Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

This is the first book the LPHS Book Club is reading.

Young and innocent, Richard Perry starts his journey toward Vietnam during the "conflict." Along the way he meets several characters, each of them in Vietnam for different reasons. He befriends Peewee Gates in particular and they stick together from start to finish.

Perry has left behind a mother and a younger brother, Kenny. Perry and his mother have never understood each other and she does not know why he went into the army. He isn't completely sure himself, but he wanted to go to college and couldn't afford it. Kenny really looks up to Perry and Perry wants to make him proud.

Another black man tries to bond with Perry and Peewee, but the bonds of brotherhood and friendship are not simply by race. After a lot of waiting and moving from place to place Perry and Peewee finally join the Company they are replacements for.

Let me know what you think of the book so far.

Matched by Allie Condie ( Book 1 in Trilogy)

Matched by Allie Condie is the first book in this popular new series. The sequel, Crossed comes out November 1st and I have already pre-ordered it for the library.

I loved this book! The author grabbed my attention within the first few pages and I couldn't put the book down. The books starts off with the main character Cassia, preparing for her Match banquet which happened to fall on her 17th birthday. Cassia and her bestfriend Xander are both attending the banquet. The society matches all 17 year olds with their perfect match. After some initial confusion, Cassia is accidentally Matched with two people. This begins the plot of the story. Should the Society select your perfect match or are people capable of finding the right match themselves?

***** One of my students just told me that Disney bought the rights for this movie******

Wish you were dead by Todd Strasser (Abe Book)

I loved this book. I have been saying for months that Maze Runner by James Dashner was going to win this year's Abe award, but I think Wish you were dead might be a close second. The day after a blogger wishes the most popular girl in school would die, she disappears. From that point on, every person she wishes dead also disappears. I was on the edge of my seat reading this suspenseful book. I finished this book in one day because I had to know the ending. Readers will not be disappointed with this book.
I loved it so much that I just ordered more books for the library from Todd Strasser.

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams (Abe Book)

Stephen King wrote on the book jacket of this book, "My favorite American suspense novelist." Before I read the book, I was prepared for a thrilling suspense read. I have to say my expectations fell flat. Reality Check is the story of a small town kid name Cody who is dating the wealthiest girl in town, Clea. After Clea, gets her first B her father is determined to send her as far away from Cody as possible. She is off to Hong Kong  for the summer and upon her return she is sent to a private Boarding School out East. Devasted, Cody breaks up with Clea seeing it as his only option. Cody injures his knee on the football season and realizes his chance of a scholarship are over and drops out of school. Without Clea and football, Cody is devastated. One day he sees the local newspaper and the cover is a picture of Clea with the caption MISSING. Cody knows what he has to do- find Clea!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I read this book in high school, but had no recollection of what the book was about. My friend and I thought it would be a good challenge to try and read some classics. The first chapter of the book did not grab my attention. It wasn't until I was 50 pages in that I started to be interested in the story. I was able to finish the book in two sittings, it was a quick read and I ended up enjoying the story. Most of the students at LPHS read this book for class so I thought it was a good plan to read it as well. Let me know if there are other books you read for class that you would recommend.

I am Nujood age 10 and divorced by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui

The title of this book grabbed my attention. It has been on my "to read list" for quite some time. I finished the book in two days, it is simply a book you can't put down. Nujood, is a young girl in a large family living in Yemen. Struggling to pay rent and provide food for the family her father agrees to an arranged marriage to a man over 3x Nujood's age. Nujood has no true understanding of what is happening, what it means to be a wife and what will happen to her now. Her new husband beats her and rapes her every night. She pleads with him to visit her family and finally he relents. Once with her family her father and mother will do nothing to help her our of this arrangement. Her father's second wife (customary in the culture to have more than one wife) suggests she reach out to the courts. That is what Nujood did, and this was her story of how she found herself divorced at age 10.

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan (Abe Book)

I did not know what this book was about. If I had looked at the cover perhaps it wouldn't have come as a surprise that this book is about the effect 9/11 had on three teenagers living in New York during the attacks. The story follows three characters: Claire, Jasper and Peter. As the book started to detail the shock, surprise and horror of the first two plane crashes tears streamed down my face. Every person has a story about where they were and what they were doing. It was an interesting start to a book and I felt as if I was experiencing the shock and surprise with each character. The story unfolds and the characters lives become intertwined, forever changed because of the events of 9/11. This is a quick read as well as very realilistic. I would definitely recommend this one.