The Sky is Everywhere Jandy Nelson

Jandy Nelson is the author of The Sky is Everywhere and I’ll Give You the Sun. She worked in publishing as a literary agent at Manus and Associates Agency. Nelson has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell, a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from Brown, and another Master of Fine Arts degree in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her novel, The Sky is Everywhere was a Publishers Weekly Flying Start Title, as well as a YALSA Best Fiction for young adults nominee. This novel is also a Junior Library Guild Selection and has been translated in seventeen different languages.

In The Sky is Everywhere, after Lennie’s sister, Bailey, suddenly dies Lennie must adjust to life without her. Lennie soon becomes torn between Joe- the new boy in town who is a musical genius and is full of life and fun- and Toby- Bailey’s boyfriend who is both seductive and relates to her in her grief. Both boys offer Lennie something different that she needs, but if the two of them come together she knows it could be catastrophic. Readers can join Lennie on her journey that is both heart wrenching and humorous through her seemingly endless sorrow. She will make terrible mistakes and great realizations as she tries to figure out her new life. She will visit band rooms, gardens, forest bedrooms, and tree tops while on her journey.

 Author Jandy Nelson says: “As much a celebration of love as a poignant portrait of loss, Lennie’s struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often uproarious, and absolutely unforgettable.”

Nelson’s book is one of the most eye opening books I have read recently. Once I started reading, I was not able to put the book down. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It is a terrific story that helps to open reader’s eyes to how the loss of a family member can affect a young girl as well as their entire family. I think that this book is a great story for young adults to read who may have lost a close family member or for friends of a young adult a similar situation so as to maybe understand some of their emotions in a way. Overall, this is a great story of love and loss and I think it is a great read for any age reader.

Paper Towns John Green

John Green is the bestselling author of Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and The Fault in our Stars. Green is also the coauthor of Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan. His books have been written in over twelve different languages and distributed around the world. Green’s Paper Towns and The Fault in our Stars have been turned into movies. The Fault in Our Stars was released in June of 2014 and Paper Towns will be released in July of 2015. John Green is also known for his videoblogs he posts with his brother Hank. The brothers started posting videos in 2007 after they decided to stop textual communications and only talk through their videoblogs. These videos led to the creation of a community of people who call themselves nerd fighters who have raised money for poverty and planted trees in May 2010 for Hank’s birthday. John and Hank continue to upload two videos a week and still have a following of the nerd fighters.

Green’s novel Paper Towns, hit number five on the New York Times bestseller list and won the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. Quentin Jacobsen has always adored his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman. She is full of adventure and mystery, so when she comes to Quentin for help with her plot for revenge, he can’t help but follow. After their night of fun and revenge, Q gets to school to find Margo has become an even bigger mystery. Margo has left behind clues and Q discovers that they are for him. But the closer Q gets to solving the mystery that is Margo, the less he finds of the girl he thought he knew. The Paper Towns movie will be released on July 24, 2015. The movie will star Nat Wolff as Quentin Jacobsen and Cara Delevingne as Margo Roth Spiegelman. The movie will also include Halston Sage, Cara Buono, Austin Abrams, Meg Crosbie, and Justice Smith.

 Paper Towns is a book with characters that are alive and relatable to many different types of readers. It is a book that teaches us that you can follow or chase someone across a country but in the end, your fantasies may not become real. Green can make his readers laugh one minute and then they will be crying the next. Paper Towns takes readers on an adventure and shows that a quest for your true self may be just what you might need. 

The Longest Ride Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks is author of seventeen New York Times Bestsellers, including his most recent, The Longest Ride. His seventeen novels have sold over 97 million copies worldwide. 65 million of those copies were sold in the United States and they have been printed in over 50 different languages across the globe. Sparks’ first novel was The Notebook which was published in 1996. His tenth and latest movie adaptation was of The Longest Ride. His other movie adaptations include The Best of Me (2014), Safe Haven (2013), The Lucky One, The Last Song, Dear John, A Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe and work in progress, The Choice (2016). Together, his movie adaptations have earned over $275 million dollars. Sparks lives in North Carolina with his wife and their three sons and two daughters.

The Longest Ride follows the stories of two couples, Ira and Ruth an elderly c

ouple and Sophia and Luke a young college aged couple. Ira Levinson is in a car accident stuck in an embankment in the snow. He is ninety one years old and having suffered multiple injuries is trapped in his car unable to move. While trapped, he imagines his wife Ruth, who died nine years prior, in the car with him and they remember their life together. Ruth tries to help Ira hang on while they recount how they met, their elaborate painting collections, World War II and how it affected their lives. Although Ira knows Ruth is not actually in the car with him, her words and the memories of their marriage help to keep him alive.

Sophia Danko, a Wake Forest College senior, meets Luke, a young cowboy unlike any guy she has ever met. Luke, a bull rider, shows Sophia a whole new world where she sees how high the stakes can be in Luke’s world between survival and success and ruin and reward. As the two fall in love, Sophia imagines her life with Luke, much different than any she could have imagined, but only if Luke’s secrets don’t derail their relationship. In the end, these two couples lives, with so little in common, come together in a way that none of them could have expected.

The Longest Ride is a touching story about true, lasting love and it helps readers remember what is important in life. Sparks makes his characters easy to fall in love with and get to know because of the way he writes from different characters points of view. Overall, The Longest Ride is a great story by one of my favorite authors.