Let us start with one of our favorite authors, John Green. (I've only read two as of now but my sister has read quite a few). As a teenager, I feel like I can really connect to his books and they all have really deep meanings to them. The two I have read are: The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska. The Fault in Our Stars is about a a girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster. Hazel has cancer. She goes to a cancer therapy class and one day she meets Augustus Waters a cancer-free, funny, handsome, and smart guy. I don't want to give anything away because it's seriously such a wonderful book you have to read it. (Although I must warn you: All of John Green's books are inspiring, adorable, heart-wrenching, and wanting to crawl into fetal position-worthy).
I liked Looking For Alaska as well. It's about a boy named Miles Halter. (whew I almost forgot his name because I'm so used to calling him Pudge.) A lot of people compare Pudge to Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye, but personally I think Miles is a great character in his own right. Basically, Miles goes to boarding school and meets the beautiful and exciting, Alaska Young, intimidating yet sweet Colonel, and the fox, Takumi, and a few others. Basically, Pudge has friends for once. And he just does a lot of crazy things that touching and inspiring.
Over the summer, I also got into the Tamora Pierce books. Is it that embarassing since they were in the kids section? Noooo, not at all, I love them. All of Tamora Pierce's books are set in medieval times, and the main characters are girls. I started with Alanna:The First Adventure. Alanna is the protagonist of The First Adventure. She's one of those protagonists you actually root for. I don't know about you but I always get annoyed with the girl protagonists acting like 'ahh i'm so conflicted between this guy or this guy. oh my gosh boy troubles'. Alanna is actually completely the opposite. She has no time for such nonsense!
Anyway, most of Tamora Pierce's books come in quartets. I started with The Song of the Lioness quartet, I'm done with the Immortals, and am now going to read the Circle of Magic quartet. She has a few more that I'll read for sure also. Her books are funny, action packed, and also focus on growing up and adolescence. I think they're all quite good for teenagers to read. (I'm not really sure why it's in the kiddy section of the library...I don't think it should be) These books give me so much joy I don't even know why. It's also really nice getting a warm cup of coffee (except on ridiculously hot days like these maybe a cold drink) and curling up under the covers to read a good book. I'll probably post book recommendations once a month since there are so many good books out there but would take up too much time to read about in this one post.
Now go read a book!
