Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Story
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The author created many memorable, distinct characters, both gay and straight. The main character was so likeable and real it made the book very involving. And the supporting characters also were well drawn.I loved the many twists and turns of the plot. I never knew what was going to happen next, which made this novel almost impossible to put down. This book made me think about love, homosexuality, peer pressure, friendship, and other interesting issues. But it didn't hit me over the head with them. Mostly, it told an exciting story, layered with deeper issues and insights. This is not just a book for gay teens, by the way. I'm a heterosexual middle aged woman and I was completely engrossed by the story and the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely sensational novel!
Review: I was hooked after the first page of this beautifully written, fast-paced novel. Told through the voice of Russel Middlebrook, the book is effecting and effective. Russel is a gay sophomore at Goodkind High School, and he is facing the inherently scary world of high school, made even scarier by the secret he feels he must keep. When he and other closeted students form the "Geography Club," they create a safe and happy haven.
Though peer pressure and insecurity eventually shape and change the club and the relationships of its members. THE GEOGRAPHY CLUB is essentially a hopeful work. By the time the "Geography Club" has become the "Goodkind High School Gay-Straight-Bisexual Alliance," Russel has gained a better understanding and acceptance of himself, and the reader is optimistic about the protagonist's future.
Hartinger's treatment of his characters is refreshing in its realism. Characters are not stereotypes. Members of the Geography Club are neither unrealistically heroic nor are they self-loathing. Instead, Russel and his friends are average kids with the same wants and needs as their straight peers. Their ideas and actions are funny, flawed, and sometimes heartbreaking. The dialogue is believable, an appropriate mix of slang and profanity. Through his marvelous prose, Hartinger addresses a sensitive subject, and its problems and achievements, with humor and grace. Without a hint of preaching, the author delivers important messages-regardless of their sexuality, teens face the pains and consequences of being different and self-acceptance is essential in growing up.
Parents, teachers, and teens, whether gay and straight, will benefit from this wonderful debut novel.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down
Review: I was hooked by about page ten, and I loved every minute of this book. I've read my share of "young adult" fiction (I'm a high school teacher), and I have yet to read a story as compelling as this one. The themes are universal and the characters are so real that I think anyone who is--or has been--a teenager will bond with them instantly.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book Ever
Review: I'm not a huge fan of reading. But I AM a big fan of the book...I can REALLY relate to Geography Club. In fact, I loved it so much, I read it cover to cover, nonstop. READ GEOGRAPHY CLUB!
Rating:
Summary: Fun, EZ Read
Review: It's been about five years since I have been this excited about a book *after* reading it! As a character in the book book would say, "Docious!"
Rating:
Summary: Light and Breezy
Review: Last night I started reading Geography Club by Brent Hartingberg which was actually really good and breezy to get through. It's about a gay high school student who finds other gay kids in school but they are all from different cliques so in order to not look suspicious when they get together to talk to each other, they form the GEOGRAPHY CLUB, because no high school student in their right mind would ever join a GEOGRAPHY CLUB. So it was their cover story as to why they hung out after school. It was a cute book, I laughed out loud a lot of times. I read just 60 pages last night, I went to bed and woke up and I finished the book in a little over 2 hours (but I'm a slow reader).
A favorite part of mine in the book is when the main character's best friend, Gunner who wants to date this girl. Sets Russle up with her friend, Trish, so Russle dates this girl he doesn't like for his friend, and when he goes to a diner with her, he notices other guys checking his date out. This was the funniest line in the book, "I didn't know what to do about that. Should I bear my teeth and growl?"
He finds love in the popular jock but the high school clique situation tests their relationship, yadda, yadda, yadda, which really isn't a big part of the book, to me.
