The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Young and uncertain is Holden Caulfield. We are first introduced to him when he's at Pencey Prep School in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. He has left many schools already by this time because he's unable to stick with the same school for long. His excuse for departing from once again another school is because it's full of snotty and rich people. He sees many people as phonies. He plans to go home to New York for Christmas vacation. He can't stay at Pencey any longer and leaves too early to go home. Without wanting his parents to know that he has quit on another school and ruin Christmas vacation, he drifts from place to place in New York City until Christmas vacation begins. "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger shows true aspects of the way others perceive life, love, and others around them. This is a quick, yet very meaningful read. I recommend "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger.

Talk

Talk by Kathe Koja

Lindsay Walsh is a star. She is a popular girl and a brilliant actress—and she knows it. Kit Webster, by contrast, didn’t even want to be in the school play. He was dared to try out and found himself suddenly and inexplicably on stage for the first time. But when Lindsay and Kit come together under the hot lights of the theatre for the new play Talk, the result is explosive—not only to viewers rocked by the intense performance, but to community members concerned (read: enraged) about the play's serious content. Both sides must prepare for a fight even as Kit and Lindsay face their own demons.

As a story, I found Talk lacking. Even I, a self-proclaimed theatre kid and advocate for arts in schools, found it difficult to care about their fight against a community ignorant to the merits of art. The climax is enjoyably frustrating but the denouement is trite: it strives towards a subtle, jaded, life-goes-on conclusion, but provides instead a lackluster afterthought, akin to a bored cymbal crash at the end of an already tiresome symphony.

The merit of the book is instead found in its characters—akin, by contrast, to rich, melodious instruments with the simple misfortune of having to play such an unfortunate piece. Kit and Lindsay narrate alternately, and often the viewer is afforded a view of the same issue from two sides. As a result, the characters are granted depth merely in how they react to different situations. Kit’s struggle to become himself is endearing; his crush on someone a seeming light-year away feels all-too-familiar; his relationship with his parents echoes loudly some quality found in the average American household. And Lindsay, though at times a character easy to dislike, is remarkably real—a true glimpse into not only the present of some perfect high school girl, but also her past, and what made her the queen she is. I, personally, found that she reminded me of myself, of the difference in what I say versus what I think, of the vanity that exists inside us even if humbly kept quiet.

If for nothing else, Talk is worth reading for them. They interact well together and each brings to the surface some hidden quality in the other. The text is brief enough not to merit an early dismissal thereof due simply to the bland plot, but long enough to make the delve into the souls of two truthfully-written teenagers worthwhile.

Looking for Alaska

John Green presents a unique perspective in his debut book, Looking for Alaska. His work focuses largely on the impact one person’s life can have on another.
In the book, the protagonist is a young man by the name of Miles Halter. Miles has an obsession reading with autobiographies and memorizing famous last words. He has become bored with his safe home life and transfers to a boarding school called Culliver Creek in the middle of Alabama. There, he meets his new roommate, a quirky punker boy who goes by ‘The Colonel,’ and her. Alaska Young is the most beautiful, funny, clever, messed-up girl he’s ever met. One night, a conversation about famous last words brings them to Alaska’s personal favorite: “Damn it! How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?” What is the labyrinth, and how will Miles ever decipher the maze that is Alaska?
On the whole, I found the book to be wordy, easily predictable, and a bit dull. At parts it’s as though you’re reading regurgitated information as dialogue is repeated for the fifth time. The plot drags on slowly, with high-points every few chapters or so. Points of humor in the beginning lose their comedy, as they become moral metaphors farther on.
However, the concept of a person affecting another as deeply as portrayed in this book is an engaging concept, and really one of the books redeeming factors. All in all, it’s a good book to read if you’ve got nothing else to do.

Annie John

Have you ever felt the love for your mother fade? Have you ever thought that you might not want to be friends anymore with a person you thought earlier you could not live without? Has your life changed significantly since your childhood?

Annie John, written by Jamaica Kincaid, tells us the story of Annie John, a black girl that grows up in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean. She is the only child of her mother and her father, although she has half-brothers and sisters out of her fathers earlier relationships. The women that her father once loved wish her and her mother ill, but still she has a sheltered childhood. The problems begin when she gets older and is to become a lady. Her mother treats her differently and Annie is shocked by the thought of leaving this house at some day to live with her own family. A distance is created by her and her mother between them, especially when Annie has to go to a new school. To overcome the new lack of the love of her mother she creates herself a circle of friends that at the beginning admire her for being the smartest one in the class. Her teachers like her, because she is fast in understanding new things and keeping them in mind. She usually wins in every competition in school and soon seems to be bored in her classes. From now on she starts to think about other things like how to make her breasts grow. Her best friend is a girl that she meet at her first school day in her new school, but the view of their friendship changes when she meets the Red Girl. Annie starts to do things that her mother doesn't approve of and her family life becomes worse and worse. Therefore, her mother and her set up two different faces, one for themselves, one for everybody else. Annie probably thought her life would go on and on this way, but in the end the day comes that she never dared to think of during her childhood