Deadline

David Donovan

Author: Chris Crutcher

Pages: 316

Rating: 9.8889 (out of 10)

The book I read was called Deadline. This book is about an 18 year old student in Trout Idaho, a town with a population of 943. After Ben is told he is dying from a rare condition, he is determined to make the best of his remaining year to live. Ben’s goal is to complete as much of his life as he can in a year. The first thing he does is go out for the football team. As a senior, Ben only weighs 123 pounds, but prevails as an incredible asset to the team. His brother is the starting quarterback, which makes bens life a little easier. Ben also follows his interest in a girl named Dallas Suzuki, and they become close over time. I noticed Ben enhances many of his relationships over the course of this book. He becomes very close with people such as his coach, his dream girl, other players on his team, and even his own family. Ben goes through a lot in this book. I am almost done with it so I cannot say everything, but I did pick up a lot more messages than I expected from a book revolving around sports. Because Ben realized that he truly had something so important to lose in such a small amount of time, he was more driven to try new things and take chances. Ben wanted to use all the life he could before it was too late. This book is very intriguing because it dabs on the question of what Ben is to face after death. This book really showed me that you never truly and fully appreciate something until you realize you cannot have it much longer, that is when you want it, because you cannot except that possibility of it not being there anymore. Ben realized this, so he tried everything he could manage, and was able to excel so far in football at only 123 pounds. Ben had a strong and courageous character throughout the book and I respect the character he carries with him, and the way he acts with reason and meaning. I gave this book a 9 out of ten because I just I didn’t want to stop reading it. The book inspires me to appreciate life as a gift and not a burden. A book has never taught me so much while also incorporating the best sport in the world (fact). I would recommend this book to any of my football buddies because it shows life at such an inspiring angle that really allows you to appreciate what you have. Goodnight.

Landon Allen -Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

Author: Gary D. Schmidt

Pages: 220

Rating: 7 - 10

The book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is based on a true story that took place in Phippsburg, Maine, in 1912. Turner Buckminster, the main character, was the new kid in town that summer, and his father was the town’s new minister. In his old town, he could hit a baseball better than most kids his age, but when he came to play in Maine, it was a whole new game. Turner faced problems obeying his father’s strict rules and regulations. He also had problems with the new kids he was supposed to become friends with; getting in fights, staying out to late, and being with people he wasn’t supposed to be with.

In the town of Phippsburg, there was island inhabited by a group of African Americans, called Malaga Island. Turner becomes friends with Lizzie, one of the islanders. These African Americans aren’t accepted on the mainland of Phippsburg and Turner has specific instructions not to associate with them. The town officials are planning on eradicating them from the island so they could create a tourist attraction there. Turner is the only one who understands Lizzie’s people and respects them, and because of that, he does everything in his power to save them. This is the story of Turner entering manhood and standing up for what he believes in. It is a great book and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading books with true information in them.

Ten Days in a Madhouse

Ryan Boquist

rating: 8-10

pages:90

The book I read starts off with the narrator, Nellie Bly in the office of Joseph Pulitzer. She works as a journalist for the New York World newspaper, and took an undercover assignment. She agreed to fake insanity to investigate troubling reports of brutality at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island.

After a night pretending to be insane in front of a mirror, she checked into a boarding house. There, she refused to go to bed, telling the boarders that she was afraid of them and that they looked crazy. They soon decided that she was crazy, and the next morning called the police. The police took Nellie to a courtroom, she pretended to have amnesia. The judge concluded that she had been drugged and was not insane. However being a good journalist Nellie could not let her mission end there. She was then examined by several doctors, who all declared her to be insane. The “highly experienced doctors” said she was demented and that she was hopeless. Therefore the doctors decided to put her in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum.

In the asylum Ms. Bly could get a firsthand view of what went on at Blackwell. The food consisted of gruel broth, spoiled beef, terribly stale bread and dirty undrinkable water. The dangerous patients were tied together with ropes. The patients were made to sit for much of each day on hard benches with minimal protection from the cold. Waste was all around the eating places. Rats crawled all around the hospital. The bathwater was frigid, and buckets of it were poured over their heads. The nurses were obnoxious and abusive, telling the patients to shut up, and beating them if they did not listen. Speaking with her fellow patients, Bly was convinced that some were as sane as she was and the asylum made them the way they were.

After ten days, Bly was released from the asylum. Her report was later published in a book as Ten Days in a Mad-House, the reports caused a sensation and brought her fame. The physicians and staff that admitted Nellie could not explain how they could have been fooled. After the reports came out about Blackwell a grand jury launched its own investigation of the asylum, inviting Bly to assist. After the investigation a call was made for an increase in funds for $850,000 in the budget of the Department of Public Charities and Corrections. They also made sure that all of the examinations were more thorough so that only people who were actually insane went to the asylum.

