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Need to Read: The Fault in Our Stars

By Sydney

Where do I even begin with John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars? I think I need to make up a word to describe it…. hold on… it will come to me.

It’s one of those books that is short, but it has so much dad-gum awesomeness packed in. Not like explosions or honey-badger kind of awesomeness but really reflective “what is life?” kind of awesomeness. Way better than explosions in my opinion.

The story focuses on the romance between two cleverly charming teenagers whose bodies are addled with both hormones and cancer.  This isn’t one of those stories about kids versus cancer. It’s about how we are all dying, some more visibly than others, and how we learn to live and love in the face of it.

Hazel’s and Augustus’ love story, I think, is one of the greatest. “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” Their little fixed infinity is one of the best. Ugh… now I want to read it all over again. They are too old for their bodies, but all they want is a little time.

The Fault in Our Stars consists of classic themes like “why am I here?” “will I make a difference?”

“I believe that the universe wants to be noticed. I think that the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it-or my observation of it-is temporary?”

Fantasmyragorical! There you go. I made up a word. It’s not a very good one, but I’m not J.K. Rowling.

But seriroulsy, though. Read this book! John Green is a great guy and I’m happy that I got to see him transform into this big-time writer from his and his brother Hank’s vlogs. I’ll always be a Nerdfighter.

Need to Read: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

By Sydney

Have you ever wondered, “Am I living a good story?”

Seriously, think about it. What stories do I have to tell?

Donald Miller of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is given the opportunity unavailable to most, he gets to edit his life. I mean, it’s for a screenplay, but still, he gets to edit and examine his life. He realizes, while editing, that his life is boring, and that he has bought into the lie that is “The American Dream.” More, more, more actually makes you feel less, less, less.

Anyway, he examines what makes a story great and applies those principals to his life. A character, firstly, must want something. As a character in my own life, what do I want? Do I want the house, the family, the job? or do I want my own adventure? Don climbed the Andes mountains. First thing about Don, he’s not some adventurer/explorer. He’s a writer. He just got sick of his own story.

Stories aren’t all about adventures either, they revolve around characters. You could have an epic tale of clashing armies or alien abductions or anything gory and far-fetched and it would be a flop without any human-ness in it. Stories are people. You’re a story, I’m a story. I am a tree in a story about a forest, as Don says.

Don just picks apart his life the way the people dog-ear and underline books. It makes you look at your own life and try and see what elements of your story got you where you are to today.

So I’d recommend this book because I’ve realized that I have drifted farther and farther away from what I wanted. I realized that I’m settling. For a long time I wanted to write and inspire, but school has always gotten in the way. What will my excuse be later?

So think about your protagonist. Think about the characters around you. I’ve always wanted to live inside books, but Don helped me realize that I can I was just being lazy.

Need to Read: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

By Sydney

I just finished this book today. I started it at the beginning of the semester and then my life got all crazy, so that brings me to today when I finally sat down with Francie Nolan and allowed her to finish her story. Now, I can’t study because my brain is still digesting the maze of Brooklyn that Francie described. She said it was magical, a kind of magic that you could only understand if you lived there, that it was a conglomeration of everything good and bad in the world.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the story of Francie Nolan as a small child to a young adult. She experiences so much in such a short amount of time. As a reader, you really know Francie, which I think is really special because most of the characters in her tale, outside her family members, don’t seem to know her at all.  She made the smallest things wonderful, like reading on the fire escape or writing compositions for school. Francie was a grown-up child and a child-like adult all at once. Her curiosity never changes. She is always a creature of wonder.

Her story, unlike most, does not build up to a single event. It is a constant stream of events, some important and some not-so-much. Her story is her life and I highly recommend that you take part in it. She knows that joy and heartache walk hand in hand, and she makes the best of her situation whether she is gathering junk for a meager ten cents or working as the head reader in a major newspaper distribution office. She is humble and courageous and a delight to get to know.

