What We're Reading for October 23rd!

Who: Eastview students
What: Bringing Down the House (Mezrich)
When: Friday, October 23, 2009
Where: 11:30 a.m. at Buffalo Wild Wings in Apple Valley
Why: Because REAL MEN READ!

Bringing Down the House is an action-filled caper carried out by the unlikeliest of cons - supersmart geeks. Gambling pervaded the M.I.T. campus, and genius kids with money and glittering futures were just as likely to be found in a Paradise Island casino as in the school library. A highly elite group of mathletes was recruited to join The Club, a small, secret blackjack organization dedicated to counting cards and beating the major casinos across the nation at their own game. As a successful ring of card savants, backed by mysterious ringleader and shadowy investors, they infilitrated Vegas and won millions.

What We're Reading for Summer 2009!

DIVINE JUSTICE by David Baldacci

WAR AS THEY KNEW IT: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest by Michael Rosenberg

DUNE MESSIAH by Frank Herbert

Students - these three summer offerings provide three distinctly different experiences. Click on the text link for each title to see descriptions of each book.

After you have selected which book you intend to read, please INDICATE your choice(s) on the POLL TO THE RIGHT. You can select more than one title if you wish. You are responsible for obtaining a copy of the book - check out the local libraries or go to the local book sellers.

The RMR book talk event for all three books will be held on THURSDAY, AUGUST 13th beginning at 11:30 AM at BUFFALO WILD WINGS in Apple Valley.

Why? Because REAL MEN READ!

What We're Reading for May 29th!

Who: Eastview Students
What: Memorial Day by Vince Flynn
When: Lunch - Friday, May 29th
Where: Room C234
Why: Because REAL MEN READ!!!

Students - our next book for RMR is Vince Flynn's, Memorial Day. Flynn is a local author who has written several NY Times best sellers which feature CIA agent, Mitch Rapp as the main character.

Vince Flynn grew up in Apple Valley and attended Valley Middle School and then went to high school at St. Thomas Academy. I've read all of his books and I'm really excited for you to experience at least one book from the Mitch Rapp series.

This past winter, I had a chance to listen to Mr. Flynn talk about his latest book, Extreme Measures at the Barnes & Noble at the Galleria in Edina. He is really an interesting person and was able to share some really interesting experiences which have come to him because of his engaging and extremely realistic albeit fictional writing.

The latest entry in Flynn's popular Mitch Rapp series (after 2003's Executive Power) offers a gripping look at what could transpire if a terrorist group were to sneak a nuclear weapon into the U.S. Rapp, the relentless, marble-hearted CIA assassin and terrorist hunter, would never let that happen, of course, and Flynn's description of the process of bringing a nuke ashore and the lengths to which the government's counterterrorism force will go to prevent harm to U.S. citizens add up to another page-flipping extravaganza.

Rapp, back in the field after a long stint on desk duty for insubordination, unearths the bomb plot during a daring commando raid on an al-Qaeda stronghold in Afghanistan. A U.S. strike force manages to intercept and disarm the nuke moments after it arrives by freighter in Charleston, S.C. Everyone, including series stalwart President Robert Hayes, congratulates themselves on a job well done, but Rapp isn't convinced; he believes al-Qaeda leader Mustafa al-Yamani has smuggled a second nuke into the country and plans to detonate it in Washington, D.C., during Memorial Day celebrations.

Rapp, a ruthless terrorist pursuer by temperament and training, turns it up several notches this time around, following al-Yamani's scent with feverish abandon. Flynn trots out his usual assortment of characters to keep the action tense-wishy-washy cabinet members, political climbers, invective-spewing terrorists and a selected assortment of ice queens who use sex as a weapon. Yet his skillful use of converging plots, particularly the panic created by having a nuke on the loose, is enough to keep Flynn's growing fan base more than willing to overlook the formulaic components. Agent, Sloan Harris. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business

What We're Currently Reading

• Who: Eastview students
• What: "Dune" by Frank Herbert
• When: Lunch - Friday, April 3rd
• Where: Room C234
• Why: Because, REAL MEN READ!

