationship, but Hanna often confuses Michael with her isolated emotions. One day, Hanna disappears and Michael is heartbroken. However, he sees her again years later when she is on trial for a Nazi crime. Because of their previous relationship, Michael believes he owes her something and spends the rest of the novel trying to pay his debt to her. As he watches her trial, he discovers the secret Hanna is guarding which she believes is so shameful that she is willing to be convicted for a more serious crime than she actually committed in order to protect her secret. Throughout the book, Schlink explores the post-World War 2 generations’ struggle with approaching the generation that took part in the monstrosities that occurred during the war. The themes of guilt, blame, betrayal, shame, and love were explored in the novel. __ The Reader __ ’s major strength is that it is a highly morally inquisitive novel and though the themes weren’t relatable to me, they really make you think about “What would you have done?” (Schlink, page 128) and the effects of the themes mentioned above. However, I personally disliked the age gap between Michael and Hanna, though I understand it is necessary for the book’s themes. I also found that Hanna was too lightly condemned for her crime and her secret shouldn’t have lightened the atrocity of her crime. Overall, __ The Reader __ is still a valuable piece of literature despite my personal distastes regarding the book. I would recommend it for others to read. **Score: 8/10**

__ **The Book Thief** __ **by Mark Zusak** **Lydia Filipe** This is a historical fiction novel set in Nazi Germany. The main character is Liesel Meminger, a young girl who faces many hardships throughout the novel. She is given up by her mother at the beginning of the novel and lives with the kind Hans Hubermann and his wife, Rosa Hubermann. She is haunted by nightmares because of the death of her younger brother, so at night Hans comforts her and teaches her how to read. They start with the Grave Digger’s Handbook, which she found in the cemetery where her brother was buried. Throughout the novel she is sometimes given, but usually steals, various books and has a profuse love for reading. She befriends many people, including the cheeky Rudy Steiner, the mayor’s wife Ilsa Hermann and the Jew who comes to hide in their basement, Max Vandenberg. The book is narrated by Death, who is omniscient as well as being ubiquitous. The technique of foreshadowing is constantly used in the book. It creates suspense because the reader doesn’t know how or why the event happens. There are many themes in the book, such as guilt and abandonment. Those are feelings that most people feel so they make it easier to relate to the main character. There are also the theme of good and evil. The book shows both negative and positive aspects of the characters and humans in general, showing that people aren't truly good or truly bad. I fully enjoyed the book and though there are many sad parts, it is not as overwhelmingly sad as many WW2 novels.

**Score: 10/10**

In the novel __Sold__, Patricia McCormick describes a journey of a thirteen-year-old girl named Lakshmi who lives in a poor village in Napal. When the harsh Himalayan monsoons destroys her family’s crops, her family seems to be depended on Lakshmi as her stepfather asks her to take a job as a maid in the city. Lakshmi, an innocent girl who hopes to work so hard that her parents would be proud of her, is sold by a series of different people and finally to the “Happiness House” in India. However, she soon realizes that she has been sold into prostitution. Being trapped with sexual slavery under an old woman named Mumtaz, Lakshmi has no choice but to obey and pay off her family’s debt. This novel is special because McCormick incorporates a lot of poetic devices where each sentence in the novel seems short but holds a lot of meaning to it. Moreover, the novel gives a great insight to sexual slavery in India and the corruption of slavery and police organizations to the readers. Overall, __Sold__ is a meaningful short novel that I believe many people would enjoy reading it.
 * __ Sold __**** by Patricia McCormick **
 * Dana Tung **
 * Score: 10/10 **

Prep, written by Curtis Sittenfeld, is an insightful, engaging, and realistic novel about the adolescence of a fourteen-year-old girl named Lee Flora in her new prep school in Massachusetts named Ault. Sittenfeld describes Lee’s journey throughout her four years at Ault. When Lee first arrives, she becomes an outsider who barely has any friends or talks to any boys. While Lee develops complicated relationships with teachers and girls, and starts to have a big crush on her schoolmate Cross Sugarman, she creates conflicts with her parents and within herself. These special experiences slowly change Lee’s values in friendship, school, and love and finally lead Lee to her unique identity in the Ault community. This novel always reminded me of the novel, __Looking for Alaska__ by John Green as they both describe fascinating incidents that happen in boarding schools, and reflect the themes of friendship, love, and changes in adolescence. After all, I was captivated by how Lee faced and overcame all of the suspenseful incidents and conflicts with friends, teachers, and boyfriend at Ault. I would strongly recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in teenage drama.
 * __ Prep __**** by Curtis Sittenfeld **
 * Dana Tung **
 * Score: 10/10**

Robert Cormier’s __I Am the Cheese__ is a suspenseful story of Adam Farmer’s journey in search of his and his family’s true identity. Cormier skillfully creates suspense, foreshadow, and dramatic irony by alternating two plot lines in the novel. One is where Adam Famer pedals his bicycle from Monument, Massachusetts to Rutterburg, Vermont where he could meet his father. On top of this, Cormier adds specific descriptions of tape recordings where a man called Brint helps Adam figure out his past and experiences. When the plot is alternated between the two, the readers slowly puzzle out that Adam Farmer and his parents have a different identity, which has always been pressuring their lives to near death situations. Overall, the plot of the story is very engaging as it reflects how one’s identity can affect his or her behaviors both internally and externally. I would strongly recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in the process of collecting clues and figuring out the truth.
 * __ I Am the Cheese __**** by Robert Cormier **
 * Dana Tung **
 * Score: 10/10**

Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger Games series, follows Katniss Everdeen’s life as a victor of the Games and participant of the third Quarter Quell. There have been uprisings in the Districts because of her act of rebellion at the end of the previous Games and President Snow has threatened to harm her family and friends. However, as the Capitol becomes less and less tolerant and starts to hurt those associated with her, Katniss begins to have doubts about continuing to obey them. Just as she was contemplating the thought of running away or starting her own rebellion, the rules of the Quarter Quell “coincidentally” happen to be that the participants are chosen from previous winners. Because Katniss is the only female winner in District 12, she has to participate. This book is an interesting sequel to the first book, but parts of it are too brief and seem more like a recap of events, giving readers a distanced feeling to the story. The climax at the end provided a surprising turn of events, leaving the readers wanting to know what will happen next.
 * __ Catching Fire __**** by Suzanne Collins **
 * Cindy Ling **
 * Score: 9/10 **

__**Liar**__ **by Justine Larbalestier** __Liar__ by Justine Larbalestier is a fiction book, about this girl named “Micah” lying most of the times. In the beginning of the book, she lies to her friends and teachers; people in school that she is a boy. Because she thinks that being a girl can’t really get her to play with the boys. Since the boys don’t pass or let girls play part of the games, she lies that she’s a boy and gets caught. After that, all the people thinks and knows her as a liar. She gets to go out with a boy and finds him dead one day. As the book goes on, it tells the readers why and how she was so good at running and other sports. Also, she becomes honest and truthful unlike how she was like in the beginning of the book. I find this book interesting, and felt very curious on how the story would go on. I strongly recommend this book to the people which likes a “complexed” story.
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 10 out of 10**

__ **The Quiet American** __ **by Graham Greene** **Ashley Chen** __ The Quiet American __ by Graham Greene is a grim novel that takes place in French Indochina during the First Indochina War. The novel is centered around Thomas Folwer’s recollections of his experiences with Alden Pyle after Pyle is discovered dead under a bridge. Thomas Fowler is a British reporter assigned in Vietnam to report on the developments in the battles between several groups fighting for control of the government and to kick the French out of Vietnam. Fowler prides himself in being completely uninvolved in the fighting and his ability to just report the facts. However, his whole life is changed when he meets the young, innocent, American, idealist, Alden Pyle. Not only is Pyle intent on stealing Fowler’s Vietnamese mistress, Phuong, Pyle is also determined to bring democracy to Vietnam based on ideas he read about in the author, York Harding’s, books. As Fowler and Pyle’s friendship grows and as Pyle’s well-intentioned actions start to cause more harm than good, Fowler finds it increasingly difficult to remain an observer anymore. Greene explores the themes of the destructiveness of war, taking sides, impossible love, and the price of innocence. These themes are not really relatable to me but they are powerful themes nevertheless. I really enjoyed Fowler’s cynical narration in the novel as well as the powerful themes Greene explored in the book. However, some parts of the book are a little too slow for my taste. Overall, __ The Quiet American __ is a beautifully written book and I think many people will enjoy reading it. **Score: 9/10**

__Lyra's Oxford__ by Phillip Pullman James Zhang This book is a very nice spin-off of the original series starring Lyra after the main trilogy ended. It is about Lyra in Oxford where she meets a bird. This bird tells Lyra strange events that pull her into a mini adventure. This book is a great spin-off of the original. It is a very entertaining story, but doesn't ruin the main trilogy or itself. Score: 10/10 (Only if you read the original trilogy first)

__Hatchet__ Parker Wilde This book is a very good book. It is an adventure book. It is about a boy who gets stranded in the wilderness for several days and only has a hatchet with him which is his survival tool. I would rate this book a 9/10. It is extremely suspenseful. Great book.
 * Gary Paulsen**

__Eagle Strike__ Parker Wilde This is also a very good book. It is a spy book about a young boy going undercover to stop a nuclear launch. This book is a very suspenseful book and always kept me reading on. I would rate this book a 9/10.
 * Anthony Horowitz**

__Stormbreaker__ Parker Wilde This book is very good; it is also about a young spy who goes undercover at a school where they are doing illegal things. It is a very addicting book and if you like spies and those kinds of books you would love this book. I would rate this book a 9/10.
 * Anthony Horowitz**

__The Maze Runner__ Parker Wilde This book was one of the best books I have ever read. It is so suspenseful. It is a very hard book though. There is many big words, and at some times hard to follow, but the climax and the story line is amazing! It is about a boy in a gang, and they live alone in a maze and they have jobs through out the maze, and many things go wrong. I would rate this book a 10/10 for sure.
 * James Dashner**


 * Night **
 * Elie Wiesel **

This book is about a Jewish boy Eliezer and his family that has been unfortunately involved in the Second World War. They were living in Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania. His life was peaceful before the Nazis occupied Hungary in the spring of 1944. They were taken into ghetto, then to the concentration camp Auschwitz. Through the process of this, his father and him were grouped in the male section, whereas his mother and sister were sent to another location because they were females, Eliezer never saw them again. Him and his father were transported from camp to camp in harsh conditions, many of their friends died along the way. They were practically in living hell. Eliezer serves as a middleman between the author and the reader. Everything the author wants to say about his own past is described through the eyes of a fictional character Eliezer. This young boy in the story stood up strongly against all that is happening, and yet he often asks god why the Jewish race had to suffer through all this. His journey in the book Is really remarkable. All the despair and fear of death prepared him for whatever lies in his life after the liberation. The main theme of this book is “Even a good soul could change”. Eliezer initially took care for his father during the camp, teaching him how to properly march so he wouldn’t get beaten, sharing his own ration of food so that his father wouldn’t be hungry. However, after he witnessed how a teenager just like him gave up on helping his father in order to help himself, the evil spurts out of his heart. He still cared for his father but deep down inside, his initial love was gone, replaced by a heart that values its own conditions more than anything else. The strength of this book is that the description is really realistic due to the fact that the author somewhat experienced it himself. It puts you to a point where you could feel the fear and despair of the prisoners in the camp, and the atmosphere the author created was just stunning. In addition, he uses clear, simple language so that the readers could understand more. The only weakness of this book I think is that it is a bit too short, and that the ending came all in a sudden. However, the author should not be blamed for this as it was from a personal experience, not imaginary. I would give this book a 7/10 for anyone who is interested in reading a person’s journey through a living hell.

