The Wind Done Gone

The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall is an unauthorized parody of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.  A parody is usually a humorous or satirical imitation of a piece of literature, but The Wind Done Gone is not the comedy that the word parody implies it would be.  There was a lot of legal controversy over the publication of this book.  The story is told from the point of view of Scarlett O’Hara’s mulatto half-sister, Cynara.  Cynara is the daughter of Scarlett’s plantation-owning father and Mammy, the slave who cared for Scarlett since she was a child.  This is a good book, but in order to really understand everything that goes on with this book you must first read Gone with the Wind.  I really enjoyed reading this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed reading Gone with the Wind.  Below are some links to several websites that discuss this book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Done_Gone

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/randall_url/

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18412.The_Wind_Done_Gone

http://www.alicerandall.com/wind_done_gone

Crossing the Wire

Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs is a really good book.  I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading contemporary fiction.   

Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores lives in central Mexico.  Victor is a farmer.  Since his father past away, he’s been taking care of his mother and five younger siblings.  His family’s survival depends on selling the corn he grows, but lately the price of corn has been dropping every year.  This year it dropped so low that there is no point in growing more corn than his family can eat.  Victor has an idea, though.  His best friend Rico has just left for the United States.  Rico has experienced men to travel with and coyote money to pay the smugglers who sneak illegals across the border.  He has everything Victor does not.  Victor has heard stories of people who travel across the border alone though, and he knows that if he wants his family to survive he’ll have to cross the border and find work in the U.S.

Scat

Scat by Carl Hiaasen is a wonderful book.  It’s hilarious and I would this book to anyone.

Bunny Starch is one of the most feared and detested biology teachers ever.  Mrs. Starch is Nick and Marta’s biology teacher, and she took their class on a field trip to Black Vine Swamp.  Not long after they got there, they smelt smoke, and discovered that a small fire had started at the edge of the swamp.  They quickly left for the buses, but Mrs.Starch stayed behind to retrieve an inhaler that a student had dropped.  It was the last time Nick and Marta saw their biology teacher.  There’s a message on Mrs. Starch’s answering machine and a letter written by her that both say she has taken leave because of a family emergency.  The problem is that no one has actually seen or heard from Mrs. Starch.  Nick and Marta are terrified that their classmate Duane, who everyone calls Smoke, has done something to her because he threatened her the day before she disappeared.  So they decide to take things into their own hands and figure out what happened to her.  Below is a video that talks about the book.

Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys is a great book.  I would recommend it to anyone who loves to read science fiction. 

Charlie Gordon has an IQ of68.  Charlie wants to be smart, and has wanted to be smart all his life.  He tries really hard, but Charlie just can’t learn.  He even goes to night classes at Beekman college for retarded adults three times a week.  All of Charlie’s trying is about to pay off, though.  There’s an operation that has been proven to increase intelligence dramatically in animals, animals, and now scientists want to try it on a human.  The scientists give Charlie the operation.  Charlie is finally able to learn the way he has always wanted, too.  After a while though, Charlie learns the hard way that being smart can also mean being lonely.  Then, scientists notice that the animals that had the same operation as Charlie have regressed mentally.  They fear that the same thing will happen to Charlie.

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini is one of my favorite book series.  I would recommend this series to anyone who likes to read fantasy.  There are currently three books out in the four book series: Eragon, Eldest, and Brisnigr. The fourth book in the series is called Inheritance, and it is going to be released November 8, 2011.  I’ve been looking forward to its release for a really long time.  I think it’ll be a really great book, because I really enjoyed reading the first three books.  The series follows the story of Eragon, one of the very few living dragon riders, on his journey to defeat the evil King Galbatorx, the man who killed nearly all of the dragon riders when he came into power.  Below is a video of the author of the series discussing the first three books in the Inheritance Cycle.

All-in

All-in by Pete Hautman is a good book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read good poker stories.

