Requiem, by Lauren Oliver (2013)

Goodreads

My rating:  6 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inference

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The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanan (2011)

 

Goodreads

 

My rating:  8 out of 10 stars

 

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Trouble, by Gary D. Schmidt (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  10 out of 10 stars!!!

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Compound, by S. A. Bodeen (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*creepy parts about "Supplements"

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The Host, by Stephenie Meyer (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  6 out of 10 stars
*long, long, long

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Paper Towns, by John Green (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  9 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual references, risky behaviors

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (1999)

Goodreads

My rating:  10 out of 10
*language, sexual references, risky behavior

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Prodigy, by Marie Lu (2013)

**Plot spoiler if you have 

not read Legend!**

Day jolts awake beside me.  His brown is covered with sweat, and his cheeks are wet with tears.  He's breathing heavily.

Following Legend, Prodigy takes up where the Republic's most wanted criminal, Day, and the Republic's most celebrated prodigy, June Iparis, left off - hitching a ride on a train bound for the military city of Las Vegas.  Nine days have passed since they broke out of Batalla Hall and escaped Los Angeles.  Day wants to join up with the Patriots to rescue his little brother, Eden.

"You're really set on finding the Patriots, 

aren't you?"

Elector Primo has died and his son, Anden Stavropoulous, is the new Elector.

The Republic has simply moved on to the next Elector without skipping a beat, as if Anden were the same person as his father.  My head swims - I try to remember what I'd learned in school about choosing a new Elector.  The Elector always picked his successor, and a national election would confirm it.  It's no surprise that Anden is next in line - but our Elector has been in power for decades, long before I was born.  Now he's gone.  

Our world has shifted in a matter of seconds.

June and Day find the Patriot's leader, Razor.  Although they don't have any money to offer, they're still valuable to the Patriots.

"There is something you can offer," he starts.  "Fortunately you've arrived on a very interesting night."  

"Rarely has the Republic been as vulnerable as it is now.  There will never be a better time to spark a revolution."

The Patriots want Day and June to assassinate the new 20-year old Elector.

Will they accomplish this mission?  Who can they trust?  Will they survive?  This is a great read if you like action, drama, and political intrigue.  In my opinion, Prodigy is a more exciting read than book 1, Legend.  

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*mild language

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Looking for Alaska, by John Green (2005)

one hundred thirty-six days before
The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party.  To say that I had low expectations would be to underestimate the matter dramatically.

Sixteen-year old Miles Halter attends public high school.  He doesn't have any friends and his high school experience has been less than fun.  He actually wants to go to boarding school.  After learning about French poet François Rabelais's last words ("I go to seek a Great Perhaps."), Miles realizes that he doesn't have to die to start looking for his Great Perhaps.  He decides to attend Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama.

Miles loves to read biographies of famous people and remembers their last words.

I thought of the people I'd read about - John F. Kennedy, James Joyce, Humphrey Bogart - who went to boarding school, and their adventures - Kennedy, for example, loved pranks.  I thought of the Great Perhaps and the things that might happen and the people I might meet and who my roommate might be...

Miles's roommate is Chip Martin, aka the Colonel.  The Colonel shows Miles the ins and outs of Culver Creek and gives Miles his nickname:  Pudge.  Then he takes Miles to meet Alaska in her room.

We walked in.  I turned to close the door behind me, and the Colonel shook his head and said, "After seven, you have to leave the door open if you're in a  girl's room," but I barely heard him because the hottest girl in all of human history was standing before me in cutoff jeans and a peach tank top.

And so Miles's Great Perhaps begins.  Looking for Alaska is funny, shocking, and heart-breaking.  I absolutely loved it!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inference, sexual situations, smoking, drinking 

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Averyron, by Mary Losure (March 2013)

Summer and winter, the wild boy lived in the forest.

The first time people saw the wild boy, he was about 9 years old.  When he was around 10 years old, he was caught by a group of woodsmen and displayed in the village square.  He managed to escape and return to the forest.  Later, he was captured again, but instead of being put on display, he stayed with a poor old widow who lived in a cottage on the edge of the village.  For 8 days he was treated with kindness.  He escaped again.

He was less fearful of people because he realized they might give him food.

