Sense and Sensibily by Jane Austin

When Mr. Dashwood dies, he must leave most of his estate to his son by his first marriage, which leaves his second wife and three daughters (Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret) in hard circumstances. They are taken in by a kind cousin, but their lack of money "fortune" affects the marriageability of both practical and sensible Elinor, and romantic and outgoing Marianne. When Elinor falls for the wealthy Edward Ferrars, his family disapproves and separates them. And though Mrs. Jennings tries to match the worthy and also very rich Colonel Brandon to her, Marianne finds the dashing Willoughby more to her liking. But love has a way of getting lost, and sometimes never comes back. This is a time in life where one must have money ( the man of course) and if the woman is not wealthy she has a hard time finding someone, "for he was rich, and she was handsome." Chapter 8, pg. 32. Many of the poeple only married for money, but these sisters weren't like them and wanted something more. Will love concur all and will the hardships and heartbreak leave true love lost and is a happy ending in the future for both the sister who is all sense and the one who is all sensibility.

1) In this novel money is very important and has a great deal on marriages. If you would get married would money play a role in your decision?

2) Do you think it is fair that most woman back then could not have and control much money even if it belongs to them? How have women changed since that time period?

To the Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf

To the Light House by Virginia Woolf is a novel that reflects the impermanence of life and focuses more on thoughts and the inner workings of the characters rather than their actions. It follows the life of the Ramsay family and their various friends and is separated into three parts, "The Window", "Time Passes", and "The Lighthouse". The first part of the story begins with the words of the youngest child who wants desperately to go to the lighthouse which is close to their summer house. His father, however, is a realist and informs him that the weather will not permit that. Mr. Ramsay is a philosopher and spends his entire life on intellectual pursuits. Throughout the novel, Mr. Ramsay's complete focus on these pursuits and his need for his own intelligence to establish his own worth and give meaning to life contrast Mrs. Ramsay who needs her family and friends for that. Another big character that is introduced during this book is an Asian painter named Lily who paints pictures of the family. Instead of using intellect or family, Lily relies on her paintings to preserve memories and give meaning to her life. The rest of the novel focuses mainly on these three characters and their thoughts and feelings. Mr. Ramsay continues to seek knowledge but is ever plagued by the knowledge that fame and reputation are fleeting and that the will eventually fade. Mrs. Ramsay continues to focus on the family and constantly has to reassure her husband of his intelligence when he doubts himself. Lily, despite Mrs. Ramsay's efforts, refuses to marry, thereby representing a new and evolving social order, one in which a woman is not defined by her husband.
By the final part in the book, many things have happened and even more has changed. Mrs. Ramsay and two of her children are dead, leaving the rest of the family incomplete. Mrs. Ramsay's death left the family desolate and lost, but it also led them to new understanding and brought the surviving members closer together. The story ends with Lily completing a painting of Mrs. Ramsay that she started at the beginning of the novel.

Discussion:

1) What establishes a persons worth? Is it their intelligence, their friends, or something else?

2) Woolf's novel presents the idea that their is no such thing as objective reality and that reality is merely a collection of subjective views. DO you think that this belief is correct?

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, is the only novel ever written by Plath. This novel is actually semi-autobiographical, being based off of Plath's own life, just with the names of characters changed from real life names. It tells the story of Esther Greenwood, a young woman who recently graduated from college who lands a summer internship at a high-end magazine in New York City. While most girls would be thrilled at going to NYC to intern for a prominent magazine, Esther feels the exact opposite. She feels sad, frightened, and the reader can see that she is showing signs of depression.

Esther does not understand what she is doing with her life anymore now that she is done with school. Her mother wanted her to learn shorthand, but she was against doing any of the stereotypical female jobs like stenography or even being a mother. In the middle of the novel, Esther has a flashback to when her boyfriend, Buddy, asks her to be his wife. She promptly responds, "I'm never going to get married" (93). She refuses to follow the stereotype, mostly because she is afraid of ever becoming pregnant – a fear caused by her depression.

As her mental state begins to worsen, her mother forcefully encourages her to try seeing a psychiatrist. The first psychiatrist Esther goes to is Dr. Gordon, whom Esther does not trust simply because he is a Good looking man; she feels he is not paying attention to her and her problems. Dr. Gordon quickly diagnoses her with a severe mental illness and wants her to go to the hospital. Esther refuses to ever go see Dr. Gordon again.

