Fake ID by Lamar Giles

Nick is used to being the new kid at school. After all, this is the fifth time in the past few years he's gone through this.

New school.

New town.

New identity.

Four years ago, back when Nick was still just a kid named Tony and living in Philadelphia, his father worked for a gangster, handling Kreso Maric's money. But his father snitched on Maric, who soon disappeared, and Nick's family has been in the Witness Protection program ever since. They've been relocated, again, this time to the rundown town of Stepton, where "[t]here was a chemical plant on the edge of town, its thick stacks sticking up over trees like a giant chain-smoker's cigarettes. They pumped storm clouds and gave the air a scent you could taste."

And in Stepton, it's not just the air that's polluted. Crimes don't seem to be taken seriously. Nick's dad gets caught up in some mysterious, secretive business--not for the first time--but this one's got him nervous. Spooked.

It's called Whispertown, this mysterious project that has Nick's dad--no stranger to furtive plots--so nervous. Eli, Nick's classmate and maybe his first friend in Stepton, is investigating Whispertown but refuses at first to tell Nick about it. Later, Nick realizes, "Of all the places I'd been, all the kids I met, [Eli] was the first to ever ask me to be a part of anything. Mostly, people were scared that I'd come to their school to take something from them. Their girl, or their spot on the team, or whatever attention they craved." But by then Eli is dead and it's left to Nick and Eli's sister to uncover the truth about what really happened to Eli.

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Bat­tle of Ther­mopyla by Steven Press­field is a his­tor­i­cal novel that recounts the Bat­tle of Ther­mopy­lae. The book was pub­lished in 1998.

The Per­sian army, two mil­lion men strong, is march­ing onto Greece. The Greeks have deployed a small army, 4,000 — 7,000 men against the Per­sians and chose to make their stand at the geo­graph­i­cally advan­ta­geous Ther­mopy­lae. Lead­ing the Greeks are 300 Spar­tans who hope to delay the army enough for Greece to get together a defense plan.
They know that is a sui­cide mission.

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Bat­tle of Ther­mopylae by Steven Press­field is an epic book, the style is sharp, the story vivid, the his­tory pretty accu­rate, and the moral dilem­mas are still rel­e­vant in today's mil­i­tary units.

I loved to read about the prob­lems fac­ing the Spar­tan King and his army com­man­ders, the sol­diers and their ser­vants. The books is a fic­tional account of those who are about to die, know it, and still go for­ward con­tem­plat­ing life's big mys­ter­ies and gain­ing appre­ci­a­tion for their com­rades, and those they left behind.

I truly enjoyed the fact that the author pays atten­tion to his­tory and imag­ines what it would have been like for his pro­tag­o­nists to pre­pare for bat­tle and death. Mr. Press­field under­stands the notions of honor in the con­text of ancient Greece and writes about it in a mov­ing, seri­ous way.

The book does not glo­rify bat­tles,  in fact there is much mis­ery, stench and car­nage on the bat­tle­field. If any­thing, glory in bat­tle is rewarded after the fact, not during.

The close broth­er­hood of the Spar­tan sol­diers is some­thing the author focuses on through­out the novel. If you are, or were in a close knit com­bat unit, this book will bring back mem­o­ries. If you were not, but ever wan­dered what makes the men click, this one is for you

• 442 pages
• Pub­lisher: Bantam
• Lan­guage: English
• ISBN-10: 055358053

Buy this book in paper or in elec­tronic format*

Dis­claimer: I got bought this book
Originally published at: http://manoflabook.com/wp/?p=633

The Last Wild by Piers Torday Plus Bonus Interview Questions with the Author!

Twelve year-old Kester Jaynes has a big problem, - he can’t speak. Even worse, he doesn’t know why he can’t speak. The only thing he knows is that he hasn’t been able to say a word since his mother’s death six years ago.  Not only that, he’s locked up in a home for troubled children for reasons also unknown to him. Oh, and just to throw another wrench in the gears, the outside world has all but completely fallen apart. It’s been ravaged by global warming and a disease called “the red-eye,” which has rendered all but a few animals extinct and threatens humans with the same fate.  

