The Jungle

    The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, begins with the wedding of two Lithuanian immigrants, Ona Luzoskiate and Jurgis Rukdus (I probably butchered their names, no pun intended), near the meatpacking district of Chicago in 1906. Many of the guests gorge themselves with food without paying. Ona becomes concerned about how much the wedding will cost them, and Jurgis vows to pick up another job to make extra cash. However, the jobs in the meatpacking district of Chicago pay far below any reasonable minimum wage, and the workers suffer from horrible conditions, as the companies put profit ahead of worker safety.
    Jurgis and his family go on a tour of the meatpacking district, and even the shocking images there of the animals suffering and being slaughtered in the abattoirs were enough to dwindle Jurgis' optimism. It is revealed that the government inspector that is supposed to supervise the carcasses and check for diseases, such as tuberculosis, often lets several of them go unchecked, out of sheer laziness. The spoiled meat is doctored in secret before it is sent to the canning department.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY BE SOMEWHAT GRAPHIC IN CERTAIN PARTS, DEPENDING ON WHO YOU ARE
     Jurgis' first job is sweeping the entrails of slaughtered cattle and pigs through trapdoors. Although the stench is horrendous, he earns just over two dollars for every twelve hour work shift. Jurgis even ends up enjoying his job, and he doesn't understand how the other workers hate their jobs and bosses. He does not join the labor union, which is lobbying for a reduction in the fast work pace. He believes the other workers are quite simply lazy. Jurgis also discovers that a lot of unfit meat, including calf fetuses and animals that had died of disease, were slaughtered and packed along with the rest of the meat.

    As winter approaches, many of the workers in Packingtown die from hypothermia on the meatpacking production line, literally, their bodies right next to the bodies of slaughtered cattle. The companies failed to provide the workers with adequate heating. Many of the workers also die from disease on the production line. So imagine that, dead people with diseases in their body in an abattoir. There were also some people whose limbs and phalanges fell in to some of the meat... and it was canned with the meat...

    The real estate company has also trapped the family in a scheme involving a house that was advertised as a for sale, but given to them as a rental. Their wedding has also put them over one hundred dollars in debt. The house they were given was also not in the condition in which it was advertised, and is somewhat overpriced.

    Okay, I-I'm sorry, but I can't write the summmary anymore. The book was just so... informative... I honestly believe that it was necessary, because had it not been published, there would be no FDA. There would also be no laws about worker conditions. But it also made me physically ill to read, I'm not exaggerating. Even writing this is making my hands shake. I also did some research on the book, and the president, Theodore Roosevelt, called Sinclair a 'crackpot' for his socialist point of view. I also was surprised at how the immigrants were treated, and it is somewhat sad, because even though we don't do THIS (all of the above) to immigrants today, we still often treat them as second class citizens, which is wrong no matter who you are. I would have to give this book an A+ for informing the public, but also a B+ for making me sick. So that averages out to about an A- I think. I definitely recommend it if you have a strong stomach.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night is a book about the holocaust, so if you're interested in that, then go ahead and read it, but if I were to describe this book in one word it would be: horrible.

Eliezer (or Elie... he's a boy) lived in Transylvania, Romania with his father, mother, and 3 sisters. A Jew from his town, called Moshe the Beadle was deported in 1942, and returned to warn everyone in town about the Germans and the horrible things he saw. No one believes him, not even Elie, but him and his family are taken to Auschwitz. There, the family is separated, boys from girls. Elie and his father see that people  and particularly babies are being thrown into a fire at the crematory. One of the most memorable parts of the story for me is where the Germans go around camp looking for the strongest men. Elie hopes they will choose him so he can get away from the camp for a while. He does not get chosen, and later when he finds out what happened he is glad. A "strong" man returns and says that he was forced to throw people into the fire, and one of those people was his own father.

