Esther's Ever After

I had a student ask me the other day to recommend a book for him to read. I asked him what subjects he liked and he said he didn’t know. I asked what other books he had read that he liked and again he didn’t know. I knew that I was going to be digging deep on this one and trying to figure out the just right book for this guy. He finally decided that he liked fantasy and proceeded to ask me if I knew what the book about “dust” was called. Immediately my brain was searching for a book about dust – hmmm let’s see is it "The Golden Compass"? The student was astonished. He asked me how did I figure that out just by me saying “dust”? Well, I have read the book and love it very much and I know that Lyra is a journey in search of dust. When I read the book a few years ago I was amazed by the cosmic references to dust and how it related so much with my master’s degree in Consciousness Studies which was all about the “dust”. But to my dismay the student did not want to read ...

In "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer, our beloved Bella finally is forced to make the most ultimate and final choice in her life. She and Edward are married in old world style with the help of her true friend Alice. While Bella and Edward are honeymooning Bella begins to feel very ill and their trip is cut short when she feels that there is something growing inside of her. The tension of the story grows as the little "nudge" grows larger and larger itself. The chain of events from this point on lead up to the most amazing transformation I have ever seen in a character. Let’s just say that Bella becomes the main focus of the story and her drive to protect not only Edward and her family but any other vampires that support her family is truly incredible. I have to say that I have heard and read negative reviews of this book and I do not agree with those reviews. I think that "Twilight" fans will find all that they have been waiting for in this final i...

"The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman is one of the most refreshing books I have read in a long time. We begin with an eerie story about how a horrible man murders a family quietly sleeping in their home. However, the man can’t seem to find the baby who has mysteriously slipped out of the house and into the graveyard across the street. When the baby is found by a pair of old married ghosts in the graveyard they decide to raise him and call him Nobody Owens. Now, he must stay in the graveyard because the terrible man named Jack is the one that killed his whole family and he is still after him. At any time he could strike terror in the graveyard. As Nobody grows up he begins to refer to himself as "Bod". Bod has a good time at the graveyard and makes many ghostly friends. He also makes friends with Scarlet who happens to be the exact same age as he is. Sadly, though Scarlet thinks that Bod is a ghost and her parents make her move far away. As time goes on, Bod grows int...

Decapitated doll heads and aliens are the focus in "Carlos Is Gonna Get It" by Kevin Emerson. Trina and her friend Sara are really tired of Carlos and his strange antics. It seems like 6th grade couldn’t get any worse except that it can when Carlos has one of his “Day After” episodes. Trina can usually tell when it’s going to happen right away. Carlos comes into class late and then he starts to fall all over the floor and on top of his classmates. The problem is not that Carlos is so clumsy; no it’s that Carlos says he is visited by aliens at night. This makes the class think he’s so weird that no one wants him near them. Tired of all of the alien talk and crazy outburst, Trina and her friends begin to hatch a plan that they think will teach Carlos a lesson. The plan is to teach Carlos a lesson that he will never forget. Unfortunately, as the plan is being mapped out Trina and Carlos get hooked up as science partners. They are assigned to do an oral presentation on any subjec...

"Falling From Grace" by Jane Godwin in an amazing mystery that will have you on the edge of your seat right from the start. Sisters Grace and Annie are trying to help a dying penguin on the beach at Point Nepean in Australia. Grace and Annie are 11 months apart and for one month out of the year they are the same age so at the time they are both 12. On the other side of the beach 14 year old Kip is dealing with his own issues, his thoughts, his feelings on being a teenager, and then there is this strange man that appears from nowhere. The man says his name is Ted and he’s bleeding and in need of help. These young people’s stories collide when Kip finds a backpack in the water with a ringing cell phone. Kip drastically changes the course of his destiny when he answers the phone and hears the panicked voice of Grace and Annie’s father on the other end. Back at the point, Annie has lost Grace, there is a heavy mist and Grace has fallen through the sand on a cliff. Annie panics as...