Let’s Booktalk: Mexican Whiteboy by Matt De La Peña

Trying to figure out your life is tough when you’re a teenager. Even tougher when you stand out, because of the color of your skin.

Danny is 16, standing at about six foot, with a passion to play baseball. But, he finds himself turning inward as you sees the world through color of his skin. Danny is a Mexican White boy, and the only half-Mexican who attends a private prep school in Leucadia.

Uno is a 17, over six foot tall black teen, who has a pitching arm that is well known in his neighborhood. He hustles who he can, where he can, to prove he is the best. His mother and stepfather tell him he won’t be any better than he is, and his father tells him he won’t change unless he tries.

Can two teens from different backgrounds find their escape in National City over the summer break? Or, will they only be what is expected of them because of the color of their skin?
 

Let’s Booktalk: Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams

Uni- latin for “one”.

Multi- latin for “many”

A singular universe no longer exist. In his 1,500 years of conscience life computer scientist, sorcerer, and swordsman Aristride has only known the multiverse.

The multiverse consists of Eleven platforms, created by artificial intelligence to sustain the existence of humans in their many forms. But, there is a plot to bring about the end of human existence, the “Existential Crisis”. One of the multiverses is creating new wormholes through the central sun threatening to extinguish life by absorbing what energy is left. 

Now, Aristride will have to travel the multiverse, face zombie attacks, biometric formed machines, and fight to save the multiverse before it is too late.

Let’s Booktalk: The Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass

“In her misery Rhiana Davinovitch decided she wanted to die.” She has been haunted by visions, hears voices, and has the power to destroy people and the world around her. How can Rhiana cope with the blood of a god coursing through her veins?

“…Richard found himself thumbing up the holster guard and loosening the Browning high-power pistol where it rested at his side.” Officer Richard Oort, has been a part of the Albuquerque Police Department with little experience in the field. He will become the protector of Rhiana in a battle between superstition and science. He will face demons and humans to protect the world from the end of days—and it will push him to “The Edge of Reason”.






Get your nerd on!!! Want to know something about the Religion vs. Science debate, here is just one article on the subject. God vs. Science

Let’s Booktalk: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Your fate is not your own. Your path is chosen for you. If you diverge, you will be destroyed.

Beatrice Prior is facing the biggest test of her life. What faction does she belong to? She was raised as part of the Abnegation faction, but only her aptitude test will tell her where she belongs. But, what will she do when they are returned inconclusive?

Beatrice possesses qualities from all five factions. She can be selfless, as Abnegation; trustworthy, as Candor; intelligent, as Euridite; compassionate, as Amity; or brave, as Dauntless. To protect herself she must choose her faction, but her choice will only lead her to discover she is divergent.

 

Let’s Booktalk: Bellwether by Connie Willis

Fads and scientific discovery have a lot in common, as with any human accomplishment the come about through means that are “messy, haphazard, misdirected, and heavily influenced by chance.”

Dr. Sandra Foster’s job as a sociologist is studying the origins of fads for the HiTek research cooperation. She wants to know how and why fads begin, enter Flip a mail clerk who delivers a box.

The box was for Dr. Turnball, which takes Sandra to Dr. Bennett O’Reilly. Bennett is studying chaos theory and its trends on behavioral patterns. Only thing is Chaos Theory is not a fad and his funding form was not delivered by Flip at the right time.

Sandra and Bennett will then team up to advance their scientific discoveries of behavior patterns of fads and chaos. What will they find? The point of origin? The bellwether? Maybe, even Love?

Get your nerd on!!! If you enjoyed the book and maybe even the science behind it, check out this website about Collective Behavior--this is the umbrella theory that Sandra's research is based in. Collective Behavior, an introduction.

Let's Booktalk: V for Vendetta, the graphic novel by Alan Moore, David Lloyd (illustrator)

Courtesy of Barnes&Nobel

 "Remember, remember the 5th of November"

Violence, fear, hatred, conformity.

"The gunpowder treason and plot"

A man's vendetta, a young girl's reformation. They will live to overthrow a government that rules through malice, fear, and cruelty.

"I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason, should ever be forgot."

More than a man, more than a mission, more than a vendetta.

Let's Booktalk: Bad Unicorn by Platte F. Clark

Courtesy of Goodreads

Unicorns are beautiful, majestic, graceful, and pure. Princess is anything but that kind of unicorn. Princess, also known as the Destroyer, is a cruel and fearsome unicorn with a carnivorous appetite. Bored with the everyday diet of frobbits and hunting in the land of Magrus. She has enlisted her wizard Magar to help her reach the realm of Techrus where she can feast on human flesh and bones to her heart's delight.

Meanwhile, in Techrus, Max Spencer is trying to survive middle school. Unbeknownst to him he is in possession of a powerful book from Magrus called The Codex of Infinite Knowability. The book is being searched for by the wizards of Magrus, and they will send Princess to Techrus for this book in exchange for an all you can eat buffet of human.

Max along with his friends Dirkster and Sarah will learn there is more to being a teenager than just avoiding bullies and bad grades. They will enter a world where unicorns eat meat, dragons transform into cowboys, and one of them will learn they are the Codex.
lost descendent of the wizard who wrote the

Let's Booktalk: Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Courtesy of Goodreads

Eragon lives in Palancar Valley of Alagaesia. Daily life for Eragon is helping his family to run the farm and haggling with traders for a good price. Yet, fate will intervene when Eragon is given a strange blue stone.

"Suddenly a crack appeared on the stone. Then another and another. Transfixed, Eragon leaned forward...Standing in front of him, licking off the membrane that encased it, was a dragon."

Saphira is a beautiful blue dragon. She and her dragon rider Eragon will grow, learn, and fight together in the coming battle against the evil Galbatorix. Galbatorix is proclaimed king of Alegaesia, and the reason dragon riders and dragons had become all but extinct.

Is the age of the dragon rider returning? Will Eragon and Saphira be able to do what must in order to defeat Galbatorix? All that is known for sure is that Eragon's story is only the beginning of the Inheritance Cycle.