The Gospel According to Larry, by Janet Tashjian

The Gospel According to Larry, by Janet Tashjian, is about a seventeen year old boy named Josh Swensen simply trying to find his place in the world. His life goal is to make a difference in the world, but does not want the fame that comes with it. He creates an alter ego, Larry, and makes a website named thegospelaccordingtolarry.com, where he “preaches” his strong beliefs in anti-consumerism and how to make the world a better place, despite the fact that his father has a career in advertising. He becomes very confident that no one will ever know his true identity, and even his best friend Beth who he has been secretly in love with for years does not know he is Larry. However, Josh’s life seems to come crashing down as his website gets attention from celebrities and someone under the cyber name “Betagold” threatens to find out who he really is. It seems like everyone but Josh wants Larry exposed, and he knows exposing him would destroy everything. After reading this book, I would have thought it was based off of a real person had it not been marked as fiction. It is written with the author actually meeting Josh in a parking lot and asking her to publish his story. This book really promotes Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy of simplicity, and referenced him throughout the book. Josh himself owns only seventy-five items, and gets rid of an item when he gets a new one. The message of anti-consumerism really got me thinking, and this story reveals the true selfishness of the human race. If you want to find out what happens to Josh/Larry, or get inspired to make a difference, I strongly encourage you to read this book. It has an action-packed ending with an ironic twist!

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

When I first read the back cover of the Kite Runner, all I saw were flattering reviews of a book claimed to be a good story of modern Afghanistan. Yet the story is far from a simple novel regarding the Middle East. Kite Runner covers the themes of betrayal, love, father and son, man's humanity to man and many others. The story revolves around the privileged life of Amir, the narrator, and his friend Hassan. The cast system between the two boys becomes more evident as the years pass, despite the fathers Baba and Ali (Amir and Hassan's respectively) being childhood friends for years. Amir is always jealous of Baba's love for Hassan, and at one point in the story, Hassan eventually turns out to be the sacrificial lamb. Without spoiling the story or plot characters, it would be safe to say that Kite Runner is everything good that the reviews mentioned. As an honest human being, I must say I was not intrigued at first, yet the book drew me in with considerable ease after the second page. This paltry review cannot do any justice to the great book Kite Runner is, as well as the emotions it will bring to rise. Your media-fed perception of Afghanistan and the Middle East will be shattered. Humanity, sorrow and memories persist from the land of birth, far to the reaches of America, as well as the orphaned seed of a murdered friend.

Homeland by R.A. Salvatore

Homeland is about the beginnings of the drow Drizzt Do’Urden, as well as the prequel to the Icewind Dale Trilogy, and his life in the Underdark city of Menzoberranzan, the home of the evil drow (dark elves). Drizzt Do’Urden is the third son to Matron Malice of House Do'Urden. The Weapons Master of House Do'Urden Zaknafein, his father, gave him weapons training as well as reinforcing Drizzt’s morals with that of his own. His moral code does not allow him to act as other dark elves, in that they would selfishly turn on allies and enemies alike for their own desires, while he wouldn’t.
Over the rest of the story, he faces many challenges regarding his morals and his race. Drow society revolves around their deity, the evil spider queen Lolth, with females being dominant over males in their matriarchal structure. Males typically play the role of the soldier or mage, while females become priestesses to Lolth and/or in powerful positions in their society. They endlessly plot to murder their rivals and enemies to obtain whatever they desire, with the more powerful figures being more apt to be the targets. Overall, this is a great book for the beginning of one of the best series of books I've ever read.

Dragonbone Chair Series, by Tad Williams

The Dragonbone Chair series first struck me as a classical fictional novel, filled with dragons, elven humanoids, humans, kings and of course, one powerful evil entity.
Yet surprisingly enough, I was draw into the thick volumes that my teacher had lent me. Despite the plot being cliche in my opinion (Due to seeing many others like it), I was pleasantly surprised at the comprehensive, and well-written story. The events that happen are far too rich and numerous to be contained in one book report, and still given the fairness that they deserve. The story consists of a trilogy known as "Memory, Thorn and Sorrow", and their significance is revealed throughout the story.


The adventure revolves around an ordinary kitchen boy named Simon, who had the (mis)fortune of being the apprentice of Doctor Morgenes in the castle he lived in. Let's just say, a story of treachery, a coup, and a crumbling kingdom follow. Heroes are hard to kill, and villains are even harder. In fact, the main villain of the book seems almost invincible towards the end, his death costs the lives of many other important plot characters in order to reach fulfillment. Rebellions are crushed, homes are lost, yet all is reborn in the end through the ashes. The turns the story takes are quite astounding, not recommended to people that get worked up over the deaths of favourite plot characters. Nevertheless, the story's ending is cliche as well, though by the time one is done reading the full adventure, any redundancy is dismissed by the epic adventure that unfolds.
Tad Williams has often been referred to as "America's Tolkien", which may be a fair statement despite my respect and admiration for J.R.R Tolkien as well.

Blood and Chocolate

People have different opinions when it comes to books. I like romance and horror, and a few others to boot. But after reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, I found that I would like to look up some books about Werewolves. After looking, I found Blood and Chocolate. This book has romance and some action, the perfect book for me! Vivian, a sixteen year old loup-garou (Werewolf) and The Five who consist of Rafe, Finn, Willem, Ulf, and Gregory. They are the only pack members of Vivian's age and their group used to include another boy called Axel. Vivian starts high school in the new town, where she has no friends because of her reserved and secretive nature; when later meets a boy named Aiden who wrote a poem about werewolves that was surprisingly accurate with regard to their transformation. She soon figures out Aiden is fully human, but she is still attracted to him and pursues a relationship in spite of who she really is. I wish i could continue to tell you about this great book, but this is only a review to make you want to read it. I can tell you that there is a surprise ending! Go on and read it, you will be surprised.

-AmazinglySedated

Vampire Academy

If you have a craving for an alternative to blood crazy vampires, this is for you. Vampire Academy is about two girls who attempted to escape from the school they attend. They are later caught by the schools guards and promptly returned. But everything they left is no longer the way it was. These two girls have to fight to for their reputation, while continuing the search for the answers to their problems. They become immersed in school history, vampire and demonic history, searching for the answers of what ails Lisa and why the word shadow kissed continues to pop up in reference to Rose's ability to see what is in Lisa's mind. Also, someone is following them. Can these two girls find out how to help Lisa? Can Rose find out where she gets her powers? Can they figure out who is after them? You'll have to read it to find out.

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.