These Books Among Us

The Rover by Aphra Behn (400 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Finished: 15 February 2015 Synopsis: "We are bought and sold like apes or monkeys, to be the sport of women, fools, and cowards, and the support of rogues"When Prince Oroonoko’s passion for the virtuous Imoinda arouses the jealousy of his grandfather, the lovers are cast into slavery and transported from Africa to the colony of Surinam. Oroonoko’s noble bearing soon wins the respect of his English captors, but his struggle for freedom brings about his destruction. Inspired by Aphra Behn’s visit to Surinam, Oroonoko (1688) reflects the author’s romantic view of Native Americans as simple, superior peoples ‘in the first state of innocence, before men knew how to sin’. The novel also reveals Behn’s ambiguous attitude to African slavery – while she favoured it as a means to strengthen England’s power, her powerful and moving work conveys its injustice and brutality. This new edition of Oroonoko is based on the

Asylum by Madeline Roux (310 pages) My Rating: 2.5 Stars Date Finished: 9 February 2015 Synopsis: Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-novel perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, New Hampshire College Prep is more than a summer program—it's a lifeline. An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan learns that his dorm for the summer used to be a sanatorium, more commonly known as an asylum. And not just any asylum—a last resort for the criminally insane. As Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they soon discover it's no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. Because the asylum holds the key to a terrifying past. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried. Featuring fou

King Lear by William Shakespeare (288 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 7 February 2015 Synopsis: Criticism provides thirteen major critical interpretations and three provocative adaptations and responses toKing Lear. Critical interpretation is provided by Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb, Peter Brook, Michael Warren, Lynda E. Boose, Janet Adelman, and R. A. Foakes, among others. The adaptations and responses are by Nahum Tate, John Keats, and Edward Bond. A Selected Bibliography is also included. My Review: I really enjoyed this play. It is definitely one that I would recommend to anyone who likes Shakespearean tragedies!! The characters were very interestingly developed throughout the play. I really enjoyed seeing the development of the relationship between King Lear and his daughters. Also, seeing the characters fall deeper and deeper into their own insanity was very interesting as well. Act three of the play shows the audience even more of Lear’s descent into madn

Twelfth Night: Or What You Will by William Shakespeare (256 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 24 January 2015 Synopsis: Roger Warren & Stanley Wells (Editors) Twelfth Night is one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays in the modern theatre, and this edition places particular emphasis on its theatrical qualities throughout. Peopled with lovers misled either by disguises or their own natures, it combines lyrical melancholy with broad comedy. The introduction analyses its many views of love and the juxtaposition of joy and melancholy, while the detailed commentary pays particular attention to its linguistic subtleties. Music is particularly important in Twelfth Night, and this is the only modern edition to offer material for all the music required in a performance. Publisher: Oxford University Press Paperback ISBN 9780199536092 My Review: I really enjoyed this play. I studied it in high school and I am studying it again in college. It is just so much fun.

Oedipus Rex by Sophoclese (86 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 11 January 2015 Synopsis: Sophocles' Oedipus Rex has never been surpassed for the raw and terrible power with which its hero struggles to answer the eternal question, "Who am I?" The play, a story of a king who acting entirely in ignorance kills his father and marries his mother, unfolds with shattering power; we are helplessly carried along with Oedipus towards the final, horrific truth. To make Oedipus more accessible for the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classics includes a glossary of the more difficult words, as well as convenient sidebar notes to enlighten the reader on aspects that may be confusing or overlooked. We hope that the reader may, through this edition, more fully enjoy the beauty of the verse, the wisdom of the insights, and the impact of the drama. My Review: "...what man wins more happiness than just its shape and the ruin when that shape col

