Thursday 6 July 2017

50 Books Every Modern Teenager Should Read

Who doesn't love a List Challenge list? I always do. Except here there are so many books I haven't heard of. It does seem a rather unusual list, and not especially a teenage list. It certainly isn't full of YA. 

I am Malala -  Malala Yousafzai
We the Animals - Justin Torres
Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Black Hole - Charles Burns
After Claude - Iris Owens



The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (see my review)
Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm - Philip Pullman
Transformations - Anne Sexton
The Golden Compas - Philip Pullman
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine
Weetzie Bat - Francesca Lia Block
Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
The Lover - Marguerite Duras
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Fun Home - Alison Bechdel



Parable of Sower - Octavia E. Butler
Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
Every Day - David Levithan
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Between The World And Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Magic For Beginners - Kelly Link
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self - Danielle Evans
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Step Aside Pops - Kate Beaton
Ooga-Booga - Frederick Seidel
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Project X - Jim Shepard
Among Others - Jo Walton
Crush - Richard Siken
If I Was Your Girl - Meredith Russo
Mr. Fox - Helen Oyeyemi



The Rest Of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness
A Study in Charlotte - Brittany Cavallaro
The Round House - Louise Erdrich
Wolf in White Van - John Darnielle
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe -
Ohio Violence - Alison Stine
True Grit - Charles Portis
This Boy's Life: A Memoir - Tobias Wolff
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
When Things Fall Apart - Pema Chödrön

Oh dear. 3/50

3 comments:

Sue Bursztynski said...

I've read six, more if you count the Pullman and Hunger Games books as trilogies. But you're right, most of these are NOT YA. We have no right to dictate what kids read. Interesting that the only Levithan book on the list is very different from his other books. It's good, very good, but not really what you think of when you think David Levithan.


Just Finished Reading Ballad For A Mad Girl

Louise said...

Six is a good effort Sue. I haven't read any Levithan yet, although I did buy a couple when I saw him at Melbourne Writers Festival last year. No we shouldn't dictate what kids read, I agree, but we can suggest options, and good books.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Think of David Levithan as a sort of American Will Kostakis. (Perhaps unfair as he was writing first! :D)

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