This is a great list for selecting outside reading books. Some of these books though include themes that may be offensive and as such it may be a good idea to consult with your parents, librarians, counselors, and/or Mr. Williamson about your reading selection. This can help you choose the best book for you from among your many options.


How to Write An Effective Book Review

Introduce the subject, scope, and type of book

· Identify the book by author and title

· Specify the type of book (fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography, etc.)

· Mention the books theme

Briefly summarize the content

· For a nonfiction book, provide an overview, including paraphrases and quotations, of the book’s thesis and primary supporting points

· For a work of fiction, briefly review the story line for readers, being careful not to give away anything that would lessen the suspense for future readers.

Provide your reactions to the book

· Describe the book

o Is it interesting, memorable, entertaining, instructive? Why?

· Respond to the author’s opinions

o What do you agree with? And why?

o What do you disagree with? And why?

· Explore issues the book raises

o What possibilities does the book suggest? Explain.

o What matters does the book leave out? Explain.

· Relate your argument to other books or authors

o Support your argument for or against the author’s opinions by bring in other authors you agree with.

· Relate the book to latger issues

o How did this book affect you?

o How have your opinions about the topic changed?

o How is the book related to your own course or personal agenda?

Conclude by synthesizing your ideas

· Close with a direct comment on the book

· Tie together issues raised in the review and create an interesting and new insight

· Offer advice for potential readers

Escales, Maria. "Literacy Education Online: Writing Book Reviews". St. Cloud State University. March 9, 2009 .

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The play starts with a street brawl between Montagues and Capulets. The Prince of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death. Later, Count Paris talks to Lord Capulet about marrying his daughter, but Capulet is wary of the request because Juliet is still only thirteen. Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliet's nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Paris' courtship. After the brawl, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Lord Montague's son, about Romeo's recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited love for a girl named Rosaline, one of Lord Capulet's nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet. After the ball, in what is now called the "balcony scene", Romeo sneaks into the Capulet courtyard and overhears Juliet on her balcony vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married.
With the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children's union, they are married secretly the next day. Juliet's cousin Tybalt, offended that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, challenges him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight him. Mercutio is incensed by Tybalt's insolence, as well as Romeo's "vile submission", and accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded and Romeo, angered by his friend's death, pursues and slays Tybalt. The Prince exiles Romeo from Verona for the killing. He also adds that if Romeo returns, "that hour is his last". Lord Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris's "joyful bride". When she then pleads for the marriage to be delayed, her mother rejects her. Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet's chamber, where they consummate their marriage.
Juliet visits Friar Laurence for help, and he offers her a drug that will put her into a death-like coma for "two and forty hours". The Friar promises to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan, so that he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt.
The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and, instead, he learns of Juliet's apparent death from his servant Balthasar. Grief-stricken, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary and goes to the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal Paris confronts him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, finding Romeo dead, stabs herself with his dagger. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Laurence recounts the story of the two "star-cross'd lovers". The families are reconciled by their children's deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince's elegy for the lovers: "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

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