Writing the Book Review

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Catch 22
Memoirs of a Geisha
Lovely Bones
Pride and Prejudice
The Scarlet Letter
Catcher in the Rye
The Things They Carried
Alice in Wonderland
SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman: The story is about a young girl named Lyra who lives in a world different from ours. Lyra over hears an argument at Jordon college where she lives and finds out about a plot to kill her uncle. She stops them and soon is thrown into a world with horrors but with the help of an armored bear named Iorek she will finally meet with her father.

I really like the book 1984. This book gives a spin on the world might be in the future with a big brother type government. The story follows the paths of a man and woman who decide to rebel against the social norms.

The Princess Bride - a classic tale of true love and adventure, 464 pages, a young boy lies bedridden from pneumonia. His perpetually disheveled and unattractive father, an immigrant from Florin with terribly broken English, shuffles into his bedroom carrying a book. The boy wants to know if it has any sports. His father says, "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions. Miracles." And the little boy, though he doesn’t know it, is about to change forever. As the author says, "What happened was just this. I got hooked on the story."

Catcher in the Rye - 288 pages, Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school. His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.Hamlet - a tragic play by Shakespeare, confronting the mind of Hamlet and how murder and deceit is surrounded by him.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - A novel that concerns the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. Charlie is a freshman, and while he is not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen’s story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide.

Dracula -A tale of suspense and horror, boasting one of the most terrifying characters ever born in literature: Count Dracula, a tragic, night-dwelling specter who feeds upon the blood of the living, and whose passions prey upon the innocent, the helpless, and the beautiful.J

Everything Is Illuminated
And some good ones are:
Hamlet
The Perks of Being a Wallflower


A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
The Secret Life of the Bees, I read this novel about 3 or 4 years ago and it to this day is still my favorite novel. I am not sure the guys in our class would like it but I am sure the girls would! This novel is about a girl, Lily, who's mother dies and she has a stand-in mother Rosaleen. Lily is white and Roasaleen and the other people of her family are black, this story takes place in 1964 in South Carolina so still when racism was a huge part of our country. I think this story would be a good pick for the class because to me it was very touching and teaches a lesson.

P.S. I Love You
Ahern, the mediagenic 22-year-old daughter of Ireland's prime minister, debuts with a sweet, sentimental tale of a young widow's trials and triumphs in the year after her husband's death. Soul mates Holly and Gerry married in their early 20s; when Gerry dies of brain cancer at 30, Holly is utterly bereft. But Gerry has a final gift: a series of letters, which Holly is to open on the first of each month from March to New Year's, and which will guide her on her journey from grief. Gerry correctly predicts that Holly will not have gone through his belongings by June, found a new job by September or considered falling in love again by December, but with his posthumous epistolary encouragement she does all those things. She also enters a karaoke contest, takes a beach vacation and dances at a holiday ball she'd always attended with Gerry. The months pass as close friends help prop Holly up; around her, a marriage falls apart, a couple gets engaged and a friend announces her pregnancy. Within her tight-knit family, Holly's youngest brother makes a revealing film of her birthday party, her elder brothers change places in her allegiance and her parents take in one stray grown child after another for stays short and long. Ahern's speed (she wrote the book in three months) and her youth do show-the wisdom in evidence owes much to Nicholas Sparks and Sophie Kinsella-and her prose is pedestrian. She boasts a natural storytelling talent, however, resulting in a compelling tale sparked by an unusual premise.

(Taken from amazon.com)

My List:

Jane Ayer Charlotte Bronte

Whithering Heights Emily Bronte

Tess of the d' Uberbiviles Thomas Harding

Return of the Native Thomas Harding

Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini

Hard Times Charles Dickens

Lady Chaterely's Lover DH Lawrence