Heaven Is For Real

The Bookworm says... Wow. Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent was a stunning story. Todd Burpo is a pastor in Imperial, Nebraska. His health slowly starts deteriorating. First, he breaks a leg in three places and his ankle. Then, he passes kidney stones. Finally, a breast cancer scare. On the way to their family vacation celebrating good health, their son Colton begins throwing up. He has to have an emergency appendectomy, and his future is grim. He barely makes it through the surgery, but he does. In the months following his surgery, Colton begins hinting that he was lifted from his body during the surgery. He describes sitting with Jesus, what his parents were doing during his surgery, and features of Heaven that no illiterate three year old would know. It becomes apparent that Colton had a heavenly encounter, from meeting deceased family members to giving exact details about Heaven. I haven't been to church in a few years, but this book makes me want to be a nun. 

Side Effects May Vary

The Bookworm says... Yes! Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy was an outstanding novel! 

Then

Alice was diagnosed with leukemia one year ago. She always thought life was guaranteed, but now tow weeks aren't even guaranteed. So, there are some things she must do before she dies. Blackmail her ex boyfriend into embarrassing himself after cheating on her, telling people her private information, and making fun of a gay boy in their grade. She must break into the amusement park from when she was little and go on the tea cups. She has to humiliate her former dance rival, and constant enemy onstage during the school play. She needs to buy a puppy for the little girl next door. And finally, she has to go to a prom. For all of this she enlists her childhood best friend Harvey. 

Just after all of Alice's issues are settled, she feels she could die peacefully. She tells Harvey her feelings for him, and falls asleep content with death. Only to learn the next day she has gone into remission. She was living life like she was dying, but now she is going to live. 

Now

Things are extremely awkward between Alice and Harvey. Alice has to return to school. Alice is still weak. She returns to school and faces her dance enemy Celeste. Celeste and her side kick Mindi are horrible to Alice, saying she should have died. While Alice tries to figure out her feelings for Harvey, she doesn't realize that she is leaving his feelings in the dust. She kisses him, but won't say she loves him. She doesn't talk to him at school, yet she is jealous when she sees him with other girls. She doesn't know what to do. Celeste and Mindi are trying to plan something awful for Alice, and it happens. They make her a shrine type memorial that would have happened if she had died. Alice witnesses her own memorial. Harvey has a girlfriend. Alice confronts her mom about what she saw in the window one day. Life is going down hill. Alice realizes that in her quest for revenge and good deeds, she never did soemthing for Harvey. So, she tries to find his dad, and in the process finds her feelings for him. 

This book was excellent. It switches point of view and time period every chapter which is usually enough to make me close a book. But, it works. Julie Murphy, well done. 

It's Kind of a Funny Story

The Bookworm says... YES. It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini was am excellent book. Craig Gilner was always a model students and studied his butt off for the admittance test for Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School. He spends all his time studying, and the pressure pushes him to his breaking point. He begins to become more and more depressed. Once he gets to the school he realizes that he will never be an A+ student, just normal 93's which aren't bad but they aren't outstanding and if they're not outstanding, he won't get into a good college and he won't get a good job. The stress keeps piling on and Craig stops eating and sleeping. He finally decides to kill himself. In the middle of the night, he prepares to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. He calls a suicide hotline and they tell him if he is considering harming himself he should check himself into a hospital. Craig decided that death probably falls under the category of harming yourself, and checks himself in. While in the Brooklyn Mental Health Facility, he finds people that are non-verbal, transsexuals, depressed teens, drug addicts, and... love? Will Craig manage to get his depression under control (or experience the Shift as he calls it)? And what will he use to make this happen? Will he escape this hospital and find true love? 

The Impossible Knife of Memory

The Bookworm says... Maybe. The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson was a pretty good book! It is the touching story of a girl named Hayley Blue who lives with her father who struggles with sever PTSD from fighting in the army. Hayley has been traveling the country in her Dads truck, but it's been decided she needs to live a real life. Hayley struggles with depression and anxiety. She very clearly knows how to spot people that are living their lives, and those spending it trying to fit in. She refers to the latter as zombies. She is constantly worried about her dad, and does not try very hard in school. When her dads horrible ex Trish makes an appearance, her life starts to go downhill. Her dad seems to be getting better, but then there's a bar fight. And he starts drinking again. Will she get her dad to turn his life around before he starts playing around with the lines between life and death? This book didn't have a major climax until the end, but it was great! It was also somewhat confusing, but it was great for the most part. 

Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of previously reviewed novel Speak. 

