Book recommendations

Legend

“I have read a book called "Legend" by Marie Lu. The book is about a boy named Day and a girl named June, they live two completely different lives and they don´t know each other in the beginning. June is trained to be a agent and Day is a poor kid that´s being chased that´s wanted in the whole country for murder. All the teenagers in the country have to do a test that will decide their future. If they fail the test, they will be send to labs as lab rats. If they pass the test they will have a future in the society. Day is one of the that failed the test and June is the first one to get full pot on the test. Day is send to a lab and June is being train to be a elite spy. Day escapes the lab and gets accused of murder on Junes brother. June is send to find Day, she gets in a fight and Day saves her. After that they start to know each other and June do not think that Day killed her brother.

I think the book was good and it was kind of hard to stop reading once you got in to it. I would give the book 4 stars out of 5 because I did not think that the theme in the book was as good as it could have been. I recommend this book to people that don’t have a big intrest of reading books and don’t like hard read books.”

André Johansson. Peer corrected by Mina Englund, Ella Haglund and Ture Rosén. EKES15

Holes

This book is about Stanley Yelnats he got sent to camp green lake for something he didn’t do. The camp is not a regular camp is a place where u send bad boys and make them good by digging holes in the hot sun.

At camp green lake the warden makes them build character by digging holes five feet wide and five feet deep every day. Soon Stanley finds out is not just about digging holes it is almost like they are searching for something.

Stanley makes friends and he also gets the nickname “Caveman” there is one odd and mysterious boy that Stanley wants to figure out and that’s Zero. And soon enough he gets the chance.

It is full of adventure and questions had me up at night trying to figure everything out. I also enjoyed that there was a story, behind a story, behind a story and they all fit together like a puzzle.

I recommend this book because it has a good structure, not to revealing but still very interesting and the more you read the more you understand.

Arsen Tuganov. Peer corrected by Gustav Lind, Selihom Berhane, and Hugo Norlin. EKES15

The secret life of bees – Sue Monk Kidd

The book is about Lily who is running away from home with her housekeeper Rosaleen. They run away to the Pink house to found out what happend to Lilys mother. They run away because Lily think that her father is lying about her mother’s death and tired of being bullied by her own father.

Lily is a very interesting person because she is so curious about things and is not scared to take hold of that she wants to know about.

The story was well written and I just wanted to turn pages. I don't have a favortite part of the book beacuse I thought the whole book were lovely. It both maked me lught and cry.

The end of the book was very dramatic. Lilys father showes up at the pink house and want to bring Lily home. But he is not acting normal at all.

I reccommend this book to people who is in pretty good at english becuase it is a rather hard reading and content. But I think everyone who has the possibility needs to read it.

Ella Haglund. Peer corrected by André Johansson Mina Englund, and Ture Rosén. EKES15

Precious

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire is a book about a overweight girl named Precious who got pregnant 2 times with her dad and her mother beats her because she ``had sex with her husband´´ and the mother treats her like a slave. The mother doesn’t think the school is good for her, Precious should just be home with her mother and be like a slave for her. The first time she got pregnant she was 12 years old and got a child with downs syndrome. The second child she got with her dad, she was 16 years old and got kicked out from her school because she was pregnant. Eventually it all will change when she got invited to an alternative school there she learns to write, read and knew some new friends and a nice teacher that will help her to stand up her self.

This book can really make you think a different way about the society because you can see how some people are living and after you have read this book it makes you thankful for all that you have and the nice people in your life. I really liked this book because it makes a really deep impression because she is fighting for her dreams in the darkest days their people are trying to bring her down and destroy her dreams. That’s the reason till why I would recommend this book to older teenagers and adults. The language in this book can be a bit strange because the characters are using many slang words so sometime you have to stop and think about that they really mean.

Gustav Lind. Peer corrected by Hugo Norlin, Selihom Berhane, and Arsen Tuganov. EKES15

The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

Sherman Alexie´s novel “The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian” is a book about an Indian teenage boy who lives a pretty tough life in an Indian reservation with poverty and alcoholics parents.  Arnold also called “junior” realised that he has to leave the reservation to get a decent education and he does it, he starts a new life in a school in Reardan twenty-two miles far away with only “white humans”. When he is traveling between the Indian reservation and Reardan he starts to feel like a “Part time Indian”, if you read this book you will have a funny time to see how this will end.

This is the funniest and saddest book I have ever read on the same time because it so sad so it gets funny. The book feels like a conversation between you and your best friend and because he makes you really got in to the book, and its help you to remind the book much better.

First of all, I will recommend this book to some teenage boys mainly because I don´t think that this is a sort of girl humour in this book, but if you’re a girl and you have this sort of humour it will be perfect. And then I can really recommend this book for someone that have hard to understand the whole story of a book and then write a book report, it´s a pretty easy language and funny on the same time.

I would like to end this book recommendation to say that if you would read a funny book and have a pretty language and also learn lots of new words and sentences on Engĺish choose this one i promise you will not regret you.

Hugo Norlin. Peer corrected by Gustav Lind, Selihom Berhane, Arsen Tuganov. EKES15

Perks of being a wallflower

The perks of being a wallflower is a story wich is sad, funny, romantic and dramatic. It’s about Charlie, a shy boy who starts his freshman year of high school without any friends and no one to sit next at lunch. At a football game he meets Patrick and his step sister Sam, who immediately befriends him. They’re both cool outsiders who go their last year and always goes to parties with drugs and alcohol. They show him cool music, like The Smiths, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He gets new friends : Mary Elisabeth, Bob, Alice and Brad. Charlie enjoys it all until his mental issues starts to haunt him and he no longer can hide his  feelings for Sam.

