Reflection 8: Top Five

Eric’s All-Time Top Five:

1. The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

·     > Jay Gatsby is in search for his love, Daisy. He is constantly trying to get her attention with extravagant parties, but her cheating husband is in the way. A small-town man, Nick Carraway, gets in the middle of things when Jay asks for his help.

·     > I like this book because it’s an easy and very entertaining novel and very well written. It has a lot of symbolism and addresses different moral issues. >RIYL: short, fast paced reads, books set in the twenties, historical fiction, drama, unhappy endings

·      >New Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o

2. Holes
Louis Sachar

·      >When a teenage boy, Stanley Yelnats, gets accused of stealing a pair of famous shoes, he is sent to a correctional camp where the boys are told that digging holes builds character. He finds out the truth as to what the warden is actually looking for and digs up a wild story about a famous outlaw known as Kissing Kate Barlow.

·      >Holes is a funny story that keeps readers guessing. I liked a lot of Louis Sachar’s books because he always tells interesting, far-fetched stories that he convinces you could actually happen. I loved all the well-rounded characters and the way he gave them names like Armpit, Zero, Squid, and X-Ray.

·      >RIYL: funny, young adults novels, Wayside School, books with mainly male chracters, subplots

·      >Holes Trivia: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311289/trivia

3. Moneyball
Michael Lewis

·      >Billy Beane transforms the game of baseball by basing the scouting of players on statistics and math rather than looks and tradition. With this method of recruitment, against all odds, he leads the team with the lowest budget in the MLB, the Oakland A’s, to a twenty game winning streak, setting a new AL record.

·      >I liked that it was a true story about sports. It’s very interesting to learn about baseball from the perspective of a general manager compared to just reading the news and watching on tv.

·     > RIYL: sports novels, Heat, true inspirational stories, non-fiction

·      >Take A Look Inside: http://www.amazon.com/Moneyball-The-Winning-Unfair- Game/dp/0393324818

4. Brave New World
Aldous Huxley

·      >In Huxley’s utopian novel, citizens live in a stable, technologically advanced world where individuality doesn’t exist. People are genetically created in lab with countless look-a-likes, take a drug to prevent emotions,  and don’t have their own thoughts in this totalitarianism society.

·      >It was interesting, but scary, to read about what our world might come to. I liked it because Huxley wrote this in 1935 predicting what the world would be like so far into the future, and what right about a lot of things. I loved reading about this crazy world that predicts the downfall of where we could be headed.

·      >RIYL: utopian novels, futuristic worlds, The Hunger Games, books that make you think

·      >Interview with Aldous Huxley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TQZ-2iMUR0

5 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
J.K. Rowling

·     > Harry Potter learns that he is a wizard and is sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Him and his new friends, Ron and Hermione, embark on a series of adventures to stop the dark lord, Voldemort, who wants to kill Harry and destroy the all-powerful stone before it gets into the wrong hands.

·      >Harry Potter takes readers to a whole new world and it’s so easy to get lost in it. When I read this when I was younger, I thought about how cool Harry’s life would be. Rowling is a fantastic writer and there’s a twist in the story at every corner.

·      >RIYL: fantasy, magic, unrealistic fiction, long reads, action and adventure

·      >Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geNlXmmIp7w