The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

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Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Penguin, 2012. Print. 

Annotation:  Hazel and Augustus, two cancer patients fall in love and learn about loss.

Booktalk:
Hazel Grace Lancaster is dying.  The fact is undeniable, but while not in remission, an experimental drug has halted the progress of her cancer indefinitely.  At a support group for kids with cancer she meets Augustus Waters.  He is hansom, smart, funny and understands what it is to live with cancer.  Hazel Grace and Augustus visit the Netherlands searching for answers from the author of their favorite book.  Along the way they discover the love of their lives. 

"Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world.  Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death.  We all want to be remembered. I do, too.  That's what bothers me most, is being another unremembered casualty in the ancient and inglorious war against disease.  I want to leave a mark.  But... The marks humans leave are too often scars.  You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rock star and you think, "They'll remember me now," but (a) they don't remember you, and (b) all you leave behind are scars.  Your coup becomes a dictatorship. Your minimall becomes a lesion."

The story of Hazel and Augustus is a tale of love, of dying, and of the scars we leave.

Watch author John Green read the entire first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars.