Review: I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler

Summary 
Tess is the exact opposite of her beautiful, athletic sister. And that’s okay. Kristina is the sporty one, Tess is the smart one, and they each have their place. Until Kristina is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly Tess is the center of the popular crowd, everyone eager for updates. There are senior boys flirting with her. But the smiles of her picture-perfect family are cracking and her sister could be dying. Now Tess has to fill a new role: the strong one. Because if she doesn’t hold it together, who will? 

Review 
For anyone who has ever had a sibling they were compared to or parents who placed their expectations upon you, then this is the book for you. We’ve all been there were we’ve been told “You could try to be more like your sister” or more like your brother; always having ourselves seen through the images of the popular, more athletic and even the smarter sibling. Sometimes even been seen as like one parent versus the other. Never truly being seen for who you really. However, it doesn’t matter how others see but how you see yourself. And I think this book is all about that. I’m Not Her is a book about figuring out who you are underneath all the labels and learning to like yourself as who you truly are. Also, I would say this book is about learning to see through different lenses, not believe everything you see. Learning to see other people for who they are and not what you or anyone else has made them out to be. Most importantly, I’m Not Her is about not playing into the roles people want you to fit into but breaking those roles and being yourself. 

Like any other high school drama, our story begins at a party. Because that is the stereotype, that teenage life is nothing but one big party. Well, not for Tess. She feels awkward, she’s ended up alone on a couch again and to make matters worse, the first boy to ever approach her is drunk and asking her questions about her sister Kristina. However, Tess gets a glimpse of Kristina in this poplar world and kind of feels bad that she has to perform a little to keep up appearances. Still, Tess wants nothing more than to escape all the boys that faun all over her sister and fade away from this party, from this life. 

The next day, Kristina goes to her doctor’s appointment for the knee that’s been bothering her for months. So far, their mother has said everything is fine but everything is not fine when Kristina comes back and tells Tess that she has cancer. 

Suddenly Tess’ life seems trivial compared to what Kristina will have to go through; chemo and maybe possibly losing a leg. Thus Kristina asks Tess to keep her secret and make something up when she skips school. But that’s where Tess’ problems begin. 

Now people notice her, but only to ask her where her sister is. Some boy named Jeremy keeps hounding her about Kristina, like some kind of stalker and to top it all off, Tess realizes that her and her best friend, Melissa’s silly rants about Kristina’s perfect life aren’t so silly and her best friend actually hates her sister. Thus she has started skipping classes, ruining her chances at the Honor Society and seems to find solace in the drunk guy from the party who is she developing a crush on. 

But still, she tries to keep it together. Her trials are nothing compared to what Kristina has to go through. Yet more strife seems to come her way when her mother seems to be determined to force Tess to deal with as a buffer with Kristina, claiming that she wants Tess to bond but it’s so she won’t have to face Kristina’s illness head on; and her dad has gone M.I.A from the family, always at work or even golfing. And it seems her sister has shrunken into herself, and Tess finds it even more hard to relate to her and help her. Although Tess runs into Jeremy, the stalker, at the hospital and he seems to be the only one to bring Kristina out of her funk. 

However the pressure is getting to Tess. She can’t keep up the lie at school that everything is fine. Kristina’s friends want answers. She is having to skip classes for Kristina, and actually hates that her sister’s cancer is making her miss school and forever killing her chances for Honor Society. Tess loses her best friend, her mother continues to use her as a “Kristina’s Cancer” buffer, not dealing with the illness, her father still is gone all the time and now Kristina might lose her leg? Plus that crush on the drunk senior at the party is dangerously growing more and more each time she bumps into him. How will Tess deal? 

I’m Not Her is a book about the fact that just because you are siblings and are related, does not mean you are the same person; that even though you come from the same genes, you can be completely set apart from one another. This book is about learning what makes you who you are and embracing who you are no matter what. I’m Not Her is also about understanding the labels you place or other place on someone else do not define them. Don’t give in to stereotypes and things you hear about someone. And above all else, this book is about learning not to become what you have been labeled to please others; learning to step outside who you’ve been forced to be and just be yourself. 

