The book The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a story about a fifteen-year old boy named Charlie and his experiences he has as goes through his freshman year of high school. This book addresses a lot of issues that many teenagers go through, and even if they don’t, they are at least around these issues. Basically, it speaks to every teenager, so this book should be read because it can relate and connect to the youth, it’s from the head and heart of a youth, and also because of the fact that even those that might not go through these issues personally but are at least around them, it can help them understand others more, which the world definitely needs.

A lot of Charlie’s experiences involve/address issues such as drugs, relationships, sexuality, homosexuality, rape, abuse (both mental and physical), partying, dating, among many others. These experiences are told extremely honestly (which one of the strongest aspects of this book is the honesty in which its told). Most of these experiences are very common for basically every teenager/adolescent, and so a lot of people can relate to Charlie and empathize with him if they were to read this book, which I highly recommend them to do so. It’s truly a great read with just about every aspect of a book being used brilliantly.

P.S. The main character, Charlie, reminded me a lot, like a whole lot, of myself, but I really feel that many other teenagers can connect with him also, so I recommend this book to everyone.

The book Making the Corps is about a group of young men who arrive at United States Marine Corps boot camp. Basically, it’s about the young men in this particular platoon, the Marine Corps in general, and also America. It was very interesting to say the least.

Making the Corps follows several men who have been recruited into the Marines. It follows them from their hometowns and lives beforehand, through their grueling experience at boot camp, and into their first year as Marines and their lives afterwards. It was extremely interesting to see how much they change as their old values are stripped away, brutally, and the Marines forge their own values into these men. Throughout the book however, a larger picture is painted, and that picture is of why the Marines are starkly divided from the other United States Armed Forces military branches and from the rest of America in general. I found this immensely intriguing.

Water for Elephants is a story about an elderly man named Jacob Jankowski as he has flashbacks to his life as a young man  who worked  in a circus during the Great Depression and all the wild and crazy events that had happened to him during that time. This book addresses many issues and explores numerous themes. Some of these include circus life during the Depression (which the author has obviously researched immensely), illusions and the dangers of it, love triangles, abuse, and animal-human bonds.

As stated before, the author researched extensively on the subject of circus life in Depression-era America, so this book is very accurate and is informative as well as an extremely entertaining. The plot was very engaging and enjoyable, with both awesome and alarming characters (even the animals!) all throughout the book helping the force that was keeping my eyes on the pages of this book.

I feel this book could appeal to anyone so it’s hard to think of who I’d recommend it to. There’s something in the story for everyone. It’s full of adventure, mystery, love/romance, history, animals, etc. It’s just an overall great book; a great read.