The Beach by Alex Garland

Rating: 5.0

The Beach is sort of a cross between Lord of the Flies and Apocalypse Now. It's a wonderfully intense story! While Richard is backpacking through southeast Asia, he discovers the map to "the Beach", which is supposedly a mythical Eden commune. Richard and a young French couple make it to this deserted island and discover paradise. They swim, fish, dance and have access to all the marijuana they can smoke. Then things start to go bad when two catastrophes happen in the same week. The tenuous order that these people hold starts to slide away into chaos. People become paranoid and dangerous and in the end some lose their humanity. The Beach hooked me in right from the beginning with it's exotic storyline, beautiful scenery and great writing. The New York Times Book Review called The Beach "....impressive in its group portrait of a new generation of young vagabonds. Raised in an era of diminished confidence, they have set out in search of something that feels genuine and fulfilling. What they find turns out to be not utopia but hell."

Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler

Rating: 4.5

Vixen 03 opens in 1954. An extremely deadly plague in the form of bombs goes missing. This is a great start to an exciting adventure starring the always amusing Dirk Pitt. Over thirty years after these doomsday bombs go missing, Pitt is the one to inadvertently uncover them. All of them except two that is. Pitt becomes entangled in a deadly scheme between the African Army of Revolution and the African Defense Forces, and somebody has two very deadly plague bombs in their hands. The excitement never stops as the story takes us from the mountains of Colorado to the plains of Africa to the Potomac in Washington D.C. The excitement never stops when Dirk Pitt is around.

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

Rating: 4.0

Bastard Out of Carolina tells the tale of a young girl named Bone. Hers is a tale of physical and sexual abuse that grows steadily more violent until the explosive end of the book. It's also about her family, the Boatwrights. The big scary uncles, who adore Bone, are always drunk and shoot up each others trucks for fun. And the aunts, who always stick together whether they are picking over beans or taking care of each others children. Bone is a happy little girl until her mother gets married to Daddy Glen. Daddy Glen is very gentle with Bone at first. Things gradually go bad though when he starts physically abusing and molesting Bone. Bastard Out of Carolina is about the decisions we all make and the effects of those decisions on your children. It's about the meaning of family and loyalty. This is a serious book dealing with some hard subject matter. It's never easy to read about abuse, especially when it's a child involved, but Bastard Out of Carolina is definitely worth a read.

The Man Without a Face by Isabelle Holland

Rating: 5.0

The Man Without a Face does indeed have a face. Justin McLeod, a hermit and an ex-teacher, had half of his face badly burned in an accident. When 14 year old Charles asks for his help tutoring him for an entrance exam to a boarding school, they both get more than they bargained for. Love and friendship. This short novel is beautiful and very moving. Young Charles looks up to Justin in many different ways. "I'd never had a friend, and he was my friend; I'd never really, except for a shadowy memory, had a father, and he was my father. I'd never known an adult I could communicate with or trust, and I communicated with him all the time, whether I was actually talking to him or not. And I trusted him ......" The Man Without a Face is about many different kinds of love as well as guilt and regret. It's about a confused and troubled young man looking for freedom. One of the most important lessons Charles learns from Justin that summer is this: "You can be free from everything but the consequences of what you do." This is a very touching book and I also highly recommend the movie from 1993 staring Mel Gibson.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Rating: 5.0

The Shadow of the Wind is a labyrinthine mystery surrounding a book called.....The Shadow of the Wind. Someone is systematically finding and destroying every copy of this book and all the others written by the same author, Julian Carax. Daniel, a young man in 1945 Barcelona is dedicated to finding out this mystery no matter the cost. As Daniel slowly unravels the puzzle of Carax and his books, we see the similarities and parallels between Daniel and Julian Carax. This is a tale of love and loss, murder and madness. It's filled with intriguing characters and the almost tangible atmosphere of Barcelona. In the words of Stephen King, The Shadow of the Wind is "one gorgeous read."

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Rating: 4.0

"A harrowing story of a war that society is waging on itself, and an enduring meditation on the ties of love and blood and duty that inform lives and shape destinies, No Country for Old Men is a novel of extraordinary resonance and power. " -synopsis from Barnes&Noble

No Country for Old Men is the tale of Llewelyn Moss. A "good old boy" who runs across a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican-American border. He takes the money that he finds which sets a course for him that even he couldn't predict.

No Country for Old Men is also the tale of Anton Chigurh. Chigurh is an extremely violent and sociopathic killer who is on the hunt for Moss and the stolen money. He is one of the most interesting antagonists I've read lately.

No Country for Old Men is finally the tale of Sheriff Bell who is on the hunt for Chigurh. Bell is the first to realize how badly Moss and his young wife need protection. He sees first hand the piles of bodies left in the wake of Chigurh.

The book is written in a way that alternates between a third person and the first person of Sheriff Bell reminiscing about his time in WWII. No Country for Old Men is a gritty, fast-paced novel with an antagonist not soon forgotten.

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Rating: 5.0

She's Come Undone is the story of Dolores. It's a three part story with Dolores as a child, a college student and finally as an adult.

"Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered...."

The story of Dolores is a painful coming-of-age. She suffers through so much at the hands of people she has put her trust in that by the time she is a teen she has given up on herself. She sits in front of the t.v. eating and eating until she is the size of a whale. At times I just wanted to reach through the pages and smack some sense into her. Her life is one hot mess! Rape, obesity, a halfhearted suicide attempt and a long stay at a mental institution are just some of her trials. Her figurative struggle to not drown is actually mesmerizing in a way. I couldn't put the book down for very long. She's Come Undone follows Dolores from 1956 up through the '80's and is one heck of a roller coaster ride. This is the second time I've read this and I actually enjoyed it more this second time around. Dolores was not all that lovable in the beginning of the book but by the end she felt like a friend.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, she has endured a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife to reach the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fate of two tribes hangs.

Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating and unfathomable consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella's life--first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse--seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed....forever?
-taken from back of book

My thoughts:
Breaking Dawn is a great conclusion to a great series. While there was not as much action in this fourth book of the Twilight series, it was never boring. There were a lot of internal struggles going on....especially with Bella. All the characters I've come to love, plus some very interesting new ones, are here and dealing with some pretty serious situations. I was very happy with the outcome of this story. I am a little sad now that's it's over though. I'm really going to miss these characters.