Reviewed by Camia Rhodes

Book Information
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
Publication date: 5/1/2011
Pages: 304

Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Summary
 One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Review
Some of the most difficult decisions in life are ones that we never seem to forget. The concept of life and death is chalked up to a dramatic line in a story, but never associated with circumstances in a real life situation. When someone is handed a gun, we automatically assume protection for ourselves, survival. The other side of the coin is that we do not feel protected when faced with someone who is threatening our lives, especially if it is someone we love.

Tris Prior has lost almost everyone and everything she has ever known. Almost. She has lost her parents, most of her friends, and both her old and new factions. When faced with a sense of hopelessness in life, the only person she can turn to is Tobias. Tobias is hers. There is no other way to describe it; they would do anything to protect one another from the crumbling society around them. What Tobias does not know is that deep down Tris is hiding a bigger secret than anyone around her could understand, including Tobias. The ghosts of her parents and her friend Will are haunting her, and she cannot imagine there is any reason to live after all the bloodshed.

As Tobias and Tris work with their fellow Dauntless members to stand up against Jeanine Matthews and her loyal Erudites, the reader feels like a traitor within the war itself, following the suicidal mind of Tris while also wanting to fight for the collapse of the Erudite headquarters. The constant personal battle Tris is working to keep hidden from all of her friends fails to keep the ones she cares about out of harm’s way, but keeps the reader on the edge of their seat as time and time again Tris risks her life in selfish ways that never seem to hurt anyone but herself.

This second novel continuing the Divergent series focuses mainly on the inner relationships between the main characters, while giving the reader a chance to decide for themselves if they agree with Tris, Tobias, and their fellow friends’ decisions. Tris believes that by sacrificing herself she is selflessly keeping the ones that she cares about safe, but the reality is that the comfortable society with four polished factions and a stable and sensible government no longer exist. As I read this book I felt as though I was spiraling farther and farther into the depths of Tris’s grief, which in turn gave the story a stronger feeling of suspense because I never knew what stunt Tris might pull next. In the novel, Tobias labels Tris’s actions as that of a “Dauntless adrenaline junkie,” while I characterized her as someone who is folding in on herself by letting her grief slowly drown her.

When the suspense of battle no longer looms on the horizon between Erudite and the odd pairing of the factionless and Dauntless, Tris once again breaks away from Tobias, her friends, and follows her instincts to help Marcus and restore order to there once formal attempt at a utopian society. The strength and fearlessness that Tris and Tobias both possess left me feeling a sense of respect and support for these characters as they fought not only for the cause they believed in, but in the fact that they never once allowed their love for one another to fade or weaken.

Veronica Roth’s work in this novel is truly captivating and forces a reader to crave for the truth about the mysterious file that the Abnegation are withholding from everyone outside of the government. Also, the ongoing agony of secretly wanting to know the reasons as to why Tris’s parents would rather sacrifice themselves in front of her, their own daughter, in order to protect the contents of the file is truly staggering. Roth takes the futuristic plot line in an entirely unexpected direction as she leaves her readers with more than a cliff hanger, but rather a sense of bewilderment that humans are capable of so much more than pain and violence.

Reviewed by Nicole Williams

Book Information
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 5/1/2012
Pages: 544

Review: The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom

Summary
From the beloved author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most thrilling and magical novel yet—a page-turning mystery and a meditation on the power of human connection.

One morning in the small town of Coldwater, Michigan, the phones start ringing. The voices say they are calling from heaven. Is it the greatest miracle ever? Or some cruel hoax? As news of these strange calls spreads, outsiders flock to Coldwater to be a part of it.

At the same time, a disgraced pilot named Sully Harding returns to Coldwater from prison to discover his hometown gripped by "miracle fever." Even his young son carries a toy phone, hoping to hear from his mother in heaven.

As the calls increase, and proof of an afterlife begins to surface, the town—and the world—transforms. Only Sully, convinced there is nothing beyond this sad life, digs into the phenomenon, determined to disprove it for his child and his own broken heart.

Moving seamlessly between the invention of the telephone in 1876 and a world obsessed with the next level of communication, Mitch Albom takes readers on a breathtaking ride of frenzied hope.

The First Phone Call from Heaven is Mitch Albom at his best—a virtuosic story of love, history, and belief.