Denn Doyle makes his living by playing high-stakes Texas holdem.  He’s seventeen and it’s not even legal for him to gamble, but he doesn’t care and it doesn’t stop him.  Denn has a knack for finding and reading tells.   It’s earned him thousands of dollars and a lot of enemies, particularly Artie Kingston, who Denn one a nightclub off in a poker game months earlier. Things are going good for him, until his card dealing girlfriend sets him up in a poker game for ten-thousand-dollars, leaving him nearly flat broke.   Denn has one chance to make a comeback and that’s a million-dollar, winner-take-all tournament, held at Artie Kingston’s brand new casino.   There‘s only one problem though, and that’s the ten-thousand-dollar entry fee.  Denn tries to get the money by playing low-stake tournaments, but he quickly realizes that that will take too long.  He asks his best friend, Jimbo, for a loan, but is quickly shot down.   Soon, Denn’s out of options and sure he’s not going to get the money together in time.                                                                                                                                                                                

The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is an awesome book.  I love it and it's one of my favorites.  I would recommend it to anyone.

Ponyboy Curtis lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  In Tulsa, the rich Socs live on the West side of town, and the poor greasers live on the East side of town.  Socs jump greasers, wreck houses, and throw beer blasts.  Greasers steal, hold up gas stations, and have gang fights.  The Socs and the greasers don’t get along.  Ponyboy is a greaser, but he doesn’t do the things normal greasers do.  Instead, he brings home good grades and tries to stay out of trouble, because if he didn’t his brother would kill him.  One night, when Ponyboy and his best friend Johnny are out to late at the park a blue mustang pulls up and five Socs jump out.  That night, the Socs take things too far.  They jump Ponyboy and Johnny.  One of the Socs tries to drown Ponyboy.  So Johnny, in a desperate attempt to save his friend’s life, stabs the Soc with his switchblade knife.  The Soc dies, and the other Socs disappear the moment their friend is stabbed.  Ponyboy and Johnny are terrified that they’ll be charged with murder, so they do the only thing they think they can do, run.      

MASH

MASH by Richard Hooker is a great book.  It is one of my favorite books, and it’s hilarious.  There is both a movie and a TV series based off of it.  The book is about the lives of three fictional army doctors serving during the Korean War: Hawkeye Pierce, Duke Forrest, and Trapper John.  The characters in this book are combinations of people Hooker knew, met, worked with, or heard about.  The doctors in this story will do just about anything, and they can get away with just about everything.  They'll have a fake human sacrifice just so they can teach a man a lesson, they'll fake insanity just so they can spend a few days in Seoul, and they'll even organize a corrupt football game.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys watching the TV series M*A*S*H, and to anyone who likes to have a really good laugh.

Closer

 Closer the fourth installment in the Tunnel series, by Rodrick Gordon and Brian Williams, is very well written and nearly impossible to put down.  In my opinion, the series is better than Harry Potter, and will be even more popular after its movie is released. The suspense is there from the first page until the very last, and it just increases as the book goes on.  The suspense is the same with the other three books in the series (Tunnels, Deeper, and Freefall), too.  One of my favorite things about reading Closer, and the other three books, is that the moment you think you know what’s going to happen next, something completely unthinkable happens.  The book is action-packed, full of adventure, humor, and the unthinkable.
           
            The series revolves around Will Burrows, and his adventures in a mysterious world that he never knew existed, a world that Will was smuggled out of as a baby.  It’s a world where everything, even the humans living in it, are controlled.  Anyone who breaks the rules is put to death, or exiled to a place where death is almost certain.  Outsiders who discover this world, or even come close to finding it, are almost always put to death.  For Will, what had started out as a search for his father quickly turns into a matter of life, death, and survival.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading fantasy.  Below, is the book's trailer.

Hole in the Sky

Hole in the Sky by Pete Hautman is really interesting.  I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading science fiction.

In the year 2028, a Flu virus plagues the earth, and leaves only 38 million people alive worldwide.  Only one in two thousand people who contract the Flu live, the people who live are called Survivors.  The Flu can leave the survivors blind, deaf, and mentally impaired.  Ceej Kane lives in an abandoned hotel along the edge of the Grand Canyon, along with his uncle and sister Harryette.  Harryette is a Survivor.  One day Harryette, Uncle, and the father of Tim, Ceej’s best friend, disappear.  So Ceej and Tim set out to find them, while searching they are attacked by the Kinka.  The Kinka are a band of half-crazy Survivors who spread the Flu in an attempt to create more people like them.  Ceej and Tim quickly learn that the Kinka are behind the disappearances.   It is already too late to rescue Uncle, and Tim’s father, so the only one they can save now is Harryette, and they’re going to save her whether she wants to be saved or not.                                                                                                                                 

Among the Hidden

Among the Hidden by Margaret Haddix is a book that I think everyone should read at least once.  It’s the first book in Haddix’s Shadow Children series.