The drama escalates when Sam starts dating a college guy and Charlie dates Sams best friend Elisabeth even though he doesn’t have any real feelings for her. The drama tears on Charlie, and his mental health becomes worse and worse. He get into fights and accidentally kisses Sam at a party even though she doesn’t want to. He helps Patrick and his sister keep big secrets and at last he  finds all of this hard to keep within him by himself. Everything reveals itself when Charlie has a serious mental breakdown and ends up in the hospital.

This book suits you if you like a bit more of a complex story about young adults. I'd say it's best for people aged 15 and older because the language can be a bit difficult and some scenes have mature content. 

Linnéa Kårström. Peer corrected by Saskia Wickihalder Pettersson, Nellie Rönnqvist, and Emilia Bengtsson. EKES15

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green's book The Fault in Our Stars is about teenagers who have cancer. Sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster had cancer that has spread to her lungs and she is going to die. She has to live with an oxygen tank attached to her nose. She got it when she was just 13 years old. She's in a Support Group with other teenagers with cancer. One day, Hazel meets a 17-year old guy named Augustus Waters. Augustus has been free from cancer fourteen mounths but he lost his leg because of it. They start to hang out and fall in love after a few weeks.

I think that Hazel is my favorite character because she's so nice to everyone and she does everything her parents told her to do. She is smart and careful. I like Augustus, too, because he's so sweet to Hazel. We got to know they two so much in the book. I think my favorite part in the book was when they were in Amsterdam. They met Hazels favorite author and Augustus tells Hazel that he is in love with her. 

I recommend this book for older teenagers or adults because it can be hard to understand the pain in it. People who like the perfect defination of love and relationship drama should read it. The book is like a heartbreaker. It is filled with so much emotion at the same time. The book is so good and you can't stop reading it when you started. It is both funny and exciting. You will not regret if you read it, you will both laugh and cry.

I wish the ending never happened because it is so awful. I hoped that the romance between Hazel and Augustus would be bigger and longer.

Mina Englund. Peer corrected by André Johansson, Ella Haglund and Ture Rosén. EKES15

Holes

Louise Sachar’s novel Holes is mainly about Stanley Yelnats that was sent to a youth detention camp on the grounds of being accused of stealing a very expensive and unique pair of shoes. The 16-year-old boy is in fact innocent but the warden does not care and all the kids at the camp gets punished by digging holes out in the hot desert.

At the camp he gets to know some of the other kids and at first they are not very friendly but throughout the story they get closer and closer to each other. Further along in the book they realise that digging the holes is not just for punishment but also because the warden is in fact looking for something that is hidden under the ground, and this is where the book really becomes exciting. Another big part of the book is about Stanley and his friends trying to escape the youth detention camp without getting caught by the evil warden.

I would recommend this book mainly to youths because almost all of the main characters are youths and I think you recognise yourself better if you are “one of them”. Not only are there many youths but the language is also youthful which fits right in. With youthful language I refer to slang words like “u” instead of “you” and so on. I liked this book because there was almost always something up so you never got tired of it and you had to keep reading. I think this book is read worthy and would recommend it to teenagers who likes mystery, crime and fiction.  

Eric Baumeister. Peer corrected by Nellie Rosén, Tilda Lindström, and Erik Bernhardsson. EKES15

Me before you

Jojo Moyes novel ”Me Before You” is a love story and a family story about Lousia Clark, a 26-year-old girl who lives a small village together with her parents . When the café Louisa works on closes down she has to find a new job. At the job center they offer her a job as a carer. Her patient is Will Traynor, a man who got paralyzed after being hit by a motorcycle. When Lousia steps in to his life he is pretty miserable, he refuses to accept his condition and he makes it hard for her to help him. As the book proceeds Will and Louisa´s relationship grows stronger and they get closer to each other. It might sound like this is a typical love story but there is a catch. Will has made a choice, he has decided to live for only the next six months.

I recommend this novel to both adults and teenagers. It is an extraordinary book that is really important for the community. I promise that everyone who reads it will love it.

Nellie Rönnqvist. Peer corrected by Saskia Wickihalder Pettersson, Linnéa Kårström, and Emilia Bengtsson. EKES15

Belzhar

”Belzhar” is about a girl named Jamaica who is called Jam. Jam fell in love with Reeve Maxfield, a british boy who also fell in love with Jam. Everything was fine in her life until Reeve Maxifield died. Jam’s world fell apart and she didn’t know how to deal with her life anymore. She got in to a therapeutic boarding school called ”The Wooden Barn ”. It was a school for ”sensitive” student’s who has gone through alot or is in a sort of depression. In ”The Wooden Barn” there is a class called ’’Special Topics of English”. Jam and five other kids had been signed up to this class without their permission. Everyone in the class got a old journal with blank pages to write their thoughts in. This journal was magical and took these students to another universe, were there was no sorrow or greaf.

A person that is going through or had a rough time in their life should definitely read this book. Also people who hasn’t had a depression or a rough time should read this book, beacause this book has a really good story and it is an easy book to like and enjoy. You get a good understanding of the characters in the book because they are described with such many details. I really liked how Meg Wolitzer wrote this book, and think that everyone should read it. This book is very unique.

Saskia Wickihalder Pettersson. Peer corrected by Nellie Rönnqvist, Linnéa Kårström, and Emilia Bengtsson. EKES15

Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot is a book about a boy named Billy. He lives with his family in a small town in England. His has one brother tony, his father Jackie and his grandmother witch he calls nanny. They live together without belly’s mother because she has passed away.

