Is Pete Hautman's book, Invisible worth while reading?
440350
Reviews and Commentary\n(http://www.petehautman.com/invisibleinfo.html)  \n\nLIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review) \n\nSeventeen-year-old Dougie takes everything literally, lacks social graces and is a loner, except, perhaps, for his one friend, athletic and popular Andy Morrow. But readers know almost immediately that something tragic has happened in the recent past: ' Andy and I had some bad luck with fires when we were kids. We're more careful now.' Other students feel threatened by Dougie's disturbing behavior and react by targeting him with cruelty and violence, which only serves to escalate his descent into unreality, isolation, and obsession. The teen has been working for nearly three years on his model railroad set, using 22, 400 headless matches to build a bridge connecting portions of the 'Madham Line.' As his life deteriorates, this obsession and his nightly talks with Andy are the only things that keep him clinging to normalcy. He resists the help of his psychiatrist and hides his medication. Ultimately, he is forced to remember what actually happened on that fateful night. With its excellent plot development and unforgettable, heartbreaking protagonist, this is a compelling novel of mental illness. \n\n  \n\nHORN BOOK (starred review) \n\nGifted in math, and recognizably clever when constructing architectural models (he's building an elaborate railroad system in his basement), Doug reveals that it's human interaction he can't figure out. "I'm a quiet kid, pretty much invisible," he says in a precise, unemotional voice, as this unreliable narrator begins his story. Invisibility is Doug's rationale for explaining a range of rejection, from teacher irritation to peer scorn, particularly from pretty and popular Melissa Haverman, who is disgusted by what readers will recognize as Doug's stalker behavior. But Doug reports one near-perfect relationship, the one he has with his best friend, Andy. Gradually, however, that friendship is revealed to be not what it seems. There are secrets from their past that Doug won't discuss, and hints from their present life that skew his tale. Why is there a strange man in Andy's house? What fuels Doug's increasingly complex rendering of their intertwined initials? What medication is Doug refusing to take? Reading this psychological thriller is much like putting together one of Doug's railroad bridges: connections are being made, but the realities being built may be imitations of life rather than the real thing. The tension comes from entering Doug's private hell and learning what put him there. \n\n  \n\nPUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review) \n\nThe strength of Hautman's painfully sad novel is the wisecracking but clearly unreliable voice of its narrator, 17-year-old Douglas MacArthur Hanson who admits, "I'm not only disturbed, I'm obsessed." One of his passions is "Madham," a town he's building for his model railroad, complete with a 1:800 scale replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. He's also fixated on a pretty girl who clearly wants nothing to do with him. And he's overly reliant on his only friend, Andy Morrow, a fellow junior who is the popular and outgoing yang to Dougie's outcast and introverted yin. Hautman expertly teases out the truth about a tragic incident that occurred "at the Tuttle place" three years earlier, a mystery that propels the story to its horrific conclusion. Dougie is as mathematically gifted and socially inept as the autistic narrator of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but he also has a sophisticated wit. During a lapse in conversation at one of his $95-an-hour therapy sessions, he observes, "We stare at each other for about $1.40." His self-deprecating comments and wry observations make his spiral into self destruction all the more heartbreaking. (One measure of how sympathetically the aut
245476
the will let you if you read the invisible words on your space
176603
It's a wonderful book, that teeters between reality, the unexplained and the WHAT IF.\n\nIn short it is about small clues left behind by the famous Artist Leonardo DaVince, it claims that certain paintings he made hold secret clues about Jesus.  It goes on to discuss the Priory of Sion, Secret Society the Dossier letters to be more clues, of Jesus being married to Mary Magdaline, and producing a female child, Sarah, who is the direct descendant of Jesus.\n\nYou should have watched the History Channel last night--Josh Bernstein, 'Diggin for the truth.'\n\nGood Luck and Prosper...;*!*;...
999011
hello laurel! i think the book by john hagee titled "attack on america" is a great book, the reason why i like the book is because it reminds me that if i don,t get my self together in hell i will lift up my eyes.i also like this book because it is a reminder that we only have little time left, i think that everyone should read this book and have a discussion about the things that are unfolding before our very eyes...
976345
this is a no-brainer....\n\nInvisibility is for perverts...\n\nFlying is momentary pleasure....\n\nTime-travel, the possibilities are endless...
1057151
If you want insight into the book, take a look at the 260 book reviews people have posted on Amazon.com about it.  If you just don't want to be bothered reading it, their enthusiasm might make you realize that you are missing something really good.
543344
As a teacher, just hearing that book title makes me feel ill-at-ease.  Sounds a bit too touchy-feely for the real world you'll be soon encountering.  No, I've never read your particular book.  But I recommend the book below; although ambitiously overpriced, it's interesting and gives you plenty to think about and consider for adaptation in your own classroom.  I believe it is thus worth what you'll pay.
53195
depends on the version of the book
442037
Yes, very much so!! Everybody's caught up on Fight Club, but everything he's put out is genious. I (believe) I read all of his books...I just re-read Invisable monsters and I still need to get Haunted(?)
249997
Probably. It sounds like a real page-turner. Check your libary.
639184
This book is a classic enthnographic text that needs to be read by all those who are interested in revealling the social forces that shapes our lives as a people living under this last state of Capitalism, that others call a Globalised world. Even though Paul Willis was looking at Working class kids in England, I have found the application of his methodology applicable even in the context of a post Apartheid state like South Africa where we talk of the "historically disadvantaged learner" as an eupermism for the same phenomenon that Willis has studies.\n\nNice light reading matter there.
249457
:}\nHaven’t read it but it sounded like agreat title\nI tried to find it on Google and then Amazon   No luck.   Who was the author?
274738
It is too new to be available to view online.  I have seen the book sell cheap on Ebay.com and Half.com\nYou can also fine it on abebooks.com too, although it will be a bit more.
718883
if you go into invisible mode, you can see who all are invisible. but if your friend has put you into invisible mode then you won't be able to see.
836640
Yes, by all means read it.  It is all that and a bag of chips, no doubt.  I promise.  You will probably be a better person for it.\n\nI DO  recommend reading the second volume first, then the first volume (and maybe/not) reread the second and then the rest in order.  I've found that for the non-hardcore fantasy fan, this works a little better, as the writing in the first collection is still a little tentative, like he hadn't quite figured out his game plan.  Neil Gaiman himself has said that it didn't quite come together until issue #8, both the coda to the first collected & the prologue to the second.\n\nHe also wrote three additional Sandman books after the series concluded; in my opinion, these are best tackled after finishing the collected #s1-10.
132287
ha, its called READING THE BOOK!!! if you havent purchased it yet you can get it for a deal at textbook411.com  good luck!
1051849
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."\nPg. 73 of my hardback version.\nBeautiful book - you should read all of it!\nSorry, I don't have a copy in French & my knowledge of the language is not good enough.