After a few half-hearted attempts at suicide, Esther decides that she really does not want to live anymore. She goes down into her cellar and swallows an excessive amount of sleeping pills that had been prescribed to her for insomnia. Someone quickly discovers her, saving Esther's life. Esther is then taken to a new female psychiatrist, Dr. Nolan.

Esther is able to spill out all of her fears to Dr. Nolan, from her distrust of males to her fear of pregnancy and motherhood. Her mental state quickly improves with the help of Dr. Nolan. For once in her life, Esther is not worrying about the future and things she cannot control, saying "I had hoped, at my departure, I would feel sure and knowledgeable about everything that lay ahead - after all, I had been 'analyzed.' Instead, all I could see were question marks" (243).

1. This book was written back in the early '60s, when women we often stereotyped to be housewives. As you can see, Esther greatly feared joining that stereotype. Do you believe women today are still not seen as equals to men? If so, are there any examples of this inequality?

2. If you knew someone who was clinically depressed like Esther, what would you do to help them? Do you think forcing Esther to see a psychiatrist was the right thing for her mother to do, or should she have let Esther choose to do this on her own?

The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel

In the novel The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel, the main character Azucena Martinez, an astroanalyst, helps her patients travel through their past lives in order to heal damage done to their subconscious. The current world, at the time, has gotten to the point where everyone is aware of the existence of their "twin soul", in other words their soul mate. Each person's soul must go through 14,000 lifetimes in order to meet their twin soul.

Due to her job, Azeucena has been allowed to meet her twin, Rodrigo, early. However, Rodrigo is now lost through time and space and Azeucena must go find him. With the help of her guardian angel, Anacreonte, she leaves on her journey to rescue Rodrigo. Throughout the story, Azeucena meets many strange characters that help her find her lost soul mate. I won't tell you how it ends, but I will say the novel has a very complex, exciting plot that made the book an easy read.

Questions:

1) If you were given the opportunity to go back and fix something in your past that has negatively affected who you are today would you? Why?

2) What do you think about the concept of "twin souls"? Do you think that every person truly has a perfect match for themselves?

Enduring Love

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan is a story beginning on an ordinary Spring day at the park. Joe Rose, a science writer and his girlfriend Clarissa are enjoying a picnic when they spot a disaster. They see a hot air balloon with a child in the basket, and a man being dragged behind it. Several onlookers try to band together in order to stop the runaway balloon, but in the scuffle a man is killed. Another attempted rescuer, Jed Parry shares a look with Joe. Little does Joe know, that this chance meeting is the beginning of an obsession that will attempt to tear apart his life. Later on in the book, Jed begins to appear in random situations in Joe's life. Joe witnesses a man being shot in shoulder and comes to the conclusion that the bullet was meant for him. However, the police do not believe that Jed is the one who orchestrated the hit. Jed's obsession with Joe goes a step farther when he begins to mess with his relationship with Clarissa. Joe receives a call from Jed who is at Clarissa's home. Luckily, he had gone to buy a gun for protection against his stalker. Will Joe be able to rescue his girlfriend and stop the crazy Jed in time?

1 would you be one of the witnesses of the escaped balloon that would join in the rescue attempt?