Suzanne Collins Adrian Cheung The Hunger Games is a tournament, or a method, that is used for the capitol to suppress its twelve districts from rebelling. Every 4 years, a boy and a girl from each district were to be selected through random and sent to the capitol to compete in The Hunger Games, a deadly tournament that only allowed 1 out of the 24 contestants to survive. The district that winner is in will then receive sufficient food and supplies to last through years, which is something to greatly appreciate as many families had problems to feed themselves everyday. This book is about Katniss, a girl from district twelve, replacing her little sister to participate in the hunger games. She suffered greatly from emotional complications such as worrying what would happen if she left her sister and mother to live without her support. In addition, she is also troubled about the boy contestant chosen from distant twelve, Peeta, because in this situation of life and death, any friend could backstab you the next moment. But peter isn’t just a friend, earlier on in the years, Peeta, the son of the baker, gave enough food for Katniss and her family, who were almost starving to death, to eat. In many ways, Katniss thinks that she will have to kill the person that saved her life. So with all this trouble, she stepped into The Hunger Games. Katniss, the protagonist, eventually overcome these emotional problems throughout the games. In addition, in the beginning of the games, the reason she was trying was because she was holding on to a responsibility, to never allow her family to starve. Later on the game, she made a friend. Throughout their time together, she learns the feeling of having someone the same gender for her. One theme of this book is “ Diversity between social classes”. In the book, the candidates to participate for the hunger games were all chosen from the districts, where many people have problems trying to find tomorrow’s meal. However, the people from the capitol have a huge difference. They dress up in fashionable clothing, eats well, and are generally living a luxurious life. So when the rich people from the capitol are eating and laughing and watching the TV, they could see the ordinary people from the districts fight to their death on one of the channels. I do not relate to this theme as I live in a completely different world with social classes, but not to a point where the poor just were cast into a fight of death. I find the strength of this book to mainly lie in the setting. The author has an entire world to show to the readers, and he uses the third person view to convey this world. The weakness of this book is mainly with the first part of the book. The book is quite slow in the first part, making the reader quite bored unless they are extremely anticipating that book. The author places too much attention into character development, and I think slowed down the plot. I would rate this book 9/10 because I really enjoyed it despite all the flaws and I think many others will.
 * The Hunger Games **

This book is about a fireman Montag, who burns books as his job. The setting of the book is held in a futuristic America. The job of a fireman is to burn books, rather than put out the fire. The people in this society are forbidden to read books. They also don’t spend time by themselves, think independently, socialize in a meaningful way, or enjoy nature. The people in this society take most of their time listening to “Seashell Radio” which is attached to their ears, or watching a wall-sized TV. The story begins when Montag meets this seventeen years old girl named Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse McClellan is very different from most of the people in her society. She enjoys nature and also loves reading books. She isn’t satisfied with her society. Clarisse opens Montag’s eyes to the emptiness of his life, and makes him think whether he is really happy with what who is he and what he does right now. Throughout the book, Montag starts to dislike his life and steals books, and begins to rebel against the society to start a new world. I recommend this book to people who like to read books about the futuristic world.
 * __Fahrenheit 451__ by Ray Bradbury**
 * Jae Kwan Lee**


 * Score: 8/10**

This book is about two gangs Greasres, and Socs (Socials). These two gangs are rivals, who are gangs formed of guys. In the beginning of the story, the Socs threaten Ponyboy, saying that they will slit his throat, but a group of greasers come and chases the Socs away. One day Ponyboy (main character) and Johnny go to the theater to watch a movie with Dally. They say behind attractive girls from Soc (Socials). Dally flirts with the Socs girls, and nearly harasses them. Johnny stops Dally from harassing the Soc girls, and Dally walks away. After the movie, Two-Bit arrives and they begin to walk the Soc girls to Two-Bit’s house so he can drive them home. On their way, they meet up with Socs, Bob and Randy, the girls’ drunken boyfriends. The girls walk away with their boyfriends in order to prevent a fight. Once Ponyboy gets home, Darry is furious with him. They begin to argue and eventually start fighting. In result, Ponyboy runs away from house, and finds Johnny. After they meet a bunch of Socs and begin to fight. In result of the fight, Ponyboy gets knocked out and once he wakes up, he sees Bob lying dead next to him. He finds out that Johnny had killed him to prevent the Socs from drowning Ponyboy. Later in the story, they look for Dally Winston for help of Bob’s death. I recommend this book to people who enjoy reading books filled with thrilling actions and intense fighting scenes.
 * __The Outsiders__ by S. E. Hinton**
 * Jae Kwan Lee**


 * Score: 9/10**

This is the second book of the Hunger games series, and it is still about Katniss Everdeen and the futuristic nation of Panem. In this book, the Capitol gets every Victors from the past Hunger Games from each district, and state that they must compete in the 75th hunger games. Katniss and Peeta the two victors of the 74th hunger games just desire for peaceful future, but the Capitol are angry about what they did during the 74th hunger game. They outsmarted them by trying to commit a suicide. The capitol wants them to lie to the audiences to prevent a rebellion. If they fail, both their families and their entire district could be in danger of President Snow’s wrath. In the 75th hunger games, Peeta and Katniss are forced into the game and quickly make an alliance with Charming district 4 victor Finnick. They are forced through hardship with a lot of tributes dying. I recommend this book to young teenage readers who enjoyed the first book “The Hunger Games” and ones who enjoy books filled with thrilling actions and adventures.
 * __Catching Fire__ by Suzanne Collins**


 * Score 9/10**


 * __The Hunger Games__ by Suzanne Collins**

This book is about a girl called Katniss Everdeen, who goes on an adventure to the hunger games. Hunger Games is a yearly event that occurs every year, and one girl and a boy from each district are required to compete in it. The tributes are drawn randomly from the State, unless there’s a volunteer. In Panem, the society is very different from our society today. There are 12 districts in the society, and the Capitol rules them. Though hunger games, the districts are reminded about the incident of rebelling that district 13 had a long time ago. It also makes the citizens of all the districts realize that the Capitol has the ultimate power, and can do whatever they want with their children and their citizens. In the Hunger Games, all 23 tributes are determined to fight until they die, and until there’s a winner. I recommend this book to people who enjoy adventure books, and also people who enjoy a lot of actions. Through out the book, there are numerous fighting scenes, which captivate the readers.
 * Jae Kwan Lee**


 * Score: 9/10**

__**Life As We Knew It**__ **by Susan Beth Pfeffer**

**Eleen Wang**

Life As We Knew It is a story that's mostly post-apocalyptic. It's written in the form of a journal by a sixteen year old girl called Miranda. When a terrifying planetary collision occurs, it brings on lots of natural disasters, including tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Throughout the book, Miranda recalls several important events, amongst which generic entries are also scattered. For a while, Miranda manages to go swimming and makes a companion, but later on the air becomes polluted from the ash of volcanoes. Several people leave her town for other places and Miranda loses some of her friends. In the end, however, things make turn for the better and there seems to be hope. Personally, I didn't enjoy the book character-wise. I thought that, while the characters made sense, they didn't seem to be entirely developed and I couldn't //quite// relate to them. There just seemed to be something a bit off about them. Plot-wise, though, the book wasn't that bad. The events that occurred after the 'apocalypse' seemed relatively realistic (for a post-apocalyptic book, of course), and they seemed to be well planned.

**Score: 7/10**

__**Same Kind of Different As Me**__ **by Ron Hall & Denver Moore**

**Eleen Wang**

A true story, as written by two of the characters in the story. Denver Moore grew up working as a sharecropper in Red River Parish, Louisiana. Several of his other family members also lived on the plantation, and for a while each of them provided Denver with a place to live. When Denver decided to move on from the plantation, he found himself living a life of homelessness. Ron Hall grew up going to school, living with his parents until he moved out, and finally broke through the line between not-really-having-a-job and having-a-job. He was an art dealer, and this earned him, as well as his wife Deborah, a happy life with quite a nifty amount of money. Ron and Denver meet and become the best of friends thanks to Deborah. She convinces Ron to go with her and help the homeless by helping to dole out meals for everyone. Her stubborn persistence is what gets Ron and Denver talking, despite his typical reclusion. Throughout the book, both Ron and Denver both mention their religion and how it helped them through their lives, especially the middle of the story, there is some devastating news and that, too, changes both Ron and Denver's lives. This book really made me think, and although it doesn't //seem// like it would leave a lasting impression while I read it, it certainly did. It was hard to stop reading, and the book is incredibly moving.

**Score: 10/10**

__**Fahrenheit 451**__ **by Ray Bradbury**

**Eleen Wang**

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian story by Ray Bradbury. It features a fireman called Guy Montag, whose occupation as a fireman is the opposite of what it is today. While a fireman's job in this world is to put //out// fires, the firemen in Bradbury's world are meant to set fire to things. In particular, these things are books. In the story, Guy (more commonly referred to as Montag, though, not just by the characters but by Bradbury himself in the novel) meets his eccentric neighbour who asks questions and takes the time to think. She dislikes the habits of the teenagers in that world, which involve racing cars and other violent, potentially dangerous activities. Then Guy himself begins to think about his job, the act of burning books, and the value of books. He feels awful about it and calls in, sick. While feigning this sickness, Guy's wife Millie discovers that he's in fact hiding a book behind his billow and, despite her wariness, convinces her to read the books. They'll be burnt eventually, anyway. Then Guy meets a former professor, called Faber, who changes his mindset even more, and through a series of events Guy finds himself far away from where he lives and goes on living with a few outcasts of a sort. I thought the book was quite heavy in terms of description, and that while the plot is clear and the description is wonderful, the book lacked the sort of special touch that made it memorable. I just didn't think it was //enough,// or lasting enough, or interesting enough. The concept was clever, yes, but the book overall was boring.

**Score: 7/10**

**__ Breaking Dawn __ By** **Stephanie Meyer** Margaret Ehrich Breaking dawn was the worst of the 4 in the twilight saga. Bella and Edward have there honey moon, enough said. She comes home pregnant and weak. when Jacob sees her he goes crazy. He knows that she will die before the baby is born. Bella almost dies in child birth because the baby took all the nutrients from her. Edward turns her into a vampire. When she wakes up she is much stronger than she is used to. She is calm for a new born, the only time she attacks anyone is when she finds out that Jacob has imprinted. Personally I think its a little messed up that the same "person" that was willing die for Bella is now in love with her daughter. If I were bella I would be angry as well. I would have ended the book with that but the Author had to drag it on until the volturi was there and didn't do anything in the end. However I stilled enjoyed the book although i wanted to vomit in some parts. 8/10

Eclipse was an ok follow up to New Moon. I liked how we got to see more of Jasper and alice's back grounds. We learn that Jasper had worked with and fought with "New Born" vampires. This helps them over come the new born army that the vampires and the Werewolf's team up. This does NOT help the dull love triangle between Jacob Edward and Bella. Bella breaks her hand punching Jacobs face, I think this was going too far. Jacob and Bella will never be together!! Edward is her soul mate. I felt that the action part was good but the love part was over the top. Although Bella and Edward get engaged, there overdoing it and that decreased the value quite a bit. 7/10
 * __ Eclipse __ By Stephanie Meyer**
 * Margaret Ehrich**

The Chocolate War is a fictional book written by Robert Cormier. This book is about a boy named Jerry Renault. He is a new student at Trinity High School. The school gang ‘The Vigils’ who specialize in assigning psychologically damaging assignments to other students confront him with his first assignment; refusing to sell the school chocolates. After his assignment has expired though, he continues to refuse to sell them. This leads to problems for him and for the Vigils. Strengths: that this book was realistic in its ending. It was also very interesting to read so many different viewpoints within one story. Weaknesses: This book is sad. There are many aspects of the book that make it seem dreary. I would definitely not recommend it to my friends.
 * __ The Chocolate War __**** by Robert Cormier **
 * Englesia Leggett **
 * Score: 7/10 **

Just business is a book about Steve, an investment banker in a city bank, being accused of a false murder, and fleeing around the world in order to hide from the police as well as a crime organization, which actually conducted the murder. Steve is smart, brave, and has great observing skills, which helped him greatly while on the run. His ex-girlfriend Gemma accompanied him through this nerve-breaking journey, and eventually fell back into a relationship when Steve was the only one to support her in this life-threatening situation. The main theme of this book is “When a big enough lie hides the truth deep down, people often tend to believe the lie.” Though Steve did not kill his boss, the truth was hidden and a big lie replaced it. Because of the false accusation of witnesses, Steve suffered greatly. After interviewing the witnesses, the police immediately branded Steve as the murderer. I do not relate to this theme because I never had such experience, where the entire world is turned upside down and everyone going against me. The author did really well in creating a tense atmosphere; every second of the run was filled with immediate follow-ups of danger. In addition, the book follows the protagonist all around the world, providing detailed descriptions of the scenery, making this book really interesting to the reader. On the other hand, I think that the ending and the closing of the climax were not properly written. It seemed like the author was trying to end this book as quick as possible. I would rate this book a 7 out of 10, maybe even an one point bonus for readers who interests lie in the adventure/ thriller category.
 * __Just Business__ By Geraint Anderson**
 * Adrian Cheung**


 * __Night__ By Elie Wiesel**
 * Daniel Xu**

Night, by Elie Wiesel provides readers with a graphic and heartbreaking story as the reader is taken through Elizer's life during the holocaust. Elizer lives a normal life as a teenage jew in his hometown Sighet in Transylvania, Hungary. But in 1944, the Nazis occupy Hungary resulting in Elizer and his family being deported to Auschwitz. Elizer and his dad are separated from his mom and 3 sisters which are never seen again, from there on, Elizer and his father desperately support and fight their way through the Nazi concentration camps until they are liberated by american troops (unfortunately Elizer's father dies shortly before that). Night has definitely given me a better idea of what kind of cruelty and hardships were lived through by the jews. I would recommend Night to any of my friends that can handle graphic descriptions and would like to have a greater understanding of what the holocaust was like, on the other hand I would advise people that cannot handle things such as torture and death to chose another book.