Review
Whenever someone loses a loved one, there always is that moment that your heart yearns for one more time to talk to them. Depending on if you believe in heaven, than that affirmation of being reunited is long anticipated. What would you do if one day the phone rang and you had that chance? That chance to talk again. Would you believe it? Could you believe it? In a book that embraces everything we love about Mitch Albom as a storyteller, The First Phone Call From Heaven, grabs the heart of the reader and leads them down an inspiring journey challenging the human spirit and uplifting the soul. 

In the town of Coldwater, Michigan, for some of the residents, one day who knew answering their phone would change their lives forever. Whether it was a miracle or a hoax, answering the phone hearing their dead loved one on the other end, left them speechless and unable to comprehend what appeared to be a miracle. Once the news spread of this divine phenomenon, people from all over began to come to try and witness it or in hopes inspire the same for their own lives. 

Not everyone was a believer. Sully Harding, fresh out of prison, came back to Coldwater trying to start his life again. Having to adjust from dealing with his jail term and losing his wife, all he wanted to do was return to some sort of normalcy. After hearing about the phone calls, and seeing how the town was so swept up by it, he was determined to find out what was going on. After the calls became more frequent and witnessing one day his son holding a phone hoping his mother would call him, it ignited a quest to invalidate what everyone believed was a miracle.  

Whether you are a believer or not, this is one of those stories that touches something inside of you. His words were so beautiful and the story just captivates your interest where it is impossible to put down. Your emotions get swept away with the book and each page you turn you are led by their hope and inspired by their faith. Their journey becomes yours if just for a moment, the belief in being reunited becomes tangible. There is a lesson that is greater than what the book is about that will be revealed along the way. This is definitely one that you should add to your list. You will not be disappointed. 

Reviewed by Michelle Bowles

Review: Slave Chronicles by Kirk Yancey

Summary
Slavery will always live as we try to bury the rising truth...Life has evolved in many ways from shackled and chains to just chains. This book delivers a variety of emotions in poetry that ignites a nation with words of history attached to the coat tails of life's movements. Poetry is an intensely personal glimpse into the history of a writer's life, past to present and nowhere is this truer than in Slave Chronicles written by Kirk Yancey. Within these bounded pages he shares with us messages from many through his interpretation of readings, research and records of slavery. Slave trading and sacrifices from black people has always been a struggle, while others may never want to open this book because the nature of truth and facts pointed out. 

Review
When you come across a book like Slave Chronicles, it makes you appreciate everything about your life with the gratitude that history will not be repeated. Slavery is one of those periods in our history that represents one of our darkest moments but is one that shouldn’t be forgotten but talked about. Not to dwell on the actions or try to right wrongs that can never be but to open the dialogue about the people that never had a voice. 

What I enjoyed about this book was for those who were enslaved with no voice, this was a very good interpretation of a perspective worth reading. The book’s lyrical prose chronicled their experiences through slavery in a way that leaves you feeling as if the pages spoke to you. The passages tell stories that we never hear and put a face on the many experiences that have been labeled generic. What is so remarkable is how well the author captured the depth of their voice in which the reader could truly grasp their experience and envision what was being said through his spoken word. Overall, I thought it was an insightful read that gave me broader perceptive from this part of our history.

Reviewed by Michelle Bowles

Book Information
Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.
Publication date: 5/24/2013
Pages: 68

Review: Shadowlands by Kate Brian

Summary
Rory Miller had one chance to fight back and she took it. Rory survived and the serial killer who attacked her escaped. Now that the infamous Steven Nell is on the loose, Rory must enter the witness protection with her father and sister, Darcy, leaving their friends and family without so much as a goodbye.

Starting over in a new town with only each other is unimaginable for Rory and Darcy. They were inseparable as children, but now they can barely stand each other. As the sisters settle in to Juniper Landing, a picturesque vacation island, it seems like their new home may be just the fresh start they need. They fall in with a group of beautiful, carefree teens and spend their days surfing, partying on the beach, and hiking into endless sunsets. But just as they're starting to feel safe again, one of their new friends goes missing. Is it a coincidence? Or is the nightmare beginning all over again?

Review
It has been said there are five factual, strategic, and effective stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Each consumer of grief is supposed to experience these emotions in the exact order listed and then accept the reality that their loved one or close friend is in a better place. End of story. The unexpected loss of an intimate family member is equipped with a multitude of feelings that no one can truly explain. There is no possible strategy to fully accept death; death is an inevitable solution in all of us, especially for Rory Miller’s family.

