48) Paper Towns-John Green

"What a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than a person."

When Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman were nine years old when they found a dead body in the park of their neighborhood. After this instance, the two almost never spoke until a month before they're due to graduate high school. Margo Roth Spiegelman shows up at Quentin's window with black face and takes him on a wild adventure ending in the two of them breaking into SeaWorld. The next day, Margo Roth Spiegelman has once again disappeared. But this time is unlike every other time she's gone. This time, she doesn't come back. However, she leaves clues for Quentin that he believes will ultimately lead to finding her. Find her alive? Or find her dead? With the help of his best friends Ben and Radar, they begin to figure out the clues that Margo Roth Spiegelman has left him. Her friend Lacey soon joins in on the wild goose chase. What do the clues mean? Where do they lead? Where in the world is Margo Roth Spiegelman?

This book was really fantastic. It was mysterious, but humorous. Dramatic, but heartfelt. I was happy, I was sad, I was incredibly pissed off at certain points. The mark of a good book sometimes is how involved you can feel and how greatly it can play on your emotions. If that is how you decide on a book, then you have found the right one with this, my friend. The pages can't turn fast enough once you reach the last 25% of the book. "Where are they going? Are we finally going to get answers? The answers are just around the corner, I know it!"

I was so happy that this was an assigned book. It was absolutely amazing. I don't know what I was doing with my life before finally reading John Green. The guy is amazing. He's hysterical, but with a love of thought provoking heart. He stretches across the continent of adolescence and growing up in all of the best ways. I could read his work for days and weeks and months and not get bored. I cannot recommend this book (or John Green) enough.

47) American Born Chinese-Gene Luen Yang

There once was a monkey king who, in his own way, became a diety. When the scents and sounds of a party in heaven drifted down to Earth, he felt it was his right to attend. When he was denied at the door for being a monkey, he goes a little too crazy. He goes back down to Earth and thinks of every way possible for him to no longer be a monkey.

Jin Wang is a small boy who has just moved to a new town. He wants to fit in and make friends, but others see him as much too different. He makes a friend for a short period of time before he moves away. Again, he is sad and alone. When Wei-Chen Sun comes to Jin's school from Taiwan, he at first tells him he has enough friends, but they quickly become the best of friends.

Danny has a problem. His cousin Chin-Kee is back for another visit. Chin-Kee always causing a ruckus when he comes to town and screws with Danny's life. This forces him to change schools three times by the time he becomes a junior. Danny hates his visits and wishes they would stop.

The question is: What do these stories have to do with one another?
Adolescent Fiction read. I wasn't really looking forward to this book, but I also wasn't dreading it. It was just a book to read for class. I'd only ever read one other graphic novel (Watchmen), so this wasn't high on my list. However, I greatly enjoyed this book. I thought it was really fantastic. I enjoyed how you saw the stories weave together and how it teaches you how to love who you are and what you have. Who cares about ignorant people? You'll always find those people lurking in corners. You just have to be proud of who you are and know that at some point or another, their ignorance will kick them in the ass. It was entertaining and I can absolutely see why it won the coveted Printz Award.

This was a quick and entertaining read. I highly recommend it!



46) Juliet, Naked-Nick Hornby

Duncan and Annie have been together for fifteen years. They have come on holiday to America to see the sights of the cult music sensation Tucker Crowe's life. They've been to Montana, Tennessee, Minnesota and California. Until this trip, neither realized that they had a stagnant relationship for almost the full fifteen years. It wasn't until this trip that they realized that maybe their lives haven't been and won't ever be the lives they always saw for themselves. Maybe it's Annie's obsession with having a child or maybe it's Duncan's obsession with Tucker Crowe, either way, things aren't going to end happily.

One day, Annie is going through the mail and discovers a package Duncan has missed. She opens it and realizes that it's a previously unreleased demo version of Tucker Crowe's album Juliet titled Juliet, Naked. Duncan sees it as a work of brilliance whereas Annie sees it as a load of rubbish that takes away from the "dressed" version. She even goes so far as to write an essay about it and post it on the fansite that Duncan runs. The next day, she checks her email and sees that Tucker Crowe himself as responded to her review. What follows is how Tucker's career has caused far too many problems in Annie's, Duncan's and everyone, including himself, in Tucker's life.