The prisoners move to Buna, a different camp, after a short stay at Auschwitz. With difficult times in concentration camps Elie is always questioning his faith in God.  Him and his father survive beatings and selections of who will be burned in the crematory. They go on train rides where people murder each other for scraps of bread. In the winter, the prisoners are relocated, and they go on a long march in the snow. Elie and his father support each other, but later he becomes focused on his own survival. The difficult march takes them to Buchenweld, where his father falls terribly ill (SPOILER and eventually dies a really terrible, haunting death which I will not describe because you have to read it to find out. But that death has stuck with me... END OF SPOILER) Of course, he got out of the camp, or else he wouldn't be able to write the book, but I recommend you read it to find out how.

So, this book was different... I think the Holocaust is really interesting, but I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in a concentration camp. Based on his descriptions, it's amazing that Elie suvived. I've read Anne Frank, but this book is not really like that.

I can't exactly decide how I feel about the book though. Night definitely had it's flaws. First off, it was difficult to follow the characters. Elie and his father weren't bad, but he met so many other people, and they all had name's I've never heard of. He'd mention someone that he met earlier and I can't even remember who they were and when he met them. To add to that, it's a bit harder language. Not really hard, you can tell what's going on (unlike Treasure Island. I was clueless through that whole book!). But you've got to focus. Doze off for a few seconds, and you've missed something.

This was not a boring book. It was very interesting. There was never any boring chapters. It was hard to read because it was so sad. Ellie is great at describing what happened and how he felt, and it's not happy. So the reason I described it as horrible was not because it was bad, the stuff that happened in it was horrible, you know? I learned a lot of new things about concentration camps and those places are truly horrible. It was actually hard for me to read this book because there was some stuff I just didn't want to know about. To think something that terrifyingly bad happened to normal people! I've learned about the holocaust and researched it, but it's still hard for me to wrap my head around it because of how horrible it was. That's the best word to describe it, really!

I'll add a few more words to describe Night, and to sum up: well written, interesting, depressing, insightful, descriptive, difficult. I guess I would recommend it because it's a new experience, and I've never read anything like it. A-

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the greatest 20th century American writers, is somewhat of an adult novel. It tells the story of the rich and handsome Jay Gatsby, who fell deeply in love with a woman named Daisy, but came back from the war to discover that she had been married. They meet again through the narrator, Daisy's cousin and Gatsby's next door neighbor, Nick Carraway, and have an affair. Meanwhile, Daisy's husband Tom is seeing another married woman as well. In the end (SPOILER ALERT), Daisy and Gatsby run over Tom's mistress, whose husband figures out that is was them and shoots Gatsby. 

Fitzgerald's novel, though it seems to be only a romance, delves much deeper into serious themes, and focuses particularly on the American dream, or the idea that because we live in a free country, anyone can have the opportunity to lead happy, prosperous and profitable lives if they work hard. It took a good amount of thought (and help from Mrs. Jensen...) for me to figure it out, but Gatsby is obsessed with the American dream, because he believes that Daisy will love him if he is wealthy and financially successful, so, to fulfill this, he resorts to bootlegging. Fitzgerald also presents other issues through his characters- Daisy is depressingly materialistic, Nick and Gatsby, as a result of fighting in the war, are pessimists, and Gatsby's countless party guests are greedy moochers, as my father would put it. These and other moral issues come up throughout the book, and make for a fascinating and thought-provoking (thought-requiring?) yet rather difficult reading experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Gatsby. While somewhat confusing, the writing was lovely, and it helped that the book is a mere 180 pages. I hadn't ever read anything set in the 1920s before, so it was interesting to learn a little bit about what New York, and much of America in general, was like during that time period. Fitzgerald's characters are nothing short of intriguing, and it was refreshing to read something a little on the challenging side and to have to really look deeply into what I was reading. Overall, I give Gatsby a well deserved A+.

