Prep

Lee Fiora is a smart girl from Indiana who decides to leave the Heartland to journey to the mysterious, elite world of Ault School in Massachusetts. Her dreams of entering the ranks of her rich peers never quite come to fruition, and Lee is often waiting on the sidelines for her life to come together, and it never quite does. Prep is a leisurely-paced novel that revolves around the internal life of Lee rather than pure plot, which can be both fascinating and frustrating. At 400 pages, this detailed account of Lee's 4 years at Ault makes the reader feel like they have truly joined her in her high school experience. We are with her as she struggles to make friends, feels hopelessly alienated, stumbles through awkward and casual sex experiences, and grapples with being an invisible outsider on scholarship.

Appeals: Character-driven, frustratingly real protagonist, rich with detail. Elements of romance and friendship, but ultimately balanced in a way that addresses the loneliness and unhappiness many people feel during adolescence.

This book shares the alienation of Holden in Catcher in the Rye, the strange solitude and pointlessness of life felt by the main character of The Bell Jar, and the solitude and internal struggle of the main character in Speak (by Laurie Halse Anderson).

If you like stories about alienated, disillusioned youth, you might also enjoy Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks.

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep. 2005. 420 pages.

The Hunger Games

Set in the future, this is a dark tale of survival. In what used to be North America exists Panem, where each year there is a lottery that plucks everyday citizens to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. Everything is filmed, every moment watched by all (the ultimate Big Brother).

Katniss, a skilled, tough 16-year-old chooses to take her sister's place in the Games, and she begins a journey of calculated moves, multiple motives, possible love, and murder.

Appeals: page-turning plot, tale of survival, futuristic setting, strong characters.

If you enjoy the futuristic tale of survival, you might also enjoy Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, 1984 by George Orwell and How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.

If you enjoy The Hunger Games, be sure to catch part 2 of the trilogy: Catching Fire.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. 2008. 374 pages.

The Road: Movie Trailer

Update on The Road: the release date for this movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's harrowing post-apocalyptic novel is set for October 2009.

Here is a three minute trailer, which I promise will give you even more chills after you have read the book.

The Graveyard Book

Nobody Owens is anything but ordinary. After his entire family is killed, Nobody (aka Bod) is raised and educated by ghosts, werewolves, and people somewhere between life and death.
When Bod becomes a teen, he longs to learn about life outside the graveyard, and most importantly, to find Jack, the man who killed his family.
Winner of the Newbery Medal in 2009, Gaiman's book is part fantasy, part reality, part adventure, and all macabre.

Appeals: fast pace, elements of fantasy, tinges of horror and adventure

If you enjoy the dark adventure of The Graveyard Book, you might also enjoy Coraline (also by Neil Gaiman), or the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan.

Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. 2008. 312 pages.

Bonus: Want to find out what author Neil Gaiman has been reading? Watch this video, courtesy of Salon.com

Create a Superhero!

This is not a book review.
But I did want to share this website: Marvel Create Your Own Superhero.
I think I was inspired because I have been reading Watchmen.
More on that later.

The White Tiger

Did you like the tale of murder from the murder's perspective, but wished Crime and Punishment had been funnier? Are you sick of books that paint fantastic, exotic pictures of India? Look no further! The White Tiger is here to serve your needs.
Told over seven days, in seven chapters, Munna, poor son of a rickshaw driver, tells his entrepreneurial tale of rags to riches that moves him from the countryside to Bangalore. His unapologetic account of his path to success involves stealing, abandoning his family, and murder.
Very darkly funny. Being good, dark humor, what lies beneath the surface is a tale of great tension that reveals the anger of someone destined to servitude.

Appeals: Dark humor, mystery that is slowly revealed, strong narrative voice

If you enjoy the the dark humor of The White Tiger, you might also enjoy A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul. You may also enjoy books that Aravind Adiga lists as his influences: The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, and the works of James Baldwin and Richard Wright.

Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. 2008. 276 pages.

Stormbreaker

Alex is an orphan. And at the beginning of Stormbreaker, he gets orphaned again when his uncle and guardian dies suddenly in an accident. But was it an accident? Alex soon discovers that his uncle was no mere bank manager, but he was a spy for M16, a top secret spy agency. Alex is recruited to take up where his uncle left off.
This story is completely silly and "borrows" a bit too much from Batman (Mr. Grin with scars on his cheeks... really?) and James Bond, but it's all in g...more Alex is an orphan. And at the beginning of Stormbreaker, he gets orphaned again when his uncle and guardian dies suddenly in an accident. But was it an accident? Alex soon discovers that his uncle was no mere bank manager, but he was instead a spy for M16, a top secret spy agency. With little time to mourn, Alex is quickly recruited to take over where his uncle left off. What starts out as gadget-filled games soon turns into a possibly fatal mission.

Appeals: James Bond-like spy story, chock full of gadgets and high-speed chases.

If you like the action-adventure tale of Stormbreaker, you might also enjoy the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson or The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians series) by Rick Riordan.

Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker. 2000. 256 pages.

Naked

Sometimes the truth is funnier than fiction. In 17 essays, David Sedaris covers topics including his obsessive-compulsive tendencies as a child to count and lick everything (including the chalkboard), hitchhiking with a wheel chair-bound companion, coming out at Greek camp and ending with an awkward visit to a nudist colony as a teenager.

Appeals: dark humor, quirkiness

If you like the too-crazy-and-funny-to-believe memoirs of David Sedaris, you might also enjoy Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.

Sedaris, David. Naked. 1997. 224 pages.

Spanking Shakespeare

His parents cursed him with a horrible name, and life has only gotten worse since he was born on Hitler’s birthday. Shakespeare Shapiro is a senior in high school and has never had a girlfriend, has a younger brother who’s cooler than he is, and has a best friend who discusses nothing but his bowel movements. But Shakespeare can write, and he chronicles every mortifying moment in this borderline obscene tale.

Appeals: Hilarious, awkward, gross.

Wizner, Jake. Spanking Shakespeare. 2007. 304 pages.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

Virginia Shreves isn’t FAT fat, just chubby fat, which means that hooking up with Froggy Welsh must be kept a secret. Virginia lives in a penthouse in New York with a skinny, perfect family and wonders if she was switched at birth. When something happens to mar the family’s good name, Virginia starts to write her own rules, and before long, it seems like anything is possible.

Appeals: funny, girl power message, deals with tough and uncomfortable issues.

If you like books about teenangers who don't quite fit in, you might enjoy Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci, The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga or Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

If you like books that make you laugh like this one, you might enjoy Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb, Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdoch, or Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison.

Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. 2005. 256 pages.