Jumping the Scratch ~ Sarah Weeks

Do you ever get the feeling that whenever something bad happens, there are worse things to come? Well that was what Jamie Reardon assumed when his cat Mister died and his father left his mother for another woman. Most importantly, his aunt Sapphy had a huge accident in the cherry factory that caused her to be unable to store new memories. She was like a scratched record that kept on repeating the same line over and over again, but unlike everybody else, Jamie wanted to help his aunt "Jump the scratch" and carry on with her life.

Unfortunately there is one more bad thing in store for Jamie-something he'd give anything to be able to forget, and this one leaves himself feeling like a complete stranger in the world. One of Jamie's neighbors is a girl in his class called Audrey. She is smart like him, and slowly they become friends. She said that she could hypnotize people, and he wondered whether she could help him with forgetting his secret. However, thinking about what happened to him just made him want to tell someone else about it.

Jamie tries in vain to find the magic trigger that would help Sapphy's memory 'Jump the scratch', like the needle on her favourite Frank Sinatra record, but in the end it is aunt Sapphy and Audrey who helps him unravel the mysteries of memory and jump the scratch in his own life. Jamie never thought that Jamie's horrible secret would be the key for his aunt to jump the scratch as well.

I would recommend this book to anybody from the age of eleven to one hundred and one because it will completely soften your heart and let you know what bad luck really is!

This miraculous book tells a story of a young teenage boy who has gone through a lot of obstacles to overcome what he has gone through. I found this book very interesting and memorable. The part of the book is that you find out what Jamie's horrible secret is at the very end of the book. This develops a cool twist that leaves your mind spinning. Want to know the ugly secret Jamie has to lock up in his heart and cover? Want to know why he would do anything to forget it? There is only one way you can find out. Read the book and uncover his heart-breaking story!

Inti Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

When Jon Krakauer, the narrator, had finally reached the summit of Mt. Everest successfully. On May 10, 1996, his teammates hadn't sleep for at least fifty-seven hours and they were all tormented by effects of oxygen depletion.

Therefore, this disaster ended with a disaster where his teammates perished one after another. How could Jon Krakauer manage to survive through this freezing inferno to tell the story?

The quote that I liked the best within this book is the following: "Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet..." In this quote, the author used strong imagery like magnets to attract the readers into the story. Therefore, it makes you feel like if you are just standing beside the narrator also starring into the vastness.

This author's style of informing story is more than just story-telling. It is also pulling the readers into the actually place where you can feel your skin getting ripped by the coldness of Mt. Everest or the brain-altering effects of lack of oxygen.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The kite runner, a book about friendship, family and trust but at the same time about hostility, salvation and betrayal. One decision, one betrayal, was all it took to destroy everything.

This story portrays the life of Amir, who grew up in Afghanistan. Showing a series of events, it shows how Amir's life totally messes up just because of a few minor changes that could have gone in an better way. More importantly it shows the one fatal mistake Amir did - to betray his best friend. Things went for the worse and Amir regretted forever for what he had done, however in his 30s an old friend of him called on the phone and said the following words, "There is a way to be good again." Read the book to find out what happens.

This book shows the beautiful side of something as well as the dark side; it showed the kind and loving Amir as well as the traitor deep within him; the friendly Afghanistan and the hostile Afghanistan it became; the love and friendship of humanity contrasted to the hate and discrimination.