Airframe was a terrific suspense thriller about different types of incidents in the air with commercial airliners. It tells a fictional story of the investigation of a plane that had many deaths and injuries aboard. It was fun to read. Because of the suspense and the knowledge I gained from it. I learned so much more about planes and plane parts than I could have ever dreamed of learning.
The Great Train Robbery was also a fantastic suspense thriller written by Michael Crichton. It tells about an nineteenth century train robbery, where three previously convicted criminals get together to make a fortune on one robbery. Most of the book talks about the meticulous preparation to the robbery, then goes on to tell about the robbery. I truly enjoyed this novel a lot.
A Death in The House was a short story about an old man finding an alien in the woods. He then brings it back to his home and cares for it like it is his best friend. But the alien was really sick and needed a way to get back to his own planet, and he needed silver to fix his spaceship. The old man sacrificed all of the silver money he had to send the alien home. This story taught the lesson that friends are more important that artificial things like money.
The Most Dangerous Game was a fun to read short story about a man that got stranded on a island. Where he came across a house. The man in this house forces the refugee to play a dangerous game where he is forced to go out into the woods and be hunted with a gun. If the refugee survived long enough he was aloud to go home, but of course if he did not survive he would be dead. This was a very suspenseful short story.
The Scarlet Ibis was a very different type of story. It was about a boy that has a little brother with cancer who is dying. All the little brother wants is to be normal, and all the older brother wants is to have a little brother who is normal. So they are out playing one day, and they are running home and the little brother cannot make it home. Then he dies in his brother arms, which is very breathtaking. I felt this to be a very sad compelling short story.
Romeo and Juliet is probably the most famous play in history. It is a love story about two teenagers that come from different groups of people. They do not care that they are different, but their parents care and so do their friends. It comes to the point where they have a secret marriage, but then Romeo's cousin is murdered. So Romeo murders the person that killed his cousin, which causes him to be banned from the city. So Romeo plans to meet with Juliet in secret, where they will run away together. When Romeo arrives he sees Juliet lying as if she is dead so he kills himself. But Juliet took a sleeping potion to fake out her parents, and wakes up to find Romeo dead, so she kills herself. This plays shows that prejudice is not a good thing, and that love is the strongest natural force in the universe.
A Separate Peace is a personal narrative about two friends, Finny and Gene. But they are actually quite different in that Finny is a really good athlete and Gene is a good student. This creates an underlying adimosity and jealousy to each other. One day Gene pushes Finny out of a tree breaking his leg. Their friendshipis never the same afterward. This novel is about the rival of two friends, and how even friends let jealousy take over sometime.
The Lord of The Flies is a very different type of novel about a bunch of children that get stranded on an island without any adults at all. The book presents William Golding's frightful and harsh view of how children would react to this type of situation. There is a lot of symbolism and many hidden ideas placed into the story by the author. The children get rescued openly after about five deaths on the island. It was an enjoyable novel to read due to all of the variety.
Old Yeller is a fictional novel about a family from the early 1900's that live in the Texas wilderness. The father leaves for a couple months and leaves his fourteen-year-old boy, Travis, in charge of taking care of the family. But it proved to be too large of a job for a boy to do alone, and he needed the help of a big, ugly, yellow dog named Yeller. The novel tells about many adventures Travis and Yeller had together, and tells how Old Yeller saves Travis on many occasions. One time the situation was even too big for Old Yeller to handle, and he dies. This was a terrific novel to read if you love dog's.
This biography of Michael Jordan's magnificent career was a very interesting book for me personally, because I idealize Michael Jordan so much. It told me many things like why retired in the prime of his career, and things like his gambling habits. It also told me about events that had happened to him as a kid, and about his triumphant career. I loved this book, but I think people that do not like Jordan would not like it at all.
Rock This was one of the funniest books that I had ever read in my entire life. It had a lot of jokes, and was just plain fun. It talked about many modern day issues that I am interested in like racism, drug's, sex, and other controversial topics. It was hard to put down sometimes, because of how outrageously funny it was. I look up to Chris Rock a lot, because he was a short non-athletic kid in high school, but he fought his way to the top. One day I hope that could be me some day.
