The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

While the scope is impressive and challenging, the book leaves the reader numb and hopeless in dealing with each issue.

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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk helps the American reader digest what the impact of our voracious and violent appetites have done to our society and leaves us with a distinct taste of our iniquity.

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Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

This secular powerful man rises from the ash heap of childhood abuse and neglect and stands as a example of new modern man breaking the medieval chains of divine authority dominating and controlling the people.

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On the Island: Self-Published Success

"On the Island" by Tracey Garvis Graves is a well- told, tightly written adventure of an unlikely pair who fall in love while stranded on a desert island. The author self-published this book in 2011. It was picked up in July 2012 by Plume, a Penguin Group company, after making the New York Times best seller list. MGM has optioned the story rights for a film.

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The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach: Pitching Fiction Back into the Game

Chad Harbach is best when he is writing about baseball. Parts of this book seem to be written as effortlessly as Henry, the phenom, fielding and throwing the baseball.

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In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson: What We Didn’t Learn that Could Have Saved Christopher Stevens

In the Garden of Beasts, we view with a historical perspective of the danger that played out again last month in Libya because of the confusion of state-side policy over the dangerous reality.

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Philly War Zone by Kevin Purcell: How My Philadelphia Came to Be

This is a story about five brothers growing up in a racially changing neighborhood brought on by the redlining tactics of realtors that led the city into the drugs and poverty of the 80s and 90s.

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A Summer with Tim O’Brien Novels: Learning Humanity from War, Love, and Aging

I spent the summer reading one of America's greatest writers and this is what I have learned.

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Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire by Rafe Esquith: Reaching Our Children’s Academic Potential

Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire is a teacher’s story who believes in the mission of education to transform our society into a utopia, just like in Room 56.

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Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James: A Reason Not to Read

I get why it is popular. It is a sex book exploring a very innocent, open, and free woman, who has the ability to orgasm with every sexual encounter.

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