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No Limit by Pete Hautman
Okay, how do I start this? After finishing No Limit by Pete Hautman (who is, by the way, an award-winning author), I was suprised at how dramatic the main character, Dennis Doyle, changes in less than a summer’s worth.
He starts off with his lawn mowing business around his community, earning up to ten dollars. Next comes a car driving down the road, and he’s hit. Fortunately, he’s fine, but the weed wacker he’s been carrying around with him got badly damaged. In need of a new weed wacker, he sets out to earn some money to buy a new one. Along the way back from the incident, he bumps into one of the neighborhood nut job, Jason Hicks. He invites Dennis to a game of poker, and Dennis accepts. During the game, he discovers his hidden talent: the ability to play poker like a professional. Since then, he has gotten interested in the game and begins to earn more money by the masses. He soon faces new opponents in different environments of play (smoke, humid room, disgusting odors, etc.), borrows a book of poker tips, and even buys a fancy new car. But despite his success, though, he begins to change, as I mentioned before. This will affect who he is and how people will look at him at a different angle.
When I first read the book, I wanted to see some action, since the book had to with gambling and trouble. I got more than I expected. Not only do you get to experience the intense games, you also get to see how Dennis thinks while seeing possibilities and making strategies to win. It’s a really interesting book, especially with it’s ironic, totally-unprepared-for ending. In due time, you see how every little scene falls into place for the big finale.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer was about Christopher McCandless, a Washington D.C. citizen that was born into a normal family. With good grades and a future planned out with a college fund of twenty five thousand dollars, Christopher gave it all away to explore the Western American wilderness, including Alaska and Mexico. He changed his name from Christopher McCandless to Alex Supertramp and planned to hike around and survive by scrounging for berries and hunting game. In Alaska, Christopher McCandless took with him a feeble amount of supplies, after rejecting the offer of better supplies from a friend, and died there. Chris was defined by a select few quotes in the book that showed his lifestyle fairly well. “Invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience” showed a possible reason for his odd ways, and “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences”. I enjoyed this book and liked how it made me think about life choices and how Chris lived his; I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a book that will make them think.
Perks Of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Have you ever felt unloved and alone? In the book, Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chboski, the main character Charlie has to overcome his problems and fears of social interaction after his best friend Michael commits suicide. Charlie is a selfless highschooler whom has a hard time making friends until he meets an older brother and sister named Sam (Charlie’s crush) and Patrick (Charlie’s best friend) who give Charlie a more broad perspective on life. This book had my back glued to my bed and my eyes attracted to the pages with all of its emotions and interesting plot making it almost impossible to look away. Reading Perks of Being a Wallflower made me think about all the other people in the world and how they came to be who they are today. The punk in the corner of the cafeteria wasn’t always the anarchist, what are his motives? Is there a story behind it? When someone picks up this book, it looks like any other “high school drama” book, but underneath the cover is a new world with unthinkable situations. My favorite part of this book are the characters: Sam: the rebellious, cigarette smoking beauty queen. Patrick: the gay, joker and hippy. And last but not least Charlie: the sheltered, quiet, middle class boy who doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere. Together they make a team of harmonious personalities that tingle my spine in each chapter of this book. I recommend this book to anyone who has a heart and is looking for a thought provoking book.
