Title of Book: All Quiet on the Western Front
Author: Erich Maria Remarque
# of Pages 295
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Why This Book has Value:

Cameron Denney

L.Long

Jeffco Virtual Academy

6-22-16

A book worth reading is hard, especially with how busy everyone is now. All Quiet on the

Western Front is definitely worth the time. It captures a very unique perspective; it’s from world

war one but it’s not from the side you would expect. It’s actually from the perspective of a 19

year old German soldier, Paul Baümer and his experiences in the war. It shows the not so

clean side of war, all the dirt, the grime, and the blood. In a truly elegant statement the author portrays the intent of the book “it will simply try to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”(Remarque Preface) The reason it's worth a read, is because it shows a piece of history that is seen very little, especially as we get farther away from the world wars. As time goes by the people who have experienced this in person will no longer be around to tell us about the events that happened. Remarque conveys the horridness of war to those who have never been nor ever will be there. One excellent example from the book is “So I crawl away to the farthest corner and stay there, my eyes glued on him, my hand grasping the knife--ready, if he stirs, to spring at him again.”(Remarque 216) When these events are recorded in an artful way, it is important to learn from our past. This is very cliche but we are doomed to repeat the past if we don't learn from it. As expressed by the main character Paul ““Comrade”, I say to the dead man, but I say it calmly, ”today you, tomorrow me. But if I come out of it, comrade, I will fight against this, that has struck us both down; from you taken life--and from me--? Life also. I promise you, comrade. It shall never happen again.”(Remarque 226)

Gatsby

Reviewer: Logan Papi
Title of Book: The Great Gatsby
Author: F Scott Fitzgerald
# of Pages 193
Star Rating:  ★★★★★

 Why This Book has Value:   The Great Gatsby by itself is an American classic, but some believe that it might have outlived its stay in the educational system. I disagree entirely, it holds lessons not taught in today's system and delivers them subtly, often without the reader noticing at all. Let me show you what I mean.
                     This book revolves around Nick Carraway, a business man who moved in next door to the mysterious and very extravagant spender Jay Gatsby. Gatsby threw the largest parties in all of New York, ones that everyone who was anyone would go, no matter what. All of these parties were to seduce and attract the attention of Daisy, who was Nick's cousin twice removed and married to Tom Buchanon. So already there's some love affair tomfoolery* going on, and we have our plot. This goes on back and forth for a while with indirect fighting between Gatsby and Buchanan over Daisy and Nick just gets to witness it. The ending is completely unexpected and leaves the reader with a sense likened to that of just witnessing Murphy's law in action.
                      It deals heavily with the avariciousness of the twenties and what sort of problems arise from one man's greed. It also serves as a very accurate historical depiction and really brings to life what the twenties were, between the swinging parties and the bone crushing mornings after. “I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” - Daisy (Pg 21 Fitzgerald) shows the attitude of how people should ignore what the world wants and enjoy themselves before the high ends. That was the embodiment of the time and nobody could want it less.
It truly is a timeless story that needs -- no, Deserves a place in the educational system to teach the youth about what the past was like, and to teach them what happened shortly after... cheers!

Important Books Blog

Kiana Jamshidinezhad

The Matrix

The Matrix is a book I think every person should read, ( or at least my age). This book shows how society is stuck in a false reality, and to be free you have to break out of the system; The system is called the Matrix.

The concept of the book is this; in an unknown year in the distant future, robots are using humans as an energy source, with us humans having no idea. Humans are no longer born, they are grown. However we aren't aware what's going on, we all think we're just living life, when really were living in tanks, and definitely not living life. There is a group of a few people that have broken out of this system, and know what is really going on, the leader is named Morpheus, he is trying to break all of humanity out of this system so we can reclaim our lives. However it is a very huge challenge for him and his crew due to the Secret Agents, they cannot beat them, thus resulting in humans being slaves forever. Morpheus thinks he has found “ the one”, his name is Neo and he is still stuck in the Matrix. Morpheus finds Neo, and gives him the chance to see the real(terrible) world, or keep himself in the Matrix. He chooses to see what's going on, and from there on out, he is trained for beating the Agents.

The Matrix opens with shots of a computer screen showing that a call is being traced, the voices discuss whether or not they have found “ the one”. Secret Agents go into the room, these secret agents are supposed to protect the system, which is what the “ voices” are trying to escape from. This setting is unknown throughout the book, they say it could be thousands or billions of years into the future. The subject matter is to break out of the system. This book really connects to the real world; In the book it's talking about breaking out of a physical system, but to connect that to real world, people need to break out of this metaphorical system. This day and age everybody is the same, they're all wanting to be the same, it seems like everyone these days wants to be super cool and gangster. Why? I don't know either.

The vocabulary in this book is very very deep, it's very serious, and quite advanced. I think the most developed character is Neo, He starts off trapped in the system and unaware, but once he is he is very scared and wants to be put back in. But, throughout the book you see him gain confidence and strength, thus wanting to beat the Secret Agents; He becomes very strong. I feel like The Matrix has many themes, but the one i think is the most special is the relationship between the brain, body, and the mind. The Matrix explores these connections, and especially how the connection changes when the world turns out to be an illusion. The people inside the matrix can feel physical sensations, which are being created  by the mind; This book shows how the body cannot survive without the mind. The existence and absence of these 3 elements separates Neo, and Morpheus from not only the Agents, but also the Architect, the Oracle, and the other matrix bound entities.

I feel like the audience is towards teenagers, and if it wasn't intended to be it should be. This book is all about demonstrating being different and separating from the system, which i think kids my age should start doing. All in all, This book needs to be advertised more, because it's truly incredible.

