Best adult books for teens

Here is a list of best adult books for teens in 2010, compiled by reviewers from School Library Journal.  Maybe you'll find a gift for your teenager among them.

Picks for 2010

Many review publications are now listing their favorite books of 2010; here are offerings from the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York Times.

What we are reading

This is a busy time for everyone at Crossroads as the semester winds down.  This means either we don't have much time to read or that we need to read in order to relax!  Perhaps you will find your holiday picks among these titles...

Anne Treeger Huck is reading Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage and Middlemarch by George Eliot--novels by two amazing women writers from different eras.

Howard dips into his magazines when he has free time--World War II, Science and Discover, as well as The New York Times.
 
Joan has begun the autobiography of Andre Agassi, which received a good review in the New York Times.  She recently finished Emma Donoghue's Room, a novel that has been shortlisted for a major literary prize, the Man Booker.  Nerdy librarian factoid--there are 121 people on the waiting list for Room at the County library.  The good news is all of the County library branches have multiple bestseller copies available, first come first served, no waiting list required.  Stop by and browse sometime.

Sarah PW just finished The Help, another popular novel.  It was in constant demand over the summer at the public libraries.  She is now reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Tom is reading Boardwalk Empire:  The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson.  There is an HBO series inspired by the the book.  He is also enjoying Following Through, Herbert Warren Wind's writings on golf.

Over Thanksgiving, Billy read The Age of Wonder:  How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science.  The book review in the New York Times is well worth reading.  Billy is now spending time with Henry Clay:  The Essential American by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler.  C-Span2 interviewed the Heidlers about Henry Clay and you can listen to their comments on booktv.org.

Pleasure reading

I talked with Dave about his latest pleasure reading: The Soul Thief, by Cecelia Holland.  Here's an excerpt from the Publisher's Weekly review:  "A bloody Viking raid on an Irish coastal town is the springboard for a nonstop romp through a fictional time of evil sorcery, ruthless kings, fierce pirates, kidnapped heroines, sweet romance and everyday heroes, set against the brutal backdrop of Norse life in feudal times."  And he just began book 2, The Witches' Kitchen.  This sounds like good escapism for the holiday break.  I hope everyone finds time to relax and to read.

Historical fiction, part 2

I just read Revolution, the latest teen novel by Jennifer Donnelly.  This one weaves together the stories of Andi (21st century NYC) and Alex (French Revolution era Paris) as Andi struggles to recover from the death of her younger brother, Truman, and Alex fights to survive the political climate as she cares for Marie Anoinette's son.   School Library Journal named Revolution as one of the best fiction books of 2010.  Melissa, the young adult/children's book buyer at Pudd'nhead Books, says it is her current favorite.  I would suggest Revolution for older teens because it opens with some heavy cynicism about school, including drinking to get through the day.  But this is not the tone of the book throughout; Donnelly uses the scene to highlight Andi's unhappiness and to introduce the particular group of upper class teens who are Andi's classmates.  Revolution will appeal to both boys and girls and to musicians.  Andi is a gifted guitarist and there is much talk about music throughout the novel.

why we like historical fiction

Sometimes the words "historical fiction" are the kiss of death when you introduce a new book to a teenager.  Better to describe the plot:  "It's about a thirteen year-old girl who boards a ship in Liverpool to sail across the Atlantic.  She believes the captain to be a good man but he is not, and she must join the crew as a sailor to survive the journey."  My daughter is entranced by this particular story at the moment-- The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi.  I read it to her at night and she was reading to me on the way to school this morning.   More later about good historical fiction for young adults...

Reader's Best Friend

Novelist is an amazing resource that is available to anyone who has a St. Louis City, St. Louis County or University City Public Library card (and other libraries, too--check with your librarian).  Novelist is a huge, searchable database of fiction and nonfiction books for all ages that provides multiple book reviews for each title (particularly helpful to parents who want to evaluate a book before their child reads it) as well as the capability to search by subject!   Yes, if you want to see a list of award-winning fantasy books for teens, Novelist can do it.  Or if you are interested in historical fiction set during the civil war era, Novelist will find them for you.  I'm glad to show you how Novelist works.

