Books are organized by author. Click on the author or the title to download the notes from our book discussion.
Bray, Libba. Going Bovine
The story of Cameron Smith, a teenage boy diagnosed with mad cow
disease. Cameron goes on an adventure with a friend to find Dr. X, the
only person that can cure him. As the story progresses, the line
between reality and fiction is blurred and Cameron finds himself in
numerous entertaining predicaments, such as his run in with a
happiness commune.
Cohen, Joshua. Leverage
From Amazon: A Top Ten Best Fiction Book for Young Adults as Selected by the American
Library Association. The football field is a
battlefield There's an extraordinary price for victory at Oregrove
High. It is paid on-and off-the football field. And it claims its victims
without mercy-including the most innocent bystanders. When a violent,
steroid-infused, ever-escalating prank war has devastating consequences, an
unlikely friendship between a talented but emotionally damaged fullback and a
promising gymnast might hold the key to a school's salvation. Told in
alternating voices and with unapologetic truth, Leverage illuminates the fierce
loyalty, flawed justice, and hard-won optimism of two young athletes.
Condie, Ally. Matched
From Amazon: Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her:
what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears
on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . .
until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to
black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she
should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia
can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to
doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice:
between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one
else has dared to follow.
Hubbard, Mandy. Prada and Prejudice
From Amazon: To impress the popular girls on a high school trip to London, klutzy Callie buys
real Prada heels. But trying them on, she trips?conks her head?and wakes up in
the year 1815!
There Callie meets Emily, who takes her in, mistaking her for a long-lost
friend. As she spends time with Emily?s family, Callie warms to
them?particularly to Emily?s cousin Alex, a hottie and a duke, if a tad
arrogant.
But can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, and win Alex?s heart,
before her time in the past is up?
More Cabot than Ibbotson, Prada and Prejudice is a high-concept romantic
comedy about finding friendship and love in the past in order to have happiness
in the present.
Kogler, Jennifer Anne. The Death Catchers
From Amazon: On her fourteenth Halloween, Lizzy Mortimer sees her first
death-specter. Confused at first, Lizzy soon learns from her grandmother
Bizzy that as Death Catchers, they must prevent fate from taking its course when
an unjust death is planned-a mission that has been passed down from their
ancestor, Morgan le Fay. Only, Lizzy doesn't expect one of her first cases to
land her in the middle of a feud older than time between Morgan le Fay and her
sister Vivienne le Mort. Vivienne hopes to hasten the end of the world by
preventing Lizzy from saving King Arthur's last descendant-humanity's greatest
hope for survival. It's up to Lizzy, as Morgan's earthly advocate, to outwit
fate before it's too late. With its unique spin on Arthurian legend, this
fresh, smartly written story will stand out in the paranormal genre.
Levithan, David. The Lover's Dictionary
From Amazon: How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe
something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling
us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than
ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of
David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary has constructed the story of his
relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an
intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a
couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.
Meyer, Marissa. Cinder
From Amazon: Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a
mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s
illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s,
she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a
forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she
must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Meyer, Marissa. Scarlet
Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest
From Booklist: *Starred Review* After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old
Abilene can’t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady
Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier. Abilene quickly finds friends
and uncovers a local mystery. Abilene’s first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper
columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while
letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer.
Grades 5-8. --Kathleen Isaacs
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Walls' memoir details her strange childhood. She and her siblings were raised by delusional parents that made her childhood fun and frightening at the same time. Both parents were often between jobs and the Walls children were without a stable home. They are often left to raise themselves. Her memoir is an ode to her upbringing and a strange account of rising above in spite of or because of one's circumstances.
