Wednesday, October 18, 2006

October Reading List

This movie I'm writing is beating me like a red-headed stepchild. But invigorated after a quick lunch with legendary writer (head writer of MASH at twenty-six? Jesus CHRIST) Ken Levine, I can at least toss up some book recommendations, or at least warnings. Being read or already read from Aug 15-Oct 15:

Hello, Lied the Agent
-- Ian Gurvitz takes you through two years of TV development, deep from the trenches. Informative and the big funny, which is rare.

The Folly of Empire -- Rereading this during lunch breaks. John Judis explains, pretty goddam well, why Iraq's not Vietnam, it's the Phillipines. A thin, fast read. Useful for some millenialiasm research I'm doing.

The Cold War -- Wow. Just ... wow. John Lewis Gaddis has written an impressively accessible history of the Cold War, tossing off not just dates and speeches but then analyzing the events in some pretty novel ways. Paperback may be out. Both this and Folly are fine, but the scope on this bastard edges it out if you're just going to get one or the other.

Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? -- Fascinating case studies of the last few North American viral outbreaks, a model for dealing with them, and some well done "what-if" microbe wargaming. I am a null when it comes to biology, and even I was able to track the tech-talk through this.

His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire --Book 1) -- Dragon books ... yeesh. Dragons are like the fantasy literature equivalent of a beautiful pony in lonely 13-year-old girl fiction.

Slap dragons in Napoleonic sea warfare, however, and you have a whole Fed Ex truck of ass-kicking delivered to your door. Broadsides, grappling, black powder and sabers, baby, on decks slick with blood or saddles a half-mile up. Oh yes.

A Brief History of the Dead -- (special Mrs. Kung Fu Monkey reccomend) I didn't read it, but the Lovely Wife did, and loved this story about remembrance and death and loss. As her taste is much finer than mine, I feel confident in steering you toward what is classified as "young adult" fiction but seems a whole lot grimmer and guttier than the norm.

(EDIT: Brief History is indeed mislabeled in the Amazon listing -- it's the author's first "mainstream" novel. Makes sense considering the themes of terrorism, plague and death)

That said, I find the recent boom in young adult fiction fascinating. With nephews and nieces entering that reading zone, I could use some recommendations.

Kibitzes, recomendations and questions from you folk in the comments.

72 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:17 PM

    Young adult fiction? Frankly, some things never lose their luster:

    Treasure Island
    The Jungle Books (I know, Kipling's racial/imperial sensitivities aren't exactly the best, but the adventures themselves are terrific)
    Tolkien (not young adult as far as I'm concerned, but I think appropriate, nonetheless)
    Life of Pi (again, this has some tougher stuff in it, but it's awesome, and has the best philosophy of religion [whatever you believe or don't] that I've ever read, and it's just a helluva damn good yarn)

    That's what I got for now.

    Robert

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  2. Anonymous4:27 PM

    The obvious Lemony Snicket recommendation for darkness and Fun With Language. I haven't tried Handler's adult-targeted work, though "Adverbs" is sitting somewhere in the long bedside stack. If it's anything like his young adult work, I'll love it, I'm sure.

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  3. Anonymous4:48 PM

    YA fiction - don't get me started. Some quickies:

    Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials series
    Diana Wynne Jones - pretty much everything, especially Fire & Hemlock and Archer's Goon
    Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising series
    Ursula Le Guin
    Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy
    ...

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  4. Anonymous5:23 PM

    I think what's odd about Young Adult fiction nowadays is the tendency to classify any books where the protagonists are young adults as such.
    His Dark Materials being the big one for me, what about "the corporeal races of the multiverse warring against Heaven" is Young Adult? The series references quantum physics (albeit in a rudimentary manner), The Book of Enoch, and is in many ways an introductory guide to Gnosticism. Not that that's a bad thing, but the overall themes seem a bit beyond the average middle schooler.

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  5. I just finished reading His Majesty's Dragon myself -- what a pleasant surprise. Patrick O'Brian meets Anne McCaffrey, smartly written and grounded in history.

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go imagine Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey riding a dragon.

    Oh yes.

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  6. The Gaddis is in fact quite good, especially for the under 30 set who don't really know a damn thing about the Cold War...

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  7. It's funny, the Gaddis book got one of the most brutal reviews I've read i a long time in the Moscow paper the Exile:

    http://www.exile.ru/2006-May-19/cold_turkey_or_wrong_on_all_counts.html

    Haven't read it myself.

