Rating: 
Summary: very well written book
Review: this book is a very well written book, and it makes you want to read it. The plot is kind of a shabby one but it is central to this story (though I feel that WW2 is more of a central issue in the story). This book isn't as exciting as the cover makes you think but it is a good read and it teaches some good lessons about friendship
Rating:
Summary: John Knowles...an author's author
Review: To be frank...John Knowles in my DOG. This book, set in New Hampshire at a boy's prep school, Devon, in 1943 and 44, is beautful. Of course as you guys know, I'm drawn to the more cerebral and for those who share we intrest this is the perfect (as if you didn't know). The best part about this book is the fact that it truly has multiple themes, conflicts, climaxes and crisise. Thusly, it's the essential auther's book, making John Knowles and author's author.Gene and Phineas, offer us two classic charcters as well as some of the most believible fictious people I have read about. Phineas, the innocent athelet, and Gene the matured convelescent can be found in every person. One of my favorite parts about the book was asking my self "hmm, who am I more like?", hoping to be more of Phineas but at the same time not really. I wanted to be mature, but Gene's maturity is his limp, his blemish. Then after realizing this I found myself thinking about how glad I am to not be at a boarding school or a rich WASP in 1943. To the person who want's to read this book based off of my review (and you should), I have one guide line, everything is just as, if not more symbolic then you think. It's pretty blaitant John Knowles set out to write a book that was mircocasmical and symbolic on almost every page. I would give "A Seperate Peace" and easy perfect grade. I'll probibly start to read it again in a week or so...
Rating: 
Summary: Review-The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
Review: The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, is a tale about the experiences of a lady named Marietta Greer. Ms Greer is leaving her childhod home of Pittman Kentucky for her personality does not allow her to fit in. She heads west with a barely running Volkswagen Bug, determined to change her name as soon as she reaches the first place she stops at. She ends up in Taylorville. Now Taylor Greer, she drives through the Cherokee Nation area of Oklahoma and her car breaks down. This is where an abused, abandoned baby girl is unloaded upon her. She names the child Turtle because of the baby's grip. Taylor and Turtle drive on together. Challenged with unexpected motherhood and two flat tires, Taylor arrives at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires in Tucson, Arizona. The tire shop is run by a woman named Mattie. The shop also serves as a safe house for Central American refugees. Mattie gives Taylor moral support and a job. Taylor learns that her own troubles are small compared to those of Estevan and Esperanza, a couple who had to give up their daughter and are fleeing from both a Guatemalan rebels and the I.N.S. As the result of a newspaper ad looking for a roommate, Taylor now lives with Lou Ann Ruiz and her baby boy. Lou Ann's husband has left her and Lou Ann is without any confidence or self-esteem. Ironically, Lou Ann is from the same area of Kentucky as Taylor. They find comfort in each other's spirited, Kentucky dialect and share the burdens of new motherhood. Taylor's relationship with Turtle grows. Her relationships with Mattie, Estevan and Esperanza also grow. The story climaxes as Taylor risks her own safety to transport Estevan and Esperanza to a church/safe house in Oklahoma. While there, Estevan and Esperanza pose as Turtle's parents to allow Taylor to legally adopt the child. The struggles of the human condition are resolved for the time being in the lives of those Taylor has touched. Taylor discovers a new appreciation for everyday miracles and a new definition for family.
Rating: 
Summary: BORING ALERT!!!
Review: This book has to be the lousiest ive ever read. its boring, has a pointless plot and is a plain waste of time.
Im not the only one, my entire english class agreed unanimously that it sucked.
take my advice and AVOID it.
Rating:
Summary: Innocence to Evil
Review: "A Separate Peace" is about a friendship acquired by two boys while attending an elite prep school in New Hampshire. The two boys, Gene and Phineas, are drawn to each other by magnetic forces. The boys remain friends throughout many hardships, and begin to live through each other to excape from their own reality. John Knowles' use of the theme from innocence to evil is a brillant use of literary devices. The theme throughout the novel allows the reader to feel Gene's battle within theirselves. The battle allows the reader to comtemplate Gene's own battle: if it is against himself or against Phineas. It allows the reader to recall their own memories of childhood as the grow from innocence to adulthood filled with evils. The novel is written like a diary, but does not reveal too much of Gene's emotions and leaves the reader full of suspense. The use of these literary devices in this novel are brillant making the novel have a deeper meaning, and therefore making it one of the best I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: I had to read this book for my English class. It's the worst book I've ever read! It's boring and predictable. I fell asleep several times reading. I would've given it 0 stars if the system let me. Only read this book if you have to.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: This book was quite interesting, and it was a mandatory read for English 2 honors. It talks of a bunch of boys in a coming to age tale, living through problems, and figuring things out. The end was very sad. The book was okay, not the best, but not the worst.
Rating:
Summary: powerfully moving
Review: A Separate Peace is a great story set at a boarding school during WWII. Knowles writes beautifully this story about friendship, tragedy, innocence, and war. Read it slowly so you can savor Knowles's words. You can get something from every page of this novel.
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Summary: A Startling Masterpiece
Review: John Knowles's stunning masterpiece, A Separate Peace, is an exercise in youth, war, and the ignorance of the human heart.
This is a painfully beautiful novel set in a 1940s New Hampshire prep school for boys amidst the onslaught of World War II. Gene and Phineas, two complete opposites, yet *magnetically* drawn towards each other, and their beleagured friendship, are the foci of this story.
What starts out as a seemingly small, but startling, incident among the two friends ends with a meditation on evil, in general, and warfare in particular. A Separte Peace is really about the idealistic, nostalgic days of boyhood respite, shattered by the threat of war. In this sense, all the characters are metaphorical victims.
Knowles, however, not content to simply tell one of the most important tales of our time, about the evils of war, and the absconding of all innocence, does so with restraint and care, never becoming preachy or superior in tone. This is the story of the second of the Great Wars, and its first victims. The victims of lost innocence.
Knowles's beloved timely novel first published in 1959, has since remained a best-seller for more than 30 years, and is one of the most widely-read books among high school students. Knowles's vision and message will never be lost or become meaningless. They are lessons for all people, and all generations.
Rating:
Summary: a book that excedes all other books
Review: When I first picked up this book I had no idea of how big the book was going to be. The book takes place at a boarding school in New England during the World War 2 time period. Although it is not one of those ordinary war books, it weaves a story of strong friendship between the characters, Gene and Phineas(Finny), and how they act and respond durring the war. The friendship that is portrayed in the book is something that seems lost in our time, the friendship is something that is true and from the heart, with its ocasional ups and downs. The incident that occurs in the story starts out as a small scratch to the friends but later evolves into something soo deep and dark it will change everything. I recommend this book greatly because it will set the bar for you to determine wether the books you read is as good as this one.
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