I'm on the fence on this one, to be honest. I've got opinions, but they don't add up to a definitive Yes or No.
The Geography Club, by Bret Hartinger, is about a young man who is gay and finds several other non-straight friends. He finds out that his best friend is bisexual, and has a lesbian girlfriend, and that the popular guy at school is not only gay, but has a crush on him. They are all struggling with their identities in a small town where the unpopular kid is ridiculed for being gay (he's not) and everyone is horrified by the idea of a gay-straight alliance. So the kids form a club, but they call it Geography Club. They all say they're doing it for college, to beef up their resumes, and no one asks too many questions. Naturally, various issues come along, friendships (and other relationships) are tried, and some fail.
The things I loved about this book were the characters and the emotions. Russel Middlebrook, the main character, is like a cross between Bella (from the Twilight series) and one of John Green's male protagonists. He's a normal highschool kid, sweet and smart and somewhat funny. Hartinger does a beautiful job of describing romantic moments from Russel's point of view, but doesn't make him sound like a girl. This tricky balance between feminine and masculine was well done, I thought. Same with the emotional bits; Russel's insightful enough that the reader feels included, but there's enough plot and dialogue that we aren't just looking at the story from inside his head.
The issue I had was with the portrayal of American high school. There are so many books and movies that make it look like a viscious jungle, where anyone heavy or gay or book smart is an outcast, and generally treated cruelly. I know that there are places where this is the case, but I have a hard time relating. At my school, there are nerd and fat kids at all levels of the social ladder, if there even is a social ladder (my opinion on that changes regularly). As far as gay/lesbian/bisexual kids, there are a couple stereotypical gay guys who act and sing and dress well, and a couple girls who go around telling everyone that they're lesbian or bisexual, but that's about it. No one see's The Outcast getting bullied every day at lunch, and people join the Gay-Straight Alliance if they think it'll look good for college. There is not so much drama surrounding status, with jocks on the top and various minorities at the bottom. It's hard to say, though, whether other schools are as bad as the one in The Geography Club. I really wouldn't know.
So what do you think? Read it, and get back... or just comment based on what I've written. This is another good one for school stuff, since you can easily discuss things like stereotypes and the message, and it doesn't take long to read!
Dec 30, 2009
Book Three: Paper Towns
If you have any spare time on your hands, this is probably the first book you should read. Technically it's Young Adult Fiction, but no matter how old you are, it's fabulous! 
This is a book by my favorite author, John Green, who I got to meet a few months ago. I was lucky enough to have lunch with him, and he was as funny, smart, and self-depreciating as I expected him to be after reading his books.
This book, paper towns, is about a nerdy guy, a fabulous, mysterious girl, and their adventures together in the space of a few weeks. There are revenge pranks, all-nighters, and a road trip, and it all takes place at the end of senior year in high school. Reading it makes you want to be the characters, but it also makes you think. John Green attacks various archetypes, stereotypes, and preconcieved ideas, the kinds that we all carry around with us. If you don't know what an archetype is, though, you can still enjoy this book... the characters are cool and the plot's exciting, and it's honestly a really funny book.
Because I actually want you to read this book, as opposed to keep your distance (see Book One), I'm not going to give away the plot, the ending, or what I think the message is. And John Green, if you're reading this, you are So Damn Cool and it was great to meet you!
This is a book by my favorite author, John Green, who I got to meet a few months ago. I was lucky enough to have lunch with him, and he was as funny, smart, and self-depreciating as I expected him to be after reading his books.
This book, paper towns, is about a nerdy guy, a fabulous, mysterious girl, and their adventures together in the space of a few weeks. There are revenge pranks, all-nighters, and a road trip, and it all takes place at the end of senior year in high school. Reading it makes you want to be the characters, but it also makes you think. John Green attacks various archetypes, stereotypes, and preconcieved ideas, the kinds that we all carry around with us. If you don't know what an archetype is, though, you can still enjoy this book... the characters are cool and the plot's exciting, and it's honestly a really funny book.
Because I actually want you to read this book, as opposed to keep your distance (see Book One), I'm not going to give away the plot, the ending, or what I think the message is. And John Green, if you're reading this, you are So Damn Cool and it was great to meet you!
Book Two: A Long Way Gone; Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
If you're feeling a bit blue and want a nice, cheery read, this is not the book I would recomend. In the end, though, its inspiring, as the protagonist goes on to become the author. It takes place in Sierra Leone, and, as the title suggests, is the autobiography of a former child soldier.
Ishmael is a likable boy living in Africa, who loves his family and friends and rap music. He watches violent war movies, and finds them fascinating. At the beginning of the story, he describes how the war always seemed far away when he was a child, hearing the news. Like many Americans now, he knew his country was engaged in a war, but did not feel the effects. Any reader could relate to this state of mind, and that made it all the more shocking when his village was attacked and pillaged.
