I worry

that the language used in Tyler Johnson Was Here will keep some schools from purchasing this book.  And this book needs to be purchased and it needs to be read.  I have read critics of the book say that it is racist.  I have heard that term "reverse racism" applied to the book.  And wow, how uneducated those people are.  How truly uninformed.
There are also those who say that the characters act like children.
Um....
well...
yeah...
because they are.
And then there was even someone who said there was too much use of Tupac.  REALLY?  Okay.
So I guess all of the books that fawn all over Jane Austen or Shakespeare or The Beatles or Harry Freakin Potter.  That's okay?
Um...yeah...
This was an excellent book and realistic and horrifying.  And it needs to be read.

15

I remember what I was doing at age 15 and after reading Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom:  My Story of the Selma Voting Rights March, I am even more in awe of Lynda Blackmon Lowery.  And even more ashamed of our country.  But yet Ms. Lowery has written a book of hope and love as she tells what she saw and heard and went through when she was on the road to Montgomery.  In face of Bloody Sunday, I am just blown away that she can write with such grace and kindness.  What a beautiful woman she must be.  We are reading this for my nonfiction book group with adults and will talk about it on Tuesday.  The other women in the group all lived through this time and I am anxious to hear what they remember. 

Another Wonderful Book from CPC

I have always wanted to read The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, but the cover was terrible.  Now there is a new cover and I like this one better!  This is the one that is over there <- .="" nbsp="" p="">This book was just incredible.  Now I never caught the significance of the title.  Had I thought about Birmingham, Alabama and what happened in 1963, I would not have been so shocked by what happens in the story.  It just didn't hit me and so there I was, reading along, this wonderful book about a loving, incredible family. And then, wow.  The book became even more powerful and it just blew me away. So much happened that year in Birmingham, of course, but how the church bombing was incorporated into this novel was just so profound.  Another must-read for everyone.

Shades of Vincent Brothers

The whole Fifty Shades of Grey obsession was lost on me.  I for some reason I found myself too old for them.  But the Vincent Brothers is pretty graphic and yeah, it seems like it is as Fifty Shades as I would like to go.  If you don't like graphic stuff, then just read through those parts quickly, that's what I did.  This is the sequel to the Vincent Boys and it is really easy to whip through and I did like it, but the boys themselves are awful.  Jealous and violent and just pretty much jerks.  They have an Edward Cullen-type obsession with their girlfriends, but not the excuse of being a vampire.  Trashy fluff, but it kept me turning the pages.

Boys Will Be Boys

And the Vincent Boys are something else.  There's All-American Sawyer Vincent.  Football QB, regular church-goer, great grades, great family, great looking.  And there's his cousin, Beau Vincent. Football Star, bad boy, great looking, trailer-trash, serious fighter.
Sawyer great up with the best family, great successful dad and mom.  Beau's mom works as a bartender and is bad-butt.  His father is dead but when he was alive he was a hell-raiser and a drunk.
Ashton is in the middle.  She grew up with these boys, who are cousins.  She's been Sawyer's perfect girlfriend for three years but man...she has a deep down  wild side and is secretly attracted to Beau and his badness.  The deal is, Ashton is the preacher's daughter and well, she's got a rep to uphold.  But in her senior year, it is killing her.  And Sawyer is away...and Beau is around...
and this isn't a serious book, it's a fun book.  And I enjoyed it a lot and am going to read the sequel.  Yeah, yeah, lots of criticism because it is trashy.  But it's fun!  Liked it a lot and it's a very quick read!  And the Road Trip goes on!  It is set in Alabama!