In January 1800, he was caught again.  Rumors had spread across the countryside about a wild boy, and officials wanted to know if it was true.  They also realized that scientists in Paris would be very, very interested in studying a real wild human.

The wild boy was 12 years old when he was caught stealing food from a garden.  Many believed he was deaf and mute.  Should he be in an orphanage?  An insane assylum?  A school of deaf and mute children?  For many years, the wild boy was treated not as a human, but as a specimen.  Until a hero came to teach him.

Wild Boy was an interesting read about the true story of a wild boy found in southern France in the late 1700s.  

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

Not available at NOLS...yet!

Dust Lands Book 2: Rebel Heart, by Moira Young (2012)

It's late afternoon.  Since morning, the trail's been following a line of light towers.  That is, the iron remains of what used to be light towers, way back in Wrecker days, time out of mind.  

Picking up the story where Blood Red Road left off, Jack is on his way to tell Ike's girl the bad news.  He's headed to a tavern in the storm belt called The Lost Cause.  All he wants to do is tell Molly, and then get back to Saba in Big Water.

The Tonton used to be dirty, rough, violent thugs, but now they are clean cut, organized.  This makes Jack feel uneasy.

It means that the enemy have changed their game.

The Tonton follow the Pathfinder and work to make his vision for New Eden come true.  Young, healthy adults are branded on their forehead to populate and New Eden.  These landgrabbers are called Stewards of the Earth, miracles to heal the earth.  Everyone else is eliminated or enslaved.   Homesteads are forcibly taken, family members are murdered.  

Saba wants to meet Jack in Big Water, but things don't go as planned as they start their journey.  First a disturbing message from Maeve from Jack.  Then Saba learns that the Pathfinder put a price on her head.  She is haunted by the ghost of Epona.  And she has an unusual attraction to the Pathfinder, Seth.

Read Rebel Heart to find out what happens to Jack and Saba.  Even though there are parts of the book that aren't ever answered, like when Ariel tried to help Saba with her demons, it's still a good read.

Rating:  6 out of 10 stars
* inferences of rape, prostitution, sexual references, language

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith (2010)

I was still bleeding...my hands shaking.

 

Seth Grahame-Smith wanted to be an author.  He worked at a five and dime while growing up in Rhinebeck, New York - home ot the oldest inn in America.  After he graduated from college, he planned to work at the store for nine months, during that time he'd work on his unpublished novel.  Nine years later, he has abandoned writing.

 

Henry has been coming to the store for a year. 

 

"Why did you abandon it?"

 

Seth couldn't help but feel that another conversaton was going on.

 

The last time Henry came into the store, he gave a small package to Seth.  Inside brown paper and twine were 10 leather-bound books.  Journals from the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln.

 

For 17 months, Seth sacrificed everything for those 10 books.

 

This novel is the story...

 

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars

*language, smoking

 

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Send Me a Sign, by Tiffany Schmidt (2012)

Hillary looked up from her phone, squinting at me in the afternoon sun before she pulled on the sunglasses perched on her head.  "There's nothing happening tonight.  Nothing."

Seventeen-year old Mia Moore is one of the most popular girls at her school.  She's beautiful, popular, a cheerleader, and has adoring parents.  Her life is enviable.

At the beginning of the summer before her senior year in high school, Mia has her three best friends over to sunbathe and relax by her pool.  One of her friends notices a bruise on her leg, and even though Mia blows off the question, she knows something is wrong because she has several bruises all over her body.  Her mom has made a doctor's appointment.

Drs called.  I moved your appt to today.  4 pm.

Leaving now.  Be ready when I get home.

After series of tests, Mia finds out she has acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  She wants to escape her diagnosis, not think about what's going to happen to her, and hide from the truth as long as possible. 

Mia is superstitious.  She looks for signs everywhere to help her make decisions.  She wears a four-leaf clover charm necklace (from her best friend and neighbor, Gyver), she reads her horoscope daily, and she has a horseshoe that she has in her bedroom and brings with her for hospital stays.

"I just need to feel normal for a few more hours.  Before my life becomes a mess of chemo and doctors and drugs."  The last barrier between me and detachment fell, and the doctor's words hit with suffocating reality.  "God...I have cancer."

Mia decides to keep her cancer a secret from everyone except Gyver.  Her mom not only supports this decision, she thinks it's the best for Mia.  But how do you keep cancer a secret when you're in high school?  