Animal farm

In the book Animal farm by George Orwell the animals of the barnyard are tired of their owners treating them horribly so they decide to run it themselves. As the orginal leader Major, a thoughtful old boar who introduces their new way of life animalism. While the animals try the new way of governing  one pig, Napoleon, works to achieve power by driving out the leaders. The pig who challenges him is snowball a caring less deviant counterpart. The leaders fight but to no avail, the farm falls under Napoleon's control with help of his nine loyal attack dogs. while he governs them by the terms that all animals are equal but some are more equal than others. With Napoleon as leader the farm plummets into a totalitarian government where their best horse boxer.
This book was a very thrilling play through of the early soviet union in WWII. It was very fun to learn about the soviet union in this book. Although i learned a lot I felt like it could have expanded more in detail on how it played out in the barnyard but instead it just ended. This is a very good read to learn about Russia back then but a little bit short. B.

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Over the past few years there have been many prequels to popular series. Puss in boots, Prometheus, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek. This book however is the prequel to one of the greatest Disney movies of all time. Peter Pan. This book titled Peter and the Star catchers, starts out with five orphan boys being dropped off by a carriage to a port. They board a ship that will take them across the sea. Peter is the leader of these boys. While aboard Peter meets a girl named Molly, and discovers a magical trunk that gives the power of flight. While trying to break in and look at the trunk again Molly stops Peter and tells him about her father and how they are part of a secret organization that protects the stuff in the trunk, also known as Starstuff. This book also switches points of view with Peter, Black Stache, a.k.a. Captain Hook, and Molly's Father. While trying to purse the treasure Black Stache hijacks another ship that unfortunately for him had a fake trunk aboard. He soon figures it out and goes after the ship that Peter and Molly are on. When Black Stache gets there Peter has been thrown overboard but survives. After taking the ships crew captive Black Stache leaves the ship and the rest of its passengers to die. The ship capsizes and falls apart.

Molly uses the star stuff and escapes, both Peter and Molly safely get to an island, as do all of the other boys and Black Stache. The boys encounter natives, and face their laws. After escaping they locate the trunk and start back to the beach. They encounter survivors, and Black Stache. In a final battle Peter faces Black Stache and cuts off his hand which is then eaten by the crocodile. The natives host them for a dinner and Peter decides to stay on the island.

I really this book although it did start out a little slow. At first it was boring but that was before the rising action started. I recommend it to those who like Peter Pan as well as fiction. This book reminded me of  a few others because of its theme. It greatly incorporated it. But because of the slow start and a few other things, it could have been better. A-

The Hobbit By: J. R. R. Tolkien By: Andrew Williams

Bilbo Baggins, a simple Hobbit, never asked for adventure. It literally came knocking on his door, 13 dwarve and Gandalf the wizard show up to tea to hire Bilbo as a thief in their quest to reclaim a hoard of treasure. It's stashed far away and guarded by a fierce dragon, Smaug. Bilbo will have to cross the Misty Mountains, troll and goblin country, and the untamed wilds of Mirkwood, where straying from the path can be deadly. In exchange, he gets an even share of the treasure and quite a story to tell. One of the dwarves in Bilbo's parlour is Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain son of Thror, King under the Mountain. The dwarves of the Lonely Mountain were a race of highly-skilled craftsmen, workers of stone and metals, wealthy and strong. That is Thorin's rightful inheritance, but the kingdom was lost to the worm dragon Smaug. Now Smaug sleeps deep in the heart of the mountain on his huge heap of treasure. One of the most significant events in the book is when Bilbo finds a magic ring, deep in the heart of the Misty Mountains, after he has been captured by goblins and taken down, down into the deep tunnels and black halls of the Great Goblin. The ring is a pretty handy thing to find because it enables Bilbo to escape from his captors and later on it helps him to confront Smaug the dragon. The ring makes you invisible. In the end, the confluence of events, including his daring rescue of the Dwarves, from a horde of larger-than-life spiders in Mirkwood, teaches Bilbo that he does indeed have a strength within himself. Bilbo finally faces the worst of his fears, conquers them, and confronts the deadly dragon Smaug, deep in the the Lonely Mountain. The moment when Bilbo overcomes his fear is the moment in which he, finally and completely, transforms from who he was into who he was always meant to be. Bilbo achieves his full potential and, as a result, gains treasures far greater than the gold he carries away from the Lonely Mountain, and like all Hero Quest stories, Bilbo must go back to his home. He and Gandalf finally take their final steps toward The Shire, Gandalf says, “My dear Bilbo! Something has happened to you. You are not the Hobbit you once were.”

