Heartbreaking and broken

Still Alice

By Lisa Genova

Did she pass Memorial Drive? And right before that the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Park? Alice triple checked her surroundings but she could not recall where she was or how she got to the stage of confusion that she was in.  Mrs. Alice Howland is a phenomenal psychology professor who associates herself with multiple universities and institutions around Boston. Along with the troubles she finds with her daughter Lydia who has not chosen the path Alice expected of her after high school, and her workaholic husband who seems to have little time for her, Alice is realizing there is something unfortunately wrong with her health. Her diagnosis of Alzheimer's will begin to impact her strongly and quickly, long term.

Still Alice was recommended to me by multiple classmates & I am glad that this was the choice I made. What I really enjoy so far about this novel is that Alice faces more than one obstacle.  Author, Lisa Genova, did not just focus on Alice being diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  In addition to Alice’s health, she created a feeling of slight distance and abandonment with her husband who often sided with Lydia, who was nowhere near the perfect example child. In fact, Lydia is the exact opposite of what her mother had wants for her. Genova allows Alice’s character to appear realistic because she is facing multiple impacting situations. This novel is a great representation of expressing that life doesn't just hit you with one obstacle at a time, life is constantly challenging you. It also reiterates the cliche that we take a lot for granted. Our memory is something with give such little thought to but it plays such a big purpose in our life, and it takes us until our memory skills have been compromised to realize that we take advantage of it.

Any readers who are looking for a book that can highlight an average women facing a real life situation would enjoy this book. There is little to no added drama, not much action but a heart touching and eye opening story. From the beginning of the book Genova illustrates Alice as headstrong, confident, determined and relentless. From a dinner argument with Lydia making Alice feel as forceful as " trying to knock down a concrete wall with their heads"( Genova 17) to when she felt disoriented in Harvard square knowing " She wanted to continue walking...she tried again...she willed herself..she told herself she could still read and recognize." ( Genova 22), Alice never gave up, on anything. With such strong character traits, it makes the readers want to root for Alice throughout the whole book and fight with her.

I wholeheartedly recommend Still Alice to any reader looking for a beautiful and well written novel with touches of fear and surprises.  I am looking forward to continuing this book as well.  

True Love

Happily Ever After

By: Kiera Cass

 
      How could one define happy ever after?

Prince Clarkson has been very affected by his parents abusive but yet oddly loving marriage. When the time comes for him to pick a wife from the selection, he must get passed the belief that love doesn't exist. But that changes once he meets Emberly. Although he felt a deep connection with her, he wanted to test all the girls first. So he asked all the remaining girls in the selection to cut their hair. But only Emberly gave him more than an inch. Which pleased him very much. He then chooses her to be his wife regardless of her illness. But Emberly receives some news from the doctor that changes her life, the prince's life, and the kingdom forever.

This book is a very well written book that captures the readers attention. The author uses scenarios that are imaginable to allow the readers to connect to the characters and their sentiments. She mainly focuses on the fact that anyone can find true love. Whether it means finding love with someone totally different from yourself; or loving/accepting yourself and finding happiness that way. One of the characters in the book thought that she had to be married to be happy but found out that she is, "...much happier on her own" (Cass 383). The book also portrays the idea that everyone is in fact different, have different faiths and different perspectives. This is definetely a book that can cheer you up if you're feeling down. Although life isn't filled with happy ever afters nor peace, it can make you believe that it exists and is possible. It could even inspire you to take a step in changing the world or just your country or town/city for the better. It's believed by most that dreams can't come true but the author makes the reader believe that they can. Emberly once said, "The dreams I'd stored in my heart were actually coming true"(Cass 86). I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone. Even if you hate romance and love stories, this book can and will change your mind.  