Ready player one-Gage Blakeslee

Ready Player One By Earnest Cline 374 pg's And I rate it 5/5 stars





           Ready Player One, is a sci-fi thriller story with an amazing character development, story arch and heart wrenching plot twists. it follows a teenager named wade watts. Who is an orphan living in the year 2077 with his aunt who has no value of his well being. When his world gets flipped upside down because of the opportunity to win millions of dollars and run the most important company in the world to possibly even save it. The only way for humanity to cope with how awful the earth is is by spending most of their time in the virtual world of the oasis. The creator of the oasis was a millionaire before he died of old age, and before he bit the dust he put in his will that the next owner of the oasis would be the person who could fine an Easter egg in the multi universe sized virtual realm he created using clues and references to find it.
          This book is one of my absolute favorites because of how addicting it is to read, I've read it about five times now because every time I read it I get more and more of the references and little clues and foreshadowing every time I read it. Not to mention the characters are lovable, relate-able and hate-able. The characters are created so well and how they are written it makes me feel like I know them and have for years. But I think my most favorite aspect is the references, I didn't live in the eighties but watch, read and listen to allot of the culture and in the novel the references can range from very subtle to right in your face and ts wonderfully fun.
         So I feel this book is very valuable to the busy reader, its easy to start and stop, but its also so much fun to read and get into. I feel this is an excellent book to read and amazing story to get lost in.

                                                                                     Title of Book:Legend    Author:Marie Lu          

# of         Pages:367 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆        

 Why This Book has Value:
 
           In the book, Legend,  Marie Lu has created a spectacular setting, Back in 2020 I would think, a flood covered the bottom half of the east  coast leaving only a few states left, after splitting these states into two different countries, The Republic, which ranges from California to Colorado, and The Colonies which ranges from Nebraska to Michigan. The Republic has these things called trials where they test ten-year-old boys and girls to see where the fit into society, if you pass 1300/1500 or higher you live, if you fail then you die. June Iparis is one of the two main character perspectives your read from, She is a fifteen-year-old prodigy, who scored a perfect 1500, and Day the last main  characters perspective you read from, he is fifteen-years-old, and one of the most wanted criminals you could think of, he's set military bases a blaze, robbed banks, but he did it for a good cause, to save his brother from a government controlled plague as for his trial scores he failed, or so he thinks he got a perfect 1500 but is still in denial about it. Day and June meet in an unlikely situation, June wandered into a "Skiz" fight and got stabbed, Day saved her life and drug her to safety, and patched her wounds, later that evening they kiss, June then realizes the man she has been looking for is the one she kissed, She follows Day to his house were she uses his family as bait, and asks that no harm comes to Days' family, but Commander Jameson, June's commanding officer orders Thomas to kill days mother. After being captured Day gets trance ported to prison and gets interrogated by a whole bunch of other military people, June decides to go against her government and free Day from his death sentence along the way they free his older brother John, John takes Days place, and gets killed instead of Day. Day and June make there escape to Vegas where they will uncover mysteries hidden within the Republic.

Title of Book: The Things They Carried  Author:Tim O'Brien  # of Pages 233 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Why This Book has Value:

In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien Tim discusses his experience through the Vietnam war. Tim is a character in its self in the book he goes through how his life was before the war, during, and after. This book has value due to the fact that many aspects of war are shown. Tim is whats known as an unreliable narrator.He would tell a war story and would say "none of this even happened" (O'Brien 64). There were many characters included that where soldiers as well such as Kiowa who had a big toll on all of the other soldiers. Not only does this novel portray great stories but also includes history and how life was back in the late 60's. When a soldier was drafter is was based off of their birthday; some decided to go if they were drafter, dodge and others. In this novel Tim goes deep into his head on what he was going to do when he found out he was going to be drafted. In the beginning of the text Tim goes through what the men carried physically and emotionally. " They carried their reputations" (O'Brien 77). In this quote it shows an emotional feeling that the soldiers carried with them. All though the book goes into great detail of certain situations it is a great read. It shows how war effects a person and those around you.

The Fault in Our Stars- Hannah Bright

Title of Book:  The Fault In Our Stars 

Author: John Green

 # of Pages: 313 

Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆ 

Why This Book has Value:

The Fault in Our Stars centers around the young love of 16 year old Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus "Gus" Waters. Hazel Grace has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer for three years now. She continues to call herself a "side effect of the relentless mutation that made the diversity of life on earth possible" ( Chapter 4, pg.49). At her regular support group for cancer kids, she made the acquaintance of Augustus Waters, 17 year old osteosarcoma patient. As the books go on, Hazel starts to feel herself fall in love with Gus, and she eventually tells him how she has never been able to contact the seemingly recluse of an author, Peter Van Houten, who wrote Hazel's favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. Waters contacts Houtem's assistant, explaining the dilemma and how Hazel wants to know the answers of the ending of the book. He then uses his wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation™ to finance the travel plans. However, the trip is put on hold because a slight ICU scare of Hazel's Her doctors and her parents then decide she can go on the trip as long as her mother goes along with her. Gus, Hazel, and Hazel's mother then fly to Amsterdam, where Van Houten currently resides.  They meet with the drunk and rude author and then proceed to the Anne Frank Memorial House where they share their first kiss. At the end of their trip, Augustus reveals his cancer has come back to Hazel. "He flashed his crooked smile, then said, 'I lit up like a Christmas tree, Hazel Grace.  The lining of my chest, my left hip, my liver, everywhere.' "( Chapter 13, pg.214). Through out the book, Hazel and Gus experience love and pain, combined into one. "'That's the thing about pain,' Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. 'It demands to be felt.' " Cancer is one of the main themes of the book, along with the necessity of suffering, the inevitable (death/oblivion) and Love.  These themes contribute to the overall factor: no matter what you are facing/ going through, always live in the moment. The Fault in Our Stars is a great book for teenagers, I believe, and overall, a great read.