 * Score: 8/10**


 * __Ship Breaker__ by Paolo Bacigalupi**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

When we are provided with such a great education here, there are still some kids in this world who can’t even afford to have a proper meal. Nailer had to scrap all these copper to reach his goal so that he can afford some food to sustain his life. In this book, we see how Nailer is desperate to live. The ship breakers don’t care how old you are but how small or big to either scrap something valuable off from the ship or train themselves to fight against the opponents. His father’s a merciless and abusive, who only seeks for his own greed but Nailer doesn’t let go of hope towards his better life in the future. However, the world isn’t a mercy place. Rich companies earn more money and poor people get more poor than before. The gaps between them are getting bigger and bigger. The book shows how different the people are and how big this gap is by introducing a new character, Nita, the lucky girl. She is a symbol of this gap but also a stimulant for Nailer to run out of his father’s dark shadows and look for his own dream by helping Nita to go home. Of course, just like the other characters in the books, they face difficulties and even brought to be in danger, but they overcome these incidents and reach their goals. A lot of books like to hive hopes to the readers and this is one of it, showing the current gap of rich and poor. However, personally, I didn’t really enjoy reading this book because the plot seemed to be moving like assorting one incident by another by pulling up a new character or incident.

Score: 8/10


 * __Hunger Games__ by Suzanne Collins**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

“Happy Hunger Games!” The government happily announces the 74th Hunger Games in Panem. Twelve districts in this country are required to send one boy and a girl from each district for this game. Twenty-three deaths and one winner. The government is warning the people by killing twenty-three children every year. ‘Don’t fight against the Capitol.’ And Katniss, our heroine of this book volunteers instead of her younger sister, Prim, to participate in this game. Under the strong control of capitol, most of the districts face difficulties to sustain their lives. The reward for winning is enough amount of money for the winner’s family and huge amount of rice and oil for that district. At first, her only desire was to survive and come back for her family’s sake. As the girl on the fire and the girl who shoot the arrow at the apple on pig’s mouth, she receives a lot of attention and the game flows with fake love with Peeta. Her top priority is to win, but she cooperates with Rue and Peeta. Through life-threatening incidents, heart-breaking deaths and emotions towards Peeta, Katniss grows up and without realizing it, she feels the fire burning deep inside her heart. How she feels towards the Capitol, Peeta, Gale, her family and President Snow. Her Hunger Games is not over yet, and the fire for rebellion is firing up inside people’s hearts.


 * Score: 10/10**

__Chinese Cinderella__ is an autobiography by Adeline Yen Mah, talking about herself in China during the Second War. She was the fifth child in the family, and the family doesn’t likes her to being happy, but depressed. She goes through various sufferings since she was young. The book is mostly about her getting punished, and suffering from the family. Since Adeline’s mother has died in a week after her getting born, all the family scold Adeline with most of the things that she does and emphasis that her mother’s death is all because of her. Adeline tries very hard in school and gets awards to make her step mother happy, but it seems like the step mother will never be happy about Adeline doing anything good. Her step mother always acts nice to the five children in front of their father, but she actually is very violent and mean to them. Adeline tries to get love from her grandfather and her Aunt Baba, because she realizes that she can’t get any love from her parents. But they were soon taken away. This book is about all the sufferings since young age, and the ways how she handles all the problems. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read non-fiction books about sufferings, problems and the solutions for each of the problems.
 * __Chinese Cinderella__ by Adeline Yen Mah**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 9 out of 10**

**__ Diary __**** by Chuck Palahniuk ** ** Englesia Leggett ** Diary is a fictional book written by Chuck Palahniuk. This book is written in the form of a diary, by an omniscient author, mostly telling the story of Misty Wilmot/Kleinman. Misty is a hotel maid and waitress at the Waytansea hotel on Waytansea Island after her husband has apparently attempted suicide and is in a coma. She had met her Waytansea husband in art school, where she had fallen in love with him despite everyone else’s disagreements. She had fallen in love with the picturesque island when they went to be married there. Now she lives under depression and large amounts of alcohol/painkiller intake, until she breaks her leg and begins to create art again. This art is both an amazing gift and her end-soon she finds out her real purpose on Waytansea. Strengths: that this book was very detailed and had many interesting layers. I also thought it was a strength how Palahniuk incorporated so many details. Weaknesses: This book can slightly drag on at times. There was a sense of uneasiness when I finished the book, so I believe that the ending could have been developed more. I can’t necessarily relate to this book because of the aspects of death, old wives’ tales, living on a small island etc. I gave this book a 7.5 out of 10 because it is very well-written and helps to open your mind a little. I would recommend it to friends who don’t mind reading books with adult themes. ** Score: 7.5/10 **

__ **Son of a Witch** __ **by Gregory Maguire** **Lydia Filipe** Son of a Witch is the sequel to Wicked. It is set in the Oz and the protagonist is Liir, who is possibly the son of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. We follow Liir’s journey after the death of Elphaba. At the beginning of the novel Liir is found on the brink of death and the plot alternates between the present and the events leading up to it. When the two come together, the story stays in the present. I noticed many themes in this book. The main theme from the previous book continued into this book: nothing is every fully good or fully bad. We see Liir do terrible and selfish things but we also see him do brave and noble things. That is how the real world is. Everything and everyone has good and bad aspects. There is also the theme of identity. Liir is expected to do certain things or behave certain ways by various characters because of how his (possible) mother acted or behaved. But he is really his own individual person who he is in the process of discovering. This is something many teenagers can relate to when being judged by their parents or families. There is also the question of if we born to be a certain way or do our personalities form by what happens to us. Another main theme in the book is politics. We have Oz ruled by very different people, showing different flaws in various rulers. We have materialistic rulers, superficial rulers, and corrupt rulers. Other themes include religion, love and the importance of companions. The book was suspenseful at times, but sometimes the plot was slow. Overall I enjoyed reading this book but felt it wasn’t as good as Wicked.

**Score: 8/10**

__ **How I Live Now** __ **by Meg Rosoff** **Ashley Chen** __ How I Live Now __ by Meg Rosoff is an inspiring novel about Daisy’s, a 15 year-old American girl, struggles during a war. Daisy originally lives with her father and step-mother. However, her step-mother cannot stand her and consequently convinces her father to send Daisy off to England to live with cousins she has never met before. There, Daisy meets Obert, Edmond, Isaac, Piper, and Aunt Penn. Together, they live on a farm. One day, Aunt Penn leaves town for work and a couple days later, war breaks out. At first, Daisy and her cousins are not largely affected by the war and life goes on as normal. However, they begin to feel the effects of the war as the British soldiers sequester their farm for army use, separate the boys and the girls, and send them off to live with different families. Determined to be reunited with their family, Daisy and Piper do everything they can to get back home. __ How I Live Now __ explores the themes of rejection, anorexia, the strength of the love between family members, and war and its effect on people. The theme of the strength of the love between family members is definitely a theme that I related to and it is beautifully portrayed in the book. Rosoff uses various techniques to create suspense, for example foreshadowing and delay, to really draw the reader in. A weakness in the novel is how flat of a character Daisy’s father is. I find it hard to believe that he would send his only daughter to live with relatives they have never met before and would have liked to have seen that explored in more depth. Overall, this book is an enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone. **Score: 8/10**

__The Quiet American__ is a novel by Graham Greene. It follows the experience of Fowler a British reporter in a war-torn Vietnam. There, Fowler meets an American named Pyle. Fowler prides himself in just reporting and not taking any sides. Pyle comes to Vietnam and interrupts everything. He disturbs the rather simple life Fowler has led. Pyle, unlike Fowler, is determined to engage in the affairs of Vietnam and Fowler. He falls in love with Fowler’s lover called Phuong. Soon after Pyle’s confession to Fowler, he asks Phuong to choose between them. However, at that time Phuong didn’t know that Fowler’s editor wants him to transfer back to England. Fowler asks to stay in Vietnam. After Phuong chose Fowler over Pyle, Fowler writes a letter back to England to his wife to ask for a divorce. While Pyle and Fowler were both competing for the same girl, their friendship grows and grows. They were even forced into a near-death experience where Pyle saved Fowler’s life. After Fowler’s recovery in the hospital, he goes back home. He reads the letter his wife sends back to him. His wife doesn’t agree to divorce, but Fowler tells Phuong and Pyle she does. However, Phuong and Pyle finds out that Fowler is lying (through Phuong’s sister). Phuong leaves Fowler for Pyle. Afterwards, Fowler was told to go find Mr. Chou. There, he found out that the plastic Pyle was importing was in fact, not to set up a new industry. Fowler doesn’t immediately understand what the plastic was for. He slowly pieces together evidence, Pyle and his obsession for York Harding’s “Third Force”, General The, plastics, bombs. After a detonation in a common place in Saigon, Fowler realizes that it was impossible for him to be a bystander and that he had to take sides. He helps set up an assassination to kill Pyle. The story was told through Fowler looking back after Pyle’s death.
 * __The Quiet American__ by Graham Greene**
 * Philip Siu**
 * Score: 10/10**

**__Graceling__ by Kristen Cashore** **Lydia Filipe** __ Graceling __ is set in a world ruled by seven kingdoms where some people are born with special abilities (known as Gracelings). The protagonist is a teenage girl named Katsa, who is Graced with killing and is a puppet to her uncle, King Randa. But her life changes forever when she meets Po, another Graceling. They become close and soon they set out on a journey that will change both themselves and the rest of their world. Katsa is a strong character who has both internal and external conflicts. She feels stupid and like monster at times, and is worried about her self control. She also has her cruel uncle, and later faces a Graced foe who manipulates her very thoughts. Throughout the book she discovers more about herself and her Grace. Teens can relate to Katsa because like her, they are unsure of themselves and are trying to find their way in the world. There are also the relatable themes of independence, truth, love and trust. The characters in this novel are all well-developed so they are easy to sympathize with and it helps draw the reader into the book.This novel is unpredictable, romantic and action-packed and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

**Score: 10/10**

In the novel __A Separate Peace__, John Knowles describes a boarding school life during the early years of World War 2. The main character Gene Forrester returns to his old prep school Devon in New Hampshire and visits his two most memorable places: the marble stairs and the tree near the Devon River. Then a series of flashbacks starts the story where Gene meets his best friend Phineas or Finny when World War 2 takes place in 1942 - 1943. The two boys develop strong friendship as they begin their tradition of jumping off the big tree into the Devon River. While Gene is good at academics, Finny was an amazing athlete. Soon their friendship leads to jealousy between the two boys. When Gene starts to envy Finny’s athletic skills, he purposely pushes Finny down the tree causing his leg to be badly shattered. Gene then feels guilty and eventually admits the truth of the accident to Finny. When Finny finally returns to school with no more hope for being an athlete, Gene and his classmates hope to join the military for World War 2. However, Finny expresses that war is nothing but a plot to keep young men from taking away older authorities and he hopes to train Gene for the 1944 Olympics. As these two best friends stay at school for the training, more touching stories of their friendship were created. This novel not only allows the readers to study the theme of friendship but also links the readers back to the history of the World War 2. I would recommend this novel to anyone who values friendship and is interested in history.
 * __A Separate Peace__ by John Knowles**
 * Dana Tung**
 * Score: 10/10**

__**Everything Matters!**__ **by Ron Currie Jr.** __Everything Matters!__ by Ron Currie Jr. is a story centered around Junior Thibodeau, Amy, and his family. What makes Junior very special is that he has a voice inside his head that tells him //things.// Ever since he was born, he knew that the world was going to end when he reaches thirty-seven years old. Junior’s brother, partially neglected during his childhood, was addicted to drugs after secretly trying cocaine from his uncle’s stash. He’s put into rehab afterwards, but suffers a brain injury. Despite this, he manages to become a baseball star. Junior’s father is a very hardworking man. He works at two jobs at the same time to provide for his family. Junior’s mom is an alcoholic. Junior’s girlfriend left him after he confessed about the voice in his head and the world ending when he hits thirty seven. From then on, Junior bounces around in life, not doing anything. He has no motivation and always asks himself ‘why anything matters’ considering that the world’s going to end anyways. He becomes a alcoholic and aided in a suicide bombing. However, his life eventually picks up again. Everything Matters! is organized in a chapter by chapter POV, where every chapter represented a different voice. This is a very interesting and occasionally quite emotional story. While it won’t bring you to tears, you will definitely sympathize with the characters.
 * Philip Siu**
 * Score 8/10**