My advice is to read this book in a week or two and not spread it out like I did. It is something that I think I will read over and over again. That’s how I gauge the importance of books, whether I would want to read it again. I think that you need to read something more than once to fully grasp its importance or its special-ness. A good book can be read several times and still offer some new wisdom or mirth that was previously unnoticed.

Need to Read: Tuck Everlasting

By Sydney

I think it’s easy to believe we live fenced-in lives, constantly concerned with what is acceptable and believing that this is just how things are done. Winnie Foster, from behind the iron fence surrounding her parents’ house felt the same way, at least until she slipped through its bars and had an adventure.

  Tuck Everlasting is a fantasy children’s novel that you can never outgrow. It is a story that can be read over and over again with just as much excitement as    the first go-around.

The young Winnie Foster, tired of being proper all the time, ventures into her family’s forest property just beyond her house. Deep in the forest, she finds the Tucks and learns that they are not like most folks. Time passes differently for them, and when she is with them she feels as though time passes differently for  her too.

The Tucks have a secret. It is why they are secluded in the woods, living a different pace of life. The Tucks can live forever. They never grow old, they never get sick. The Tucks can never die.

They tell Winnie, who they have grown to love, of their secret. However, living forever is unnatural, some might even say it is a curse. Their lives go against nature, and therefore their lives are not a part of anything. They merely exist, rocks in the river of time.

But their worst nightmare is realized, someone finds out about their immortality and plans to exploit it. The Tucks and Winnie must prevent the world finding out about the Tuck’s secret, but everything goes wrong. Wrapped up in murder, the law, time, and the fate of the world, Winnie and the Tucks must keep the source of the Tuck’s immortality a secret. And Winnie, herself, must decide whether or not she will live beyond the iron fence and choose to live forever alongside the Tucks (more specifically alongside Jesse, the Tuck’s youngest son).

This book does not disappoint. It’s a short, sweet read with wonderful characters and a beautiful examination of life and people’s roles in the constant stream.

Need to Read: Gone With the Wind

By Sydney

Watching the movie is not the same as reading the book. Yes! The movie is lovely, but with very few exceptions the book is always better. So, you need to read Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. You might stumble upon a copy in your bookstore of choice and think, “Heck no! I’m not reading that. It’s way too long!” Well, I just say it’s about a thousand pages of heart-thumping romance, gun-slinging action, and awesome Civil War glory. Yes, you will probably hate Scarlett by the end of it, but at the same time, from someplace in your heart you don’t quite understand, you’ll love the simpering fallen belle.

  Gone with the Wind is said to be one of the best romances ever written and also one of the best Civil War dramas. Scarlett O’Hara is the most iconic not-afraid-to-get-her-hands-dirty Southern belle in the history of ever. She proves that charm can get you anywhere.

Spoiled by her life at Tara and considered one of the most engaging young ladies in the county, Scarlett believes she can flirt her way into getting whatever she wants including the married man, Ashley Wilkes. However, no matter how violently she bats her eyelashes, she cannot stop the approaching Civil War, and Ashley is pulled away from her to fight.

I swear, even a Civil War will not keep Scarlett from what she wants. She’ll do whatever she must, hop for marriage to marriage, manage her own business, or drive through a shanty town by herself. The South has never seen such a stubborn woman. The only man who could ever handle her is Rhett Butler, a scoundrel who is easy to love. Clark Gable plays him so well in the movie, but on the page he’s even more of a dog.

Rhett’s and Scarlett’s relationship is one equally full of love and hate, and you’ll love and hate them too. But somehow, you’ll realize that no one in the world deserves each other more than they do.

Need to Read: To Kill a Mockingbird

By Sydney

I make a point of reading this book every couple of years just to remind myself to see the world the way Scout Finch sees it, with unfailing curiosity. Every child should be like that little tomboy.

