Rating: 
Summary: always running
Review: Luis Rodriguez takes the reader though a detailed view of his own life on the sreets of East L.A.. His creative writing allows the reader to become a part of the book and share the life of the author. He opens the door to the gang life and shows how he was able to excape and be able to help others to excape with him.
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Summary: Excellente
Review: "Always Running". SPEECHLESS. I let my silence speak for itself
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Summary: c/s
Review: Always Running is a piece of art. This book is for those people who don't know about the barrio life and for those who live in it. Growing up in East LOS is though and reading this book helped realized that there is a shortcut in life. God, family values and education are the most important things in life. This book shows the values of having a family, being proud one's heritage and never losing hope. This books has a lot of power over our youth; it makes them think about their life so far and about their future. The language of the book is beautiful because he uses little Spanish sayings which coheret with the text. The way Rodriguez portraited his life as teenager living in poverty is brilliant. Speechless. A must have book! My girlfriend, Rosalee, bought the book two days ago and I gurantee she will love it. I would like to give this book more than five starts but here, we can only give five. So there; laugh, wonder, cry, trouble to a place you thought it never existed while reading Always Running.
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Summary: si, bueno
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I was intrigued through the entire book. Rodriguez uses an excellent writing style that is "down to earth" and never boring. His life story is saddening and yet amazing. The trials and tribulations he had to go through are extremely rough. His story is an excellent one and I recommend this book to anyone, especially people in their late teens.
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Summary: la vida loca
Review: I'm a 16 year old girl in high school. i read the book this book was so good that i read it 2 time this book made me realized how can people think that gans is all about teenagers who don't have anithing t do this book is about feelings is about missing you homeboys
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Summary: LA Vida Loca: "The Wrong Life"ΓΏ
Review: Always Running is a book into one man's life and his constant movement away from Mexico, drugs, gangs and relationships. Although a tough young thug schooled on the streets of Los Angeles, Louis T. Rodriguez is a promising young man, all he needs to do is look into his soul to find out who he really is. Rodriguez' unique writing style take's leaps and bounds throughout his life highlighting all of his mishaps and accomplishments. Each page draws you in with a new story each one more interesting than the last. He doesn't bore you with small detail and foreshadows a life taking turns for the worst with each new episode. From a young age he is on the move hardly able to get settled in one place with his family. He's forced to live a life of poverty on the streets where he seeks companionship. He finds it in many different gangs and men who decide to run his life for him. In gangs he learns how to use a gun, run from the cops and indulge in many elicite drugs. He's caught up in a battle between his family and the one's he's met on the street. Dropping in and out of school he's confronted by many teachers who give him direction, if he choses to accept. It's a lot like the movie Blood in Blood Out, with all the gang affiliations and subtle cries for help from young men with no where to run. Leading a crazy lifestyle Louis tries to convey a message of morality to a son who is slowly slipping into a life he has often seen. I was so intrigued by this bookl that I hardly ever put it down. I finnished it in a matter of hours it seemed and went back over it to find new insights. I thought it grasped a much deeper side of me that wanted to know why people chose gangs. The novel painted a picture of greatness through all the trials and tribulations brought forth by an inteligent street smart man, wanting to bring hope to those like himself. I couldn't beleive how captivating it was as I could hardly wait to read about each next encounter. It had my eyes glued to the text and mind racing with enjoyment. I would recommnend the book to anyone who enjoys reading something which will change your outlook on everything. It will make you see the real person behind an iron mask of a gang lifestyle.