It was a really good book, and like I said, it was breezy and easy to get though, worth your valuable time.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book Needed
Review: Remember all of those social cliques in high school? Remember the pain of feeling left out? Remember feeling as if you were the only one who felt as you did? Brent Hartinger does, and he captures those feelings honestly and effectively in his new book for teens, "Geography Club". Russel is your Joe Average teen struggling with being gay in admist all of the usual teenage angst that comes with high school. Russel's convinced he's the only gay teen in the school, until one night, in a chat room, he discovers another. They plan a secret rendezvous, and Russel is genuinely shocked to discover the identity of that person. Thus starts the plot of "Geography Club". As soon as Russel discovers other gay teens in his high school, they attempt to form a support group. Hoping to dissuade others from joining, they dub it the moniker "Geography Club". What ensues is an interesting, intriguing story. Clearly written for teenagers, the style of writing is appropriate for the audience, if not particularly deep for adults. The characters do sparkle alive, and there never was a false moment in any character, especially with Brain Bund. Brain plays the school's nerdy loser, who is at the receiving end of all the school's pranks. Hartinger does a great job making him as three-dimensional as the rest, and you feel real sympathy for his pain. What this book does for adults is evoke long lost feelings about what it was like in high school for those of us struggling to keep ourselves a secret. But more importantly, what this book does for kids is offer a ray of light, an outreach to them. This is the perfect book for the gay kid living in a small town in Anywhere U.S.A., who needs someone or something to identify with. Had this book been around when I was in high school, my life may have been much different. Thanks to Hartinger for writing such a daring, honest book, and for creating the Geography Club to begin with!
Rating:
Summary: A marvelous book
Review: Russ thinks he's the only gay kid at his high school, but soon he founds out he's wrong when he discovers one of the popular jocks is also gay. And when Russ outs himself to one of his best friends, he finds out she's a lesbian. Soon the three of them gather a few others together and begin to meet informally for mutual support. They decide to form a club that will meet at school to discuss issues and call themselves the Geography Club so no one else would possibly want to join. But then someone does... And how will the group deal with the harassment of a fellow student who's suspected of being gay? "Geography Club" is a superb novel with complex characters and situations about finding personal strength to stand up for what's right and about being true to oneself and to one's friends. Hartinger has created a captivating cast of people who enchant this young adult novel, and ultimately the book is a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Moving Story, Classic Characters, & a Book That's All Heart
Review: Russel Middlebrook is a 16 year old high school sophomore hiding a big secret: he's gay. He keeps a low profile because he doesn't want to be treated like the school outcast and scapegoat Brian Bund upon whom all manner of dirty tricks and teenage cruelties are visited. Instead, Russel spends his time with Gunnar and Min, a guy and girl known for their brains, but who are also "occasional visitors to the border region of high school respectability" (p. 6). Russel is not eager to leave that border. Ever. By a fluke Russel learns that another student is also gay, and he embarks upon that universally heady, intense journey where falling in love seems oh-so-right. He joins the baseball team to be with his boyfriend-even hits a home run-and suddenly he's living in the Land of the Popular. But he also meets some other kids who are gay and lonely. They have an inspiration to start a gay/lesbian support group, but in order to keep out those who would mock and exile them, they call it Geography Club. Unfortunately, the secret does not stay confidential, and the fallout is more than Russel thinks he can bear. Will he choose to take the coward's way out? Or can he stand up to the ignorant people all around? With a light touch and a sense of humor, Hartinger tells a very serious story, one that is being played out in high schools across the country. With unerring accuracy, he depicts the isolation and fear first of one young man, then of a small group, and he reveals the courage and support it takes for any gay or lesbian high school student to stand up to the crowd. By the end of this novel, I had tears in my eyes. The story is moving, the characters are classic, and the discoveries Russel makes are ones that both high schoolers and adults should all learn. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book
Review: Russel Middlebrook- High School student, nerdy, gay.
Kevin Land- High School student, popular, gay.
Min- Friend to Russel, nerdy, bisexual.
Gunnar- Friend to Min and Russel, straight. Those are the some of the main characters in one of my new favorite books, Geography Club by Brent Hartinger. As you can see, there may be some slight conflicts between characters for various reasons. Excerpt-
'I was deep behind enemy lines, in the very heart of the opposing camp. My advisaries were all around me. For the time being, my disguise was holding, but i still felt exposed, naked, as if my secret was obvious to anyone who took the time to look. I knew that any wrong action, however slight, could expose my deception, and reval my true identity. The thought made my skin prickle. The enemy would not take kindly to my infiltration of their ranks, especially not here, in their inner sanctum.
Then, Kevin Land leaned over the wooden bench behind my locker and said, "Yo Middlebrook, let me use your shampoo!"' The entire book is in Russel's point of veiw, a very interesting one at that. I would reccomend this book to anyone, because it is interesting, well written and it is the perfect image of reality. One would think books about teenage life would be depressing or sad, especially one dealing with bouts of your sexuality, but not this one, it is funny, upbeat and bound to make you smile. But it has a serious side too, toward the end of the story after everyone has grown and changed a bit.
|
