Adrienne Willis’ daughter is depressed because her husband dies suddenly. Adrienne  decides to tell her how she was able to handle losing her husband fifteen years earlier.

Forty-five year old Adrienne Willis explains that she  was a  sad, divorced lady. She says she was totally dejected when her husband, who was the father of her three children, left her for a younger woman. Nicholas Sparks uses “flashbacks” to tell her story.

Adrienne  goes to Rodanthe, North Carolina to take care of her friend’s inn. She meets a middle-aged doctor named Paul Flanner. He left his marriage and was distraught  over a  patient dying in his care.

Dr. Flanner  was the only guest at the inn because an awful storm was approaching the small coastal town. When the hurricane hits, Adrienne and Paul battle the storm together and start a romance. She tells how their love  affair helps  both of them restore their self-esteem and enjoy life again.

Sparks showed that love is a wonderful emotion. This book proved that LOVE isn’t only for young people.

Brown Period 8.

Eclipse is the third book in Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling series “Twilight”. In this book Bella Sawn, the main character is faced with two major choices: A full mortal life after her high school graduation, or spending an immortal life with her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen. But with the recent spring of murders around the Seattle and Portland area is something more dangerous than just a murder’s work at hand?

I think that reason that Eclipse is such a big hit and a bestseller is the mix of romance, action, fantasy, and mystery that Stephenine Meyer some how manages to mix and put together all in one book, as well as the book series it’s self. At first glance Eclipse seems like another girly teenager romance book. But it’s this mix of action and romance put together and makes Eclipse such a big. It’s that feelings that there is so much going on in the plot that you just have to keep reading to see what happens in the end, or to find out if your predictions that you made before you started reading actually came true. Stephenine Meyer has brought a completely new outlook on how the world today describes vampires, werewolf, and a romance book it’s self.

Brown Period 3

Twilight is a “love story with bite.” It is about a girl who moves to Forks, Washington because her mom has a boyfriend who wants to go on the road for a bit, so she decides to stay with her father. She starts going to a new high school and meets new friends. But, there was one thing that kept her thinking all the time. It was Edward. Edward was a vampire and he never craved anyone’s blood as much he did for Bella’s. Eventually Bella and Edward fall in love, but he has to be careful with her because first of all, if he gets too carried away, he can destroy her with his enormous strength. Second, if she is exposed greatly while she is with him, it can cause attention to other vampires in their community.

I believe that having a human in love with a vampire and vice-versa makes this book appealing to me. This is something someone would never believe or think of happening. This shows that everything is possible if you put the effort into it. Also, in the novel Edward is very caring and watches over Bella, which also makes me more drawn to the book. It shows how great love can be and how beautiful it is when two people share something special.

Brown Period 8

Twilight. Wow. What a book. Seriously, there isn’t a word that can express my feelings towards this book. Its really good. The book is about this girl, Isabella Swan, who shows up to a new state and town with no friends, to live with her dad who is a “minor leauge” baseball player. At school, all the boys are bedazzled over her, except one. That strange one happens to be this kid named Edward Cullen. Bella acts as if it were love at first sight. She loves Edward, but feels as if he doesn’t feel the same way. Well later in the book, you really find out that Edward has to stay away from her because he is a VAMPIRE, and it is for her own good. Bella realizes that and they do nothing but get closer and closer everyday, and she likes. Edward knows his boundaries, and keeps them. At the very end of the book, Bella gets herself into big trouble, and she gets hurt very bad, and the whole Cullen family shows up to try and save her. Thats about it.

I totally would recommend this book to anyone. Even my dad reads these books, and when I told him about them, he started laughing and told me that they were for girls. As little as he knew, he is now hooked on the supense and thrill these books give the reader.

Brown Period

Sarah Dessen’s novel, Dreamland, is focused on a sixteen year old teenager, Caitlin. Caitlin’s life changes the day her sister runs away with her boyfriend instead of heading off to Yale. Caitlin’s sister Cass was always the “perfect” one in the family. Although Caitlin never showed the care and love for her sister; she felt that the world was spinning out of control when she found out Cass left. Knowing that she can’t take her sisters place, Caitlin decided to live her life carefree. She started to go out with the seductive, Rogerson Biscoe, and ended up getting into deep trouble. Caitlin thought Rogerson was the intelligent, sensitive, caring boyfriend, but she was wrong. Rogerson started to influence her into doing drugs, took advantage of her, suddenly becoming violent and Caitlin feels trapped, not knowing what to do. Caitlin is desperate for someone to notice and help, because she realizes that she couldn’t help herself.

One interesting aspect of this book is that many teenagers are able to relate with Caitlin’s life in the novel. Similar to Caitlin, teenagers also struggle with bad influences during their high school lives. Through all the stress, teenagers lose self-confidence, self-esteem, and common sense, which leads to even greater danger. Not only does the novel show us the pressure and influence Caitlin goes through, but it also shows us the true feelings that a teenager may feel throughout their life. The novel also illustrates how Caitlin fights herself to get help, and the struggles that follow as she takes each step. Through all the burden and stress, Caitlin finally gains back her confident and self-esteem.

