This book follows narrator Richard Papen as he reflects on his time in college. Richard moves to Vermont to attend Hampden College, a small liberal arts college in New England. When he arrives, he finds himself entranced by the classics program led by a charismatic professor. He desperately wants to befriend the other students who are wealthy and educated, everything Richard feels he is not. Richard feels that he will do whatever it takes to fit in with the others, even as things become drastically more dark. I would highly recommend this book.
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon is a love story between a girl named Natasha and a boy named Daniel, except it’s an improbable one. Natasha is a girl who doesn’t believe in concepts like love or destiny, especially since her life at the moment consists of being deported to Jamaica. On the other side, Daniel is a Korean boy who deals with his parents’ high expectations for his future, clashing with his dream of becoming a poet.
Frank Li is a Korean-American teenager who is very aware of the cultural gap between him and his parents. At the same time, he wants to be in a relationship with a girl who isn’t Korean, which doesn’t mesh well with Frank’s family. So, Frank plots a plan in which he and one of his childhood friends, Joy, can both make their lives somewhat easier. It follows the fake-dating trope mixed with unexpected outcomes and a wonderful navigation of cultural differences in new generations of teens.
Malcolm Gladwell builds off the success of his first 2 books with Outliers. This novel is about what patterns appear when major success stories are examined. In the first part of the book, he discusses different examples of how our environment and specific opportunities lead to success. Gladwell gives examples like how hockey players born in January have a tangible advantage over their younger peers because of how youth hockey is organized.
Alexis has been studying for this test for over a year, since a good score will secure her a spot in the most prestigious college in the post-apocalyptic world of gods and titans in which she resides. Her goal is to make a better life for her and her adopted younger brother, Charlie, the two of whom have been homeless since their abusive parents died when they were young. After the longest test of her life, Alexis is required to drip her blood on the page. Instead of only staining the page red, the paper begins to disintegrate, revealing her blood is not what she thought.
Tristan isn’t as smart or as perfect as his sister, Janine, and he is okay with it, for the most part. Janine can’t make a perfect chocolate chip cookie like Tristan, and she certainly can’t do more than simple baking. Tristan prides himself on his baking ability and his home in the greatest city in the world. His world turns upside down when his parents decide to move to rural New York, where no one knows him and there are barely any kids his age. While exploring the tiny town center, Tristan discovers an old doughnut shop and tries to enter.
“Empathy, he once had decided, must be limited to herbivores or anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet. Because, ultimately, the empathic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the defeated.”
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
When the mistreated animals of the farm rise up against the evil humans, they try to establish a fair and just society. As they work out their rules and sayings, the leading power begins to take over slowly, until the animals that now run the farm remain as cruel as the human who once ruled over them all.