In Luke Garner’s world people are only allowed to have two children, all third children are hunted down and killed by the government.  Luke is a third child, also known as a shadow child. He has spent his whole life hiding on his family’s farm, and he’s never left the property.   Until a housing development was built near his family’s home, Luke was allowed to go outside, but now he’s confined to his room in the family’s attic.  One day, when Luke’s looking through the vents in the attic, he sees the face of a child in the widow of a home, a home that he knows already has two children.  Luke’s convinced he saw a shadow child, someone like him.  Unable to resist the idea of someone like him, Luke sneaks out of his house to investigate.  He discovers Jen.  Jen’s a third child, like Luke.  Jen wants to be free, and she willing to risk everything, even her life to become free.  Jen’s planning a rally at the capitol, a rally of shadow children.  Jen wants to show the government that there is nothing wrong with being a shadow child.  Jen wants Luke to go to the rally with her, but he’s afraid, because the rally could mean death for him and many others.

Traitor

Traitor by Andy McNab and Robert Rigby is a really good story.  I read it a while ago and really enjoyed it.  I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read adventure stories.

All Danny Watts wants to do is get a Regular Commissions Board scholarship, so he can go to a university, and then on to the Sandhurst Military Academy.  Things don’t go Danny’s way, though.  He gets denied the scholarship because the grandfather he’s never met, Fergus Watts, was a traitor to their country.  Angry, Danny decides to track down the man, with the assistance of his best friend Elena.  Everywhere they go no one’s heard from Fergus in years, or they’ve never heard of him at all. That doesn’t keep Danny from finding Fergus, though.  When Danny confronts his grandfather, the man’s grabs him and runs.  Quickly, Danny learns that he wasn’t the only person looking for his grandfather.  The other people want Fergus dead, and now they want Danny dead, too.  Danny’s grandfather says he innocent, and after a while Danny believes him.  Together, the pair of them tries to outsmart the people who are trying to kill them, and clear Fergus’s name.

Kill and Tell

Last night I read Kill and Tell, by Linda Howard.  I really enjoyed reading it.  I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read a good mystery.

Karen Whitlaw has just buried her mother, and can count the number of times she has seen her father on her hands.  So, she’s shocked when she receives a package containing an old notebook from him and she’s angry when she sees that the package is addressed to her dead mother.  Still angry, Karen throws the notebook in a box of her mother’s things without reading it, and has it put into storage along with the rest of her mother’s belongings.  She forgets all about the notebook, and still forgets weeks later when her father turns up murdered in the streets of New Orleans.  When Karen goes to New Orleans indentify her father’s body, she meets Marc Chastain, the detective who worked her father’s homicide.  From him, she learns that the police believe her father’s murder was just the result of street violence, and they‘ve already stopped working the case.  After burying her father, she returns home.

Upon her return, Karen discovers that her old house has been burned down, not long after someone breaks into her apartment, and then someone tries to run her over.  Karen can help but wonder think someone is trying to kill her, and wonder if it has anything to do with her father.  Terrified, she heads back to New Orleans and back to the detective, in the hope of stopping whatever was going on and of finding out what really happened to her father.   

Uncle John's Monumental Bathroom Reader

Uncle John's Monumental Bathroom Reader by the Bathroom Readers’ Institute falls into the genre of humor.  I really love this book.  It's 752 pages long, and full of interesting stories, odd happenings, and just about the strangest things you can imagine.  There is literally an article about people who’ve gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel.  The contents of this book can range from just about anything between articles about dumb criminals and history of Dracula.  The things you find in this book are either really hilarious or just plain weird.  I once let a friend borrow it, and she loved it so much that I couldn’t get it back for months.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has good sense of humor and likes to laugh.

Rock Bottom

Last night, I read Rock Bottom by Erin Brockovich with CJ Lyons, and it was great.  I really enjoyed reading it, and would recommend it to anyone.

