The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Susie Salmon (like the fish) was fourteen when she was raped and murdered. Now, she looks down on her family from her skunk-scented heaven. She sees he family grow up with out her. She sees her killer run free.

This book was not as good as I thought it would be. Infact, I'm not sure I'd recomend this to many people. All the hype around the book and the fact that it has been made into a movie gave me the idea that it would be fabulous and a quick rean, but it wasn't. I'm not saying that people shouldn't read it, just be aware.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Her name is Alice.

Alice has been physically, mentally, and sexuallyabused by a stranger in unspeakable ways since the earliest age. She can barley remember diffrent. Alice isn't even her real name. Alice has had enough. Alice is determined to break free. Alice is determined to no longer be Alice.

As a female, seeing Alice be abbused was emtional. I wanted to detach myslef from it. I immagined what it's be like to be in her shoes, to be Alice. To be raped on a daily basis. To be starved. To be so alone. It's really unimmaginable, as one might expect. It's really made me want to do something, because every book is based in truth. There are young girls out there being raped and starved. And that's not something I want to sit around and know I could be doing something to stop.

There are some very graphic portions of this book, and they are disturbing. For this reason, this is a book for mature audiences only. In addition, it, at some points goes into detail about female bodly functions, and for this reason, I would only really recomend this to women.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Tessa is sixteen. Her birthday is in May. It's September. Tessa has terminal leukemia. She also has a list of things she wants to do before she dies. Have sex, do drugs, say "yes" to everything for a day, go on life's adventure. Tessa gives up on herself, stops the chemo, etc. and just wants to lifve.

This book was a very emotional journey for me. I'm sixteen, my birthday's in May, and I read this book in September. It made me think about what I would do if I had six months to live. It was a self reflective adventure. I would recomend this to anyone. It made me cry, it made me laugh, and it made me think.

Spider Bones by Kathy Raichs

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs, the 13th book in her Temperance Brennan series is really a page turner. In this adventure, Temperance is called to a sight in Canada where a decomposed floating corpse has been found. He is identified, but the records say that he was killed in Viet Nam. This makes for a confusion over who is who, resulting in the most interesting ending thinkable.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is perhaps the second best book I ever read (Thirteen Reasons Why takes the gold). It is a "Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls hybrid."
When Samantha Kingston calls shotgun in the car of her drunk best friend after a party, the car swirvs off the road, killing Sam, she must live out Friday, February 12th six more times, until everything has been righted. Sam is immensely popular-at the expense of everyone hating her. Not only is this Friday "Cupid Day"-the one day a year where underclassmen dress up as fairies, angels, etc and drop off roses to the school, but it is the day she has planed to have sex with her boyfriend, Rob, for the first time, and Rob's been waiting. The day starts off as any other in her life: woken up by he lisping kid sister, Izzy, then rushing to get dressed to make it in to Linsday's gigantic car (lovingly known as "The Tank") and eats her sesame seed bagel from Dunkin Donuts.Ally's already in the car, and the pack is complete after they pick up Elody. The ride is uneventful, but they steal the last good parking space from the swimmer girl, whose almost (but not really) their friend. And that costs her her spot in the swim team sectionals. Of course, every year, they deliver a rose to Juliet Sykes-the grade freak. It reads "maybe next year, but probably not." What they don't know is what the rose's message will drive her to do, what Sam must stop from happening before she can stop reliving Friday, Febuary 12th.

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

So I'm getting a Kindle (when they decide to be in stock), so in the meantime I have the software (it's free!) on my iPod Touch and on my laptop (yeah, techie diva) I finished Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It was nothing short of fantabulous. I ABSOULTLEY loved it!
It is about a boy-Clay-who comes home from school one day to find a package on his doorstep, no return address. Inside, are seven audiocassets. He puts them in a tapeplayer (his parents must be dinosaurs [kidding]) It's the voice of Hannah Baker, who OD on a handfull of pills a couple of weeks back. She has recorded one story on each side if the tapes-with the exception of one side. Thirteen reasons why she commited suicide. The rules are simple-lisiten to all the stories and pass them along to the person whose story comes after yours. If you dont-well, some one has a copy of the tapes and they'll release them to the world, and everyone knows your part in her death.
The book is designed to show how the little things you do effect people's lives-sometimes good, and sometimes absoultly horrible.
Although the book is told from the prespective of a male, most of the story comes from Hannah. I'd recomend this to anyone although girls are proabaly more of a target audience. Suicide is, of course, a mature subject, so it takes that kind of person to really read in to the subtextual things Hannah talks about.
It is proabaly one of the best books I ever read.

Alice, Oh Alice...

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was simply a fantastic book. It had the simplicity of a  children's tale and then, if I wanted to, to read deeper into the hidden meanings.

I also found it great to examine the parallels between the Disney movie-what they added what they took away.
My favorite part was the end. I loved how Alice's sister looked back on what she had talked with Alice with. It was so cool that she though about Alice's future and that she would make a wonderful woman.

The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland!!!

This summer, I picked up a classic. Er, um, because it's free for Kindle...so far I am in the second chapter (Pool of Tears) and I like it alot.

I find it interesting to read the original story after seeing the Disney versions and the play version It is cool because I have the visiual identifications of what Alice looks like (she is, as of yet, lacking a physical description) and what other charaters like the White Rabbit look like.
More blogging to follow!!!