I recommend reading this book if you like reading about holocaust stories. The authors writing style is very compact and eye opening. Even though this is a short book this feels like reading a book twice its length and the author had a firsthand experience so it’s cool to read from that perspective too. All in all I recommend reading this book if you have not read it, it is a very eye opening book.

No Less Than Victory (part two)

Trevor Giroux

Author: Jeff Shaara

Pages 449

Rating 7-10

As I near the end of this book I am still enjoying it as much as the day I started reading it. Towards the end of the book the author writes more chapters from the perspective of the Germans. The two Germans that you see the war through are Architect Albert Speer and Field Marshall Karl Rudolf Gerd Von Rundstedt. What I really like is the way the author uses actual documents and historical books to recreate how these characters felt during the last months of the Third Reich. The description of the destruction of German cities by constant Allied bombing helps to remind you that the Germans were people too and that not all of them were Nazis. Some were just innocent people that knew nothing about concentration camps or the genocides that Hitler was participating in. Unfortunately they had to suffer the same things that Hitler and the German army suffered. You also continue to see the war through the eyes of General George Patton and Private Benson. The description of the concentration camp at Ohrdruf is so real that you can feel the horror and anger of the Americans that liberate the camp. I do not want to say too much about the fate of Benson and his squad or tell you what happens to the real people like Patton and Speer but I can tell you that this is an amazing book that almost anyone would enjoy.

Existence

Every day I ponder on the question “what is all of this?”

I believe something is beyond death. Life may just be a sliver in a journey. It’s crazy. Maybe there are other things like life but not life. These parallel journeys may be similar. We meet the same souls and friends. But u won’t recognize them by their face, because the physical body was just a vehicle for the soul. Yeah, we are souls manifesting in physical matter. You will recognize them by their soul alone. Like a sense. I think the purpose of all this is a journey, through the hardest of hard, to allow us to appreciate the end result of eternity, a desired destination. existence was made to be good. And not a letdown. I discussed this unanswerable topic with a friend. He stated how 1 kilometer closer than the sun. We might not be here. And how lucky we are compared to everything else, every other thing that might have “lived” on a planet had it not been 1 km off. But then I think. How is something that never existed unlucky? The ones who never existed due to circumstantial inequalities are not unlucky, because they never existed. Something that does not exist cannot be anything, except nothing, and what is nothing?

In a simple thought, a law states that nothing can exist or derive from purely nothingness. This means that everything that exists, every grain of sand, planet, every strand of reality, was created. It didn’t spontaneously pop out of nothingness, but was rather created by something that wanted it to be there. This brings me back to the unanswerable question: what? Whatever put it there left more proof. Everything has uniform. Everything has design. Think about it. Atomic structure, planets, forces, galaxies. Everything has a recognizable design…everything. How does this occur? We humans replicate this with buildings, cars, clothing, and everything we create. Is it just chance that everything existing has a specific design. It didn’t come from nothingness. Something truly wanted it there. And that something designed it. Designed everything

If something can it exist, it will, because the chances of it occurring will always be happening. We just don’t know when or where it will occur. Many fear that after life is nothingness and nonexistence. I don’t see this possible. I believe it is impossible to not exist. That everything must exist. One cannot ponder on non existence because it is not comprehendible and unable to be experience by anything, for something to experience it, it must exist, and existence does not cease to exist. Woah, back to square 1. I believe something is after death, not nothing.

So, the planet that was 1 km too close to the star did not have life exist that could have. What if it were the other way around? Earth was too close for life and planet 1390375 was perfect. Would I be typing this blabber there instead of here? So can I exist somewhere else? It reminds me of aborted babies. Will that life just occur somewhere else? What makes a life different to another and what connects one to another? If I die, and another life reoccurs, might I exist back into that one? This really depletes the value of “I”. What is “I”? What makes me different? Can “I” occur again? And how would one know it is that certain “I”? If we do re exist, how is it that “I” can be another “I”? I end up without an answer to any of this. Damn it.

This is what I think about every day. Where are the deceased? Are the self aware somewhere? I constantly question reality and existence, and life. I state nothing of religion. But I conclude to one thing: something, no idea what or who, but something, created existence and everything in its realm. If I knew the who, what, when, where and why…I’d probably be rich. My head is clear. Goodnight.

A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces
By James Frey
448 pages
Rating: 7
By Elijah Shanelaris

A million little pieces is about a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. The story follows his time spent in a rehabilitation center in Minnesota. His friend told him that he fell down a fire escape but he doesn’t remember. I thought this was a very good book because I never wanted to put it down because it was gripping. It was interesting and there was always something that would leave you hanging that you wanted to find out more about. There was always some significant thing that was about to happen. I recommend this book. This book was controversial because it was supposed to be a memoir, but the author lied about most of it. Oprah recommended this book and then found out that a lot of it wasn’t true but it was still a good book and that shouldn’t stop you from reading it.