Pablo

Joey Dalicandro

Killing Pablo
by Mark Bowden

" We love you,Pablo" and "long live El Doctor"  echoed through the busy streets of Medellin as the casket carrying Pablo Escobar was brought to the cemetery. A mob of thousands of angry mourners attended his funeral, where they would shout anti-government rhetoric and promise acts of violence as revenge for what they did to their cities savior. This is both a story of victory and defeat, the rise and fall of one of the most notoriously wealthy men to ever live. Escobar's reign of terror would last well over 20 years and earn him a yearly revenue of well over 21.9 billion dollars. At the peak of his reign, Forbes magazine even listed him as the seventh richest man in the world.

Despite his riches, the head of the Medellin cartel got his start exporting oil, vegetables and even coffee. He then graduated to stealing and trading tombstones and then to stealing cars. The rest  happens to be history. He became known for being a daring and ruthless operator. No one in Medellin challenged his authority, he owned the police and the politicians, and everyone who did question him wound up missing or worse. An associate of Don Pablo is quoted for famously saying "He wasn't even an entrepreneur, and he wasn't even an especially talented businessman. He was just ruthless"

This is an enthralling story of greed, corruption, idealism and one mans decent into hell. Moreover it's a relentless quest for justice.

Within this novel author Mark Bowden exposes the once classified account of the 16 month U.S.-led covert man hunt to catch none other than Pablo himself . Including access to the many key players involved in this operation such as incorruptible head of the special police unit that chased Escobar and Colombian president Cesar Gaviria. Author Mark Bowden in his own words describes Escobar in the late 80's and early 90's  as "Public enemy number one in the world".

If you're like me and enjoy both history and biographies than I highly recommend this book for you. My opinion of this novel is high, for which it has a vast amount important history and information within its pages.  I found that the author uses certain imagery and vivid word description to keep the readers attention. Though there is indeed many pages and chapters in this book, the author has kept my attention from start to finish. I highly regard this book for which it has taught me many things about our own government. The story of Pablo's life is edgy and a truly sobering view on moral dilemmas.

I have enjoyed reading the few pages I have read and hope to continue reading. I hope you to will find it as good as I did.

Barely Alive

Melissa Nicolas

Alive
By Scott Sigler

Submerged in the shadows and engulfed in the darkness, what would can one do when they wake up on their twelfth birthday, chained down and completely in the dark. A young girl awakens chained in a coffin completely in the dark and has no idea how she came to be like this and has no memory of who her family is or even her name. With all the strength she can muster she breaks free of her casket. To realize she is in a room filled with a dozen casket with bodies waiting to be awoken. The only information she knows is that her name must be M. Savage because it was in her coffin and that she is definitely not twelve years old. Soon she becomes the leader of a whole bunch of other kids who have no idea what's going on either. From what I've read, this book has been completely captivating because it isn't a typical thriller. It isn't thrilling at all. The majority of the beginning is encompassed by an anxious feeling. The characters of the novel are in shock. Something very strange and terrifying has happened to them and their memories have my seriously altered. Everything about the plot of this book is fascinating but I do not believe it would be everyone's cup of tea. I warn readers that the book is very slow paced and events happen slowly. The characters are basically trapped underground there isn't much they can do to change their situation. My recommendation goes to people who are more interested in science-fiction books. Books that often have a bit of mystery and suspense. There is a bit of a romance transpiring between the two main characters in the book but this certainly isn't a romance novel so if that is what you're looking for I highly recommend you find another book.

Yong is the fifth character to be awoken in their chamber of obscurity. The only information the audience knows about him is his race and his last name. That is all the other characters know about each other. I personally really relate to Yong because he was very combative Savage, the protagonist. Savage instantly takes the role of being the leader of the pack but Yong is not so eager to be controlled. I would be the same in this situation. I certainly would be scared but I also wouldn't like to have someone believe they're the boss and have all the answers when they are just as lost as me. Yong is sarcastic and funny but extremely guarded and I find myself having some of the same qualities so I really like this character. " His arms are crossed again, his head is tilted slightly to the right. He is a walking challenge, daring anyone to contradict him. Something about his presence promises pain" (Sigler 41). Another thing about this book that personally affects me is how the idea is to run and survive when you're not entirely sure what you're running from. This makes this book a sort of mystery and I have always been drawn towards mysteries. There is an obvious goal trying to be met by these kids but they're not sure how they're going to accomplish it and how they ended up in this position. These components make this book unpredictable and I thoroughly enjoy a book that isn't predictable." Someone please help me, this is...' my breath catches. I don't know my own name" ( Sigler 4).

