Memoir
Jeffrey Liao provided this student review of the non-fiction memoir Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard.
Scratch Beginnings
If you’re a teenager who is wondering what it’s like to be poor, read this book.
If you’re a liberal and believe the American Dream doesn’t exist, read this book.
If you’re a conservative and believe the homeless are just lazy, read this book.
If you haven’t heard or read Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard, you’re missing out.
Shepard’s memoir of his journey from “rags-to-fancier-rags” is a very enlightening book that I, admittedly, had trouble putting down.
Will you receive cultural insider knowledge on how the other half lives after reading this book?
Yes. Will you become a financial guru? Probably not. The point is, the purpose of this book is to prove two things: 1) that the American Dream does exist. 2) People who complain about what they don’t have are just whiners.
The book begins with Shepard providing context to his little social experiment. He states the motivation behind his wanting to do this (which was to prove the American Dream does exist), and how he made sure his experiment was controlled and unbiased. He chose a random city, only took an initial amount of $25 to spend, a sleeping bag and the clothes on his back. He establishes that his goal is to get a place to live in, own a car, and become a regular citizen of society, all within a year. Shepard then takes the train to Charleston, where he soon finds a homeless shelter called Crisis Ministries, but not before having several tense encounters with homeless people. At Crisis Ministries, he’s able to get a job, however, it pays very little, and it isn’t even a secure job (as every day is a new job somewhere else). While he still looks for ways to get closer to achieving his goal, he starts to form friendships with the people at Crisis Ministries, often hanging out with them and watching movies together. He discovers more about the personal lives of the homeless, and how they ended up in their poor situation.
As Adam progresses, it is very interesting to see how his attitude changes. See, in the beginning, Adam was absolutely determined to keep a low profile. He did not want to attract attention to himself, either by fighting or doing something illegal. However, after he finishes a stressful and abusive shift at a clothing store, he gets tired of Planet Plump’s (the manager of the store) mistreatment of Adam and his friends and decides to confront her. He transitioned from a very cautious man to a person who just did not care anymore. Adam wanted to just be himself.
Later, Adam discovers that he has a solid opportunity to land himself a job at a carwash, but declines since the wage was slightly smaller than he had wanted. Still though, it was a significant step towards official employment. In the end, he does get hired as a mover for furniture, and considered himself lucky that he got paired with “one of the best movers on the planet.”
In the end, Shepard succeeds in finding a secure job, a place to live, and fitting into society. He also accomplishes more than that, and in lesser time than he had expected.
So, with that summary in mind, I think that Adam’s journey to find the American Dream was very fruitful and was filled with revelations. It may have had its flaws, as Adam himself points out in his book, but I believe that while he may have gotten lucky at times, his story cannot just be ignored. It does have a lot of merits. He did as much as he could to keep his experiment random and as close to a regular homeless man’s situation as possible. And yet, he was still able to get a job and home in less than a year. In general, I recommend this book for anyone. The American Dream theme relates to everyone in different aspects. Like I said at the beginning of this review: If you think the American Dream does not exist, read this book. Adam provides a relatively concrete case that the A.D. is within America’s reach. You will be thoroughly intrigued by how he got so far with so little. If you’re a conservative who believes homeless people just can’t get a job because they’re lazy, you will be surprised when you read how much Adam’s homeless friends eagerly talk about getting a job. You will discover that they don’t spend all their money on drugs. Some of them were just a victim of circumstance.
This book is certainly comparable to Ehrenrich’s Nickel and Dimed, where she concludes that the American Dream does not exist. Adam’s purpose, as he stated in the beginning of his book, was to prove her wrong, essentially serving as a rebuttal to her book. These two authors were people who were trying to discover if the illusive America Dream truly existed. Personally, I think that Adam has a better argument, since his process of starting low and coming out high was a lot more controlled and more realistic than that of Ehrenrich, who allowed herself to use her credit card. Ehrenrich didn’t really have a consistent, legitimate process, so I do not believe her conclusion is supported by her experiment.
But that is all just my opinion. Everyone has their opinions. For me, Adam’s book made quite an impact on how I see the unfortunate victims of circumstance, who are out there in the world, trying to become better people but just can’t seem to find the right chances to do so. Adam has also boosted my confidence that the American Dream could actually be tangible, if not already tangible. Therefore, after considering that he started out with so little, and came out with a lot, I proudly give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B by Teresa Toten
Adam Ross has made a list:
1. I believe that I fell in love with Robyn Plummer last Monday. This feeling is extremely uncomfortable. I would stop it if I could.
