Welcome to the Benjamin Russell High School Online Reading Room. Here, you will find a variety of book reviews to help make your selection of reading materials easier. We've also included a list of links to several online sources related to a variety of subject areas. Enjoy!
Featured Link Library Resource Links for Teens Reviews
Congo by Michael Crichton--"In the heart of the Congo near the lost city of Zinj, an eight-person field expedition dies mysteriously and brutally in a matter of minutes"--and that is just the start of a really mesmerizing book. I think everyone will enjoy this book.
I also recommend Relic by Preston & Childs.
--Ann Fox
A Painted House by John Grisham
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! It is a departure from Grisham's usual lawyerly novels. A Painted House tells the story of a young boy growing up in the Depression era and the interesting encounters he has with a family of migrant workers. I think you'll really like it!
--Mrs. Gulledge
Other books I'd recommend:
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence--This is a great adventure book that tells the true story of Lawrence of Arabia.
Night by Elie Weisel--This true story is a chilling account of the Holocaust from a young boy's perspective.
Into Thin Air--Into Thin Air by is the best non-fiction I've read yet! I always wondered what a trek to the top of Mt. Everest entailed, and this dramatic, true story is about a group of expert mountain climbers who succumb to the dangers of our world's highest peak. The number of this brave and often foolhardy group of mountain climbers slowly diminishes as they sadly witness members of other climbing groups perish on the treacherous cliffs, yet daily excursions continue up the mountainside! I couldn't put it down!
--Dolly Smith
Student Reviews
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling--Very, very good! Could not put down!
--Matthew Bishop
Beach Music--May be very long, but it's also very good!
--Lisa Commander
The Wedding--Very good book!
--Alana Brown
A Child Called "It"--This sad story of child abuse and a triumph of the spirit will make you cry and will touch your heart forever.
--Leah Channell
The Beach House by James Patterson--I think this book will keep everyone on the edge of their seat with its mystery and intrigue. You'll want to read more by this author!
--Caroline Gwaltney
Suggest a book! E-mail your book and review along with your name to lgulledge@alex.k12.al.us
~ Maya Angelou ~
~ Joseph Addison ~ You must not read to swallow words, but to see what you can use. - Henrik Ibsen
Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps,
but still attached to life at all four corners.
~ Virginia Woolf ~
Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.
~ Jessamyn West ~
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. -Mark Twain
~ W. Fusselman ~
~ Steven Spielberg ~ ~ Malcolm X ~
When I look back, I am so impressed again
with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading,
just as I did when I was young.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year. - Horace Mann
I used to walk to school with my nose buried in a book. ~ Coolio ~
Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.
Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers.
I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.
