A Stolen Life: A Memoir

A Stolen Life: A Memoir is by Jaycee Dugard. Jaycee was kidnapped at age eleven and freed eighteen years later. This memoir is her story of survival and readjustment to life. She details the abuse, sexual and emotional, of her kidnappers, the birth of two daughters, and her life of loneliness and fear, as well as her struggle to adjust to freedom after eighteen years of captivity. This book is hard to read, but you come away hoping the very best for Dugard and her family.

Ratings: Adult - 7 out of 10 - P (profanity) - AC (mature thematic content) - S (non-graphic sexual references).

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

Peter and the Shadow Thieves is by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The second book in a series of books inventing new adventures for Peter Pan. In this sequel, Peter and Tinkerbell must find a way to get to London and warn Molly that a group of men and an evil being known as a Shadow Thief, are coming to steal the starstuff her father brought home from Mollusk Island. An adventure story both boys and girls will enjoy.

Ratings: 6th grade - 8 out of 10.

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae is by Steven Pressfield. A truly magnificent fictionalized, though meticulously researched, account of the battle which arguably saved western civilization as we know it. This book is a recounting of the Spartan life and the famous battle told by a gravely injured Spartan squire removed from the field by the Persians and commanded to detail for Xerxes everything he knows of Spartan life, culture, and the epic sacrifice of King Leonidas and his 300. MAGNIFICENT! This book is a Reader's Corner Highly Recommended book. Yes, there is profanity and violence, but this book is also a story of courage, honor, and sacrifice that today's society sorely needs to hear.

Ratings: Adult - 10 out of 10 - P (profanity) - V (violence) - AC (mature thematic content).

Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family

Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family is by Shelley Emling. This amazing biography picks up after the death of Pierre Curie and follows the life of Marie and her daughters, Irene and Eve, through two trips to America, WWII, and the end of their lives. The story is well told and covers matieral most readers may not be familiar with. A book that should encourage girls that a career in science is not only possible, but desirable.

Ratings: 9th grade - 9 out of 10.

Bel Canto

Bel Canto is by Ann Patchett. This is the story of an unlikely group of people who come together to celebrate the birthday of a Japanese industrialist in the home of the Vice President of an unnamed South American country. After the dinner, a famous opera singer gives a performance. Then the group finds themselves taken hostage by a local guerrilla group. This intense character study unfolds over the next four months as the captors and hostages begin to bond. The ending is surprising and somewhat strains belief.

Ratings: 11th grade - 7 out of 10 - P (profanity) - V (violence) - AC (mature thematic content).

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is by Stieg Larsson. The first book in The Millennium Trilogy. Disgraced Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by an aging titan of industry to solve the mystery of his favorite relative's disappearance forty years ago. Mikael and a tattooed computer hacker named Lizbeth Salander, who has problems of her own, embark on an investigation that takes them places they never imagined. Their investigation unearths a story of decades of abuse and murder that may well cost them both their lives. This is an excellent murder mystery, but it is filled with profanity, violence, and very mature thematic content. This book is not recommended for readers under eighteen.

Ratings: Adult - 9 out of 10 - P (profanity) - V (violence) - AC (mature thematic content).

The Nightmarys

The Nightmarys is by Dan Poblocki. Timothy and Abigail are having nightmares that seem very very real. When they team up for a school project they realize their nightmares may be related to a curse. The curse stems from a strange artifact that is stolen from the museum the day their school science class goes there on a field trip. The two friends realize that if they don't solve this mystery they, and others, they care about will die. What will they have to do to make "the nightmarys" go away?

Ratings: 7th grade - 8 out of 10 - V (violence).