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Showing posts from November, 2015

Horns by Joe Hill

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Horns by Joe Hill                 Ignatius Perrish got rip roaring drunk on the one year anniversary of the death of his girlfriend Merrin. She had been bashed in the head with a rock, raped and left to die in the woods. Ig was the only suspect and even though he was never charged with her murder, he remained a person of interest and everyone in his home town believed he did it. He went back to the place her body was found, destroyed all of the memorials placed there in her honor, pissed on his own feet and now, the next day has no idea how he got home. He also has no idea why he has small horns coming from the top of his head. Or why people kept telling him things that they would never say out loud, let alone confide to the guy they believed capable of murder. Yet here they were, everyone he encountered, spilling their guts. That’s how he found out who really killed Merrin. Now all Ignatius wants is a way to make that person pay for the pain he felt. The horns were the answ

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb

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I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb                 Malala Yousafzai is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She is a young Pashtun girl who was raised in the Swat Valley in Pakistan. Her father, Ziauddin, dreamed of creating a school and ended up residing over three schools in the Swat Valley. His love for education was passed on to his daughter and she became an advocate for educating women in Pakistan and all over the world. Her love of education made her a target for the Taliban. Malala had experienced fear under Taliban rule years earlier when they took over the Swat Valley in 2009. Bombings and gun fire rang out in her village and the fear was palpable. Her school was closed and she began speaking out alongside her father for the need to educate youth, including girls. She would eventually leave her home in Swat Valley as the military fought to take back the valley from the Taliban. She would

Unteachable by Leah Raeder

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Unteachable by Leah Raeder                 Maise has slept with older men before. She has accepted the fact that boys her age would never meet the cut. She is eighteen, about to start her senior year of high school and is determined to conquer her fears. The night she met Evan on the roller coaster, she didn’t expect anything to come from it. He was hot, the sex was hot and she was gone. Until she walked into her Film Studies class and there he stood. Evan Wilke. Her teacher. She had no idea. He had no idea. Yet here they were together and the temptation was too much to resist. The affair had begun before either of them had a chance to stop it. But now the secrecy begins and the teacher and student fall fast into each other and into a deception they may not be able to climb out of.                 Well this caught me completely by surprise. From the very first page I was lost in Maise’s life. This book was so many things: intoxicating, thrilling, sexy, addicting, detailed a

Solo: A Memoir of Hope by Hope Solo with Ann Killian

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Solo: A Memoir of Hope by Hope Solo with Ann Killian                 I consider myself to be a casual soccer fan. I’m probably not going to watch every DC United game or catch Major League Soccer highlights, but when the World Cup and the Summer Olympics come around, I am watching every match and cheering for the team. With that being said I have been aware of Hope Solo’s presence for a while now, at least the last five or six years. I think she is a powerhouse on the U.S. Women’s National Team and an amazing goalkeeper. She has also been in the media quite a lot over the last few years for a variety of reasons, not many of which are positive. After randomly finding this memoir at a Dollar Tree store I decided it was time to learn more about her so I gave it a try.                 Solo: A Memoir of Hope is intense. Solo is unapologetic and frank about her life. She talks about her chaotic upbringing with an alcoholic mother and a father who was homeless for many years af

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller Patroclus remembered seeing Achilles when they were both children. Both boys were princes but while Patroclus was the child of a simple woman, Achilles’s mother was the sea nymph Thetis. Achilles was to be the greatest fighter the world had known. Patroclus would have no such destiny. When he accidentally killed a young boy he was exiled and sent to live in the home of Achilles and his father. There, Patroclus would become Achilles most trusted companion and much more. They would be by each other’s side for over a decade even in the mist of the war that lasted ten years.  I had no idea that The Song of Achilles would center on the romantic relationship of Patroclus and Achilles. Not a single clue. Patroclus is the narrator throughout the entire novel and I found his point of view extremely fascinating from the beginning. After about 40 pages I realized the attraction between the two characters would take center stage. Their growing relat

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

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Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn                 When I picked this book up from the bookstore I was looking for something dark and twisted. Well, this novel hit that nail right on the head. Camille Preaker is a reporter for a small newspaper in Chicago. She has been sent on assignment to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to cover the murders of two young girls. Their deaths are about a year apart but they were both found strangled with all of their teeth removed. Fully aware that this could be a big break and absolutely huge for the newspaper, Camille heads back to Wind Gap begrudgingly. Her relationship with her mom Adora is non-existent and has been irrefutably fractured since the death of her younger sister over a decade ago. Camille’s return home opens old wounds and reveals new ones in the shape of her 13 year old sister Amma, who is both beautiful and terrifying.                 There were a lot of things I really loved about this novel. It moved well. I easily fell i