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| Author: | Perri Klass |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2004 |
Repulsive. Read The Mercy Rule instead. | |
-- Emily | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Mystery of Breathing, The | |
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| Author: | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1886 |
Okay, this is a BIT of a spoiler, but I knew this when I read the book, and it was just as exciting: This book is about a man who discovers how to switch from his evil self to his good one, purposefully. It is Gothic (creepy and mysterious), and very exciting. It is only about 100 pages long, and so the suspense is kept up through the entire book until the end. Stevenson's language is very chilling. This quote gives you a great sense of the style that the whole story is written in: [they heard a] "dismal screech, as of mere animal terror." | |
I give this book a thumbs up because it is an interesting mystery, just creepy enough. Stevenson knows how to keep us on our toes, and make the story continue to be interesting with different perspectives on the topic of what defines good vs. evil, as well as just adding some good old action. --Fizzy, age 14 | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde | |
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| Author: | Anna Davis |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
Wars have consequences, even when they don't impact those at home directly. Not that horrors bear comparison, but the shock to the folks at home when, eventually they heard of the carnage of World War I seems to me as if it should have been mind-altering. Hard to believe they went right back to killing each other even more horribly in World War II. The Jewel Box describes one woman's response to the events that affected her personally during the Great War -- she adopts the persona of a flapper. | |
I admire Anna Davis' ability to show that the faces women show to the world, and also the faces of men, often do not actually reflect their true experience, their sufferings. Maybe if they did, there would be much less slaughter. Chic lit alert! Every time my 14 yr. old saw this book lying around, she took the opportunity to make fun of me about it again. Yes, well, maybe it IS chic lit, and the cover is -- garish is probably not too strong a word -- but I found it much deeper than most. This is a story that gives rise to much thought, if not much hope, although it is not in and of itself unremittingly depressing.-- Emily Berk | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Jewel Box, The | |
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| Author: | Emily Chenoweth |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
Not that confronting human mortality can ever be easy. But coming to realize that your mother is mortally ill must be particularly difficult for a young person old enough to understand what death is, but not yet independent. Chenoweth's heroine, still a college student, has known but refused to know consciously that her mother's brain cancer is terminal. In a story that could have been maudlin, Chenoweth lays out a "good" way for this young person to surface the bad news: in the company of her parents' good friends, with some younger people to interact with. | |
This is not a cheerful book, but it is lovely and gentle. The dying woman is not presented as a saint, but as someone who has earned her (up until now) comfortable life, and is striving to ensure that those who survive her flourish while she enjoys as much of them time she has left as she can. In fact, nearly all the characters reveal themselves as flawed but mostly well-intentioned. I am glad I got to know them. | |
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