The book Two-Minute Drill by Mike Lupica is a sports action story. The main character, Scott Parry, was the new kid at school. He is smart, but was used to being lonely. He always ate by himself, never talked to anybody and kept out of trouble. He decides to join the football team, but isn’t the best player. However, a new friend named Chris Conlan decides to help him out. Chris is the star quarterback, but is educationally challenged.
In All My Rage, Sabaa Tahir explores what it means to be an outsider just because of the way you were born. I am not a big fan of books with multiple perspectives; that being said, Tahir nails it every time she writes a book with multiple Point of views (POV). This book explores Misbah, Salahudin’s mother, growing up in Pakistan under strict cultural rules. The other POVs include her son growing up with severe money issues and supporting his family in a small town.
The story of five boys (and several animals) within a small home, learning to cope with the death of their mother, the absence of their father and life in general. Honestly, I should be surprised that Zusak manages to write masterpiece after masterpiece. I picked this up after having read his previous two books, The Book Thief and I Am The Messenger and falling in love with his writing style.
A total nobody stops a bank robbery one day, and his life is forever changed. That day, the first card arrives in the mail. A series of playing cards are sent to him, each with a mission attached. Suddenly, this nobody has a purpose, but who’s behind the cards?
The Breakfast Club is a film about a group of students who all get called into detention. Each one of these students comes from a different background: a popular girl, jock guy, weird girl, rebel guy, and nerdy boy. During these long hours of being stuck in the same classroom together, they begin to find things they have in common, and they start to reveal things about themselves. Throughout this, they are able to all become friends, and understand the point of view of other stereotypes.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about a teenage boy named Charlie. Charlie is struggling as a freshman in high school, and finds it hard to make friends. He battles difficult mental health conditions, and loneliness as well. His life begins to turn around when he meets two seniors, named Patrick and Sam. They invite Charlie into their friend group, when he begins to learn the reality of what high school is actually like. They help Charlie try to be happier, and battle his past trauma.
Franny and Zooey, written by J.D. Salinger, offers an intimate exploration of the Glass family, concentrating on the youngest siblings, Franny and Zooey. The narrative commences with Franny meeting her boyfriend for lunch, where her peculiar behavior becomes evident: she has lost her appetite, appears distracted, and diverts their conversation towards religious topics.
The Sun Does Shine is a captivating autobiography about Anthony Ray Hinton’s journey of being sentenced to 28 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. As years go by, Anthony tries his hardest to prove that he was wrongfully convicted, but the system doesn’t allow it. Even through the darkest times, Anthony has hope that he will see the light again. As time flies, he starts to lose hope. Will he ever live a normal life again?
Wilder Girls, the debut novel of Rory Power, is the horror story of best friends Hetty, Byatt, and Reese. They have been stuck in Raxter, the island in which their school for girls is on, for eighteen months, quarantined and away from the world because of the Tox, the deadly disease that has claimed the lives of teachers and students alike. The Tox, though, gives surprising but strange abilities to the girls that do survive it, as well as gruesome liabilities. Double heartbeats, gills, second spines.