Billy used to box for sport and did dent quite enjoy doing it because he was doing it to make his father happy. But one-day billy tries ballet with some girls that practise near his boxing ring. And from that day his curiosity and interest in ballet grows step by step and he faces life changing experiences.

This book is very easy to read even though I found its English very rare because the characters in the book word like “nanny” for grandmother or “mi mam” for my mother.

The story in this book is very riveting and keeps you interested because it isn’t hard to relate to it. That’s why I can freely recommend this book to any one unless you’re living in realty that pleases you in every way. I rate this book 8.5 out of 10. 

Selihom Berhane. Peer corrected by Gustav Lind, Arsen Tuganov, and Hugo Norlin. EKES15

Me before you 

Me before you, written by Jojo Moyes, is about a girl named Louisa Clark who lives a boring life with a boring boyfriend. One day she lost her job at the cafe because the owner decided to shut it down. She’s a twenty-six-year-old girl who lives at home with her mom, dad and her grandpa. The family is not so wealthy so Louisa wants to get a new job so that she can provide for her family. She gets a job as a personal carer for a paralyzed man who´s wheelchair bound. 

Will Traynor is a man who lived his dream life, he had the perfect job and the girl he thought he had always dreamed of until one day when his life turned upside down. What he doesn't know is that one girl is going to change his life. 

This book is for you if you really like love stories and even though it looks like a difficult book to finish it isn't. 

Nellie Rosén. Peer corrected by Tilda Lindström, Eric Baumeister, and Erik Bernhardsson. EKES15

The Notebook

The Notebook is written by Nicholas Spark. The book is about forbidden love between a girl and a boy. It starts with the boy Noah returning home from World War 2 and he is still thinking about his teenage-love Allie. He Is now 32 years old and still he hasn’t let her go, what he doesn’t know is that she hasn’t let go of him either. Their love was so powerful and nothing could tear them apart until one day when Allie was forced to move to another town and the couple had to break up. Later in the book Allie shows up at Noah´s house and wants to meet him again. But still they can´t be together because Allie is engaged. They both feel so happy when they are together and when they are alone they feel like something is missing.

I like this book because it is a great love story, I became touched and had difficult to stop reading it. The author described everything in the book very good so you understand everything.

I would recommend this book for people who likes love stories and wants to read an easy and short book.

Tilda Lindström. Peer corrected by Nellie Rosén, Eric Baumeister, and Erik Bernhardsson. EKES15

The boy in the striped pyjamas

The main character in the book is a nine-year-old boy named Bruno. Him and his family live in Berlin back in the 1940´s, during the time when Adolf Hitler was active. Bruno´s father is a Nazi commandant, and works for Hitler. And one day, that leads to the fact that the whole family has to move to Auschwitz, and leave everything behind. What no one in the family but the father knows, is that their house in Auschwitz actually lies very close to a concentration camp for Jews.

When they move to their big house with an amazingly enormous garden, Bruno is told that there are certain places where he absolutely can not go. Strangely, he is at no time told why. As Bruno just has left all of his friends back in Berlin, he obviously wants to make new ones. Like any normal nine-year-old boy would. And the fact that Bruno really likes to explore new things does not help the situation. While he explores the forbidden area he finds the concentration camp. And he meets Schmuel there as well. Although they have to talk through the fence all the time, they become truly admirable friends. The story continues from there, and different dilemmas and situations occur along the way.

I would probably recommend this book to teenagers and adults, simply because of the fact that there are some unpleasant scenes in the book that are inappropriate for children. Also you have to know a little bit about what happened back in the 1940´s when Adolf Hitler was active and how the situation was between the Nazi’s and the Jews, otherwise it would be kind of difficult to understand certain moments in the book. But on the other hand, some people may argue that the book is a good way to learn about that time. I think that you at least should know some basic facts before you read it, but there are also some things that you learn from the book either way. For example, you get to know what it was like to be a German family during this tragic time. I assume that when people talk about the tragedy that was ongoing back then today, the common subject is about how horrible it was for the Jews because so many of them were killed. Which is not a weird fact, due to that it undoubtedly was horrid. Although what many people forget is that this was an awful time for the German families as well. As you read the book, you put yourself more and more into their situation. Which I think is a good reason why you should take your time to read it. I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading it really much. And I usually do not get entertained by reading a book. Often I find it kind of uninteresting. Simply because of the fact that I feel like there are funnier things to do then just to be inside and read a book. Personally I would much rather go outside and do something else. But it genuinely was different with this book, by reason of that it catches you the second that you start reading. I certainly believe that this is a book that the majority of the people can appreciate. That is the reason why I am telling you to read “The boy in the striped pyjamas”!                      

Ture Rosén. Peer corrected by Mina Englund, Ella Haglund and André Johansson. EKES15

Girl Missing

This book is about a little girl called Martha Lauren. Lauren was originally from America and kidnapped from her biological parents by a women called Sonia, when she was three years old. Afterwards she was adopted by a Londoner family. As soon as Lauren she grew up, started asking questions about her birth family, however her adoptive parents told her that she is not entitled to know, who her parents were due to her closed adoption.

As a result of that Lauren decided to find her real parents by any means without any help from her adoptive parents. But she instead asked a helping hand her close friend Jam. Both Lauren and Jam traveled to America to get to know who Laurens' real parents were. There in America Jam and Lauren got hosted by Sonia several times. Sonia tried to kill the teens every chance she got but fortunately they got a helping hand from an outsider.

