Book Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

• Reading Level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Poppy
• ISBN-10:   0316122386
• ISBN-13:   978-0316122382
• Received From: I bought it.

From Goodreads:
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan’s life. She’s stuck at JFK, late to her father’s second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley’s never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport’s cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he’s British, and he’s in seat 18B. Hadley’s in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver’s story will make you believe that true love finds you when you’re least expecting it.

My Thoughts:
If I saw this book in a book store and just read the title I probably wouldn’t have picked it up because I hate “love at first sight”. The only reason why I gave this book a chance is because I heard a lot of great things about it, and decided to give it a chance.  This book takes place over the course of 24 hours, but the love story does not feel like insta-love. It feels real and genuine, and there’s no doubting that Oliver and Hadley are great together!

I read this book in two days and I enjoyed it very much but it’s not all cute, light material; there is some heavy stuff in this book. Oliver and Hadley each have something they have to come to terms with; some of it you know, some of it you find out during the story.

This book gives you a little bit of everything: love, heartache, sadness, joy, anger, and acceptance. I would recommend it to everyone because it is so much more than a contemporary love story. The growth that Hadley and Oliver go through is what makes this book great. This book has quickly jumped into my favorite contemporary books. So I give this book 5 Quills and I highly suggest that you pick it up and read it.

Xo, Shannon

Poetry: #4

She was on the floor
The fist hovered in the air
“Did it to scare you”

Poetry: #3

The loss of a friend
Sadness, frustration, anger
Forgetting is hard.

Book Review: Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

 Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

• Reading Level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse
• Date Published: January 1st, 2006
• ISBN-10: 0689817851
• ISBN-13: 978-0689817854
• Received From: I bought it.

From Goodreads:
This groundbreaking classic is more compelling than ever for today’s readers. A sensation when it was first published and a perennial bestseller ever since, this real-life diary charts an anonymous teenage girl’s struggle with the seductive–and often fatal–world of drugs.

My Thoughts:
I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this book. I thought that I would like more than I did because my friend, who has similar book tastes as me, recommended it. Overall I am basically ‘meh’ about the book. I didn’t particularly care for the MC of the book because she was so flaky, and it really got on my nerves. I didn’t get anything literary from this book but it did reinforce my ABSOLUTELY NO drugs policy!!!

This is a banned/challenged book and I have no idea why. Yes, it is a little ‘woah!’ when it comes to the drugs, but if one person wants to start taking drugs after reading this book then there is something wrong with them. The descriptions of what happened when the MC accidentally took acid freaked me the heck out!!! So honestly you think the parents would want their children to read this book to scare them AWAY from drugs!!

***WARNING!: I would not recommend this book for anyone under 18. I’m 20 and one part of this book was a little bit too much for me and I had to quickly skim/skip that section so that I wouldn’t get sick to my stomach!!

Overall, I’m still ‘meh’ about this book. I’m not going crazy for it nor am I absolutely hating it, but it was definitely interesting to say the least. So I am giving it 3 Quills!

Book Review: Tris & Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

Tris & Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

• Reading Level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: EgmontUSA
• Date Published: October 11th, 2011
• ISBN-10: 1606841734
• ISBN-13: 978-1606841730
• Received From: netGalley

From Goodreads:
A modern retelling of the German fairytale “Tristan and Isolde”, Tris and Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until — she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school

My Thoughts:
I saw this book on netGalley and it was the cover that drew me in and then the synopsis is really good as well, so I had high hopes for this book. However, sadly this book most definitely did not live up to my expectations. When I got to page 4 and I read this line: “Mark told me that if I really disliked him he would ‘exile’ him, which meant that no one would speak to him without Mark’s permission.”, it was a total *headdesk* moment! That is the moment when I started to get a bad feeling about this book but I kept reading  hoping that it was a fluke.

Reason #1: The characters in her book are just downright annoying, absolutely none of them had any redeeming qualities about them. Izzie, to put it simply she’s a moron, a hypocrite, and someone who thinks that she knows it all. Branna, I think I actually hated her more than I did Izzie. These girls claim to be best friends but they have no consideration for each other at all. Izzie decides that since Branna doesn’t have a boyfriend that she is going to use one of her mom’s love potions even though Branna said that she didn’t want one. Then Branna decides to break her promise, of keeping the secret that Izzie’s mom can do magic, because she “loves” Mark (who is Izzie’s boyfriend) and wants to prove to him that Izzie has lied to him while she hasn’t. Mark, is a freaking douche bag and very flaky, end of story! Tristan,  isn’t even a main character. Mark gets more time in the book than he does even though it’s his name is in the title.

Reason #2: The plot is a problem as well. The first part of the story you spend reading about the immature characters living their life as high schoolers and then all of the sudden a two-headed dog tries to kill Izzie. This is also when she finds out that there is a giant serpent trying to kill her and she has to kill it to free the place where she was born from his evil dictatorship. The magic just felt so out of place in the book and wasn’t very well executed either.

