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by  Dave Eggers

The story of Valentino Achak Deng is one of turmoil and trauma. A small boy in Southern Sudan during the Sudanese Civil War, he encountered countless perils, witnessing the death and destruction of everyone and everything he'd ever known at the hands of the murahaleen and baggara forces who had allied with the Sudanese government in Khartoum against the SPLA, or the rebel forces who claimed that they were in pursuit if protecting their people. When he makes it to the United States, he is unaccustomed to the dangers of modern american society, and in the face of a robbery, he recounts his story to various entities, both the good and the bad, relaying his struggles through mental retelling, knowing that no one will hear. While gut-wrenching and utterly terrifying, his story is a window into a world where no one is there for you, where every question is open ended. So what is the what? You'll have to read to find out.
This is a true story, told by  Valentino Achak Deng and publicized by Dave Eggers, making it both fiction and a memoir. Anyone who can stomach graphic violence , and appreciates people who take the time to understand history through the eyes of a survivor will enjoy this piece of literature. I personally loved it, and I was totally engrossed in the plot-line and the care that went into poetically composing it. This is one of my favorite books, and I encourage you to take the time to read it and to understand the true destruction of Civil War and the result of a government and its people being pitted against each other.

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by Meg Wolitzer

Everybody knows that nobody wants to be 'normal', or mundane, or bland, so we all strive to be something we're not, something that can't be easily unmasked. We all want to be interesting. And when you eventually select the persona that you can easily hide behind and the fictional backstory that you can bare to call your own, the only question is how to keep it bulletproof. But sometimes, you're lucky. Sometimes, in a rare, exotic moment, you find people who will allow you to umask yourself instead of relentlessly searching for their own way to destroy you.
Jules (formerly Julie) Jacobson is one of the 'lucky' ones. Her past, one riddled by the shame of her deceased father and her empty, hollow home in one of New York's suburbias is frantically and exuberantly traded in for a life of expendable money, class, and 'natural' beauty. After meeting five other teenagers at a camp for 'artsy' kids, a complicated and long-lasting friendship is born, one that turns out to entail envy, fraud, corruption, rape, death, and deep and abstruse hatred.
This 535 page long book is relatively long, but it covers an entire lifetime, so the pace itself is quite fast and subtly witty. With more 'mature' topics, I would reccomend this book to early Tweens, all the way through young adults, but the multitude of ages in which we see the characters allows for it to be enjoyable for anyone of all walks of life. I found it to be very enjoyable and very relatable, and I think that anyone who gets deeply invested in the characters of a novel will come to appreciate it. As a bildungsroman and literary fiction novel, anyone who enjoys real-life stories will fall in love with the novel and the characters quickly and will want to stick with it.

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By Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott, the ever-starving artist and under appreciated writer,  compiled all of her wisdom in regards to her writing into one book, Bird by Bird. This 250-ish (depending on the edition) page book is a celebratory memoir of her career and what she’s gained from it, putting an emphasis on her real-life experiences and the insight she’s gained through death, trauma, and addiction. It’s very fast paced and captivates the reader in a way that moves the story along and keeps you intrueged throughout the whole ride.
As this is a story that concerns Anne Lamott and her writing career, I would only recommend this book to aspiring writers, but the stories themselves are very applicable to a varrying array of audiences. The plot is sporadic, as it boils down to a series of essays from different points in her life, but the themes are serious and encourage you to take a closer look at what you’re writing, why you should write, and how to write. Put simply, her advice is that the end is near; everyone alive now will be dead in a length of time, that, in comparison to the existence of the universe, is quite minimal, so life’s too short NOT to write. Her pessimistic views on feeding people BS and her philosophy on writing what you experience is inspiring. She has come face-to-face with a lot of audiences and people who hate her work and her intellect, but her ability to push through and spread the information that she believes is right will bring hope to many young writers. As becomes evident as you read the story, she believes in taking things as the come, one at a time (bird by Bird). I loved this book, nd I hope that you, should you decide to read it, will too.

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by Angie Thomas

Growing up isn't easy. When the odds are stacked against you, when you feel you  can never win, there's no point in hoping for something if you feel you can never change the outcome. Starr Cater knows that better than anyone. After meeting up with an old friend at a party, things turn violent and they are forced to leave. But the panic doesn't stop there. On their way home, their car is pulled over, and the policman makes what would later be wrongfully labeled as "a mistake". The incident leaves Starr traumatized, and she is forced to go back to her life stuck between two worlds: A notoriously white private academy and her neighborhood, notorious for gangbanging and a local series of small drug cartels. She has to make a choice: To sit on the sidelines and pretend it never happened in order to appeal to her peers, or to stand up and fight for what's right.
This realistic-fiction novel is one that I would recommend to all age ranges, as it has so many different layers and describes so many different view of the world. Its ability to address the issues other authors  have been too cowardly to. To anyone who appreciates standing up for the underdog and making it clear that you will stand by your values no matter the circumstances, this book represents the strong and the brave, whether that be immediately apparent or not.

