The Rules for Disappearing, Ashley Elston

There are times that I must read a book in pretty much one sitting. I can't physically tear myself away from it without knowing what's going to happen to the characters I've grown to love. And then, once I finish, I immediately need someone else to read it, too, so we can talk about it! The Rules for Disappearing was this kind of book.

A glimpse from Amazon:
She's been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she's been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last. Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they've given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do-or see-that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all of the Suits' rules-and her dad's silence. If he won't help, it's time she got some answers for herself. But Meg isn't counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who's too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there's only one rule that really matters-survival.

My opinions...
This book begins making you wonder what's going on. After a while, you think you've figured it out, and then that's turned inside out. I felt like Meg/Anna was easy to relate to even though I've never found myself in her situation. Somehow, through all she's endured, she is still a fairly normal teenager, grappling with making new friendships, pursuing a relationship, and dealing with parents that get on her nerves. Her story is different in many ways, but not so far-fetched that you can't identify with her. At times, I felt myself mourn for her and at other times, I thought my own heart would beat out of my chest as I cheered her on. The ending does leave some things up in the air, but in a good way.

I would definitely recommend this to my students to like mystery, thrillers, and romance. It was a neat combination!

Screwed by Laurie Plissner, Previewed Copy

Thanks to one of my new friends, I recently learned about NetGalley, a website where you can read new or soon-to-be-released books from a wide variety of interests. The first book that I read from NetGally was Screwed by Laurie Plissner, due for release on Amazon in just a few days.

The synopsis from Amazon:
Grace was the girl who always did everything right, until the night she fell for a boy's sleazy line and became pregnant. Nick couldn't care less about pretty math-geek Grace or the baby he fathered. He's had a dozen girls like her, and he'll have a dozen more. When Grace confesses to her super-religious, strait-laced parents, they deliver a shocker: They've scheduled an abortion. All they want is to pretend this never happened. When Grace balks, they literally throw her out in the street. A rich, elderly neighbor takes her in, and, with the help of the friendship she needs in Charlie, the old woman's great-nephew, she must make the toughest choice of her young life. The people she believed in were only playing a role, while others, in an unlikely way, are true heroes. Grace can never have the life she planned, but she has one chance to be the person she will have to live with for the rest of her life. Her choice will cost her, big time, either way--and no one can make it except her.

My opinions...
Sadly, I think this story is more realistic than we'd ever like to admit to ourselves. The "good girl" ends up in a "bad situation," and she is made to choose between her family and her own morals. The sad part, to me, is that the girls who go through this in real life don't usually end up with rich, kind neighbors who take them in. I think there is a lot of different takeaways in this book, from the consequences of hasty decisions to what family is really all about. I definitely enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to my high school students. There is some profanity, but surprisingly, no extremely sexual content.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, Recent Read

There are times I finish reading a book and am immediately puzzled by the fact that it took me so long to discover it. I am jealous of other people who have had the immense joy of reading the book and knowing about it and thinking about it while I've not even known it existed. I felt this way when I finished Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. I've read a few of her books prior to reading this one, and while I've enjoyed them, none of them has grabbed me in the way this one did. It was seriously a book that I found to be unputdownable, and any chore that I might have needed to do around my house didn't get done until this book was finished.

The brief synopsis from Goodreads:
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

My opinions...
Obviously, I loved the book. I found Liz to be an extremely likable character, and I felt like she was easy to relate to. Her situation was heartbreaking to me at times, yet I found myself excited for her as she faced new experiences and opportunities. The idea of the afterlife being a place where you live life in reverse was an interesting concept. At first, I was uncertain as to how Zevin was going to make it work after Liz arrives and goes through her orientation, but the story unfolded beautifully. I think it has great appeal to a wide variety of readers.

The Obligatory Intro

I feel like this whole endeavor, should it turn into an endeavor at all, should probably begin with a little "here's me, and this is why I'm blogging to the world about books." Otherwise, you'll never know if I'm a librarian crouched behind my desk, reading in secret while my patrons wonder where I've gone, or if I'm a teenager who is in love with the written word, or if I'm a superhero whose major power is to verbally beat down any foe in her way. The truth? I'm a teacher, so in a way, I'm all those other things rolled together...but definitely the superhero.

I teach English to some of the greatest kids in the world, and more than anything else, while they're in my presence, I want them to fall head over heels in love with reading. I want them to read books they enjoy, books they find unputdownable, and books they mourn for when they turn the last page. Why? Because that's the type of reader I've always been.

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that valued reading. I remember my mom telling me to clean my room "right now," but I also remember "I've just got one more chapter, Momma" being a perfectly acceptable reason to hold off on that cleaning...indefinitely. On car trips, everyone took books. My knees were usually in my chest the whole way because my feet rested on the mound of books that was stacked in my floorboard. I am a reader, through and through.

Often, my students ask me what my hobbies are. I say "reading." They lift those adolescent eyebrows, raising one as though to say, "You are so lame," and then they ask me what I read. In my first year teaching, I'm convinced my students thought I read four pieces of literature: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and The Crucible. Why on earth would they think I only read those things? Because, you see, those were the pieces of literature we read in class, and those were all I talked about with my students. Somewhere along the way, I realized that they had no idea why anyone would read for pleasure, and I vowed to help them understand exactly why I did.

So I read, and read, and read, and along the way, I try to help others fall in love with it, too.