Jake Reinvented by Gordon Korman
To be completely blunt and honest, I really don’t enjoy reading very much. It typically doesn’t interest me at all. I think it is because I have never been captivated by any book. I need a book that is action packed from the start. That is why I am glad I chose Jake Reinvented. When I opened up the book and read the first sentence it said ” On a scale of one to ten, this party was at least an eight.” This is when I knew I made a good choice. So as you can see the book starts out at a Friday night party. The main character, Ricky, is having an awesome time when he realizes that he has no idea who’s party it is. Rick is pretty embarrassed when he asks the kid across from him whose party this is and the kid answers “this is my party the names Jake.” Rick introduces himself and his best friend Todd, the high school quarterback. After a few parties Jake, Todd, and Rick are pretty good friends. They see each other everyday at football practice where everyone takes a liking to Jake, apparently he is the best long snapper F. Scott Fitzgerald High School has ever had. Jake basically refuses to miss a Friday night party. Jake’s dad is usually out of town on business so Jake has the freedom to do almost what ever he wants. Jake is riding high at F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is the most popular kid in school by this time. There is one thing that Jake wants though. Didi, Todd’s girlfriend. Didi starts to fall for Jake. They start hanging out and “doing homework” but Didi is still dating Todd. Didi thinks Todd is cheating on her, which he does at Jakes shindigs but any other night Todd is completely in love with her. From this point on, things start to get crazy. Ricky and his life long best friend Jennifer explore their chemistry. Todd knows Didi likes Jake and he thinks she will never break up with him so he acts like he doesn’t care. As for Jake, he has one main goal: get Didi to break up with Todd so that he can claim her for himself. Parties start to get weird with a new crowds of college kids Rick has never seen before and Todd is onto Jake. Todd is starting to wonder where Jake gets the money to buy a keg every Friday night, why he came out of no where and is the best long snapper the school has ever had, and why Didi prefers Jake over himself. You could cut the tension with a knife. Cliche I know, but it is the truth. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, readers or non-readers. I am tempted to read the book again because it was so good. I think that is saying something when it comes from someone like me.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I found To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee a really hard book to get into. I read this book for my outside reading book this semester because although I knew it would be more difficult than some of the other choices I still thought it would be a book that you could just sit on the couch and enjoy. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a so called “page turner;” I didn’t feel like I kept wanting to read or that I couldn’t put the book down. What I really felt while reading this book was that all I wanted to do was go back to my bed and sleep for a few more hours. Unfortunately, that is not a very productive way of finishing a book that you are required to read by the next couple of days. Although I wasn’t entirely intrigued by this book it kept me thinking.
This book shows the prejudice that existed and how it affected children. Not only was the town of Maycomb extremely racist against blacks, there was also a certain way people believed “a lady” is supposed to behave. Scout and her brother Jem are forced to face these things when their father, Atticus, defends a black man who had supposedly taken advantage of a white woman. Scout is forced to “act like a lady” when her aunt comes to live with them. Throughout the book Scout and Jem try to figure out what they really believe. Together they realize how racists the town really is and how it’s wrong to be that way. Scout also challenges what it really means to be a lady and finds who she really wants to look up to as a female role model.
To Kill a Mockingbird has multiple hidden meanings. Most likely, the reason I wasn’t able to fully appreciate this book was because I didn’t completely understand all of those “hidden meanings.”
(319 words)
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
When I was signing up for a book on this project I picked Running Loose because it was a smaller book and looked easier to read. However, after I read the first few chapters I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about sports, enjoys humor and at the same time throw in some sadness.
The book Running Loose takes place in a little Podunk town of Trout in Idaho. Here we meet our main character Louie and some of his classmates and his family. Louie is a senior at Trout high school and he plays football and track. All summer Louie works out so he can start on the football team. When football season starts Louie makes the starting line-up on offense and defense. Right after the season kicks off and the win their first game Louie goes on a date with Becky who is the prettiest, smartest girl in Trout. Eventually they become get in a relationship and become much closer. While the football season is going on they come up on their best competition Salmon high school. Salmon’s team has one very good player who scores all their points. So the football coach, Coach Lendecky, responds to that and tells the whole team that someone needs to lay a dirty hit on that player to knock him out of the game. Louie is completely against this and in their game one of his teammates lays a dirty hit on Salmon’s best player and knocks him out of the game. Louie is furious about this and throws a huge fit about it on the field in front of everyone. The fit he threw caused him to get kicked off the football team and he was banned from sports a Trout by word but not on paper. With the track season coming up and the track coach really wanting him on the team Louie tries to join the track team, but will the principal and Coach Lendecky let him.
To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee
Before I read “To Kill a Mockingbird” By Harper Lee, I watched the movie in class. I didn’t have to read the book because I am not in the honors English class but I decided to because I thought it would be a challenge. Usually movies are very different from books but the book and movie were similar. The movie I thought was good so I did not think the book would be as good as the movie. The book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama. The main characters Jem and Scout live with their dad he is a lawyer. They have a housekeeper and later on, their aunt moves in with them. They have a friend named Dill that comes during the summers to visit he stays with one of the Finch’s neighbors. The main point of the book is to try to get their neighbor Boo Radley to come out of his house. Boo Radley lives just down the street he never comes out of his house. They know he’s still alive because they have not seen him carried out yet. One of the other major events is that Mr. Finch is representing a African American named Tom Robinson in a trial. Tom Robinson is accused of rape and beating up a white women. The main point of the story is that you never know someone until you walk in their shoes. I think it is true because you can’t judge a person you have never met. The only big difference between the book and the movie is that in the book their Aunt Alexandra comes to live with the Finch’s.