Ricochet, by Julie Gonzalez

This one didn't catch me right at first. And then..whoa. It picked up fast. Through a series of flashbacks and kind of cryptic story lines, Gonzalez tells a story that captured my attention. I think I may have actually hung up on my boyfriend so I could finish what I was doing.

It's about peer pressure that seriously goes too far. Lives change quickly when you succumb to it, and Conner figures that out the hard way.

From the publisher's blurb...

When his best friend is killed in a game with a loaded gun, fifteen-year-old Conner finds his perceptions of himself and his relationships with his family, friends, and other people in his life changed in more profound ways than he could have imagined.

Being, by Kevin Brooks

All I can say is WOW. I've been watching this book at the bookstore since it came out. Wanting to buy it, making myself wait and see if the publisher is going to send it. Well, I got it last week..and OH MY GOSH. I read it in one night.

From the publisher's blurb...

It was just supposed to be a routine exam. But when the doctors snake the fiber-optic tube down Robert Smith's throat, what they discover doesn't make medical sense. Plastic casings. Silver filaments. Moving metal parts. In his naked, anesthetized state on the operating table, Robert hears the surgeons' shocked comments: "What the hell is that?" "It's me," Robert thinks, "and I've got to get out of here." Armed with a stolen automatic and the videotape of his strange organs, he manages to escape, and to embark on an orphan's violent odyssey to find out exactly who--exactly what--he is.

American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang

Alright, I'm rather anti-graphic novel. I have nothing against them really. I just personally don't like them. But let me say...WOW.

I really, really, REALLY enjoyed this one. What a great story line (all 3 really). I loved how it all came together and how the message was one that isn't specific to one culture in the least.

From the publisher's blurb...

All Jin Wang wants is to fit in...

When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he’s the only Chinese-American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl...

Born to rule over all the monkeys in the world, the story of the Monkey King is one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables. Adored by his subjects, master of the arts of kung-fu, he is the most powerful monkey on earth. But the Monkey King doesn’t want to be a monkey. He wants to be hailed as a god...

Chin-Kee is the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, and he’s ruining his cousin Danny’s life. Danny’s a basketball player, a popular kid at school, but every year Chin-Kee comes to visit, and every year Danny has to transfer to a new school to escape the shame. This year, though, things quickly go from bad to worse...

These three apparently unrelated tales come together with an unexpected twist, in a modern fable that is hilarious, poignant, and action-packed. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax - and confirms what a growing number of readers already know: Gene Yang is a major talent.

You, Maybe: The Profound Asymmetry of Love by Rachel Vail

Alright, I can't help it. As an adult reading as an adult...this book bothers me. I'm not naive, but I sure don't like the idea of teenagers being this sexual. At all.

As an adult reading like a teenager, I don't know. She seems so defeatist. Yes, I know some student somewhere will relate spot on with Josie. But so much of it seems a little far-fetched.

From the publisher's blurb...

Careful what you love

Josie is independent, fierce, and does not care what anyone thinks about her, especially where guys are concerned. She may flirt with them, and even kiss them, but it doesn't mean anything, not even with Michael. He's more like a friend-with-benefits.

So who can explain what happens when Carson Gold decides he's interested in her? Carson Gold, the hottest senior, the one everyone secretly watches. At first Josie treats him the same way she treats everybody else. But something about him gets to her. Maybe it's the same thing that causes everyone to watch him. Maybe it's something between them, something just he and Josie share.

Can you blame her for what happens? Could you resist? Neither can Josie -- not for lack of trying, and despite her better sense. It's too much, that first time love finds you and sucks you under. It's too much, even for Josie.

Love is a brat.

Sins of the Fathers, by Chris Lynch

Overall, this is a good book. You really get the concept of a "tribe" and how it's, somehow, more than just a family.

But, the sins of the fathers (as in priests) are altogether to vague. I mean, one's pretty clear. But he's the only priest who's a well-developed character. I can actually hear some of my students wondering what's going on.


From the publisher's blurb...

It's your team or your family or your neighborhood or your church, or maybe just yourself and two other guys. But you have to be able to count on each other, or you can't count on anything at all.

My guys are Skitz Fitzsimmons, who's daffy as a box of frogs, and Hector Fossas, who could pass for Jesus' stronger, tougher, holier brother. I'd stack my guys against anybody's.

The tribe that runs everything in my parish is the Franchise: Fathers Blarney, Mullarkey, and Shenanigan. One's an old blowhard, one's a nasty piece of work, and one's the coolest priest on wheels. Except as soon as you think you know all that, you find out you don't know anything.

They're in charge of right and wrong, but it seems like they make it up as they go along.

They want to break us apart, because of what we see and what we say. So I guess the question is, can the rest of the tribe wait when one guy's falling behind?