Ten years ago, AJ Palladino left her hometown, Scotia, in a Life Flight helicopter, after nearly drowning.  She was seventeen and never returned.  Eventually, she became an established environmental activist, but something goes horribly wrong.  A man commits suicide on her radio station, while he’s on air.  Eventually, AJ retreats back to Scotia, after being offered a job by Zachariah Hardy, a lawyer fighting against mountaintop removal mining.  The type of mining that has already polluted and ruined some of Scotia’s natural resources.  When AJ arrives in town, with her young son in tow, she discovers that Hardy is dead and rumored to have been murdered.  So AJ joins forces with the man’s daughter, Elizabeth, to try to finish her father’s work.  Soon after though, threats and bodies start appearing.  AJ must discover who’s really behind it, while at the same time she must face the betrayals of those who were once closest to her, and deal with the past that she left behind.

Marley and Me

I read Marley and Me by John Grogan, a while back.  The book was hilarious and I really enjoyed reading it.  John Grogan and his wife, Jenny decide that taking care of a dog would be good practice for taking care of a baby.  So they go out and buy a Labrador.  They name him Grogan’s Majestic Marley of Churchill.  Marley eats everything in sight, anything from wine corks to golden necklaces.  The Grogans tries to take Marley to obedience classes, but it just didn't work out, because Marley got kicked out.  Marley even managed to shut down the local dog beach, after he drank enough saltwater to throw-up.  John and Jenny also learn that Marley is afraid of thunderstorms the hard way.  They leave him in their garage during a thunderstorm, when they come home after the storm is over; they find their garage in ruins.  As funny as Marley and Me is, it can be really sad, too, especially the ending.  I would recommend this book to anyone.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I just finished reading the The Girl with the Dragon Fly Tattoo by Steig Larsson, and I absolutely loved it.  The well developed plot keeps the pages turning.  The book is also a New York Times Bestseller.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves reading a good mystery.

 Harriet Vanger went missing years ago.  People searched for her years , but never found a trace of her .  Her great uncle, Henrik Vanger, has spent his life trying to figure out what happened to her.  He’s eighty four years old, and knows he doesn’t have much time left; Henrik wants to give finding out what happened to Harriet one last shot before he passes away.  So he hires Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who’s been ruined by libel charges.  Henrik doesn’t expect anything to come of the investigation, but Blomkvist proves him wrong.  Blomkvist almost immediately discovers things no one else has ever noticed before.   The discoveries lead him to a series of biblical murders that have never been solved.   Eventually, Lisbeth Salander joins the investigation.  Together, the two discover the Vanger family’s darkest secrets and Harriet’s fate.

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is one of the best books I’ve ever read.  It tells the story of two boys who grew up in Kubal, practically under the same roof.  Amir is the son of a wealthy and respected merchant, and Hassan is the son of Amir’s father’s servant.  When the two are alone they are like brothers, but in the presence of others they are servant and master.  Hassan is loyal to Amir.  He will do anything Amir asks him to, no matter what the cost, whether it be his life or his dignity.  Hassan will protect Amir, but Amir will not protect Hassan.  One day, when Amir is given the chance to protect Hassan, he fails horribly and runs away in fear, and acts like it never happened.  That day will drive a rift between the two that will never heal.  

I would recommend that anyone read this book. This book is hard to explain in words, but if do you read it, it will be on your mind for days

The Two Minute Rule

Max Holman was sentenced to ten years in prison for a bank robbery. An hour before his release from prison, Max gets the worst news of his life.  His son, Richard Holman, who ironically was a Los Angeles police officer, was shot dead the night before, along with three other officers.  Max wants to know why. 

When he goes to the police for answers they only give him more questions.  So naturally, Max keeps asking them questions, but the police just aren’t answering them.  So the police get sick of Max’s questions they tell him Richard was a dirty cop and a drunk.  Max won't believe them though, because he knows that his son wasn't like him.  He decides that the police aren’t going to help him and that if he wants to find out what happened to his boy he’s going to have to investigate for himself.  But there is only so much an ex-con can do, and Max needs help.  So he asks one of the few people he trusts for help, the woman who arrested him and put him away for ten years, Katherine Pollard.

The Two Minute Rule by Robert Crais is awesome, and it’s defiantly going on list of favorite books.  I would recommend it anyone loves to read stories of action and mystery.