2 if you came home to a psycho holding a knife to your significant other's throat, how would you try to diffuse the situation? and if you had a gun, would you be able to use it?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next by Ken Kesey takes place in a mental institution. The narrator of the novel is Chief Bromden, a man who all of the patients think is deaf and dumb. Bromden suffers from hallucinations during which he feels the room filling with a thick fog created by a huge mechanized matrix called The Combine which controls everyone in its grasp. The institution is run by Nurse Ratched, also known as Big Nurse, an impatient and intense woman with calm, cold disposition. When the story begins, a new patient, Randall McMurphy, arrives at the ward. He has just come from a work farm at Pendleton as part of his sentence for statutory rape. He is clearly sane and came to the hospital to avoid working. Others in the ward are Dale Harding, the president of the patients’ council, and Billy Ribbit, a thirty-year-old who stutters and seems to be very nervous most of the time. Ratched immediately sees that McMurphy is a manipulator and a con artist. During the first therapy meeting, McMurphy explains his arrest for statutory rape, saying that the girl was of legal age and certainly more than agreeable. Dr. Spivvey, the main doctor for the ward, questions whether McMurphy is faking insanity to get out of doing hard labor at the work farm. Afterward, McMurphy talks to Harding about the way the inmates submiss to Nurse Ratched so readily. McMurphy complains to Ratched about the loud music that constantly plays on the ward, but she refuses to turn it down. He suggests opening the tub room as a game room, but she refuses. At the next meeting, Dr. Spivey mentions casually that he talked to McMurphy about opening up the tub room as a game room and thinks that it is a great idea. The other inmates agree to carry out the plan while Nurse Ratched's hands begins to shake her hands—her first significant sign of weakness.McMurphy next wants to make a schedule change so the patients can watch the World Series during the day and do their work at night. The patients gradually grow more assertive in their opposition to the nurse boys and Ratched, and it begins clear that McMurphy is creating havoc in his attempts to over throw the ward. During a staff meeting, the doctors discuss McMurphy with Ratched. They believe that he might be dangerous. Ratched, however, claims that McMurphy is not an extraordinary man and is subject to all the fears and timidity of the other men. She is confident that she can break McMurphy, for he is committed to the hospital and they are in control, able to decide when he will be released. Nurse Ratched regains her control over the ward after McMurphy gives up his struggle against her, knowing that she controls whether or not he leaves. McMurphy realizes that Chief Bromden is neither deaf nor dumb. The two grow closer and along with planning the boat trip for the ward patients, plan McMurphy’s escape. Harding and the other patients decide to craft McMurphy's escape when Candy arrives on a Saturday night for her meeting with Billy. They bribe Mr. Turkle, the night watchman, with liquor and an offer of sex with Candy, McMurphy’s lady friend, and the other patients have a party that night. When Nurse Ratched arrives, she gathers the patients together in one room to take roll. She realizes that Billy Bibbit is missing. She finds him in the Seclusion Room with Candy. She chastises him for having sex with such a lowly woman, then tells him that she will tell his mother. Billy begins to stutter and shake, but she takes him into the doctor's office to calm down. When the doctor arrives, he finds that Billy has cut his throat and committed suicide. Ratched blames McMurphy for Billy's suicide, and he reacts by trying to choke her. Although the nurse boys pull McMurphy off of her before he can kill her, he rips her uniform and shows her chest to the patients. Nurse Ratched takes time off to recover, and when she returns, she cannot speak. Many of the patients check out of the hospital. Weeks later, McMurphy returns to the ward, now comatose after having a forced lobotomy. Chief Bromden suffocates McMurphy with a pillow in order to put him out of his misery, then throws the control panel in the tub room through the window and escapes the institution, fulfilling McMurphy's escape plan for himself.
1. McMurphy’s plan for a mental vacation and break from life ultimately end up in the deterioration of his life as he knows it, making him miserable and trapped. Would you take the risk in escaping the troubles and monotony of your life by trying to escape to a mental institution or some sort of hospital where faking an illness could ultimately cause everyone to baby you and give you everything you need for the rest of your life?

2. The way that Nurse Ratched is brutal and mean, and her methodic way of running the ward makes the patients bored, tired, and irritated. If you ran the floor in a mental institution, would you make the patients have the same boring meaningless activities every day or would you try to make their experience somewhat enjoyable even if it meant slightly messing with the stability of their daily pattern and hope that it didn’t interfere with their sickness?

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro, the Man Booker prize winner for his acclaimed novel The Remains of the Day, arrives with another acclaimed novel Never Let Me Go which explores the idea of cloning in a small boarding school near Norfolk, England.

This topic has been all the rage in Hollywood recently, with movies such as The Island and Gattica that show the struggle between natural born humans and organisms that have been genetically created, or for a more common term, clones. Ishiguro explores a deeper meaning when taking on this theme in his novel. He explains how clones have little or no freedom and are left with a loss of individuality.

The narrator of this story is Kathy, a

thirty-something woman who attended Hailsham boarding school in the late 1970's. She is retelling the events her childhood with her two friends, Ruth and Tommy, who also attended the mysterious boarding school that stresses the importance of good health and creativity.

The students at Hailsham are taught at a young age that they will be giving "donations" at one point in their life, meaning they will most likely lose their lives donating their vital organs to "originals" or the receivers who have purchased the clones. The persons in charge at Hailsham are referred to as guardians, who are often feared by students because of their strict dispositions. All of the students are taught how to create physical pieces of art, rather than theatre or music. This allows for the students to express themselves, yet they are not taught any necessary life skills.

Hailsham was essentially an experiment. In the novel, society at that point in time felt that clones were non-human organisms that were merely sources of organs. They felt that clones did not have souls nor possessed the capability to love one another. The creators at Hailsham forced the students to create artwork as a means of knowing whether or not their theories were true.