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  8. Anonymous6:56 PM

    Terry Pratchett has 3 excellent books out for older kids/young teens - "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents", "The Wee Free Men", and "A Hat Full of Sky" - all excellent and as fun as any other Pratchett book. These 3 are based in the Discworld Universe. I believe he has other books based in other settings.(haven't read them in a while) As the kids get a bit older, definitely the entire Discworld series and don't forget "Good Omens" with Neil Gaiman!!

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  9. kung fu tracy beat me to recommending Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy. Aside from that, I got nothin (except I've been re-reading Bulfinch's Mythology, which is great fun on so many levels).

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  10. Anonymous7:20 PM

    Hm.

    Well, depending on your nieces/nephews tastes:

    Catherine Fisher, Snow-Walker. This one's going to be hit-or-miss, but there's rather little fantasy set in any kind of Nordic world, and this one is quite interesting; the Snow-Walker came down from the north to rule a human kingdom ... She's also done a newer series, vaguely Mediterranean/Egyptian but not really, called The Oracle Prophecies, which are a slightly easier entry, and excellent.

    Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, older children/younger teens; still a creative and inventive use of British mythology.

    Nix's Abhorsen trilogy is good, and I'd also recommend his Ragwitch standalone.

    Alan Garner's The Owl Service is deeply, deeply weird in a peculiarly Welsh/British fashion, and provides one of the most interesting takes on Bloduwedd I've seen. One of those books with a dreamlike, hypnotic feeling.

    Frederic S. Durbin, Dragonfly . This one alternates between local interest and adult SF around here, but older teens would probably love it. A multi-layered complex, dark-shaded fairy tale, with all the beauty, terror and heartbreak a really good fairy tale ought to have.

    Airborn and Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel, for sheer fun.

    Most of the books I read at that age are long since out of print (some probably justly). Actually some were at the time, probably.

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  11. Anonymous7:52 PM

    Megan Whelan Turner's The Thief, followed by The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia are excellent. She also has a book of stories for younger children (middle school) called Instead of Three Wishes.

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  12. OK, fine. I did think of something else. Rosemary Sutcliffe's great historical novels for young readers. "Eagle of the Ninth" was one of my favorite books when I was a young reader (which was longer ago than I care to admit).

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  13. King Solomon Mines or She

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  14. Mary Renault's books about Alexander the Great were a great favourite of mine way back when.

    And for newer material: anything by Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier's 'Magic or Madness' trilogy (the first 2 are out, part 3 will appear in early 2007, I believe), and of course, Holly Black's books.

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  15. I'd echo a lot of the recommendations here, particularly Dark Materials, Abhorsen, Earthsea, Pratchett (including new book Wintersmith) and Alan Garner. Indeed my praise for Garner's Owl Service and Red Shift knows no bounds (thou needs find out new heaven, new earth).

    There's plenty more to add, though: David Almond writes deeply affecting tales of magical realism for teens, Skellig being a prime example. Lian Hearn's Otori trilogy was my favourite read of last year, all about superpowered samurai in medieval Japan. William Nicholson has written 1.6 riveting trilogies: The Wind on Fire (complete) and The Noble Warriors (ongoing), and Philip Reeves' series of books about social darwinism (post-apocalyptic cities on wheels roaming the land chewing up tiny towns and hamlets) is widely praised.

    Peter Dickinson is the daddy of YA authors, his plots running the gamut from Neolithic odyssey (The Kin) to transplanting human brains into monkey heads (Eva) via African boy-soldiers (AK). The man is a canon of his own.

    And keep your eyes out for classics like A FIne and Private Place, The Never Ending Story and Marianne Dreams.

    I could seriously go on all day, so count yourself lucky I have to work.

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  16. Anonymous6:53 AM

    dragons as unicorns for boys? funny shit.

    and yet, i can't wait to see the movie...

    currently reading don't let's go to the dogs tonight, alexander fuller's memoir of growing up during the rhodesia/zimbabwe civil war. fascinating stuff, and a good reminder that there are real people out there at as interesting if not moreso than any character we could dream up.

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  17. Some of the stuff I mention might skew a little young for the nieces and nephews in question... and then again, maybe not; after all, these are books that I enjoy reading now. I won't list anything that's already been suggested:

    Elizabeth Enright's 'Melendy Family' series: The Saturdays; The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five; Spiderweb For Two

    Donald J. Sobol's Secret Agents Four

    Clifford B. Hicks's Alvin Fernald books

    Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' series

    The Three Investigators mysteries, especially the early ones

    Lloyd Alexander's 'Prydain Chronicles': The Book of Three; The Black Cauldron; The Castle of Llyr; Taran Wanderer; The High King

    Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart books: The Ruby in the Smoke; The Shadow in the North; The Tiger in the Well; The Tin Princess

    I'm not suggesting that you need to be told about the Harry Potter books (how weird would that be?) but I am surprised that they haven't been mentioned *at all* yet.

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  18. Glad someone else mentioned Pullman's "lesser" works-- the Sally Lockhart series. Books 1 & 4 are fun, but books 2 and 3 are mindblowingly good... so sophisticated, emotionally, politically, and thematically...

    "Cloud Atlas" and "Ghostwritten" by David Mitchell. Oh my.

    "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell"-- warring magicians in the era of Napoleon.

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  19. Loved, LOVED His Majesty's Dragon. I begrudingly read it as a favor for our book review editor, and just totally swung with it. The two other books in the series are good, but nothing beats that charge of first discovery.

    World War Z isn't bad at all. Apparently, Max Brooks comes from a funny family.

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  20. Anonymous8:20 AM

    No one's mentioned Madeleine L'Engle. Though I haven't read her since I was young, so I don't know how she holds up.

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  21. Anonymous11:35 AM

    Anne Ursu's The Shadow Thieves is great for young adults.

    And don't forget about Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona!

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  22. re David I's comment, a response from a librarian in the trenches (and, I suspect, echoed by many publishers).

    There is no consistent definition for young adult fiction. Not sufficient, that is, that we can safely say to the majority of people "you are a child and your material is over there, you are a young adult and these are the books you're wanting, you are an adult and those over there are for you."

    Basically, it's material for the tweens - the most chaotic time of any person's life, when all the rules of social behavior change. Heck, you can't even trust your own body - puberty being the primary cause of this.

    (Related Aside - you know how every teen thinks they've become terribly clumsy? They have. They've added a measurable length to arms, legs and torso and the muscle memory hasn't caught up.)

    So to answer David's plaint, I tend to use two guides for that area of the collection. First, the easy one, the one you caught. The protaganist is of that age. That's a really easy one because the more like "you" the protaganist is, the more likely you'll like the story. And with everything going "wrong" it's nice to have some hint things CAN go right.

    My second guide is the other half of David's comment. It's the ideal time to introduce complexities. Yep, the world's chaotic. These people know that from personal and direct experience. Thus these tend to be "true" books for them, not soothing lies that 'everything is going to be just fine'. (Or worse - everything is fine, why are you having trouble?) Rebellion, conflicts internal and external, friends, foes and strangers changing status overnight... "Oh, Thank God, it isn't just me. It happens to other people too."

    The protaganist is of similar age. There's a lot more to the world than you thought, and some of what you thought you knew is wrong. Those are my guides.

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  23. Everything I've read of Scott Westerfield is good, but I particularly recommend Pretties, Uglies, and Specials, a kickass trilogy that do wonderful things with ecology, social engineering, and elective surgery.

    The Midnighters trilogy is good too.

    And I third the Abhorsen recommendations.

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  24. Anonymous2:10 PM

    I am on board with most of these recommendations, with lots of good stuff being listed already. I would add some of Robin McKinley's work, such as the Blue Sword or Deerskin. My two teenage boys are huge Discworld fans, most especially the books featuring Death or the Nac Mac Feegles, such as Mort, The Wee Free Men, or Hatful of Sky. They have also read and enjoyed all of Tamora Pierce's books, have them try Wild Magic or Circle of Magic: Sandry's Book and see if they suit.

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  25. Anonymous3:27 PM

    I also recommend "Good Omens". Also his graphic novel series "The Sandman" is quite good.

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  26. Anonymous6:31 PM

    Desert Son said...
    Young adult fiction? Frankly, some things never lose their luster
    nks says... I wholeheartedly agree.