This book is one of Sophie McKenzie’s best books ever and it won lot of awards in 2007 and 2008. Some memorable awards are Manchester Book 7award, Red House Children’s book for Older Readers and more. This novel is most interesting book I have ever read and it is also very easy to read. I feel this book is suitable for anyone who can read English. This thriller is for you if you are somebody who wants to know about love, friendship, how adopted child may think or what they may do. So do not wait go, grab the book and enjoy reading it.

Abdala Mohamed. Peer corrected by Aho Miro. NATE15

The Hunger Games

The hunger games is the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy. The books is about the main character Katniss Everdeen who lives with her mother, hers sister Prim and their lazy cat Buttercup in district 12. Her dad died years ago in an accident in a cave. District 12 is a very poor district so Kantiss learnt to shoot with a bow when her dad lived so now when he is dead she is the one who supply the family with food that she hunt down.

Every year shall 1 young woman and 1 man from every district raffled out to compete in the hunger games where only 1 man or woman can walk out alive and everything is direct broadcast live so the districts can see how it goes. It is the 74th year the hunger games is live and Katniss sister Prim was the chosen one but Katniss is getting voluntary instead of Prim together with Peeta the baker’s son.

I think it was very worth to read the book because it has more than only one theme. It got almost everything, from love to action and it’s never a quiet time. It’s happening something everytime and everywhere even outside the game and when you read the book it’s almost like you are a character in the book and you think you know everything about for example Katniss. When you see the cover of the book you don’t really know that there is going to be alot of blood and murder in the book mixed up with love and heartbreaking moments.

The book is definitely a science fiction book mixed up with a lot of drama and some thriller and i think the books story is very unlikely to happend because it’s very unrealistic that the government would like to see young women and men fight for their life only because the government needs to show who is in charge and have the power. Although the book is very unreal I think it’s a very good book and there are 2 more books to read so I look forward to read the other books to because the ending was really exciting and you really want to know how to book will continue.

Aksel Burman. Peer corrected by Kevin Hedberg, Simon Magnusson, and Ahmed Qutati. NATE15

Before I Die

This is a story about 16-year-old Tessa who makes a list with the headline Before I Die. Tessa knows that she is going to die since she suffers from leukaemia, therefore she makes up a list of the most important things she wants to experience and achieve during her remaining time on earth. To help her with that, she has her best friend Zoey by her side, and together they try out the things they are so curious about.

This book has a message to appreciate the small things in life, like a hug or just a simple ”hello”. Tessa does not take her life for granted anymore, and that is what you are going to be taught in this book. To live by a list is not living, living is the small everyday things that we usually do not reflect over.

I thought that the story was kind of a cliché since it started very sad and tragically, and then it turned into a love-story instead. If those are the kind of themes you like I would absolutely recommend it. On the other hand, I thought it was a bit prolonged and in that way it became boring and I lost focus while reading it. The one part I actually really enjoyed was the ending, it was touching but also beautiful. It was a perfect balance of love and grief that made me calm, unlike the rest of the book that included too many negative thoughts which made me as a reader almost become downbeat.

My conclusion is that I recommend this book if you want to get a very naked and true sight of life. I also think the reader should be around fifteen years to be able to understand all parts brought up.

Alma Swärdh. Peer corrected by Lisa Nordahl, and Wilma Schlömer. NATE15

Darkside

“Darkside” by Tom Becker is a children’s novel about two boys named Jonathan and Ricky. They have both difficult lives considering that Jonathan has a very sick father and Ricky has a tough time in school because of the other students is picking on him.
One day, Ricky and Jonathan, ends up in a dark world within London called Darkside. A world full of vampires, werewolves, thieves, murderers and famous characters like Jack the ripper.

Ricky and Jonathan are both rare to the darksiders for being “half darksiders - half lightsiders” and they are being haunted by a bounty hunter from Darkside. During the time in Darkside they are trying to figure out their problems that they’ve caused, and how to get back to their real world.

I found this book very breath taking and very detailed explained which made it easy to picture the environment and situation the characters experienced. I recommend this book to first of all young teenagers but also adults, and specially to those who likes classic fantasy stories. I found this book quite easy to read and as earlier mentioned it was very detailed explained and that made it more interesting.

The book also had a very good structure considering that you first get to read a bit about Ricky and after Jonathan and how they manage to get into Darkside etc. But basically two stories told, and then see how these two stories ends up into one when Jonathan and Ricky first meet each other within Darkside and together trying to cooperate to get out of Darkside safe.

The good story encourages me to keep on reading this book. The characters felt real and was well introduced. I liked how the characters change later in the story for example how Ricky first seemed very insecure and at the end being more daring. Same goes with the werewolf Carnegie who did not care to much about Jonathan in the beginning but finds out that he knows Jonathan’s father and then takes on the responsibility of Jonathan because he thinks he have to. But during the time with each other Carnegie starts to grow quite fond of him instead.

I’d give this book 4 out of 5. It was not perfect and some parts were a bit predictable, but still a very good book worth reading.

Axel Andersson. Peer corrected by Cecilia Hamstedius, Nils Axelsson, Filip Stenegren, and Lovisa Edblad. NATE15

Me before You

A heartbreaking yet lovely story

If you want to cry your heart out and smile while doing it, then this might be the book for you. I chose to recommend Me before You because it is one of the few books which has brought me to tears.

Me before you is a sweet story about how friendship and love can change your life. The book revolves around Louise “Lou” Clark. She is in her twenties and still living at home, since her family needs both her support and her income. Her family consists of her confused grandpa, her unemployed father, her mother who takes care of everyone and her older sister, who also has a baby boy.