Ishiguro's novel does not focus entirely about cloning but rather the emotions that are evoked as a result of the predicament the students at Hailsham are subjected to. He uses the character's experiences to show that compassion and companionship truly have an impact on one's life.

Question:

The characters in Never Let Me Go are not given many choices in their lives. They are isolated within the Hailsham campus unable to interact with "the outside world". They are told

what to do, and when to do it, inside and outside of school, considering that Hailsham is a boarding school.They have capitulated every ounce of freedom they have to the "guardians" demands. Remember back to your elementary school days. I would assume that many of you followed the rules during the school day, but what about at home? How would you feel if you had no say in your life? You had one goal in life and you were to live isolated from the rest of the world? Would you feel lonely? How would you cope?

Side note:

This novel has been made into a major motion picture, Never Let Me Go [2010], starring Keira Knightley, Carrie Mulligan and Andrew Garfield.

The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a novel centered around a group of American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. The protagonist of the story, Tim O’Brien, tells the story of the things that he remembers from the war through a series of vignettes. The book is extremely poignant, as one of the first things to occur is the death of one of his squadmates, and the effect that the death has on the whole dynamic of the squad. The author O’Brien concentrates more on the soldiers and less on the political or moral aspects of Vietnam, and throughout the novel he uses everyday objects and actions to help humanize the characters that he has created for this story. One of the most important recurring themes in the story deals with the emotions of the soldier, and it is evident how Vietnam has had a profound effect on the protagonist O’Brien as he is haunted by the ghosts of his former brothers in arms whilst he tries to rationalize the war to himself. Eventually, he is forced to return to Vietnam to face his demons and finally become at peace with himself, although it is ambiguous whether he shall succeed or be forever tormented by grief.


1. If you went to war and you saw your friends die as O'Brien did, do you think you would ever be able to recover?

2. Do you think it's important for novels like The Things They Carried to be written to help better understand war, or is it a waste because it is fiction?

Angels and Demons
By Dan Brown

In Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons, the prequel to The DaVinci Code, Robert Langdon is a Harvard symbologist who is called to the scene of a violent murder. The Man who was murdered, a physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), was branded with the symbol of an ancient organization called the illuminati. The murderer also took a canister of antimatter from the lab. This canister, basically a time bomb, has a 24 hour battery life which, when over, will create an explosion comparable to that of a small nuclear bomb. This bomb has been placed somewhere inside the Vatican and Robert is sent to find it. this bomb, however, has been planted at the worst possible time: conclave. The former pope has recently died and new one is being picked from cardinals around the world. To make matters worse the four preferiti, or those who are most likely to become pope, have been kidnapped and threatened to be killed once an hour until the bomb goes off. Langdon must follow the path of the kidnapper in hopes of finding the bomb.

1. This novel like many of Dan Brown's other novels deals with the idea of forbidden knowledge and knowledge used for the wrong purpose. Do you believe there are some things man should not know?

2. What are some examples of knowledge or technology once thought to be great being used for the wrong purpose?

Grades

Please check the grade book to see if you have any missing assignments. If there is a zero listed and it also says absent, then you may make the assignment up by the end of next week. A few assignments have not yet been entered, like the reading logs and blog grades. They will be posted by early next week.

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis

The Blind Side is an uplifting story about a young athletically gifted black teenager named Michael Oher. The son of a crack-addicted mother and murdered father, Michael has never had an easy or privileged life. He has no confidence, a high school GPA of 0.6, and nowhere to live. The only thing he has going for him is his size and strength on the field that gives him the chance as a future NFL left tackle. Sean Tuohy, the father of a girl in one of Michael’s classes, is a very rich and powerful white man who has been known to help impoverished students in the past. The family reaches out to Michael by offering him food and clothes, and as the story line progresses, they eventually take him in as one of their own.

1. Mrs. Tuohy is skeptical at first about helping Michael. If you had the opportunity to help someone who was in a situation like Michael, would you?

2. On the other side of thing, if you were in Michael’s situation, would you accept help from people you hardly knew? Consider the betrayal that Michael has faced in the past with his own family. Would you be willing to trust again?

3. Michael Lewis writes this book to show that even a little caring and compassion can make a huge difference in someone else’s life. Why do you think most people are usually so reluctant to give to those in need?