The Real ACT Prep Guide

If you’re planning on taking the ACT, The Real ACT Prep Guide from the makers of the ACT can be very useful.  I took the Act not too long ago and I think it really helped me.  The book has three practice ACT tests inside of it that were previously used on an actual administration of the test.  The book does a great job of showing you the format of the ACT, which will really help you save time on test day.  The book also helps you brush up on your science, reading, math, and writing skills.  It really helps you develop test-taking strategies for test day too.  The guide also has a lot of test taking tips inside of it, and does a wonderful job of explaining how the ACT is scored.  So if your plan on taking the ACT, I would recommend this book you.

Shadow Men

Nearly eighty years ago a father and his two sons mysteriously disappeared and were never heard from or seen again, while they were working to build the first road through the everglades.  A descendant of these men, Mark Mayes, discovers the letters the men had written to their family.  The letters make him desperate to find out what happened to the grandfather and uncles he never met.  He starts asking questions but is quickly stonewalled, with nowhere else to go, the young man turns to Ex-Philadelphia police officer turned private investigator, Matt Freeman, for help.  Matt knows it’s a long shot that he’ll be able to find out what happened to the missing men, but decides to give it a shot any way. 

He quickly learns that there are a lot of people who want to keep the past in the past, even if it takes murderer.  What he discovers about the men’s disappearance is so horrifying and evil that it’s hard to believe.  Shadow Men by Jonathan King is a captivating story that I would recommend to anyone who loves to read a good mystery.  

The Scent of Rain and Lightening

I just finished reading The Scent of Rain and Lightening by Nancy Pickard, and I absolutely loved it, and would recommend it to anyone who loves to read a good story of mystery and deception. In a small Kansas town, when Jody Linder was just three years old, her father was murdered and her mother disappeared, believed to have been murdered along with her husband.  The man convicted of their murders, Bill Crosby, was sentenced to 60 years hard time.  Jody spent the rest of her life being protected by her family and the rest of the town, while trying to prove she wasn’t a victim.  Collin, Bill Crosby's son, spent the rest of his life being watched closely by everyone in town, who was waiting for him to turn into his father, while trying to prove his father’s innocence.   

Now, Collin's a lawyer, and though he still hasn't been able to prove his father innocent, he has managed to get him commuted and released from prison, on the basis of an unfair trial.  Jody can’t understand how or why, though, because she positive that Bill Crosby killed her parents.  As Bill Crosby returns home, all of a sudden, people are saying that he’s innocent.  After hearing their reasons why, Jodi begins to wonder about man’s innocence herself, and it brings her to a question.  What really happened to her parents?   

Book List

Here's a really cool link, to a blog that's called I Love Charts.  This blog has a list of books on it that everyone should read.  The way the list itself is presented is really cool, too.

http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/3900322222/the-books-everyone-must-read-did-your-favorite

The Red Scream

Molly Crates has just published her first true crime book, based on the serial killings of death row inmate Louie Bronk.  Louie has used up all of his court appeals, and is due to be executed by lethal injection in just a few days.  Molly is going to be there to witness it, and she wants to write about the execution too.  She’s not sure that’s going to happen though, because with the execution approaching all of a sudden Molly’s being strongly discouraged of doing so.  By both her boss, and Charlie McFarland, whose first wife, Tiny, was Louie’s most famous victim, and not to mention his only capitol offense.  Those aren’t the only strange things happening though; Molly comes upon some dark clues that could mean that Louie never killed Tiny at all.  So when Louie recants his confession to Tiny’s murder, Molly has to wonder whether or not he’s really Tiny’s killer.  Molly decides that she has to know the truth though, even if it means getting her book discredited.  Her investigation is almost useless though, because everywhere Molly goes she turns up a day too late.

The Red Scream by Mary Willis Walker is wonderfully written book that is very hard to put down.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read a good mystery novel.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Sally Montgomery agreed to spend her weekend with Fredrick Pierson, at a cabin on Lake Luzerne.  All was going well until Fredrick was murdered and the cabin was burned down to the ground, an ordeal that Sally barely managed to escaped with her life.  Now, Sally is terrified that the killer is going to come after her to finish the job, and the police are treating her as the prime suspect in the murder, instead of the victim that she is.  Desperate, Sally calls her ex-husband, Pete Montgomery, for help.  Pete is a retired NYPD police officer, turned private investigator.  Pete is not going to leave this case to the police, and his first order of business is hiding Sally in a place where the authorities or the killer will never be able find her.  His second order of business is enlisting the help of his daughter Devon.  Together, the two will find the murder, learn some of the Pierson family’s darkest secrets, and clear Sally’s name.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Andrea Kane is story full of surprises and a killer you’ll never suspect.  I really loved reading it.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery.