    The readers' personal tastes and parental guidance should definitely play a role, but these were some of my favorites when I was an early-to-mid teen:
    Call of the Wild - Jack London
    White Fang - Jack London
    Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
    Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
    The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordecai Richler

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  27. Anonymous9:48 PM

    General:

    Disturbing the Universe by Freeman Dyson. Essays and autobiographical pieces by British born whiz kid turned policy wonk.

    Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. This quasi-novel is really a fictional history of a galactic civilization. Nova bombs, planets turned into generation star ships, star-swaddling globes of artificial worlds, multi-species group minds . . . yeah, Stapledon grew up when the Victorian age was still in full swing, and his notions of cosmology are slightly dated, but he had the jaw-dropping scope thing nailed. Humanity is a bit player whose two billion year history is condensed into two paragraphs. (If you know a kid showing signs of becoming an Objectivist, give him this. If it doesn't cure him, as it did me when I read it in junior high, kill him.)

    YA Stuff:

    Rocket Boys AKA "October Sky", by Homer Hickam. Coal town nerd and friends build rockets. We're not talking top-notch writing, but it's a nice story with depth not found in the movie.

    nks beat me to the first Twain plug, but I was going to recommend some non-fiction:

    Roughing It: Travels in the actual genuine Wild West.

    Life on the Missisippi: Twain recounts his early years as an apprentice riverboat pilot, then returns to see how progress has changed things.

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  28. Well if we're talking neglected classics, A Canticle for Liebowitz is worthwhile reading for anyone.

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  29. Anonymous1:31 PM

    nks and stefan jones,

    Absolutely agree on the Twain. Never too early to start reading Twain. A hero of American literature.

    nolo, you mentioned The Eagle of the Ninth. I haven't thought about that book in ages. I am now crushed under nostalgia. Wow, does that bring back memories.

    Also, those who mentioned the Susan Cooper books.

    Others I would add:

    The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (best when presented as an accompanying gift with chemistry set)

    I'd add some Poe to the list (maybe nothing quite so heavy hitting as The Fall of the House of Usher, but some of his other stuff is good, Halloweeny-blood-curdling-time-of-the-year for young adults, like The Masque of the Red Death), but then, I did have an odd young adulthood.

    How could I forget?! Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth. Loved this as a 10-year-old. Wanted my very own Tock the Dog so badly . . . .

    Um, what else . . . The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane. Also, as a 12-year-old, I loved Red Sky At Morning, but I'm from the part of the world where most of the story takes place, so it resonated with me a great deal.

    I'll try to think of more.

    Robert

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  30. Anonymous8:55 PM

    Tokyopop are starting to put their novels in the YA section instead of the manga section, which makes a lot of sense. That was the original market for these books in Japan, after all.
    http://www.tokyopop.com/popfiction/ has previews for the four launch books, out at the end of the month...or now, depending on your bookstore.
    I translated Kino no Tabi, and can recommend that one; the Magic Moon sample impressed me enough to order.
    Later books in the line like Otsu Ichi's Calling You and Ono Fuyumi's Twelve Kingdoms are also incredible.

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  31. I second the Artimus Fowl series. I'm fond of YA fiction in general, even though I'm well past the standard age, because some of those books are just plain fun.

    Another series I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned was one I was pointed to when I was looking for something to sate my HP fix when Rowling was taking forever and a half between books. (Not that she isn't now, but you know what I mean.)

    Anyway, somebody reccomended Diane Duane's "So You Want To Be a Wizard..." series to me. It's a fun series which follows the lives of two young wizards as they discover their power and deal with life. It's set in what is mostly modern-day New York/New Jersey, but there's trips to all sorts of interesting places.

    Don't tell anybody, but I like Duane's series better than the HP books. ;)

    -kat

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  32. Anonymous1:22 PM

    Great post, and very interesting comments.
    Glad to see that "Imperious Idiot" who attempted to dominate the comments on the last post hasn't bothered with this one. Apparently he doesn't read anything but comic books.

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  33. I'd put the following books on my YA List:

    Invitation to the Game
    The Wind Singer Trilogy (at the very least the first one)
    Running Out Of Time

    And here's the odd ball:
    the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. Great mystery series that is realitivly easy to read. These weren't originaly YA books but they serve nicely as such.

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  34. Anonymous10:50 AM

    Anything by Scott Westerfeld, for sure! His Uglies series is completely brilliant.

    Also, check out his wife, Justine Larbalestier: her first trilogy is just coming out.

    They're occasionally in town, so we'll sort a lunch next time they are..

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