Dan Zevin has a laid-back and easy way of writing. His writing style makes for a fun, quick read due to the face that the book is only 172 pages long. Zevin covers topics that nearly everyone experiences as we get older, making this book applicable to everyone who is starting to feel like a grown-up. Not only can we all relate to some of the "confessions" in this book, but with Zevin, we realize that getting older is not so bad.

When you first look at the cover of East of the Mountains by David Guterson, you see a dark gray sky with barren mountains and a field full of dying grass. Throughout the picture runs a gravel road which passes an apple orchard on the way to the mountains in the background. The cover provides a good visual of the story that Guterson tells. This is a story of a doctor named Ben Givens who was recently diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. He has three months to live, and intends to travel east of the mountains to end his life on his own terms.

Josh Hamilton is a true success story. He has had it all, hit rock bottom, and now he is truly back at the top of the mountain. As a boy, he became interested in baseball at a very early age, and was so good at the game that he was placed in much older leagues before he was even ten years old.