Call me by Your Name

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Twilight

Twilight 

To begin with, I read the book Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. I've watched all the movies apart of the Twilight series, but I have never read any of the books. So, I thought it was about time to start reading them. The book is very similar to the movie; however, I feel the book is much more detailed in every event and emotion. It first starts out with the main character, Bella Swan, leaving her childhood home in Phoenix, Arizona. She is leaving her home to move in with her, who is the police chief in Forks, Washington. She had lived there before, but her father and mother separated while Bella was really young. When they got divorced her mother got full custody of Bella and moved to Phoenix. When Bella arrives her father is very awkward, due to the fact that he hasn't seen her in years. When they both arrive at their home Bella notices that the house never changed. The father kept everything the same way from when Bella and her mother left, even her bedroom. During the same day Bella's father gives her the iconic red ford pickup-truck. 

The next day, Bella starts school at her new school Forks High School. While there she meets Edward Cullen. She meets him in her biology class, and at first he appears to hate her. A few days later, they're paired up as lab partners in Biology class and get to know each other. After a winter storm, the snow freezes, leaving the roads icy. A van gets caught on black ice and starts spinning and nearly hits Bella, but Edward stops the van with his bare hands leaving everyone in shock. From there, Edward and Bella become inseparable and have an epic love story with a lot of twists and turns. This book I would highly recommend to people who love sappy, epic, or fantasy love story. 

Penpal

I read Penpal by Daniel Auerbach. The book is a collection of short stories, each one connected to the other but it can also be read by itself. The story involves the narrator who, during kindergarten, makes a pen pal as a class project. He ties a letter in an envelope to a balloon and lets it go. In the following weeks, his class mates begin to receive letters back, the narrator being the only exception. He finally receives a response back at the end of the year in the form of several blank envelopes, each having a Polaroid photo. When it finally develops, it is revealed to be several photos of the narrator taken from hidden positions. The rest of the story involves the narrator's strange upbringing with this stalker. He and his best friend Josh go through several more encounters with the penpal before the climax of the story.

The main character is never named, but you can still connect with them. Whether it be exploring the area around your house, or going to the movies with your crush, he is in many ways just a normal kid. But he also does not have a chance to live much of his life due to his penpal. Many aspects of his life are ruined, and he will never get them back. It is also more psychologically frightening knowing that there is someone out there who knows everything about you. He begins to become cynical and doubtful about everybody towards the end and you can tell that he is slowly losing his sanity.

Against Their Will

One of the books I read was called Against Their Will by Nigel Cawthorne. It was a true crime book with about 400 pages of horrific stories about victims and their abusers.

Within the novel, there were several different stories of kidnapping, torture, and sexual assault done to a all types of women. Each chapter of the book delves into the cases of women who were victims of these crimes. One chapter that stood out to me was about a young woman who was captured by her own father and trapped in a dungeon he spent years making in secret. He was a stern and harsh man, often seen as abusive around his town. After he captured his daughter, he told the people in his neighborhood that she ran away from home to join a religious cult. Knowing the behavior of her father, they were worried but thankful she was able to “get away” from him. With everyone, even his family, deceived by his lies, the father began to sexually abuse his own daughter. Trapped in a confined space against her will, she went through plenty of hardships. One of the most difficult hardships were the multiple pregnancies she had to go through because her father wished to build a family with her. All of the children she had were ridden with health issues straight out of the womb due to conception by incest. With unhealthy living conditions, permanent health issues, and constant abuse, the daughter had to withstand the torture from adolescence to adulthood.

Although this book’s subject was intriguing, I didn’t like how the book was written. Each chapter was a new story, and the book didn’t flow smoothly. It seemed that the details were a bit vague and lacked emotion in the words. The way it was written was more like a news article than a book to me. Though learning about the crimes that occurred was somewhat interesting, I would not recommend this book. 

Joanne Marie Navarrete

Set For Life by Scott Trench

        During the first quarter, I read Set For Life: Dominate Life, Money and The American Dream by Scott Trench, who is the CEO of BiggerPockets, a program that teaches users how to invest in real estate. Basically, the book was a step-by-step guide to building a fortune and retiring at an early age. The only real reason I read this was because I got the book from my uncle as a Christmas gift around two or three years ago and I felt bad that I didn't read it. I didn't really expect to enjoy the book since it's more of a guide, and I typically enjoy books more when there is a story with characters to get invested into.
        Each chapter of the book outlined a different step of the process to early retirement. In my opinion, Trench's advice goes a little bit overboard, since he basically encourages an extreme lifestyle of frugality. However, some of the advice is genuinely helpful, like when he talks about buying properties and the financial consequences.
        I ended up somewhat enjoying the book because I liked to imagine what my life would be like if I actually followed his advice. To be honest, early retirement would be nice, but being rich isn't my number one priority in life. I'd like to live a more simple and happy lifestyle. If money and early retirement is your goal, however, I'd strongly recommend this book, since it could possibly give you the information you need, but I'd also recommend to take his advice with a grain of salt, since it could be a bit extreme at times.

When It Happens by Susane Colasanti

When It Happens by Susane Colasanti, is a 336 page fiction novel that depicts senior year from the perspective of an overachieving and driven student named Sara, and her love interest Tobey. Tobey is the opposite of Sara and could careless about what happens after senior year, as long as he is playing his guitar somewhere. Sara and Tobey are both desperate to find love before graduation, but they want to find "the one." The story switches between Sara and Tobey's perspectives as they describe the pressures of senior year and the struggles of finding true love. I liked how this book gave you two sides to the story, but with both genders being represented. More often than not we just read romance novels from the female point of view and are left to ponder the male perspective. I found many insecurities and similarities between both teens as they struggled to convey their feelings to one another, despite their opposite personalities. One main similarity is that they both wanted to find someone genuine, instead of just a casual hookup or fling. The writing was very simplistic, but I felt it added to the teenage perspective and view the author was trying to execute. Throughout the novel I found myself saying "omg me too," "relatable," and "same" numerous times; especially when Sara would complain about how hard it was to find love. I did however find this book very predicable and cliche with no new twist to the average romance novel. It was a very a simple read that I feel any young adult looking for love or going through high school can relate to. Sometimes a cheesy romance novel is fun to read every now and then and can be enjoyable.
-Danielle Mecano

13 Reason Why

          This past semester I chose to read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and it was one of the few books that I enjoyed reading. The novel is a first person perspective of an average high school girl who increasingly gains popularity and attention throughout her years, most of it negative. Hannah Baker, the main character, shares her horrid experiences through a series of tapes that are heard by everyone who hurt her. She was a victim of bullying, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, depression, and other issues that teenagers face everyday, making this a very interesting novel for me to read and raise my awareness for my peers. Another main controversy throughout the plot is change in behavior when it is a group of attackers instead of one person alone, as shown most commonly among sports teams and other posses.
         Besides the ending of the book, the rest of the story was not easy to predict, because each tape was focused on different people and situations. Hannah’s tapes are meant to explain and give reasons behind her final solution to her suffering, giving her “thirteen reasons why”. Overall, I really enjoyed and appreciated the way in which Asher structured his novel with pause and play buttons to easily identify between a tape playing and live dialogue. If I could change this book in any way, I would not do anything except add more girl-to-girl conflicts in the place of some girl-to-boy conflicts, because I think that bullying and gossip amongst young women is more common than sexual harassment and objectification from young men. Aside from the minor changes, I would be thrilled to read a version of this book where the main character is a male and the author addresses the many issues that they can be confronted with in their teen years.

-Damian Marin