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

Four best friends since birth were going to be apart for the summer their first time ever. Right before they go their separate ways, they find a pair of pants that strangely fits all of them. They decide to share them and send them to each other throughout their time away. Carmen's going to South Carolina to visit her dad, Bridget is off to soccer camp, Lena's off to Greece to visit her family, and Tibby is staying home and working. Over their vacation, they each encounter a few of their own problems. Carmen goes to her dad's to catch up after he left her and her mother, but is surprised to find that he is engaged again. When Bridget is at camp, she falls in love with her soccer coach. At first, he hesitates to follow her lead, but he soon changes his mind and gives in. When Bridget realizes that it won't work out, all she wants is to talk to her mother who had passed away a few years ago. While in Greece, Lena falls in love with a Kostos. She soon finds out that she is forbidden to talk to him because of a family feud. While Tibby is working a Wallman's, she meets a young girl named Bailey. At first she is annoyed that Bailey is always around, but once she finds out that she has leukemia, she feels much differently. Tibby grows very attached to her and gets a new perspective on life. Although each of these girls have many problems while away from each other, the pants help them realize that they are all there for each other.

1.) Why does it take some people a near death experience or the loss of a loved one to live the way they should?

2.) Carmen's dad doesn't tell her that he is engaged to a women with two kids her age, so she thinks when she visits it is going to just be her and him. Should he have told her about his fiancé even if it meant she would decide not to go? What would you do if you were in her place?

3.) Even though Lena is told not to talk to Kostas because of the family feud, she continues to see him anyways. What would you do if you were in her place? Where do you draw the line between following your heart and your family?

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why, a New York Times Bestseller novel by Jay Asher, focuses on two main characters, Clay Jensen and Hannah Baker, who narrate the story. Clay Jensen comes home from school to find a package addressed to him sitting on the porch. There is no return address on the package, but when he opens it to reveal the contents he finds seven loose audiotapes marked front and back with numbers 1 though 13. He begins listening to the audiotapes and discovers they have been recorded by Hannah Baker, Clay’s former classmate and crush who tragically committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there were thirteen reasons why she ended her life. The tapes were initially mailed to one classmate with instructions to pass them from one student to another, in the style of a chain letter. Curiosity and fear of exposure keep the people on the list listening to the tapes and passing them on. We hear the tapes through Clay’s time with them and learn additional information about Hannah and the rumors about her through Clay’s reactions and thoughts about the tapes. If Clay listens through to the end, he will find out how he made the list. The book takes you on an emotional journey filled with the desperation and depression Hannah went through in her short lived life. The tapes include 11 of her fellow students and her guidance counselor who through immature acts of gossip, lies, and ignorance drive her to an emotional detachment from her life eventually resulting in her decision of suicide. The novel makes you think about how a small negative action can take on a snowball-like affect, ruining a reputation, and potentially ending a life.

Discussion Questions:

Being in high school there are always rumors going around, has a rumor about yourself ever gotten back to you? Did you try to disprove the rumor or confront the person you believe started it, or did you just chose to ignore it and move on?

Many of the people on Hannah’s tapes were people she at some point took to be her friends. Have you ever been betrayed by someone you thought of as a friend?

One of Hannah’s tapes involves a boy named Justin who at a party allows a rape to take place in a guest bedroom with his classmate Jessica who, after drinking heavily, passes out unconscious. It is easy to claim you would never allow an act of indecency like this happen, but in a similar situation do you think you would be brave enough to tell the star quarterback with a violent history about what is morally right or wrong? How would you handle this situation?

Pop Goes the Weasel

Pop Goes the Weasel is a one of James Patterson’s many detective novels. In this particular story D.C. detective, Alex Cross, is faced with not one but four killers. They call themselves the “Four Horsemen”. This name stems from the four horsemen of the apoxolypse: Death, Famine, War, and Pestilence. These men met back when they were in the service together and now, many years later, they live spread across the world. At first it started as a game; their own twisted fantasy. They would make up grusome stories to tell eachother every week. Soon the stories turned into realities as they could no longer supress their sadistic urges. The worst of the four is, not surprisingly, “Death” who lives in Washington D.C. Death is played by Geoffrey Shafer. He is a seemingly normal, upper-class man with a wife and children. He is also a part of the British Embassy and noone would ever suspect him of the violent homoscides taking place in the city. At first noone notices the pattern emerging because Death only targets prostitutes in the bad part of town. Alex Cross is one of the few people who take an interest in investigating the deaths and as he gets closer to solving the case he finds himself thrown right into the middle of the fantasy. Now that Cross is playing the game, the Horsemen decide to meet up in person once again. While on a relaxing vacation with his family Alex Cross proposes to his girlfriend and only days later she is kiddnapped by the Horsemen. He races to identify the Four Horsemen, save his fiancee, and end the game once and for all.