__Cinder__ is a take on the classic Cinderella story set in a future earth. The main character is Cinder, a teenage cyborg and mechanic living in New Beijing (in future Asia) 126 years after WWIV with her unloving stepmother, two stepsisters and an android. She is a second-class citizen, being a cyborg, but she discovers she is a lot more as the plot unfolds. There is the theme of discrimination in the book, and it shows us the misery and unfairness of people who are discriminated against. There is also the theme of war. Even though there is no current war in the novel, we learn that there had been a WWIII and a WWIV and there is the threat of war. We learn in the book that “whole cultures have been devastated, dozens of cities reduced to rubble” and that “countless natural resources have been destroyed through nuclear and chemical warfare” in the fourth World War, and that was what forced all of earth to make peace. It shows us the importance of making peace and that we should strive to make peace without devastating war, which is what the prince is trying to do with the powerful semi-human beings on the moon. I think this was an amazing book and I couldn’t put it down. My only criticism is the predictability of one twist in the book.
 * __Cinder__ by Marissa Meyer**
 * Lydia Filipe**


 * Score: 9.5/10**

__ **The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells** __ **Daniel Xu** If science fiction easily sparks your interest, The War of the Worlds, written by H.G. Wells, is a book for you. The book is about an unnamed protagonist who describes an alien invasion on earth and his experience of it in London. One reason as to why I really enjoyed the book was the realism involved in the story. The author described scenes such as what the martians looked like and what their weaponry was capable of was which left a vivid image in my head. The one other thing I liked about The War of the Worlds what the suspense created throughout the entire book. The explosions on Mars foreshadowed the invasion of the martians and made the reader want to know what happened next. Lastly, just the idea of being vaporized instantly by alien weaponry would make the reader feel the protagonists fear of being caught by a tripod. As stated before, If science fiction or stories full of suspense and realism catch your attention, I would definitely recommend The War of the Worlds to you.
 * Score: 8/10**

__ **Freakonomics** **by** **Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner**__ If somebody asked you what a teacher in the US had in common with a sumo wrestler in Japan, you would not only be confused by a weird question like that but also curious about what they actually have in common. Fear not for Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have already come up with an answer. However If I were to tell you the answer it would defeat 1/6th of the purpose of reading the book. The authors of the book are both economists and have decided to look at what goes on in everyday life and relate them to each other, not in a literal way, but in an economical way. What this means is that instead of comparing what physical features two objects or people have together. Levitt and Dubner look at their impact on the economic world. You could say that the KKK and real estate agency are related because before the internet came out, they both used possession of knowledge to their economic advantage. I found Freakonomics to be a very interesting while entreating the reading and would recommend it to anyone interesting in reading about how economists look at the world (or you simply want to know what a teacher and a sumo wrestler have in common).
 * Daniel Xu**
 * Score: 9/10**

__ **Maus By Art Speigelman** __ **Daniel Xu** Maus is an illustrated biography of Art Spiegelman's father, Vladek Spiegelman. The book focuses on Vladek's life as a Polish Jew during the holocaust and what his current life as a holocaust surviver is like in New York City. One thing about the Book worth mentioning is the unique art style for the entire book. Instead of drawing people, Art uses animals to represent all of groups of people. He uses mice to represent Jews and cats to represent the Nazi's. This unique art style played a major role in emphasizing the unfair level between the Nazi's and Jews in the holocaust. Throughout the book I was entertained whether it was Vladek describing what life was like in the concentration camps or him driving his son crazy with his stinginess in his modern day life. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading books on survival stories during the holocaust or books with a lot of emotion in them along with a touch of comedy.
 * Score: 9/10**

__ **Please Ignore Vera Dietz** __ **by A.S. King** **Ashley Chen** __ Please Ignore Vera Dietz __ by A.S. King is a witty yet heartbreaking novel about eighteen-year-old Vera Dietz, who is struggling to cope with the recent death of her best friend, Charlie Kahn. Vera spent her whole life secretly in love with Charlie Kahn but half a year before Charlie dies, Charlie and Vera have a fall out which leads them to hate each other. Over the years, Charlie has confided many secrets in Vera, secrets that may solve the mystery behind his death and clear his name. The novel alternates between two plot lines, one in the present and one in the past, that intertwine to reveal the mystery behind Charlie’s death. Throughout the novel, Vera struggles to come to terms with Charlie’s death and the secrets in her past. She also strives to deal with her family as well as her family history. In the novel, King explores the themes of family relations, the ability to both love and hate someone at the same time, alcohol and drug use, abuse, destiny, and emotional isolation. King effectively uses various methods of indirect characterization to create complex, realistic characters like Vera and Charlie. Not only that, the themes explored in the book, though they aren’t very prevalent in my life, really open your eyes and make you think. __ Please Ignore Vera Dietz __ is so well written that I can’t think of any weakness in the novel. In conclusion, I would strongly recommend this book for anyone to read. However, I must caution that many dark themes are explored in the book and may cause discomfort. **Score: 10/10**

New Moon was a disappointment. After the brilliant first book of the series (twilight) It was a real let down. Bella "falls in love with Jacob although she is still in love with Edward. She then realizes that she can see Edward only when she does "reckless" things. She is devistated by Edwards leaving. This goes on and on for too long in this book. I actually skipped a chapter after she had talked about "the wound being opened" for 10 min. It took a turn for the best in the last part of the book. Alice and Bella were on their way to italy to save Edward from suicide. After all was resolved and Edward was saved the readers got a better look into the life of the Vultori. The vampire's type of government, this is important because it foreshadows what follows in next book and the rest of series. Bella and edward are to be married and Bella will be a vampire before the Volturi return for them. This creates a conflict with Bella and edward because she wants to be a vampire before they get married and Edward won't turn her into a vampire until they are married.
 * __New Moon__ By Stephanie Meyer**
 * Margaret Ehrich**

A disease has swept the world and affected most people over the age of 16. The people who weren’t killed by the disease were turned into cannibal zombies. The survivors are all children who have formed groups throughout London. The story is narrated in the third person and main groups focused on are the Waitrose group (made up of kids whose refuge is the Waitrose supermarket) and Morrison’s group (made up of kids whose refuge is the Morrison’s supermarket). But the kids are becoming less and less safe as the zombies are getting smarter and their resources are running out. A boy comes to take them to Buckingham palace, where he claims everything is safe and food is plentiful, so they set out on a journey in hope of a better life. The story alternates between the kids on the journey, a kid who decided to stay behind, and a kid from the Waitrose group who had gotten kidnapped by the zombies but managed to escape. The story shows the importance of companions, the power of hope and perseverance, and the need for people to cooperate in times of trouble. It also reveals an aspect of human nature- we can adapt for the present but we still dwell on the past and worry about the future. So even though it may seem like we can’t relate to kids in a zombie apocalypse, it turns out we actually can. This book was entertaining and was very detailed in describing the gruesome features of the zombies, but for some reason I didn’t get into it as much as I have with books in the past.
 * __The Enemy__ by Charlie Higson**
 * Lydia Filipe**


 * Score: 8/10**

Post Office is a fictional prose by Charles Bukowski. The main character is an on the fringe American named Henry Chinaski. Unemployed one year around Christmas-time, he takes up a job to further fund his alcoholism, at the local post office. Over the years employed there, he made it no higher than to mailman, however, the adventures he experiences while delivering mail encourage introspection. Chinaski’s true loves in life are alcohol, women & horse-race betting. Over the next 15 or so years, throughout the changes in his love life (including marriage, children & divorce), the post office comes to be the one neutral constant factor of his life. Alcohol is one negative constant factor, leaving Henry mostly broke except for occasional streaks of gambling wins. Although he quits and rejoins the post office several times, while working there he accepts the hardships of the job, resigned to not seeing greater opportunity in other occupations... except for potentially writing. Ultimately he does escape this monotony to write. Chinaski represents many people who are consumed by the natural order of life despite being desperate to break free of day-to-month-to-year-to-years of monotony. Strengths: I liked how Bukowski wrote so bluntly about almost taboo subjects. I also gained a better understanding of the effects of common vices among adults. Weaknesses: for the reader, it’s difficult to feel a personal connection to Chinaski, since he exhibits very few emotions (which may be due to alcoholism); another is that the content can seem tedious at times. I can relate to the feeling of wanting to break free from the monotony that day-to-day life can bring. This book is considered a classic by many, and although I personally feel it may not be for every high schooler (due to adult themes), I would definitely recommend it, especially for its writing style.
 * __ Post Office __**** by Charles Bukowski **
 * Englesia Leggett **
 * Score: 8.5/10 **

Fahrenheit 451 is a fictional prose written by Ray Bradbury. The main character is a fireman named Guy Montag. In this novel, firemen do a different job than they do in our reality; in fact, they do the exact opposite; they start fires. It is their job to burn books and the houses that contain them. Throughout this book, Guy goes from nonchalantly burning whenever required to becoming a supporter of books and reading. The themes are the importance of intellectual freedom and independent thoughts and actions. I can relate to this theme because living in China constantly reminds me of suppression of freedom, thoughts and actions. Strengths: in Bradbury’s writing he uses many descriptors that have to do with the process of fire (being lit, burning, etc) throughout the whole book, for example: ‘Montag watched through his window as Beatty drove away in his gleaming yellow-flame-colored beetle with the black, char-colored tires’. In terms of writing strength, I found that Bradbury described Clarisse’s character very intimately in the short span of time that she was active in Guy’s life. Weaknesses: in the content, there is a lack of information about the time and place setting. There is no direct statement about the geographical location of Guy. Another weakness in the writing would be that I thought the story ended prematurely. I want to know what happens in the years after Guy has escaped from his life as a fireman! I thought that naming the book Fahrenheit 451 was very clever because that is the temperature at which paper burns. I gave this book an 8 out of 10 because it makes the reader think more about how they live life blindly under such strong influence of technology, as well as how they may follow the ‘crowd’ and may not think independently often enough.
 * __ Fahrenheit 451 __**** by Ray Bradbury **
 * Englesia Leggett **
 * Score: 8/10 **

The Rape of Nanking is a non-fictional historical book written by Iris Chang. This book is set during the period of the Japanese invasion of China and specifically the Nanking Massacre starting in December 1937. It details out the random murder and rape of common non-military citizens with great detail provided on the brutality of the Japanese soldiers. To further illustrate the degree of viciousness the author provides photographs, extracts of journal entries and diagrams. Strengths: this book provides an important history lesson on an event that may not get much attention outside of major wars but should. There are a great amount of facts and detailed information that cannot be forgotten. Weaknesses: a few historians said that this book had many false pieces of information. I can’t necessarily relate to this book because it is a historical non-fiction book, although I feel a lot of sympathy for the victims of the Massacre after reading it. I gave this book 8 out of 10 because it is very informative, contains many facts and shows a side of Japan that not all people knew about before the book was published. I would recommend it to friends who interested in history and don’t mind reading books with graphic/adult themes.
 * __ The Rape of Nanking __**** by Iris Chang **
 * Englesia Leggett **
 * Score: 8/10 **

Pygmy is a fictional prose written by Chuck Palahniuk. This book is about a secret agent from Africa, sent (with)in a group of other agents with the covers of being exchange students to a small state in the USA. Their real purpose is to understand life as an American and then undermine America. Towards the end though, they grow accustomed to life as an American and no strategy is taken against America. Strengths: This book was very intense and the plot was set up well. There were many farces of Americans; such as the ‘commonplace’ of abortions, etc which was helped to create an effect by the fact that the words/grammar were very earnest. Weaknesses: It was difficult to relate/understand to this book because of the way it was written, it’s written in English but in a certain type of dialect and with a different type of grammar than I know. I can’t relate to this book because it is written from the view of someone who is not American. I gave this book a 5 out of 10 because it obviously took a lot of effort to create, but I gained no personal enjoyment from reading it. I would not recommend it to my friends.
 * __ Pygmy __**** by Chuck Palahniuk **
 * Englesia Leggett **
 * Score: 5/10 **

This Book Will Save Your Life is a fictional prose written by A.M. Holmes. This book is about a rich man named Richard Novak. Over the years, he has managed to isolate himself from people and life outside of his house in LA. The only people he sees regularly are his house cleaner and his dietician. One day he gets a strange health scare- this ‘wakes him up’. He continues to come out of his house; he saves lives, he helps people, he reconnects with his family, he meets people he would have never met if he stayed isolated. Strengths: This book contained a lot of themes about the importance of the goodness of people, rather than the evil. It made me think about how I should be as happy as I can and experience as much as I can because I never know when I’ll be dead. Weaknesses: I didn’t find any weaknesses in this book, except that some of the events that happened seemed particularly unbelievable (even for fiction). I can relate to the themes in this book about living and loving. I gave this book a 8.5 out of 10 because I really enjoyed reading it! I would recommend it to my friends.
 * __ This Book Will Save Your Life __**** by A.M. Holmes **
 * Englesia Leggett **
 * Score: 8.5/10 **