J.R.R. Tolkien- The Two Towers

     Welcome back to Middle Earth, folks! This right now is a really bad time to be here for there are Orcs (evil elvish like dudes), Elves, Dwarfs, Giant tree things (ENTs) and of course, Hobbits. This story takes place shortly after what happened in The Fellowship of the Ring. (By the way, if you are currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring, don't continue reading this review because I may ruin the end of it for you!) Anyway, it starts off with the Company searching high and low (mostly low) for Samwise Gamgee and Frodo. A downfall to reading what happened with Sam and Frodo is that it is over half way into the book. By then many events (good or bad) will happen to the rest of the 

Company. As the reader, you will for sure see a familiar face if you have read The Hobbit. Then later, there will be many battles and the beginning of a raging war. If you have The Lord of the Rings book with illustrations, you got lucky because it is way better with a little visual to get an image in your mind.

   I would totally recommend reading this book after the first one. If you just pick it up and start reading, absolutely none of it will make any sense to you. If you are barely starting to read The Two Towers, when it gets to the part with Saruman, go to the back and read his section of the appendix, if you have one. This book can also be very hard to comprehend in minds due to it's way of saying things. But, never give up and continue reading and you'll be glad that you did.

The Fellowship of the Ring

      The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien is probably the best fiction book I have ever read. It has multiple themes, but one main theme is that even people who seem insignificant have a lot of potential, and there are many characters in the book that this applies to. The Fellowship of the Ring is the first book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it starts Frodo's dangerous adventure to the evil land of Mordor. This book contains many different mythical races, including short creatures with big, hairy feet that want nothing to do with adventure, called hobbits.

    Frodo Baggins, a peaceful hobbit, is given a magical ring from his uncle, Bilbo Baggins. A wizard named Gandalf the Grey warns him about it, so Frodo, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin (Pippin) Took, and Merry Brandybuck rush to Rivendell, a city where elves live. On the way, they encounter evil Black Riders, some helpful allies, and a mysterious man named Strider. In Rivendell, a council is held, and people from many different races attend. At the council, they must decide what to do with the magical ring. There, they form 'The Fellowship of the Ring.' A company that is made up of four hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry; Gandalf the Grey; an elf named Legolas; Gimli the Dwarf; Aragorn the Ranger; and a mortal man named Boromir.

      This book was very epic and well-thought through. J.R.R. Tolkien created a whole world called Middle-Earth! You can feel the structure of the plot, the characters, and the settings as you read the book. Also, the author brings up many issues like racism, because of the different races. For example, the elves and the dwarves do not get along well, and they don't treat each other very well. The Fellowship of the Ring affected me, because it taught me that even if someone seems insignificant, or that they aren't good enough for something, they can make a huge difference in the world. We shouldn't judge people that are different than us.

      I absolutely loved this book. I have always loved the Lord of the Rings movies, and I finally decided to read the book. It was very well-written, and I was surprised at how many similarities there were. However, the beginning of the book is VERY SLOW. If you are a reader that gets extremely bored with slow books, than I would recommend not reading this book. J. R. R. Tolkien is a brilliant writer, and his books will continue to be read for many years.

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is told by, and is about, a teenager in his junior year of high school at Pencey Prep. Throughout the story he is just telling you of his adventures around New York City. Now, one might begin to ponder at the fact that he is a junior in high school, and is wondering around New York City. Well, it is because although the main character, Holden Caulfield, is in a family of intellectual thinkers (his brother is a writer who lives in Hollywood), Holden is a rather lazy scholar, resulting in the fact that he was expelled. Holden does not want his parents to find out that he was expelled, so he waits until the Christmas break on the Wednesday of the next week to go home and visit family. At that time, when he arrived home he planned to either inform his parents of the tragic news, or run away and work somewhere else, visiting when able. He has a few days to spend in New York before Christmas break and he tells us of his crazy adventures, including the fun places he goes and the interesting people he meets and talks to.