Private Parts was a very funny, controversial autobiography by Howard Stern. This was a book that's about Howard's rise to fame, and his childhood. It was hilarious, and was so much fun to read I could not put it down. Howard talked about his show, and some of the better guests he has had on the show. Also he trashed the radio networks that censored him. This was a nice book to break up some of the other books I had read, and it was my favorite book that I read all throughout my freshman year.
Gangland was a great suspenseful novel about the FBI's C-16 Organized Crime squad, a modern-day Untouchables. They worked for seven years on a case to bring down this generation's Al Capone(John Gotti). This was beautifly written by Howard Blum. I could not put it down. I guess anything about the mob is interesting to me, because I think that they are just facinating.
The 13th Jurror is a courtroom suspense novel about a woman who is accused of killing his abusive husband and son. She is convicted though she contends that she is innocent. After the conviction her lawyer is faced with difficult decision in order to save her from execution. It was quite an exciting, suspenseful book to read.
Catcher In the Rye is probably the most read novel in the United States school system, because of many things like its controversial/contemporary topics, and J.D. Salinger's creative ways of telling the story. It is a personal narrative about a teenage-ager that quits school, and goes to New York for a couple days. The whole novel takes place in just a few days. After reading this novel I can understand why it is one of the most popular books ever.
Huckleberry Finn is another classic that is very popular in schools around the country. It is by one of the most famous authors ever, Mark Twain. It is a personal narrative about a teen age boy in the late 1800's. Huck runs away from home, and meets up with a slave that has escaped. It tells the story of what happens on their trip down the Mississipi River. It was a lot of fun to read.
The Hobbit is a fantastic adventure novel that always has something going on. I could not put it dowm. I always wanted to see what would happen next in Blibo's journey to the tresure. There would always be something new happening or a new hill the adventures had to climb to reach the pinacle of their journey. It was a lot of fun to read, and I would like to read it for fun in the future.
The Call of The Wild is a extremely exciting and enjoyable book to read. It tells the story of a dog's will to survive when he was taken from his natural surroundings and placed in the middle of the cold, unbearable, Yukon during the gold rush. This short novel was hard to put down, I liked to follow the exciting adventures of Buck, the canine protagonist. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes terrific stories about animals.
White Fang is another one of Jack London's great animal stories that I read. Although, it is a little slower, and easier to put down then The Call of The Wild, it still was one my favorite books that I have read all year. It tells the exact opposite story than that of Buck. It is about a wild born wolf/dog that grew up in the wild, and then is taken into civilization. White Fang must learn to live with humans, and to fight his natural instincts of the wild.
My Name is Asher Lev is a terrific novel about a Hasidic Jewish boy who is in conlict between his religion and his artisitic endeavors. Asher, the main character, was brought up to be a traditional Jew, but he loved to draw. This passion for art created a lot of friction between him and his family. This novel was a little slow, but it did keep me intrested. Overall I enjoyed it.
The Color of Water is a wonderful personal narrative written by man who interviews his mother about her life. The book tells about both of their lives growing up, and McBride beautifully compares and contrasts them. This story tackles many issues, for example, racism, religion, and teen-age pregnency. These are just problems that these non-fictional characters encountered everyday growing up.
Goodbye, Columbus is a terrific book to read that pertains to religious, and racial tensions in a modern-day soceity. The two main characters fall in love, however they are of different religions. The parents have a great problem with their children dating someone from another religion. This novel was a captivating love story, much like Romeo and Julliet.
The is one of Shakespeare's most reknown play of all time. It retells a tragic incident that affected history in an enormous fashion; the assassination of Julius Caesar. The play tells the story of The Conspirators plot, and actions against the soon to be King of Rome. It has been widely popular for centuries, and will continue to be enjoyed for centuries to come.
West With the Night by Beryl Markham is a beautifully written autobiography about Beryl's life experiences as she grew up in Africa. Ever since she was young she wanted to fly like her dad did, and thus is the basis for her career. The description of Africa in this book are absolutely incredible.
In These Girls, Hope Is A Muscle by Madeline Blais is a wonderful depiction of a girls basketball team from Amherst. These girls have the hunger to go all the way, and they will not stop at anything to get there. This is the last book I read during my tenth grade year at high school, and I am extactic to get a little break from reading!