When Lou loses her job she can see how her life, which already is quite unstable, now will fall apart completely. She desperately needs a job. This is where Will joins the story. Will is a few years older than Lou and bound to a wheelchair. He lost the will to live at the same time as he lost the ability to use his body. Will’s parents decide to hire Lou as his keeper, but in fact it is more because he needs a friend.

At first Lou hates Will. He is negative and do not want to see anything outside his own house. Will himself is not fond of the situation either. Lou is too cheerful and insecure at the same time. But as time goes by they both give each other a chance. They realise that friendship can be found and maybe they will find even more...

I recommend Me before You to anyone who loves romantic novels. The language is easy to understand, even if English not is your first language. It is easy to relate to Lou’s life and it feels good to move your thoughts to the English countryside for a while, where this story takes place. I believe this book will be a modern classic, since it already has spread worldwide.

Jojo Moyes has written several books in the same genre and this summer Me before you will premiere on cinemas all over the world.

Lisa Nordahl. Peer corrected by Wilma Schlömer, and Alma Swärdh. NATE15

Blacklands

18 years ago a boy disappeared and was never found, even though the murderer confessed the killings. The boy was the main character Steven’s uncle, and Steven is now determined to find the body of his uncle. When he and his friend starts digging for the body on the local moor without any luck, they decide that they need more than just luck to solve the case. But to do this a big risk has to be taken.

Steven decides to play with his fate and writes a letter to the murderer asking about help. The murderer writes back and tells Steven that he does not know where the body is, and that he wants to be left alone. But little does Steven know, a cat and mouse game between the two has just begun.

This thriller offers a deep, developing story from both the main character and the murderers perspective that often will make you wonder what happens next. I think that this makes the book a lot better, since it gives it a more realistic feeling to the characters. At some points the book is quite slow, but once the story develops towards the middle, it makes you want to read more. The way that Steven develops from a normal boy to someone with courage who is eager to find out the truth is told in an excellent way.

If you like dark and mysterious stories, I would definately recommend this book to you, and even if you don't, I would still recommend it, since the character developments are great, and the way that the story is told from two perspectives makes the book twice as good. This book suits teenagers just as good as it suits adults. Even though I'm not a big reader myself, I still thought that it was worth the read, simply because I enjoy these types of stories and because of the way that it was written.

Simon Magnusson. Peer corrected by Kevin Hedberg, Aksel Burman and Ahmed Qutati. NATE15

The Other Woman

In The Other Woman by Jane Green you get to follow Ellie Black, a young woman with big dreams about her future as a result from her broken childhood. Her mother died when she was only thirteen years old and her relationship with her father has not been the best ever since. It is easy to think that The Other Woman” involves a mistress but I got to know very quickly that “the other woman” is her boyfriend Dan’s mother.

The first time Ellie meets Dan’s parents, Linda and Michael, she is thrilled that she finally has found the family she always dreamed about. Time flies by and when Ellie and Dan become engaged and the wedding plans begins, Ellie starts to realize that Linda is not the mother-in-law she once thought. Is it really normal for a mother to call her thirty-five years old son twice a day or show up, uninvited, in their apartment a Sunday morning at seven o’clock? When Ellie additionally becomes pregnant, Linda will not leave her alone for one minute. Since Dan is her first child, she has a hard time letting him live his own life. The relationship between Ellie and Linda becomes more like a competition about Dan’s attention so Ellie makes him choose one of them. Will it be Ellie or his mother?

Jane Green has succeeded once again with a fantastic novel, heart-warming and heart-wrenching at the same time. It was an eventful and interesting novel so it was hard to put it away and therefore I always wanted to know what was coming next. Even though it is fictional, The Other Woman made me feel like I knew the characters and it was easy to imagine their daily life because of Ellie’s very describing narrative voice.

I find her books very funny and I really liked that the novel gave flashbacks from the present. The book is adapted to adults but I think that older teenagers could easily understand it because of the tame language. It is a novel I really can recommend for the young adults who is looking for novels about love combined with a bit of drama.

Cecilia Hamstedius. Peer corrected by Axel Andersson, Nils Axelsson, Filip Stenegren, and Lovisa Edblad. NATE15

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars is a story about a terminal cancer patient named Hazel Grace who meets another cancer survivor named Augustus Waters at a support group. The two become fast friends and decide to travel to Europe to visit their mutual favourite author.

The way the book is written is in a very personal and relateable way. The first half is more lighthearted and the second half is more melancholic. The difference in tone is very noticeable. But even though it dealt with heavy themes such as life and death, it still manages to find its way to humour.

This book contains a lot of interesting symbolism such as drowning, where Hazel has water in her lungs and experience shortness of breath but also feels drowned by the reality of her life. One of the most prominent themes in the book is the fear of nothingness. Augustus very often talks about how he is afraid of just going away forever and dying young, and because of this he wants to accomplish something before he dies.

A story like this is always going to be very character-driven and this book really manages to create memorable characters. Hazel in particular feels genuine and she is fleshed-out as a protagonist should be. The Fault in Our Stars is narrated by Hazel and the narration is very descriptive. The side characters which include Isaac, the author which the two visit, the parents among others have a fairly minimal role as the focus is on Hazel and Augustus.

Although this book is about two cancer survivors it never feels like a story about surviving cancer but rather something of a coming-of-age story. Hazel matures a lot troughout the story and the character development is interesting to read.

