Welcome Back

Summer has come to an end and it is time for school!. This summer I read several books that I am excited to share with all of you.

Beastly by Alex Flinn
Abe Lincoln Title
 If you liked Beauty and the Beast growing up, you will love this story. Alex Flinn wrote an updated version set in Manhattan for all those people who loved the classic tale. Kyle is the most popular boy in school and very goodlooking. However, he is very ugly on the inside. One day after being particularly cruel to another student, the student, who was really a witch, casts a spell on Kyle and turns him into a horrific beast. Kyle has to find someone who will fall in love with the true him if he ever hopes to break the spell. Tune in to find out if Kyle can learn from his mistakes. There is also a movie that came out this year starring Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens.

Along way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah
I loved this story. Ishmael Beah's memoir of growing up in Sierra Leone is heartbreaking and unbelievable. The story is set in Sierra Leone in the early 1990's. The author, Ishmael, is just a young boy of twelve when his village is attacked by rebel troops. Ishmael finds himself orphaned and on the run in a war torn country. It seems there are no real safe places to hide. By the age of thirteen Ishmael is picked up by the government army. Once a gentle young man, Beah finds himself becoming a killer. Hopped up on marijuana, speed and a local mixture of cocaine and gunpowder, he carries his AK-47 with pride and becomes one of the deadly killers he has spent the past year running from. This is a gripping tale of war and the destruction of families and children in war torn countries.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman ( sequel to if I stay)

I finished the sequel of this book in one day! I absolutely loved it. The story picks up three years from where we left off in, "If I Stay". Mia is off in New York City at Juliard and Adam is a full fledged Rock Star. The story is told from Adam's perspective and goes back and forth filling in the blanks from the last three years. I highly recommed both of these books.

If I stay by Gail Forman(Abe Book)

I just finished this book over the weekend and I loved it. There is a sequel called "Where I went" that I started today and already know I will love it as well. The book follows Mia after a tragedy kills her entire family in a car accident. Mia is in a coma and experiencing an out of body situation. She can see and hear everyone around her, but she is invisible to them. Mia must decide if she should stay on Earth and wake up or if she should join her deceased family.
I highly recommend this one.

TWEAK by Nic Sheff (Abe Book)

I just finished TWEAK by Nic Sheff. All I can say is what an incredible memoir! How incredible for a person to share their story fo recovery, failure and finally recovery from Heroin, Crystal Meth and Crack. This book shows the truth and destruction of drug use. There is no winning, when taking drugs.

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

I just finished reading Peeps, after a student insisted I check it out.

Summary
Two days after arriving in New York for college, Cal loses his virginity to a girl who picks him up. From this encounter Cal picks up an STD, but this is an unusual one: it turns its victims into "peeps" -- parasite positives -- raving cannibalistic monsters with unusual strength, night vision, heightened senses, and an affinity with rats (you may know them as vampires). Cal himself turns out to be immune, but he's a carrier -- he gets the strength and senses without the nasty side effects. But before he knows it, he has infected others. Cal is recruited by the Night Watch, a secret government organization that has existed for centuries to contain the disease and its victims. His first assignment is to capture all the girls he's infected. But soon Cal realizes that there is more going on than he has been told: the disease is changing in response to mysterious forces from under the earth that are waking up after centuries of slumber. (http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/peeps)
I thought the book was interesting. The best part of the book is the science information on real parasites currently affecting animals and humans today. The author has clearly done his research on different parasites and I was definitely intrigued.

If you like sci-fi, vampires, or conspiracy theories I would check this book out. There is a sequel called "The Last Days"

Next Read- Tweak by Nic Sheff ( Abe Book)

Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson (Abe Book)

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the War or Memoirs. Ryan Smithson does a wonderful job introducing the War in Iraq. Especially, for those of us who know nothing of what is going on in the middle east. Smithson made the war personal and detailed everything from his training to what soldiders are eating on a daily basis. I was fascinated while reading this book. I feel I can better relate to the young soldiers who are serving our country.

I just started Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, so far so good. I'll keep you posted when I finish

Compound by S. A. Bodeen (Abe Book)

I read this over Spring Break and really enjoyed it. For six years, Eli Yanakakis has lived three stories underground in a lavish fallout shelter. On his ninth birthday, his father ushered his family away from what he said was a nuclear attack and into The Compound. The door to the compound is sealed and set to open in fifteen years, enough time for the nuclear waste from the attack to become harmless. The only people Eli has seen or communicated with for years are his mother, father, and two sisters. He desperately misses hamburgers, his twin brother, Eddy, his grandmother, and his dog. Though The Compound seems stocked with everything he could ever want, Eli knows there are many faults in his father's plan for survival. Their food supply is not what it should be. He catches his father lying about the ability to connect to the Internet. As the book goes on, Eli learns that his father's ultimate plan for a food source, what they call The Supplements, is not the result of poor planning but of his father's near-insanity. Eli knows he has to get out, but only his father knows the secret code to opening the door.
This was a fast and exciting read. I highly recommend it. I'm finishing up Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson ( also on the Abe List) and going to start Peeps by Scott Westerfeld.