Ron Carlson Writes a Story by Ron Carlson (112 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 9 January 2015 Synopsis: Ron Carlson has been praised as “a master of the short story” (Booklist). In this book-length essay, he offers a full range of notes and gives rare insight into a veteran writer’s process by inviting the reader to watch over his shoulder as he creates the short story “The Governor’s Ball.” “This is a story of a story,” he begins, and proceeds to offer practical advice for creating a great story, from the first glimmer of an idea to the final sentence. Carlson urges the writer to refuse the outside distractions—a second cup of coffee, a troll through the dictionary—and attend to the necessity of uncertainty, the pleasures of an unfolding story. “The Governor’s Ball”—included in its entirety—serves as a fascinating illustration of the detailed anatomy of a short story. My Review: In Ron Carlson’s very insightful book Ron Carlson Writes a Story, writers are able

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (404 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 2 January 2015 Synopsis: The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world. My Review: In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. Oh my god!! If you have not picked this up and you like fantasy novels, do it right now. Stop what you are doing and read this book!!! It is full of badassery, not too much romantic stuff, and magic

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (321 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Finished: 25 April 2015 Synopsis: Daniel Defoe's enthralling story-telling and imaginatively detailed descriptions have ensured that his fiction masquerading as fact remains one of the most famous stories in English literature. On one level a simple adventure story, the novel also raises profound questions about moral and spiritual values, society, and man's abiding acquisitiveness. This new edition includes a scintillating Introduction and notes that illuminate the historical context.  About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further stu

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch (422 pages) Date Finished: 9 September 2015 Rating: 4.5 Stars Synopsis: A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making. Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since. Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again. So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom ju

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider ( pages) Date Read: 9 August 2015 My Rating: 5 Stars Synopsis: At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it's easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French. There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times. But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fa

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 13 June 2015 Synopsis: My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.  Rating: This book doesn’t come out until September of 2015, but I was lucky enough to win an ARC at YA’ll West in Santa Monica earlier this year. I really needed this book. I needed something cute with only hint

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas (648 pages) Date Finished: 17 September 2015 My Rating: 5 Stars Synopsis: Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . . She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight. She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return. The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series contrinues Celaena's epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world. Review: Warning, if you have not read this book or any of the other ones before this, this review will have some

Rebel Mechanics by Shanna Swendson (310 Pages) Date Read: 19 August 2015 My Rating: 4 Stars Synopsis: It’s 1888, and sixteen-year-old Verity Newton lands a job in New York as a governess to a wealthy leading family—but she quickly learns that the family has big secrets. Magisters have always ruled the colonies, but now an underground society of mechanics and engineers are developing non-magical sources of power via steam engines that they hope will help them gain freedom from British rule. The family Verity works for is magister—but it seems like the children's young guardian uncle is sympathetic to the rebel cause. As Verity falls for a charming rebel inventor and agrees to become a spy, she also becomes more and more enmeshed in the magister family’s life. She soon realizes she’s uniquely positioned to advance the cause—but to do so, she’ll have to reveal her own dangerous secret. A sixteen-year-old governess becomes a spy in this alternative U.S. history where the Briti

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson My Rating: 4 Stars Date Finished: 28 April 2015 Synopsis: Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one.  But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.  Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess. And he’s not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake. Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young. Most of the chosen d

China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston (320 pages) Date Finished: 31 May 2015 My Rating: 4 stars Synopsis: The author chronicles the lives of three generations of Chinese men in America, woven from memory, myth and fact. Here’s a storyteller’s tale of what they endured in a strange new land.  Review: This book was very interesting to read. As a memoir, it was great to be able to see into the author and her family’s life. I had to read this book for one of my college courses and it has been very eye-opening to see what these people had to go through, not through the history books, the laws, or even the movies that have come out about the Chinese Americans. This very honest representation of their lives was well written and full of information. There were many things that I had learned differently or, in some cases, didn’t even learn in my classes until now. It was all just swept under the rug by the writers of history This book is set up with short vignettes that break up six oth

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (247 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Finished: 31 May 2015 Synopsis: Twenty-four years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. Writing in the tradition of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Marilynne Robinson's beautiful, spare, and spiritual prose allows "even the faithless reader to feel the possibility of transcendent order" (Slate). In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, Gilead reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life. Review: The characters and their experiences were heavily mediated through the main character's mind. His likes and dislikes for certain people were very apparent while reading it. There were a few points that were really c

