false 13 143 97 true 5700022 read 2 true 4250780 currently-reading 44 true 4250779 to-read 43 false 4334421 high-school-readers 40 false 8611190 adult-readers 29 false 4250915 my-personal-favs 20 false 4424384 young-elementary 16 false 4334409 older-elementary-readers 13 false 4252116 childrens-books-i-love- 9 false 4334449 middle-school---readers 8 false 4799766 picture-books 4 false 5497295 historical-fiction 3 false 4252534 womans-soul-soup 1 false 4252540 teachers-soul-soup 1 false 4799708 picture-books---adoption 1 false 4800659 poetry 1 false 5128781 historical-biographical http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62798191 Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog (Hardcover) by Ted Kerasote
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76943764 to: A Certain Slant of Light (Paperback) by Laura Whitcomb
bookshelves: adult-readers, high-school-readers
This is an interesting sort of ghost story. Helen, a ghost for the last 130 years, has been walking the earth with her hosts as she calls them. She follows them seeing everything that they see, but never being seen by anyone. Her previous 4 hosts never married and never had children, her current host (Mr. Brown) is a little different in that sense. He is happily married. Mr. Brown is a high school English teacher and Helen goes to school with him everyday and inspires him through the writing of his novel. One day Helen notices a student looking at her. Throughout the course of the story Helen finds out that the boy, Billy, has been taken by a ghost named James. Inevitably and predictably these two fall in love and Helen then finds a body of her own to take.
This story really shows a lot of teenage angst and the phrase "be careful what you wish for" rings true through this book. While I thought that this book was alright, I didn't find anything truly special about it. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76948303 to: Awakening (Hardcover) by S.J. Bolton
bookshelves: adult-readers, high-school-readers
I just randomly grabbed this book off the "New Arrivals" shelf at the library in hopes that I would like it and I wasn't disappointed. This book was suspenseful and the way that Bolton weaves together the details of the story was interesting. It kept you guessing who "the bad guy" I guess you could say is through the whole book. I couldn't put the book down for the last 100 pages when everything seems to come together. If you like books about creepy, crawly creatures this is definitely the book for you. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76943377 to: A Wrinkle in Time (Time Series, #1) by Madeleine L'Engle
bookshelves: childrens-books-i-love-, middle-school---readers, older-elementary-readers
I have been meaning to read this book for years! So I finally went to the library and got it on audio. It was so good! L'Engle explains tough physics topics in a way that children can understand it. Of course the book has the sort of good vs. evil theme to it like a lot of children's books. I was really impressed by this one. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76943588 Naked Prey (Lucas Davenport, #14) by John Sandford
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64459086 to: The Book Thief (Library Binding) by Markus Zusak
bookshelves: adult-readers, high-school-readers, historical-fiction, my-personal-favs
This is by far one of the best books I have ever read. I would recommend it to readers who are interested in World War II and hearing a wonderfully written story of the Holocaust from a different perspective than most stories.
The first thing that makes this story so interesting is that it is told from Death's perspective. It is told from a young German girls perspective. She goes to live near Munich in Germany with a foster family when her parents are sent away for being communists. On the journey her brother dies. Her foster parents quickly take on the role of her real parents, especially her Papa. She is far, far behind students in her class when she arrives, but slowly with the help of her Papa she begins to learn to read. She makes friends along the way and is an interesting twist on Germans during the time of the war and also a Jewish perspective. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76937246 to: The Reader (Movie Tie-in Edition) by Bernhard Schlink
bookshelves: adult-readers, high-school-readers, historical-fiction
Hanna and Michael begin a love affair when Hanna is 36 and Michael is 15. He learns a lot from Hanna and she becomes his first love. During this time period (a summer) Michael begins to read to Hanna. One day she disappears. This affects Michael for the rest of his life rendering him incapable of having a normal relationship with any woman. Years later, when Michael is a law school student, his class begins to observe a trial in which women Nazi officers are being charged with locking a church and allowing 300 Jewish women to burn inside it. Hanna is one of the women on trial.
This was a good, entertaining book and a short read. I read it in one afternoon. It is one of those books that makes you delve into who you are as a person and choices that we make and how those choices can affect peoples lives that we may know or even perfect strangers. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72585843 to: The Alchemist (Paperback) by Paulo Coelho
bookshelves: adult-readers, high-school-readers, my-personal-favs
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73569772 Tj's review of The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho

Im reading right now and loving it so far. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62139132 to: The Graveyard Book (Hardcover) by Neil Gaiman
bookshelves: childrens-books-i-love-, middle-school---readers, my-personal-favs
This was one of the best children's books that I have ever read. Neil Gaiman is an amazing writer and I thought Coraline was great, but this even topped Coraline in my book. I thought the way he developed the characters in this book was amazing! I absolutely plan on using it in my classroom. ]]>