Animal Farm by George Orwell

I read Animal Farm by George Orwell. I loved this book. It was interesting because all of the characters in the book were animals, and they all had specific personalities. Also, this book had a lot of symbolism in it. The entire book was based on the Russian Revolution, with the animals acting as specific main players in this conflict (Lenin, Stalin). We follow these animals as they set out on a mission to take over their farm. I liked being able to connect the book to a real event that took place because the book itself was so fantastical that it was difficult to connect to it. Also, I liked researching the topic of the Russian Revolution and trying to guess which characters represented who. Overall, I would recommend this book to people who like allegorical novels and are willing to look deeper into the meaning of a book. This can be an easy read, but it can get complex if you try to look into the historical background of it. I loved this book!

Looking for Alaska by John Green

I loved Looking for Alaska. It was a great book, and surprisingly, it was from a boy's perspective. This is similar to The Perks of being a Wallflower. Both books are written from a boys perspective, which is very different from the type of books I usually read. Also, this book came highly recommended to me by many people, and it lived up to its name. The main reason why I liked the book was that the characters were very life-like and developed. In many of the realistic fiction books I read, the characters aren't very realistic, and it is difficult to connect with them. This book was easier for me to read and more enjoyable for me to read because I could relate with the characters so well. Also, the characters were in high school, another thing I could relate to. The other great thing about this book is that because the main character is a guy, this book would appeal to both genders. I would reccommend this book to anyone who likes to read realistic fiction. Overall, it was a great book!

The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

This book is really different because it is a view of teenage life through the eyes of a teenage boy. This was very different because usually, the books I read are from a girl's perspective, so it was interesting to see the differences. This book is about a boy, Charlie, and him going through the ninth grade. He has two best friends, Patrick and Sam. the entire book is also written through Charlie's letters to an anonymous person, so that made it even more interesting to read. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the fact that Charlie was writing to an anonymous person, and they weren't writing back. I the book would have been better if the person responded to Charlie's letters. I really like books that are written entirely out of letters and diary entries, like the other books I read by Jacelyn Moriarty. The end of this book was somewhat surprising, but also, it confused me a little bit. Charlie ends up in a hospital, and his judgement is impaired, so he becomes a little unreliable as a narrator. Overall, I really liked this book, and I would recommend it to people who like realistic fiction books. Also, because the narrator is a boy, I would recommend this for both guys and girls to read.

The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jacelyn Moriarty

I read this book because i have read another book by this author. Unsurprisingly, they were in the same format and writing style: the book was written entirely through diary entries, letters, and emails. The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie is about a girl , Bindy, trying to survive Ashbury High School. She is an overachiever, an organization freak, and doesn't have many friends. Through her letters, memos, diary entries, and emails, we learn about her thoughts and interactions with people. She is a goody-two-shoes, geeky kind of girl, so why is someone trying to murder Bindy? READ TO FIND OUT! This book is very funny and the end is very unexpected. I loved the other book I read by Jacelyn Moriarty, The Year of Secret Assignments, and the writing style in this book was very similar. I like books that are written in primary sources like letters and diary entries because it gives me a view into the character's mind, something that cannot happen if the story is being told by a narrator. For example, Bindy is seen as a nerdy, imperfect girl when she views HERSELF as the smartest, most organized person ever. The view is a little different when someone is describing themselves. This is also a surprising and a little random ending but it was a great book!!! I recommend this to people who like funny books and this type of writing style.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I read the New York Times review for My Sister's Keeper: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/books/books-in-brief-fiction-poetry-147680.html?pagewanted=1
I definitely agree with this review. Usually I don't read book like these that have SO much drama in them, but this one, as the review describes it is "some awkward combination of a sci-fi novel and a movie on the Lifetime Channel." Although this book does include a lot of drama, my love for the plot line overshadows it. In this novel, the protagonist, Anna, sues her parents for rights to her own body after being forced, year after year, to donate organs and tissues to her sister, Kate, who is dying of cancer. The conflict is that if Anna doesn't donate her kidney to her sister, she will die. The thing that I love about the story line of this book is that the protagonist, Anna is forced to do something wrong, like allowing her sister to die, if she wishes to reach her goal. I feel like this makes the book more realistic. Also, the reactions of the other characters to Anna's lawsuit makes the book more realistic. Anna's mother obviously wants to save her daughter, so she wants to lawsuit dropped. Her brother, who feels that she should do what she needs to thinks that she should continue on with it. Kate, her dying sister, has mixed feelings, but in the end I feel like she wants Anna to do whatever would make her happy.I loved this book and I would recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction and surprise twist endings!!!

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

Overall, I didn't really like Water for Elephants. Firstly, the novel started off very slowly, and it was difficult to concentrate on the book. On the other hand, the book reminded me of one of my favorite movies, The Notebook. Sara Gruen's novel is about the protagonist, Jacob Jankowski, a man in his nineties, who resides in a nursing home. Throughout the book, he flashes back to when he was part of the Ringling Brother's Circus. There, we meet his friends, Kinko and Camel, his enemies, Uncle Al and August, and his true love, Marlena. This novel flashes between the old and young Jacob, telling his story of how he cared for the animals at the circus. The old Jacob is getting very worried and depressed that he is losing his mind. This is similar to The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. In his, novel, the main characters are also old and retelling stories of their youth. Because they seemed similar, I thought I would like Water For Elephants, but the book had a very slow beginning. I would recommend this book for people who like romance novels.

Life of Pi New York Times Review and Response

New York Times review on Life of Pi by Yann Martel:http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/books/taming-the-tiger.html?pagewanted=1
I totally agree with this review. This book is made very interesting by the fact that it is about a boy who gets stranded in the middle of the ocean on a boat, not to mention with a tiger. It is a normal survival story, but the real twist in the story is found when the reader learns more about the main character, Pi Patel. The review hit on a point in the book that is very interesting. Pi is a boy who believes he can practice three religions all at the same time. Throughout the book, he finds out what it means to be Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. And as if that were not enough, he is very educated in the sciences because his father owns a zoo in Pondicherry. It is interesting to see him struggle with his multiple religions and with science as well. Although I am not yet finished with the book, I would reccomend it to people who like slow-paced books. It doesn't start off very interesting, but it's turning out to be a great book.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Before I read this book, I had watched the movie. Although there were some aspects of the book that I liked more, overall, I liked the movie better. In this book, the main charachter, Robert Neville, is the last human survivor on earth after the entire human population has turned into vampires. This evolution that the humans went through was because of a gene that they always had. These vampires cannot go into the sunlight and are repelled by garlic. Every day, Neville goes out and kills a few more vampires with wooden stakes. Neville thinks that he is the only human survivor on earth, but is surprised when a woman comes to his house. She doesn't look like a vampire, so he begins to trust her. The next night, though, she left unexpectedly, leaving a note behind. It said that she was part of an elite clan of vampires who was sent to spy on him. Read the end of the book to find out what happens next! I liked the movie more than the book because the book has vampires in it, which is something I can't relate to. On the other hand, in the movie, it is an epidemic that turns the people into zombies. Although this is a bit farfetched, I think the movie really conveys the message that humans will be the cause of their own destruction. In the book, it is just a genetic mutation, and I don't really think it conveys a message at all. Either way, it was a pretty good book that I would reccomend.