Once more I stress readers that love science-fiction and some mystery this book is perfect for you. It will always keep you interested. It is filled with relatable characters. I would gear the audience to be a bit younger than the average adults, teens and young adults would much prefer the content of the book. Adults might find the content trivial and unrelatable since there isn't one adult in the book so far.

Memories Forgotten

Still Alice
By: Lisa Genova

Memories are slowly drifting away from Alice. Will she forget it all? Alice the main character is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. She and her husband John both work at the school together. They are successful and have 3 children, Lydia, Tom, and Anna. Alice has everything figured out in life. She has her routines planned and all her presentations memorized. She slowly starts to forget little things about her routines and forgets words to her presentation. She then realizes that there is something wrong and decides to get checked out. She meets with her doctor a couple time. The last time she visited she was told that she has alzheimer's disease and was struck with fear of what to do now. She has yet to tell her family.

Overall the book is very interesting and keeps you wanting to read more. It is a book with lots of emotions and at moments can be very sad. To some it is seen as uplifting due to seeing that it isn't as bad as you make it out to be. It brings Alice's family together for her. In my opinion I would reccomend this book to other people

Black Flags

When we think about how far word of mouth travels between individuals, we may not know exactly how far an idea or trend socializes itself with society. Inside a small Jordanian Prison, the ideas and beliefs that engulfed those small rooms was where Isis got its start. Mastermind terroist Abu al-Zarqawi was forming a role for himself as the Architect for this Islamist movement based on dominating the Middle East by intimidation. Zarqawi was a man where people respected him and naturally were attracted to his actions and his voice. He had a following in which he would share his ideologies to. Zarqawi was able to manipulate many of these men to accompany him on his villainous and inhuman journey to being known. He wanted to grow strong in numbers, through fear and intimidation Zarqawi would instill fear into the Middle East spreading his radical ideologies. Author Joby Warrick uses his skill of switching from the perspectives of many high ranking officers, spies, general diplomats many of whom foresaw many of the events of a criminal who may have been worse than Al-Qaeda. For a person who seems to be spending more time slipping into the past with history this book does not disappoint as it brings detail after detail from multiple lines of perspectives. This book is a timeline of the birth of Isis and its effects on America and the rest of the world. Black Flags is a fantastic piece of definitive history that reveals the long arc of the world's most dangerous terroist threats.

Leah Duplessis
                                                        The Secret Year                              
         "The Secret Year",  by Jennifer R Hubbard, is a romance novel about a boy named Colt who lost the love of his life. He, a rather poor young man and Julia, a wealthy and beautiful older girl had been secretly hooking up every Friday night for over a year until she was enexpectedly killed in a fatal car accident. The book revolves around Colt's ways of trying to cope with this heartbreak, and faces many personal obstacles when he cannot express how he is feeling due to the fact that she had a boyfriend throughout their relationship, and not a soul knows about their Secret. I think that the book is really unique in the sense that we never are introduced to Julia while she is alive, but as the book continues on you feel like who know her due to Colt's description of her, and his memories which he reminisces on. Eventually Julia's brother comes across a note book which she had written to Colt and gives it to him, and obviously discovers their secret, but leaves it to remain unknown. Colt reads this journal every night and obsesses over it. A lot of the language used in this journal is risky and may make you uncomfortable as a reader. She is very straight forward about sexual scenes. A lot of the book consists of corny concepts that I feel are very unrealistic, and kind of uncomfortable to read. Over all I feel as though the story of the novel is very well thought out, but the details are a bit strange and over analyzed. Overall I would not recommend the book unless you are heavily into romance.