Ishmael made it out alive (I hope that's not a spoiler - as I said, though, the book's an autobiography, so he had to live long enough to write it), and traveled the countryside, just trying to survive with a group of friends. The war had created great fear among the people of Sierra Leone, and the boys were not welcomed in many of the places they went. Eventually, as the title implies, the Ishmael ends up being stuck in the army. This is not really a choice, and once he is in, the drugs, fear and violence change him into someone else entirely.
I won't go any further into the plot, as that would ruin the suspense. Overall, the book was well-written and eye-opening. Those of us in developed countries often see Africa (with the exclusion of maybe South Africa) as a dangerous and backward place, where terrible things can happen. What we forget is that people are people, and if people in Africa can do something, so can people in the US, or the UK, or Canada, or any other place we see as safe. There's a quote on my copy of this book that says "Everyone in the world should read this book... We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human." I agree; if humans can force twelve-year-old boys to take serious drugs and kill innocent people, they can do it anywhere. And if a normal child, who once felt invincible, can lose everything, commit horrific crimes, and yet survive and live with himself, so can anyone.
Humanity's capacity for horrible things, for death and destruction and cruelty, is clearly depicted in this true story. So is the human ability to survive, to overcome, to forgive, and Ishmael Beah has seen both ends of the spectrum. This book makes the reader question the security of their life, their fragile sense of security. It's not a book for the faint of heart, but it is definitely worth reading.
Ishmael is a likable boy living in Africa, who loves his family and friends and rap music. He watches violent war movies, and finds them fascinating. At the beginning of the story, he describes how the war always seemed far away when he was a child, hearing the news. Like many Americans now, he knew his country was engaged in a war, but did not feel the effects. Any reader could relate to this state of mind, and that made it all the more shocking when his village was attacked and pillaged.
Ishmael made it out alive (I hope that's not a spoiler - as I said, though, the book's an autobiography, so he had to live long enough to write it), and traveled the countryside, just trying to survive with a group of friends. The war had created great fear among the people of Sierra Leone, and the boys were not welcomed in many of the places they went. Eventually, as the title implies, the Ishmael ends up being stuck in the army. This is not really a choice, and once he is in, the drugs, fear and violence change him into someone else entirely.
I won't go any further into the plot, as that would ruin the suspense. Overall, the book was well-written and eye-opening. Those of us in developed countries often see Africa (with the exclusion of maybe South Africa) as a dangerous and backward place, where terrible things can happen. What we forget is that people are people, and if people in Africa can do something, so can people in the US, or the UK, or Canada, or any other place we see as safe. There's a quote on my copy of this book that says "Everyone in the world should read this book... We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human." I agree; if humans can force twelve-year-old boys to take serious drugs and kill innocent people, they can do it anywhere. And if a normal child, who once felt invincible, can lose everything, commit horrific crimes, and yet survive and live with himself, so can anyone.
Humanity's capacity for horrible things, for death and destruction and cruelty, is clearly depicted in this true story. So is the human ability to survive, to overcome, to forgive, and Ishmael Beah has seen both ends of the spectrum. This book makes the reader question the security of their life, their fragile sense of security. It's not a book for the faint of heart, but it is definitely worth reading.
Book One: Oryx and Crake
Rather than start things on a positive note, I'm going to begin by ripping apart a book I had to read for English. It's called Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood, and it's the kind of politically-charged satire, set in the not-too-distant-future, that teachers love to assign.
Unfortunately, the parallels between this book's plot and the author's political paranoias were even more overt than those between the plot of 1984 and Communism. The author must have negative feelings towards drug companies, because in Oryx and Crake, they take over the world. She is clearly opposed to genetic engineering, as we find out when intelligent mutant pigs (created by an organ-transplant company) try to eat the protagonist. In the story, small boys watch televised lethal injections, suicides, and porn almost daily on the Internet. They watch these things often, and eventually get bored of them and relatively de-sensitized. I wonder if she's opposed to reality TV, violent movies, and the porn industry? And I couldn't help but notice her mistrust of scientists when a very important scientist developed a pill to kill everyone on Earth at the same time, and marketed it as an aphrodisiac.
Even in a book full of agendas, I can usually enjoy the characters. In Oryx and Crake, however, the protagonist is a boy named Jimmy who is an insecure sex-addict who has a pathetic adoration of his best friend (the one who kills almost every last human with those pills I mentioned) and little care for anyone or anything else. He has no problem watching child porn, visiting prostitutes, or locking out his former co-workers when he is inside an air-proof dome and they are outside in a world full of riots and dying people. His one redeeming quality would be his love for the lovely Oryx, but he sleeps with her behind his best friend's back and pays more attention to the version of her in his head - the one on a pedestal - than who she really is. All the other characters are minor ones, and most are either scorned or worshipped by Jimmy too the point that the reader doesn't know much about them but his opinion.
I apologize if I wrecked the plot for anyone who was going to read this book, but honestly, you would probably not have enjoyed it much anyway. And if you are a midly paranoid individual who hates drug companies and distrusts the scientific community, I'm guessing you'll enjoy it despite spoilers I may have included.
So if you, like me, have a "hero's journey" project, or any other project, for English class or any other class, I strongly recomend you do NOT choose Oryx and Crake.
Happy Reading!
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