Romeo’s Ex: Rosaline’s Story by Lisa Fiedler

 A surprisingly entertaining retelling of Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet... Finally, a young adult novel that intelligently references classic age-appropriate literature and that I can actually admit I enjoyed reading. Fiedler's skilled retelling shifts between the perspectives of several characters, focusing, however, on that of Rosaline (the marginally-referenced former love interest of Romeo from the...

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

If you're a booklover who loves to read books about books, you'll love this book. This one's the first in a fantasy series set in a strange, alternate futuristic society seemingly based on ancient Rome and governed by a magical, all-encompassing, Big Brother-like institution known as The Library. (Yeah, it has its own article and...

Stephen King is the Reason I Use a Nightlight

Well, not really, but I seriously considered asking my parents to get me a nightlight after this one. If you enjoy scary things, King may be an author worth trying. So, I just finished The Shining by Stephen King, and I think I forgot to breathe over the course of 700 pages. That doesn't happen very often....

Off the Page by Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer

I might cautiously recommend it to the right reader. The plot's a bit intricate, so I'll summarize it before offering my opinions: In the first novel, a quiet, ill-adjusted teenager (Delilah) somehow manages to fall for a fairy tale prince (Oliver) and to get him out of the book and into the real world. In...

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

...and yet another young adult book about pubescent heroes surviving and overcoming a politically-divided post-apocalyptic society. A fresh perspective if I ever saw one. First of all, I'd just like to ask one question: Why can't books just end...at the end? How dare authors prolong plot lines until the end of the series. Even when...

My Love-Hate Relationship with Robin Cook’s Medical Thrillers

What do I think about the work of Robin Cook? It depends. I've read so many of his endless literary progeny that I can't claim to dislike his work. Some books I've been drawn into very quickly and will probably re-read; Others I despise with passion and would not wish on any loved one. Cook...

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson & Chris Tebbetts

"Wimpy Kid" Rip-Off So this one is obviously juvenile fiction, and it's basically a less satisfying, more realistic version of Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. Supplementing elementary school reading level text with comic book illustrations, Patterson & Tebbetts tell the story of 6th grader Rafe Khatchadorian and his shaky but adventurous journey...

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

  My Recommendation: Ummm…Maybe. But not if you're already emotionally unstable. Then it would probably be a bad idea.  I’ve read quite a few stories about people going crazy, but I have to say that this is the only one that made me think I was the one going insane. It is actually considered by...

The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

Agatha Christie died in 1976. And I'm still getting over it. But Sophie Hannah's superb imitations are helping me cope, little by little...or should I say chapter by chapter? As I moped along the shelves of my local bookstore the other day, wallowing in self-pity at not having any good reading material, my eyes suddenly lighted...

“The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin

I recently revisited a short story I read when in the 10th grade. While reviewing the elements of a short story (character, setting, plot, conflict, and my personal favorite, the denouement), I forced my students to read Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" and suffer the same emotional agony I underwent as a student. Written about a...