The Shadow Club: Oct. 31st

• Title: The Shadow Club
• Author: Neal Shusterman
• Genre: Realistic Fiction or Fantasy?
• AR Points: 7
• Page I am on: p.81
• Where I am to my AR goal: 16/50

Strange book so far, but interesting. It is about these two best friends, Cheryl & Jared, who are insanely jealous of someone close to them. They are both "second-best" at something and hate that other person for making them feel crummy about it! They decide to make a "second best club", inviting other peers that are in their same boat. The purpose of their club is to secretly ruin those "first best" people's lives. Where it gets strange is that Cheryl originally asks Jared..."if you could make it so that Austin [the kid Jared is jealous of] had never been born, would you?" & he admits that he would. I predict that something mystical is going to happen later in the book & this exact thing is going to happen to each of the "first-best" people that the club members hate. I look forward to finding out!

Divergent: Oct. 24th

• Title: Divergent
• Author: Veronica Roth
• Genre: Dystopian
• AR Points: 16
• Page I am on: 200
• Where I am to my AR goal: 47/goal point

I have gotten a little further in the book; it's getting good! Beatrice went through her testing that suggests which faction she best fits. Her results were peculiar, the woman testing called her "Divergent" and warned her that she shouldn't let anyone know this. Beatrice is left having to hold this secret in and still chose one faction. Come choosing day, she picks Dauntless, a faction expected to be fearless. With this choice to leave behind her Abnegation family, she also puts behind her name for the new nickname, Tris. Where I am in the book, Tris is in the first stage of Dauntless initiation. She must fight the other initiates for a permanent place in this faction. All initiates that do not make become factionless, which are the homeless and poor of the society. Can't wait to get home and continue to read.

Divergent: Oct. 17th

• Title: Divergent
• Author: Veronica Roth
• Genre: Dystopian
• AR Points: 16
• Page I am on: 90
• Where I am toward my AR goal: 47/goal point

This has been another one of those books that have been on my list for years to read. Everyone says its great and with the movie coming out earlier this year, I decided I should finally take a stab at it. So far, so good. The book has an interesting concept, it is set sometime in the distant future where the population of the U.S. divided into multiple factions to ensure lifelong prosperity of the country. I predict that something big and horrible happened in the past to cause this. The people of each faction have certain qualities that are valued; these qualities were chosen in the past, again, to protect the country. We meet our main character, Beatrice, the day before she is to be tested for which faction she is perfect for. I look forward to seeing what happens next!

The Book Thief: Oct. 14th

• Title: The Book Thief
• Author: Markus Zusak
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• AR Points: 18
• Page I am on: finished
• Where I am toward my AR goal: 47/goal point

Just finished this phenomenal book this morning & got 18 more AR points! War arrives on Himmel Street (the street Liesel lives on) and all pandemonium breaks out. Papa is sent off to war for attempting to give bread to some of the Dachau prisoners. As a result, Max, the Jewish man Liesel's family is hiding in the basement, is forced to leave hiding. Life shattering events start to accumulate one on top of the other and this makes for an extremely intense emotional response.

The Book Thief: Oct. 6th

• Title: The Book Thief
• Author: Markus Zusak
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• AR Points: 18
• Page I am on: 300
• Where I am toward my AR goal: 29/goal point

I am about halfway in the book and it is getting really interesting. Liesel has become extremely close to the foster family she is living with and they are now hiding a Jewish man in their basement. Based on my prior knowledge of the Holocaust and the invasion of privacy from the Nazi's searching German homes; I suspect this will not end well. I predict that they will soon be found out and something horrible is going to happen to all of them. This is a great example of how historical fiction novels can be haunting; they are fictional, yes, but they reflect exactly what was going on in history. This scenario was happening to millions of people in Germany and the surrounding country. It was a dark time in the history of mankind and it is terrifying to see that reflected in fiction.

The Book Thief: Sept. 29th

• Title: The Book Thief
• Author: Markus Zusak
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• AR Points: 18
• Page I am on: 195
• Where I am toward my AR goal: 29/goal point

This book is starting to get intense! Turns out Liesel became a book thief due to being distraught at her brother's death. She needed some way to cling to him & therefore took the first thing she could find at the cemetery, "The Gravedigger's Handbook". Since then, she has stolen two more books, one from a Nazi book burning and another from the mayor. Liesel steals for a very specific reason every time and, in her situation, I totally understand why she does it; I look forward to seeing what happens next.

The Book Thief : September 19th

• Title: The Book Thief
• Author: Markus Zusak
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• AR Points: 18
• Page I am on: 105
• Where I am toward my AR goal: 29/goal point

Glad to say that I was correct about this one; I am rather enjoying it! This is going to be one of those books that takes a while to get through. The book opens in a very different way then most do. The narrator of the book is Death, or the Grim Reaper. He is describing the story of our main character, Liesel Meminger, and how integral death was in her life when she was a child. We meet Liesel as she is being transferred from her mother to her new foster parents. If I had to make a prediction of why she was sent off it would have to do with the "communist" fact that comes up often in the book. She is too young at the beginning of the book to understand what that means when she hears everyone call her father it. I suspect that something has happened to both her parents in relation to being labeled a "communist" in Nazi Germany. I look forward to reading further to find out!