To summarize: I’d recommend this book to people of most ages. It’s easy to read and contains elements which most people could find interesting.

Edvin Basic. Peer corrected by Alexandre Bezobrazov, Sebastian Jandrén, and Moa Näsman. NATE15

The Way Of Shadows

Brent Week´s book The Way Of Shadows is about a young boy named Azoth who lives in the slums with his two friends Doll Girl and Jarl. Azoth is constantly tired of never being able to stand up for his friends because he is too weak to do anything. Azoth aspires to become a wetboy, an assassin with special powers, so he can become strong enough to never be afraid ever again. He wants to be trained by the best wetboy in town, Durzo Blint. But Durzo is known for never taking any apprentices. So Azoth needs to do something drastic to impress Durzo.

This is the first book in the trilogy The Night Angel so this book is mostly about Azoths´ training to become a wetboy and a lot about the characters backstories so you get to know who they are. So it is not so much action in this book but it is still a pretty exciting book because there are a bunch of key events in it.

I would recommend this book to everybody who is as good as me at understanding english or better because the english is pretty hard to understand, even I sometimes had a hard time understanding the english but I often figured it out through context. But I think that you need to be the age range of 16 and higher because the book is pretty dark so younger people might not like it as much as older people and if you are 16 you should be able to understand this books english.

This books storyline expands over roughly 14 years so you get to see how the characters change through the book. I love how you can see that Azoth changes from a boy who cares about his friends to a man who works only as a weapon and would kill anybody to survive. The book is told by an omniscient narrator and it jumps back and forth a lot between the main story and side stories so there is a lot of names to keep track of but the story still felt coherent.

I found it difficult to care about the character Durzo Blint at first in this book because he was always pretty mean towards everybody and at first he seemed to only care about himself. later on he started opening up and you could see that he actually cared about other people even though he did not show it in a normal way he still showed it in his own way. That is why Durzo Blint is easily my favorite character in the book.

A thing that I think could be better with this book is that there is nearly more about the side stories than the main story in this book and I enjoyed the main story a lot more than the side stories so it was a little bit of a let-down when they changed from the main story to the side stories. But it was pretty good too because I got really eager to get to the main story again so while I was reading the side stories the tension built up until I got to the main story again.

To summarize I would recommend this book for teenagers and people who like the assassin/fantasy genre that has a dark story. This is by far the best book I have ever read, I remember how I stayed up way after my bedtime just because I could not stop turning the pages. Personally I would give this book a 10/10!

Erik Jonsson. Peer corrected by Jens Josefsson, and Hampus Nyström. NATE15

The Book Thief

One girl, one war, one family. That is the main subjects in the book The Book Thief which is a novel written by Markus Zusak.

The year is 1939 and Death is standing above a little boy on a train on its way to Munich, he carefully takes the boy´s spirit in his arms when he sees a little girl, Liesel hanging over the boy. When the train comes to Munich and the funeral for the little brother is over she at last get to meet her new foster parents and her new life starts with, stealing books, learning to read and hiding a Jewish fist fighter. The little girl who later will be known as The Book Thief.

Liesel is a very funny and kind person who you really get to know in the book, it feels afterwards that she is a real person and you cannot really understand that it is no way for you to meet her in real life.

While I think almost everyone over the years of twelve could read this book because of the tame language I would still recommend this to the older teenagers or the younger adults because I think that they are the ones who will get the most of the book when it sometimes can be a little bit deep. You also need to have the capacity to keep track of the things that happens when the smallest of things can lead to a really big thing in the ending. I also think that the older readers, the adults would find this entertaining when it is a different perspective of the second world war that not many have thought of. The book is very much about the world war two and because of that the genre can be said is war but in another way I would say it is not a war book because very little in the book is about the real war but everything that happens, happens because of the war.

I love this book and think that it is almost perfect, the only thing I think can be a little bit confusing about the book is that, so many things happen that it feels like it has many strands that do not really come together at the end. But in some way I also feel like it should be like that and it is yourself who needs to think of a way the strands go to so at the end they will come together.

Linnéa Linde. Peer corrected by Ida Wahlund, Mumtaz Abdrizack, and Simon Hägerlind.

Belzhar

Belzhar is a story about sorrow and love. The book was written by the New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer and it is inspired by the famous author Sylvia Plath. Throughout the book you get to follow a girl named Jam Gallahue and her journey to accept the loss of her beloved boyfriend Reeve Maxfield.

Her parents decide to send her to The Wooden Barn, a school for teenagers that are suffering from grief, as a last resort. At The Wooden Barn she gets selected to a class called Special Topics in English where there’s only four other students. Their teacher, who is a mysterious elderly woman named Mrs Quenell, gives them a diary in which they are supposed to write in once a week. At first they are suspicious but when they decide to give it a go they realise that it’s not an ordinary diary. For when they write in it, they get to another place, a place where Jam can be with her beloved Reeve again, and that place is called Belzhar. But as soon as they’ve filled up the diary they won’t be able to go back to Belzhar, and as we get to the end you’ll finally know what truly happened to Reeve.

Meg Wolitzer has done a wonderful job writing this book. I can promise you that you will not want to put it away. I would highly recommend this book for those of you who are into fantasy, loves love stories and enjoy a good plot twist in the end.

Lovisa Edblad. Peer corrected by Axel Andersson, Nils Axelsson, Filip Stenegren, and Cecilia Hamstedius. NATE15

Pride and Prejudice

A novel by Jane Austen

With the statement "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Begins the truly amazing novel by Jane Austen. The general idea of the book is about the struggles on the way of the Bennet sisters to find a husband so this statement describes the story perfectly.

