Red Azalea

Anchee Min’s story starts with a series of jarring and discordant vignettes of her childhood in China.  It’s a childhood filled with the absence of childish indulgences. Intimacy and individual joy are difficult and almost impossible to come by, and fear of death is always lurking. This is a life under Chairman Mao. “Red Azalea” is a powerful account of one woman, who embodies the pain and isolation of the generation growing up in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution, and the struggles of maintaining one’s humanity under such tumultuous and trying conditions.
       

Min’s other works rely heavily on a central theme of independent Chinese women, working against the powers that be. This autobiographical novel is no exception. Min tells the story of her young childhood all the way through the death of Chairman Mao, in her early twenties. In this time, she engages in a dangerous romance and is constantly fighting the battle for life. Her story is one that- on the surface- appears soap opera-esque, but when the gritty details of her adolescence come into play (being forced to kill her pet, causing the gruesome death of a loved one, traumatizing her only friend into a ghost-like existence, to name a few) it reads more like a horror story. Despite these discouraging events, however, there is always an underlying pulse of love in the vein of this narrative. Even in the darkest depths of Min’s life, those she loves serve as a salve and a guide through the tumult.
         

Because of the minor graphic sexual and violent content, I would not recommend this book to anyone under 15 or so (a good test to determine if this book is appropriate for you is to say the name of any human genital out loud without giggling hysterically. If you can achieve that, you should probably be fine), but for anyone who is mature enough to deal with the subject matter, “Red Azalea” is a must-read. This important time period in human history is one of the most horrid, and there seems to be a severe lack of education about it in American classrooms. If I hadn’t read this book, my eyes would still be shut to the terror and desolation of china under Mao and the Cultural Revolution.

Book Review by Kai G.

Shattered

I read the book Shattered by Paul Langan. Two more books he has written are A Matter of Trust and Blood is Thicker, these few books are part of the series he has written. This book and series is about young teenage kids who have family problems and either are in a gang or have troubles living life and go through many tough times in school and at home. As you go through this book you will see that being a teenage kid is difficult and you may not see it but the people you go to school with may have family problems and pretend like everything is fine.

               

In Shattered, a young girl named Darcy is having family problems at home and her ex-boyfriend Hakeem lives in a different state and she misses him a lot. Darcy is trying to stop her family from fighting every day and just become a happy family again like when her and her sister were young girls and would be happy all the time. Darcy is trying to keep her little sister away from all the fast boys and away from trouble and especially away from the streets. When Darcy finds out Hakeem is coming back in town she is happy and so is Hakeem. Darcy decides if she should tell Hakeem about her hanging out with another guy or if she shouldn’t tell him. How would Hakeem react if she tells him will he hate me forever or not care at all? Is Hakeem even excited to see me again?

               

I think this book was amazing and I loved it! There were a lot of hard obstacles that Darcy had to face and had a lot of trouble keeping her family together and dealing with Hakeem coming back to town. I think people should read this book because it grabs your attention really quick and it’s very interesting. If you love books that have drama scenes in it or romantic scenes in it then I suggest you to read this book along with the other Bluford High books but make sure you read the books in order so it makes sense. The book also makes you question yourself what will happen next and read the other books of this series. This book also tells you what goes on in the lives of these teenagers and what all happens and why they struggle so much in life. Paul Langan is a wonderful writer and I would be excited to read another one of his books. 

Book Review by Kalessa T.

The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help is a book set in the midst of the civil rights movement. It has three different views, two African American maids and a white, young writer. They team together to write a book about their lives and raise awareness for equal rights and to end segregation. They get other maids to share their stories of working as Help, and it soon becomes a huge deal to maids in Jackson, Mississippi.

Important characters include Minny, who’s a black maid and she’s very strong-willed and speaks her mind always. She’s resistant to write the book, but decides that she will do it. Abileen is a kind maid, and has worked in the maid business all her life. She’s the first maid to share her story and is eager to get it all out. Skeeter is a white, rich woman right out of college who wants to be a journalist. She comes up with the idea of the story, and is very excited about it.

This book is definitely recommended for others. It gives you a completely different view of the civil rights movement. The book is very well-written and you soon feel connected to every character. At the end of the book, you feel just as sad as Abileen when she has to leave. You feel that you can’t book the book down, and when you do, you just want to read more to figure out what is going to happen next. It’s a must-read and you will walk away feeling completely different about the way people are treated and the civil rights movement.

