Fauci: Expect the Unexpected by Anthony Fauci and National Geographic Society (Editor)

Fauci: Expect the Unexpected by Dr. Anthony Fauci and National Geographic Society (Editor)-96 pages

Ten Lessons are presented here from interviews with Fauci featured in a documentary on National Geographic. Fauci gives much great advice in these pages. For instance, he encourages perseverance, tolerance, and service for the greater good, among other things. He has spent decades working with and treating infectious diseases, even though he was scoffed at in the beginning. His colleagues thought that infectious diseases was a dying field. How wrong they were! Dr. Fauci discusses empathizing above all. He tells a story about his mom reading a newspaper article about the U.S. dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His mom got emotional over the lives lost even though Japan was an enemy and that stuck with Dr. Fauci. To this day, he tries to empathize above all. I like Dr. Fauci's attitude of service. He seems like a genuine and sincere person who is doing his best to serve the country (and the world). I have gained more respect for him as a result of reading this short book. It seems that he has been unjustly vilified and mocked by some in this country, especially certain media. He is simply trying his best to do his job. I hope more people read this book. 

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins, 603 pages

I think you could call this a stand alone novel, but it is a follow up to Ellen Hopkin's adult novel, Triangles.  For the first 300 or 400 pages of Tilt, the storyline overlaps with Triangles, but in Tilt, it is told from the teens perspective as opposed to their mother's perspective.  Tilt follows the lives of three teens, Mikayla, Harley and Shane.  Shane and Harley are cousins and Mikayla is a good friend.  Mikayla finds herself alone and pregnant when the father of her child abandons her.  She must decide to keep her baby or chose adoption.  Harley finds herself in dangerous situations, pressured by the boys she thinks care about her.  And, Shane, as a homosexual teen, finds himself in love with a young man with HIV.  Tilt is sad and heartfelt as the reader watches their lives intertwine and tumble out of control.

Tilt - Ellen Hopkins

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins - 602 pages

Witnessing the fallout from the poor choices their parents make and the lies adults tell themselves, three teens are clinging to the remnants of the secure and familiar world in which they've grown up. Makayla is sure she's found the love her parents seem to have lost, but is suddenly weighing nearly impossible choices in the wake of dashed expectations. Shane has come out, unwilling to lie anymore about who he is. Harley, a good girl just seeking new experiences, never expects to hurtle towards self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.