  To Kill a Mockingbird is a story set in a Maycomb, Alabama during three years of the Great Depression. Scout, the daughter of the town’s favored lawyer Atticus Finch, passes time with her brother, Jim,  and their friend Dill by fantasizing about the Radley house right next to theirs. Dark rumors surround the house, whispered behind closed screens and  translated into haunting stories by Maycomb’s children. The infamous and possibly dangerous, Boo Radley is said to still be alive, holed up in the old house for unknown reasons. Scout, Jim, and Dill, all particularly imaginative, swap theories of why he never leaves the house and ways they could lure him out. They come to realize that Boo isn’t just a legend or myth, but an interesting character behind the screen door.

Trouble arises for the Finch family when Atticus is chosen to represent ,Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape, in court. To Maycomb’s disgruntlement, Atticus chooses to represent Robinson with the best of his ability. He takes a stand against Southern old-ways and believes Tom to be as equally deserving of justice as the next Maycomb citizen. Scout and Jim are teased because of their father’s forward thinking, but stand beside him believing he is acting honorably. Pressures build as one lawyer and his two children try to change a whole town’s way of thinking. Scout and Jim wonder: We’re free arent’ we? Aren’t all of us? To Kill a Mockingbird challenges racial epithets with the charm of a young girl’s voice in blind Southern town.

“So it took an eight-year-old child to bring ‘em to their senses…. That proves something – that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they’re still human.  Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children. “

Scout and Jim hardly realize that they are closely tied to history in the sweating, charged courtroom or that danger awaits them as soon as they leave it.

Harper Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian can earn, from the hands of President George W. Bush in 2007.

So this book is so awesome the United States recognizes it’s paramount transcendence with a shiny plaque. That’s huge!

Soldiers get medals from the president! For an author to get one…. wow… just wow!

So if you haven’t read this book yet, I won’t judge, just promise me that you will soon. It’s in the book section of Walmart for like $6. You have no excuse.

Need to Read: I Capture the Castle

By Sydney

This just recently got re-printed! Lucky you!

Dodie Smith, the author of I Capture the Castle has already, without your knowledge, found her way into your heart. She’s been there since your childhood just waiting for you to realize it is her, that she is Pongo’s creator!

Yes! Pongo from 101 Dalmations! She wrote that, the story (adapted by Disney) that we all grew up with. I, personally, watched that movie every day when I was a youngster. Every day.

I Capture the Castle was her first book, written in 1940. It features the young narrator Cassandra Mortmain, who has literary ambitions and has taken to observing and writing down everything she sees in her journal. The Mortmain home, however, is not exactly ordinary. They live in the ruins of a castle! There, her father Mr. Mortmain, suffers from the most crippling case of writer’s block I have ever seen. He has not written so much as a word since his first novel Jacob Wrestling was so acclaimed in Britain and in American universities.

Cassandra sort of gives a play-by-play of their everyday life, from her sister, Rose’s, first encounter with the wealthy and handsome Cotton brothers to her stepmother, Topaz’s, odd habits of communing with nature wearing nothing but a pair of high wellingtons.

Yes, it’s an odd family, but a charming one. Cassandra’s eye sees nearly all and become a bit clouded when she experiences love for the first time.

When I bought this book the lady behind the counter said that I was in for a real treat and, boy, was she right! As soon as I finished it I wanted to pick it  up and start it all over again.

J.K. Rowling said that, “This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I’ve ever met.”

So if Rowling loves it the you are likely to as well.

Need to Read: Paper Towns

By Sydney

I am super excited about this author John Green. He and his brother, Hank, are also known all over the internet as the Vlog brothers. They have created a group known as the Nerdfighters who celebrate nerdiness and obscure Star Trek references. I am proud to say that I am one of them, a bookish Nerdfighter battling to defeat World-Suck.

These guys are hilarious and I always keep and eye out for their videos. They started Vlogging instead of texting and their videos just took off. They are witty, original, and have encouraged nerds all over the world to be their awesome selves.

John, the eldest of the two, is also a Young Adult author. He has written books other than Paper Towns, including An Abundance of Kathrines, Will Grayson, Will Grayson (that’s not a typo that’s the title), Looking for Alaska, and the upcoming book The Fault in Our Stars. I’ve only read Paper Towns, but the rest are on my list.