The Forgotten Man

Detective Elvis Cole has finally gotten the call he spent all of his childhood waiting for, and it arrived at 3:58 in the morning.  After responding to a gunshot, the LAPD found an injured man in an alley.  The man confided to the officer on the scene that he was looking for his son, Elvis Cole, mere moments before he died.  The dead man has no identification, and the only personal belonging that the LAPD can find in his pockets is a slip of paper that bares Elvis Cole’s phone number.   The LAPD contacts Elvis, hoping that he will be able to identify the dead man, but Elvis has never seen the man before in his life. Elvis and the mystery man look nothing alike, which makes Elvis positive that the man is not his father. 

Elvis’s curiosity has been sparked though, and he decides to investigate the man for himself, an investigation that the LAPD advised him against.  His investigation leads him to a horrendous murder case that has gone cold, and a survivor desperate for retribution.  The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais is a mystery full of twists and turns, that just make you keep the pages turning, and I would recommend it to anyone.

No Way to Treat a First Lady

When the president of the United States is found dead in his bed, with a bruise and the name Revere stamped to his forehead, First Lady Elizabeth “Beth” Tyler MacMann is the prime suspect in his murder.   She’s accused of throwing an antique Paul Revere spittoon at her husband, and killing him with it.  An action that is not hard for anyone to believe, considering that it wouldn’t b e the first time the First Lady has thrown a heavy object at her husband.  To add more fuel to the pot, because the crime’s victim was the president of the United States, the attorney general is charging Beth with assassination in addition to murder.

Desperate to prove her Innocence, Beth gets the best attorney in the business, Boyce “Shameless” Baylor, who charges $1,000 an hour, and has represented everyone from the national-security sellout to the woman who murdered her husband in room full of people.   Beth believes she can prove her innocence with Baylor’s help, but when Baylor is arrested for jury tampering, the only person left to defend Beth is herself.

Christopher Buckley’s novel, Now Way to Treat a First Lady, is a legal thriller.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good legal story, and a good laugh.

Fire Will Fall

Months ago, Trinity Falls’ water supply was poisoned with a deadly virus developed by a group of bioterrorists called Shadowstrike.   Shadowstrike used the small neighborhood to test the virus’s effectiveness.  The virus has four stages. The fifth stage will kill you, there is no cure for the fourth, and only stages one, two, and three have a cure.  The virus's first fatality was Cora Holman's mother, who was quickly followed by a neighbor.   Teenagers, Cora, Scott, Owen, and Rain all have stage four of the virus.  The government treats the virus like an immune disease, and isolates the four in an old mansion, until scientists figure out how to send the virus into remission.  Together, the four teenagers try to keep their lives as normal as possible, but it’s just not working out for them.  Cora is haunted by her mother's ghost, no one is sure that Owen will live long enough to be cured, Rain can’t stand the isolation, and Scott’s anything but positive.

While this is going on, the government is trying to hunt down the remaining members of Shadowstrike, before they launch another experiment, with a virus ten-times as lethal as the one they used at Trinity Falls.

Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum-Ucci is the sequel to The Streams of Babel.  It is story of forgiveness, betrayal, and secrets. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Detour

Paul and Joanna want to adopt a baby, their lawyer tells them to get one from China, Korea, or Hungary, but that could take years, and the adoption wait is only two months in Columbia.  When Paul and Joanna arrive in Columbia they’re met by their driver, Pablo, the man who will escort them around the country during their stay, and most importantly take them to the orphanage to get their baby.  When they arrive at the orphanage they meet their daughter for the first time, and quickly fall in love with the little girl; they name her Joelle.  Upon the couple’s return to their hotel they meet Galina, the nurse who will help them adjust to taking care of their new daughter, until they leave Columbia.

One night though, Joanna notices something different about their new daughter, Joelle’s birthmark was missing, and the only person that's been left alone with the baby besides Joanna and Paul is Galina.  Quickly, Joanna and Paul confront Galina about their suspicions, only to be drugged, and kidnapped.  These kidnappers don’t want Paul and Joanna’s money, though, they want Paul to smuggle cocaine out of the country in exchange for the lives of his wife and daughter.  Now Paul has to decide what he’s going to do.  Is he going to refuse and get all three of them killed, go to the police, or do what his kidnappers ask of him?

