Week 2: Assignment 3  Recommendations

After reading Brenda Johnson-Perkins' annotations, I found two books, one in NoveList and the other in Goodreads, to recommend based on the two that she had posted. 

Week 2 - Book Annotations

In the riveting page-turner, Ashfall, by Mike Mullin, a super volcano in Yellowstone National Park erupts and, in the aftermath, the world as we know it is completely changed. The reader is immediately thrown into the life of the protagonist, Alex, an average fifteen-year-old boy trying to reach his family, one hundred miles away, and survive in the face of a natural disaster of cataclysmic proportions. The landscape, climate, and humanity itself have all changed and Alex, an extremely sympathetic character, must learn how to survive in a world that is covered in ash, then by snow, no sunlight, sparse food supplies, and plagued with violence and anarchy.  Graphic and sometimes gruesome details are disturbing yet necessary in the depiction of this new dystopian reality.  The most frightening aspect of this compelling and thoroughly researched novel is the fact that the occurance of such an event is completely plausible.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."  This quote, taken from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, is the inspiration for the title of John Green's novel, The Fault in Our Stars.  Intellectually and emotionally challenging, this is the sort of book that the reader would want to read repeatedly.  Humor, wisdom, and love help to keep the heavy plot line not only bearable, but also very interesting.  Hazel, Augustus, Isaac, and so many others are far more than just sympathetic characters; they become good friends and family members that the reader will love, worry about, laugh and cry with and hold gently in their hearts long after the last page is turned.

Week 1 Assignment

                

After looking at all of the book review sites, I decided to follow NPR - Books.  I appreciate the way the site is organized; I love the lists, author interviews, and having the ability to browse different genres. 

I need to learn more about the mystery genre, so I will be following the "Stop, You're Killing Me!" website.  I have only read a very limited amount of mystery, mostly by Nordic authors, so exposure to a wider variety of mystery authors would be very beneficial to me.