Students - the last poll ended in a tie so today I flipped a coin during 3rd hour and the choice was made...we're reading "Dune" by Frank Herbert. We will most likely read the Vince Flynn book later this spring.

SIGN-UP to read this book and join the talk by clicking on "COMMENTS" (on this post) - provide your name and which lunch you will be attending the talk.

Check with the Media Center for copies of the book. You can also check the Dakota County libraries as well as the Half Price Book Store in Apple Valley. If you've exhausted those options, you may need to go to the local booksellers and pay ~$8.00 for a paperback copy.

LET DR. BEACH KNOW IF YOU NEED HELP GETTING A BOOK....don't let availability or money stop you from reading this great novel!

Here's a review which was written last month on the Barnes & Noble web site:

For anybody who is a fan of science fiction, or anybody who likes a good read, Dune is an absolute must. For sci-fy fans, you need to read this novel, since if you haven't, you have missed out on one of the greatest novel's of our time. This book should be required reading for schools everywhere. Dune is a great mix of political intrigue, philosophical musings, action, and morality. The story is of Paul's transformation from the son of a duke, to the hardened veteran of the desert, then to a messiah of the people of Dune, (the Freemen), the great Muad'Dib. We see Paul Muad'Dib rise in maturity as he comprehends the results of his actions, and sees how he can save the human universe from the tranquilizing drug of gradulism it had succumbed to. This all culimates into an ending that is so riviting you will not be able to put down the book, I know this from personal experince while reading Dune. When you are done, the questions, lingering from reading Dune will leave you questioning what humanity is truly capable of doing and achieving.

What We're Currently Reading

• Who: Eastview men
• What: Angels & Demons (Brown)
• When: Lunch – Thursday, Jan. 29th
• Where: Room C234
• See: Dr. Beach in the C3 Cluster to sign-up!
• Why: Because, REAL MEN READ!

Here is a review of the book taken from the Barnes & Noble web site:

Dan Brown is clearly one of my favorite writers. Angels and Demons is an absolute thriller that keeps you thinking about what is going to happen next. The story revolves around a character named Robert Langdon, who is also character to the Da Vinci Code. This is my first book by Dan Brown and I love how he puts real events and ties them into a fiction storyline. Langdon's first race against time to find the long lost group called the Illuminati. Langdon is a professor at Harvard and studies into symbology. He is sent to Europe to study and track symbols left by the Illuminati. This group is responsible for the killing of a man Leonardo Vetra, a scientist at CERN. CERN is the system that Langdon is helping out to find the assassin of the murder. Langdon must find this murderer before the Illuminati are able to finish their final plans, blowing up the Vatican City with a quarter gram of antimatter. A book like this can easily be separated to many other books out there. You have to remember though that this storyline is entirely fictional which enables you to keep you thinking all the way until the end. This book is a definite read to all if you love stories with a good thriller plot and is one that keeps you in your seat wanting to read more and more.

What We Read in December!

• Who: Eastview boys
• What: The Great Train Robbery
• When: Lunch – Friday, Dec. 19th
• Where: Room C234
• See Dr. Beach to sign-up and get a copy of the book in the 3C cluster!
• Why: Because, REAL MEN READ!

Edward Pierce is a gentleman rogue, a man perfectly suited to Queen Victoria's England. He's as clever as Sherlock Holmes, but he puts his wits to work at committing crimes instead of solving them. In this time and place where railway travel is relatively new, he targets a London bank's regular shipments of gold bullion - by rail, and by sea - to Paris, and sets about planning and arranging a heist that will give him fabulous wealth for the rest of his days. Michael Crichton's techno-thrillers, as much as I enjoy them, often suffer from wooden characters. This book most definitely does not. Pierce, the surprisingly (sometimes infuriatingly) engaging hero/villain, is beautifully written and the cast of characters surrounding him comes colorfully alive, even for those who play relatively minor roles. The dialog written in dialect and the wealth of historical and cultural detail add texture, and the plot works well but it's the characters that make this story such a pleasure to read.