This page is devoted to sharing what books I have read or currently am reading.  Sometimes students will submit book reviews to share as well.

1. Atonement by McEwan
2. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison
4. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
5. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
6. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Atonement by McEwan

This book is a slow read.  Essentially it seems to be about a little girl 
who witnesses a crime and intentionally blames it on the wrong man.  The 
author uses at least four points of view to tell each scene so it seems a 
bit repetitive.  This book was highly recommended to me but it just wasn't 
my style.  I will warn you that there is some graphic sexual content.

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Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

So far, this book is phenomenal.  A really quick read based in Afghanistan.  
There are definitely some violent scenes and some sexually graphic content.  
Essentially, the main character Amir grows up in Afghanistan and moves to 
America.  After twenty years in the US he returns to Afghanistan to resolve 
some unfinished business and sees how much the Taliban has changed his 
country.  I love it!  There is now a movie adaptation that didn't do well in 
the box office, but is still worth seeing if you liked the book.  Obviously 
the book takes place mostly in Amir's head, so the movie isn't nearly as 
good, but are movies ever as good as the book?

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Beloved by Toni Morrison

It takes someone with an imagination to love this book because it uses 
magical realism.  It's about a woman whose dead child comes back to life as 
an adult and all the havoc she causes.  This novel focuses on the effects of 
slavery on slaves and their families.

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Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

This book is by one of my favorite fiction authors.  It is the story a 
fictional school shooting.  One of the main characters is the shooter, who 
shoots 28 kids, killing 10.  Another main character is a female member of 
the very elite popular crowd at the school who knew the shooter when they 
were children.  It deals with peer pressure, bullying, and there is of 
course violence.  There are also some sexual situations, but they are not 
prevalent.  Some of the other main characters are the lawyer who defends the 
shooter and the popular girl's mother (who is a judge). It was very good and 
painted what I feel is a realistic portrait of a teenager.  Bullying and 
school violence is a "hot topic" right now, and I felt this dealt with it in 
an interesting way because the shooter is sometimes portrayed as the 
victim.  The reader is sometimes in turmoil about whether you want him to be 
found guilty or not.

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The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

Another Picoult book.  This one is interesting because it sprinkles in pages 
of a comic book version of what is going on the story between the actual 
pages.  The comic book is actually relevant because one of the main 
characters is a comic book writer/illustrator.  The general gist of the 
story is that a young woman (Trixie) has a bit too much to drink at a high 
school party while trying to win over her ex boyfriend.  She claims that 
later that night, he rapes her.  He says it was consensual.  The story 
examines what parents will do to protect their children and what happens 
after such a tragedy takes place.  It's worth reading, but not one of 
Picoult's best.

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The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

This LONG book is the story of the Price family, who travels to Africa to 
live as missionaries.  While the story is very good and Kingsolver 
chronicles every detail of the fictional Price daughters, it is so detailed 
and long it can be overwhelming.  It is interesting how the author makes 
each of the four Price daughters SO different in how they deal with life in 
Africa, their distant father, and the community they find themselves a part 
of (but not quite seeing as they are white).  Read this one only if you have 
quite a bit of time to devote, as it is 543 pages long.

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