The House On Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros is about a girl named Esperanza who lives in a neighborhood full of poverty, gender inequality, and race discrimination. She learns lessons from the women in her neighborhood and is influenced by them and their behaviors. Esperanza matures throughout the book and wants to escape Mango Street without a man at her side when she leaves. Esperanza starts off as very naive and immature but grows to be a very successful, confident young woman with a passion for writing. I enjoyed the book because of the poetry-like style. Although the passages were short the words were really what mattered and it was fun trying to understand all of the metaphors and symbolism.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie is about an Indian teenage boy named Junior who lives on a Native American reservation. He faces discrimination when he goes to a school called Rearden where all of the other kids are white and they bully Junior because of his race. Although they first judge Junior, they soon begin to accept him and he befriends the other kids, but loses his best friend, Rowdy who also lives on the reservation. As time goes on, Junior matures and makes new friends, and mends his friendship with Rowdy. I enjoyed the book because of it's humor, if the book wasn't funny it would make it a very sad and intense book but with the added comedy it made it more enjoyable and distracted you from the problems in Junior's life.
The Art Of Racing in the Rain written by Garth Stein, is all from the perspective of a dog who wishes nothing more than to be a human when he dies after seeing a television show on dogs that become humans when they die. The Swift family owns the brilliant dog, Enzo. Denny the main character, has to deal with his wife Eve suffering from brain cancer while her parents are trying to take his daughter Zoe away from him. Shortly after Eve's passing, it turns into a full blown custody battle where Eve's parents try and hit hard to get Zoe to replace their deceased daughter. The book is amazing and beautifully written. It makes you think and brings on many different emotions. It's funny, dramatic, and overall an amazing I would highly recommend.