Monday, April 22, 2013

50 Book Challenge Suggestions from Saturday, April 20

Here is a list of the books we suggested to the group. If we own them, the link to the item in the catalog is provided. If not, please ask us to interlibrary loan it for you!

1. Twelve by Twelve by William Powers
2. My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
3. Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
4. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
5. Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
6. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
7. Elsewhere by Richard Russo
8. Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me by Patricia Volk
9. Saturday Night Widows by Becky Aikman
10. Chief Bruno Courrèges series by Martin Walker
11. What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir by Alice Eve Cohen
12. End of Your Life Bookclub by Will Schwalbe
13. The Cost of Hope by Amanda Bennett
14. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
15. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie
16. Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Ann Fowler

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Spring Books

I have been lucky this semester in taking a Young Adult (YA) Lit class and have come across a lot of books that I would have never picked up had my professor not assigned specific genres to read.  YA is not just for teens and I have posted some other YA books that I really think adults would enjoy as well.

Some of the ones I enjoyed most this semester were:

Divergent by Veronica Roth
A science fiction/dystopian novel, Divergent explores the life of Beatrice Prior who has to choose on her 16th birthday which faction she wants to live in for the rest of her life. There is Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful) and Erudite (the intelligent).

If you choose one different from your family, you lose them forever. But you have to choose wisely because secrets are everywhere, scandal is around and you may have to realize that your decision may not have been the right one.

Although not my strong genre, this book was fascinating. It was interesting, adventurous, and really a page turner!

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Samantha Kingston has the perfect life. A normal teen with a cute boyfriend, cool friends, and any material item she could want.  Until one day she wakes up and it is February 12. She goes through the day as any normal teen. The next time she wakes up, it is February 12 again.  Samantha starts out confused and then realizes that this is her chance to change things that have happened, to really be able to go back in time and make things right.

Although you sometimes feel as if this book is going to continue forever, you read it thinking that don't we all wish we had that option? What would we do if we had the chance to redo a day in our lives over again?

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This is by far one of the best books I have read in a long time. The audio is really great but warning, tears may flow when you are driving!

This book centers around a really tragic subject, childhood cancer. Green really makes his characters positive and encouraging while facing something so terrible. The two main characters Augustus and Hazel are lovable and you can't help but like them. This is definitely a "you'll laugh, you'll cry" book.