Detour by James Siegel is a story I would recommend to anyone, it’s full of mystery, betrayal, deception, and bone-chilling suspense.

Maximum Ride: The Final Warning

     If you love to read books of fantasy and adventure, you need to read James Patterson's Maximum Ride: The Final Warning.  It’s the fourth novel in Patterson’s Maximum Ride Series.   Max and her five friends are just your average group of kids, except for the fact that they have seven-foot wingspans and can fly as high as an airplane.   Max and her friends, who have come to call themselves the flock, were genetically altered with avian DNA before they were even born, by an evil corporation called Itex.   But, for now Itex is the least of flock’s worries, because for once in their life they don’t have to run from the corporation.  The flock’s happiness is short lived though.

    
After rejecting the government's plans to protect them, an attempt is made on their lives, and the flock is forced to run, again.  Max's mother has an idea though, and she's sure it will keep Max and her friends safe.  She sends them to Antarctica, with a group of scientists to study global warming.  They don’t realize that there’s a traitor among them, until it’s too late, and Max and her friends end up kidnapped for the sole purpose of being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The Neighbor's are Watching

In the city of San Diego, on Fuller Court, the neighbor's keep to themselves, aside from a party every now and then, and while doing so, they keep their secrets.  Their neighborhood’s façade of solitary happiness is shattered, though, when Joe Montana's daughter, Dianna, shows up literally unannounced on his doorstep.  Joe was fully aware he had a daughter, which was something that he neglected to inform his wife of eight years.  Dianna's arrival sets off a chain reaction of events that the makes the secrets of this little neighborhood more likely to destroy it, than the approaching flames of two huge Californian wildfires fanned by Santa Ana winds.  Fights are started, people are betrayed, secrets are revealed, lives begin, and lives end.

            The Neighbors are Watching by Debra Ginsberg is a novel full of twist and turns, with an unpredictable ending.  In this story people are tested as they learn things about themselves, and the people around them that they never expected.  If you like to watch strings of lies unravel, than I would recommend this book to you.     

The Poacher's Son

 

      

After two years of no contact with his estranged father, game warden Mike Bowditch comes home late one night to find the man's voice on his answering machine.  The next morning he discovers that a local cop has been murdered, and that his father had been arrested, but has escaped from police custody, making himself the prime suspect in the murder.  Mike has seen the level of his father's brutality first-hand, but doesn't believe the man's capable of murder.  Mike firmly believes that his father, Jack, is not guilty, and he is the only person who does so, a belief that causes him to become alienated from his colleagues and those around him.

But Mike manages to gain the help of retired warden pilot, Charley Stevens, and together the two of them search Maine's deep wilderness for Mike's father, interview a few suspects of their own, take a look at the scene of the crime for themselves, and meet a woman who is supposedly the mistress of Jack's father.  The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron is a captivating story of blind loyalty and betrayal.  I would recommend this story to anyone who loves to read a good story of adventure, or mystery.

Bullet Point

Bullet Point by Peter Abrahams is an absolute thriller.  I think it’s one of the best young adult books I've read in a long time. In this story, the only thing Wyatt Lathem has ever really liked about school is baseball.  So when his school cuts baseball from its budget, he decides to transfer Silver City, so that he can keep playing ball, only to discover that the school has already filled the only transfer spot they have on their team.  But, after exchanging blows with his step-father, Wyatt decides to transfer to Silver City, anyway.  Eventually he meets Greer, and through her he learns about his biological father, Sonny Racine.  A man he's never met, who's been severing a life prison sentence since before he was born, for a robbery that escalated into a murder.

Wyatt has never really been curious about his father, but after hearing bits and pieces from Greer, and doing a little investigating into the event that lead to his father’s imprisonment, he can't help but be interested.  Eventually, Wyatt goes to visit Sonny in prison, and the man's funny, smart, and cool; the complete opposite of what Wyatt expected.  Now that Wyatt has met the man, he can't help but think about his father's crime, and how it just doesn't seem to add up.  Wyatt can't help but wonder if Sonny's innocent, either, and with the help of Greer, he decides to help Sonny and find out the truth.  If you love a good mystery, and can handle a little bloodshed, I recommend that you read this book.