Brown Period 8.

New Moon is the 2nd book in the Twilight series. The main character is Bella. The story begins with her 17th birthday and she receives a number of birthday presents, but she doesn’t want them. A couple days later, the Cullen family leaves and Bella goes through a depressive stage. Then she starts to hang with this family friend, Jacob Black, and she learns more about him and his history. Bella jumps off a cliff to go cliff diving because whenever she gets an adrenaline rush, she sees Edward’s face. Alice sees her jumping off the cliff in the future and thinks she’s committing suicide so she tells Edward. Then Edward travels to Italy so he can “finish” himself, because he can’t live without Bella. Alice and Bella must save Edward from death.

One specific aspect in this book that caught my eye was when Alice sees Bella in the future diving off a cliff thinking that Bella is going to kill herself. Alice’s vision was from a different point of view than what was actually happening and it seems that major chaos is going on. Without this, the story wouldn’t have the same intensity. When viewing each character’s reaction, the story becomes even more interesting. The result is that the reader doesn’t know what to expect. The story remains suspenseful which makes it all the more fulfilling. That’s what makes this book a very interesting read.

]]> http://shsbookblab.edublogs.org/2009/01/07/new-moon-by-stephenie-meyer-6/feed/ 0 http://shsbookblab.edublogs.org/2009/01/07/the-son-of-the-mob-by-gordon-korman/ http://shsbookblab.edublogs.org/2009/01/07/the-son-of-the-mob-by-gordon-korman/#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:24:11 +0000 mloocht2 http://shsbookblab.edublogs.org/?p=717 Review by Matt L

Lockowitz-period 3

The main conflict of the book the Son of the Mob is that Vince can’t have a girlfriend because his dad is in the Mob business. So, Vince found a dead body in the back of his car when he was taking a girl out to the beach. She saw the dead body and ran away Puking. Then the next girlfriend he had, which was Kendra, her dad is the FBI agent who has been trying to put Vince’s dad into jail. Kendra’s dad figures out that Vince’s dad is the head of the mob and the FBI agent put surveillance cameras into the Luca’s house to see what goes on there. It showed that Vince was taking part in the family business so Kendra dumped him.

One aspect of the book that really draws your attention and is cool is how you get to find out all these big cases of who did kill who ever. Also, knowing who killed them makes a big part in the book. It’s pretty cool because you would totally expect someone else did some one maybe not in the mob. The mob is just pretty awesome in the book and it takes over Vince’s life and pretty much ruins his dating abilities.

Brown Period 8

Twilight is an enchanting novel written by Stephanie Meyer. The main character and narrorator, Belle Swan, is a 17-year-old from Arizona who lives with her mom and step dad. But when her parents decide to go on the road to follow her step dad’s baseball career, Bella begrudgingly offers to go to the small town of Forks, Washington, the rainiest place in the USA, to live with her father. Not only does Bella miss the sun of her old home, she misses being one of many. Moving to this small town is hard for her, because not only does everyone know who she is before she gets there, but everyone seems to be the same. They’re all very nice, perfectly friendly but so generic and boring. Bella was one to want substance, and depth, and it was major lacking, until she met Edward Cullen. Something was off about him, something different and mysterious. As she gets to know hi more and more, she eventually finds out that he’s a vampire. Though he loves her more than any being has ever loved anyone before, he thirsts for the blood in her veins more then anything he’s ever smelled before. The main conflict of the book is Bella and Edward fighting against the odds, vampire clans, disapproval, and most of all, Edward’s thirst, for their precious love.

This book so particularly appealing, especially to teenage girls, in many ways. First, the writing style is such that each glance, each breath is detailed and explained in a way that attaches you to the characters before they even speak their first words. You don’t miss any detail, so the story and its characters are engraved in your mind. Second, the main characters in this book have more depth to them then just what their particular main conflict is. Their feelings on the surface that are oh so specifically described are only the beginning. They all have such intense passion for whomever they love or hate that you adopt these feelings with them. Granted, this story is much more of a romance then it is anything else, so it may be a repellant to males. But to whoever is interested in this, dive right in, it is very tastefully written and you will want to adopt this series as if you had written it yourself.

Brown Period 5

I think the major conflict was how Bella dealt with what she was going through. First, she had to deal with Edward leaving. She also had to deal with Jacob explaining how he is a werewolf. She is almost forced to choose between Edward and Jacob. When faced with all of these tough decisions, Bella handled it in her own way.

I think New Moon is appealing because it is suspenseful and addicting. Readers are already addicted from twilight and this book is a continuation of the series. I think its appealing that Bella is human and Edward is a vampire. A lot of people can relate to Bella. Edward is made to be this “perfect” character. It’s also appealing because of the suspense. There is always something happening that makes it very hard to put this book down.