Wow! I can't believe it is already 4th quarter! I had a relaxing Spring Break with my family and I feel refreshed and ready to tackle many projects for the next few months. Believe it or not, we had sunny weather last Friday and ....snow on Saturday! It was crazy. I did get some interesting reading done over the week. The first book I read was Hate List by Jennifer Brown.
This is the story of Valerie Leftman, the girlfriend of Nick, a deceased school shooter. Often the victim of school bullies and the "popular" crowd, Valerie and Nick creat a "hate list" to document all of the people they dislike. To Valerie, the list is a way to "vent"--it is an outlet to help her handle high school, but...Nick takes the list seriously. The novel is told in alternating chapters of before, during, and after the shooting. This book is very similar to
Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult, but, in my opinion, easier to read. Readers will identify with Valerie's feelings of guilt in creating the hate list, but also with the love she still has for the "old" Nick.
The second book I read last week was
You Don't Even Know Me: Stories and Poems about Boys by Sharon G. Flake.
This collection of short stories and poems about African-American teen boys was quite interesting. Subjects range from a young man facing his dead brother's terrible secret to one trying to stay out of the gang lifestyle. This is a quick read and highly recommended for teen boys.
The third, and final, book I tackled over the break was
The Espressologist by Kristina Springer.
Pure chick-lit!
The Espressologist tells the story of Jane Turner, local barista turned matchmaker. This was a quick read and it made me want some creative coffee drinks! This would make a great beach read!
In other news, I just got several boxes of books from Amazon and I can't wait to dive in to some of these books, including
Readicide,
Purge, and
Lockdown: Escape from Furnace.