Starcrossed is a fictional prose novel written by Mark Schreiber. This book is set in America in the ‘90s-‘00s. Christy is a horoscope junkie, who meets a cute boy while at a plastic surgeon’s office to get her ‘Benjamin’ tattoo removed. They talk a little, but soon she has to go in for her appointment and when she comes out he’s gone. A series of very coincidental events cause them to meet again, and soon she finds out his name is Ben and that he has a Christy tattoo. They soon fall in love and Christy feels as if she’s part of a modern Romeo and Juliet as they try to get over old memories and create new ones. Strengths: This book had a very strong theme of love in it. As well as a strong implementation of that theme, the story has a lot of interesting factors, underage tattoos, horoscopes, and unexpected twists. Weaknesses: I think this book is superficial. It reminds me of a typical teen book about love. I can’t necessarily relate to this book because of how fake it seems at times. I gave this book a 5.5 out of 10 because it was an entertaining read, but I didn’t learn anything about the world/myself from it and felt the writing was average. I would recommend it to friends who want a light, quick read about teen love.
 * __ Starcrossed __**** by Mark Schreiber **
 * Englesia Leggett **
 * Score: 5.5/10 **

**Lydia Filipe**
====__Knife Edge__ is the sequel to the novel __Naughts and Crosses__. This book is narrated by various characters, but mainly Jude (the brother of Callum) and Sephy. Jude blames Sephy for a tragic event that happened in the last novel, and is out to get her. But he gets caught up in a romance with tragic consequences. Sephy has had her baby and is struggling in the world. In addition to a want of money and suffering from postpartum depression, most society is against her at different points of the novel as a consequence of her various actions. Sephy wants a world with equality- for there to be no differentiation between black and white people- and a happy life for her baby. Jude claims to want equality, but his actions and thoughts reflect otherwise. He really seems to want the “naughts” to be at the top of society and hates all crosses. These reflects one of the themes in the book. The idea of equality formed the Liberation Militia (which is what Jude is fighting with), but the LM turned into a terrorist group and hates all people who are not white. It shows, like in __Animal Farm__ by George Orwell, that the idea of equality becomes twisted and ruined by human greed and hate. Another theme we see in this novel is love. Love seems like such a good thing but then nothing good ever seems to come out of it. It portrays the duality of emotions. Throughout the novels the reader becomes attached to the characters and so seeing the characters suffer makes the reader become more emotionally involved with the book, even though there are themes that are harder to relate to such as becoming a parent. This book is well-written and ends on a cliff-hanger, so I am dying to read the next one. I would definitely recommend this book, but you have to read __Naughts and Crosses__ first.====

**Ashley Chen**
====__ About a Boy __ by Nick Hornby is a humorous yet weighty story about immature, thirty-six year old Will Freeman. Will has never had a proper job in his life because his father wrote a famous song and he lives off its royalties. He fills his days with trivial activities and is concerned about absolutely nothing at all. One day, Will discovers that being a single mother causes gorgeous women, who are normally out of his league, to actually be enthusiastic about dating him. Therefore, he joins the group SPAT (Single Parents—Alone Together) in hopes of meeting beautiful single mothers. However, Will meets twelve-year-old Marcus, who is very mature for his age, and who will transform Will’s life. __ About a Boy __ explores the themes of the characteristics of love, the importance of living for more than yourself, growing up, the damage done by divorce, the difficulty of single parenting, and the cruelty of bullying. All of these themes are highly stimulating and though most of them are not prevalent in my life, they are bound to be relatable to many other people. Something Hornby did really well in the book is balance comedic material with weighty material. The book addresses many serious topics so the comedic additions really help lighten the mood. However, I feel the ending, though effective in tying up the themes, was too sudden. In conclusion, __ About a Boy __ is a captivating book and I would definitely recommend it for others to read. ==== **Score: 8/10**


 * __Naughts and Crosses__ by Malorie Blackman**
 * Lydia Filipe**

__Naughts and Crosses__ is set in a reversed world where “cross” black people are at the top of society and discriminate against “naught” white people. Sephy, a cross, and Callum, a naught, have been best friends since childhood. They are the main characters and alternately narrate the book in the first person. The book does not follow a traditional plot structure, because it had multiple climaxes. This book is full of mystery, suspense, love, hate and unsuspected twists that make you keep turning the pages. We see how Sephy and Callum come out of the innocence of childhood into the cruel real world. Their are many conflicts in the book, in and out of home, for both characters. The characters are young and are not emotionally mature, so they and their relationships struggle. The conflicts pertain to the main issue of the book- racism. The main themes include racism, love, coping with emotions and ways to make a difference in the world. Though not many of us have experienced racism first hand, we do experience the other themes and can relate to them. I think the book is well written and emotional and I could not put it down.


 * Score: 10/10**


 * __The Fall of Hyperion__**
 * Philip Siu**
 * __The Fall of Hyperion__** by Dan Simmons is the sequel to the book Hyperion. It lifts off where it ended in Hyperion and finishes the series. The Ousters, “barbarians” outside of the hegemony web, had finally invaded and penetrated the web. The hegemony web was a string of lots of different planets where computer AI’s and human coexist. AI’s have long been considered allies of the humans. However, it was discovered by one of the pilgrims, that there are actually three different factions within the AI’s. One faction wants to keep the peaceful relationship with the humans. Another faction considers humanity as a hindrance and wants to get rid of them. The third faction has been relatively neutral. They only care to build the Ultimate Intelligence Project, God, and they will assist whichever faction they believe will assist their goal in building God. The pilgrims seeking the Shrike, a part God part killing machine, has one by one disappeared. The pilgrims, the Shrike, the Ousters, and the AI’s are all seemingly independent plot and time lines in the book’s universe. However, it all ties into each other in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in epic science fiction and anyone who enjoy its extensive use of frame story. While I enjoyed this book, I thought the ending was a slightly disappointing way to cap off an otherwise beautifully written book.
 * Score: 8.5/10**

__**Feed**__ **by M.T. Anderson** **Eleen Wang** __Feed__ is a science fiction novel by M.T. Anderson. It's centered around a teenage boy called Titus. He and his friends all have a feed, which advertises things based on their purchases. On a trip to the moon, he meets a strange girl whose name is Violet. The book is full of what Titus and Violet do together, going into shops and not buying anything. This is how Violet resists the feed, and how she tries to get Titus to resist, too. Violet changes his life slowly, tweaking it, even as he attempts to have her and his friends bond. He invites Violet to parties, but her discomfort is obvious and they leave. Eventually Titus and Violet's relationship crescendo and they have a horrible argument. After that, they no longer see each other, but there's more to it. The novel, in some aspects, is quite easy to relate to, because of all its 'modern' speech, parties and shopping. The way the characters behave and the way Titus narrates it is also relatable for most teenaged readers, but I feel like it's too light and easy. Lots of things are narcissistic and vain and I don't quite like that. On the other hand, I do quite like the book as a whole, and its science fiction genre. **Score: 8/10**

__**As Simple As Snow**__ **by Gregory Galloway****Eleen Wang**The novel __As Simple As Snow__ is written from the point of view a narrator who is never named and a girl called Anna Cayne. Unlike most books, this novel is more character-driven than plot-driven. It centres around the everyday lives of the narrator and Anna, how they met and their adventures afterwards. Anna (who likes to be called Anastasia, though the narrator is the only one allowed to get away with calling her Anna) likes to write things and send them to the narrator. She also finds things off the ground or hears snatches of conversations, all of which are then stuffed into the narrator's locker. Anna likes to write obituaries, and the narrator helps her with them, even killing off his best friend. They come up with a code, the way Houdini and his wife did, which they discover isn't really simple at all. Anna and the narrator also listen to a broadcasted radio station where people simply recite numbers over and over again. Then a few weeks before Valentine's, Anna disappears. The only thing left is a hole in the frozen river and her dress splayed and arranged perfectly before the hole. The narrator attempts to piece everything together with all of the notes she's left him, thus creating the story. I thought this was a very creative story, particularly because the narrator's name is hidden. While everything is vague, lots of interesting facts crop up. Despite its dark themes, the book is quite fascinating. **Score: 9/10**

Lydia Filipe
 * Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle**

__Sherlock Holmes__ is a collection of 56 short stories and a four novels following the adventures of the amateur yet incredibly efficient detective Sherlock Holmes and his closest companion, Dr. John H. Watson. The stories are full of suspense, twists and turns, comedy, death, romance and mystery. Each exhibits Holmes’s exceptional deductive skills in solving crime. Most of the stories are narrated by Watson, who takes it upon himself to record Holmes’s adventures. Suspense is one of the predominant feelings I felt when reading. Being narrated in first person minor creates a lot of suspense because in most cases Holmes is putting clues together and reveals that he knows the solution, but he doesn’t tell Watson right away. The stories follow a traditional plot structure with increasing tension and suspense leading to a denouement. With so many stories there are many themes, but there are a few that reoccurring that have stood out to me. There are the obvious themes of good overcomes evil and crime is wrong. The stories also tell us to look beyond the obvious or the surface of something. That can apply to events or people and can help us not to be superficial. Another theme I see is to be careful with marriage and whom you marry. There are multiple cases involving unhappy marriages, infidelity and even murder of spouses. I have a hard time relating to the themes of marriage but I can relate to the themes of good and evil and superficiality. Overall I think these are wonderful books if you are looking for intrigue and mystery.


 * Score: 9/10**

__**The Amber Spyglass**__ **by Phillip Pullman** This book picks up immediately after the end of __The Subtle Knife__ with Lyra missing and Will confronted by two low classed angels. The final book of this great series details the two kid’s adventures to regroup and defeat god itself. Along the way, they stumble into mysterious new universes, kill death itself, and discover the true meaning of dust. As the two bond together to become inseparable, a great farewell must be made at the end because of the instability of dust. This book was a great finisher to the whole series. It answered many of the mysteries introduced within the first book, however left many more to ponder upon in the last book. Not only was it effective as a story plot, but the emotion it creates is something that would make readers think about even after finishing the book. It is a great book and I highly recommend it. Of course, you need to read the prior two books first before this one.
 * James Zhang**
 * Score: 11/10**


 * __Along for the Ride__ by Sarah Dessen**
 * Ye Seul Park(Stella)**

Sarah, Jenny, Elizabeth, Sally...out of all these names, her name was Auden. Her dad’s favorite poet was W.H.Auden and even her half-sister’s name was Thisbe, a character created by Shakespeare, instead of Isabel. Her life was full of excellent academic results that fulfilled her parents’ expectation. She didn’t have enjoyable and exciting high school life like others. She has always felt like the odd one out. However, moving to her dad’s house for summer introduces her to a new world. She gets to know herself, opening up her mind to others. She tries to find her true life and escape from her parents’ shadows. I also had a life that fits my parents’ expectation and don’t have any memories of going out with my friends during my childhood. By coming to SAS, I opened the door to the new world and took a step forward, balancing between studying and enjoying my social life. Therefore, I understood each bit of what Auden thought and did. If you have a past like Auden or me and still struggles to open up your mind, I strongly recommend you to read this book (Not that strongly to boys though. There are some stories only girls can agree with.However, it's still a very good book). This is your life. You decide what you want to be and enjoy it!
 * Score: 10/10**

__Thirteen reason why__ by Jay Asher is a book about a girl named Hannah Baker, she committed suicide and before she did, she created these 7 tapes, the content of these tapes, are about people, 13 to be exact, and its about how these people played a part in her suicide, maybe directly or maybe not, but these tapes consist of her feelings, thoughts, and tough times before her death. Before she died, she sent these tapes to a peer of her's with a list, the list was the 13 people these tapes needed to be sent to, and thats exactly what happened, after one person listened to the set of tapes, they would send it to the next without a return address. In this book, the person with the tapes at the moment is Clay Jensen. Clay and Hannah have history together, and everybody's secrets including theirs unravel through this mesmerizing story. This book will suck you in, you feel like you are actually listening to the tapes. Jay Asher did an amazing job with the story line and plot, he build up to the moment so well, you could not put the book down. I would hands down recommend this book to those who want to read a very beautiful, eerie, and emotional book.
 * __Thirteen reasons why__ by Jay Asher**
 * Nazifa Wazirzada**
 * Score: 10/10**

