I am not only an author but a private ELA tutor. One of my high school students read this book and recommended it to me. While the writing itself is a bit overdone (the book should have been pared down a bit), the story itself is one that no one should miss. The friendship between these two people from different worlds really is a testament to the human spirit. The book teaches us that we can love anyone, anywhere, from any background, if we open our hearts. We ALL can change other people's lives, and we ALL can become better people for doing so. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. Martin was lucky to even receive a pen-pal letter. There were only ten, and forty kids in his class. But he was the top student, so he got the first one.
That letter was the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives. In this compelling dual memoir, Caitlin and Martin recount how they became best friends--and better people--through their long-distance exchange. Their story will inspire readers to look beyond their own lives and wonder about the…
I had read the play version of this book, had seen it onstage, and also was familiar with the movie version, but this was my first time reading the original book. The author was brilliant. I have read few books with all all three of the following: great writing, great plot, and great characterization. You will not be disappointed in this book as it takes you on a journey of a few men and their nurse caretaker as they learn about one another while spending time in a mental institution. The book reminds us that we are all a little crazy, and that not all caregivers are equipped to be placed in their positions. Told in first-person viewpoint from a Native American, it delves into the backgrounds of each character and opens us to worlds of people who may or may not be like some we know. I suggest reading the book and then seeing the movie version, starring Jack Nicholson. As an aside, beware of some discriminatory commentary, as it takes place in the late 60s-early 70s when those kinds of American ideas were rampant.
Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's 1962 novel has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Now in a new deluxe edition with a foreword by Chuck Palahniuk and cover by Joe Sacco, here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them…
Weird and wild, this story is like no other I've read before. Historical fiction melds with horror in what may feel like a combo of Black magical realism and women's suffrage. The 1915 world of women struggling out on the range alone, trying to survive in a world that wants to kill them, is spot on. You can feel the desolation of their environment, along with the desire to survive. The book meanders just a bit toward the end, but the deeper meaning does come through. What is locked inside the trunk? You will have to read this book to find out!
Blue skies, empty land—and enough wide-open space to hide a horrifying secret. A woman with a past, a mysterious trunk, a town on the edge of nowhere, and an “absorbing, powerful” (BuzzFeed) new vision of the American West, from the award-winning author of The Changeling.
“Propulsive . . . LaValle combines chills with deep insights into our country’s divides.”—Los Angeles Times
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2023: The New York Times, Time, Oprah Daily, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Essence, Salon, Vulture, Reader’s Digest, The Root, LitHub, Paste, PopSugar, Chicago Review of Books, BookPage, Book Riot, Tordotcom, Crime Reads,…
Bright but unassuming Marilyn Jones has some grown-up decisions to make, especially after Mama goes to prison for drugs and larceny. With no one to take care of them, Marilyn and her younger, mentally challenged brother, Carol, get tossed into the foster care system. While shuffling from one home to another, Marilyn makes it her mission to find the Tan Man, a mysterious man from her babyhood she believes holds the key to her family's happiness.
But Marilyn's quest is halted when her daddy, an ex-con she has never met, is chosen by the courts as the new guardian. Caleb Jones wants something more than a father-daughter relationship. He sends Carol far away, where the boy won't be a hindrance to his plans. Marilyn devises a plan of her own: to locate her little brother, kidnap him, and run away.
Independence, however, often comes at a high price.
As Marilyn weathers the unexpected and often brutal storms of her childhood and adolescence, hope becomes her ally as she winds through small Southern towns, wrapping herself around an assortment of hearts along the way. With a little help from a caring social worker, a carnival of misfits, her first true love, and even the elusive Tan Man himself, Marilyn will discover that "family" isn't always what we imagine it to be.