Book Review by Madilyn B.

The Color Purple

The book I choose to read was The Color Purple by Alive Walker. Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African-American novelist and poet most famous for authoring The Color Purple. Walker also published three collections of short stories, essays, six volumes of poetry, and several children’s book.  All of Walkers books contribute to African Americans, and the way they were treated and how they should be treated equally not like slaves. The story The Color Purple is one of the best books I have read my high school career. The theme of the story is that the race of the African American women were tortured and never respected. The story was taken place in the early 1980’s, when African American women were used as housewife slaves for white men.

The Color Purple is a story about an African American woman named Celie, who was sexually and physically abused as a teenager by her father. Celie was forced to have two children by her father, and both were sold to a white family for money.  Then later Celie is forced to “marry” a white male so her sister, Nettie does not get taken by him, due to the fact that the man wanted Nettie and Celie would do anything to protect her sister. As Celie is married to this man, she is forced to cook, clean and take care of his six children. Through the time she arrives she is also sexually and physically abused by this man. Throughout the story Celie discovers letters that her sister Nettie has been writing to her in Mr.____ car. In those letters is the happy story of Nettie’s life because; she got taken in by the caring of a white family. Whose children just had to be Celie’s children that she had given birth to as a teenager. Towards the end of the story Celie moves to Memphis, Tennessee with a woman she has met throughout her living with Mr.____, and gains enough spirit and power to stand up to Mr._____ and tell him off and leave him. The story is such an inspiration on how our society has evolved into a better place. Women, especially African American women have gained the right to not be slaves, and be someone and something in life.

                

I would highly recommend this book to anyone, such a great book.  Throughout the reading of the book, it just shows you another world of how African American women suffered and were tortured not just as women, but as human beings as well. Just evolution of times was fascinating. That is was okay back in the 1980’s to treat women and African Americans that way, but now god forbid any women or African American was treated that way straight to jail they go. I am now looking into more stories written by Alice Walker, I do not thing I will ever be disappointed by her writing. It is just so inspirational. 

Book Review by Emina D.

Angels and Demons

The book I read was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Brown has written many other books such as, The Da Vinci Code, Deception Point, The Lost Symbol, and Inferno. After the pope dies, the three Cardinals who are running for the position as pope are kidnapped. Robert Langdon must use his vast knowledge of ancient symbols to track down the culprit before he kills all of the cardinals and sets off a bomb in the middle of the Vatican.

           

After Langdon gets call in the middle of the night asking him to come to a research lab in Switzerland, he arrives to discover that he was invited to help investigate a murder that he later comes to realize was committed by a member of the Illuminati. While the murderer was at the research lab he stole a canister of anti-matter, a new material that has tremendous destructive properties if it comes in contact with matter. He plants the antimatter canister in the Vatican and kidnaps the three cardinals. He starts to kill them off one by one every hour until midnight when the canister keeping the antimatter suspended in a vacuum runs out and releases it, destroying the small country. The killer must murder the cardinals in specific ways in very precise locations. Langdon uses this to his advantage to help him locate where the killer is staying, which turns out to be the Layer of the Illuminati. With midnight approaching, Langdon must locate the canister within the Vatican before it explodes.

               

I think that you should read this book, because Brown does an incredible job researching information about the symbols, places and organizations he uses in all of his books. He puts a lot of time and detail in the descriptions of the locations and characters throughout the book.  This book is very suspenseful and you won’t want to put it down until you finish it.

Book Review by Tyler M.

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini is the author of the famous novel published in 2003, The Kite Runner. Hossein is an Afghan-American novelist, born on 1965. Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan but  when he was 15 the family moved to US and became citizens.

He write three novels and all three became bestsellers. His first novel published was "The Kite Runner"  and after followed by "A Thousand Splendid Suns." His last book "And the Mountains Echoed" was published last year. All three novels are fiction novels, that tells inspiring life changing stories. The writing style of the author, make awake your feelings. With this book I laughed and I cried.

The relationship between father and son, the importance of friendship, the past,  identity, the search for forgiveness, different social classes, religion, cultures, patriotism and citizenship are some of the most important themes in the Kite Runner. With all this ingredients it already seemed that it would be great; but what I found inside this book was better, much better.