__**Looking for Alaska**__ by John Green is a book about a boy who's nickname in this book is "Pudge" and he hates his life in Florida because he has no friends, so he transfers to a boarding school down south in America. He meets so many new people and makes friends quick. He meets this one very special girl that is named Alaska. He thinks she is the definition of perfect. He has the biggest crush on her and so does she but she has a boyfriend. The friends he meets are big in pranking, so during the course of this book they play huge pranks on people. During this book bad things happen to Alaska and Pudge gets very emotional about it because of everything that has happened between them. Pudge and his friends pull the biggest prank of all time and during the prank they say to everyone in school all at the same time "For Alaska Young". It is a very emotional book because many sad things happen.
 * __Looking for Alaska__ by John Green**
 * Parker Wilde**

__ **Are we there yet** __ **by David Levithan** __**Are we there yet**__ by David Levithan is a book about two brothers that are tricked by their parents into going on a trip to Europe together. One brother is 17 and named Eli and the other is 25 and his name is Danny. Eli and Danny are not very close, so this trip was suppose to make them bond. during the course of this trip many different things happen, which change the way these two brothers see each other. There begins to be many fights during the trip, and there began to be many heart to heart moments between the two brothers. They meet some new people during the trip and one of them is a women who'm one of the brothers fall in love with. After the trip is over the brothers see the parents but do not get mad at the fact they were tricked into going on this trip together. They two brothers leave each other and then return back to their normal life.
 * Parker Wilde**

__ **Night** __ **by Elie Wiesel** **Ashley Chen** __ Night __ by Elie Wiesel is a heart wrenching memoir of Wiesel’s sufferings during the Holocaust. Wiesel was born in the Sighet, Transylvania, Hungary, where he lived comfortably with his father, mother, and three sisters Hilda, Béa, and Tzipora. However, his life gets turned upside down when the Nazis invade Hungary in 1944. Wiesel and his family were first placed into ghettos, then sent to Auschwitz, and finally to Buchenwald. __ Night __ horrifyingly records the death of Wiesel’s family, the terrors of the concentration camp, and the destruction of Wiesel’s spirit. Through the book, Wiesel explores his struggle to continue believing in a benevolent god, his loss of faith in humanity, and the importance of father-son relationships. Though I am unable to relate to the themes in this book, __ Night __ is written with such clarity that it has exposed me to the extents of the humans’ capacity for cruelty and how that cruelty can cause one to become so desensitized that they lose all hope in living. I recommend __ Night __ to anyone who is interested in gaining a deep understanding of the horrors of the holocaust. However, I must warn that the story may produce very somber and distressing emotions. **Score: 9/10**

This book is an autobiography of Dave Pelzer, himself at the age of 4-12. He gets abused every seconds when his alcoholic mother, Catherine Roerva is around. As the book continues, he learns how to play mother’s game to survive. (How she will react doing what, what she’s going to do to him when she’s happy or sick) Reading this book makes me think that his mother no longer treats him as her son, or even a “bad boy”, but an “it”. He gets abused and tortured physically, emotionally, and sexually. When his mother gives out the luxury of food, it’s nothing more than a food that even the dogs would refuse to eat. This is only the beginning of the game, played by his mother. Read it to find out more of her game! Because it’s very different from our life, and not much related, it wasn’t easy for me to trust this book that it actually happened. But I found out from searching in the Internet, that THIS was the reality. The strength of the book is that it grabs attention, and that it has much of the information, which would shock most of us. If I had to pick a weakness, I would say that it talks too much of the bad things happening without stopping. I just continue to talk about Dave Pelzer getting abused, but nothing happy really. It wouldn’t be a great idea to read this book if you are a person, who doesn’t likes dark, sad, and shocking stories.
 * __A Child Called “It”__ by Dave Pelzer**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 10 out of 10**

__The Chocolate War__ is a fiction book wrote by Robert Cormier. It’s a book about a character named “Jerry Renault” refusing to sell chocolates at school. Jerry Renault is a biggest bully in the school, and gets bullied by the gangsters at school but also the teachers. Even though he gets bullied by the gangsters at the school and teachers, he doesn’t feel depressed or stressed out. He just keeps quiet and finds a way out by himself with the situation. He gets punished on how he refused to sell the chocolates at school in the chocolate sale. He starts to feel good about refusing what he doesn’t wants to. Then he starts getting admire from the other students, and finds out that standing up for his own opinion is a right thing to be doing. In this book, Jerry knows that all the bullying would stop if he sells the chocolate but he doesn’t. Why? Read this book to find out why! I recommend this book to a person who doesn’t really have their own opinions when they decide anything or for the people who listens to their friends than their own self's.
 * __The Chocolate War__ by Robert Cormier**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 8 out of 10**

This fiction book is about a 15 years old girl called Daisy, and how she gets to England and live in the countryside with her cousins, which she had no ideas about. Because her dad didn’t have time to spend much time with her since he was so busy spending time with his own girlfriend. Her mom died giving birth to her, so her dad actually got to have a stepmother. She lived in America before moving to England, and she likes misses her life in America. Then there was this war which began just after her aunt went to the other country by herself. The soldiers split her and Edmund, her friend because of the war happening. She escapes from it, but Edmund couldn’t. So he started thinking that Daisy has actually betrayed him and left him behind. But she tries to find him, and gets back to England after hearing the news that her aunt has died from the war already. This isn’t a book which makes you happy, but a book which flows really well with main topics of how war works, about survival from the war, about love, and friendship.
 * __How I Live Now__ by Meg Rosoff**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 9 out of 10**

__Thirteen Reasons Why__ is a book which grabs people’s attention by it’s unusual topic of a girl (Hannah Baker) suiciding. She has recorded thirteen reasons why she has made a decision about suiciding in the tapes. Basically, one reason is for one of her thirteen friends related to the things which made Hannah suicide. One of her friend who got the tapes first didn’t believe that Hannah has actually made it. She thought that someone was tricking her and playing. But as the time passes, she begins to believe about the tape and actually goes to the places which Hannah had made a star for her own map. With the tapes that Hannah had left behind her friends, the reasons gets shown one by one... I think that this is a book which can arouse sympathy with lots of teenager’s point of view. With an unfamiliar interesting topic, I really liked this book and recommend it to any of the teenagers which has the source of trouble about anything because you might think the same as Hannah in this book!
 * __Thirteen Reasons Why__ by Jay Asher**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 10 out of 10**

__Inexcusable__ by Chris Lynch is a first person narrative book talking about Keir Sarafian himself. He is a popular high school football player, abuses substances and is disobedient in school. This book starts with his conflict with GiGi Boudakian, a girl who he loves and he gets crushed with the fact that she has accused him of date rape. The book talks about his senior year in the high school life. As the book gets in it’s climax, he get bullied in class and gets his nickname the “killer” from a quarterback player in his football team. I recommend this book to any of the students which are in the high school or higher and have a look at how Keir’s high school life is like. (And compare it to yours maybe?) I liked this book, because I personally like the books which gives me a bond of sympathy especially about school life.
 * __Inexcusable__ by Chris Lynch**
 * Jenny Seo**
 * Score: 9 out of 10**

In the novel __Chasing Ranbows,__ Kathleen Long evokes a life full of unexpected changes and the process of moving on through the grief. Bernadette Murphy, a mid-age woman, faces the sudden death of her father in addition to her broken marriage with Ryan who left for another woman pregnant with his child. Moreover, Bernie’s best friend Diane announces her unplanned pregancy at the age of forty-one while taking care of a teenage daughter Ashley. Living alone with her disobedience dog, Bernie was about to crash. However, Bernie begins to seek hope when her mother discovers her father’s notebook full of cryptograms. Every chapter in the novel begins with a section of the crypotograms and ends with the solved definition. It is also something that I find interesting while reading this novel. Bernie’s father’s crypotograms are often advices for life, for example, “In life, you either choose to sing a rainbow, or you don’t.” This is also an inspiration of the title of the novel. I made my own definition of the quote when I finished the novel as I believe that since rainbows often appear after rain which symbolizes all the tragedies in life, you either choose to stand up in the rain and create a rainbow by living your life cheerfully like before, or stay in the rain forever. Reading __Chasing Rainbows__ allows the readers to feel how it is like to live with dreadful things happening in life and also encourages the readers to appreciate everything that they have in life.
 * __Chasing Rainbows__ by Kathleen Long**
 * Dana Tung**
 * Score: 8/10**

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel by Ray Bradbury, set in a fictional future where firemen started fires instead of putting them out and people are afraid of human thought. The protagonist is Guy Montag, a fireman who enjoys his job of setting fire to books. He meets an unordinary girl named Clarisse McClellan, who tells him of many things in the world that he has never noticed and of a past where everything was the opposite. This, in addition to witnessing a woman willingly die with her books, makes Montag realize how meaningless the world has become. In pursuit of a society devoid of conflict, the government eliminated books, because the diversity of human thought would inevitably cause a certain minority to be unhappy. People were stuffed with pure factual information to make them feel “full”. But in doing so, they have in fact created a violent society in which people no longer think or feel. I believe anyone would be able to relate to the themes in this book. Because we live in an era so full of information, freedom of thought has become increasingly important. We should never forget to take some time out of our busy lives to stop and think. I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed the “Uglies” series because of the similar, albeit darker, futuristic setting and themes.
 * __Fahrenheit 451__ by Ray Bradbury**
 * Cindy Ling**
 * Score: 10/10**

**__Divergent__ by Veronica Roth** **James Zhang** This book is about a dystopian society set place in modern Chicago. It details about how human society decided that the reason for humans being evil isn't about wealth or etc, but by human personality. Because of this, five factions have sprung up within society to house each of the personality they believe is the most important to stay good and true towards each other. They were the Dauntless, the Abnegation, the Candor, the Erudite, and the Amity. They represented bravery, self-lessness, honesty, knowledge, and kindness respectively. These five factions were created to ensure safety. At the age of 16, every child must take take a test that determines which faction they should join within the future. This is where the story starts. Beatrice, a 16 year old girl, was labelled Divergent. A very dangerous trait that means that their personality branches into more than one of the five ideas. She must keep this a secret for her own safety. From there, she realizes the harmony the five societies kept was slowly deteriorating and war is coming. The book had a strong plot that grabbed the reader and is a page turner. It also plays on many human morales and instincts to the point that you will question them yourself. This book shows that rulers no matter their intentions, always turn corrupt in the end. This relates to our __Animal Farm__ unit because one of the factions, not saying which, turned corrupt even though the whole point of the factions was to prevent it. A weakness though however was that some characters weren't developed that well. I liked this book and would recommed it to anybody else who wants to read it.**Score: 8/10** __**Golden Compass**__ **by Phillip Pullman****James Zhang**Within a universe parallel towards ours, there was an earth where everybody had daemons. Manifestations of each individual's thought and emotion in an animal form. There lies an Oxford within that world where a girl named Lyra resides in. Her entire life was central around that area until one day the Gobblers came. They were kidnapping children and one of them was Lyra's best friend Roger. Before Lyra sets out on a terrible quest to uncover hidden mysteries and evil intentions of not only the Gobblers, but the Church itself, the Master of Oxford bestowed Lyra with an altheiometer, or a truth teller. With this new tool she meets many new people within the world such as the armored bears and witches. While on her quest though, she discovers everybody's enigmatic fear or interest towards a material known as dust. Dust eventually became the key to unlock the door between the universes, which she enters herself. The book was a great opener towards the __His Dark Materials__ trilogy. It opens the plot up and ends in an ambiguous way that can lead to anywhere. There were so many mysteries and questions left unanswered within this book that I immediately picked up the sequel right after I finished. A powerful theme within this book was destiny. It kept hinting towards Lyra's future and what she must do within not only her own world, but every world out there. I could not find any weak spots towards this book however. I loved this book and would recommend it to anybody else**Score: 10/10** **__The Subtle Knife__ by Phillip Pullman****James Zhang**The book opens up with another universe exactly like ours where there is a boy named Will. He discovers two men constantly harassing his mother about information for his father that disappeared years ago. Will became especially mad since his mother isn't mentally stable. After he hid his mother, he accidentally killed one of the men. Will ran as fast as he could and stumbled upon a portal that led to another universe. Within the ghost town world, he bumped into a girl. She was dirty, violent, and hungry. She was Lyra. While in the alien universe, the last of the guild that once ruled the world, passes down a knife towards Will. The Subtle Knife. A knife so sharp it can cut anything, including the dimensions between universes. Armed with the knife, Will and Lyra travel through the worlds. As Lyra continues on her quest about dust and her father's plans after he disappeared into another universe, Will follows his of finding out who his dad truly is. A theme that is constantly around Will is family. I could relate to this directly because in my culture, family is placed very high in love. Within the book, it shows very well that Will truly loves his family to the point he would die for them. This book was very strong especially since every character becomes more and more complex. For example, Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's mom, was shown to be cunning and evil with intentions only for herself. As Lyra bumps into her repeatedly, it shows that Mrs. Coulter might possibly be more than just that. This book was not a disappointment and i enjoyed this book completely.**Score: 10/10** **__1st to die__ by James Patterson****Natchaya Zhou** 1st to die is the first book in Women’s murder club series by James Patterson. The book started out with a young couple marriage. The description was realistic the all way through, so but the tone changes from happy marriage to bloody murder. I really like this kind of detective books; they are interesting to read, since I just finish 3 seasons of CSI. The book reminds me of CSI. This case about the serial murder who loves to kill newly married couples, he stalk and kill. The story set with all women in crime lab get to set up a group, which is a bit to dramatic in real life. The woman called Lindsay Boxer, who is the main character of the book, she was famous of the talent, she could determine the criminal, with logic but could not find enough evidence, and with the later reports. These might take her months or years to do them. The book does not have much direct description, but the characters are still lively because all the quotes, and the actions they do. I highly recommend this book, because I personally like this kind of books, where crime scenes are well described and the evidence led to the end. Even though this book does have a lot of chemical and medical terms, its fun to search it up and learn about them.(For me)

