- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Columbine by Dave Cullen
- Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, with the first being my favorite, followed in order by the other two...but why read just the first one and not know how it ends? (unless, of course, we are talking about the Twilight series...) by Stieg Larsson
- The Hunger Games trilogy, with the first definitely being my favorite, followed in order by the other two, by Suzanne Collins
- Marley & Me by John Grogan
- Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak. I read this book because some of my students were reading it in their freshman English class, they were struggling, and I am always in the market for material being handed to me for my sessions. :) But, oh geez, I need to read some more mediocre books to push this one down on the list. The story is decent, and the subject matter is really important, so I am glad the teacher assigned it, but I thought the writing was horrible! And not subtle! At all. It definitely felt like the author tried way too hard to write with figurative language, and it just didn't work. Sorry to keep harping on Twilight, but reading this reminded me of its terrible writing. I maybe wouldn't have mentioned it, but I just looked up this book on Amazon for the link, and the movie version came up as well. Who plays the leading character? Kristen Stewart. I know I am judging a dvd by its cover here, but I just don't know that I could handle sitting through all of that.
I meant to post days ago, but I keep running in to problems. I was going to make two suggestions of books I really liked. The first, "Room" is very interesting. Written from the perspective of a 5 year old boy trapped in a room his entire life. (the type of writing might be more annoying than Twilight, but it is fitting for the voice of the main character.) The other, "1,000 Splendid Suns" (by the guy that did "The Kite Runner") is one of my favorites. Heavy, but a real gem. I am sure you will enjoy either one of the more than "Speak" :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emily! Yes, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a good read; I think I like Kite Runner better, but both are definitely worth reading. I will have to check out Room!
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