Reason #3: I just didn’t care. I didn’t care if Izzie got killed by the serpent or if she killed the serpent. I didn’t care who ended up with who. If for someone reason all of her characters mysteriously died, I would have been fine with that as well. The only reason that I finished the book was because it would have annoyed me to not have.

Overall, I give this book 1 Quill. I wouldn’t even check this book out from the library. The plot had the potential but it was just a flop.

Book Review: The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

• Reading Level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
• Date Published: January 1st, 2011
• ISBN-10: 1402243693
• ISBN-13: 978-1402243691
• Received From: I bought it.

From Goodreads:
Vera and her brother, Will, live in the shadow of the Great Panic, in a country that has collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Water is hoarded by governments, rivers are dammed, and clouds are sucked from the sky. But then Vera befriends Kai, who seems to have limitless access to fresh water. When Kai suddenly disappears, Vera and Will set off on a dangerous journey in search of him-pursued by pirates, a paramilitary group, and greedy corporations. Timely and eerily familiar, acclaimed author Cameron Stracher makes a stunning YA debut that’s impossible to forget.

My Thoughts:
I had really high expectations for this and unfortunately I was let down. I did not connect with the characters at all! They didn’t really seem to have personalities at all. The only think I know about Vera is that she likes Kai. Why she likes Kai, I have no idea. Their “love” just came out of nowhere. The only character that I really felt like I knew who they were was, Ulysses the pirate, and I really liked his character! The author of this book spent so much of the story telling us how the world came to be that it was a information overload!!

I loved the plot idea for the book, it has so much potential but it just fell short. I’m not sure if this book is a part of a series or not, but if the sequel came out then I would definitely buy it because I still think that it can be redeemed. Also the cover of this book is absolutely phenomenal! Overall, I give this book 3.5 Quills!

Book Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

• Reading Level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Date Published: September 29th, 2011
• ISBN-10: 052542381
• ISBN-13: 978-0525423487
• Received From: I bought it.

From Goodreads:

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion… she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit — more sparkly, more fun, more wild — the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket — a gifted inventor — steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

My Thoughts:

This books seems to be so great because, to me, the characters are phenomenal! They all really come together and make this book truly wonderful.

Lola is a really flawed/human character. She makes mistakes, is a little bit of a compulsive liar, and is a little selfish as well but she doesn’t do it with any malicious intent. I really LOVE Cricket! He is one of the most unique love interests that I have read in YA, this far. His character is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the male love interests. It seems that in most books that you pick up, you will probably find a loner/mysterious/moody/brooding love interest and I’m getting kind of tired of it. Cricket is sweet, the boy next door, and realistic. He wins you over with his charm and how genuinely nice his character is. I cannot say enough good things things about his character!I wish Calliope’s character would have been in the book a little more. I found her character to be very fascinating.

I also found Calliope and Cricket’s relationship very interesting as well. I would have loved to have been able to learn a little more about their dynamic and how they interacted with each other. However, I didn’t really get Calliope and Max as the “villains/antagonist” at all. I didn’t hate or wish harm to either of them and their reactions seemed very normal to me.Usually in books there seems to be a lack of good best friends and parents who are actually aware of what their children are doing but, not in this book. Lola’s best friend is great and very loyal to her as well. Lola’s parents are also very aware of what she is doing most of the time. When they didn’t approve of her boyfriend, Max, they made her bring him over for brunch every Sunday and she had to check-in whenever she was out with him. So you cannot say that Lola’s parent’s weren’t a part of her life because they grounded her quite a lot for disobeying the rules.

I absolutely LOVE this book! It is amazing and I recommend it to just about anyone! It has moved up to my second favorite Contemporary book on my list. Cricked is, also, definitely on my fictional character crush list as well! SA-WOON! ;)Oh, Anna and St. Clair are also characters in this book, so that is definitely a plus! I have nothing but praise for this book and I’m giving it 5 Quills! So go out to your nearest book store and buy it!!

Book Review: The Lover’s Dictionary

The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan

• Reading Level: Adult
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Date Published: January 4th, 2011
• ISBN-10: 0374193681
• ISBN-13: 978-0374193683
• Received From: I bought it.

From Goodreads:
basis, n.

There has to be a moment at the beginning when you wonder whether you’re in love with the person or in love with the feeling of love itself.

If the moment doesn’t pass, that’s it—you’re done. And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it’s even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover’s face.

How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

My Thoughts:
When I bought this book I had no idea that this was an Adult book and I couldn’t tell it was when I was reading it either; so the reading level is moot. This book is absolutely FANTASTIC!!! It has now been placed on my list of favorites and my rereading list as well.

This is such a short book and has very little words on each page but that does not hinder the book at all. On page 21, in 45 words, David Levithan breaks your heart when the narrator’s girlfriend tells him that she cheated on him. The book may not have a completely happy tone; but it’s real and could actually happen in real life. It’s amazing that David Levithan can tell a love story in about a 1/4 of what it takes other authors and it is just as good as their books!

I cannot praise this book enough! I would recommend this book to anybody because it is just that amazing. So I give it 5 Quills!