__ **The Scarlett Letter** __ **by Nathaniel Hawthorne** **Ashley Chen** __The Scarlett Lette__r by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story set in the strict Puritan society of seventeenth century Boston. The story is about a young woman, Hester Prynne, who is sentenced to wear a crimson red “A” on her clothes for committing adultery and giving birth to an illegitimate child named Pearl. Hester is then publicly disgraced and ostracized. Arthur Dimmesdale, Pearl’s father and a minister in the town, is forced to hide his sin, thus suppressing his love for Hester and their daughter, due to the rules of Puritan society and his status in it. The story explores how Hester and Arthur each deal with their sin and how it affects their character. Besides that, themes such as sins and how it provides knowledge on what it means to be human, what evil really is, how society creates identities for people, and more are examined in __ The Scarlett Letter __. After reading the book, I gained a new and insightful understanding of each of the themes. However, the sins theme was especially prevalent for me because it relates to the mistakes I’ve made in the past and how I’ve learned important lessons from them. A major strength in this book is how in depth the characters were developed and the beautifully written descriptions. On the other hand, its weakness is that the majority of the sentences are very long and complicated, which sometimes causes the ideas to be difficult to follow. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a really great piece of literature. However, I must warn that __ The Scarlett Letter __ is a challenging book so it might take a long to read. **Score: 9/10**

**__Fahrenheit 451__ by Ray Bradbury** **Dana Tung** In the novel __Fahrenheit 451,__ Ray Radbury describes a modern American society in the future where reading books is not acceptable. Guy Montag is a main character in the novel whose job is to start fires known as a fireman. Despite Montag’s bad relationship with his wife Millie, Montag becomes friends with his neighbor Clarisse McClellan who is seventeen years old who has a unique personality and interest in nature. Montag enjoys burning books that are illegally owned by people but not until when he is ordered to start fire in an old woman’s house to destroy her books. He is shocked when the woman chooses to be burnt with the books, and he starts to question about the real values and power that stand behind the books. Montag then starts a journey to pursue the values of books. The novel allows the readers to rethink about their lives and society and how they have evolved over time. I would strongly recommend this novel to my classmates as it extends the readers’ imagination and creates a wonderful story of a society that is so much different from the world today. ** Score: 10/10 **

**__Looking for Alaska__ by John Green** **Dana Tung** __Looking for Alaska__ by John Green sets a story full of friendship, loyalty, and teenage drama in a boarding school named Culver Creek in Alabama. A sixteen-year-old intelligent boy named Miles Halter who is fascinated with people’s last words begins his new journey in Culver Creek. After promising his parents “no drink, no drug, no cigarettes”, Miles meets his roommate Chip “Colonol” Martin who gives Miles a nickname “Pudge”. Colonol then introduces Miles to Alaska Young who is a beautiful girl famous for pranks. Despite the academics challenges, Miles quickly adapts the social life in Culver Creek by starting to take cigarettes and drink alcohol with Colonol and Alaska. Green writes suspenseful descriptions of Miles, Colonol and Alaska’s pranks and the three character’s growing friendship. However one day after their huge prank, Alaska drives drunk out of the school in midnight and is killed instantly in a car accident. Miles and Colonol cannot believe that such disaster has happened because they are the last ones to see her and let her leave the school. Facing the truth, loyalty and friendship between these three characters reveals again to the readers. The story is interesting that it is organized in “Before” and “After” Alaska’s death. I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in teenage drama. ** Score: 10/10 **

**__Mockingjay__ by Suzanne Collins** **Dana Tung** As the third book of the Hunger Games series, author Suzanne Collins continues to create a suspenseful story between the main characters Katness, Peeta, Gale, and people from the Capitol. Katness survives her second hunger game and agrees to become “the Mockingjay”, a symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol. While she is temporally safe in District 13, no one else is safe. As a leader of the rebellion, Katness continues to overcome difficulties such as the absence of Peeta who is captured by the Capitol and the pressure that she has under the lives of thousands of people. Although Peeta is rescued, he has been hijacked or brainwashed by President Snow that he thinks Katness is his enemy. With no time to worry about Peeta, Katness and her team begins a journey to kill President Snow. Over this journey, almost all of the people on her team sacrifice their lives for Katness. Throughout the whole story, Collins skillfully creates suspense internally with Katness and externally with the conflicts between the rebellions and the Capitol. I especially enjoyed the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter as they always made me keep on reading. Just like one of the previous books of the Hunger Games series, __MockingJay__ is another thrilling novel to read. ** Score: 10/10 **

__ **I Am the Cheese** __ **by Robert Cormier** **Ashley Chen** __ I Am the Cheese __ by Robert Cormier is a suspenseful mystery about Adam Farmer’s search for his father. The book alternates between two plot lines. In one, Adam embarks on a journey to find his father by traveling on his bicycle from Monument, Massachusetts to Rutterburg, Vermont, where his father is supposed to be. The other plot line is a transcript of tape recordings where a man named Brint speaks with Adam, who seems to be emotionally disturbed, and helps Adam remember his past. However, as the plot progresses, dangerous secrets regarding Adam’s past are uncovered that could possibly threaten the safety of him and everyone he cares about. __ I Am the Cheese __ explores the themes of changing one’s identity and its effect on people as well as how people are helpless against powerful organizations. I can relate to the theme of people being helpless against powerful organizations because my life right now is being controlled by many organizations, for example school, Apple, etc. Furthermore, one of this book’s many strengths is that it effectively uses foreshadowing and delay to create suspense. When reading this book, I was so captivated by the suspense that I read most of the book in one sitting! I would definitely recommend this book for anyone to read. **Score: 10/10**

**__Inheritance__ by Christopher Paolini** **Cindy Ling** In this last book of the Inheritance series, Eragon and his dragon Saphira go with the Varden on a full out war with the Empire. Through a series of adventures that lead to both Solembumn’s riddle and Angela the herbalist’s prophecy coming true, they are finally able to face off against the tyrant Galbatorix with the help of their companions.The chapters in this book, like in the previous two, alternate between the perspective of Eragon and his cousin Roran. It was an interesting finish to the series, however, the plot twists are too predictable and last quarter of the book is anticlimax. The book did not develop the characters other than Murtagh any further and I especially found Angela’s background to be lacking. It would probably be worth borrowing from the library to find out the ending to the series, but I wouldn’t recommend this book for anything else. ** Score: 7/10 **

**Return of the King by J.R. Tolkein** **James Zhang** __The Return of the King__ is the finale of Lord of the Rings series. It finishes and closes the continuous struggle with Sauron’s forces and the destruction of the One Ring, the most powerful artifact in Middle Earth. The Fellowship of the Ring has disbanded and each member prepares to face his or her own battles. Merry, Pippin, Aragon, Gandalf, Legolas, and Gimli all prepare for their own parts within the battle of Minas Tirth. Sam and Frodo, with the weight of the One Ring upon them, grudge their way to Mount Doom, where only the fires where it was forged could melt it. This book plays severely on suspense to keep readers interested because it switches points of view between characters. This would make readers wonder about what happened to the respective characters. A theme within this book is friendship and loyalty. This was mainly represented by Sam’s eternal devotion and love towards Frodo even when all things are down. The book’s style of writing however, is very flawed. It was written in a way that can bore readers even in the climax of a battle. Because of this, I do not strongly recommend this book to others. **Score: 6/10**

**__ Steve Jobs __**** by Walter Isaacson ** ** Cindy Ling ** This book is an astonishingly detailed biography that tells the exceptional life of Steve Jobs, the man who has shaped the culture of generations, including ours. It follows him from his happy childhood with his adopted parents to his creation of Apple with Steve Wozniak, from his being ousted from Apple to his key role in the success of Pixar, from his return to Apple to his battle with cancer in the past few years. Isaacson did a good job of presenting Jobs in a neutral light that not only showed his incredible charisma and innovative thinking but also revealed his other side as a control-freak and a self-centered person who could be brutally cruel at times. These special traits eventually both helped and hindered him in his revolutionizing of several industries. This biography is extremely long, but not boring in the least, with plenty of humor. I would recommend everyone to read this book, especially those who are interested in the history of computer industry.

** Score: 10/10 **


 * __The Hunger Games__ by Suzanne Collins**

This is a book following the adventures of Katniss Everdeen as she competes in a fight to the death, called the Hunger Games, with 23 other people. It is set in a fictional future where 12 districts are governed strictly by the Capitol in the nation of Panem, where North America used to be. The Capitol is strict and controlling over the Districts, its citizens enjoying a lavish lifestyle while those in the Districts are working like slaves for them. The Hunger Games are a way of reminding the people of the Districts the price that the former 13th District paid for rebelling against the Capitol and of the fact that they and their children are helpless against the power of the Capitol. It is also a form of entertainment for those in the Capitol. The themes explored in this book include the depth of human cruelty and friendship, kindness and trust in hard times. This book was extremely suspenseful and well-written, however, I didn’t like how the narrative was in the present tense because it felt somewhat awkward. The idea of the Hunger Games is very innovative. The Hunger Games is a book that I would recommend to people looking for interesting, casual reads.
 * Cindy Ling**


 * Score: 9/10**

This is a biography of Cleopatra VII, the last queen of Egypt. Cleopatra was an ingenious and charming woman who won the heart of Caesar and Mark Antony, both great men of their time. As the queen of Egypt (for twenty years!), she was able to dispose of her siblings, who were dangers to her throne, and make Egypt the richest country in the world. Even though Egypt was later annexed by Rome, she remains a well-known figure throughout history. In this book, Schiff uses a lot of ancient sources such as Plutarch and Cicero, and identifies those that are the most reliable. This is one of the great things about this book, along with the humor. This book has a lot of explanations so as to not let readers without knowledge of ancient Roman orators or such become confused in the middle of reading. I think those who enjoy reading about history or who want to know more details about the life of Cleopatra should definitely read this book. Score: 10/10
 * __Cleopatra: a life__ by Stacy Schiff **
 * Cindy Ling **


 * The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo**
 * Yuhan Liu**

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is set in Medieval time Paris. The story is mainly based on a gypsy girl called Esmeralda, who has separated from her mother since childhood. She ends up being raised by a group of gypsies, who eventually come to Paris earn money in paris. During her time in Paris, she encounters many people and manages to catch their hearts, including bell ringer Quasimodo, the archdeacon Claude Frollo, as well as Captain of the Guards Phoebus, and poet Pierre Gringoire. A spark ignites between them to gain the heart of Esmeralda, this leads to a series of events which concludes in the capture of her. Will she escape the gallows with the help of her admirers? That you would have to find out yourself by reading it! The strengths of this book is that it develops the characters really well, most of the characters took one chapter to introduce, even filler characters were introduced that long. It is also very detailed about the setting of where the event is taking place, for example, in a office room it describes the curtains, cupboard and a fireplace as well more objects and furnitures. A final strength is that the book is suspenseful, when you are in a middle of a important event, the chapter ends turns to another place. The weakness is that the plots moves fairly slow, it stays on one part for too long, and sometimes I feel like I need to skip this page or chapter, but if you do that you might miss something important. I liked this book very much and would recommend it to other people.


