Into Thin Air

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air. New York: Anchor, 1997.

Audience: High School
Genre: Autobiography
Topics of Focus: Exploration, Tragedy, Personal Achievement
Red Flags: Mild Sexual References, Vivid Depictions of Death

Are you interested in adventure books?  Are you searching for a realism that only a work of nonfiction can achieve? In this book, Jon Krakauer accounts for his own personal expedition of the famed Mount Everest. Employed by Outside magazine and a member of Rob Hall’s team, Jon and a group of ten others embark on what would be a fatal quest for many of them and a life changing, dare I say scarring, experience for the survivors. This book delivers the importance of cooperation within a group, and goes to show the drastic outcomes that can germinate if caution and communication go unobserved. Full of descriptive vocabulary and and a compelling story, you will struggle with putting this book down. I sincerely recommend Into Thin Air for anybody who wants to take a break from fiction, or for those who just want to read the raw, unadulterated adventure of a lifetime. You will not regret reading this book.

Annotation by Michael Steffens-Shekell

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, Sherman.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.  New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.         

Audience:  Young teens (freshmen)

Genre: Coming of age

Topics of Focus: Love, Family, Ethnicity 

Red Flags:  Sexual Humor

There are only two types of people in this world; people who do like school and the people who see it as a living hell. This is the small story for a Native American boy named Arnold or nickname Junior. This book won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The book tells the tale of Junior a freshman in high school going through dances and trying to find love in a girl named Penelope. He struggles through pain of losing and gaining friends.  If you find yourself an outcast because of ethnicity, read this book.  This book explains the pains and joy of being a different race than the majority of your high school.  Pick this book up take a read and breathe away you ethnic anger.

Annotation by Roman Evanco

Tales of Power

Castaneda, Carlos.  Tales of Power.  New York:  Touchstone, 1972. 

Audience:  Young Adult, 16+

Genre/Topics: Metaphysics/ Philosophy

Red flags: Drug use

 

If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to unravel the mysterious nature of reality, reject everything that anyone has ever tried to teach you about the way the world works, or travel to strange lands with mysterious people, then you should totally read this book dawg. Tales of Power  is basically about an anthropology student who meets an old Indian shaman and begins to learn and document his spiritual practices and beliefs. Using a variety of methods that range from special dreaming techniques to psychedelic drugs, Carlos Castaneda embarks on a fantastic and sometimes unbelievable journey that ultimately help change mainstream American culture. Tales of power played a major role in exposing Americans to a new way of seeing the world and, (unfortunately) helped usher in New Age believes and practices in the States. Tales of Power is fictional, although it is written, presented, and often mistaken as fact. However, although the story itself is not true it does hold some very interesting insights about ourselves and the world around us. If read with caution and a grain of salt, I feel that this book has the potential to totally bend your mind man.  

Annotation by Joe Woods

Night World, Vol 3

Smith, L.J.  Night World vol. 3 part 1: Huntress  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. 

               

Audience:  Young-adults or anyone into fantasy

Genre:  Young-adult fantasy

Topics of Focus:  Teenage love, Self identity, Feeling like you belong

Red Flags:  Very brief language

 

“Vampires, werewolves, witches, shapeshifters – they live among us without our knowledge.  Night World is their strict secret society, a secret society with very strict rules.  And falling in love breaks all the laws of the Night World.”

“The apocalypse is drawing near. But four Wild Posers can save the world from the impending doom.  Circle Daybreak, an underground organization with both Night World and human members, is searching for the four who can stop the darkness.”

The Night World series is a wonderfully crafted set of stories.  All of the characters have some sort of connection at one point or another.  Part one of book three, Huntress, is about a young woman named Jez Redfern, who thought she was a full vampire but was actually half-human and ends up running away from her gang to live with her uncle’s human family.  She only goes back to her gang of vampires when Circle Daybreak asks her to go on a dangerous mission: to fight her worst enemy, best friend, and soulmate, Morgead Blackthorn for the Wild Power.

This book would be a fantastic addition to any classroom or library because it is about finding love, the challenges someone faces to feel accepted and fighting for what you believe in.  

Annotation by Kat Torvell

The Second Family

Taffel, Ron. The Second Family. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2002.

Audience:  Anyone wishing to understand how to deal with teenagers.

