Looking for Alaska by John Green

Do you see the gold seal on the cover of this book? That means it won an award. So you should read it. Okay, okay, I can hear you all groaning in terror. Just because a book won an award doesn't necessarily mean that you yourself will like it at all! I mean look at me! I still haven't been able to get through James Joyce's Ulysses and it's won all kinds of awards! But I digress. You will like Looking For Alaska if you like books that are smart, take place in boarding schools, involve elaborate pranks, have relationships, and have a mystery centered at the core of the book. Meet Miles Halter. He transfers to a new school (a boarding school) and gets thrown immediately (and literally) into the strange politics of boarding school life. Things are not looking up when he finds himself duct-taped up like a mummy and thrown into a lake. However, he meets Alaska (a girl, not a United State of America) and things start looking up. But she has a boyfriend. And then he has a girlfriend. And then halfway through the book, everything changes. John Green is a smart, funny author well deserving of awards. Now go read this book!