1. Because the victims were prostitutes from a poor, mainly black, area of D.C. not many people cared about the rising body count. Alex Cross had to go against the orders of his superiors in order to investigate this case. Would you risk getting fired to catch the killer of people society deemed “undesirable”?

2. The Horsemen went from telling made up stories to actually killing. Has there ever been a time in your life when something that started merely as a game or joke escalated into something much more?

Angels and Demons

Dan Brown's book Angles and Demons is a mystery novel about the adventures of Robert Langdon. This book is before the better know Da Vinci Code. It involves his journey through The Vatican City. The pope has recently died and a body is found in a physicist's lab. The body is branded with the symbol of an ancient society the Illuminati, an ancient scientist group, the Illuminati also stole a canister of anti-matter which in 24 hours will level the Vatican. Langdon goes on a quest to find it following the ancient "Path of Illumination" which leads him to four different locations each a different element: fire, air, earth, and water. At each spot one of the candidates to succeed the pope is murdered. Finally their search leads them back to the Pope's chambers. Where the leader of the company that lost the anti-matter is confronting the pope. Langdon believes the he is the leader of the Illuminati. The pope gets branded by the Illuminati Diamond and guards come in and kill the leader of the lab. Before the leader dies he gives Langdon a tape. It turns out that the old Pope had a kid the new Pope found out and killed him. Planted the bomb to make himself look like a hero.

1) Do you think that secret societies still exist and are active under our noses?

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci --- clues visible for all to see, and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion, an actual secret society.

In a breathless race through Paris, London and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to work for Opus Dei --- a clandestine, Vatican-sanctioned Catholic organization believed to have long plotted to seize the Priory's secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's secret --- and a stunning historical truth --- will be lost forever

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you believe that conspiracy theories regarding religion truly exist and that societies guard these secrets from the public?

2. What do you think would happen to people's beliefs if they found out that religion was no longer based on belief, but based on known facts?

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

The book starts off with Valerie Leftman, a junior in high school, making a list with her boyfriend. The list has all the future targets on it; all the things and people they hate most. One day, at the of their junior year, Nick, her boyfriend, unexpectedly pulls a gun in the cafeteria leaving 6 students and a teacher dead, and many wounded. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved a life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the lise she helped create. Nick later pulls the gun on himself, and Valerie is left alone to try and make sense of this horrible tragedy. After a summer of complete seclusion she is forced to go back to school to finish up her senior year and face the guilt. Throughout the rest of the book she tries to come to terms with the tragedy, and her role in it. She relives that day over and over again, and ponders why it happened to her. She believes the teribble relationship she had with her father, and the fact that she was a little bit of an outcast played a part in it. But she eventually recovers and mends all the broken relationships with her family and friends, and begins to move on.

Discussion Questions
1. Do you think Valerie should feel that much guilt for just making the list but not actually shooting the students? Is it her fault or just her boyfriend's?
2. If you were Valerie how would you feel coming back to school after the shooting?
3. Do you think you can ever fully recover when something that tragic happens to you?

The End of Forever

The End of Forever, a book written by Lurlene McDaniel, actually has two novels in it. The first novel begins with two sisters, Erin and Amy, who are complete opposites of each other. Erin is very serious, always on time and in general she is a perfectionist. Amy on the other hand is very optimistic, outgoing and looks for the fun in life without thinking about the consequences. Erin and Amy are always fighting about something in which they can't see exactly eye to eye. They get into an argument over how late Amy was when they were supposed to be practicing their parts for the upcoming play. Despite the small dispute from the previous day both girls perform excellently in the drama club's performance. The cast has a party to celebrate the play's success. Unfortunately, they run out of pop at the party and Erin is asked to go pick up more. Amy talks Erin into letting her go run the errand instead of Erin because she had recently gotten her driver's license and can't wait to drive. Erin eventually agrees to let her little sister go and watches as she pulls out of the parking lot into the downpour of rain.

After awhile, Erin starts to worry that Amy still isn't back with the refreshments. So Erin and Travis (Amy's boyfriend) go out looking for her and when they don't find her, they decide to call home because Amy must have gone home instead. Panic truly sets in when she calls the home phone and no one answers. Back at the theater Erin hears the devastating words, " ... there's been an accident...it's Amy,Erin. Amy's been in a terrible wreck"(McDaniel 45).

