Title of the Book: Into The Wild
Author: Jon Krakauer
 Number of Pages: 215
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Review: How does a young, healthy, intelligent, 24-year-old man go from graduating at the top of his class with $24k in the bank to winding up dead in a run-down bus in the Alaskan bush? This question is answered in the award-winning book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer in which detail accounts were given by the drifters and other characters Chris McCandless came across on his 2 and a half year odyssey.      

Into The Wild brings you along the trip of Alex Supertramp (also known to his family as Chris McCandless) in which you see the idealistic view of true freedom to those that see past the haze of our modern society. You follow Alex through trail and tribulations such as him hitchhiking from South Dakota to California. Or the journey he takes down the Colorado River in a canoe and ending up in the golf of California before he finally meets his end in the Alaskan Bush. 

This book is unique in the sense that the organization of hopping in and out of time creates one of the most complex characters I have ever read. In the book, you see how Alex is seen as either the noblest idealistic man that has lived in the 21st century or an egocentric maniac who only cares for him and him alone. The complexity of the character also unravels the true meaning of freedom and brings up how you see freedom; whether it is only accessible by those willing to give up everything and only live with their own 2 feet, or if anyone can access it. 

The author Jon Krakauer is outstanding with his tone of mystery and the theme of true freedom showing through the most memorable scenes. Such as Alex ditching his car in the middle of a dessert and burning the rest of his money that he had in his pockets, or having this angelic lad randomly be able to play piano, stunning his friends at a local bar. It is scenes such as these in the book that you remember because it keeps shifting how you view Alex, making it impossible to quite figure out who he is or what he is thinking, only adding to the mystery of the whole story its self. 

At the end of the day, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is intrigued by the idea of true freedom and what it means in today's society.  Not only because of its’ brilliant writing and plot but also how the story holds your soul into viewing true freedom and courage to find that dream.

Behind The Scenes of Anna Kendrick

Title of the Book: Scrappy Little Nobody
 Author: Anna Kendrick
 Number of Pages: 271
 Rating: ☆☆☆


 Review:
An autobiography Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick. If you are someone who has trouble focusing when reading, or getting into any type of book, but know who Anna Kendrick is and find her even the slightest bit interesting, than I recommend that you read this book. This is a very easy book to read. Personally I have a hard time reading. I get very bored, quickly and easily. Although, this book was way easier for me to engage myself with. The fact that is very relatable definitely helps.

As most of you probably know. Anna Kendrick has a very funny personality but is a very… spacey person. Throughout the book, Anna gives a rundown of her life from a very young age. She also tells many stories of incidents that happen. She does skip around her life a little bit which makes it confusing but its only skipped around from when she was ten to about seventeen. Ms. Kendrick tells you about all the shows she has been in. From the smallest ones that didn’t go anywhere to the biggest ones, that impacted her life the most. She talks all about what happen during the making/ casting of the plays/shows/movies. You get very personal intel on who she was as a person and how it all has helped shape her into the person she is today.

Anna’s writing style is very easy to understand. She talks as most of us teenagers do. Straight to the point, not very many large, complicated words, and doest drag on too much about something to the point where it gets boring. Her tone throughout most the story is very laid back. Except when she is talking about any struggles or embarrassments, then you can tell shes flustered. She shows a lot of emotion in her writing where it is needed. If you have seen her movies or interviews than you can read it along in her voice which helps a lot. 

This is a book I would recommend thats an easy read and something that most can easily stay interested in throughout the whole story. This is a unique book because it isn’t biased like most literary nonfiction is. She doesn’t try and make you feel bad/sorry for her nor does she feel like yu should be excited that blank happen to her. 

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Number of Pages: 207
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

If you have ever wanted to read a book about someone leaving the status quo then this is the book for you. Jon Krakauer masterfully tells the story of Chris McCandless. Chris donated almost all of his money to charity and took to the open road. He quickly ditches the car and after he burns the last of his money he sets off on foot. He hops from one place to another taking any ride he can find so he can find a new horizon every day. Along the way he changes his name and makes several friends while trying to convince them to try his way of living. On his journey he comes up with the idea to go on his own odyssey or as he called it his Alaskan Odyssey. Read this book to learn more about his epic journey.