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

So I was on Pinterest the other day and I stumbled across this lovely reading challenge. Basically someone compiled a list of all of the books that Rory Gilmore read throughout the entire show and turned it into a challenge. Since reading is a big part of my life I decided that I would try it and see where I get. This will be updated sporadically and I may also post reviews as well!

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
6. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
8. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
9. Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
10. The Art of Fiction by Henry James
11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
12. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
13. Atonement by Ian McEwan
14. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16. Babe by Dick King-Smith
17. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
18. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
19. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
21. Beloved by Toni Morrison
22. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
23. The Bhagava Gita
24. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
25. Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
26. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
27. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
28. Brick Lane by Monica Ali
29. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
30. Candide by Voltaire
31. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
32. Carrie by Stephen King
33. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
34. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
35. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
36. The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
37. Christine by Stephen King
38. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
39. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
40. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
41. The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
42. The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
43. A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
44. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
45. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
46. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
47. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
48. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
49. Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
50. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
51. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
52. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
53. Cujo by Stephen King
54. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
55. Daisy Miller by Henry James
56. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
57. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
58. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
59. The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
60. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
61. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
62. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
63. Deenie by Judy Blume
64. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
65. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
66. The Divine Comedy by Dante
67. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
68. Don Quijote by Cervantes
69. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
70. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
71. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
72. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
73. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
74. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
75. Eloise by Kay Thompson
76. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
77. Emma by Jane Austen
78. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
79. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
80. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
81. Ethics by Spinoza
82. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
83. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
84. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
85. Extravagance by Gary Krist
86. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
87. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
88. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
89. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
90. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
91. The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
92. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
93. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
94. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
95. Fletch by Gregory McDonald
96. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
97. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
98. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
99. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
100. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
101. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
102. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
103. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
104. George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
105. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
106. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
107. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
108. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
109. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
110. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
111. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
112. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
113. The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
114. The Graduate by Charles Webb
115. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
116. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
117. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
118. The Group by Mary McCarthy
119. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
120. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
121. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
122. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
123. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
124. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
125. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
126. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
127. Henry V by William Shakespeare
128. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
129. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
130. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
131. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
132. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
133. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
134. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
135. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
136. How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
137. Howl by Allen Gingsburg
138. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
139. The Iliad by Homer
140. I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
141. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
142. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
143. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
144. It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
145. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
146. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
147. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
148. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
149. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
150. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
151. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
152. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
153. Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
154. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
155. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
156. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
157. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
158. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
159. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
160. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
161. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
162. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
163. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
164. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
165. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
166. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
167. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
168. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
169. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
170. The Love Story by Erich Segal
171. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
172. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
173. The Manticore by Robertson Davies
174. Marathon Man by William Goldman
175. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
176. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
177. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
178. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
179. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
180. Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
181. The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
182. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
183. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
184. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
185. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
186. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
187. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
188. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
189. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
190. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
191. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
192. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
193. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
194. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
195. My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
196. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
197. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
198. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
199. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
200. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
201. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
202. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
203. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
204. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
205. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
206. Night by Elie Wiesel
207. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
208. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
209. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
210. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
211. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
212. Old School by Tobias Wolff
213. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
214. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
215. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
216. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
217. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
218. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
219. Oracle Night by Paul Auster
220. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
221. Othello by Shakespeare
222. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
223. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
224. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
225. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
226. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
227. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
228. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
229. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
230. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
231. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
232. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
233. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
234. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
235. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
236. The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
237. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
238. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
239. Property by Valerie Martin
240. Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
241. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
242. Quattrocento by James Mckean
243. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
244. Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
245. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
246. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
247. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
248. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
249. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
250. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
251. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
252. The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
253. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
254. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
255. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
256. Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
257. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
258. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
259. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
260. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
261. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
262. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
263. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
264. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
265. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
266. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
267. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
268. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
269. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
270. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
271. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
272. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
273. Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
274. Sexus by Henry Miller
275. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
276. Shane by Jack Shaefer
277. The Shining by Stephen King
278. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
279. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
280. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
281. Small Island by Andrea Levy
282. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
283. Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
284. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
285. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
286. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
287. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
288. Songbook by Nick Hornby
289. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
290. Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
291. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
292. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
293. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
294. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
295. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
296. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
297. Stuart Little by E. B. White
298. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
299. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
300. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
301. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
302. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
303. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
304. Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
305. Time and Again by Jack Finney
306. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
307. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
308. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
309. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
310. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
311. The Trial by Franz Kafka
312. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
313. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
314. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
315. Ulysses by James Joyce
316. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
317. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
318. Unless by Carol Shields
319. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
320. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
321. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
322. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
323. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
324. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
325. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
326. Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
327. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
328. We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
329. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
330. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
331. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
332. Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
333. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
334. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
335. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
336. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
337. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
338. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
339. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Misconceptions: R

Dear R,

The pretty, bleach blond, fake tan, popular girl. Someone who was a world apart from me, or so I thought. I got to call you my friend during college; the nerd and the sorority girl eating lunch and going to games together. I am sorry that I judged you from when I first saw you and I am glad that were dorm neighbors or I would have missed out on a great friendship all because of a stereotypical judgement.

Love, S