The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

Another teacher recommended this nonfiction title. I admit it was the serial killer that drew my interest, but the real tension in the book is the effort it took to create the Chicago World's Fair. It was an amazing feat against time and buracracy. I was fascinated by the period details, not just of the building process, but of Chicago itself. At that time (late 1800's) Chicago was one tough city. The smell alone would have knocked most of us to the floor, what with the sewage in the streets and the additional stink of the meat processing plants, yet it was a thriving metropolis with lots of young women coming to the city to work. And that's where the serial killer finds his prey. Even the burgeoning career of detective work gets a role in this fascinating true story. (sumitted by J.S.)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a fantastically humorous novel about a young boy named Christopher who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. Written from his perspective, young Christopher discovers his neighbor's dog has been murder with a gardening fork. He then decides to solve the mystery of who killed the dog, but along the way his difficulties with interpreting the world around him and overcoming his fears. Along the way, Christopher's investigation develops  into a revealing truth surrounding his mother's death and his father. 

The book is more than just about a mystery, it's a biography of sorts about living with Autism and its effects on people and those around them. It's humorous throughout, serious at times and completely original! It's one of the few books I can read again and again. You must read this book. (Corbin - senior)

Blue Bloods By Melissa De La Cruz

This is an exciting book and a new twist on vampires and the people who first colonized Plymouth. It takes place in present day but has flash backs to the old days. There is a mystery on who is killing all the vampires. This is a highly recommended book which is the first in a series.

Pewaukee High School Book Club

A bunch of students have requested that PHS create a Book Club where students and teachers alike read book and discuss them at meetings. I love the idea!!! We are going need some support from students and teachers to make this club run smoothly, we'll also need to work out all the details. If you're interested, which I'm sure you are, come to a meeting this Thursday in room 220 during resource!

For now, keep reading, keep posting and spread the word! 

Corbin (senior)

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Ann Barrows

My adult book club recently read this book and found it to be delightful. It's told completely in letters from one person to another and takes place during and after WW II. The island of Guernsey, off the shore of England, was occupied by the Nazis during that war. Under the cover of monthly "literary" meetings, the islanders do their best to help each other survive a dreadful experience. A saucy reporter begins a dialogue of letters between herself and the islanders who survived that experience, which sounds like it might be heavy material, but it is quite a light hearted book. The letters are full of humor and the engaging eccentricties of individual characters. Part of the draw for me was the reaction the non-readers had to the books they choose to read for their fake book club. One fisherman tries his hand at Shakespeare, with this result: "Mind you, I cannot always make sense of what he says, but it will come. It seems to me the less he said, the more beauty he made. Do you know what sentence of his I admire the most? It is 'The bright day is done, and we are for the dark.' " Lovely. Worth reading. (submitted by JS, librarian)

Looking for Alaska by John Green

It's not very often that I'll judge a book by its cover, but that is exactly what I did when I started reading Looking For Alaska by John Green. One of my good friend's recommended the book, but I can honestly say I was not interested whatsoever, however, an epiphany struck me when I spotted the book's artistic cover on paperback turnstile in the high school library. I started reading it  with only a couple of weeks of school left and I wanted to finish it before my long summer hiatus. Fortunately, the library so kindly loaned me the book over the summer, allowing me to soak up each individual word on every page of the book. 

Miles is fifteen years old, undeniably intelligent and has a strange fascination with famous last words. However, despite his gifted intelligence, Miles is in search of deeper meaning in life, which translates to going to a boarding school in Florida. He eventually finds a goal in life which is inspired by Francois Rabelais's last words, "I go to seek a great perhaps," and wants to discover his own "great perhaps" before he dies. However, his journey is blockaded by his love interest in a young girl named Alaska Young, who causes Miles to embrace the wild side of life and falls into smoking, drinking and a prank war which ends badly. However, while deeper meaning may be hard to notice in this book, readers must challenge themselves to dig for deeper meaning - believe it definitely there. 

Overall, after I complete all of the books pages, I had to read more by John Green. His writing style was so eloquent and straight to the point that reading it was nothing short of a cake walk, while still managing to be quite humorous and interesting. The character depth is also very well constructed, allowing for readers to sympathize with all the events that unfold before their eyes. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in humorous anecdotes, dramatic circumstances and deep meaning all wrapped up in one little paperback. (Corbin - senior)

Marked, Chosen, and Betrayed by P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast

This series, known as the House of Night series, is a great vampire twist. It involves Gods, love, and loss. This is an intresting take on how people become "vampyres" and the powers associated with the Goddess Nyx. A major recommendation if into vampires, look forward to Untamed the fourth in this amazing series. (submitted by Austin, Sophmore)

Brisingr By Christopher Poalini

This book was an exhilerating addition to the Inheritence series. Throughout the entire book I just kept wanting to read more. I highly recommend this book as well as the first two books in this series (Eragon and The Eldest). However, never see the movie Eragon because it is a rip off of the books. Anyways, Brisingr was an exciting adventure and I can't wait to read the fourth book. (Submitted by Alyssa, Junior)

Resurrection Men by T.K. Welsh

The review said this book was a challenging read, so I picked it up just to read a few pages to see what they considered challenging. I ended up reading the whole book even though I was in the middle of another novel at the time. Set in Victorian England, this is a rather dark "Oliver" tale. The main character is a young boy who is orphaned and placed on a ship as a cabin boy. When he breaks his leg, the captain has him tossed overboard since he is no longer useful. This cavilier treatment of the poor and unfortunate, particularly children, factors greatly into the plot of this story. Our young orphan survives his intended death and eventually ends up in London, part of a group of begger children, very much like Dicken's Oliver Twist. What makes this novel darker is the topic of stealing bodies from fresh graves (hence the title) which was an illegal, but not uncommon practice at the time as medical science was beginning to take off. The plot is fairly action packed, but cringe worthy on a number of occasions due to the gruesome topic. In terms of being challenging: the author has a great vocabulary and there may be a number of words the reader won't know, but most can be figured out using the context of the paragraph. I find it quite refreshing to be introduced to new vocabulary, so I enjoyed that aspect. (submitted by J.S, librarian)