Lit Club
Book Selection
The Uglies
By Scott Westerfeld
 Westerfeld projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at
sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by
conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The "New Pretties" are then
free to play and party, while the younger "Uglies" look on enviously and
spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous
tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of
the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the
menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be
pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel
settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been
troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she
follows Shay’s cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of
betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty.
Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy.
But after finally reaching The Smoke she has a change of heart when her
new lover David reveals to her the sinister secret behind becoming
pretty. The fast-moving story is enlivened by many action sequences in
the style of videogames, using intriguing inventions like hoverboards that
use the rider’s skateboard skills to skim through the air, and bungee
jackets that make wild downward plunges survivable -- and fun. Behind
all the commotion is the disturbing vision of our own society -- the
Rusties -- visible only in rusting ruins after a virus destroyed all
petroleum.
 ---Amazon.com Review

Plot Against America
By Philip Roth
 In this stunning novel, (Roth) creates a mesmerizing alternate world …,
in which Charles A. Lindbergh defeats FDR in the 1940 presidential
election, and Philip, his parents and his brother weather the storm in
Newark, N.J. Incorporating Lindbergh's actual radio address in which he
accused the British and the Jews of trying to force America into a foreign
war, Roth builds an eerily logical narrative that shows how isolationists in
and out of government, emboldened by Lindbergh's blatant antiSemitism (he invites von Ribbentrop to the White House, etc.), enact
new laws and create an atmosphere of religious hatred that culminates in
nationwide pogroms. Historical figures such as Walter Winchell, Fiorello
La Guardia and Henry Ford inhabit this chillingly plausible fiction, which
is as suspenseful as the best thrillers and illustrates how easily people can
be persuaded by self-interest to abandon morality. The novel is, in
addition, a moving family drama, in which Philip's fiercely ethical father,
Herman, finds himself unable to protect his loved ones, and a family
schism develops between those who understand the eventual outcome of
Lindbergh's policies and those who are co-opted into abetting their own
potential destruction. Many episodes are touching and hilarious: young
Philip experiences the usual fears and misapprehensions of a preadolescent; locks himself into a neighbor's bathroom; gets into dangerous
mischief with a friend; watches his cousin masturbating with no
comprehension of the act. In the balance of personal, domestic and
national events, the novel is one of Roth's most deft creations, and if the
lollapalooza of an ending is bizarre with its revisionist theory about the
motives behind Lindbergh's anti-Semitism, it's the subtext about what
can happen when government limits religious liberties in the name of the
national interest that gives the novel moral authority.
 -----Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com

Looking for Alaska
 Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award
 An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
 An ALA Quick Pick
 A Los Angeles Times 2005 Book Prize Finalist
 Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter’s whole life has been one big
non-event. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly
unstable, and anything-but boring world of Culver Creek
Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe.
Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever,
funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly
fascinating Alaska Young pulls Pudge into her world, launches
him into a new life, and steals his heart. After. Nothing is ever
the same. The Printz Award–winning modern classic is now
available in the successful Premium Edition format with a
bonus reading guide and a letter from John Green. ----Amazon.com
Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange
Dust jacket from the first edition Author Anthony Burgess Country
United Kingdom Language English Genre(s) Science fiction novel, Satire
Publisher William Heinemann (UK) Publication date 1962 Media type
Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Cassette, CD) Pages 192
pages (Hardback edition) &
176 pages (Paperback edition) ISBN 0434098000 OCLC Number
4205836 A Clockwork Orange (1962) is a dystopian novel by Anthony
Burgess.

The title is taken from an old Cockney expression, "as queer as a
clockwork orange"¹, and alludes to the prevention of the main
character's exercise of his free will through the use of a classical
conditioning technique. With this technique, the subject’s emotional
responses to violence are systematically paired with a negative
stimulation in the form of nausea caused by an emetic medicine
administered just before the presentation of films depicting "ultraviolent" situations. Written from the perspective of a seemingly biased
and unapologetic protagonist, the novel also contains an experiment in
language: Burgess creates a new speech that is the teenage slang of the
not-too-distant future.
Thirteen Reasons Why
 Jay Asher
 Clay Jensen returns home from school to
find a mysterious box with his name on it
lying on his porch. Inside he discovers
cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his
classmate and crush--who committed suicide
two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains
that there are thirteen reasons why she
decided to end her life. Clay is one of them.
If he listens, he'll find out how he made the
list.
Perks of Being a
Wallflower
 Stephen Chobsky
 Standing on the fringes of life...
 offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it