So, locked up, depressed, scared out of his wits, Kester is at the bottom of the barrel. Scratch that, he’s fallen through the bottom of the barrel into a pit of…well I was going to say poisonous snakes, but they’re all extinct.


Then one day while alone in his cell, Kester hears someone talking to him. It is then that he realizes it isn’t someone but something. Yes, Kester realizes that it is a cockroach that’s speaking to him and that they can communicate.  Not only that, Kester soon learns that he can “talk” to other animals in his cell.

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out

Beyond Magenta is an incredible look into the minds, lives, and struggles of LGBTQ teens.

 Each chapter profiles a person who has struggled with gender identity, and ultimately is transgender. They were born as one "sex", but identified with the other, and so the gender they were expected to express was not the gender they were comfortable presenting. The chapters are about very different people.

 When I picked up the book I wasn't expecting just what I got. I was expecting the author's narrative on the lives of these people. I was expecting to hear from an outside observer what these kids' lives had been like.

 I was not expecting to hear their stories from the teens themselves.

A Song for Bijou by Josh Farrar

The transition from kid to teen is hard for some. Relationships change and you begin to relate differently to your parents and to your friends and for some this is cause for major stress. Alex is a regular seventh grader whose life changes the day he sees a vision from heaven in the form of a new Haitian student called Bijou.

ANDRE THE GIANT: Life and Legend by Box Brown

I should start by saying that I had to wait my turn to read the advanced review copy of this graphic novel, because a certain 13-year old wrestling fan I know divested me of it just after it arrived. A non-reader, J finished it in one sitting and really didn't want to take a break for dinner, even. High praise indeed.

If you are a WWE wrestling fan, or seen the movie The Princess Bride, then you've probably heard of André the Giant. This graphic novel relates the story of his rise as a wrestler while dealing with debilitating physical issues. André never really stopped growing, thanks to the condition known as acromegaly, and he was told early on in his career that he'd be lucky to live to age 40.

The book is an unsentimental look at André's life, including some of the less pleasant aspects of it: how he was picked on or taunted throughout his life, how difficult travel was for him, how much he ate and drank (hint: a lot), and how he was sometimes a great friend, and sometimes fell short.

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back by Ian Doescher

Even if you think Iambic Pentameter is the name of an Imperial Stormtrooper (and it totally should be), you will still enjoy William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back, Ian Doescher’s second book in the Shakespearean Star Wars series. But the true measure of your enjoyment can be gauged by this two-item quiz:

Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Back to my "comfort zone" with UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi. This book was a complete and total surprise. I found the premise intriguing enough that I downloaded the book (I think it was an Amazon deal) but the execution was terrific. Rossi does a ton of stuff that I like as a reader and am insanely jealous of as a writer.

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrell

I think we must love to read about dystopian futures because they allow us to imagine the unimaginable and shiver in the dark while feeling grateful that things aren’t quite that bad. The thing I dislike most about dystopian literature is this way that our horrible future is so engrossing, we forget to ask how we ended up there. Cristin Terrell's All Our Yesterdays takes that dare and explores the possibility of using the past to change the future.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Pierce Brown's Red Rising is a little like Ender's Game in that it involves children's brutal training for war. It's also like the Percy Jackson series in its obsession with Greek and Roman myth and history. It's also like The Hunger Games in that it pits children against each other in deadly games and it's like Game of Thrones with its rivalries between powerful families and it's like Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series in its exploration of power and body modification. If someone accused Pierce Brown and his publisher of trying to capitalize on every trend in YA fiction this side of wizards and werewolves, you might just have to concede the point.

Yet, while the book is somewhat like all of these other books and is a bit jumbled as a result, it's not exactly like any of them. After a somewhat rough opening, the novel settles in and ultimately works better than expected. It also sets up a series that promises to be intriguing.