Weeks pass at the hospital, and Amy never comes out of her coma and her brain activity slowly decreases. Erin and her family decide to donate Amy's organs because they feel that even though it is a horrible loss, at least someone might me able to benefit from the tragedy.

The second novel is called Time to Let Go, it begins with Erin talking to a therapist. Erin isn't exactly happy with going to the meetings but she feels that if she has any chance of leaving to go to her dream school in a few months she has to get rid of the horrible headaches that she is suffering from. Erin feels as though her parents should be forced to attend these meetings too because the entire family had fallen apart after Amy's death.

As Erin and the therapist search for answers to her mysterious headaches, Erin lands the lead role in a play and she meets David. Slowly Erin starts to like David because not only does he try to help her with her ongoing headaches but Erin begins to realize that David is like Amy in many ways. Erin finally allows herself to fully grieve and afterwards she realizes that her headaches are becoming less severe and less frequent. I won't ruin the ending for you, but I think that McDaniel ties the two novels together nicely.

I think that the major theme of this book is to enjoy everything in life and never take anything for granted because you don't know what the future holds.

1) In the novel, Amy and her parents have to make the hard decision of whether or not to turn off the machines that were keeping Amy alive. Would you ever be able to make a decision like that?

2) Do you feel that the family made the right decision, to turn off the machines, due to the fact that Amy was brain dead?

3) It takes Erin the entire novel to figure out the main cause to her headaches. Have you ever been so preoccupied with trying to keep other people happy that you end up causing yourself to suffer?

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is an unusual mystery novel written by an unusual narrator. The author of the story is fifteen year old Christopher John Francis from England. What makes him unusual is Christopher suffers from fairly intense autism. Christopher is easily frustrated when he encounters uncomfortable situations. Christopher cannot understand emotions, doesn’t relate well with people, and cannot stand being touched. In some areas though, Christopher is a genius. He knows facts like all of the countries of the world and their capitols, and he excels in the math and science subjects. Christopher wrote this story as an assignment for his special school. His story begins when one night he finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled by a pitchfork. Christopher decides he will take it upon himself to find who is responsible. At first he is blamed for the murder by the dogs’ owner, Mrs. Shears, who quickly calls the police. When the police begin questioning Christopher he is unable to understand why and is angered by the policeman touching him. He hits the police officer and is arrested and taken to jail. He is later bailed out by his father who the reader learns is Christopher’s only guardian and loves him very much. Christopher believes his mother died from a heart attack at the hospital which the reader later learns is false. Christopher’s father, wanting to keep him out of trouble, tells him to stop playing his detective games and forget about the murder. Christopher who has a great love for animals doesn’t understand his father's reasoning and decides to continue his detective work in secret and behind his father's back. As he digs deeper into the case he uncovers secrets in his own family. One day while alone at his home he sneaks into his father’s room and found a drawer of letters addressed to him from his mother. The letters have post marked dates after the supposed death of his mother. After reading the letters in which his mother describes her new life he begins to realize that his mother truly isn’t dead. When his father finds him reading the letter he realizes he can no longer lie to Christopher. Christopher’s mother had more of a temper and was less understanding than his father and always had a hard time dealing with Christopher because of his disability. She said she still loved Christopher but she couldn’t take him anymore so she ran off to London with Mr. Shears. Mr. Shears is the former husband of Mrs. Shears and he and Christopher’s mother had an affair behind the backs of Christopher’s father and Mrs. Shears. She said in her letters even though she had left, she still wanted to keep in touch with Christopher. Christopher’s father mad at the betrayal of his mother to their family decided to cut Christopher off from her, telling him she had died. Christopher unable to understand that his mother left him out of choice was mad at his father for lying. Then his father told him that it was he who had killed Wellington out of anger. Christopher unable to understand why his father would kill a dog no longer felt safe in a house with a murderer and liar. That night Christopher ran away. Having no place to go, he decides to journey to England by himself to find his mother. Can Christopher travel all the way to London by himself and find his mother and can his relationship with his mother ever be repaired, read and find out.
1. This story is much different from most literature because it is written in the unique perspective of a person with severe autism. His insight and thinking is very different from most normal people. Do you believe that reading a story like this can teach us how to better deal with people with disabilities and show how their thinking may be very different from our own?
2. Christopher’s mother leaves because she is unable to deal with his disability any longer. Do you think there would ever be a point as a parent that you would not be able to deal with your child any longer and leave him or her?

