The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

Before you sit down to read this book grab a box of tissues.  You don't need them right away but trust me you will.

All the librarians are talking about this book.  Amy told me I had to read this book.  I'm not sure I'm going to take any more recommendations from her...:)  I kid!

This really is a moving book.  Although I just knew it was a tragedy from the beginning, how could it not be when most of the characters have some form of cancer, you can't put this book down.  Mr. Green writes the main characters, Hazel and Augustus, with such humor and grace you hardly can believe that they are only 16 and 17.  I think that the reality of having a disease like cancer can age a person, make them sound and feel older than they really are.  But they still have their moments of teen angst.  Hazel Grace has a type of cancer that cannot be cured, it can only be treated.  She knows her days are numbered.  Then she meets Augustus Waters at a Cancer Kid Support Group and he completely turns her life around.  Augustus had the type of cancer that took his leg, but is in remission.  Hazel doesn't want to get involved with Gus because she is afraid of him seeing her die.  But Gus doesn't take no for an answer.

I bawled twice while reading this book, twice.  So please have your tissues ready.  But this book is so worth the crying because before the tears there is laughter and young love.  Oh and it takes place in our very own Indianapolis!  Very cool!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Reading Level: Adult
(4 out of 5)

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Skeeter is home from college and ready to start a career as a writer but it's 1962 in Jackson Mississippi and her mother won't be happy until a ring is on her finger. The one person Skeeter would find solace in, her maid Constantine, is gone. No one will tell her where she went.

Aibileen is a maid for Skeeter's best friend Elizabeth and she is raising her seventeenth white child. Since the death of her own beloved son a bitter seed has grown inside her. She loves the little girl she is raising but she knows that both of their hearts might get broken.

Then there is Minny. Minny is one of the finest cooks in Mississippi but she has a sharp tongue and can't hold a job. She's been fired from as many jobs as babies Aibileen has raised . When she gets let go from yet another job she gets hired by a women so new to the town she doesn't know Minny well enough to know her reputation. Minny's new employer has secrets of her own.

When Skeeter decides to write a book about the Help she goes to Aibileen first. Aibileen agrees after refusing a few times but she wants her story to be heard and then later Minny agrees as well. Farther down the road several other maids come forward as well. At that time during that climate it was very brave of them to come forward and share their stories. Many of them were heartwarming and not unpleasant. Skeeter's friend Hilly was quite unpleasant. I didn't like her very much. People let her have too much power over them and should have stood up to her. Hilly and I would not have been friends.

This book made me laugh, tear up, and really made me think. It was a fantastic read. The only thing that would have made it better was if I would have gotten a little more closure with the characters. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.

Hold Still by Nina Lacour

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

How would you feel if one day you are laughing with your friend and the next day she is gone? Gone by suicide. Caitlin and Ingrid are best friends. Ingrid tells Caitlin that she will go wherever she goes and by the next day Ingrid is dead. Caitlin is devastated. How did she not see the signs? Could she have helped her friend? One day Caitlin finds Ingrid's journal under her bed. Ingrid had to have deliberately put it there because Ingrid didn't go anywhere without her journal. Caitlin lets herself read one entry a day so she can keep Ingrid with her as long as possible. The days and months after Ingrid's suicide Caitlin starts to heal with the help of her parents, her new friend Dylan, love interest Taylor, and Ingrid's journal. This is a very heartfelt book and you feel for Ingrid and Caitlin. Suicide is sad and hard to understand, especially for the ones left behind. From the book jacket, "Nina LaCour brings the changing seasons of Caitlin's first year without Ingrid to the page with indelible emotion and honesty."

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Reading Level: Adult

(3 out of 5)

John Tyree is home on leave when he meets Savannah Lynn Curtis. Savannah's in North Carolina for the summer building homes for Habitat for Humanity. When John and Savannah meet the attraction is mutual and they spend the next couple of weeks together and fall in love. Can their love survive being so many miles from each other? When 9/11 happens John re-enlists and that changes the course of their lives.

I don't read to many Nicholas Sparks books because they are usually sad. Someone usually dies. While I think Mr. Sparks is a great story teller I like to read books with happier endings. I ended up reading this book because when I went to see New Moon one of the previews was for a movie called Dear John based on Nicholas Sparks book. The movie looks good. It stars Channing Tatum, which is a total cutie, and Amanda Seyfried. I'll go see it to see how closely they followed the book. I'm hoping they didn't follow to closely because I wouldn't mind a different ending.

The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha

Reading Level: Adult
(4 out of 5)








What does it mean to Forgive? According to the dictionary it means to grant pardon for or remission of an offense, debt, etc. To grant pardon to a person. Sounds easy enough but would you be able to forgive your son's killer?

Irene and Nate Stanley have lived a quiet life with their two children, Bliss and Shep, in southern Illinois for most of their lives. One day Nate announces that he got a sheriff position in Oregon and they were going to move. Irene doesn't want to leave the life she has always known but she gives in to her husband and off they go to Oregon. About a year into living in Oregon the unthinkable happens. Their fifteen year old son Shep is shot in killed in there home during a robbery. His murder turns the Stanley's lives upside down. All Irene can think about is wanting justice for Shep's death and for her that means putting his killer to death. But the justice system can work slowly and years go by without word of his execution and Irene has to face facts. Can she continue hating her son's killer or can she forgive him?

I thought that this was a thoughtful, emotionally moving book. Life does move on after a tragedy. But how you move on is different from person to person. Ms. Rakha does throw in some curve balls that I wasn't expecting and I always enjoy when I don't see something coming.


On the back flap the book says, "Dramatic, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting, The Crying Tree is an unforgettable story of love and redemption, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the transformative power of forgiveness.



I highly recommend this book.

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

Reading Level: Young Adult
(3 out of 5)

This book was a little slow going for me. It finally picked up the pace for me towards the end. Broken Soup is about a family that has been torn apart by a tragic accident. Mom can't cope, Dad leaves, and big sister has to take care of her younger sister. And then one day things start to change and they may be for the better. This was a sad read but I'm glad I finished it.

Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen

Adult
(4 out of 5)

This book is a very fast read. It is only 82 pages and about half of those pages are pictures. In this book Mrs. Quindlen talks about Beau. Beau is her beloved black Labrador retriever. She reflects on his life from a puppy to old age, and eventually death. This book is for dog lovers and dog owners. I found myself nodding or laughing at different things in this book because I could so relate. Towards the end I started to sniffle because you knew his life was coming to an end.

Below taken from http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/annaquindlen/.

“The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen about her beloved black Labrador retriever, Beau. With her trademark wisdom and humor, Quindlen reflects on how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau’s, and on the lessons she’s learned by watching him: to roll with the punches, to take things as they come, to measure herself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present, to raise her nose in the air from time to time and, at least metaphorically, holler, “I smell bacon!”Of the dog that once possessed a catcher’s mitt of a mouth, Quindlen reminisces, “there came a time when a scrap thrown in his direction usually bounced unseen off his head. Yet put a pork roast in the oven, and the guy still breathed as audibly as an obscene caller. The eyes and ears may have gone, but the nose was eternal. And the tail. The tail still wagged, albeit at half-staff. When it stops, I thought more than once, then we’ll know.”Heartening and bittersweet, Good Dog. Stay. honors the life of a cherished and loyal friend and offers us a valuable lesson on our four-legged family members: Sometimes an old dog can teach us new tricks (2/13/09).

Sharing Sam by Katherine Applegate

(4 out of 5)

Reading Level: Young Adult

I read this book several years ago. I thing I was in junior high at the time. My friend and I both read it and loved it. When I was checking some books in the other day I saw this one. I checked it out and re-read some of my favorite parts. This is a sweet story of two girls and a guy they both love. Sam is the new guy in town and both Allison and Isabella have eyes for him. Sam is into Allison. They start to date but then Isabella is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Isabella really likes Sam so Allison encourages Sam to take her out. Allison knows that Isabella doesn't have much time left and wants her to experience love. This really is one of the sweetest love triangle stories you will ever read and as a teenager it was one of my favorites.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

(4 out of 5)

Reading Level: Adult

This book came out in 2002 and it went flying off the shelves at the library. If I remember correctly the waiting list was quite long. I was probably one of the only people on the planet not to read this book. It sounded very intriguing but I must have had other books to consume at the time. At the library we do once a month book discussions. I picked this book for our discussion in May. I thought to myself this is the perfect opportunity for me to read it. I'm really glad I did. Alice Sebold has spun an emotional roller coaster of a story. The Lovely Bones is about fourteen year old Susie and her family. From the start of the book Susie is already in heaven. She dies by the hands of a neighbor in a very brutal way. In the weeks following her death, Susie watches over her family desperately trying to reach out to them. And she also explores the place called heaven. As the months turn into years each family member (mom, dad, sister Lindsey, and brother Buckley) cope in their own way. The police have no leads as to who the killer is but Susie's father is convinced that he knows who did it. But he has no proof.

"The Lovely Bones is luminous and astonishing, a novel that builds out of grief the most hopeful of stories. In the hands of a brilliant new writer, this story of the worst thing a family can face is transformed into a suspenseful and even funny novel about love, memory, joy, heaven, and healing (book jacket)."

The Lovely Bones is being made into a movie directed by Peter Jackson. To find out more about the movie go to http://www.imdb.com/.