2. I believe that I should have been allowed to skip grade 4. I would be in grade 11 now and my entire life would be different. Better. Somehow.
3. I believe that playing Warhammer games all these years with Stones (Ben Stone) has probably kept both our heads above water, but just barely.
4. I believe that my four-year-old half brother, Sweetie, loves me more than all the adults in our lives put together. This does not stop him from being a considerable pain.
5. I believe that Group is mucho weirdo (except for Robyn). I can't see how it's going to help with anything, but the superhero stuff is not half bad.
Adam's goals are to: Grow immediately. Find courage. Keep courage. Get normal. Marry Robyn Plummer. The instant Adam Spencer Ross meets Robyn Plummer in his Young Adult OCD Support Group, he is hopelessly, desperately drawn to her. Robyn has an hypnotic voice, blue eyes the shade of an angry sky, and ravishing beauty that makes Adam's insides ache. She's also just been released from a residential psychiatric program–the kind for the worst, most difficult-to-cure cases; the kind that Adam and his fellow support group members will do anything to avoid joining. Adam immediately knows that he has to save Robyn, must save Robyn, or die trying. But is it really Robyn who needs rescuing? And is it possible to have a normal relationship when your life is anything but?
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Biography
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State–and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
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Graphic Biography
Little Fish: A Memoir From a Different Kind of Year by Ramsey Beyer
Told through real-life journals, collages, lists, and drawings, this coming-of-age story illustrates the transformation of an 18-year-old girl from a small-town teenager into an independent city-dwelling college student. Written in an autobiographical style with beautiful artwork, Little Fish shows the challenges of being a young person facing the world on her own for the very first time and the unease–as well as excitement–that comes along with that challenge.
Ramsey Beyer is a comic artist and illustrator living in Philadelphia, PA. She self-published her autobiographical graphic novel, Year One , accounting for her first year in Philadelphia. Beyer has had illustrated and written work published in several books, including Fanzines by Teal Triggs, Make A Zine!, and Don't Leave Your Friends Behind. Little Fish: A Memoir From a Different Kind of Year is her first traditionally published book. Known for her pet portraits, she is also the illustrator of Daisy to the Rescue by Jeff Campbell.
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The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought by David Adam
What might lead a school girl to eat a wall of her house, piece by piece, or a man to die beneath an avalanche of household junk? . . . At what point does a harmless idea, a snowflake in a clear summer sky, become a blinding blizzard of unwanted thoughts?
David Adam has suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder for twenty years, and this memoir is his unflinchingly honest attemp to understand the condition and his experiences. In this riveting blend of science, history, and memoir, Adam explores the weird thoughts that exist within every mind and explains how they drive millions of us toward obsession and compulsion.
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Fantasy
Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow by Rainbow Rowell
"So now that you know I'm a vampire, for certain, you don't care?"
"Now that I know that you just sneak around, drinking household pets and legal game, yeah, I'm not too bothered. It's not like I'm a militant vegetarian."
"And you still don't believe that I'm dead."
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here–it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.
This book wins my award for the most misleading cover on a YA book. There is romance, and angst, but also monsters and death and misuse of magic and annoying roommates. More of that needed to show up on the cover!
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Biography – History
Lincoln's Spymaster: Allan Pinkerton, America's First Private Eye by Samantha Seiple
Without Allan Pinkerton, Abraham Lincoln might never have made it to the presidency. This story highlights Pinkerton's efforts to uncover the details of an assassination plot designed to stop the newly elected Lincoln from ever taking office, as well as the detective's other adventures as America's first private eye.
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Historical Fiction
VIII by H. M. Castor
Prince Hal is a young man with extraordinary gifts: astonishing warrior skills, sharp intelligence, and a fierce sense of honor. His older brother will be the next king of England, but Hal knows that he is also destined for greatness – even if his father wishes he would disappear.
When his brother suddenly dies, Hal is thrust into further conflict as he becomes the heir to the throne. Upon his succession, Hal's obsession with regaining France and having an abundance of sons causes him to end marriage after marriage, casting off and even executing his wives, breaking with the Catholic church, and turning from an honorable and idealistic young prince into the cruel and despotic ruler known as Henry VIII.
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Science Fiction
The Uplift Novels by David Brin
David Brin is a Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author. His Uplift series is set in a future world where humans have been joined by genetically enhanced dolphins and chimps as they explore a universe full of superior alien races, many hostile to those from Earth.
