Author: John Allison Illustrator: Lissa Treiman Colors: Whitney Cogar Genre: Graphic novel, contemporary Published: November 2015 Book description (from Good Reads):  Susan, Esther, and Daisy started at university three weeks ago and became fast friends. Now, away from home for the first time, all three want to reinvent themselves. But in the face of handwringing boys, “personal experimentation,” influenza, mystery-mold, nu-chauvinism, and the willful, unwanted intrusion of “academia,” they may be lucky just to make it to spring alive. Going off to university is always a time of change and growth, but for Esther, Susan, and Daisy, things are about to get a little weird. Thoughts: So yeah. It is a nice character-based story. Lately, I keep picking up character based stories, not bad except that I am supposed to be looking for something with more plot-driven ones.  It is full of the adventures a group of freshman girls have when they're beginning their college life.  It

Author: Andrew Kaufman  Genre: Fiction, Humor Published: October 1999 Book description (from Good Reads):   All Tom's friends really are superheroes. There's the Ear, the Spooner, the Impossible Man. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding, the Perfectionist was hypnotized (by ex-boyfriend Hypno, of course) to believe that Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, she's sure that Tom has abandoned her. So she's moving to Vancouver. She'll use her superpower to make Vancouver perfect and leave all the heartbreak in Toronto. With no idea Tom's beside her, she boards an airplane in Toronto. Tom has until the wheels touch the ground in Vancouver to convince her he's visible, or he loses her forever. Thoughts: It is full of people with almost unbelievable powers. The powers people have very interesting powers that are not the norm for heroes as we know it.  This is a character-focused story.

And: All My Friends Are Still Dead (#2) Author: Avery Monsen and Jory John Genre: Graphic Novel, Humor Book Descriptions:  If you're a dinosaur, all of your friends are dead. If you're a pirate, all of your friends have scurvy. If you're a tree, all of your friends are end tables. Each page of this laugh-out-loud illustrated humor book showcases the downside of being everything from a clown to a cassette tape to a zombie. Cute and dark all at once, this hilarious children's book for adults teaches valuable lessons about life while exploring each cartoon character's unique grievance and wide-eyed predicament. Thoughts:  This was a fun read in a way. It is easy to get through and its a nice way to unwind after a stressful day. It is not a laughing and rolling in the floor, but it makes you smile in the attempts here. I gave this a 3-star rating to each. Can't say that I read a lot of humorous books so have very little to compare with. But well

Author: Ronald C. Rosbottom Genre: Non-Fiction, History First Published: January 2014 Book Description (from Good Reads):  On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. Subsequently, an eerie sense of normalcy settled over the City of Light. Many Parisians keenly adapted themselves to the situation-even allied themselves with their Nazi overlords. At the same time, amidst this darkening gloom of German ruthlessness, shortages, and curfews, a resistance arose. Parisians of all stripes-Jews, immigrants, adolescents, communists, rightists, cultural icons such as Colette, de Beauvoir, Camus and Sartre, as well as police officers, teachers, students, and store owners-rallied around a little known French military officer, Charles de Gaulle.  Thoughts: The topic itself as very interesting. I had no previous information about the way France was under the German occupation this b

Author: Elie Wiesel Translator: Marion Wiesel Genre: Memoir Originally Published: 1958 Book description (from Good Reads):  Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again. Thoughts: Just like the author mentions at the end, it is difficult to put into words the atrocities that took place during that time period. Interesting, I have not read all

Author: Julie Bauxman  Pages: 292 Genre: Contemporary Published: July 2017 Book Description:   Two struggling teenagers find an unexpected connection just when they need it most. Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world. KIT: I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I’m going through. How could they? I don’t even understand. DAVID: In the 622 days I’ve attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I’ve never once sat with someone until now. “So your dad is dead,” I say to Kit, because this is a fact I’ve recently learned about her. When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. Whe

Author: Alexandra Bracken Genre: Sci-Fi Published: December 2012 Book description (from Good Reads):  When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that had killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control. Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. She is on the run, desperate to find the only safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who have escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. When they arri

Author: Brent Weeks  Genre: Fantasy Published:  August 2014 Book Description (from Good Reads):  As the old gods awaken, the Chromeria is in a race to find its lost Prism, the only man who may be able to stop catastrophe, Gavin Guile. But Gavin's enslaved on a galley, and when he finally escapes, he finds himself in less than friendly hands. Without the ability to draft which has defined him . Meanwhile, the Color Prince's army continues its inexorable advance, having swallowed two of the seven satrapies, they now invade the Blood Forest. Andross Guile, thinking his son Gavin lost, tasks his two grandsons with stopping the advance. Kip and his psychopathic half-brother Zymun will compete for the ultimate prize: who will become the next Prism. Thoughts: So this story does not pick up the pace a lot in regards of the previous, the war is not the main event here, so be warned. There is a lot of character development, friendships blossoms, romances for several of our belo