This book perfectly outlines the basic thoughts and actions that the average teenager feels and experiences when alone, or when the chance comes up to make a decision. The writing is in a style that a teenager would most likely be speaking in, as a young adult in the 50’s- including using the same phrases over and over again, using slang and swearing to get his point across no matter what the case is and no matter who he is talking to. On multiple occasions, to get his point across, Holden mentions the fact that he is stupid. However, I do not think he is dumb. It is just that he does not care. Other than the fact that he doesn’t care, He seems to be quite smart and caring. For instance, he has this daydream of a bunch of children playing in a rye field, and it happens to be on the edge of a cliff, and he is to be the sole guardian of the children if they fall of the cliff, to catch them if they fall. To be the “Catcher in the Rye.” He thinks himself to be the sole protector of children, or to protect their innocence. When in an elementary school visiting, he sees graffiti which reads “f*** you”, and he is infuriated with it, wiping it off with his sleeve, knowing that if a child saw it they would be uncomfortable. He appreciates when a child like his sister, who is expected to be at a lower level of language, understands what he is saying. Throughout the book, Holden mentions how many people he thinks are good for nothing d*** phonies. This might be a result of the fact that very smart people constantly surround him, and his own brother is a genius writer in Hollywood. Being used to being around these kind of people, he seems to build up a high expectation about the entire society, looking down on them unless they are as good as his smart friends, or his smart brother. Leading him to opinions that are quite dreary and dull, showing that he is sort of a depressed person. In fact, when he gets home, he has a mental break down and gets sick, resulting in a stay in a mental help hospital to regain his well-being.

I give it an A! This book is a quite interesting read to say the least. If you get past the constant use of the same phrases, and constant swearing, it is a read that you wont forget. It has many things that really put your teenage thoughts into consideration. It also shows what a life for your first time without parents in a social environment can be very different indeed. I highly encourage someone to read this; it is an experience that will leave you pondering life for days. If you leave this suggestion behind you, and decide not to take the short time to read this book and gain new knowledge, then Holden Caulfield thinks that you are a big phony.

Dreamland- Sarah Dessen

     This book 'DreamLand' is a hard book to really find a main theme behind, so if I, personally had to decided I would say its probably about family, and never giving up on trying to see them even if things tear you apart.
     This book shows you "around" through Caitlin's eyes, one of the main characters. The book starts out with Caitlin's older sister running away, and the whole family ( her mom, and dad ) go absolutely bonkers. But what her mom and dad don't realize is the day Cass left ( the older sister ) they forgot it was Caitlin's birthday. The book carries on and it turns out that Cass left a note on Caitlin's bed, which read, "Caitlin, I'll see you in Dreamland". So I don't ruin the book for you all I will tell you is that Dreamland is a place where, Cass, Caitlin, and their mom all meet up. Dreamland is a land that once you fall asleep you can be with whoever else traveled their in their sleep, but its only the people you want to see there that you see. Although you can't just plan on going to sleep and going to Dreamland, you're lucky if you can make it there, it's not technically hard you just have to really want it.
     I personally didn't enjoy this book, but that's just me. The reason why is because I feel almost as if it drags on with a little to much unimportant things throughout the book, it adds way to much detail and thoughts in my opinion.. Although I would recommend it to others. Dreamland, although does sound very interesting to me. I mean if I wanted to go to another place of my dreams, and see people I didn't get to see everyday I would absolutely try and go every single day. If there were an actual Dreamland, I would be in awe.
      I suggest that if you take a long time to get into a book that you don't read this one, it took me about to the middle of the book to really get hooked on it. But if you like stories with a lot of back story then this is the perfect book. Happy reading

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is by far one of the best books that I have ever read in my entire life. I was slightly skeptical about reading it at first, as I've heard some say that it is a slower paced book, however I have absolutely no regrets after reading it. I highly recommend to anyone and everyone that enjoys classics.