Sundiver
In all the universe, no species has ever reached for the stars without the guidance of an alien patron – except perhaps humans. Circling the sun, in the caverns of Mercury, Expedition Sundiver prepares for a journey into the broiling inferno of the sun to find out more about humans' place in the cosmic order. But mysterious ghosts and murderous passengers threaten the ship's mission.
Startide Rising
The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed on the uncharted water world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Above, in space, armadas of alien races clash in a titanic struggle to claim her. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret – the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.
The Uplift War
As galactic armadas clash in quest of the ancient fleet of the Progenitors, a brutal alien race seizes the dying planet of Garth. The various uplifted inhabitants of Garth must battle their overlords or face ultimate extinction. At stake is the existence of Terran society and Earth, and the fate of the entire Five Galaxies.
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The Trouble in Me by Jack Gantos
This fiery autobiographical novel captures a pivotal week or two in the life of fourteen-year-old Jack Gantos, as the author reveals the moment he began to slide off track as a kid who in just a few years would find himself locked up in a federal penitentiary for the crimes portrayed in the memoir Hole in My Life . Set in the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood of his family's latest rental home, The Trouble in Me opens with an explosive encounter in which Jack first meets his awesomely rebellious older neighbor, Gary Pagoda, just back from juvie for car theft. Instantly mesmerized, Jack decides he will do whatever it takes to be like Gary. As a follower, Jack is eager to leave his old self behind, and desperate for whatever crazy, hilarious, frightening thing might happen next. But he may not be as ready as he thinks when the trouble in him comes blazing to life.
This book is the prequel to Hole in My Life, Gantos' story of the events in his life that result in his time in federal prison.
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Con Academy by Joe Schreiber
It's his senior year and Will Shea has conned his way into one of the country's most elite prep schools. But he soon runs into Andrea, a fellow con-artist. With the school not big enough for the both of them, they make a bet that whoever can con Brandt Rush, the richest, most privileged student in the school out of $50K, gets to stay at the school. Will starts setting up his con (an online poker scam) with his uncle who's one of the best grifters in the business, but also with the unwanted help of his father.. The plot thickens as Will starts falling for fellow student Gatsby, and some of Will's lies start to catch up with him. In this twisty tale of scams, secrets, lies and deception, it hard to figure out who's conning who!
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Very in Pieces by Megan Frazer Blakemore
A straight-A student in a family of free-spirited artists must face the hard truths about those she loves most. Very has always been the dependable, responsible one–until her grandmother becomes terminally ill, causing all of the pieces of Very's once-structured life to come crashing down. Now she's cast aside her steady boyfriend and started an unexpected fling with Dominic, a rebellious art student with a bad reputation. Things at home have also taken a turn. Very's mother drinks all day, her father is never around, and her sister Ramona is constantly skipping school. And that's when the sculpture appears. Out of nowhere, a bottle cap design starts climbing up the stucco walls of the Sayles-Woodruff house, mysteriously growing by the day. With her grandmother nearing death and things heating up with Dominic, Very is tired of always being the responsible one. If everything else can fall to pieces, why can't she?
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Teen Life
Dear Rachel Maddow by Adrienne Kisner
Brynn has been writing – but never sending – emails to Rachel Maddow about personal problems for a long time, about her brother's death, her awful stepfather, and why she is thinking about dropping out of school.
When she's confronted with a moral dilemma in the form of an ex and an archnemisis, she has to ask herself: What Would Rachel Maddow Do?
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Fantasy
Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas
When magic has gone from the world, and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She does not come to kill, but to win her freedom. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the king's champion and be released from prison. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. And a princess from a foreign land will become the one thing she never thought she'd have again: a friend. But something evil dwells in the castle–and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the source of the evil before it destroys her world.
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The series continues in the following volumes:
Gender Identity, School Life
Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
The first thing you're going to want to know about me is:
Am I a boy, or am I a girl
Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. The thing is . . . Riley isn't exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for reelection, the pressure — media and otherwise — is building up in Riley's so-called "normal" life.
Just settling in to a new school, and developing feelings for a mysterious outcast, Riley starts an anonymous blog to vent those pent-up feelings and tell the truth of what it's really like to be a gender fluid teen. But the blog goes viral, and an unnamed commenter discover's Riley's real identity, threatening exposure.
Riley must make a choice: walk away from what the blog has created — a lifeline, new friends, a cause to believe in — or stand up, come out, and risk everything.
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Winter by Marissa Meyer
The Lunar Chronicles' final chapter is the story of Winter, the scared princess whose beauty rivals that of her stepmother, the Queen.
Winter despises her stepmother, and has been undermining her wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.
Other titles in the series:
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Teen Life
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
Henry Denton has 144 days to save the world.
Henry Denton knows his family is struggling to stay together. He knows his boyfriend committed suicide last year. What Henry doesn't know is why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and why they keep coming back to take him again. Henry is informed by his erstwhile captors that they will end the world in 144 days unless he stops them by deciding that humanity is worth saving.
The problem is, Henry isn't sure if he wants to save the world.
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Seventeen year-old dirt-bike-riding daredevil Arlo Santiago catches the eye of the U.S. military with his first-place ranking on a video game featuring drone warfare, and must reconcile the work they want him to do with the emotional scars he has suffered following a violent death in his family. Author Conrad Wesselhoeft takes readers from the skies over war-torn Pakistan to the dusty arroyos of New Mexico's outback in this young adult novel about daring to live in the wake of unbearable loss.
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Mental Illness, Teen Suicide
A World Without You by Beth Revis
Seventeen-year-old Bo has always had delusions that he can travel through time. When he was ten, Bo claimed to have witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg, and at fifteen, he found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified by the bodies surrounding him. So when his worried parents send him to a school for troubled youth, Bo assumes he knows the truth: that he's actually attending Berkshire Academy, a school for kids who, like Bo, have "superpowers."
At the academy, Bo falls in love with Sofia, a quiet girl with a a tragic past and the superpower of invisibility. But even the strength of their love isn't enough to help Sofia escape her deep depression. After she commits suicide, Bo is convinced that she's not actually dead, that she's stuck somewhere in time – that he has somehow left her in the past, and that now it's his job to save her.
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Romance
Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt
What did it mean to be free, she wondered, when she lived in constant fear that the people she loved would go to jail?
Evan and Alma have spent fifteen years living in the same town, connected in a dozen different ways but also living worlds apart – until the day he jumps into her dad's truck and slams on the brakes.
The nephew of a senator, Evan seems to have it all – except a functional family. Alma has lived in Georgia since she was two, surrounded by a large, sometimes smothering, Mexican family. They both want out of this town. His one-way ticket is soccer; hers is academic success.
When the two fall in love, they fall hard, trying to ignore their differences. Then Immigration and Customs Enforcement begins raids in their town, and Alma knows that she needs to share her secret. But how will she tell her country-club boyfriend that she and almost everyone she's close to are undocumented immigrants?
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A Blade So Black by L. L. McKinney
The first time a Nightmare came, Alice nearly lost her life. Now, with magic weapons and hard-core fighting skills, she battles these monstrous creatures in the dream realm known as Wonderland. Yet even warriors have curfews.
Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, and school. Keeping Nightmares at bay is turning into a full-time job.
When Alice's handsome and mysterious mentor is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she's ever gone before. And she'll need to use everything she's learned in both worlds to keep from losing her head. Literally.
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Friendship, Death
Before We Go Extinct by Karen Rivers
Since watching his friend fall (jump?) from a skyscraper, JC, nicknamed Sharky, has been holed up in his room, obsessing about sharks and climate change, and texting his dead friend.
When his mom sends him to a remote island in Canada to visit his dad, Sharky meets a girl who just may show hiim how to live – and love – again.
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Supernatural Horror
The Suffering by Rin Chupeco
Not all that is lost should be found . . .
Seventeen-year-old Tark knows what it is to be powerless. But Okiku changed that. A restless spirit who ended life as a victim and started death as an avenger, she's groomed Tark to destroy the wicked. But when darkenss pulls them deep into Aokigahara, known as Japan's suicide forest, Okiku's justice becomes blurred, and Tark is the one who will pay the price.
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More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
In the months after his father's suicide, it's been tough for 16-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness again–but he's still gunning for it. With the support of his girlfriend Genevieve and his overworked mom, he's slowly remembering what that might feel like. But grief and the smile-shaped scar on his wrist prevent him from forgetting completely.
When Genevieve leaves for a couple of weeks, Aaron spends all his time hanging out with this new guy, Thomas. Aaron's crew notices, and they're not exactly thrilled. But Aaron can't deny the happiness Thomas brings or how Thomas makes him feel safe from himself, despite the tensions their friendship is stirring with his girlfriend and friends. Since Aaron can't stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute's revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is. Why does happiness have to be so hard?
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Mental Illness, Teen Life
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.
Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.
Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence, to document the journey with images.
Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.
Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.
Caden Bosch is torn.