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen is about a high school girl named Macy whose father recently passed away. Since her father's death, she blames herself, but always pretends like she is fine. Macy tries to live a "perfect" life, with the perfect boyfriend, job, and grades. Before her father's death, she never cared about appearance, but now she must look the part of perfection. Macy says, "If I wanted people to see me as calm and collected, together, I had to look the part" (Dessen 17). She must play every role of being invincible. Macy's boyfriend, Jason, is a genius and away at Brain Camp for the summer. Since she is alone for the summer, Macy's days consist of the boring job at the library and her nights of SAT prep. Macy and her mother rarely see each other since her mom is always occupied with work. She is content with her life, but when she begins working for the catering company, Wish, everything changes. She meets a creative, edgy guy, named Wes, who she begins to fall for. Instead of her SAT prep every night, she goes out to parties with her work friends. In the midst of her summer, Jason decides he wants a break with Macy because she decided to say "I love you." Despite the "break" with Jason, she finally begins to reach happiness with Wes. She can tell him anything and even share her feelings about her father, something she has not been able to do since his death. Macy and Wes grow closer throughout the novel as he shows her that there is more to life than striving for perfection. However, "perfect" Jason is coming back at the end of the summer. Who will she choose, the smart, geeky Jason or the edgy, artistic Wes?

1. In the novel, Macy is conflicted between Jason and Wes. She cannot deny her attraction towards Wes, but Jason is the "ideal" boyfriend and in her comfort zone. What would you do if an edgy guy/girl came along? Would you take the risk of trying things out or remain in your comfort zone? Why?

2. Macy's mother does not apporve of Macy working at the catering company or hanging out with her work friends. However, these are the things that make Macy happy. Would you listen to your parents if they told you to stop doing what makes you happy? Would you be willing to break the rules?

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

In Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult, June Nealon has had a tragic life. Her first husband died in a car crash leaving her to care for their young daughter Elizabeth. The officer who had been on the scene of the crash would check in on June multiple times and support her during her grieving. Believing she found the man of her dreams, June married the officer Kurt Nealon. Everything had been turning around for June only to have another tragedy strike her life. While June was pregnant with Kurt's child, a handyman named Shay Bourne that worked for June was accused of killing Kurt and Elizabeth. June was now alone and pregnant and had to go through the trial of her child and husbands murderer. In the end the jury claimed that Shay was guilty and he was sent on death row which was one of the first in many years for that state.

The story then changes to the view of life inside of the prison through the eyes of an inmate named Lucius who had been convicted of killing his boyfriend when he found him cheating. Lucius had a cell next to Shay's and gave insight to their time in prison. Not long after Shay had moved to the tier, things seeming like miracles began to happen. A dead bird was revived, Lucius seemed cured of his AIDS and the plumbing in the system was suddenly filled with wine with all signs pointing to Shay's doing. Word gets out of these miracles and the public gathers outside the prison with their sick ones hoping that Shay would cure them. They believed that he was the Messiah.

While these miracles were occurring, a priest named Michael had visited Shay to give him comfort and guidance while he waited for his death sentence to be carried out. Michael had been on the jury that convicted and sentenced Shay Bourne to death and was starting to feel remorse for the conviction. He started to grow fond of Shay and through the book he began to question his faith. In court on day, the chains hanging from Shay simply dropped off without reason. Seeing such a thing makes Michael start to believe that maybe Shay was in fact the Messiah.

During the time of Shay Bourne's incarceration, June Nealon delivers the child she had been pregnant with and named her Claire. Claire is found to have a failing heart condition. To live, Claire needs a heart transplant. In the meantime she had been given a pace maker to restart her heart if it quit on her but the solution was only temporary. The clock is ticking on her chances at living but then an opportunity arises at gaining an available heart, the catch is the heart belongs to the killer of her father and sister. Shay Bourne had seen Claire on T.V. and knew she needed a heart and desperately wanted to give her his when he was put to death. For Shay, the method of his death was lethal injection which would not make his heart viable for a transplant. The story continues in a fight with the system to allow hanging so that the heart may be used and the fight of June Nealon to decide if she will accept to put a killer’s heart in her remaining daughter to keep her alive.

1. In Change of Heart, June Nealon must decide if she will accept a heart from the killer of her husband and first daughter in order to keep her second daughter Claire alive. Do you believe that it is possible to forgive a killer? What if forgiving them could save someone you loved?

2. During the novel Shay Bourne causes father Michael to begin wondering about his faith. What do you think you would do if you began to question one of your strongest beliefs?