Reading her three other books, Ellen Hopkins's ability rises above all by revealing and uncovering the damages life may put upon us. Once again she succeeds in the story-telling of Burned.
A young Mormon-born teenager growing up with six younger sisters, a lazy detached mother, and an abusive alcoholic father fights to reveal the hidden truth. While she continues living and observing her broken home, Pattyn detects major flaws in her family, school and religion. In her junior year of high school, she meets a boy, who is ran off by her father, while she is shipped off to her out-casted aunt, and finds true love along with the ugly truth. As summer ends, she is returned to her broken home. Pattyn returns to situations that shift from bad to worse, which only end in grief.

This soft yet powerful ride of love, religion and morals all link together to create this masterful novel. As the setting switches, Pattyn's beliefs follow along.

Maya Angelou

Over the past few weeks I have recently had the fortune of reading some of the works and poems by Maya Angelou. After the first two poems I read by her I automatically knew that she was a very gifted artist. From her poems like "Phenomenal Woman" to "The Caged Bird" each poem told a new story from a different perspective. Maya Angelou was an activist during the Civil Rights movement as well as the Women's rights. In her biographical summary it talked about her having the pleasure of working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. It is evident that many of the topics she writes about reflect many of her own personal experiences. I found that many of her poems speak of love, Women's rights and the hardships people face every single day. Many of the poems I have read in the past are usually hidden by several metaphors and deeper meanings. I could never seem to grasp the concept of the poem without taking hours to analyze it. Sometimes it is good to see a poem every now and then that does not waste anytime and is to the point. Readers can look at her poems and within the first few stanzas the main idea of the poem can be recognized. Maya Angelou is an amazing writer, activist, poet and all around person. Looking through different works of Maya Angelou I have come to appreciate poetry more. I fell in love with Maya Angelou's poems and I hope others will too.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Clary Fray grew up knowing a normal life, knowing nothing of her "dead" father and nothing of her mother's past. Clary's life changes one night at a club where she runs into three mysterious people, Jace, Isabelle and Alec, who slay someone right in front of her eyes. But why can no one else can see them, but her? Has she gone crazy? One of the people she met that night, the handsome character named Jace, finds her again and shows and tells her things she's never imagined. Things like demons, vampires, werewolves, fearies and more actually exist. She soon learns that she is a Shadowhunter just like Jace, Isabelle and Alec, who hold the duty of slaying demons to protect man kind. But demons aren't her only problem. Her best friend gets kidnapped by vampires, her mom is missing, her home has been invaded by unknown creatures, she has been attacked more than once, and it turns out that her father isn't dead after all. Is he the one behind it all? And why?

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes to read about anything mythical. Cassandra Clare keeps the reader on the edge and keeps them guessing. She does a great job in describing the make believe things she writes about. You will fall in love with her characters and this book entirely.

Monster, 1959

This hilarious but serious book is a basic retelling of the King Kong story, but with a sympathetic, neanderthal-like character as the monster. Named K. this creature has, like King Kong, lived on a secluded island. In this version, however, K. get some sort of vague explanation as to how he came into being, since the neighboring islands had been testing sites for atomic bombs, therefore dousing K.'s island with radiation. As the story progresses, the simple minded K. is monsternapped, taken on a touring circus show around the late 50's world of the United States, and ultimately ends up perched on top of the Statue of Libery after a chase through the city. As in King Kong, K. becomes fascinated with a female character, Betty, although in his mind, it is a vague, primordial feeling of importance, and not actual beastly lust. The entire story is written in such a way that it paints the events of the 50's into an interesting, almost modern sense, and I sometimes found myself having to remind myself that these were past events, and not current events. All in all it's an interesting, well written, serious story with numerous funny parts that all come together to present a retelling of the calssic King Kong story.

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner is a story that contains Amir, the main character, who tells us that a kite running contest in the winter of 1975 changed his life forever. This contest still haunts him and that it involves something he did to Hassan, whom he calls "the harelipped kite runner." Amir takes us back to his childhood, in the final decades of the monarchy in Afghanistan. His father, Baba, was one of the wealthiest and most charitable Pashtun men in Kabul, where they lived in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood. His mother died in childbirth. Amir's closest friend, the harlipped Hassan, was also his servant and a Hazara. He was very close to his father, Ali, who was Baba's servant.

After Amir had cut the last opponent's kite, the kite fell far away. Amir then asked Hassan to go and get it. While Hassan was looking for the kite, Hassan ran into Assef, a big bully, and got raped by him. Amir was watching all of that, and he didn't do anything to stop it. This event led to develop guilt in Amir's heart. After a couple of months, Amir and his dad , Baba, moved to the U.S. because the Taliban took over Aghanistan. Hassan then gets married and has a child of his own, he nemed him Sohrab. the Taliban hated Hazaras, so they killed Hassan and hist wife, but Sohrab ended up in an orphanage. After a couple of years, Amir got married, and went back to visit Afghanistan. He found Sohrab, Hassan's son. Somehow he found out that Hassan was his half brother. Amir then decides to adapt Sohrab, since he doesn't have a child of his own, and make up for the horrible things he had don to his half brother, Hassan.

This book is a really good book. It is a story about a young boy around 10 years old who gets abused by his mother. This book is very sad because of the large amount of detail that the author puts into it. There are times when the boy is telling his story that I could almost get sick because of how graphic it is. This book, however, really helps me see how much things I take for granted in my life. These things make me appreciate the simple things in life so much more. The little boy in the story is a very strong boy. He endures so much pain physically, mentally, and emotionally. When I read this story, it makes me realize that if a little fragile child can survive abuse, then I can get through any problem that I may come across.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry

Shadows of the Empire takes place in between Episodes five and six of the Star Wars Trilogy. After the events in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke, Leia, Lando, and Chewbacca are making efforts to track down Boba Fett and rescue Han. In their search for Boba Fett, they encounter Dash Rendar, a hotshot smuggler pilot. He aids them in their search, and gets caught up in events to come. Meanwhile Luke is honing his Jedi skills and constructing his lightsaber, working towards becoming a Jedi Knight.

There is a new foe standing before them now who also poses a threat to Darth Vader, the Falleen Prince Xizor. He is the head of the largest criminal organization in the galaxy, known as Black Sun. Xizor plans to kill Luke in order to decrease Vader’s position with the Emperor and take it for himself. He is a cunning antagonist, who even Vader is wary of.

Overall, this is a great book in my opinion. Almost anyone can pick it up and read it right away, even if you haven't seen any of the Star Wars movies. I would however suggest that someone wanting to read the book watch part of the Original trilogy so they may have a better understanding of it.