Tall Man by Chloe Hooper

Tall Man takes place on Palm Island, a hot, stifling place that seems to exist in another time and world. Australian Aboriginal people have lived there since before 1910 when children were taken from their families to Palm Island and forced to change.

It is a place of danger, from crocodiles, drunk partners, and the people who are supposed to be protecting them. Children run around, looking for food and love, but always prepared with a homemade weapon.

The island is wet with humidity and alcohol. The only whites are few, hospital workers, and policemen mostly.

As you read this book you will start to wonder why the policemen are there, who needs protecting, and who is getting protected?

Many Aboriginal men are taken to prison, usually for very small reasons, but sometimes they die there. Now one has again. And it is the straw that broke the camel's back. Something must be done, it isn't the first time someone has died in jail, but the blacks are striving for it to be the last.

Can Cameron Doomadgee be fairly represented in a fair trial? Can the words of his people be heard clearly? But it turns into a war, a war between two tribes. The Aborigines, and the white cops - a tightly knit group of brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, daughters and sons.

Can the Aborigines finally find some justice for once? Or will the vicious cycle continue to spin?

Hooper will travel the small islands, towns, and cities of Australia trying to understand the truth, the people, the history and religion that not many take the time to listen to.

Recommended to ages 14 and Up (heartbreaking...)

Get Capone by Jonathan Eig

Get Capone is a vivid book about one of America's most infamous gangsters. But it is also a mind grabbing picture of life in the "Roaring '20s."

Eig makes you feel like you are in the smoky, crowded saloons, walking up downtown Chicago streets, riding in a bulbous old black automobile, not sitting on your couch reading a biography. This is no dry book of dates and names, but a fast moving story tommy guns, reporters, and corrupted politicians.

Al Capone is not a man anymore, but a symbol of crime, a symbol of how Chicago used to be. This book will bring him alive again, with his personality and troubles. He will be revealed as a family man, a man who was upset at his "scarred" reputation.

There are many important people in this book, but they are not merely mentioned briefly in passing. When you come across their names for the second time you won't have to stare off into space while you try to remember who they are. You will instead remember their occupation, their personality, and their background. Each character is fully fleshed out until you see a whole world coming together.

If you want to find out more about Capone, a man shrouded in rumors and time, this book is a must read.

Recommended to ages 14 and Up (can be a little graphic in violence and wounds)

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do; and What it Says About Us by Tom Vanderbilt

Traffic is a very information book about the living organism of human behavior, laws, signs , signals, metal monsters and culture and how they make up one word - traffic. Tom Vanderbilt provides pages of professional information and easily translates it into everyday language. He provides easy to understand, everyday examples along with startling observations we would never think about. Vanderbilt relates traffic - and all things that are traffic - to animal behaviors, stories, myths and world events.

This book is very well researched, but it is also funny and personal. Driving is a very physiological process and Vanderbilt will explore the minds of many people in many times and places. Vanderbilt went to many places and interacted with many people to explore the human mind, and how it changes once enclosed in a large metal machine - the car.

Traffic is sometimes extremely easy - sometimes almost impossible - to change and influence, because millions of unpredictable humans with millions of additional factors make up traffic. After reading this book you will never drive the same way again, or think of traffic in the same way. Highly recommended, even to non-drivers.

Recommended to ages 15 and Up (easier for drivers to understand however).

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina is about a group of people in society related in some way or other. The book changes between the points of view of these people and leads you on the confusing path of their lives, opinions and emotions. After Anna Karenina visits her brother, can she return home and be just as happy? Have her affections changed? Can she live happily with those changed emotions? She will never be the same. Stephan Arkadyich has cheated on his wife, can she forgive him? But more importantly, can he change? Can Levin make his true love see his love? Can he summon up the courage to propose to her, and will she make the right choice in answering?

This book follows these characters in Moscow, Petersburg and the Russian countryside during very important times for Russia. Occasionally there will be an argument on religion, farming or philosophy that is a bit hard to understand. The book is very vivid in emotions, you will see everything through the characters' eyes, sometimes clearly, sometimes less so. Follow these people as they search for happiness and meaning in life. A good book, although sometimes tedious and confusing.

Recommended to ages 16 and Up.

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Cristie

The large, gorgeous, famous ruby, the Heart of Fire, is on the move once more. A rich American has bought it, under slightly suspicious circumstances and has given it to his daughter, Ruth. All seems well, except Ruth's marriage to Derek Kettering, a man with no love for Ruth, only her money. She plans on divorcing him, but there is something that is holding her back, something she does not want to tell her father before her trip to Nice. But then when the Blue Train reaches its destination Ruth Kettering is found dead and her rubies are missing. Who can solve the crime, but Hercule Poirot? He takes on the task with Kathrine Grey, a woman with beautiful eyes who has slowly become involved in the Ketterings' lives through change meetings and occurrences. She will become an important character, even though she didn't plan to.

Poirot will follow every clue, every suspicion, will talk to and possible trick, every person. There are many suspects, some more obvious than others. But of course Poirot will find the truth, suspected or not.

Recommended to ages 12 and Up.

The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Cristie

Hercule Poirot is planning on retiring. But how can the great, genius Poirot go out without something fantastic? For his last few jobs he decides to take after his namesake, Hercules, and solve twelve crimes, all that of which will bear a resemblance to the twelve tasks of Hercules.

Poirot will find an interesting twist to a dog kidnapping, find the root of a wicked rumor, help clean the government of disgrace, help cure an insane man and help many others. Poirot once again finds interesting twists in each crime from evidence and clues only he can see and he always finds the main character of the incident.

This book is very good, it is not quite one mystery, really there are twelve. Each are written in slightly different ways, and it is quick moving and refreshing, even if you don't follow Poirot through every thought process like other books. There are so many characters, fresh ones for each mystery and they are all remarkably real and unique. A great Cristie.

Recommended to ages 12 and Up

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre is a book about a young girl and her many struggles on finding herself, balance and happiness. This book is from her point of view, speaking directly to the reader as she starts out, beaten and repressed in her Aunt's house. She is later sent to school and must learn how to conduct herself and show people what she is really like. She learns life lessons from a fellow student, and she changes greatly. Throughout the book she seems to have many different changes in character.

She becomes a governess for a little French child who is living in a large mansion that is surrounded in mystery. There is a strange servant in the attic with a creepy laugh, strange noises and dangerous occurances. And the strange master that is always away from home will soon be returning. Then everything will change for Jane Eyre. She will have to figure out what is right to do, even when it is very hard. Can she possibly find happiness and a true home at the end of it all?

This book is very thick with religion and superstition - of ideas of spirits and sprites. It is quite odd at some points but yo will get very deep in the book and wont be able to put it down at other points. It is a book about love.

Recommended to ages 14 and Up.