Savoring

A seventh grade girl says she loves The Outsiders so much that she left it at school over the weekend so she wouldn't finish it too quickly.  I remember having that marvelous feeling when I was her age.   Now I am happy just to have the time to read; a sheltering space.  The good stories are too numerous.

Billy recently finished The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Vaillant.  It is about a man-eating tiger in Russia and a study of the relationship between wild animals and humans.  The author has written for The New Yorker, National Geographic, and The Atlantic.  Billy said the story line is very exciting.

Books on the Nightstand

Billy recommends the weekly podcast from Books on the Nightstand, a blog written by two folks in the publishing industry about books, bookstores, and the publishing world. 

Edip's nightstand is heavy with history books.  "I am reading a few books at the moment. The first one is called A New Republic by John Lukacs. It is a very provoking book which analyzes 20th century American history from a socio-cultural perspective.  The other two books are The Ancien Regime, a book on French history before the Revolution written by an English scholar, C.B.A. Behrens, and A History of England written by a French scholar, Andre Maurois. These are not your typical history books--they combine historical narrative with broad analyses and fluent styles."

Stream of reading

Look at the beautiful logo for our blog, made by Elaine.  To me it illustrates the stream of images, impressions and ideas that we encounter as we are reading.   You can put your boat in anywhere and travel as far as you'd like.

Anne Treeger-Huck tells me that she can't put down Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann.  The novel opens with an account of Philippe Petit's 1974 tightwire walk between the unfinished towers of the World Trade Center.  There is a fantastic children's picture book about Petit called The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, by Mordicai Gerstein (it won the Caldecott Award for illustration).

Keith is reading Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869, by Stephen Ambrose.  Keith says, "It's amazing how they set off to do this thing without much of a real plan--making it up as they went along."

National Book Award nominees

Joan stopped by and mentioned the recently announced National Book Award nominees.  There are some very interesting titles here, maybe your next good read.  I am about to begin Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi, one of the young adult fiction nominees.

Joan and Sara have weighed in on Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen.  Joan said that despite the initial hype, neither of them were delighted by the book.  Joan enjoyed some of the writing and certain scenes (such as the main character's campaign to put special bibs on the neighborhood cats to prevent them from eating birds) but didn't think the story held together well.  Anyone else have an opinion?  That glittering blue bird's eye on the cover creeps me out.

What We Are Reading, Part 3

Mark and Catrina are reading Good Without God, by Greg M. Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University.

John is reading Jason Selk's Ten-Minute Toughness: The Mental Training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins.

Tom has been enjoying Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, by T. J. Stiles.  Tom comments:  "I can only imagine what it was like to live in western Missouri during the Civil War.  Missouri was truly a schizo and dangerous place in which to live.  Just brutal.  A good companion to this book would be Brad Pitt's movie, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

Heather is reading Steve Martin's Pure Drivel and Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley.

Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry is Sarah's current read.  Amy is reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakimi.

Enjoy your fall break!

Read it Forward

Andrea from St. Louis Public Library talked to some of our eighth graders today about the "Read it Forward" program.  Free copies of Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time and Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee are available at all of the branch libraries.  Encourage your teenager to pick one up and share it with a friend.  Lisa Yee is an entertaining, humorous speaker and she will be at the Schlfafly Branch, November 10, 6-7 p.m. to talk about creative writing and her books.

What We Are Reading, Part 2

Billy:  "I am reading a couple of books right now. One is The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore.  It's a fascinating and painful narrative non-fiction tale about two men, both named Wes Moore, who travel very different paths: one goes into a life of crime and one becomes hugely successful. The book looks at the series of events that led the two men in very different directions.  The other book is called Imperial Reckoning, and it's about the prison camps the British instituted in Kenya during the Mau-Mau Rebellion."

Crossroads staff are enjoying a variety of fiction--Anne Treeger Huck is reading Sarah Conley, by Ellen Gilchrist.  Gilchrist won the National Book Award in 1984 with her collection of short stories, Victory Over Japan.  Joe's current read is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Steig Larson.  Gerry is reading Jane Eyre because his daughter has a solo in the musical version to be staged at Visitation Academy.