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Science Fiction
The strange and terrifying future that began in Unwind continues in Neal Shusterman's Unwind Dystology:
UnWholly
Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa-and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp-people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simltaneously providing much-needed organs for transplanting might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished. Cam is made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds; he is a teen who does not technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles to find identity and meaning and wonders if a rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam's fate to become inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and Lev, he'll have to question humanity itself.
UnSouled
Connor and Lev are on the run after the destruction of the Graveyard, the last safe haven for AWOL Unwinds. But for the first time, they're not just running away from something. This time, they're running towards answers, in the form of a woman Proactive Citizenry has tried to erase from history itself. If they can find her, and learn why the shadowy figures behind unwinding are so afraid of her, they may discover the key to ending the unwinding process forever. Cam, the rewound boy, is plotting to take down the organization that created him. He knows that if he can bring Proactive Citizenry to its knees, it will show Risa how he truly feels about her. And without Risa, Cam is having trouble remembering what it feels like to be human. With the Juvenile Authority and vindictive parts pirates hunting them, their paths will converge explosively-and everyone will be changed.
UnDivided
Proactive Citizenry, the company that created Cam from the parts of unwound teens, has a plan: to mass produce rewound teens like Cam for military purposes. And below the surface of that horror lies another shocking level of intrigue: Proactive Citizenry has been suppressing technology that could make unwinding completely unnecessary. As Conner, Risa, and Lev uncover these startling secrets, enraged teens begin to march on Washington to demand justice and a better future. But more trouble is brewing. Starkey's group of storked teens is growing more powerful and militant with each new recruit. And if they have their way, they'll burn the harvest camps to the ground and put every adult in them before a firing squad-which could destroy any chance America has for a peaceful future.
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Fantasy, Suspense
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a dealy heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone. . .
A convict with a thirst for revenge
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager
A runaway with a privileged past
A spy known as the Wraith
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes
Kaz's crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction – if they don't kill each other first.
Family, Romance
Just Fly Away by Andrew McCarthy
Ever wish that you could just fly away?
When fifteen-year-old Lucy Willows discovers that her father has a child from a brief affair, an eight-year-old boy who lives in her own town, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her home and her life.
As her father's secret becomes her own, Lucy grows more and more isolated from her friends, her family, and even her boyfriend, Simon, the one person she thought understood her. When Lucy escapes to Maine, the home of her mysteriously estranged grandfather, she finally begins to get to the bottom fo her family's secrets and lies.
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Sports, Mystery
The Sports Beat mysteries by John Feinsein
Teen sportswriters Susan and Stevie Carol just iintend to cover sporting events – the players, the coaches, the competitions – but shocking truths and dark crimes keep putting the two in dangerous situations where they must solve the mysteries and save their own lives.
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Romance, Supernatural
Every Day and Another Day by David Levithan
These two books tell the same story from two different perspectives.
In Every Day, A wakes each moring in a different person's body, a different person's life. There is never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live:
Never get too attached.
Avoid being noticed.
Do not interfere.
It's all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone to love – day in, day out, day after day.
* * *
Rhiannon's side of the story is told in Another Day. For Rhiannon, every day is the same. She has accepted her life, convinced herself that she deserves her distant, temperamental boyfriend, Justin, even established guidleines by which to live:
Don't be too needy.
Avoid upsetting him.
Never get your hopes up.
Until the morning everything changes. Justin seems to see her, to want to be with her for the first time, and they share a perfect day – a perfect day Justin doesn't seem to remember the next morning. Confused, depressed, and desperate for another day as great as that one, Rhiannon starts questioning everything. Then one day, a stranger tells her that the Justin she spent that day with, the one who made her feel like a real person . . . wasn't Justin at all.
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Teen Life, Friendship
The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melisa Keil
Alba loves her life living behind the bakery and waking up in a cloud of sugar and cinnamon, drawing comics and watching bad TV with her friends.
But high school has officially ended and everyone else seems to be making plans to move on. Meanwhile, a long gone guy has reappeared, her best friend is going off the rails, and her latest comic book creation is misbehaving.
Also, the world might be ending. Awkward.
Alba's life has been upended, and Armageddon might turn out to be the least of her problems.
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Alternative History – Fantasy
When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future – and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France's own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte's boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.
Book one in the Termeraire series by Naomi Novik.
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Friendship, Teen Life
Goldfish by Nat Luurtsema
I am Lou Brown
Social outcast, precocious failure.
5' 10" and still growing.
I was on the fast track to Olympic Superstardom.