Genre:  Non-fiction, self-help

Topics of Focus:  Why we don’t really know our kids & and how to fix that. How to handle situations with your child and their friends. How to build a balanced and trusting relationship. 

Red Flags:  Language & sexual material

“Taffel is at his best explaining why today’s teens are so disdainful and disconnected from their families… This is a probing look into the often-misunderstood phenomenon of teen culture.”

The Second Familly by Dr. Ron Taffel and Melinda Blau is a book that both helps you to understand adolescents in this generation and how to deal with them. This book takes a deep look at the influence that a close group of peers have on a child, or as Taffel puts it, the ‘second family.’  But also it puts to rest long-standing misconceptions about the effects this second family has. Taffel includes examples of individuals and families that he has helped counsel recently in his career. Although some of the examples of teenagers acting out are rather extreme cases, most readers will still be able to empathize with the characters, or at least pull something out of it to which they can relate.

I really enjoyed this book because it let me look at myself through a parent’s perspective which can be a very difficult side to understand sometimes.  Originally when I picked this book up, I thought I would be laughing through it, due to cliché and silly advice that  they think would work (but me being a teenager, knew wouldn’t).  To my surprise Taffel actually knows what he’s talking about! The language he uses isn’t too complex and is pretty easy to read. I would definitely recommend this book to parents, and recommend my peers  give this to their parents if they are having problems getting through to them. 

Annotation by Ava Mittelsteadt

The Giver

Lowry, Lois. The Giver.  Waterville: Thorndike Press, 1993. 

           

Audience: Adolescents

Genre: Science Fiction

Topics of Focus: Dystopian Society, Family Life, Love, Friendship,   

Red Flags: Euthanasia, Sexuality

If you think our world is odd and strange, well than you should read this book.  As we ride along with Jonas the main character, you will start to understanding that their world is very different from ours. For example, when kids turn the age of twelve years old they are assigned jobs. In this case Jonas, gets the privilege of having one of the most important roles in their community. Jonas is faced with many challenges in this book, he starts seeing, feeling and understand things he never even noticed before. So, the question for you:  Is Jonas strong enough to cope with the things he is faced with? Well, that is your choice to decide.

I think this book is good a read for anyone who has an open mind.  It gives you a different mindset on what things could be like if they were different. I thought the book was an easy read and had a good plot, I would definitely reread this book again. 

Annotation by Karissa Allen

The Catcher in the Rye -- One Perspective

Salinger, J.D.   The Catcher in the Rye.  New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. 

Audience:  High School, 14+

Genre:  Young Adult, Young Adult Coming of Age

Topics of Focus:  Growing up, relationships, the phoniness of the world, alienation, the future.

Red Flags:  Alcohol, profanity, sexual thoughts, stripper.

Hearing great things about this novel by teachers and friends made me think that this novel would be fantastic. It wasn’t.

Though one of the first novels of its kind,  The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is not all it’s cracked up to be. The narrator, Holden Caulfield, of this novel is an annoying and compulsive liar that has been kicked out of many schools and shows affection only to his little sister, Phoebe, and his deceased little brother, Allie. Recently being expelled out of his current school but required to stay until winter break and after a brief fight with his “secret slob” roommate Stradlater, Holden skips the rest of school and travels to New York City. He goes to several nightclubs but leaves all of them for various reasons. Eventually, Holden goes to his apartment and sees Phoebe, who is excited to see him, but results in him hiding from his own parents (who don’t yet know he is expelled) and leaves. The ending of the novel is somewhat open ended, leaving room for the reader to imagine where Holden might be in the future.

The most often reason I hear for a person who loves The Catcher in the Rye is that they can relate to the characters, and though I could relate to Holden feelings of alienation, I could not relate to his annoying narration or to any of the other characters. It felt very dated to me in the figures of speech that the author used, and he used many of the same phrases over again, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. I was excited to read this classic – many people whose reading interests crossover with mine have recommended it to me – however it let me down greatly. I was disappointed by the characters actions and thoughts, not to mention that half of the novel I was bored while reading it. It truly is a classic that many people read, and for that only I think it is worth reading for. Then, at least, you can form your own opinion on whether The Catcher in the Rye is a fantastic piece of literature, or a huge letdown. 

Annotation by Julia Edmonds