Monster

Monster
By Walter Dean Myers
281 pages
Rating: 1
Michael Gavarny


This book is about a kid who gets accused of killing a convenience store clerk. I really did not like the way this book was written. It was just people talking back and forth all the time which made for a slow, boring read. While the kid is sitting in court, he starts writing it like it is screenplay because he wants to be a filmmaker. I gave this book a rating of 1 and I don’t recommend it. There is no action or anything to catch your interest.

Ben Rubio's Post on Why I Fight

Why I Fight
By J. Adams Oaks

Why I Fight is a good book about a kid that was emotionally scared and abused who kind of flashed back to his youth. Wyatt evidently grew up in fighting in the streets to make money. His parents was decreed by the judge because they are unfit, they drink, take drugs, and party all the time while leaving Wyatt anywhere with nothing. His uncle took him, Uncle Spade is a traveling salesman. He goes all around the country with his “chevy” He always take Wyatt with him. Spade has a girlfriend in every truck stop they went, some of them get along with Wyatt and some just don’t like him at all. You will know a different culture by reading this book, It is focused on the poor living of a boy that evidently grew up in fighting.

Norman Tuttle on the Last Frontier

Norman Tuttle on the Last Frontier
by Tom Bodett
197 pages
Rating 9 out of 10
Raymond Bertholet

This book is about a boy named Norman Tuttle that tells about his life in Alaska. He has some trouble with most of the things in his life. His life feels like a prison in the wild. I think this book is a bit hard to understand. There are fifteen stories about Norman's life.

The Hunger Games

Kateri Bean
The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Length: 374 pages
Rate 10 out of 10!

The Hunger Games is new series of books that’s becoming more and more popular. When I first heard about them I honestly thought they were a little weird, but I decided to give them a shot. I’m really glad I did--they are by far the most compelling, incredible, series of books I’ve ever read.
The story is set in future North America, only it’s nothing like it is now. Instead of a happy, futuristic, world we sometimes imagine, it’s a complete disaster. There are no countries, only twelve districts which are ruled by the Capitol, which (long story short) is evil and goes out of the way to make life miserable for all the people living in the districts.
The Capitol is a genius for making life miserable. The people have next to nothing to eat, live in constant fear of being arrested by breaking one of the millions of silly laws, and work themselves to death. But that’s not the worst thing: the worst thing is that every year each of the districts must send one boy and one girl to the Capitol. These twenty-four kids are thrown into an arena where they must fight to the death until only one remains alive. This one kid is hailed the victor, is showered with gifts, their district gets extra food and their family gets a new house and will never have to work again. But, to gain this, twenty-three innocent kids must die at the hands of other innocent kids. The kids are picked randomly, like lottery numbers, but anyone can volunteer to take another kid’s place. This disgusting event is known as The Hunger Games and it is broadcast on television for entertainment in the Capitol and as a punishment back in the districts. (Everyone is forced to watch the games; if they don’t, they’ll be arrested and most likely die.)
Enter Katniss Everdeen. She’s sixteen and every day is a battle for survival for her and her family. She’s from district 12, the poorest and least respected of all of the districts. Her father died when she was little, leaving her mother in such a deep state of shock and grieving that she couldn’t care for Katniss or her little sister, Prim. So it was up to Katniss to keep the family from starving to death. Katniss doesn’t have anything but her family, and she is willing to do anything to keep them safe, no matter what it will cost her.
With the help of a boy named Gale, who’ll become Katniss’s best friend, and a lot of rule-breaking, Katniss is able to keep her family afloat. Every year she manages to escape having her name drawn and being sent to the Hunger Games. Then Prim becomes old enough to be entered into the games.
Prim’s name gets drawn. And the next thing Katniss knows she’s volunteered herself to take her sister’s place.
But that’s just the very beginning of the incredible story. The boy who’s sent from District 12 is named Peeta, and he and Katniss have a confusing past. But, it’s nothing as confusing as their future will turn out to be.
These books are just as addicting (if not more so) than Harry Potter. Just when you think you’ve got the story figured out, something shocking will happen. Reading these will leave you feeling like you experienced what the characters are going through, which is sometimes really scary.
I think everyone should read this series. They literally have something in them for everyone, and once you start them it’ll be impossible to stop. These books are so much more than just another popular teen series like Twilight; they actually will make you think about things you’ve never thought about before and will completely drag you into the story. (Another good reason to read them is the fact that the movie comes out next summer and it looks really good!) If you liked Harry Potter, Twilight, or The Mortal Instruments Series, chances are you’ll love The Hunger Games, too.

Call of The Wild

Dorothy Crowell
Call of The Wild
Jack London
105pages
9
This book is about a dog who was found and becomes a sled dog. He learns a lot of things with his new owner that includes good and bad things. I liked this book a lot.