Asylum

The Bookworm says... YES (if you like scary things)! Asylum by Madeleine Roux was an excellent book, and a thriller to top it off! I am a huge fan of scary things, so this was an upside for me, but it could also be a downside. If the cover creeps you out, I would advise you not to look any farther. Sixteen year old Daniel Crawford is going to a summer college prep program at New Hampshire College Prep, or as referred to by the locals NHCP. But, before beginning the program Dan received a letter saying that the dorms were under construction, and college prep students would be staying in the newly renovated Brookline Phsyciatric Hospital dorms. This would be enough to make a sane person shaken, but not driven Daniel Crawford. Upon arrival, Daniel meets two people named Abby and Jordan. They become friends instantly. When Daniel is shown to his dorm room, he finds a picture of a man wearing glasses, but the problem seems to be that his eyes had been scratched out rather brutally in pen. This rattles Dans bones. That night, Jordan, Dan, and Abby begin exploring the locked up hallways of the asylum. They find more disturbing photos, and one particularly gory photograph of a young girl. They continue to explore, and Dan begins recieiving strange notes. One night as they sneak up from the cellar, they realize they have walked straight into a crime scene, and someone has been attacked. More attacks, more strange notes, mysterious texts, and hidden relations. As the students dig deeper into the asylum than they should, behavior begins to waver and ancestry starts to show between the students and patients. There are some secrets meant to stay buried, and some doors meant to stay locked. It seems the only way to stay sane is to get out of the place whose very purpose is to make people sane. Asylum was an excellent book, full of haunting photos from real life asylums. This is a must read for all horror lovers, also for lovers of Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

Eleanor & Park

'The Bookworm says.... Maybe. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was a decent book. The beginning was very, very slow.  Aside from that, it was pretty good.  Eleanor is the new girl in school. Weird, chubby, dresses weird. But is it her choice? Her stepfather kicked her out for a year, only to comeback to a completely different house where his wish was their command (or else). On the bus on the first day, an Asian boy named Park swears at her, but let's her sit. Everyone at her school is rude to her. Except Park. He begins leaving her comic books to read, then mixed tapes. Eleanor's gym class was the worst. The girls in her class flushed her clothes in the toilet, and call her names. But Park is always there for her. Eleanor and Park begin to uphold a steady relationship, of course not telling Eleanor's family. Dirty messages begin showing up on Eleanor's text books, and Park accuses her of writing them. After a day or two, he comes to his senses and realizes it wasn't her. Park gets in a fight defending Eleanor. Parks mom is an Avon lady, and gives Eleanor a makeover. One of Eleanor's five siblings finds the makeup, and blackmails her into sharing. One day when she came home from Parks, Eleanor heard yelling and found her belongings destroyed. Who was writing the notes in her books? Was it really the girls in her class, trying to be cruel? Or was it someone that kept their friends close and their enemies closer? Will Eleanor and Park end up together? 

"Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book." - John Green

Other Bookworm-Reviewed books by Rainbow Rowell: 

Fangirl 

Fangirl

The Bookworm says...YES!! Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell was a fabulous book. Being a fangirl myself, I was a huge fan of this book. Cather and Wren are a set of twins who's mother walked out on them when they were 8. Wren has always been outgoing, and Cath has been quiet. But even thought they have differences, there is one similarity. Simon Snow. Both girls are obbsessed with the Simon Snow book series by Gemma T. Leslie. Both girls are also renowned authors Magicath and Wrenegade on FanFixx.com, a site for writing fanfiction where the girls write Simon Snow fanfiction. The girls are heading off to college, and are separating for the first time. They still go to the same school, they eat lunch together, but that's it. Wren is living with another freshman, Courtney, and they go out and get completely drunk everynight. Cath is living with a junior, Reagan. Reagan goes it every night with a friend-boy Levi, but Cath stays home. Levi is ever present in the dorm. Halfway through first semester, in Caths junior level fictions writing class, they get an assignment to alternate paragraphs in a story with a partner. Cath writes with a boy named Nick, and they make it a weekly routine. When they are assigned their final assignment to write a story, Nick turns in one of their stories, and Cath doesn't turn anything in. One day when Cath was working on her fanfiction, Levi came in and asked her to help him study for a test. Cath ends up reading to him all night, they kiss, and fall asleep on Caths bed. Cath thinks she just kissed Reagan's boyfriend, and panics. She and Levi don't see each other until Cath sees him kissing another girl. After Levi is the only one there for Cath in two family emergencies, she is wondering what's up. Will Levi and Cath end up together? Will Wren and Cath forgive each other? Will Cath finish her fanfiction Carry On Simon before the eight books release? Will Cath do her assignment? So many loose ends that can only be tied up by reading the book. This book was amazing, and honestly I couldn't put it down!