Don’t let the Y/A genre deter you. These books are packed with humor and truths that adults can appreciate too.

  Paper Town is a hilarious mystery novel featuring Quentin and the adventurous, mysterious Margo Roth Spiegleman, a girl whose name deserves to be said in its entirety. After a night of adventure, humiliating Margo’s ex-boyfriend and scummy ex-best friend, and breaking in to Sea World, Margo disappears and Quentin is determined to find her. With the hardly-helpful clues she gives him, Quentin and his friends ditch graduation to find her.

I read this book in a day. I just couldn’t put it down! I haven’t read something so funny and yet so meaningful in a long time. Good book. Good, good book.

I am very excited that John is putting something good on the Y/A shelf. Check out some of their videos here:

Need to Read: Harry Potter

By Sydney

These books will change your life… like seriously. If they don’t, then you aren’t reading them right.

I am proud to say that I am part of the Harry Potter generation. We grew up with Harry, we made mistakes and held victories, we saw the great evil in the world, but also the good. Sometimes I think the Wizarding World is more of a home to me than anything. The world is so tangible and real that I can’t imagine that there will ever again be a story as celebrated or intensely followed.

What I loved most about J.K. Rowling’s story is that it got kids reading again! When a new book or movie was about to be release, people lined up for hours, sometimes days, to be one the the first to know the story and immerse themselves in that world once more.

Read them. Read them all.

First is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: I am actually just about to re-read this one for like the sixth time. Since the last movie came out I wanted to remember Hogwarts as it was meant to be, a wonder, a home to welcome you.

Second is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Harry, realizes that his life will forever be a perilous journey and the Lord Voldemort will return more ferocious and vengeful than before. Also, we meet Dobby the house elf, an unlikely but terribly lovable little hero.

Third is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Here we realize that Hogwarts is no longer safe. The Wizarding World, for all its magical glory, is a dangerous place especially for the young boy, Harry Potter. Dementors, Animagi, and prophecies, OH MY! One teacher’s terrifying secret and the escape of the mass murderer Sirius Black leads Harry on a discovery of how his parents died and who should feel his vengence.

Fourth is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Harry is entered (without his knowledge) in the extremely perilous Triwizard Tournament. People die in the tournament and it is a serious burden for the possibility of eternal glory. Harry, the youngest and least experienced of the champions must battle dragons, grindylows, dizzying mazes, and eventually You-Know-Who himself. The Wizarding World is about to enter a very dark time indeed, history is made and tingles with the beginnings of war.

Fifth is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Harry is labeled as a liar and the Ministry of Magic is taking control of Hogwarts. Delores Umbridre, a toad of a woman, is determined to see that the Ministry has full control and that the students don’t listen to Harry’s account of the Dark Lord’s return. Harry, Ron and Hermione organize Dumbledore’s Army to spite her efforts to control the school and, due to something sinister in the Department of Mysteries, break in to the Ministry of Magic, a battle that is only the beginning.

Sixth is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Headmaster Dumbledore seeks to prepare Harry for battling Voldemort. They uncover a memory that is a key to Voldemort’s past and his demented quest for immortality. Voldemort is has a chink in his armor, and Harry learns of a way to defeat the greatest evil the world has ever known. However, an unbreakable vow and a bitter betrayal are on the horizon. Hogwarts has never witnessed a loss so great since the incident on the Astronomy Tower.

  Seventh is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Harry, Ron and Hermione are on a mission to destroy    Voldemort. They leave, Hogwarts, the place they have called home for so many years, to follow their quest, risking capture, torture, and death. The fate of the Wizarding World lies with them in the Tales of Beedle the Bard and in Harry himself. Battles rage, and the boy who lived, must accept death. This is a truly chilling book. Until the very end.

When I am old, I will still read Harry Potter with as much enthusiasm and tears as I do now and my family will ask me:

“Still? After all this time?”

and I will reply

“Always.”