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower (9/5/17)  S1

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower (9/5/17)  S1

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by Stephen Chbosky

When you're a wallflower, you see a lot. You hear lot. You feel more than anyone else, and yet you block out your own dark secrets while keeping the ones that aren't yours. Your life is fuller than everyone else's because you watch other people live, and yet you feel incomplete. When 15 year old "Charlie" realized it, he started to write to the person who he knew he could trust to listen: the nameless recipient of his many letters.
In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the anonymous writer who goes by the pen-name of "Charlie" explains his life to an anonymous person who has never met and who he hopes will never meet him. He has never met them before, he has never heard anything else about this person except that they won't tell anything they hear and they don't sleep with certain people out of common courtesy to others.
It seems like a bit of a stretch, but this fiction novel explores the hurt that "Charlie" has faced, even though he knows he has it better than others, but can't help feeling depressed. It goes into depth about his dark past and his quest for friendship. The innocence that allows him to be a wallflower is shatered as he enters his freshman year of High School and is taken into the care of two seniors who have known and seen everything that he will later see and know. When he finally feels like he belongs, everything gets ruined again.
This seems depressing, and it kind of is when you think about it. Whats funny is that this book made me so happy. "Charlie," who has so much hate and anger pressed onto him finds a way to innocently deal with all of the crap he is put through.  It's one of the best things I've ever read.
I would recommend this book to people who like a story that leaves you feeling kind of empty, but still happy. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but I think it's right for a lot of people. The  age range that I would recommend to this 213 page book to is 9-17. I think anyone can read it and enjoy it, but because of the characters, I think 9-17 is a way to allow people to apply themselves to what they're reading.

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (8/10/17) S1

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (8/10/17) S1

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by Becky Albertalli

In a world where it is tough to identify who you are and what you stand for, this book encompasses all of the challenges a regular teenager would face, and more. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli is a realistic-fiction novel that deals with Simon Spier, a homosexual teenage boy, and Blue, a boy Simon knows only through email. While juggling how to come out to his friends and family and how to best cope with his own views of himself, Simon tries his best to defeat the challenges that arise along his path with grace. He follows his love of Blue, and balances his own personal troubles to try to answer one question: Will he ever be at peace with himself and with others.
This book is thrilling and true. It cuts the crap and skips the cliches to expose how teenagers in a similar position to Simon can feel. I would recommend it to all ages, but the main audience being teens. I think that Anyone who feels lost in ANY way can connect with Simon's story.
I loved all 336 pages of this book, and I connected to it on so many levels. I love the way Albertalli writes, and I loved the story she told, so all together, this was one of my favorite reads. I think that if you enjoy books that can tell a story as it is and appreciate writing that is relevant and realistic, this is the read for you. It's true, it's funny, and it's bold. I honestly loved it, and I hope you will too.

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by Marcus Zusak

When Ed Kennedy was the hero and savior in a bank robbery, he only expected a few headlines and some recognition, but nothing could have prepared him for what was to come. When the Ace of Diamonds arrives, the three addresses could mean nothing less to him, until one night, he snaps. His mission is discrete to those who he helps, strange to those who know what he does, and nonexistent to the rest of the world. He is the messenger, but he doesn't know from who the messages are coming. This book follows Ed's journey through balancing his own personal struggles and those of the people on the four Aces to come in a heart-warming, heart-breaking, and  hilarious way.
This fiction story was less heart-wrenching than Zusak's first book, one of my all-time favorites, The Book Thief, but it was good just the same. If you like slow-moving but suspenseful stories, I Am the Messenger is the book for you. I loved this book and appreciated the way all 360 pages of it were formatted, and I think you should definitely give it a chance.
In my opinion, this book is good for ages 10-15. It is good, but the characters could seem irrelevant to people older than fifteen or younger than  10. Although the characters themselves are of an older age, the symbolic thread throughout the story only feels like is would really tough base with people who are totally confused with their place, especially transitioning from childhood to adulthood.

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by Stehpen King

Carrie, written by the noteble horror story author Stephen King, isn't exactly one of his typical novels. It highlights a sociopathic element to his writing as opposed to the blood and gore of some of his other works, like Rose Madder. The story is about a girls named Carrie who has been outcast by society because of her awkward and clumsy personality. She gets the worst of it from her peers in high school. What people don't understand is that she has been given no choice. Her mother shields her from important life information and forces her to pray because of every little thing she does. Carrie doesn't want to be an outsider, and had she been place under different circumstances where her mother wasn't overly religious and abusive, she might not be. But she can't change that. Some people trying to help her and feel sympathy, but some grow to hate her with every fiber of their being. So when she begins to exhibit signs of supernatural powers, she has no hesitation in how to use them. Carrie, who was once a sweet, innocent girl who was just trying to get by. Becomes a raging, fiery monster who is determined to kill. This book is interesting and heart wrenching at the same time. You don't know whose side to choose and you don't know who should feel sympathy for. I hope that you give his book a chance, and that you love it as much as I did.

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by Andy Weir

If you love science, space, and adventure, this is a book you are bound to fall for. The Martian exploits the true meaning of perseverance and tests one man's ability to put his mind through the toughest of obstacles and defy the boundaries that have surrounded his will to live. It follows a man by the name of Mark Watney, a member of the Ares 3 crew, a mission in a series of attempts to explore Mars and see if it could eventually sustain human life. He and his crew are on mars approximately six days before a storm strikes and they have to leave. There were six people on his crew. Only five left. Mark Watney was stranded without a single shred of hope. Even worse is the fact that everyone else thinks he's dead. Living with the supplies of what were supposed to be able to sustain a crew of six for a month (including life support and his stable environment) , the next mission to Mars almost four years away, and no way to communicate with Earth, Watney is forced to put his experience in botany and engineering to the test. From creating his own oxygen an traveling vast distances across Mars in a box to growing crops on an otherwise lifeless planet and building his own spacecraft, Watney perseveres through the roughest of terrains and beats the greatest of odds in order to survive. His story is a mind boggling thriller that make you question, laugh, and grip the edge of your seat, and I hope you have the pleasure of reading it