The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, art by Ellen Forney

Alexie has hit the nail on the head when it comes to writing a bildungsroman, coming of age novel, that touches on a number of tough topics: physical abuse, alcoholism, death, racism, sexuality, poverty, and culture.

Junior has spent his entire life on the reservation in Wellpinit. Junior is already a miracle, having survived multiple operations to remove liquid from his brain as an infant and a number of subsequent seizures. He has an extremely intelligent sister who has done nothing more than hang out in the basement after graduating high school, a mother and father who are heads above some of his friends parents, by not beating him, showing their love for him and attending school events, but they also battle with alcoholism and struggle to keep food on the table. His saving grace is Rowdy, his best friend who happens to be the biggest bully at school. The two share a passion for basketball.

An altercation between Junior and a teacher gets him suspended, but Junior's life takes a pivotal turn when the teacher comes and tells him how smart he is and if he doesn't leave the reservation he is going to go just where his sister, parents and everyone else on the reservation are going: nowhere. So, Junior makes the decision to transfer to Reardan, the school twenty miles away with wealthier white kids and absolutely no indians. 

Though, he has to hitch a ride or walk to and from school most days, racism runs rampant, and he is the new kid, Junior manages to not only make it, but excels. He makes friends, has a "sort of" girlfriend, makes the basketball team and does well in school. However, Junior must overcome much more with the backlash of his town turning against him when Reardon plays Wellpinit, the death of his sister and grandmother, and the shunning of his best friend.

Throughout, Alexi incorporates teenage humor, heartbreak, and triumph together seamlessly in a novel that is one for the ages. 

Crush: the Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Love, by Gary Paulsen

Love is often compared to riding a bike, you just have to get on, fall a few times and learn. However, the scratches heal from falling off a bike, but the wounds left by love may never turn to scars. This is a deep intro to a light-hearted book about a boy, Kevin, who wants to make sure he gets love right the first time. This leads him to gathering data and following a scientific approach to approaching the apple of his eye, Tina.

However, after looking at a number of relationships he finds that he still can't make heads or tails of relationships. As Kevin is surrounded by blooming and renewed love at the 50th anniversary of his grandparents, he is certain that everyone knows the secret to romance but him. That is, until Tina strikes up a conversation and he finds that she has been trying to talk to him for days...so love goes.

Crush: the Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Love is Paulsen's follow-up to Liar, Liar and Flat Broke.

The Paris Wife, by Paula McClain

Ernest Hemingway has become a man of lore. His work gives us a glimpse into the lives of very normal people and the intricacies that make them infinitely interesting. McClain has mixed the myth of his Hemingway's own stories that mirrored his own life to an extent along with personal correspondance and his own memoir to paint a picture of this man, but more importantly of his first wife, Hadley.

Though, the end (divorce) is know from the beginning, with each sentence the reader feels the love between the two grow thick as molasses and hope that the end could be changed, even though the story wouldn't ring as true to what life is. Hadley is a simple woman who finds a new start in Hemingway as she nears thirty and he is just getting started on his career. The two make it through thin years in Paris, as Hemingway works to making it the writing world with helpful eye and friendship of people like Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and Scott Fitzgerald. Through trips to Spain, the loss of years of Hemingway's work and the birth of their son, Bumby, Hadley is always supportive.

However, as the two close in on five years of marriage, and over a year of trying to overcome an affair between a wealthy woman that writes for Vogue, Pauline, and Hemingway, the two are merely a shadow of the people they once were. Hadley finally concedes to a divorce.


While the five years make up a small portion of the two's lives, there is no denying the lasting influence that one had on the other. Hemingway says repeatedly that Hadley is the best of people, much better than himself, possibly too good. Though, he remarried several more times, Hadley was by his side during the most formative years of his writing developing view of the world and McClain displays their relationship beautifully in all of it's grittiness, leaving the reader with as much admiration for the woman behind the Hemingway as the man himself.