It's rare that I will read the majority of a specific author's work (series not included). That's not to say that there aren't amazing writers out there (because there are), I just rarely find one that I specifically enjoy reading. However, Nick Hornby is certainly one of those authors that I love reading. High Fidelity has been one of my favorite books (even pre-Fall Out Boy line borrowing) and its movie adaptation is wonderful. I absolutely loved this book. It was really lovely. It changed perspective quite often and I like that. You get the story from all sides. It was funny and it was quite sad at times, but that was one of the more enjoyable aspects.

If you like music and weird relationships, this book is for you.

45) Parrotfish-Ellen Wittlinger

"Sometimes it's hard to remember that by tomorrow or next week or at least next year, the stuff that seems awful today might actually be funny. That what makes you miserable today will later on in life be a good story to tell your friends."

Angela is who Grady used to be. That is, when he was living his life as a girl. When he discovered that he had Gender Dysphoria and decided to live his life as a male, he chose a name that sounded like a gray area, which is sort of what he felt like he was living in. However, he had no idea that telling everyone about this monumental life change could create such a storm of confusion, hate and thankfully in some aspects, acceptance.

People were already talking about the school's "weird kid" since she chopped off her hair and started dressing like a boy. Once Grady started telling everyone about his name change, he didn't realize what people were capable of. Milk down his back in the crowded cafeteria, public verbal attacks and even an attempt to absolutely humiliate him in gym class. All at the hands of ignorant students who refused to understand what was happening, but instead calling it perverse and wrong. But it wasn't all bad. Grady finds a new friend in Sebastian, helps an old friend realize what's wrong and what's right and even discovers what love means. It's a story about acceptance in every way.

Adolescent Fiction read. This was a really great book. It was a bit slow at first, but once you get into it, it's hard to put down. You found yourself screaming at the ignorance of the idiots Grady is forced to call peers. You want him to get the girl. You want to high five him whenever he stands up for himself. Basically, you get really into it! For a topic that is hard to understand, I felt that I got a really good idea of what it is like to find yourself being born in the wrong body. The emotions in the book sort of become your own and I liked that idea. I was glad this was assigned.

44) Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist-Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

I'm thinking I would like to dance in the rain with this person. I would like to lie next to him in the dark and watch him breathe and watch him sleep and wonder what he's dreaming about and not get an inferiority complex if the dreams aren't about me.

"Would you be my girlfriend for five minutes?" Nick asks a girl wearing a flannel shirt in a seedy music club in lower Manhattan. Norah is about to say no but when she sees Tris walking towards them, pulls Nick's mouth to hers in an effort to avoid conversation. Little did either one know, they were both trying in vain to avoid Tris. 

This is how Nick and Norah meet. Two kids who are deeply heartbroken in different ways. They talk and fall silent. They laugh but try to hide the smile. Each one falls in love with the idea of the other person but overanalyze everything before it happens in their own completely neurotic way. When they enter a burlesque club and discover that one of their favorite bands, Where's Fluffy?, will be playing a secret show there later in the night. They decide to stay and tip-toe around putting together the pieces of one another. The band takes the stage and the bodies fall in sync with the music and Norah does all she can to prove that she isn't frigid and that Tal was wrong about her. Meanwhile, Nick is seeing that her heart isn't in it and she's coming onto him for all the wrong reasons. The game of keep-away begins again. They break apart and she leaves the club. Once he finds her, she hails a cab and is off into the night. Nick wonders if he should go after her. Norah wonders why she left. They both wonder why they're dancing the tango when they could easily be dancing the waltz.

