Off The Shelf --West Media Center
Issue #10
January Must Reads
Kick off 2015 with a brand-new reading list!
The doubt factory by Paolo Bacigalupi
When a radical band of teen activists claim that Alix's powerful father covers up wrongdoing by corporations that knowingly allow innocent victims to die in order to make enormous profits from unsafe products, she must decide if she will blow the whistle on his misdeeds.
2 a.m. at The Cat's Pajamas : a novel by Marie-Helene Bertino
Madeleine is a rebellious nine-year-old and an aspiring jazz singer. Still mourning the death of her mother and caring for her father, she doggedly searches for Philadelphia's legendary jazz club The Cat's Pajamas, where she's determined to make her on-stage debut. Sarina is nervously looking forward to a dinner party that will reunite her with an old high school crush, afraid to hope that sparks might fly again.
Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston (Series: Heart of dread ; book one)
More than a century after a catastrophic disaster wiped out most of humanity and covered much of the earth with ice, fifteen-year-old Cass yields to the voice in her head urging her to embark on a dangerous journey across a poisoned sea to the mythical land, Blue.
Endgame : the calling /bk. 1 by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton
Twelve teens who have prepared their entire lives for an ancient life-or-death game must finally come to terms with its arrival, forming tenuous alliances and killing each other for the chance to be the last one standing and the winner of the ultimate prize: the ability to save a select group of people from the end of the world.
Fat Boy vs. the cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach
When the high school cheerleading team takes over a soda vending machine's funds, which were previously collected by the pep band, Gabe Johnson, an overweight "band geek" tired of being called names and looked down on, declares war.
Grandmaster : a novel by David Klass
A father-son chess tournament reveals the dark side of the game.
Prince Lestat by Anne Rice (Series: Vampire chronicles)
The vampire world is in crisis. Vampires are proliferating out of control and a strange Voice has awakened the Old Vampires, sending them on killing sprees in major cities around the world to destroy the maverick vampires. As Louis, Armand, David Talbot, the Talamasca, and others try to discover the source of the Voice, Lestat, the vampire rebel, is conspicuously absent.
The underground girls of Kabul : in search of a hidden resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg
Foreign correspondent, Jenny Nordberg, reveals the secret Afghan custom of disguising girls as boys to improve their prospects, discussing its political and social significance as well as the experiences of its practitioners.
Undecided : navigating life and learning after high school by Genevieve Morgan
Offers vocational guidance, brainstorming activities, and journal exercises to high school graduates who are undecided about a career path, discussing the various available options including training programs, community college, military service, four-year universities, and gap years
Boy on ice : the life and death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch
Discusses the life and death of professional hockey player, Derek Boogaard.
Through my eyes by Tim Tebow, with Nathan Whitaker
One of the best quarterbacks in the history of college football traces his path to success, discussing his childhood as the son of Christian missionaries and how his faith combined with his drive to succeed have made him the person he is today.
This is how it ends by Jen Nadol
After Riley and his friends see some disturbing visions through a mysterious pair of binoculars, they soon realize these hallucinations are coming true, especially when one of Riley's closest friends becomes the prime suspect of a gruesome murder.