 * Score: 10/10**

__The Return of the King__ is the final book of Lord of the Rings series. It ends the continuous struggle with Sauron’s forces and the destruction of the One Ring. The Fellowship of the Ring has been separated and each member prepares to face his or her own battles. Pippin and Gandalf are at Minas Tirith warning the arrogant Denethor of the danger approching. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Merry prepare for the battle of Minas Tirith, awaiting the call from Gondor. Sam and Frodo, carrying the burden of the One Ring upon them, slowly trudge their way to Mount Doom, where only the fires where it was forged could melt and destroy it. This book plays severely on suspense to keep readers interested because it switches points of view between the characters. This would make readers wonder what will happened to the other characters. A theme within this book is friendship and loyalty. This was mainly represented by Sam’s strong sense of love towards Frodo even when all hopes were lost, he continued to fight against the evil that lurked around them. The big flaw in the book is that it can lead readers to boredom, it lacks detail of the great battle taking place at the Black Gate, writing merely a few pages, and immediately changes the scene to another place and never again mentioned, as well as that, nearly half the book is an appendix, to me I didn’t think that was necessary. Even so, I would still recommend this book to other people, mostly adults.
 * __The Return of the King__ by J.R.R Tolkien**
 * Yuhan Liu**


 * Score: 8/10**

The Two Towers is the sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring, and is the second book of the Lord of the Rings series. It continues the lengthly journey of Frodo the ring-bearer with his loyal friend Sam, and how they encounter the mysterious creature that has been following them for a long time. Meanwhile, the rest of the Fellowship journey towards Rohan to fight an oncoming war between the White Wizard Saruman, and Rohan, the home of the horse lords. As the mighty Uruk-Hai army marches to fight the weak and feeble army of Rohan, who will emerge victorious? This book creates suspense to make the reader feel curious on what is happening to the other characters while they are talking about another. Even though suspense is a good aspect of the book, but it also has a bit of a flaw, the author makes the suspense go on for too long, and then when it turns back to that character, you might have already forgotten thats where you left off with the character, and it leads you to a bit of boredom. Also, it is a bit too detailed on unnecessary items or object, whereas some of the main parts are a bit too simple. However, I still recommend this book to adults.
 * __The Two Towers__ by J.R.R Tolkien**
 * Yuhan Liu**


 * Score: 8/10**

__The Bourne Ultimatum__ is the final book of the //Jason Bourne Trilogy// by Robert Ludlum. It continues after the second book The Bourne Supremacy. David Webb is living a peaceful life in Maine as a historian until one day, his close friends, Alex Conklin and Morris Panov inform of an upcoming danger that threaten his life and family. As they slowly put the puzzle together, they find that an old nemesis called Carlos the Jackal is looking for Jason Bourne, in other words, David Webb. In order to complete this final task, he has to summon his old skills from his past life as an assassin, a life which he tried to abandon, but in vain. This is book as it has a lot of action and you can picture it in your head that keeps you interested. Also, it creates suspense in a few chapters, for example when Bourne fights in Paris, and after all the work he has done, the Jackal wasn’t there. This makes us wonder where is he. The only flaw is that, there might be too much action, which doesn’t make your rest, and there is not much peace in the book. However, this book is still fascinating and I would recommend to teenagers and adults.
 * __The Bourne Ultimatum__ by Robert Ludlum**
 * Yuhan Liu**


 * Score: 9/10**


 * Natchaya Zhou**
 * __2nd Chance__ by James Patterson**

In the second book,2nd Chance of the series, //A Women’s Murder Club//, main character Boxer, lose her teammates in last book. She didn’t come to work for months, until the event happens in a church, where all the children are attacked, and one girl is dead. They then found out it’s not a random attack that it seems like, while other events are going on, by the same killer. This killer didn’t have the same background like the one in previous book. He fought for his own hatred, Boxer kill his father (in work). The last part where they fight in the tower is the most intense scene, and my favorite part. Boxer already knows, he only hates her. She went there alone, she almost die, when her gun fly away. Until her teammate come up stairs and kill the killer. The story ended with a mystery, bullets found in the killer’s body, matches up with the bullets from the police, but there was one bullet didn’t match. This makes me think for few days after a finish the book. I like this book because the intenseness, but I didn’t really like the motive of the killer, because I am interested in crime psychology, this hate seems too normal for me.
 * 8.5/10**


 * Natchaya Zhou**
 * __3rd degree__ by James Patterson**

3rd degree is a novel from the series, //A Women’s Murder Club.// I like this book, even though compare to the intenseness, this book is not as intense as the previous book, 2nd chance. There was not a lot of close fighting scene, which I like. But this book, I favor the killer, Mal. Unlike the previous killers, kill because of their backgrounds. Instead, Mal uses bomb to create fear and chaos between people, which never appear before. He didn’t have a perfect motive, seems as reasonable as the previous killer, he is more crazy killer. In the other hand he is not crazy, from lines he spoken he is calm, fear of nothing. The only part I don't like about Mal, it’s the fact that he has a helper Michelle, which is unusual and awkward for a series killer. This book is more a game that is under tone. Mal creates chaos want everyone know about the event and fear, and police try to keep it down.
 * 9/10**

__The Subtle Knife__ is the sequel to the Northern Lights. It continues the story into another world, called Citagazze which Lyra has stumbled upon, and introducing a new protagonist, Will Parry, who also at the same time found a opening to it. Lyra is seen as a less selfish person as before, and managed to gain more knowledge of the symbols of the Alethiometer. Meanwhile, Lord Asriel gathers men from the world of Citagazze to rebel against the Authority, one organization who the Magisterium is working for, and is god of the Dark Material series. At the end, Will Parry also finds his father in the world of Citagazze, who in the name of John Parry, is actually the legendary explorer, Stanislaus Grumman. The good aspect of the book is it is has plenty of action that keeps us interested in the story, as well as constant accidents lead us into questioning what will happen next. Also, the characters are more developed and have more sides towards, and even some of the returning characters have new characteristics introduced in the book. I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone.
 * __The Subtle Knife__ by Phillip Pullman**
 * Yuhan Liu**


 * Score: 10/10**

The Amber Spyglass is the final of the Dark Materials trilogy. It includes more and more worlds into the story and new species such as the Gallivespian. It develops the relationship between Will and Lyra, as their relationship starts getting closer and closer, and is determined as the second Adam and Eve. Throughout the story, they have to make hard decisions, such as abandon their demons to enter the world of the dead, and break the Subtle Knife to seal of all windows to other worlds, but knowing the consequence is them never seeing each other again. Mary Malone is found in a new world that is inhabited by strange creatures called the Mulefa, and there, she starts developing the amber spyglass in order to see the mystical particles called Dust, and how these universes work. This book now engages more action than the Subtle Knife, and explains how everything works, like the Authority. It also explain more about beings like Angels and Spectres. It is an exciting novel and I was really interested in the story. I would recommend it to others.
 * __The Amber Spyglass__ by Phillip Pullman**
 * Yuhan Liu**


 * Score: 10/10**

__**The Blind Side by Michael Lewis**__ __The Blind Side__ is based on a true story about world football star Michael Oher. It tells us about his childhood, and the main reason for his bad grades is because he was badly brought up, since he was running away from home all the time. Eventually when he came to Briarcrest Christian School, the Tuohy family took him in and started treating him as part of the family. With the support of Sean Tuohy and Leigh-Anne Tuohy, Michael started to be involved in sports, such as track and field, as well as basketball. Later when he went to college, he started to do american football, which he was later recognized by the Nation. This is book is very interesting for me, because it is a true story. You get to know what other people’s life are like, and especially for a world football star, you can understand his journey to glory and happiness, and I learned that not everyone has a perfect childhood like us. It was not a disappointment to me and I would recommend it anyone who needs a book to read.
 * Yuhan Liu**


 * Score: 10/10**

__The Three Musketeers__ is about a poor, young man called D’Artagnan who wants to be a Musketeer, but unfortunately his letter of introduction is stolen, and therefore, the story continues on about his journey to become a Musketeer. It speaks of Cardinal Richelieu trying to spark a war between France and England and has hired many spies like Milady de Winter and Comte de Rochefort to carry out his orders in order to lead the current king of France, Louis XIII, to suspect his wife of having affairs with the Duke of Buckingham. This novel is full of action and non-stop fighting, it keeps us excited about the outcome, therefore making us want to read more. One of the good aspect of the book is that the events aren’t random, some books that have a lot of fighting scenes, are random, which makes us confused about the story, but in this book, everything is linked, there is a chain of events that leads to the fight that we are reading now. I would recommend this book to anyone at any age if they are eager to read a book.
 * The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas**
 * Yuhan Liu**


 * Score: 10/10**

__**Four blind mice**__ **by James Patterson** Now I know the disadvantage of reading a popular writer’s book. I took the wrong book from another series that sound the same as the previous series I was reading. //Four blind mice// come from the series //Washington, D.C. homicide detective//. It’s every different from the previous book in characters, but has a similar tone, and color, since they are from the same writer. In four blind mice, the main characters have been changed from female to male, Alex Cross. Jobs are different too, Alex is a Forensic Psychologist, but Boxer is a police. When I first found out that Alex is a Forensic Psychologist, I was happy about my mistake on picking a wrong book. Police seems to be common topic, compare to forensic psychologist, which personally I like more. In this book more serious problem other then a series killer. Alex Cross and his partner John Sampson are tracking about US army sergeants killing innocent people. The book is intense but unlike //A Women’s Murder Club.// The intenseness has a different tone.
 * Natchaya Zhou**
 * 9.5/10**

Natchaya Zhou I want to read more variety of book, but stick on the same topic. I chose Bones to Ashes, not only because the cool cover but also the forensic pathologist is a woman. The gender of main character makes me feel more relationship with the character and also the story. The story starts with a box of old bones, which have been years. The story has to do with Temparence Brennan’s childhood. Temparence Brenan’s childhood friend has been disappeared, when she was a child. The box come along with letter, and wants her to reveal the truth about her friend. The book include dark side of society such as child pornography, which add more reality to this book, and more elements(topic) to the theme.
 * __Bones to Ashes__ by Kathy Reichs**
 * 9/ 10**

In the novel //Last Child// by Michael Spooner, was a fictional story. The story is based on a historical background, in 1830s. The story is fictional, since it’s about the past, unlike other books I read previously, the book contain a realistic in it, and a different kind of tone. This special setting (for me) is a new experience, the girl, Rosalie. Rosalie is a mixed-race girl, and during the period of time, smallpox was one of the biggest issues. The book is not as heroic as other books, how human needs to be selfish in order to save he or herself, how life is always unfair. Survival for her was hard, when her father drink and her mom is dying. Her grandmother come and she is able to determine her own life. I am not a big fan of the book, because I usually more fictional story, future, magic, or detective stories. This book I choose to see, how these kind of fictional story was like.
 * __Last Child__ by Michael Spooner**
 * Natchaya Zhou**
 * 8/10**

This is the first fantasy story I read until now. //Book of Shadow// is the first book from the series of //Sweep.// The story starts with the old “small town girl” Morgan Rowland, an ordinary girl, and there come the mystery transfer hot guy, Cal Blaire. Cal turns out to be a witch, and he feels witch power on Morgan too. Morgan than notice she got the great power from her ancestors. The same time she feels Cal has secrets that he is trying to keep from her. I really like fantasy but I don't like flawless character, especially too powerful and charming character. I will not read the second book, because of the characterization even though there is a good plot.
 * __Book of Shadow__ by Cate Jiernan**
 * Natchaya Zhou**
 * 7.5/ 10**

The first book I read about holocaust is Annie's Diary. In my point of view Annie owns more than Eliezer**.** In Annie's diary nothing really happened, there are fear, but not physical torture being vividly described in the book. Eliezer has to live though all these pain, and dies of family. When I went through they book I found out the book has been translated from French to English by **Marion Wiesel**, probably author's relatives. The story is touching because the well known history, the past, and the memory that is still warm in people's hearts. In this book the holocaust is vividly described. The images have been brought back to present by the author. I enjoy the book because not only I like really "fake" fictional story, I like history too, especially true story.
 * __Night__ by Elie Wiesel**
 * Natchaya Zhou**
 * 8.5/10**

This book is a book I knew from my friend. She said it was short and "sweet". __Of Mice and Men__ talks about the friendship that has to survive between George and Lennie. Juxtaposition is used in this book, total different size and personality of two characters make readers know the contrast between them and how they are having the same dream. This big difference between character also separate readers into two groups, George and Lennie groups. Unlike other books where readers can pick between protagonists who is she or he similar to and feel the same way. Limited character makes readers only care about two, and focus on the plot, but need more skill to create more fun between two characters. The tragic end of the book, Lennie kills a person. The end is painful but the suspense author create is enough to keep the interest.
 * __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck**
 * Natchaya Zhou**
 * 9/10**

This book has a unusual plot line, story get though few changes, that might get readers confused. Adam Farmer is trying to find his family's true identity, he ride his old bicycle; trying to recall hi memory from past; and flash back from his memory, these elements that make up this play. Adam has this tape where a man help him to pick up clues and recall memory. The book is like a puzzle, and Adam is collecting pieces all along the way, to figure out the truth at the end. Puzzle also makes a book very suspenseful. I will recommend this book to anyone who likes puzzle like me. 9.5/10
 * __I am the cheese__ by Robert Cormier**
 * Natchaya Zhou**