5) Brain Jack-Brian Falkner

Sam is just your every day high schooler. Well, in the sense that he's young and goes to school. However, he's smarter than he looks. On an average morning, he decides to hack into the country's most protected communications firm, Telecomerica, just to see if he could. He gets through the system without being detected and assumes that no one will be watching...until someone is. Before he's caught, he unleashes a virus that crashes their system just after ordering his friend Fargas and himself neuro-headsets. 

A few days later, he and Fargas attend a hackers convention. Sam believes he is attending H@ck-Con, when really the big boys are just trying to weed out the fakes from the real deal. When Sam proves himself, two masked people come up to him and say that that real Con is online. If he wants to join, he'll have to hack into one of the most guarded networks in the world: The White House. At 9 PM, Sam sets to work on creating a tunnel inside the building's network. Only minutes later, he's in. Just as he's about to approach the room where the others are located, his doorbell rings and his flown to a juvenile detention center called Recton. Did they find out that it was Sam who pulled off the hack into Telecomerica? Were they aware that he had just hacked into the White House's network? What will happen to him now that he's been caught?

I'm hardly scratching the surface of this book, but giving anything more away would honestly take away from it. This was an outstanding book. Completely terrifying, but incredible. There were so many moments where I was not only blown away by this guy's intelligence, but of the surprises lurking around every corner. I certainly did not see over half of this book coming. It was so smart. I was really happy that I had decided to pick this up.

As I said, this book also completely terrified me. While I can hang with Kubrick, Huxley, Vonnegut and Orwell like anybody else, the technological advances of today and within the pages of this book somehow didn't seem too different. This was something that I could see happening and that's not cool. It made me wonder if someone was watching me and quietly sifting through the contents of my phone and laptop. I feel like this sort of technology is imminent and that's so incredibly scary. But I guess that's the nature of certain pieces of Sci-Fi; they're meant to make us worry.

4) The Fault In Our Stars-John Green

And then there are books...which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.

Hazel is a sixteen-year-old side effect of cancer which is a side effect of dying which was a side effect of being alive. She hadn't been to school in the three years and absolutely loathed being forced into going to a cancer support group. She would rather be at home reading or watching another marathon of America's Next Top Model instead of being surrounded by people offering false enthusiasm about living your best life today. That is, until the night she meets Augustus Waters. He can't stop staring at her. Augustus says he's been in remission for some time, that he was merely there for his friend, Isaac. When the meeting ends, he tells Hazel she reminds him of Natalie Portman in her V For Vendetta era. She has no idea what he's talking about and he asks her to come over and watch it. Right that minute. Intrigued, she goes.

What follows is one of the most moving stories of, not particularly young love (unless you focus solely on their age), but real love. The two learn what it is to feel again, what it means to look beyond the signed, sealed and waiting to be delivered fate they'd been handed, what it means to be alive again. An adventure in Amsterdam and a very scary, very real side effect makes them believe this all the more.

This really was a stunning book. I found myself laughing hard for the first 75% of the book and reading through my tears the last 25% of it. It was realistic and the characters were relatable despite the cancer aspect of their lives. Every character was so well written and it was, as previously stated, a truly moving piece of work. John Green did a phenomenal job and I am willing to wholeheartedly admit that this is easily my favorite book by him. It was powerful, emotional. It was an outstanding look at all of the different hats that grief wears.

3) Thumped-Megan McCaffterty

Out of respect for Megan McCafferty and her extensive fanbase, I will not be posting about this at this moment in time. I feel very lucky to have gotten an ARC so far in advance back in November at NCTE, but I wouldn't want the plot to come out with still months before the publication. 

However, it was fantastic and I recommend it (along with, of course, its predecessor, Bumped). Get it on April 24th!

2) Money Boy-Paul Yee

Ray Liu hates the way he feels. He knows he should be happy living as a Chinese immigrant with much more freedom in Toronto. He wears expensive clothing, has a cell phone and a laptop, many friends and lives in a nice suburban neighborhood. However, he's not doing too well in school and he has a secret that he would rather try and get over than admit to his family. 

Until the day his dad comes in and asks him if he really has been visiting the gay websites that come up in his Internet history. When he tries to come up with an excuse, his dad knows he's lying and complains that Ray is doing it just to spite him. He begins throwing all of Ray's things onto the lawn and telling him to get out. He's seen his father mad before, but this is different. Instead of staying, Ray grabs some clothes and takes off towards the downtown area.

Of course, nothing is easy. His first night alone, his phone and wallet are stolen. His laptop is next and almost has a run-in with his brother volunteering at the shelter Ray has been staying at. With no money, he wonders if he'll have to become a money boy (male prostitute) to provide for himself. Will he accept that he's gay and be happy with who he is? Will he sell his body to provide for himself? Will he talk to his family again or will they refuse to allow him back?

I absolutely loved this book. The first few chapters sort of threw me off, but once I got into it, I really loved it. It was a really interesting story. I felt so bad for him, but sadly, boys get thrown out like this for this reason so often and it's just heartbreaking. It was a wonderful story and something that I would absolutely recommend. 

1) You Better Not Cry-Augusten Burroughs

This was a book similar to the Sedaris Christmas essay collection. There was an essay of Augusten as a young boy lusting over Santa once he discovered that Santa and Jesus are not in fact the same person. There was an essay of his being quite determined and deceptive as a child toward getting exactly what he wanted. Another essay discussed how he got so incredibly drunk that he ended up among the bums of New York City realizing that maybe he needed to turn his life around.

There are a few other essays that actually made me feel quite sad, I won't go into much more detail. 

While some parts really had me laughing, this collection of essays didn't really do it for me. I was sad, too. I really wanted to like this book, but there was just such a feeling of "woe is me" throughout every essay that I felt like I was wading through the currents of his self pity. Plus, some of the language and wording he used really turned me off. There were some good bits, but they were most certainly outweighed by the not so great bits.

I read it, but that doesn't mean that I recommend it. Sedaris, yes. Burroughs, no.

Year In Review

Well, I didn't meet my goal for 2011. It makes me sad, but sometimes things come up and stunt your progress and you just have to live with it.

You set new goals, you find new books and you look forward to some amazing work to compliment the next year in your life.

Reading can take you so many places, make you feel so many things and introduce you to so many people and situations that you might never have been to before. Never lean towards one specific genre. Explore every possible avenue that is presented and you might find there is something new you might love and might have overlooked.

Either way: Read. Read a little every day. Read until the sun comes up. Read in a car or when you're bored or when you can't sleep. Read when you're upset or feeling down. Read because it helps you learn. Read because it helps you evolve. Read because it enriches your mind. No matter what...just read.

My new goal is 105 books and I am determined to accomplish this. Here's to another year of reading!