Now, I'm training boys too cool to talk to me.
In a sport I just made up.
In a fish tank.
My life has quickly become very weird.
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Memoir
Rock 'N' Roll Soldier by Dean Ellis Kohler
During a time when none of us knew for sure if we would live or die, I came to know the true power of music.
Dean Kohler is about to make it big–he's finally scored a national record deal! But his dreams are abruptly put on hold by the arrival of his draft notice. Now he's in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, serving as a military policeman.
He keeps telling himself he's a musician, not a killer, and that he's lucky he's not fighting on the front lines. When Captain orders him to form a rock band, it's up to Dean to find instruments and players, pronto. Ingenuity and perseverance pay off and soon the band is traveling through treacherous jungle terrain to perform for troops in desperate need of an escape–even if it's only for three sets.
And for Dean–who lives with death, violence, and the fear that anyone could be a potential spy (even his Vietnamese girlfriend)–the band becomes the one thing that gets him through the day. During one of the most controversial wars in recent American history, this incredible true story is about music and camaraderie in the midst of chaos.
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Memoir – Racial Identity
Erik Brainard provided this student review of Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin.
Black Like Me Review
Most people know of the hardships that blacks faced throughout most of American history, from enslavement in the 1700’s and 1800’s, to facing oppression to this day even after being freed in the late 1800’s. However, for a long time, whites had no idea what it was like to be of African descent in America, and none were brave enough to go against the grain and discover what it was like. However, this all changed when in 1961, white author John Howard Griffin published his book Black Like Me, documenting his experiences playing the societal role of a black man in the south during the late 1950’s and 1960’s. Using various dyes and exposure to UV lights, Griffin successfully changed his skin color from Caucasian to African American. Griffin writes in a diary style, with each chapter being a new day, with a date for each. Griffin accurately describes his experience as a black man and his information stays relevant even to this day.
The book begins with Griffin pondering the idea of living as a black. He questions; what adjustments would a white man need to make to live as a black in the south? Griffin then goes on to describe the steps that he took to prepare himself for this change, including how he got his family on board, and his experience finding a dermatologist who would help him. When Griffin finally starts his treatments, he finds them painful, and they often cause him nausea. However, because of his dedication, he pulled through and completed the process. The first time Griffin looks at himself in the mirror after his treatment is a major event in the book, showing one of the main themes: losing and regaining identity. When Griffin looks in the mirror, he doesn’t recognize the man staring back at him, and he feels scared. This foreshadows how different his life is about to become, and symbolizes his departure from the white community and his entrance into the black one. Throughout his experience as a black man, Griffin finds the condition of living to horrible. He is constantly on the receiving end of racial slurs and at one point a white man almost attacks him before Griffin chases him away. It is also very hard for Griffin to find a job, and to even find a restroom to use. Obviously, most educated people today already know that blacks had a very hard life before the civil rights movement, but Griffin’s firsthand view and white man’s perspective are really a nice change from other accounts, simply because Griffin is able to make comparisons between these two different lifestyles, something that genetic blacks can’t do. Griffin then goes on to describe his time after his six-week experiment. When he first publishes an article in 1960 describing his experiences as a black man, Griffin receives huge amounts of praise from around the world, and is invited to appear on multiple major television shows to be interviewed. However, he doesn’t quite get as much praise in Mansfield, TX, his home town. The overall attitude there remains racist, and Griffin and his family feel threatened, so they move to Mexico.
In the book, Griffin does a superb job of keeping the story pretty interesting and entertaining, while also keeping it historically accurate and informative. The blending of these two aspects really make Black Like Me a special book to read. Because of it being an interesting story, the book can be read for pleasure, and can be assigned to high school students and it won’t bore them to death. On the other hand, because of its historical relevance and accuracy, this book can be used for anyone looking to study the life of blacks in the 50’s and 60’s, and can be considered a primary source from this era. Whatever the reason for reading may be, chances are Black Like Me will satisfy the reader. However, the book is not flawless. The main issue is that Griffin’s writing style is not the most exciting. He doesn’t use much imagery when describing, and this occasionally makes reading feel like a chore. Another flaw is the way that the chapters are set up. Each chapter is one day, which in theory sounds like it would work, but doesn’t work quite so well in the book. Since on some days more things happen than on other days, the chapter length can vary quite a bit, and this disrupts the flow of Griffin’s writing.