Everything happen in the winter of 1975 in . Amir, the narrator and Hassar are two kids around 12 years. They are best friend and they been together forever. Amir is the son of baba, a rich business man. His mom dies when he born, so he spend most of his life with baba. he doesn't understand his son, who loves the literature and he gives more attention to Hassan.

But the day that in Kabul it gives rise a Kites competition. In Afghanistan the kites are really popular, so Amir and Hassan decided to sign in. This day the kids won the competition, and for first time in a long time Amir see his father proud of him.

Hassan went to take the trophy but when Amir realizes that he is taking a long time, he decides when to find out what is happening. Is at that moment when he find that Assef, a guy who always goes around Hassan, is raping him. Amir get afraid so he decides to leaves and do like if he doesn't see anything.

Later, Amir acts like if he doesn't know anything, even the next weeks he tries not be close to Hassan. Then a couple weeks after the kids won the trophy, baba's celebrate a birthday party for his son and gives to him a clock.

This clock disappears and is finally found in Hassan house. Hassan swear that he doesn't did anything, and it's true because Amir put the clock in Hassan house. Then Hassan dad decides to leave even Baba's prays them not to leave.

After Ali and Hassan leave. Baba and Amir should to leave too because the war just started and they should find a safe place. Finally they get to leave Afghanistan and go to America. There Baba's find  job and Amir graduates from High School.

Is there in America, when he is helping his dad in the job, he meet Soraya, with who he falls in love. At the first moment Soraya's dad is not 100% agree but they keep going with the relation. But baba get sick of cancer, so Amir ask the hand to Soraya´s dad and he accept.

They get married and they went to live together and try to created a family. Baba's died two weeks after the wedding.

And then is when Amir receives the calling from Rahim Kan, his dad friend. Rehim invite him to visit him in Afghanistan and he accept. When Amir meet Rahim there, this one tell him that Hassan is actually Baba´s soon. What happened was that Ali couldn't had kids, so Baba's had sexual relations with Hassan mom for give them a kid.

The other surprise that Rahim gives to Amir is that Hassan is death. he was  accused  for live in a house that wasn't his and he refused to leave, so the police kill him and his wife leaving his son orphan. Rahim asked Amir go to look for him and he finally went.

They arrived to the house where Amir son, Sohrab, supposedly lived but when arrive there the kid wasn't there. They explained that every moth a general comes and take some kids and this month the unfortunate was Soharab. They discovered that the general was Assef, who rape Hassan the day that everything changed. Amir talk with him and ask for Soharh. Assef told to Amir that they should fight and if Amir will won, he can bring Soharah with him. When Amir was almost lossing, Soharah hit Assef and then Soharah and Amir escape.

At the final of the book, Amir decides bring Soharah to USA with him, and give a new life. For Soharah was really hard to integrated to the new culture.

I started this book with some questions that I would like, one of the reasons was because I thought that an Afghan writer it was pretty far of my literary taste. But the prejudices disappears after the first ten pages. The story is gripping and shocking and reveals reality of the human heart.  For me this book became into one of that books that are unforgettable.

Sincerely I recommend to everyone to read this book, you will not regret. 

Book Review by Claudia P-M.

Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi’s, “Persepolis,” is an uplifting and emotional biography of her life. The Iranian Revolution is at its peak in 1980, and the boys and girls are separated. Her parents involved themselves in protests in their city of Tehran. Her parents wanted a better life for her, so they sent her to live in Vienna and attend a boarding school. At times, she tries to get through life with her faith, but it was a mental and emotional struggle. Marjane’s grandfather served as prime minister for a bit, but he was sent to prison shortly for opposing the regime of Iran. Her father actively protested and would risk his life, but Marjane was young and did not have enough understanding of what was occurring in her country. Iran strictly set a conservative regime, forcing women to wear veils, up to today. Later when she is older, she moves to Europe, attends art school and marries Rezza, a painter that she met there. She learns that freedom comes at price, and hopes for her country of Iran to evolve.

               

The organization of the book is interesting and keeps the reader hooked. She transitions between stories from the past and the present. It is a shorter read, but her language and detail portray a very unique story.

Book Review by Christine V.