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas (448 Pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 29 May 2015 Synopsis: Celaena Sardothien is the king’s Champion—yet she is far from loyal to the crown, for the man she serves is bent on evil. But working against her master in secret is no easy task. As Celaena tries to untangle the mysteries buried within the glass castle, she can trust no one, not even her supposed allies Crown Prince Dorian, Captain of the Guard Chaol, and foreign princess Nehemia. Then, an unspeakable tragedy shatters Celaena’s world. She must decide once and for all where her loyalties lie … and whom she will fight for. An action-packed and romantic adventure that readers “will never want to leave” (Kirkus Reviews), the next chapter in this smash hit New York Times best-selling series is sure to please Sarah Maas’s enormous and ever-growing fan-base–and to set the stage for an explosive third book.  I am not going to lie, there are a lot of really intense moments in this

We Were Liars by E Lockhart (225 Pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Finished: 26 May 2015 Synopsis: A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island.A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.A revolution. An accident. A secret.Lies upon lies.True love.The truth. We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Read it.And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.  Review: Okay, I really wanted to love this book. There were so many people who said that it was amazing and I got my hopes up. Though I generally enjoyed the book, there were parts that didn’t seem to fit for me. Even the mysterious parts, I caught on to almost too soon. It made me not really want to finish it because there was nothing to figure out anymore.  I am not saying, in any way, that you should not read thi

Not A Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis (309 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Finished: 18 May 2015 Synopsis: Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water.  Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn’t leave at all. Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand. But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it…. With evocative, spare language a

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley (320 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 17 May 2015 Synopsis: Neil Gaiman’s Stardust meets John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars in this fantasy about a girl caught between two worlds… two races…and two destinies. Aza Ray is drowning in thin air.  Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live.  So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia.  Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying th

The Time Machine by HG Wells (268 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Finished: 16 May 2015 Synopsis: Intrigued by the possibilities of time travel as a student and inspired as a journalist by the great scientific advances of the Victorian Age, Wells drew on his own scientific publications on evolution, degeneration, species extinction, geologic time, and biology in writing The Time Machine. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the first London edition of the novel. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and A Note on the Text. Backgrounds and Contexts is organized thematically into four sections: The Evolution of The Time Machine presents alternative versions and installments and excerpts of the author s time-travel story; Wells s Scientific Journalism (1891 94) focuses on the scientific topics central to the novel; Wells on The Time Machine reprints the prefaces to the 1924, 1931, and 1934 editions; and Scientific and Social Contexts collects five widely read

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (327 pages) My Rating:  Stars Date Finished: May 11 Synopsis: In her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen presents us with the subtle portraits of two contrasting but equally compelling heroines. For sensible Elinor Dashwood and her impetuous younger sister Marianne the prospect of marrying the men they love appears remote. In a world ruled by money and self-interest, the Dashwood sisters have neither fortune nor connections. Concerned for others and for social proprieties, Elinor is ill-equipped to compete with self-centered fortune-hunters like Lucy Steele, while Marianne's unswerving belief in the truth of her own feelings makes her more dangerously susceptible to the designs of unscrupulous men. Through her heroines' parallel experiences of love, loss, and hope, Jane Austen offers a powerful analysis of the ways in which women's lives were shaped by the claustrophobic society in which they had to survive

The Assassin’s Blade Sarah J Maas (452 pages) Rating: 5 Stars Date Finished: 3 September 2015 Synopsis: Celaena Sardothien is her kingdom’s most feared assassin. Though she works for the powerful and ruthless Assassin’s Guild, Celaena yields to no one and trusts only her fellow killer for hire, Sam.When Celaena’s scheming master, Arobynn Hamel, dispatches her on missions that take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, she finds herself acting independently of his wishes–and questioning her own allegiance. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies alike, and discovers that she feels far more for Sam than just friendship. But by defying Arobynn’s orders, Celaena risks unimaginable punishment, and with Sam by her side, he is in danger, too. They will have to risk it all if they hope to escape Arobynn’s clutches–and if they fail, they’ll lose not just a chance at freedom, but their lives …A prequel to Throne of Glass, this collection of five novellas offers readers a deeper