All in all, John Howard Griffin’s book Black Like Me is still relevant to this day. Whether the reader wants a book to read just for pleasure, or they want a historically accurate book from the Civil Rights Era, Black Like Me will be satisfactory. Although it does have some flaws such as lack of descriptive language and unusual chapter structure, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives.
Mystery
Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig
His girlfriend has disappeared.
How can he uncover her secrets without revealing his own?
Flynn's girlfriend, January, is missing. The cops are asking questions he can't answer, and her friends are telling stories that don't add up. All eyes are on Flynn — as January's boyfriend, he must know something.
But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January's dasappearance, he must also face the turth about himself.
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Memoir
Hidden Girl: The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave by Shyima Hall
Shyima Hall was eight years old when her parents sold her into domestic slavery.
One of eleven children, Shyima lived with her family in poverty in Egypt. When an older sister, a domestic servant in Cairo, was dismissed from her job for stealing, Shyima's parents made a deal with her sister's employers. In order to repay the debt, Shyima would take her sister's place.
This began Shyima's life as a slave. Her captors, a wealthy couple, referred to Shyima only as "stupid girl" and forced her to wait hand and foot on their family. Any money she was paid for her work went directly to her parents, with whom she had very little contact. Two years into her bondage, Shyima's captors moved to the United States, and illegally trafficked Shyima in with them, keeping her enslaved.
This is Shyima's harrowing true story of life as a child slave, and her long, inspiring road to freedom.
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Family relationships
Gem & Dixie by Sara Zarr
Gem has never know what it is to have security. She's never known an adult she can truly rely on. But the one constant in her life has been Dixie. Gem grew up taking care of her her sister when no one else could: not their mother, whose issues make it hard for her to keep food on the table, and definitely not their father, whose intermittent presence is the only thing worse than than his frequent absence.
When their dad returns home for the first time in years and tries to insert himself back into their lives, Gem finds herself with an unexpected opportunity: three days with Dixie, on their own in Seattle and beyond.
But this short trip soon becomes something more, as Gem discovers that to save herself, she may have to sever the one bond she's tried so hard to keep.
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Renegades by Marissa Meyer
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies – humans with extraordinary abilities – who emerged from the ruins of a rumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone . . . except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adreian, a REnegade boy who believes in justice, and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.
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Military, Science, Nonfiction
Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach
Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you'll never see our nation's defenders in the same way again!
Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries – panic, exhaustion, heat, noise – and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them.
Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the US Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of US Army Natick Labs and leans why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security.
The author samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks?
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Zombies
Can't get enough news about the zombie apocalypse? We now have all five books in the series The Enemy by Charlie Higson.
Book 1 – The Enemy: In this dystopian thriller set in London, everyone over 16 is dead or diseased, and youngsters are in constant danger of being eaten by boil-infested grown-ups who roam the streets like zombies looking for children to kill.
Book 2 – The Dead: This prequel takes place just over a year before the events in The Enemy and describes the beginnings of the disease that took everyone over the age of 16. Many people were killed outright but others became mindless cannibals. Ed, Jack, Bam, and their mates are overmatched by these horrors but must try their best to protect the younger kids around them as well as scavenge food and water in a world with no functioning power supply, distribution network, or media.
Book 3 – The Fear: The crew, in search of the friends they lost during the recent attacks and fire, set off on a deadly mission from the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace and beyond, as the sickos lie in wait.
Book 4 – The Sacrifice: Small Sam and his unlikely ally, The Kid, have survived. They’re safe with Ed and his friends at the Tower of London, but Sam is desperate to find his sister, which means they must cross the forbidden zone. And what awaits them there is more terrifying than any of the horror they’ve suffered so far . . .
Book 5 – The Fallen: The Holloway crew are survivors. They've fought their way across London and made it to the Natural History Museum alive and looking for a cure. All they need are medical supplies. To get them means a journey down unknown roads. Roads where more than crazed, hungry sickos hide in the shadows.
Book 6 – The Hunted: Ella is out in the country, alone now except for her silent rescuer, Scarface, about whom she knows nothing, while Ed leaves London on a dangerous quest, determined to find Ella and keep his promise to Small Sam that he will reunite sister and brother.
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Graphic Memoir
Prison Island by Colleen Frakes
The story of a perfectly ordinary childhood in a perfectly extraordinary place.
McNeil Island in Washington state was the home of the last prison island in the US, accessible only by air or sea. It was also home to about fifty families, including Colleen Frakes's. In this graphic memoir, Colleen tells her story of growing up on McNeil Island, where regular teenage activities like ordering a pizza or going to the movies became extremely complicated endeavors, and the small-town dynamics were amplified by living on the edge of a prison, in an isolated place where if you broke a rule, your family could be kicked off the island.