The story focuses on the Bennet sisters and their mother, her biggest wish is to see all of her girls get married. The book concentrates mostly the second oldest sister, Elizabeth and her struggles with the young, rich, quiet and handsome bachelor Mr. Darcy. The proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth develops a rather complicated relationship throughout the book.

They get introduced to one another at a ball hosted by one of the family Bennet’s neighbors. Mr. Darcy is there as company to Mr. Bingley who just moved in to a mansion on the countryside where the Bennets live. Elizabeth gets a terrible first impression of Darcy who comes off as very boring and rude. After their first meeting Elizabeth says that she hopes she´ll never have to speak to him again due to his rude and stuck up nature. But when her older sister and Mr. Bingley falls in love, it is inevitable for Elizabeth to avoid Darcy.

Even though the main theme of the book is romance and drama you can actually relate to a lot of the struggles that the characters have.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is good at reading in English. The language in the book can be quite difficult at times so you will need to have some sort of English skills to really be able to enjoy the story.

Moa Näsman. Peer corrected by Alexandre Bezobrazov, Sebastian Jandrén, and Edvin Basic. NATE15

The Boy in The Striped Pajamas

The book is about a 9-year-old boy named Bruno and his family which consist his father, mother and elder sister that Bruno calls “the hopeless case”. Bruno as a person likes to explore and wants to be an explorer in the future. The family lived in Berlin, Germany until Bruno’s father got promoted from the army and because of that, they moved to a totally different place named Auschwitz. Outside Bruno’s bedroom window in their new house there was a fence and behind that fence there are the strangest people that Bruno have ever seen. By the time Bruno befriends a little boy at the same age named Shmuel, which is one of the strange people behind the fence. Bruno explores why there is more people on the other side of the fence and there he finds out something that changed his way of thinking.

This book was written by the Irish novelist John Boyne and it is the view of a 9-year old boy which is very innocent. The story refers to the friendship of the two young boys during the holocaust and clarifies how the innocence of children remains even in the hardest situations. It also mentions how wives were treated at that time. Personally I would give this book 4/5 in good-reads because it consists only around 215 pages which is very quick to read and what is even better is that you will not face any linguistic problems while reading this book as English non-native speaker.
while I highly recommend this book to history lovers, I would not recommend it for children under 10 years old because it can be quit hard for them to handle the ending.

Mumtaz Abdrizack. Peer corrected by Ida Wahlund, Linnéa Linde, and Simon Hägerlind.

Only a Game?

Only a Game is a book about the life of a pro football player. We get to follow Eamon Dunphy and his team’s progress during a season in Millwall, an English football club that played in the second league during the seventies. The book was written by Eamon himself, a former professional Irish football player, and is based on his own experiences.

Eamon and his team have not been very successful the past few seasons but have still managed to stay in the second league for quite some time. Like most other years, they think that this will be their year, a year where they will finally advance to the Premier League. With a combination of old veterans like Eamon himself and a few new and young players, the squad is excited and have high hopes for the new season.
Unfortunately, things do not turn out the way they had hoped, and the relationship between the players and the coaches are put to the test.

While I personally did not like this book, I could definitely see someone with a bigger interest in football enjoy it. The “diary-style” in which the book is written does not appeal to me, even though I understand the point of it. Following the life of a professional football player day-by-day, every day throughout the whole season gets boring in the long run for someone that does not have a big interest in neither the player himself nor the team.

Over the course of the season, Eamon and the other characters go through a number of changes. Eamon realises that he will not be young forever and that his retirement is getting closer. This changes him and his relationships with the other players in the team when he suddenly has to fight for a spot in the team. This is an example of one of the things I like about Only a Game, the great detail in which each character’s emotions and intentions are described. Combined with the informal language, the detail gives you a personal and first-hand look at the story, which makes it easier to identify yourself with the main character and there is no doubt that the author has been a player himself once.

Despite having a serious and rather depressing feel to it, Only a Game is probably a good read for football fans interested in the life of a professional football player. Eamon Dunphy may not write the most entertaining stories, but they are rich with detail and provide realistic and unique insight into the life of a professional football player.

Nils Axelsson. Peer corrected by Cecilia Hamstedius, Axel Andersson, Filip Stenegren, and Lovisa Edblad. NATE15

The Notebook

Nicholas Spark´s book The Notebook is only one of his many well-known love stories. This love story mainly focuses on the concept of true love conquering all and how the love between two people can be so strong that they are willing to do anything for each other.

The Notebook takes you through the life of a young man named Noah Calhoun and we also get to experience all the situations and events that he goes through. The story takes place in a quiet small southern town in America where Noah lives with his supportive father and works in a lumber mill.

One warm summer a beautiful young woman comes to visit the town with her rich family and Noah soon gets to know her. The young woman´s name Noah had met was Allie Nelson and she was visiting town with her rich family because of the cotton farms they owned in town. Noah and Allie spent the whole summer together and under that time, they fell in love. However, their young love was cut short when her family decided to move back to the city and Noah and Allie were forced to separate.

Years later, Allie sees a photo of Noah in the newspaper and she feels that something inside her was reignited and gets the urge to visit Noah once more. The only problem is, she is already engaged to another man.

One good thing I liked about the book was that Noah often comments on the situations he´s in and expresses how he feels about it. This allows the reader to always know how Noah feels and just makes the character more believable.