Rory Miller, her father, and her older sister Darcy are just one of numerous families dealing with the battle of cancer and their significant loss of Rory and Darcy’s mother to this disease. Rory works to suppress her feelings through cross country running, academic science competitions, and immense amounts of studying. As if the loss of her mother isn’t enough to cope with, a short cut through the woods on the way home from school one day will force her into a deeper sense of desperation and fear of the unknown. Rory is attacked in the woods by Roger Krauss, a serial killer of young girls who has skillfully eluded the FBI for the past decade. Unfortunately, Rory’s attacker also happens to be the beloved math teacher Mr. Nell of Princeton Hills High School. A man she thought she knew and admired through academic mentoring. Krauss has brutally murdered 14 girls in several states, but that is not enough as he plans to make Rory number 15.

As the plot progresses into Rory’s family traveling to their mysterious new lives, there is a sense of hope that develops with the fast paced plot as her family encounters the vacation island of Juniper Landing, their new home. Rory and Darcy can barely stand each other, let alone their father after the death of their mother, but with a fresh start, new faces, and a new last name, what could go wrong?

As Rory’s family is entered into the witness protection program due to the nightmare of horrors invading their home, I found myself unable to put this book down. The concept of being attacked and or stalked by a serial killer is one of my worst fears as a girl myself, especially the idea of my family being included in such a horrible experience. I followed Rory through her inability to sort out her grief between her deceased mother and her living sister and father, while the rest of her family retreated into the comfort of the shadows. As I followed Rory’s family through each painful memory of their mother, the limited amount of photographs and personal belongings they were allowed to bring with them, and the overall sense of confusion they feel as their lives continue to spiral into the unknown. The process of moving your entire life from your childhood home and even an unexpected future that you did not plan for after high school would be extremely emotional.

Kate Brian is by far an extremely edgy author who continually leaves me with a sense of wanting more. Shadowlands is the first of a new series that unravels the grief and fear within a close-knit family, while creating constant amounts of character development that is easy to visualize and understand. Rory is depicted as much more than your average teenage girl, but a girl who is afraid of her own grief, but not her own ability to overcome the unknown. Along with her family’s journey, there are many life lessons as well as the determined ability to let someone in. You never truly know who your friends are until you are faced with a life-altering experience, and in Rory’s case, if only they knew.

Reviewed by Nicole Williams

Book Information
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication date: 9/3/2013
Pages: 352

Review: When It Comes To Spooning, I'm A Fork by Marc Prey

Summary
No one writes about relationships and parenting quite like humorist Marc Prey. Now comes his first book, a laugh-out-loud funny, brutally honest and deeply touching collection of personal stories about one man's relationship with his spouse and offspring. In When It Comes to Spooning, I'm a Fork, Prey takes readers on a journey from first awkward date to raising teenagers, all the while exposing moments that seemingly shift from the hilarious to the poignant in the beat of a heart. And when it's over, readers may discover they've learned something about themselves along the way.
 

Review
The best books about marriage and having children are the ones written by those who've experienced it firsthand. No clinical terms or hypothetical how to explanations will teach you about what will just be when you learn as you go. Rarely do we come across books written by men on the subject but this one in particular is definitely one that I think everyone will enjoy.

In his heartwarming and hilarious debut, When It Comes to Spooning, I’m a Fork, screenwriter Marc Prey transitions to author with a book that is definitely one that everyone must add to their reading list. Whether you are married with kids or not, you will enjoy and relate to many of the experiences that were talked about in his book. Its themed chapters, filled with stories from his life being a husband and a father, takes the reader on a journey from meeting his wife through raising their kids. Some moments leaving you laughing out loud and others giving you aha or why didn't I think that situations. 

Prepare to read this book in one sitting because once you start, you won't want to stop. This is definitely not a how to but a sort of insightful introspection from a dad’s point of view that is a refreshing perspective. Not to limit this to just parents, this book can be read by anyone who wants a good laugh. Whether you laugh all the way through, find some inspiration along the way or just nod in agreement, this is one of those books that will make you smile.

Reviewed by Michelle Bowles

Book Information
Publisher: Motivational Press
Publication date: 7/30/2013
Pages: 168