Send Me a Sign tells Mia's story of not only how Mia deals with having cancer, but also with keeping it secret from everyone she cares about.  Gyver is always there for her, but now her long-time crush, Ryan (one of the most good-looking, athletic, popular guys), wants to have a relationship with her.  It's really hard to like the characters in this book at the beginning, but Mia's story is gripping and heart-breaking.  

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual reference, drinking

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, by Jennifer E. Smith (2012)

There are so many ways it could have all turned out differently.

The past two years have been hard on seventeen-year old Hadley Sullivan.  Her father, a poetry professor, was offered a  once-in-a-lifetime chance - a fellowship at Oxford University.  Ever the homebody, he didn't want to go, but Hadley's mom convinced him he should go.  After all, it was only for four months.

Flash forward two years.  Hadley's parents are divorced and her father is remarrying a woman Hadley's never met.  Hadley is still angry with her father for leaving her and her mother.

This is where this novel begins.  Hadley is preparing to make the trip to London for her father's wedding.  She does not want to go.  After a series of mishaps and an argument with her mom as she dropped Hadley off at the airport, Hadley missed her flight.

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Luckily, she gets a seat on the next flight which departs three hours later.  And Hadley's whole world changes.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a sweet romantic story about Hadley and Oliver.  I really enjoyed the references to Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.  If you like romance novels, you'll enjoy this one!

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick (2009)

"Can you feel that, Private?"

Eighteen-year old Matt Duffy, a private in the army, is stationed in Baghdad, Iraq.  Six hours ago he was brought into the hospital; he has TBI, Traumantic Brain Injury from a Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG).  At first he can't remember anything that happened before the explosion, but he slowly begins to remember a few pieces of the memory.

"You don't remember?"

Matt shook his head.  Even that tiny gesture sent pain shooting through his skull.

"It was yesterday," Justin said.  "Remember yesterday?"

Matt tried to remember.  Nothing.

"You sure?"  Justin glanced over his shoulder, the way he did when he was scanning the rooftops for snipers.  "Nothing at all?"

"Why?  Did someone get hurt?"

Justin pinched his brow between his fingers.  "Only a couple hajis," he said.

As Matt tries to put the pieces of the memory together, he thinks of a young, homeless boy he befriended, Ali.  The last time he saw Ali was when they were patrolling the market near the al-Hikma Mosque.  Ali always stayed close to Matt, begging for anything he could sell.

"I keep seeing it in my head.  Or parts of it, anyhow."  He wiped his hands on his pant legs, not looking up.

"That's not unusual," she said.  "A lot of soldiers have flashbacks, disturbing memories, nightmares..."

"It doesn't make sense," he said, his voice cracking.  "I keep seeing him."

"Who?"

"This street kid," Matt said, toying with his plastic hospital wristband.

Purple Heart is a heart-wrenching story of Matt's experience in Baghdad.  This is a great book for teens who maybe don't know much about the war in Iraq, or maybe know someone who has been deployed there.

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual reference

The Evolution of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin (2012)

I woke up on the morning of some day in some hospital to find a stranger sitting in my room.

Mara Dyer can't remember anything after seeing her ex-boyfriend, Jude, appear at the police station.  But she is sure she saw him.  She learns that she's in a hospital.

"It became an emergency situation, so under the Baker Act, your parents were able to consent for you."

I whispered so I wouldn't scream.  "What are you saying?"

"I'm sorry, but you've been involuntarily committed."

Mara knows that she isn't okay.  Her family and Noah are afraid for her safety, but while Noah believes her, her family thinks Mara just might be truly mentally ill.  The Evolution of Mara Dyer will make goosebumps rise on your arms as you feel Mara come unraveled.  If you liked The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, you'll love the second book!

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual references, rape

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys (2011)

They took me in my nightgown.

Fifteen-year old Lina Vilkas was taken from her home as she was getting ready for bed by the NKVD, the Soviet Secret Police.  Her family was given 20 minutes to pack.  Her father is missing.

"Promise me that if anyone tries to help you, you will ignore them.  We will resolve this ourselves.  We must not pull family or friends into this confusion, do you understand?  Even if someone calls out to you, you must not respond."