looks like from the dance floor.
This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion
marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in
contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being aWallflower.
This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More
intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique,
hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We
may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world
he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run
from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted
territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas
and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror
Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that
perfect drive to feel infinite.
Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting
coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to
those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing
up.
----From the Back Cover
The Savage Detectives
The Savage Detectives (Los Detectives Salvajes in Spanish) is an awardwinning novel[1] published by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño in
1998. Natasha Wimmer's English translation was published by Farrar,
Straus and Giroux in 2007. The novel tells the story of the search for a
female Mexican poet, Cesárea Tinajero, by two other poets, the Chilean
Arturo Belano and the Mexican Ulises Lima.
 The novel is narrated in first person by numerous narrators. The first
section is told by a 17-year-old aspiring poet, Juan García Madero. It
centers on his admittance to a roving gang of poets who refer to
themselves as the Visceral Realists. He drops out of university and travels
around Mexico City, becoming increasingly involved with the adherents
of Visceral Realism, although he remains uncertain about Visceral
Realism.
 The book's second section consists of interviews with a variety of
characters from locations around North America, Europe, and the
Middle East, all of whom have come into contact with the founding
leaders of the Visceral Realists, Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano. Each
narrator has his or her own opinion of the two, although the consensus is
that they are drifters and literary elitists whose behavior often leaves a
bitter taste in the mouths of those they meet. We learn that the two spent
some years in Europe, frequenting bars and camp sites, and generally
living a bohemian lifestyle. Lima, the more introverted of the two, serves
a short sentence in an Israeli prison, while Belano challenges a literary
critic to an absurd sword fight on a Spanish beach.
 The final third of the book is again narrated by Juan García Madero, now
in the Sonora Desert with Lima, Belano and a prostitute named Lupe.
The section involves the "Savage Detectives" closing in on the elusive
poet Cesárea Tinajero, while being chased by a pimp named Alberto and
a corrupt Mexican police officer.

A Million Little Pieces
 A badly tattered James awakens on an airplane to Chicago, with
no recollection of his injuries or of how he ended up on the
plane. He is met by his parents at the airport, who take him to a
rehabilitation clinic. We find out that James is 23 years old, and
has been an alcoholic for ten years, and a crack addict for three.
He is also wanted by the police in three different states on several
charges.
 As he checks into the rehab clinic, he is forced to quit his
substance abuse, a transition that we find out later probably saves
his life, but is also an incredibly agonizing event. As part of this,
he is forced to undergo a series of painful root canals, without
any anesthesia because of possible negative reactions to the drugs.
He copes with the pain by squeezing tennis balls until his nails
crack (when challenged on this incident, specifically, during his
second Oprah appearance, Frey said that it may have been "more
than one" root canal procedure and may or may not have
included Novocaine, as he remembers it). Throughout his stay, he
refuses to buy into the notion of victimhood, and instead chooses
to blame his misfortunes solely on himself and as the result of his
own decisions. Because of this view he rejects the concept of the
Twelve Steps that is recommended to him at the clinic and
chooses to proceed with his recovery without complaint or
blame on others, and also with the knowledge that he will die if
he begins his substance abuse again.
Bibliography
 Photos

http://shinyshiny.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/uglies.jpg

ra763.wordpress.com

http://gplteensblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/alaska.jpg

http://billwardwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/a-clockwork-orange.gif

http://youngadultbookclub.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/thirteenreasonswhy.jpg

http://aegroove.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/31a7nzzzvgl.jpg

http://wordbrooklyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/bolano.jpg

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/03/02/a-million-little-pieces-james-freyabridged-cassettes.jpg
Voting Page
 The Uglies
 Plot Against America
 Looking for Alaska
 Clockwork Orange
 Thirteen Reasons Why
 Perks of Being a Wallflower
 The Savage Detectives
 A Million Little Pieces