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Mystery
Who Killed Christopher Goodman? by Allan Wolf
Everybody likes Chris Goodman.
Sure, he's kind of weird. He wears those crazy bell-bottoms and he really likes the word ennui and he shakes your hand when he meets you, but he's the kind of guy who is always up for a good time and is happy to lend a hand. Everybody likes Chris Goodman, which is why it's so shocking when he is murdered.
A multi-voiced narrative that includes the perspective of the killer and is inspired by a true and shocking crime from the author's own past, the book endeavors to answer the first question that comes to mind in moments of unthinkable tragedy:
How could a thing like this happen?
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Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. He doesn't lack in fathers to study, chief among them his black grandfather, Pop. But there are other men who complicate his understanding: his absent white father, Michael, who is being released from prison; his grandfather Big Joseph, who won't acknowledge his existence; and the memories of his uncle, Given, who died as a teenager.
When his father is released from prison, Jojo's mother packs her kids and a friend into her car and drives north to the heart of Mississippi and and Parchman Farm, the state penitentiary. At Parchman, there is another thirteen-year-old boy, the ghost of a dead inmate who carries all the ugly history of the South with him in his wandering. He, too, has something to teach Jojo about fathers and sons, about legacies, about violence, about love.
In Jesmyn Ward's first novel since her National Book Award-winning Salvage the Bones, she brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first century America.
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Memoir
The Pregnancy Project, by Gaby Rodriguez, with Jenna Glatzer
It started as a school project . . . but turned into so much more.
Growing up, Gaby Rodriguez was often told she would end up a teen mom like her mother and sisters. But Gaby had ambitions that didn't include teen motherhood. Wondering how she would be treated if she "lived down" to others' expectations, as a school project she faked her own pregnancy to gauge the reactions of her friends, family and community. In her memoir, Gaby reveals all that she learned from the experience and how she came out from the shadow of low expectations to forge a bright future beyond the stereotypes.
Want to know more? Use the Destiny Catalog to search for the title – click on the title and look for the Title Peek logo below the cover image to get more plot details, read reviews, and preview chapters.
Jan 30
Running With Lions by Julian Winters
As the Lions' star goalie, Sebastian Hughes should be excited about his senior year: his teammates are amazing, and he's got a coach who doesn't ask anyone to hide their sexuality. But when an ex-best friend shows up at summer training camp, Sebastian realizes he needs to …
Jan 30
Dear Rachel Maddow by Adrienne Kisner
Brynn has been writing – but never sending – emails to Rachel Maddow about personal problems for a long time, about her brother's death, her awful stepfather, and why she is thinking about dropping out of school.
When she's confronted with a moral dilemma in …
Nov 19
A Blade So Black by L. L. McKinney
The first time a Nightmare came, Alice nearly lost her life. Now, with magic weapons and hard-core fighting skills, she battles these monstrous creatures in the dream realm known as Wonderland. Yet even warriors have curfews.
Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice …
Nov 19
The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
Felicity Montague is through with pretending she prefers society parties to books about bonesetting – or that she's not smarter than most people she knows.
Felicity has returned to from a whirlwind tour of Europe spent evading highwaymen and pirates. She has …
Jan 08
Nemesis by Brendan Reichs
It has been happening since Min was eight. Every two years, on her birthday, a strange man finds her and murders her in cold blood. But hours later, she wakes up in a clearing just outside her tiny Idaho hometown – alone, unhurt, and with all evidence of the …
Jan 08
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies – humans with extraordinary abilities – who emerged from the ruins of a rumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone . . . except the …
Jan 05
The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought by David Adam
What might lead a school girl to eat a wall of her house, piece by piece, or a man to die beneath an avalanche of household junk? . . . At what point …
Jan 05
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. He doesn't lack in fathers to study, chief among them his black grandfather, Pop. But there are other men who complicate his understanding: his absent white father, Michael, who is being …
Aug 30
Author Terry Pratchett, who died in 2015, chose an unusual method of ensuring his unpublished novels would remain unpublished.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/30/terry-pratchett-unfinished-novels-destroyed-streamroller
Apr 27
Who Killed Christopher Goodman? by Allan Wolf
Everybody likes Chris Goodman.
Sure, he's kind of weird. He wears those crazy bell-bottoms and he really likes the word ennui and he shakes your hand when he meets you, but he's the kind of guy who is always up for a good time and …