English 12 Literary Nonfiction Reviews

Title of the Book: The Glass Castle Author: Jeanette Walls Number of Pages: 288 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Review: This surprisingly true-story, book is told by Jeannette Walls. She tells her unbelievable life story in an amazing, thrilling way. Walls tells about her crazy life, between burning herself when making hot dogs by herself at 3 years old, to living almost “homeless” in the desert, saving enough money to run away and build her own life. Finally settling down in Welch, West Virginia, this was both a blessing and a curse. She felt a little more stable because she knew they weren’t going to pick up and leave again, but her father was drunk most of the time, so her time was spent taking care of her siblings. The author’s writing style is unique because she has flashback of the past and the present. The first memorable moment is the few chapter of the book. She tells about the story of her cooking hot dogs at the age of 3, by herself. She catches her dress on fire which lands

Title of the Book: Be Free  Author: Jackie Gronlund  Number of Pages: 183  Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆  Review: Be Free is the most inspirational book I have ever read. The book is written by a young woman named Jackie who talks about many of her hardest struggles and mistakes before being a Christian, along with her more recent problems during her walk in Christianity. Jackie goes from living a rebellious life of smoking weed, drinking, and living like a rockstar on a tour bus, to leaving everything she had behind and moving across the country to attend a bible school. Jackie talks deeply about how important it is to let yourself be known and not be ashamed of your past. The book starts off with Jackie getting ready to admit her darkest secret. It had been eating away at her, leaving her feeling diminished and depressed. She was afraid that by making her secret known, she would become unloved. After revealing her secret she talks about the aftermath. The vulnerability, pain, and the ultimate

Title of the Book: "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania   Author: Erik Larson   Number of Pages: 448 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Review: On 7 May 1915, German submarine U-20 torpedoed and sunk the Lusitania, a British ocean liner carrying 1,962 passengers. 1,198 passengers and crew members died, including 128 American citizens. This immense and tragic loss of American lives would eventually push president Woodrow Wilson to the breaking point and caused the U.S. to declare war on Germany two years later. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson, chronicles the lives of passengers, naval warfare efforts, and other events surrounding that fateful day, and weaves them together into an engaging and detailed narrative of one of the great naval tragedies of the 20th century. In late April 1915, numerous civilian and naval powers were at work, occupied with the ongoing war in Europe and the increased threat of unrestricted submarine warfare. Numerous Europe-bound passengers where rushing around the

Title of the Book: Angela's Ashes Author: Frank McCourt Number of Pages: 368 Rating: ☆☆☆☆ Review: There is a reason Angela’s Ashes has so won so many literary awards. When I first got this book I had no clue what I would be reading, and I wasn’t all too excited. Within the first few pages, I was hooked and I wanted to keep reading (which for me is rare). Angela’s Ashes is the story of a young Irish-American named Frank McCourt, born in the United States and the son of two Irish immigrants. His father is a drunk and can’t keep a job in the U.S., so they are forced to move back to Ireland. Frank McCourt recaps his childhood in Ireland, being starved and poor and barely making it by with any money. He and his younger siblings (which vary throughout the book due to several circumstances) do their best to survive with a father who disappears and a mother who is unable to support herself. This childhood story is intense and very much so a story worth telling. What is so u

Title of the Book: Into the Wild Author: Jon Krakauer Number of Pages: 203 Rating: ☆☆☆☆ Review: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer will either leave you eager to run away into the wild to try something spontaneous, or dead set on simply staying inside with a good book to spark your imagination. The story opens up with a man named Jim Gallien picking up hitchhiker Alex (later revealed as Christopher McCandless) on his journey to Anchorage, Alaska. After leaving his family and friends behind without any notice at all, Christopher McCandless starts out on an expedition into the wilderness to live an adventurous life of exploration and solitude, but only survives four months in the wild before his body was discovered. Krakauer reaches out to several individuals who encountered McCandless on his journey, and follows the events that led up to his sudden death that left the people who knew him shocked. While the story of Christopher McCandless is quite intriguing itself, Krakauer’s pe

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah Have you ever felt that your life was an endless cycle of failure and that you were being held back by an impossible obstacle? I have and I am sure that many of my readers have as well. However, there is no such thing as an impossible obstacle. No obstacle in life is not able to be overcome. "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah is an entrancing and overall fantastic memoir of his childhood during the Seierra Leone civil war. This memoir is touching and really captures the things that haunted Ishmael Beah for many years after he finally escaped the gruesome civil war. Much like other memoirs, he brushes on harsh realities that are going on around the world. However, he makes his own story unique because of his incredible style of writing and his use of another language mixed in with English. This memoir is definitely a novel that should be taught in schools and required to read. The story starts off with Beah and his friends as children in