Another Adolescent Fiction read. Of course, I'd seen the movie (I vaguely remember a rather loud group of people sitting over a section and up talking the whole time and then yelling at me for the split second light from my phone as I checked the time), but I was excited to read the book. To be perfectly honest, as well as I could picture the actors in my head, it was hard to picture them as the characters in this book as I was reading. They were great in the movie, but they weren't what I pictured while perusing the pages. I liked this book, but I wish it was longer. It clocks in around 183 or so pages. Quick read, but I wish it was longer. I liked the music aspect as well. It was funny and made me feel like the way I talk isn't bizarre. 

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch this movie.

43) Whale Talk-Chris Cutcher

The Tao "TJ" Jones is a part black, part Japanese, part white kid who was adopted by his parents after his biological mom thought crack was more important than her son. He's now in high school and approached by a teacher to help start the school's swim team. Reluctantly, he agrees and he sets out to find his motley crew of (non)swimmers. As a rule, TJ steers clear of organized sports despite being terrifically athletic. Mostly because his mother's abandonment instilled in him a serious case of rage fits that would frequently get him into trouble with the coaches and other teammates. Due to these rage issues, he continues to see the therapist that helped him as a child. When he shows up at her house one afternoon, he begins to help Heidi, a child who's both half black and has a psychotic, all-whites-only stepdaddy who loathes the existence of TJ. With the swim team's lettering requirements at stake and his family taking Heidi in when her stepdad loses it once more, TJ's life bounces between extremes. Fortunately, his heart is in the right place. He wants each and every misfit on his team to letter and he wants to help Heidi in any way he can. Can he do it? Can he help his team letter and fit in with his school and also help save a child in danger just because of her skin color?

Adolescent Fiction assignment. I was not a fan early on. It wasn't until the second half where I was absolutely addicted to reading it. You don't see almost anything in the second half coming! You feel terrible for Heidi, Chris and Mott. You want to hug Chris and smack some sense into Alicia. You become totally invested in the characters. I enjoyed how you might start to get bored with the swimming bits and then BOOM! The author would throw in some serious real life (mostly racist) drama at you that had you flipping the pages at light speed. You wanted to see these racist jerks get what was coming to them every time they even opened their mouths. I liked this so much more than I had anticipated. I did NOT see the end coming. I audibly gasped. That's how good it was.

Fun facts: the author had these characters written in a school shooting story, but once there were too many, he scrapped it but loved the characters. He was also a swimmer in his youth and had to start a swim team later in life with the same situation as in the book. He has also worked with children with problems such as those of Heidi and TJ. Basically, he's awesome.

42) The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate-Jacqueline Kelly

Texas, 1899. 12-year-old Calpurnia Virginia Tate, or Callie Vee for short, is enduring another blistering summer on her family's farm. As the only girl out of seven children, her responsibilities, challenges and obligations slowly begin to change. The biggest change, however, is the day her brother Harry gives her a bright red notebook. In it, Calpurnia begins to take small notes on what she sees. One day, she finally works up the courage to talk to her Granddaddy about nature. Soon, the two become inseparable as he teaches her the joy of being a naturalist and exploring the world and the realms of science. As she learns to explore and to question, she realizes that maybe the life her parents have set out for her isn't what she wants. Maybe what she wants is something extremely radical for that time, yet exactly for her. Is it possible to be in the history books with other female scientists? Or is she destined for a life of housewifery that leaves her feeling less than fulfilled?

I absolutely loved this book. The first few chapters were a bit difficult to wade through, I'll admit it, but it was just amazing. Every chapter started with a piece from Charles Darwin's book of evolution. The characters were perfectly written and you couldn't help but smile. It sort of made you want to go out with a butterfly net and catch what you could while wading in the river before rushing home to examine it. Mind you, I'm not one for science, so that's saying something!

It's a bit of a lengthy book, but it was still worth the read. I quite enjoyed it. It was a historical and scientific read that you don't often come across as being entirely engrossing. One of my favorite parts was when they were at the fair and they sampled the "brand new drink" of Coca-Cola. That part had me actually laughing out loud. It was so cute. All in all, I absolutely loved this.