I especially loved how the story described the characters very well and that really made me interested and made me care about the characters. They were not just some imaginary character that weren´t real, but actually felt like a genuine person. I also really enjoyed how every chapter in the book ended on an interesting note and this always made me wanting more and continue reading.

I would recommend this book to a more mature audience like teens, young adults or even adults, because of how the book mainly focuses on the subject of love and relationships. I feel that you could relate to most of the events since the characters always felt genuine and real.

Nicholas Sparks is a fantastic book writer that writes great love stories and in my opinion, The Notebook is one of his finest works. This book would suit perfectly for anyone looking for a satisfying read about the effects of true love.

Alexandre Bezobrazov. Peer corrected by Edvin Basic, Sebastian Jandrén, and Moa Näsman. NATE15

A Street Cat Named Bob

‘’reading this should be an obligation’’

James Bowens autographic A street cat named bob contains descriptions of both t James and his cat Bobs lives and the exciting adventures they face on the streets. James found an injured cat, Bob, outside his door and after doubts and thinking he eventually decided to take care of it temporary, or so he thought. James awareness that it was a stupid idea truly existed . More specifically, James was at that point going through a drug treatment which certainly was not simple. However, his doubtful decision turned into something indeed positive as they become good friends.

The book is very inspiring because they are both going through something rough but still manage to stick together. In the beginning James tries helping the cat with its injury. Once it turned better he tried to get rid of it which was impossible. The loyalty from the cat was enormous and he decided therefore, once again after doubts and thoughts, to keep it.

You can easily claim that the cat is the reason of James positive development, which I think is very fascinating. For instance, before they met each other James was very selfish and irresponsible who took, as recently mentioned, heavy drugs like Heroin. Another mentionable fact is that James economy was very bad when they first met. James felt then immediate responsibility when he suddenly had another mouth to feed, which resulted in a change for James maturely and economically as he finally had something to fight for.

In summary, among many other things, James took care of his life and tried forgetting his bad memories because of his cat, Bob.

I refer to those who love animals, reading this book is an obligation, you will not regret it. We all know that animals can affect humans greatly but this particular experience is something special.

Simon Hägerlind. Peer corrected by Mumtaz Abdrizack, Ida Wahlund, and Linnéa Linde. NATE15

Fifty shades of grey

E.L James book Fifty shades of grey is about a girl who is studying English literature named Anastasia Steele. Anastasia is the perfect definition of an ordinary girl, she isn’t ugly, she isn’t extra good looking she isn’t rich or pore, she is mediocre. Anastasia meets the rich, handsome entrepreneur Christian Grey and gets kind of obsessed with him and his power.

Anastasia is a 21 year-old college student at Washington State University in Vancouver. She lives with her best friend Kate in a small apartment. Kate writes the student newsletter and has planned an interview with the rich entrepreneur Christian Grey. Kate gets sick so Anastasia do the interview for Kate and after that all Ana can think of is Christian.

Ana decides to stop thinking about him because she understands that she isn’t going to meet him again until one day when he steps in to her work and needs tape and lace. They talk to each other and decides to meet and take pictures of Christian for the interview. After the photos has been taken Christian asks Ana out to drink coffee. Once there Christian asks Ana a bit of her family but never tell something about himself he acts very mysteriously. Christian asks Ana if she is a romantic person, Ana say that she is and then Christian tells her he can`t do that and walks out of the café. But that isn’t the last time they talk to each-other.

The whole book trough it is like a cat and dog play. Ana wants Grey to fall in love with him and try to do everything so he does but Christian wants to control Ana he wants Ana to be his submissive.

I think the book is good because you all the time wants to know more and more of what is going to happen. If Christian going to fall in love and let go of his control needs or if Anastasia let him use her as a submissive. The book is the first book in a trilogy that all is about Anastasia and Christians relationship. E.L James have also write a book about their relationship trough Christians perspective.

The first book Fifty shades of grey was published 2011

The second book Fifty shades darker was published 2012

The third book Fifty shades freed was published 2012

The book Grey was published 2015

Wilma Schlömer. Peer corrected by Lisa Nordahl, and Alma Swärdh. NATE15

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a novel written by Winston Groom and it is about a man named Forrest Gump. Forrest is not the smartest man alive, he is rather stupid with an IQ of 75. But Forrest loves life and does not think he is stupid. The story is written in first person, in Forrest perspective and it begins with Forrest being a kid in a small town in Alabama called Mobile. There, Forrest starts in school and meets Jennie and he falls in love with her and he is in love with her throughout the book. After he finished school, he serves in the army and goes to Vietnam. After the war he does wrestling, chess, ping pong, goes to the moon, lives in the jungle and he also plays in a band. But throughout the book he does not stop thinking about his lifelong love, Jenny Curran.

The best thing about the book is the way it is written. Forrest is “a idiot” and the book is written exactly how he thinks. The grammar mistakes, the missing letters and the words he gets wrong is written like he says and thinks them. It is a one of a kind book and I really like that about. Forrest Gump really feels like an ordinary, stupid person you could meet everywhere. The story is well told and if you have seen the movie you should definitely read the book. You will read it in the way Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) talks in the movie but you will experience more than just what he did in the movie.

I did not dislike anything particular, the book was really great in every way and the attention to detail was good. There were no flaws in my opinion. I would have liked to have a little more to read about the space program but overall the book was great.

I would recommend the book, as I wrote, to people and youths who is good at reading and have seen the movie. It is more detailed and you will get to know Forrest in a new way. I would rate the book a 9/10 definetly.

Erik Bernhardsson. Peer corrected by Nellie Rosén, Tilda Lindström, and Eric Baumeister. EKES15