"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie

Remember how I said that I had to start reading more YA books? Ok, this is one of them. It was a totally excellent book. Unfortunately, I don't think that I can book talk it at school because there are a couple of touchy subjects in here.

Anyways, the gist of it is that this kid, Junior, is 1/2 white and 1/2 Indian and he lives with his family on a reservation. You learn all about the social problems that seem to run amok on reservations. Lots of drinking, and because of it, lots of stupidity. Junior decides that if he wants to have a better life, that he needs to go to school at a nearby (20-30 miles away) non-Indian school. He is ripped on by almost everyone in his tribe for that and his best friend starts to hate him. I'm not going to go into any more of the plot because I don't want to give it away. One of the coolest things about this book is that Junior likes to draw, so the book is filled with his cartoons and sketches that show the things that are happening in his life. If you need a good book for a teenage guy, I would recommend this one, but not if the boy is under 14.

Winter Study by Nevada Barr

So, a coworker of mine hasn't liked the last couple of Anna Pigeon books because Anna is aging and she doesn't think Nevada Barr should let that happen. Now, I enjoyed the last couple of books, but didn't love them, yet not for that reason. In those books, Anna has gotten married to Paul and she just didn't seem to show that she cared all that much about him. That didn't seem quite right to me.

I loved this book! A different coworker of mine took the book home first and told me she couldn't get into it because it was too much about wolves. She and I read some of the same books, but not exactly alike so I still went into this book with an open mind. While I did learn quite a bit about wolves, I found the psychological aspects of this book riveting. Imagine you are on Isle Royal, closer to Canada than Michigan, in the middle of Lake Superior, the nastiest Great Lake, in the middle of January with only 6 other people and no way to get supplies or leave the island if the weather isn't just right. Then, imagine strange things start happening and people start getting hurt. You have no electricity, no running water, and no telephone service. You have never met any of these other 6 people before you embarked on this trip. Who should you trust? No one of course! Read this book, you will not regret it!!!