Almost a year before, Lina's home country, Lithuania, was annexed into the USSR.  Others were rounded up and put into a truck with Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, Jonas.  Lina learns that her mother speaks perfect Russian.

Forty-six people are crammed into a cattle train car.  One of them is 17-year old Andrius Arvydas from a nearby town.  They travel for six weeks inside the crammed, filthy car.  Lina learns why they were deported.

"Stalin has a plan, my love.  The Kremlin will do anything to see it through.  You know that.  He wants Lithuania for the Soviet Union, so he's moving us out temporarily."

"But why us?" I asked.  "They already moved into Lithuania last year.  Isn't that enough?"

"It's not just us, dear.  I imagine he's doing the same to Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.  It's complicated," said other.

Lina witnesses hundreds of horrible things, things a human should never have to see or endure.

"How could they do this?" I asked aloud.  I looked around the train car.  No one spoke.  How could we stand up for ourselves if everyone cowered in fear and refused to speak?  

I had to speak.  I'd write everything down, draw it all.  I would help Papa find us.

Between Shades of Gray is the emotional story of Lina and her family as they're deported from their beloved home in Lithuania and eventually make it to the most desolate area of all in the Arctic region.  It was delicious and it broke my heart into a million pieces.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*mild language, sexual inference

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Reached, by Ally Condie (2012)

Every morning, the sun comes up and turns the earth red, and I think:  This could be the day when everything changes.  Maybe today the Society will fall.  Then night comes again and we're all still waiting.  But I know the Pilot's real.

The third book in the Matched series, Reached concludes the story of Cassia, Ky and Xander.  Xander is an official, a physic.  Cassia is a sorter.  And Ky is a pilot for the Rising.  They wait for the Pilot's voice to start the Rising.

 

This is it.

 

The Rising said it would look like this.

Reached was a solid conclusion to the love triangle of Cassia, Xander, and Ky.  I loved the poetry, art, and descriptive language throughout the book, and even though the first half was a bit slow, I really enjoyed the second half.  I liked seeing how questions were answered and what happened to each character.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Stolen, by Lucy Christopher (2010)

You saw me before I saw you.  

Gemma was traveling with her parents from London to Vietnam.  On a layover in Bangkok, she went to a coffee stand in the airport.

"Let me buy it," you said.  Your voice was low and soft, like it was meant only for me, and your accent was strange.

Ty is in his mid-20s, too old to be hanging out with a 16-year old girl.

You must have thought of everything: a ticket, a new passport, our route through, how to get past security.  Was it the most carefully planned steal ever, or just luck?  

He steals her away to a desert in Australia.

"Why?"  I whispered.

"I had to take you."

Written as a letter to her captor, Gemma describes her experience.

So I wrote the only words I could think of:  imprisoned, confined, detained, constrained, incarcerated, locked up, interned, sent down, abducted, kidnapped, taken, forced, shoved, hurt, stolen...

Stolen is a beautiful, frightening story.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inference, drug reference, prostitution

To check out this book at NOLS, click HERE!

Every Day, by David Levithan (2012)

I wake up.
     Immediately I have to figure out who I am.  

Every morning, A wakes up in someone's body.  He only gets to stay in that body for one day, to live that life for one single day.  He is never the same person twice, but every person he's ever inhabited is the same age as it.  He also doesn't thinking of himself as male or female (my interpretation for writing this review).  On day 5994, A inhabits the body of Justin, a 17-year old jerk.  A meets Justin's girlfriend and everything changes.

I have spent years meeting people without ever knowing them, and on this morning, in this place, with this girl, I feel the faintest pull of wanting to know.  And in a moment of either weakness or bravery on my own part, I decide to follow it.  I decide to find out more.

They go to the ocean for the afternoon.

I want to give her a good day.  Just one good day.  I have wandered for so long without any sense of purpose, and now this ephemeral purpose has been given to me - it feels like it has been given to me.  I only have a day to give - so why can't it be a good one?  Why can't it be a shared one?  Why can't I take the music of the moment and see how long it can last?  The rules are erasable.  I can take this.  I can give this.

How does someone make a meaningful life living one day in other people's lives?  Every Day is a gorgeous read.  The resolution is perfect and I would be so disappointed if David Levithan every made a sequel or a companion novel.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*sexual references, drugs, religion, mild language, gay relationships, sexual identity

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!