 

Room

I finished reading Room by Emma Donoghue a couple of days ago, and I got to say it's a hard book to put down.  This story is told from the point of view of five-year old Jack.  Jack and his mother live in an eleven-by-eleven foot room, the room where Jack was born.  Jack has never been outside of the room he calls home, and his Ma hasn't since she was locked inside of it seven years ago, not that she hasn't tired, though.  The only things they ever see of the outside are through their TV, and the only window they have, a skylight.

Their prison is sound proof, and kept locked by a security door, and only Old Nick, the man who put Jack's Ma there, knows the code to get them out.  Jack doesn't know his home is a prison though; in fact Jack loves it, because it’s the only home he’s never known.  He doesn't know much about Old Nick, either, not even his real name.  He only knows that Old Nick comes at night, after Ma puts him in the wardrobe, and leaves them their Sunday treat.  He doesn't know that this isn't how people are supposed live, or that the TV isn't an imaginary world, and he's content to stay that way.  But, when Old Nick's house goes into foreclosure, Jack's Ma realizes that if her and Jack don’t escape soon, they probably won’t be alive much longer.  So Jack’s Ma comes up with a plan, that just might get Jack out, and if everything works out, her as well.  I would recommend that anyone read this book, because in Jack’s world there is never a dull moment.

Deep Shadow

  

Deep Shadow by Randy Wayne White is the 17^th novel in the Doc Ford series.  One of the things that I love about these books is that you can read them all out of order (like I had to), and not be completely lost.  The series revolves around, a marine biologist who isn’t exactly your average citizen named Marion "Doc" Ford, and his hippie friend Tomlinson.  In this book Doc, and Tomlinson, along with their friends Cpt. Arlis Futch and Will Chaser, scuba dive a lake in remote Florida, where they believe a plane stocked full of stolen Cuban treasures crashed in the late 1950s.  Will, Doc, and Tomlinson dive the lake, but leave Arlis topside to keep watch. 

But, one of the three men makes a drastic mistake while diving, and accidently causes an underwater landside that leaves Tomlinson and Will trapped underneath the lake.  Doc, after unsuccessfully trying to rescue the pair, surfaces to get help, only to find another disaster awaiting him on land.  Arlis, who is a very old man, has been forced out of his truck and beaten by two ex-cons and murders, that are currently holding a gun to him.  Now, Doc has to figure out how to deal with the two fugitives, before Tomlinson and Will run out of oxygen, while trying to avoid ending up dead himself.

Doc Ford novels are one of my favorite book series, and if you like a lot of action, and can handle gore, I would recommend that you read this book.

The President's Daughter

I just spent my afternoon reading The President's Daughter by Jack Higgins.  When I read it, I practically had no idea what the book was going to be about, because when I bought the book it didn't come with a sleeve.  So I mainly read it, because I normally like this particular author's books and I figured I would like this one as well.  So as I it turns out, I ended up liking this book a lot. 

The book has a great plot.  The president, Jake Calzat, has a secret, a secret that only four people, including the president himself are aware of.  The secret is that French Countess Marie de Brissac is his daughter.  Somehow against the odds, his secret is discovered by a terrorist named Judas.  He kidnaps Marie, and Sean Dillon, an ex-terrorist, and uses the pair to blackmail the president into signing on to a plan that would essentially cause the destruction of three counties.  If the president doesn't sign, Judas will have his daughter executed, but Dillon manages to escape Judas.  Now, Dillon is in a race against the clock to rescue Marie, before time runs out, and the president is forced to choose between the life of his daughter and the lives of millions.

SAT Study Guide

Lately, I've been preparing for the SAT, so the only book I've really had my nose in is The Official SAT Study Guide Second Edition by College Board.  I haven't taken the SAT yet, but I think this book is going to be pretty helpful.  The book breaks down the writing, critical reading and mathematics sections of the SAT, and provides a lot of strategy and test taking tips for each individual section of the test.   I think the mathematics section of the book is going to be especially helpful, because it basically tells you which mathematical concepts that you should know for the test and give you a little mini-lesson for each concept.  So the math section of the book is kind of like one big math review.  It even tells you which kind of math will not be on the SAT, for example trigonometry and logarithms will not be on the test.  The book also includes 10 official SAT practice tests with answers keys for each one.  If you plan on taking the SAT, whether it's your first time or a repeat, I think this book would be very helpful to you.