Joan and Sara are lugging around Franzen's Freedom.  I'd like to hear their impressions when they finish.  Franzen was on the cover of Time and the book has gotten a lot of positive attention.   Not everyone loves it, though--see the article by B. R. Meyers in the October issue of Atlantic magazine, available at the library ("Smaller Than Life").  Meyers expressed his dislike for some contemporary novel-writing techniques in his 2002 book,  A Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness of American Literary Prose.

More to come! 

8th Grade Book Worms

The self-described book worms in the Research and Reading class have several recommendations:

 TaLia likes all of Sharon G. Flake's books, and she is currently reading Bang! 

Eugenia enjoys the Drama High series, by L. Divine.  Eugenia writes: "Courtin' Jayd is the sixth book and takes place in south central Los Angeles.  It is about a teenage girl with the same problems most girls have: boys, money, cars and family.  There's one other thing--because of her family's beliefs, Jayd has spiritual powers.  I think this is a great book if you like drama.  Most teenage girls can relate to this book/series, including myself."

Charlotte read Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli.  "Everyone in Mica, Arizona is the same.  They dress the same.  It was weird to be different.  Everyone thought that, until Stargirl came.  She was completely different from anyone they had ever seen before.  She wore long skirts.  She played the ukulele.  She sang to people on their birthdays.  Everyone loved her and she amazed them.  Everything seemed perfect.  But things changed...people stopped liking her.  It started when she cheered for both teams at basketball games.  This story is a good mix of drama and comedy and has many plot twists."

Sara reviews Love Stargirl.  "In this sequel, Spinelli writes of Stargirl's sadness.  Although the sequel seems more realistic, it lacks the happy feel of the first book.  The story is written as a series of journal entries to her once love, Leo.  Stargirl has moved to Pennsylvania and her 'happy wagon' is nearly empty, one pebble out of twenty.  But she begins to meet new people, like a little girl named Dootsie and the Doughnut Lady, a forty year old woman who won't leave the house.  Though her first impressions of these people may not have been the best, she doesn't judge them.  She only wants to learn about them and be their friends.  This is what I loved about the book--Stargirl's admirable care for others.  Though she is much less happy in Love, Stargirl, I encourage anyone who liked Stargirl even a little to read this book.

Jasmyne read The First Part Last, by Angela Johnson.  "The story takes place in a really rough part of New York city.  In Bobby's neighborhood, there is a community center on the corner and on the other end of the street is Mineo's pizza shop, where it always smells good.  I believe Angela Johnson portrays the characters realistically because Bobby's life could happen to any teenager around the world.  Bobby gets his girlfriend pregnant and he already has another child named Feather.  The main idea of the story is how Bobby adjusts to the fact that he is a father and how he is going to raise a child.  Luckily, he gets support from his family, specifically his mother.  I recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction--I believe it is one of the best books I have read so far."

Merah recommends Best Foot Forward, by Joan Bauer:  "Everything is going along just fine at the Gladstone Shoe Store in Jenna's small town until Tanner Cobb comes along.  Tanner is a former shoe criminal, but he can't help himself when he sees a really nice pair of tennis shoes at Gladstone Shoes.  Mrs. Gladstone decides to punish him by making him work in the back room of her store.  Tanner becomes friendlier as he gets to be more familiar with the other employees.  And for awhile, everything seems to be going fine, until suspicions are aroused about how the Gladstone Company has their shoes made."

What We Are Reading, Part I

My in box is brimming over with messages from Crossroads staff members about their current reads.

• Martha is reading Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, in which Mary Roach describes what happens when the human body is subjected to outer space for a year.  
• Cliff is on book three of C. S. Lewis' science fiction space trilogy:  That Hideous Strength.
• Susan is reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Laks, the true story of a woman who never knew that her cells were used for all kinds of vital medical research, including the development of the polio vaccine. 

Dave says: "I couldn't exist without a current 'read for pleasure' book in my life.  I just began The Fall, the second book of The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.  Guillermo Del Toro is also a world renown director (Pan's Labyrinth) and he will direct a film version of The Strain.  These books are about a vampire virus and feature scary vampires, not romantic vampires!"

Stay tuned for more!