Author: David Wong Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror, Humor Published: 2007 Book description (from Good Reads):  STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me. The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the ve

Author: Lisa Jewell  Published: April 2018 Genre: Mystery, Domestic Thriller Book Description (from Good Reads): THEN She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.  NOW  It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter. And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.  Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter.  Poppy is precocious and pretty - and meeting her completely takes Laurel's breath away.  Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.  What happened to Ellie? Where did she go?  Who still has secrets to hide? Thoughts: It was a bit slow to get into for me

Author: Franz Kafka  Narrator: Bob Neufeld Genre: Short Stories, Classics Book description (from Scribd):  When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Franz Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. Thoughts:  It starts off as overly absurd. Gregor wakes up feeling off and is unable to make it to the train that takes him to work on time. We spend the first few pages of him struggling to decide what to do about the fact. He is worried that his boss is going to be angry, that they will not believe him to be ill. It is such inane thing to worry about.  When he discovers he has changed, initially his family and his manager are able

Author: J.A. Konrath Narrator: Patrick Lawlor Genre: Sci-Fi Book description (from Good Reads):  Chicago, 2064: Talon Avalon is a timecaster-one of a select few peace officers who can operate a TEV, the Tachyon Emission Visualizer, which records events (most specifically, crimes) that have already happened. With crime at an all-time low, Talon has little to do except give lectures to school kids and obsess on his wife's profession as a licensed sex partner. Until one of her clients asks Talon to investigate a possible murder. When Talon uses the TEV to view the crime, the identity of the killer is unmistakable-it's him, Talon Avalon. Picked to accomplish the reading prompt in the Winter Biannual Bibliathon: Read a bok by an author you've never heard of. Thoughts: The plotline overall sounded good, the futuristic world, even with all the inconsistencies with the logic of the technology, well you could ignore that a bit and it was still good. The utopian world that

Author: Anne Frank Genre: Memoir Book description (Good Reads) : Anne Frank's extraordinary diary, written in the Amsterdam attic where she and her family hid from the Nazis for two years, has become a world classic and a timeless testament to the human spirit. Now, in a new edition enriched by many passages originally withheld by her father, we meet an Anne more real, more human, and more vital than ever. Here she is first and foremost a teenage girl—stubbornly honest, touchingly vulnerable, in love with life. She imparts her deeply secret world of soul-searching and hungering for affection, rebellious clashes with her mother, romance and newly discovered sexuality, and wry, candid observations of her companions. Facing hunger, fear of discovery and death, and the petty frustrations of such confined quarters, Anne writes with adult wisdom and views beyond her years. Her story is that of every teenager, lived out in conditions few teenagers have ever known. Thoughts I love

Author: Kasie West Pages343 Genre: YA Sci-Fi Book description (Good Reads):  Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?” As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with—her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the “Norms,” or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it’s not. In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being pursued by the hottest guy in school—but she never wanted to be a quarterback’s girlfriend. When Addie’s father

Author: Christina Lauren 407 pages Genre: Contemporary Published: September 2017 Thoughts: Mixed feelings. I really like the overall idea. A young teen from a very liberal accepting family falling for a very religious devout young man from an extremely conservative family. You expect drama. And there is way too much drama. The relationship was not awesome in the way that it felt very unrealistic. It was instalove, really if someone is so in the closet how can they so easily jump to a relationship if you can call it that. Mayne issues arose because of the characters poor choices. What do I mean - Moving to such a place was not the best decision, it is NOT for the benefit of the family other than professional advancement and economic gain (the mother's job is not shown much, and the fact that the parents are oh so accepting could be seen as guilt for dragging the family to live in such toxic environment). -Being scared is understandable, saying things that you don'

Author: Maryann Karinch & Gregory Heartley Narrated by the authors Published: September 2011 Thoughts: It is an interesting read. It gives you interesting facts about people's biological and emotional response to several stressful situations. The information provided is mainly used for getting information out from people against their will pretty much. It is a good book in the sense of information that you generally do not pick up for yourself. The bad thing is that I find it is hard to actually put them in practice. I thought I was going to get more information on how to detect deception in everyday situations .... and instead, it looks like its more interested in deception and manipulation, which is ok to read about but then again I would never actually put into practice at all. It is, though, a good book to have if you are interested in knowing about deception it carries nice little facts that you would find useful if you can remember. 3.0 Stars

Author: Louis Sachar 233 pages Genre: YA Contemporary Published: August 1998 Book description (from Good Reads):  Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption. Thoughts: This book was a favorite when growing up. But it was such a long time since it was read that it reading it now feels almost like reading for the first time. I ha