Another book thread- teen YA

Parent Cafe
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<p>If she liked The Secret Life of Bees, then I think she would really like The Help. The main character is a recent college gradutate and is a misfit in her Southern town. It’s really a wonderful book and has been on the bestseller list for about a year. One of those word-of-mouth bestsellers like Secret Life of Bees. The Thirteenth Tale is also excellent with a young woman narrator.</p>

<p>If she liked Wintergirls, has she read any other books by Laurie Halse Anderson? I read Speak and Fever 1793. She has probably already read Speak.</p>

<p>She might like this: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. It’s about an older teenaged girl who homesteads by herself in Montana during WWI. </p>

<p>Has she read Chris Crutcher? He’s a really popular teen author. Whale Talk and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes</p>

<p>Others:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Jacqueline Woodson novels
Jacab Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson</p>

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<p>Also: Mildred D. Taylor’s books about a young woman and her family in pre-civil-rights-era Mississippi. Those are amazing.</p>

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<p>mom60 - I was going to suggest the Tamara Pierce books as D1 loved all of these and got D2 (also 16) into reading these a couple of years ago. Did your D read the A List or Gossip Girl Books? My 16 year old liked these a couple of years back.</p>

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<p>Might be just me, but I found Pillars of the Earth more graphic…
Besides, point is, they are all great books but they also all have strong sexual content.</p>

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<p>Tribes of Palos Verdes by Joy Nicholson (divorce, surfing, family crisis)
Whale Talk by Christopher Crutcher (misfit high school swim team)</p>

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<p>I also recommend The Help. How about Memoirs of a Geisha, 1984, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Q&A/Slumdog Millionaire, Girl With a Pearl Earring, The Nanny Diaries. There’s a website called Teens Read Too dot com (don’t know if I’m allowed to link) that has recommendations of young adult books.</p>

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<p>My teen D has been reading Nicholas Sparks books. Since a couple of them were movies recently, she has enjoyed reading the books.</p>

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<p>90% of the books recommended in this thread are NOT “adult” books, and would not be anything I would recommend to a 16-year-old who was a strong reader. When I was 16, I was reading (and loving) One Hundred Years Of Solitude and Gravity’s Rainbow. My daughter, at 16, was reading Anna Karenina and Middlesex (then her favorite book), and memorizing Wallace Stevens’ The Idea Of Order At Key West.</p>

<p>Also, why do people keep recommending science fiction and fantasy when the OP has said that her daughter does not like them?</p>

<p>So . . . . </p>

<p>Lots of mass-market fiction best sellers are driven by women who read, and would be enjoyed by 16 year-olds. People have mentioned The Secret Lives Of Bees and Water For Elephants. How about The Time-Traveler’s Wife or A Gate At The Stairs?</p>

<p>Any meaningful book of the last 50 years ought to be fair game.</p>

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<p>I don’t think anyone has mentioned Barbara Kingsolver’s novels and nonfiction, “work often focusing on topics such as social justice, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments”. My nineteen year old started with The Poisonwood Bible this summer and is now steadily working her way through this author’s oeuvre. She doesn’t always agree with Kingsolver, but finds her thought provoking.</p>

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<p>I have made a pile of books that I found on our home bookshelves. The pile includes Barbara Kingsolver- Animal Dreams, Cynthia Voight-Homecoming,Time Travelers Wife, Sarah’ Key, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle. A few others I can’t think of right now.
Plus I have started a list of books that we will hit the library website and see about requesting some more books.
I have Middlesex and hadn’t thought of giving it to her. I will add it to the pile.</p>