Book Review

By: A.S.

Title: The Social Code by Sadie Hayes

            I really enjoyed reading The Social Code. It was a fast-paced book that kept me interested throughout the entire thing. There was always a new conflict that kept me from putting it down. The characters were easy to understand and keep up with, and I really liked how the author made each chapter about a different person. All of the characters had different stories but were somehow linked to each other, so that really helped. It reminded me a little bit of a TV show, when it switches back and forth between people. There were, however, a few unnecessary characters, and I think that it was definitely put there as a filler. You’ll find that the Patty character really has nothing to do with Amelia besides being her sassy college roommate. Although, I find that I can really relate to the main character Amelia. She’s quiet and likes to keep to herself but surrounds herself with good people that influence her to do good things. She’s also really good with computers and things. I feel that this book was really great, aside from the tech talk and the ending that left too many questions unanswered.  I would recommend it to those who are looking for an easy, yet interesting read.

Lying by Sam Harris

      In one of his most recent essays, bestselling and award-winning author and neuroscientist Sam Harris has explained and demystified the simple concept of not lying. By just simply telling the truth where others would lie, specifically the use of “white lies,” Harris defines a simple and effective way to radically ease some difficulties of everyday life. It may take some getting used to, but the simple and surefire methods Harris describes with his personal anecdotes and hypothesized situations are positive to make an impact on the way you interact with those around you.

       A very thought provoking and smartly worded piece, Harris’s essay Lying is a must read for those who wish to have a fresh way of seeing things.

Review by Mason Cashman

The Invisible Thread

The Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski is a wonderful book about an unlikely story. The story is told by Laura who has a prominent position in a Manhattan advertising firm because she wouldn’t take no for an answer and was willing to work harder than anyone else she knew. Laura grew up on Long Island and doesn’t have a college education, but in the 1980s, she is a big shot. One afternoon, an 11-year old boy approaches her and asks her for spare change because he is hungry. Initially, Laura walks away, but something in her makes her turn back. Instead of giving Maurice, the boy, money, she takes him to get something to eat at McDonald’s. This is the beginning of an unlikely friendship which changes both of their lives.

Laura and Maurice meet every week for dinner. Eventually they meet at Laura’s apartment for meals and to make cookies. Laura buys Maurice the essentials like a book bag, warm coat, socks and underwear, but never anything flashy, even though she can afford to do so. She doesn’t believe it will help Maurice to have flashy things, which will likely get stolen anyway.  She is careful to not try to change Maurice’s world, because she can’t; she can only make it better.

 It’s revealed that Maurice lives in a kind of poverty that none of us can imagine. He lives in a rundown hotel in the worst part of the city. His whole family are drug dealers and drug users. Maurice and his young siblings go days without anything to eat. They live in one room, with two twin beds, and no sheets, blankets, or anything. Maurice has behavior problems at school and he has been convinced he is stupid. With Laura’s help, things get a little easier.

It’s also revealed that while she was never hungry as a child, Laura grew up in a house where her father turned abusive when he is drinking. She lived in fear. At night she and her sister hid to avoid the wrath of her father and made it by in school. It’s this secret life that she lead that makes her open minded to Maurice and his struggles.

Their friendship carries on through numerous life changes and decades. The concept that we don’t know the connection that we have to people, the invisible thread that binds us all. So many people walked by 11-year old Maurice that day, and by turning back, it changed both of their lives forever.

The book is a fast and easy read. The storytelling isn’t complicated or sophisticated in any way. This reader may have unfolded the story differently, but it’s still a nice read and a wonderful story. This book would suit those who are drawn to memoir, stories about children in need, or an uplifting story.

H.W.

Help for the Haunted

Help For the Haunted

Author: John Searles

Book review – A.S.