Jon Krakauer uses his own mountaineering experience to help tell chris’s story. He starts every chapter with a quote from one of the books Chris brought with him on his journey. He uses a very unique style to tell the story by switching from one person's perspective to another to try and maintain chronological order.This is a really nice touch because it makes the book a really nice, smooth read.I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the outdoors or anyone interested in other lifestyles.

Title of the Book: “The distance between us” Author:Ryna Grande Number of Pages: 323 Rating: ☆☆☆☆ Review: This book is emotional and real. Imagine being left behind by your parents because your country's economy is broken.Not having enough money to live life correctly and bathing in brown water. This is a reality for Reyna when she was a child. This book is through the authors eyes as a child in Igala Mexico.Her mother and father leaves her and her two siblings with her grandmother. They go to America where they can send money to their children and make a living. There is Carlos, Reyna and margo and all three of them live with both grandparents at some point of the book and struggle. They have different emotions towards their parents and feel out of place every where they live. The kids finally cross the border with their father but without their mother or their little sister. Now they have a stepmom in America and the second half of the book is about her life with her father in America. 

The authors writing method is a memoir and chapters of her life. Half of the book is in Mexico and the other is in America. Her tone in the book is childish, sad and lost. This helps you understand how her childhood was so hard. The most memorable part of the book for me is when her father pays a coyote to sneak them past the border and how harsh this was on all of the kids. This is also memorable because they are afraid of being sent back to Mexico by their father but also by la migra.

 I recommend this book highly for 16 years and up. This is because people can learn from this and connect to the hardships she faces. This is an eye opener for me and could potentially be for others as well. 

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah Number of Pages: 218

If you’re looking for a real page turner, “A Long Way Gone” by Ishameal Beah is just for you. Beah’s book is about his childhood growing up in Sierra Leone and how the rebels took everything he ever loved/cared about away. 

     The book starts off when Ishmael is about 12 years old, and rebels start going village by village, spreading chaos everywhere. Ishmael is forced to run for his life, and leave his family behind. Don’t worry, Ishmael isn’t entirely alone he forms a group of 7 boys he finds along the way. They go to villages looking for refuge, and food, and sometimes they’d be fresh out of luck. 

     As the war progresses, Ishmael slowly loses himself and stops showing emotion. He and his friends eventually get captured by the rebels or the RUF (revolutionary united front) and is forced to become a soldier. Beah is ordered to kill, do drugs, and many other horrible tasks. He becomes belligerent, and runs off of brown brown, and violence. 

     The UNICEF comes to rescue him from the nightmare, and is taken to a rehab center. There he learns how to be a human again,let people in, and most of all stay off drugs. Ishmael is given a new chance at life. If you enjoy memoirs, and non-fiction, go grab a copy of this book as soon as possible. 

Into Thin Air

Title of the Book: Into Thin Air
 Author: Jon Krakauer
Number of Pages: 416
Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Review:
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to reach one of your life's goals and feel on top of the world, flooded with feelings of success. Only to realize that those feelings of success will soon turn into feeling as if you don't know if you'll ever live to tell the tale. That is what Jon Krakauer experienced during his adventure on Mount Everest. In Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air he was able to connect with the readers and explain the feeling of being afraid of not completing his life goal or living to tell the tale.

In the book, Into Thin Air, Krakauer joins a climbing service to reach to the top of Mount Everest. He explains the struggle of making it from base camp all the way to camp four. Along his journey through the camps, he goes into detail about the attributes of his teammates, along with explaining in depth his experiences with the struggles of climbing the tallest mountain in the world. Although the journey had many ups and downs, it really starts to unravel at the summit. As he began to descend from the summit Krakauer lived through what is now known as the Mount Everest Disaster of 1997. As he experiences the fatal deaths of his teammates his new life goal was to survive the storm and make it down the mountain. Into Thin Air  was Krakauer's way of sharing with the world of how he survived his life threatening journey.

Jon Krakeur has a unique way of writing his personal account of climbing Mount  Everest. Krakauer's journey was a once in a lifetime opportunity that only a few in the world experienced. His personal story forces the reader to put themselves in his shoes and  to get a feel for the emotions the disaster put him through. Krakeur was able to intrigue his readers by using a personal and solemn tone throughout his book. By using serious and heartfelt words, he able to connect and spark with the readers emotions, causing them to feel empathy for what krakauer was going through . Krakeurs extended use of commas throughout the book caused the reader to pause and take in the events that are transpiring. With Krakauer's writing style, language, and tone, it created a genuine atmosphere for the readers to lose themselves in while reading his book.

Throughout the book, the memorable moments readers are able away was how his journey up Everest affected his mindset and functionality. In chapter eleven when they lose their first team mate, it really set in how dangerous and life threatening this journey has become. Once he reached the bottom, a sigh of relief was experienced as well as a feeling of completion. If you are a reader who enjoys action and emotion, this is the book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I would recommend this book for someone who is mature enough to handle tragic events that will tug at your heart.

Title of the Book: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Number of Pages: 115
 Rating: ☆☆☆☆
 Review:In 1944, Elie Wiesel was only 15 years old when the Nazis came for the 15,000 Jews of his home town.  the Jews of Eliezer’s town are forced into small ghettos within Sighet. Soon they are herded onto cattle cars, and a long journey of travelling in a small packed cattle car. After days and nights crammed, exhausted and near starvation, the passengers arrive at Birkenau Auschwitz.

His family was taken to Auschwitz, when they arrived his mother and sister were taken into a separate group. Elie and his father were forced into slave labor groups. Elie struggles day to day through starvation and exhaustion. His Jewish beliefs were suppressed because of Hitler and the German generals. The Jews are subject to beatings and repeated humiliations. A German general forces Eliezer to give him his gold tooth, which is pried out of his mouth with a rusty spoon. Eliezer himself begins to lose his humanity and his faith, both in God and in the people around him.

Wiesel’s tone, as you might expect in a book about Nazi concentration camps, is serious. There wasn’t really much happiness in the concentration camps. The tone is mournful, he mourns the loss of his family, the loss of his childhood, and the loss of his faith in God. The tone is also honest. Wiesel doesn’t shy away from describing moments in full detail. As a reader you would imagine the authors language and tone to be angry and hateful. His language and tone say the opposite. He stays away from blaming and judging people that treated him and his father terribly. Wiesel emphasizes the point that this situation was horrifying and brutal and never should be allowed to happen again. By creating this tone and honesty through his writing, he is able to create a unique read by giving full details really put the reader in his shoes. 

I would strongly recommend reading Night by Elie Weisel. Night is a good resource for learning about the Holocaust. Wiesel is very graphic in telling readers what went on in the camps. We can feel his horror and mourn with him. 

Title of the Book: Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully
Author: Allen Kurzweil
Number of Pages: 292
Rating: ☆☆
Review:

           The childhood bully: we all either had one, were one, or in some cases were both victim and bully.  So, what do you do when as an adult you still not only remember your bully’s every transgression but feel traumatized by them?  You search for the bully of course.

Allen Kurzweil endured a year at a Swiss boarding school in 1971 with Cesar Augustus, the biggest and meanest boy at the school as his roommate.  Coming on the heels of his father’s death and feeling abandoned by his grieving mother, Cesar Augustus made Kurzweil’s 11^th year a living hell and the memories follow him far into adulthood.  From theft to whippings with a belt, to simply feeling alone and bereft in a new and frightening place, Kurzweil continues to relive his brief stay with long-lived memories.  As Kurzweil admits, “In 1971, I met a boy who changed my life forever.” And, “I began to acknowledge the obvious: Cesar had taken over my life.”

So, as an adult with a wife, young son, and a successful career as a writer, Kurzweil begins his search for his twelve-year-old bully.  Kurzweil must put his life on hold to finally put the memories to rest and with no Internet, begins a long journey of traveling, phone calls, and paper searches.  The search unfold with twits and turns as the reader gets to know more about Kurzweil and realize that he is not exactly an appealing protagonist and that Cesar Augustus has quite a background of his own – spanning continents and ending with his involvement in a brilliant, but ultimately flawed money scheming that included fake royalty, bilked law firms, and endless victims.  As the book progress, the reader starts to wonder how much of the search is actually about Cesar and more about Kurzweil never really dealing with the death of his father as a young child.

Kurzweil is avid and completely dedicated to his search, but quite frankly, the detail in which he writes about his search loses it’s appeal quickly as Kurzweil loses himself in self-pity and his writing wanders from its original track.  The reader slowly, very slowly unravels Cesar and his life and intentions as Kurzweil writes and both Kurzweil and the reader finally find a satisfying conclusion with not only Cesar who at this point has become secondary, but Kurzweil’s underlying intentions with his forty-year search when Kurzweil admits what the reader has thought all along,  Kurzweil  “The search for Cesar had always been, at its core, a search for someone else.  Observing his through a two-way mirror for as long as I had ultimately enabled me to catch reflections of myself in the glass.  And who stared back?  A victim.  An obsessive.  A boyfriend.  A husband.  A father.  A journalist.  A completionist.  A stalker.  A frightened five-year-old gripping the hand of his dying father.”

If you have the time and patience to unravel Kurzweil’s wandering and very slow revelations this book is for you.  If you are wanting to read about someone connecting with and confronting his childhood bully to grow as an adult, find another book.

Title of the Book: Into the Wild
Author: Jon Krakauer
Number of Pages: 215
Rating: ☆☆☆

Review:
Hitch-hiking from the West to the North seems almost unbearable for many people, but not for Chris McCandless. His final two years was spent doing exactly this, and he met many people whom he left an impact on after his Northern Alaskan Odyssey proved fatal. From hopping trains, to hitch-hiking, with little-to-no money, Chris was able to travel from state to state, living off the land whilst preparing for his big Alaskan adventure.
In the Spring of 1990, Chris McCandless graduated from Emory college, with the intention of leaving his education, family, and the few friends he had behind to walk into the wild. Before he left, he gave away the rest of his savings to charity. After, Chris took his yellow Datsun to Lake Mead, where he abandoned his car, a guitar and 25 pounds of rice, taking ten pounds with him, and burned the rest of his money and his ID. From Lake Mead, Chris began the long journey ahead. Chris's second destination was California, where he bought a canoe to travel down the Colorado River and the Mexican Channels. At this time, Chris took on a new alias: Alex Supertramp. As he made it upriver, he went to a town called Carthage, South Dakota. There he worked and made many friends. When he left his job to travel the west more, he decided he wanted to go on the ultimate voyage, what he called his Alaskan Odyssey. Two years later, in 1992, Chris's decomposed and starved body was discovered in the notorious abandoned Fairbanks Bus 142 by hunters.
What makes Into the Wild different from other books is, Jon Krakauer approaches Chris McCandless's death not just as an author, but as a fellow mountaineer as well. Krakauer subtly interrupts the enigmatic story of Chris McCandless with some of his own narrative so more people could better understand who Chris McCandless was, and why his story is so unique. Krakauer uses his talents of investigative journalism and his mountaineering experiences to tell Chris's story. During the beginning of each chapter, he wrote out many of the quotes that Chris had underlined in his books. Some of the best moments in the story were, when Chris burned his own money, and when he convinced one of his friend's he met on the road, Ronald Franz, to create a "radical change in his lifestyle" (Krakauer 56), and to learn how to be in nature.
This book is for readers who take an interest in mountaineering and learning about the unforgiving habitat that many hikers enter, including Chris McCandless. Krakauer included lots of important detail of the wildnerness that contributed to Chris's death. This book is very humbling in knowing that there are terrains of the world that are more powerful than any human could ever be, and there are many places that have been yet to be discovered. 

Title of the Book:The Glass Castle
 Author: Jeannette Walls
 Number of Pages:795 digital
 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

 Review: Chances are, if you're reading this, then you have a fairly comfortable life. Sure , we all have our various struggles, but basic necessities are fulfilled. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls demonstrates a life not blessed with comfort, in a real and raw explanation that will make anyone more grateful for the life they lead. This memoir follows a young Jeannette through her struggles and experiences growing up. Along with her mother and father, and 3 siblings, Jeannette lived a nomadic life-- never staying in one place for too long. Her family was poor, her father an alcoholic who couldn't get a job and a stay at home mother, were constantly on the move trying to avoid the people to whom they owe money. This lifestyle comes with many hardships and is telling of a person's true colors; therefore things tend to get ugly at times when her father would get angry. Jeannette describes her experiences with positivity, and continues to respect her parents because they took care of her in their own way. This book is extremely unique because it provides a relatable and understandable view into a life many readers have not the chance to understand. The miniscule details aren't sugar coated, so this piece of writing is raw and provides an image of what it would be like to live in her shoes. The writing style is told mostly in flashbacks, and has a childish or old timey style to it. Throughout the recounting, she keeps a positive and optimistic tone, but doesn't shy away from describing the ills of her situation. Such as when a rat got into one of their homes and her mother insisted not to kill it. The rat traumatized the kids with its viciousness and ate their food, until one of their dogs killed it. Their mother still felt bad for the rat, and Jeannette's brother hung it from a tree as memorial. The neighbor saw the rat, and it was so big he thought it was a possum. He shot the rat off of their tree with a shotgun, leaving only the tail hanging off a branch. I highly recommend this book to anyone struggling on their own, or just to anyone who wants to experience a life not usually talked about. It has humbled me in my own ways, and it is sure to highlight certain topics that aren't usually seen.

Into Thin Air

Title of the Book: Into Thin Air
 Author: Jon Krakauer
 Number of Pages: 301
 Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Review:

         Into Thin Air is the chilling tale of the tragedy that took place on Mount Everest. It details the deadly expedition of an unfortunate team's adventure up and down the most unforgiving mountain in the world. Jon Krakauer is hired by Outside Magazine to go on an expedition of Mount Everest and write an article detailing the commercialism on the mountain. Throughout the book, Krakauer tells the story of his teammates in the expedition as he attempts to piece together the events. There were several mistakes made by his team which lead to tragedy on the mountain, and Krakauer tells this story to remember the people he climbed with. Krakauer’s autobiography is a chilling look at the events on Mount Everest that took the lives of several experienced climbers. Due to the tragic experience and the raw emotions within this book, I believe this book can be enjoyed by a wide audience. However, the retelling of the actual tragedy is rather blunt and graphic, and may not suit those who are faint hearted or young.
         Jon Krakauer is a very experienced mountain climber, and because of this, he is excellent at giving a very immersive reading adventure. This book is very unique in that it is an autobiography and the author uses words that are very specific to mountain climbing. He also explains the location of the events in great detail. Not only does he describe his experiences with vivid imagery, he bounces back and forth between present and past. This allows him to explain the after effects of the expedition whilst illustrating his story in detail.The technique of writing his past and present thoughts gives the reader a peek into the direct impact the tragedy has had on him. It is also incredibly impressive that Krakauer managed to tell the story so accurately despite having most of his memory clouded by oxygen deprivation as explain when in his book he said,"The Outside piece was as accurate as I could make it under the circumstances, but my deadline had been unforgiving, the sequence of events had been frustratingly complex, and the memories of the survivors had been badly distorted by exhaustion, oxygen depletion, and shock."
         This book is very memorable due to the bluntness with which Krakauer recounts his experience on Everest. For example, Krakauer explains the extreme guilt and regret he felt after leaving behind one of his teammates on the summit, and the shock he felt after witnessing the physical deformities caused by the freezing temperatures on Everest. It is also memorable in the way Krakauer mentions the way his team contacted the family members of the missing, and this was especially heartbreaking because the expedition was supposed to be a light, once in a lifetime experience. I would recommend this book to more adventurous people, and those who are interested in real life tragedy. I would not recommend this book to children who may not understand the finality of such tragedy, or those who do not believe they are capable of handling such graphic details. I believe Into Thin Air is a very interesting book that many could enjoy.