Great Expectations

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
This was a good book, I enjoyed reading it. The basic plot is following the life of an orphan boy. He is being raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband. His name is Pip he runs into a convict one day and helps him out. Pip is invited to a house to play with a girl named Estella. He falls in love. A few years pass Estella leaves to study abroad. A lawyer named Jaggers tells Pip that he has a benefactor and is to become a gentleman in London. Pip meets a man named Herbert and they become good friends. Then Pips secret benefactor is revealed. I can’t tell you anymore or else it will spoil the ending.

Troy, Freshman

The Long Walk

The Long Walk By Slavomir Rawicz

A young Polish officer named Slavomir Rawicz is captured and taken prisoner by Russians invading Poland. He is sentenced to life in prison for espianaus and brought to labor camp called Yakutsk hundreds of miles away. Slav becomes friends with a couple of his fellow prisoners and then they escape from the camp and trek into the Siberian wasteland in the middle of winter. Their goal is to reach India where they hope to find a way to freedom and safety which is thousands of miles away. They have to go through some of the most remote and inhospitable land on earth; through Siberia and Mongolia then onto the Gobi Desert through the Himalayas and part of China and then to India. All records of these events have been destroyed by the Russian government. If you like adventure and non-fiction books you should read this book.

Jarrick, Freshman

Kite Runner

Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

In a powerful and exhilarating novel Khaled Hosseini tells the story of a young boy’s journey to find himself through the struggles of growing up in Afghanistan. Torn between the best friend he loves and the father he can’t impress Amir must chose, and the decision will change his entire life. Stricken with guilt and in danger of the invading Russian forces, Amir and his father flee to America where Amir grows into a man. As he tries to be happy in his new life he is constantly haunted by the memories of his childhood and the very minutes that changed his life forever. What Amir doesn’t know is that he will soon be thrown back into a very much changed Afghanistan on a mission that begins as saving a life but turns into a new struggle to redeem his boyhood mistakes and find a way to be good again.

Kathryn V., Freshman

How It’s Done

How Its Done
By Christine Kole Maclean

How its done is about this girl, Grace is eighteen, who wants to be like every teenage girl, she wants to be able to break free from home and her parents, to become independent from her overbearing, strict father, and coy mother. She feels imprisoned in her suburban home that looks like every other house in her neighborhood and each house is laid out the same. She has a best friend, Liv, who decides to check out Corbin College.

She meets a charming college professor Michael. He is the one giving the lecture at Corbin College. He’s not much older than she is. He uses a very broad and bold vocabulary and he’s so much more mature that high school boys. Grace gets all caught up in her love for him.

What she had anticipated to be an exciting ride, quickly turned into complication, and twisted lies to her father. She doesn’t want to stay home anymore, she wants to be free, but she’s having problems with Michael. Blinded by her love for him, she’s not sure what to do. Will she choose to leave her fathers side or leave Michael?

Dark Woods

Dark Woods by Jay Kumar

Who knew that one afternoon hunt could lead them to scramble for their lives. Deputy Frank Vaughn is going back out in the woods to find out what he had shot before because he lives by the hunter’s code of honor: Never leave an animal to a lingering death. The footprints and evidence was so great that not only he could ignore it but also the government couldn’t let it go! The real question is are they hunting the thing? or is the thing hunting them?

Scott, Freshman

Crank

Crank by Ellen Hopkins is about a fifteen year old girl who becomes addicted to the drug crank. Kristina goes from a straight A student to a drug addict. She creates a new personality and calls herself Bree. Her life changes as she struggles to keep up with school and her friends. Crank or ‘the monster’ starts to take over her life.

Olivia, Freshman

A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

A Million Little Pieces is a story about James Frey’s six week rehab experience. When he was twenty three he woke up on a plane and found that his four front teeth were knocked out, he had a hole in his cheek, and his nose was broken. He didn’t know where he was headed or what had happened before then. James Frey was an alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three. His family checked him into a rehab center after the plane landed. He soon found out that he could either quit his addictions or died before he reached age twenty four. Along the way James meets many different people, though he decides not to make friends. He had to have caps put in for teeth, filled cavities, and have root canals all while he was given nothing to numb the pain. He clings to a Babar book, it comforts him. All James wants to do is go get drunk and fill himself with anything. Rehab is a long and hard road.Despite the controversy with Oprah, James Frey did an amazing job writing this story. Though all of it may not be true, a lot is. What a compelling story it is.

Maura, Freshman

Exit Here

Exit Here by Jason Myers

This book is about a college student who always had everything together. When he goes on a trip to Hawaii, he doesn’t end up coming home for five months. He comes home expecting everything to be the same, but everything has changed now, including him. He has dark secrets from Hawaii. He quit college and now he lives with his parents. He’s hooked on cocaine and partys every night with his friends. As he starts flashing back to Hawaii, he wants to change, but it’s easier said then done.

Sarah, Freshman

The Clocks

The Clocks by Agatha Christie

The late British author Agatha Christie has once again managed to pull off an amazing, thrilling murder mystery. In this novel, a blind woman named Miss Pebmarsh calls the Cavendish Secretarial and Typewriting Bureau and requests a lady named Sheila Webb. Sheila is told by her boss, Miss Martindale, to enter the house if Miss Pebmarsh has not yet arrived home. Sheila does as she’s told, but encounters a surprise when she enters the room: the corpse of a well-to-do man surrounded by four clocks that were set to the wrong time. When discovered by Miss Pebmarsh, Sheila runs out of the house, screaming, and straight into Sergeant Colin Lamb’s arms. Lamb calls his friend, Detective Inspector Hardcastle, to investigate the crime. The two interrogate the typists, the neighbors, and everyone in between, but they discover no clues, and no one can identify this man! Once again, Detective Hercule Poirot to solve this baffling mystery using his favorite equation: C=S, or Complex=Simple. An amazing book for mystery lovers of all types, and a must-read for those who like to solve mysteries!

Stephanie, Freshman

Someone to Love

Someone to Love is one of many books by Jude Deveraux, who is also a New York Times bestselling author. This book is about  Jace Montgomery. Jace Montgomery had a Fiancée named Stacy who had a mysterious suicide. Years later, Jace wants to know why. One day Jace was going through one of Stacy’s books and found a picture of a house called the Priory House, with a note dated one day before her death.  It said “Ours again. Together forever. See you there….” Jace ended up buying this house which happened to be haunted. It was haunted by two ghosts named Ann Stuart and Danny Longstreet. Jace decides to hire a woman named Nigh who tries to uncover all Stacy’s and Danny’s secrets and their pasts. 

Brittany, Freshman