The story begins in the summer of 1922, the start of the roaring twenties, where bootlegging and partying are habitual. Nick Carraway is just moving to the West Egg neighborhood of Long Island, New York from Minnesota. He quickly becomes aware of his neighbor, the rather mysterious Jay Gatsby, and about his grandiloquent parties which he holds every Saturday night at his gigantic Gothic mansion. Unlike most others in West Egg, Nick was educated at Yale and has a few social connections in the much more fashionable East egg. During a visit there, an old college friend and his wife, Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan, introduce him to Jordan Baker, whom he begins dating. He also learns from Jordan that Tom is having an affair behind Daisy's back.

A few months into the summer, Nick receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties. Meeting Gatsby will forever change Nick's life in an extraordinary way, and will end another's.

I have honestly never been so engaged in a book. My love for this book is stronger than my hatred of Apple products. I did not know at all what to expect when I first started reading it, I had positively no idea what this book was about. Normally, when I don't know much about a book, I don't read it, because I feel like I might become disappointed. This was about the most fulfilling book I have ever encountered. I am glad that this book also is considered a classic. I definitely give this book an A+

"Night" By Elie Wiesel

     "Night" - By Elie Wiesel, is a depressing and inspirational auto-biography about his time with his father spent in Nazi German concentration camps; Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Though it is only a 100-page book, it holds terrifying opinions and history - he talks about the death of god and how much he is sickened by humanity. The original book was an 865- page book written in Yiddish, and 50 years later, it had been translated in to more than 30 languages. 

     The book starts off by telling the reader of Elie's hometown - Sighet, Romania, and of a strange man, hollering about the horrible things "they" have done to him. The man goes all around the town, telling people that he had been abducted and brutally tortured. Nobody listened, at least, nobody but Elie. He would spend almost every afternoon with the man and listening to his stories of going to Hell and coming back to tell the tale. 

     In Spring of 1944, the Nazi's begin shipping carloads of Jews to Auschwitz, and Elie's family is sent in the last car, a few days after the rest. A woman on their car was hysterical, screaming visions of flames and furnaces. 

     Finally, on the third day of their car-trip with only minimal amounts of food and water, they arrive at a concentration camp and see a large furnace with black smoke flowing out the top. Elie and his father go with the "healthy" group to work, while his mother and sisters are sent the Birkenau to be killed.

     Wiesel has won a Nobel Peace prize for his literature, and has gone on to write two other books about his thoughts after the Holocaust. If you haven't already read this book, you'd better find a copy and read it to yourself because it is definately a "must-read." With all it's gruesome detail and horror stories about his time spent in Auschwitz, it can make someone go from a happy-go-lucky American into a starving and dying Jew in Auschwitz.

The Wizard of Oz

 
The first thing you need to know about the Wizard of Oz book is that it is much different than the movie. Instead of a cheesy, classic with musical numbers. The book is more a fairytale like adventure. The story begins with Dorothy and her trusty dog Toto living a dull life on a Kansas farm. When a cyclone takes her and Toto away, they arrive in a strange land known as Oz. When her house accidentally kills the Wicked Witch of the East she meets the Munchkins, the good witch of the North, and takes the dead witch's silver shoes. She is directly by the Munchkins to go to see the Great Oz in the emerald city. On her journey she meets a scarecrow, a tin man, and a cowardly lion who come with her on her journey. When they reach they Emerald City, they plead the Great Oz for their desires. He says that if they slay the Wicked Witch of The West they may have their wishes granted. The companions go to the West and are taking prisoners by the witch. Dorothy manages to destroy her and free the land of the West. They travel back to the Emerald City have their wishes granted (somewhat). Only Dorothy's wish is not granted. So she travels to the South to find the good witch that lives there. With the witch's help, Dorothy returns to Kansas.

I thought that this book was great! Its a lot different from the movie and some of the characters are brilliant. It is a classic book and the author himself said that he wanted this book to be a modern fantasy like the Grimm fairy tales. Also the details in this book are incredible my personal favorite is when the dreary landscape of Kansas is being described.