In my opinion, Help for the Haunted was overall a bit of a boring book. I enjoy how the main characters are introduced fairly quickly, and although the author doesn’t tell you what happens in the beginning of the book, it’s implied so the reader can easily figure out what went on. The author used great detail, but I felt that the book was very slow-moving. Some of the conversations that went on were almost pointless, and it took a really long time for the Author to reveal what you’ve been waiting to read. In one of the chapters, the title has nothing to do with what is written inside of it. It was hard to keep reading when I had nothing that kept me interested. Throughout the whole book, I waited to learn what had happened. Instead of the Author dropping hints or surprising us with important subtle details, he saved it all for the end.

Read Gone Girl! Before you watch the movie!

Read it before it hits theatres!

 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

New York Times best seller Gone Girl, is a bone chilling thriller that will keep you guessing after every page you read. Nick and Amy are the perfect couple, Nick always worries about his image making sure he looks like “the nice guy”, and Amy is the world famous “Amazing Amy” after her parents made her a character in their top-selling children books. However, no one knew the struggle they are containing in their marriage. After they both lose their jobs and Nick’s parents become ill they have no choice but to move to a small town in Missouri, were both their lives fall apart when Amy is abducted on their 5^th wedding anniversary.  New stories become unsurfaced and everyone is left with the question, who would take Amy?

Without proper evidence or an alibi all eyes go to Nick, who appears aloof about his wife’s disappearance. Already convicted by the media and the small town police, Nick has to fight to prove his innocents with his sister, Go, by his side. As the crime becomes more twisted and new evidence rises you will be torn between who the true criminal is, Who is lying? Who is telling the truth? Who is to blame for the disappearance of Amy? This dark and engrossing story will draw you in and encourage you to solve the mystery yourself. Gillian fast paced and addicting way of writing is pure brain candy.  Gone Girl is the must read book of the year!

Silver Star

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

This quick- moving story follows “Bean” Holladay and her older sister, Liz, for a wild year in their lives. The story begins in California, 1970, when Bean and Liz are abandoned by their mother, who has once again gone to “find herself” and leaves her daughters with enough money for two months of chicken pot pies and rent. The authorities are eventually aware of the girls being on their own, so Liz and Bean have to escape. They decide to hop a bus and head the only place they know they can, to their mother’s ancestral home in Virginia.

Once in Virginia they show up on the front door of the decaying Holladay’s family mansion and move in with Uncle Tinsley. The family, the house, and the town seem to be set and locked in the past, and shrouded in mystery. Bean and Liz pump up the tires of old bike found in the barn and go out exploring. They have a lot to live up to with a name like Holladay. They have to navigate the family past, and learn who and what to believe.

The story is told from twelve year old Bean’s perspective. Both she and her sister, Liz, who is obsessed with wordplay puzzles and Edgar Allen Poe, are wiser than their years. The story seems to lose itself when Bean, who would be in the seventh grade, is on the high school cheerleading team and in the same social circle as the older kids. Bean seems to be too smart and too wise for anyone her age.

Liz is eccentric and introverted but strangely brilliant. She winds up in a very frightening situation when she takes up a job working for the local gangster. For a girl who is smart enough to outwit the social services and travel across the country, she seems to fall prey to this classically sleezy man a little too easily.

The book is a fast read, and pretty pleasurable. If you’re looking for something that won’t tax your brain but keep you entertained, consider The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls.

H.W.

Angela's Ashes

Angela’s Ashes Book Review

Angela’s Ashes is a memoir by Frank McCourt about his life growing up. This book is written in first person and is based on the first 19 years of his life. This story begins in Brooklyn, New York where Frank and his brothers Malachy, Eugene and Oliver are born from two poverty stricken parents Malachy and Angela. The family struggled to stay afloat while living in America due to the father’s lack of work and when he does; he drinks his wages away leaving nothing for his family. To make things worse the newly born baby sister Angela dies, sending the mother into a depression that she will never recover from and struggle to take care of her living children. The McCourt family is then sent back to live in the slums of Limerick, Ireland, where the father remains unemployed. The two youngest boys Eugene and Oliver pass away due to their poor living conditions, sickness and hunger.  With the family on dole and the father continuing to drink, Frank and his brother start to attend school full of cruel teachers and taunting children, they are often make fun of and reprimanded for their lack of clothing and shoes. Over the course of the next few years the family continues to have no money and two more children are born Michael and Alphie. Frank becomes sick with typhoid fever and is sent to the hospital for 3 months during this time he developed a love for reading which would help him later in life. When Frank’s father leaves for the war in England, Frank is left to be the man of the household and help find food for his family when the father never sends money home and eventually abandons his family all together. Frank finds a job as telegram deliver opening his opportunities to make money and starts to save the money that would allow him to go to America where he could leave his life of poverty and start a new and better life. This book is heart wrenchingly good. Frank McCourt’s detailed biographies are captivating and a must read!

H.W.

My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel

                Well… what do I say? I had high hopes, and this book looked promising, being a memoir with such a title that it has. When I started reading, the first half of chapter one was riveting. An emotional flashback about the author’s wedding, and how, while at the alter waiting for his soon-to-be wife to come down the aisle, he had a severe anxiety attack, causing him to sweat through his tuxedo and shake uncontrollably. But after that brief story, the book became quite boring. When labeled as a memoir, you would expect there to be at least a few interesting life experiences elaborated upon in the book, but here we have a few brief stories of various situations dealing with the author’s anxiety separated by pages upon pages of statistical data, research, and clinical information about anxiety and anxiety-inducing situations.

                If you are looking for a book that details one’s life experiences as something you may be able to relate to, please keep looking for one. 

Review by Mason Cashman

GO: a Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd

     All about graphic design, this book is sure to please your artistic senses. With Kidd’s background as a graphic designer, he sure knows his stuff. Giving numerous in- and out of text examples of design terms, tricks, and ideas, you’ll be sure to understand the basics of this graphic design once you’re done. 
     A great quick and fun read, this book is full of interesting information and ideas, you’re sure to love this book. 

Review by Mason Cashman

Eleanor & Park By: Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park is a story about two very different sophomores who find out they have similar interest, one of those being interested in each other. The plot progress slowly and the middle was rather boring. As the story goes on you will notice a pattern of events with an occasional twist, and it repeats itself a lot until the end. This seems to be a reoccurring trend in Rowell’s books (Rainbow Rowell is also the author of If I Stay and Where She Went.”) One could say reading the book is worth it because it speeds up in the end; I am not one of those people.

Review by AF

Read it before it hits theatres!

 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

New York Times best seller Gone Girl, is a bone chilling thriller that will keep you guessing after every page you read. Nick and Amy are the perfect couple, Nick always worries about his image making sure he looks like “the nice guy”, and Amy is the world famous “Amazing Amy” after her parents made her a character in their top-selling children books. However, no one knew the struggle they are containing in their marriage. After they both lose their jobs and Nick’s parents become ill they have no choice but to move to a small town in Missouri, were both their lives fall apart when Amy is abducted on their 5th wedding anniversary. New stories become unsurfaced and everyone is left with the question, who would take Amy?

Without proper evidence or an alibi all eyes go to Nick, who appears aloof about his wife’s disappearance. Already convicted by the media and the small town police, Nick has to fight to prove his innocents with his sister, Go, by his side. As the crime becomes more twisted and new evidence rises you will be torn between who the true criminal is, Who is lying? Who is telling the truth? Who is to blame for the disappearance of Amy? This dark and engrossing story will draw you in and encourage you to solve the mystery yourself. Gillian fast paced and addicting way of writing is pure brain candy.  Gone Girl is the must read book of the year!

Reviewed by HW

The Giver By: Lois Lowry

 “His heart swelled with gratitude and pride. But at the same time he was filled with fear.”

Imagine living a life where everything is decided for you: your job, your spouse, your children, your home. Everything…

In a world where you know nothing about your life’s happenings, what could go wrong when you find out the truth? What will happen when you find the real world?

The Giver by Lois Lowery is a dystopian alternate universe classic novel that takes place in an isolated community.

Review by AF