Wild At Heart

John Eldredge in his book Wild at Heart, illustrates how the man's soul works from a man's perspective. One of the very first thing Eldredge says is that every man has three essential desires. Although they can be mistaken, misplaced, or forgotten, but a man's soul from birth desires these three things; A Battle to Fight, An Adventure to Live, and A Beauty to Rescue. In every desire, he tries to give examples of every age of a man's soul, from boyhood to grand fatherhood. One of the main points in these desires that he makes is that "A Beauty to Rescue" drives all of them, every man wants to be that night in shining armor. A Battle to Fight comes from this desire to impress or "rescue" the beauty, a man only has a desire to fight because he needs something to fight for. An Adventure to Live also ties into this because a Woman constantly has a desire for a man that will TAKE her on an adventure. Although men's ideas of adventure could be the wilderness and hiking, a woman's adventure could be a man's also. John Eldridge is this documentary of sorts is basically explaining how a mans inner soul works from a man's point of view. He tries to explain to the wives of the world why their husbands always want to watch football (a battle to fight), or why they have a midlife crisis and buy a 35 thousand dollar Harly-Davidson (an adventure to live) he even explains why their husbands were so nice and impressed them so much when they started dating but their love life has gone down hill (a beauty to rescue). In short, John Eldridge is a slightly less enthusiastic Dr. Phil, saving relationships, one book at a time.

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Vanessa, Tony, and Conner have three totally different lives and take three different paths to the same place, Aspen Springs. Aspen Springs is a psychiatric hospital for people who have attempted suicide.Vanessa is a beautiful girl, smart and her life could be great, except for the fact that she gets the urge of cutting herself. Not just cutting her self, but deep enough to kill her. Tony is a boy who went through a tough childhood, and his father left him for years, and the only thing to comfort him is overdosing on pills, so much pills he is on the verge of killing himself, and in the hospital he saves up all the daily depression pills and overdoses on them. Conner has a great life wealthy and all, but nobody knows the inside of his skin, because if they did they would know that he is always in a fight with his abusive parents. Vanessa, Tony, and Conner all took it in until they popped. Vanessa grabbed the knife, Tony grabbed the pills, and Conner grabbed the gun, and tried to end it. Now they were all sent to Aspen Springs to get help, and another chance. And maybe together they will fight this depression.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Crank is a book about a young girl who goes to stay with her dad for the summer. While she is there she meets a young boy who introduces her to drugs (crank). She becomes so involved with him and drugs that when she goes home to her mother and family she must have the drug to get through life with her Mother, her "annoying" friends, and school. She sneaks around, skipping school, sneaking out late at night, and going out with older guys. One night, one of those boys raped her and she became pregnant. After that day she decides to tell her mother everything that really has been going on in her life, and quit doing drugs for the baby's sake.

Deadline By Chris Crutcher.

A lot of times I feel like Chris Crutcher lives my life in his books. Sorry, but not this one. I fortunately do have more than one year to live, I hope. Ben Wolf has a pretty good life, he is headed to state in Cross Country his senior year, and makes pretty good grades. For some reason he never sees himself living longer than High School. Ironically he gets the news from his doctor that he has been diagnosed with a semi-terminal disease, and his chances were about equivalent of a 250 pound lineman beating him in the 2 mile. When, "Little Wolf" as they call him, finds out that he only has 12 months to live he denies treatment and devotes his live to not wasting a single second of the rest of his short life. That is one thing he definitely does not do, Little Wolf ends up going out for the football team and becomes a STUD on special teams. He also meets the girl of his dreams, Dallas Suzuki, which I can totally relate to, except for the part where she asks him to homecoming, that hasn't happened yet for me. If you like this so far, I would definitely recommend that you read Deadline- By Chris Crutcher. ITS GOOD

Old Yeller By: Fred Gipson

I think that this book was enjoyable for all. The dog helped out the kids, like to have a pal to play with. I think everyone should have a dog like Old Yeller. What would you do if you have a dog like Old Yeller.

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

Do you like vampires and werewolves? Do you like adventure and just a little romance? Well this book is for you. In the twilight series' fourth book Breaking Dawn you can find all of these things. Stephanie Meyer's new installment takes you on an awesome rind filled with vampires from all over the world, good and evil, and werewolves. In this book Bella must learn to adapt to a new lifestyle and learns about a vampire world bigger then she could ever have imagined, with the Cullen family by her side she races against time to find the answers she needs to keep the ancient vampires form attacking her and anyone who helps her. Can she do? You'll have to pick it up and find out. Happy Hunting!

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings consists of three books. The Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers, and the Return of the King.

Going deep into the lore of the story would take a book of itself, but let it be suffice to say that it all began when the ancient evil's most powerful lieutenant in the physical universe, Sauron is defeated, his reign is thought to have perished.
Yet Sauron in his infinite ambition to preserve and expand his power, had crafted himself a ring that would maintain his essence, and make sure that he would not vanish from the world if he were defeated.
His plan succeeds ultimately. The last Alliance of Humans, Elves and Dwarves that was assembled to defeat him crumble over the centuries, and his vengeful spirit stirs within the ashlands of his former home, Mordor. Through a series of events, the ring that still contained his powerful essence was lost and reaches the hands of a hobbit, Frodo Baggins.

The first book begins with the forming of the Fellowship of the Ring. A band of nine adventurers. Frodo and his three hobbit friends, Sam, Pippin and Merry, along with the humans Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli the dwarf, Legolas the elf, and Gandalf the Wizard. Their mission is set to head to Mordor, and cast the ring intot he volcano known as Mount Doom, in order to utterly banish Sauron for eternity.

The second book, labeled the "Two Towers" follows the corruption of the White Hand, the circle of wizards that Gandalf was a part of. In the tower of Orthanc, the corrupted wizard, Saruman, forges an Alliance with Sauron, who's symbol of might is the tower of Barad-dur within Mordor. The unholy Alliance strengthens as they both build armies to lay siege to the various inhabitants of the vastness of Middle Earth. Many climactic battles occur such as Helm's Deep, the siege of Minas Tirith, and the grandest of them all, Pelennor Fields. All of them ended with the defeat of evil, though the cost was often quite heavy, with many razed villages, destroyed towns, and numerous castualties.

The "Return of the King" fulfills the prophecy of the returning Dunedain King. The Heir of Isildur, who was the man that was responsible for the first defeat of Sauron thousands of years ago. Aragorn, one of the members of the fellowship, reveals his identity. Despite his fears that he too would fall to the temption that his forefathers had fallen to due to the influence of the ring.
As battle rages on however, the fellowship breaks, save for Frodo and Sam who press on to Mordor. After the victory at Pelennor, the remaining armies of Middle Earth march to the Black Gate, hoping to win time and distract Sauron from finding the very ring under his nose as a battered Sam and Frodo finally reach the summit. Despite the struggles of the insane creature known as Gollum, the ring is destroyed. Peace descends upon middle earth as the raging blackness of Barad-dur crumbles before the sunlight.


Despite my poor attempts at summarizing a great book, I would recommend it with my eyes closed if you search for a fantasy setting. JRR Tolkien was not listed as the father of Fantasy fiction for nothing. Even the movies did injustice to the length of the story. The book will easily suck you in , despite some slow parts. I watched the movie before the book, and I still was anticipating many things, I was not disappointed.