The Blind Side August 8, 2008

Title: The Blind Side: The Evolution of a Game

Author: Michael Lewis

Summary: The game of football changed forever on November 18, 1985. As millions watched on Monday Night Football, Joe Theisman was sacked by Lawrence Taylor, and suffered a career-ending leg fracture. Taylor hit Theisman from the blind side; the quarterback never saw it coming. As a result, team owners and coaches scrambled to find a way to protect the quarterback’s blind side and the position of left tackle was transformed. Once just another interchangeable big man on the line, he is now often the highest paid player on the team. Good left tackles possess a freakish combination of speed and size, and they are very hard to find.

Michael Oher was born to a drug-addicted mother in Memphis. He doesn’t know his father, or even his own birthday. Growing up on the streets, he faced a very difficult future. But opportunities for an education and a career in the NFL all emerge, because at 6′6” with the speed of a basketball player, Oher was born to play left tackle. The Blind Side is more than just a riveting sports book. It makes you wonder: If Lawrence Taylor hadn’t landed that monster hit, would Micheal Oher be starting his senior season at Ole Miss today?

Who will like this book?: Football fans. People who like to read stories about life on the streets and kids who triumph over difficult odds.

If you like this, try this: Moneyball, also by Michael Lewis. Game by Walter Dean Myers.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Jarhead July 1, 2008

Title: Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles

Author: Anthony Swofford

Summer Reading List: Fairfield Warde High

Summary: Anthony Swofford served in the first Gulf War as a Marine sniper and describes his time in Kuwait and Iraq, as well as his training and life after the conflict in this original, unsettling memoir. If you are looking for a heroic tale of the glories of combat, you won’t find it here - this book is free from many of the stereotypes you might associate with American war stories. For Swoff and company, the most difficult part of the war is the waiting - for battle, for news from home, and for a chance to use their training. When the fighting starts it seems to be over before it begins.

Operation Desert Storm was a short conflict. But it was brutal. The author doesn’t pull any punches (or leave much to the imagination) when describing battle, his comrades, or his personal life. This unique perspective on life as a solider is one you won’t soon forget. 

Who will like this book?: Mature readers interested in military and war stories. People who like intense personal stories.

If you like this, try this: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Kipling’s Choice by Geert Spillbeen. Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Counting Coup June 28, 2008

Title: Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn

Author:Larry Colton

Summary:  Sharon LaForge moves on the basketball court with fluidity and grace driven by an intuitive understanding of the game.  She is a gifted athlete and will lead her school team to a state championship, but no college recruiter will ever show an interest in her.  No offer of scholarship will ever be sent to Sharon because, as most people on her reservation believe, schools don’t like to take a chance that their athletic investment may not adjust to life off the reservation. 

Author Larry Colton went to Crow Agency searching for an answer as to why young Native American athletes, who dominate the basketball court in high school, leave school without a single college offer. What he found was Sharon LaForge.  In telling Sharon’s story, Colton tells the story of her fellow teammates, her family, her Indian community, and his own experiences with the people inside that community. 

Who will like this book?:  Fans of sports books and those interested in Native American life on a reservation.  Don’t be confused though, this isn’t a dry anthropological study of culture, but rather a very personal look into a young woman’s life, the choices she makes, and her community. 

If you like this, try this: In These Girls, Hope is Muscleby Madeleine Blias and Friday Night Lights: a Town, a Team, and a Dreamby H.G. Bissinger

Recommended by:Jen, Fairfield Woods Teen Librarian

Never Let Me Go June 24, 2008

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Summer Reading List: Fairfield Ludlowe High

Summary: Set in a not-too-distant future England, students at Halisham live a typical boarding-school life: classes and friendships, romances and secrets. They are aware of the wider world around them, yet they are kept separate from it. The kids at Halisham already know their role in the future.

The students are clones, their sole purpose on the planet is to one day donate their organs to people until they are no longer viable. But when you can feel love, fear and rejection, can you truly be called something less than human? This is a powerful yet subtle book about memory and what it means to be alive.

Who will like this book?: People who like their stories with just a touch of fantasy (or just a touch of horror, depending on how you feel about clones.) If you like books that don’t spell it all out for you, but force you to come to your own conclusions, this is a good choice.

If you like this, try this: House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

The Host May 12, 2008

Title: The Host

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Summary: In this intense novel, humans have lost the Earth to a race of aliens that stealthily invade planets throughout the galaxy. The alien’s method? They possess the bodies of their ‘hosts,’ and take over their lives. But the body given to Wanderer, an alien ’soul’ who has lived multiple lives across the vast universe, seems to have a mind of it’s own - Melanie, who refuses to disappear as most human psyches seem to do. Melanie was part of the dwindling human resistance fighting the alien invasion, and she fills Wanderer’s thoughts with painful memories of the man she loves - another rebel named Jared. Wanderer must make a choice: Move to a new human host so another ’soul’ can attempt to access Melanie’s secrets and uncover the rebel cell, or follow Melanie’s instincts to reunite with Jared and other humans, a decision that will mean her death.

Fans of Stephenie Meyer will flock to this book, but be warned: The Host has a very different feel than the Twilight books. It is more complex, and in many ways more meaningful, with thought-provoking questions about the nature of love and the definition of humanity.

Who will like this book?: Fans of the Twilight books, and of love triangles (even if this book only has two bodies.) If you like your sci-fi with a dose of romance and philosophy, this is a great book for you.

If you like this, try this: Another literary adult sci-fi book with a similar feel (but entirely different subject) is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. For a (much more) lighthearted body snatcher tale, try Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins. 

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

A Fighter’s Heart May 3, 2008

Title: A Fighter’s Heart: One Man’s Journey Through the World of Fighting

Author: Sam Sheridan

Summary:  Author Sam Sheridan gets right to the heart of the matter: In order to succeed as a fighter, you need more than a passion for the sport. The best fighters possess a dedication and fearlessness that few people can muster. This book is exactly what it says it is: the author details his years of traveling around the world learning about and training in the various forms of martial arts. He goes to Bangkok to study Muay Thai, L.A. to meet with Olympic boxing hopefuls, Rio to train with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu masters, and Iowa for MMA lessons with the legendary Miletich camp. Along the way, he fights, he suffers injuries, and he learns about the depth of commitment these extraordinary men have for their sport.

To put it simply, these terms and names either mean something to you or they don’t. If you are a member of the rapidly expanding fan base of mixed martial arts, or other fighting styles, this book is indispensable.

Who will like this?:  Guys into MMA or more the more traditional martial arts. And don’t let the gory cover fool you - this is a fascinating biography for anyone in high school doing a project or report.

If you like this, try this: American Shaolin by Matthew Polly. Iceman: My Fighting Life by Chuck Liddell.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian