The towering fear has come and has gripped all of our hearts in suspense, making it terribly hard for us to sleep at night because of morbid attacks of insomnia, and sends shudders down our spines whenever we catch our teacher looking at us. Yes, it has come, my friends, and it is one and only, drum roll, please….semester two. With all this stress upon our shoulders, there’s nothing more like a good book to calm you down, the night before report cards go home, shudder. (Be sure to check out the first part of this list right here.)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by, Richard Bach:
My mother introduced this little book to me this year and I once again retreated to my school library to get the copy. It’s quite a short novella and it’s a fable. The story follows Jonathan Livingston, a seagull, as he learns about life and self-perfection. At first, it seems to be a little confusing, but by the end of the story, you’ll slowly put the book down and stare out into the distance; digesting all the new ideas that formed in your head. Â I re-read the day after I finished it the first time and I loved it even more. This story is perfect for those days when you could just stand up and yell: “will this day ever end?” and the story is great for those one-sitting reads.
Great Expectaions, by, Charles Dickens:
This book was sitting desolately in my bookshelf before I had time to pick it up. I read the majority of it on the six-hour drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Personally, I would recommend Dickens to anyone, but if you want only read one of his books and then farewell, Great Expectations is the one for you! It follows Pip’s, an orphan’s, life for a couple of decades; showing his personal growth and development. To be honest, I didn’t completely enjoy this book to the fullest extent, since it left me feeling grey (for lack of a better word) beyond extent. But, Dickens wrote it with such a dark, cunning humour that it was hard not to give it another read. What I love about Anderson, Hugo, Dickens etc. is that they don’t sugar coat anything and they give you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
The Old Man and the Sea, by, Ernest Hemingway:
What I love about Hemingway is that he never adds any flowery and flimsy descriptions to his writings, and always writes the most heart-wrenching novels. The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemmingway’s most famous works, and it tells the story of Santiago, an aging fisherman and his struggle with a great marlin out in the open sea. It’s also another very short story and can be a one-sit novel; I recommend finishing it in two. I read the first half in Fernie beside the hotel pool (suiting isn’t it?) and the second half right before I went to bed. There is not much I can say without giving the end away, and the ending is the best part which sets the novella in the top ten. I think that this is in the high school curriculum, but if it is or not, it’s definetley worth the read.
Around the World in 80 Days, by, Jules Verne:
This was my novel study for grade seven and I couldn’t have chosen a better novel. As the name implies, the story is about traveling the world in 80 days. It follows Phileas Fogg, a living schedule, who fired his last servant because his water was three degrees too cold, and his new servant, Passepartout, who came to London in search of a mellow life, ironically. It’s filled with adventure, suspense, and one attribute that I love: the race against time. It’s great to read if you want to forget anything and go into another era.
And I still have more to come…