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Summary: Gangs, drugs, and violance
Review: "Always Running" is the true life story of Luis J. Rodriguez, who comes from a mexican immigrant family of six, and their struggle for a better life. The story takes place in the ghettos of Los Angeles, filled with gangs, drugs and violance. I really enjoyed reading this book, because it was easy to read and understand. And since I was so much into the reading, and what was going to happened in the next page, it didn't even seem as long as it was.In the back of the book, the author included a glossary. This helped me understand some of the vocabulary that he uses in spanish. Eventhough my first language is spanish, I never heard some of the vocabulary words that he used.I also liked the way that he describes all of the characters. He gives clear descriptions of the characters and that helped me to picture what they looked like. When he gives the descriptions of the gangs, he describes the Sangria gangsters as "Looking loke the old days. "In small hats, long coats, and baggy pants." He then describes the other gang Las Lomas. "Looking like summer, white t-shirts, starched levis with royal cuffs and bandanas." Overall, I would recommend this book for evryone to read. Specially those involved in gangs who think that they have no way out of a gang. Luis had a rough childhood, but he learned, after loosing twenty five of his friends due to gang violance, to go back to school and be someone.He learned to be succesful and he is now a great writer.I give this book five stars.
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Summary: Was a great story that opened my mind
Review: The story "Always Running" was a great; well told story which really opened my mind to the poblems of society. Everything in the story was based on true events on the street aand anyone with that experience should enjoy this story. Rodriguez tells of almost everyday experience with police brutality. In this story Rodriguez is beaten by police officers and taken to another "barrio" to get beaten again by different territory gang members on more than one occasion. The police brutality in this story is unreal and only shows how bad such people as Rodney King really felt the beatings. It made me think of how many of these beatings actually occur and go unheard of. I had always believed that gang members were these heartless people who hadn't a care in the world. People who go around killing and almost killing innocent peiople only to hear their territory called out from standing members of their gang. But actually the problem goes beyond the gang members, to their families and bad experience in a society with no acceptance. This story by Rodriguez tells of his experiences inthe gangs he grew inn He tells his experiences with drugs, death, school, love, sex and his supposable friends. This story shows the turnaround of a young boywho realizes that his life is so much more than a territory name called out after a lost victory. "Always Running" is a great story told with truth, heart, and more experience than one should be able to hold.
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Summary: La Vida Loca
Review: Always Running was one of the best books that I have ever read. I think this is because Rodriquez was really able to capture my attention. It all started with the title. La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. this made me want to figure out what is the crazy life and what are the gang days. After I saw the title my mind started wandering and I started thinking of gangs going around and stealing stuff and beating people up and that sort of stuff. The book was about drugs, gangs, and relationships. And how Rodriquez dealt with all of these. These are what caught my eye and then once it started reading the book Rodriguez's writing style brought me in even deeper. I really enjoyed reading about all of the different incidents. This book is written in such a way Rodriquez left out all of the boring parts and just put in the important points to support his moral for writing the book. The moral being taught was to Rodriquez's son and the moral was to show that no good could come from being in a gang. Rodriquez was trying to show his son that more good would come from staying in school then being in a gang. Another reason I liked the book is because not like some books this book was trying to teach somebody a lesson. This book was a fun and exciting book to read it seemed like with each new page there was a new mini-story in Rodriguez's life. While I was reading this book I kept thinking of The Outsiders. I really enjoyed the outsiders too. I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to know what life was like in a gang in the toughest parts in LA.
Rating: 
Summary: always runninfg
Review: According to this book Iread about a boy who is originally fram Mexico and he lived with his parents in the U.S.A. at Los Angules .He had an adventurous life because he a former LA gang's member. In fact he explianed his experiences when he was young with his dudes.Most of the time he recalled the powerof gangs in that time violence and poverty at 60's and 70's. I think this bookisn't only enjoyable,It's a good resource to learnslang which is used by the author.As a mattewr of fact the style of author was nice ,because he described all the details which were connected to the situations and that helps to understand also feel the story better .The language that he spoke is kind of informal with alot of bad words,but is still comprehesible and easy to grasp like "Monster"which is written by Koclog Scott and about auto biography of an LA gang member. The best part that Iliked it alot was when Luis and his friendswent to resturant for cheating the owner by not paying the bill of orders.But Luis was arrested by the owner of the resturant.Luis and theowner discussred about why Luis wanted to do that and why some people are trying to be uselessand unrespectable by doing these stuff instead of being useful and respectfulfor their scosity.The point of discussion which was really importantwas talking abot some people are not helped by those people who are in charge like mayor.I learned some good stuff about gangs like what are their expectations from life and other people.I recommend the book to teens because they are more intersted more than other ages.
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