Christen’s list
Because one of the purposes of this blog is to help people with their homework (kidding–please do NOT send me calculus questions), I promised Christen I’d post this reading list for one of her Master’s library classes. She would like the brain bank of the readers of this blog to help her figure out which books to read this semester. Notice she has to choose one in each category:
1) Please pick one out of the following three:
Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War
J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
2) Please pick one out of the following three:
Garth Nix, Sabriel
Neil Gaiman, Coraline
Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
3) Please pick one out of the following two:
Joan Abelove, Go and Come Back
Naomi Shihab Nye, Habibi
4) Please pick one out of the following five:
Per Nilsson, Heart’s Delight
Patricia McKillip, The Changeling Sea
Ursula K. Le Guin. Very Far Away from Anywhere
Margaret Mahy, Catalogue of the Universe
Maureen Daly, Seventeenth Summer
5) Please pick one out of the following two:
Chris Crutcher, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Angela Johnson, The First Part Last
6) Please pick one out of the following two:
Terry Pratchett, Wee Free Men
Laurie Halse Anderson, Prom
7) Please pick one out of the following titles:
Donna Jo Napoli, Beast
Robin McKinley, Rose Daughter
Jane Yolen, Briar Rose
Francesca Lia Block, The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch: old tales in new skins
Debbie Viguie©, Scarlet Moon
Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, Sorcery and Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot : Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country. (and there are two sequels!)
Pamela Dean, Tam Lin
Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock
Please pick one of the following titles:
Annette Curtis Klause, The Silver Kiss
Angela Johnson, Toning the Sweep
John Green, Looking for Alaska
Martine Leavitt, Keturah and Lord Death
9) Please read one of the following titles:
Pedro and Me, by Judd Winick
Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot
Sandman (one in the series, but not the first) by Neil Gaiman
Compleat Moonshadow (one) by J.M. DeMatteis
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (one in the series) by Hayao Miyazaki
Ranma Ð’Ð… (one in the series) by Rumiko Takahashi
Of those, I have read and can recommend:
1) The Hobbit
2) The Golden Compass (yes, yes, yes!)
Christen, I turn you over to the group.
Technorati Tags: Books, Reading, Book Lists, Book Recommendations, Reading Lists
January 18th, 2007 at 7:30 am
My picks:
1) Catcher in the Rye. It is a classic and should be read at least once.
2) You won’t miss with any of these, and I adore Garth Nix. But, if time is an issue, go with Coraline because it’s short. Plus, the other 2 are starts of a trilogy and they will suck you in and you’ll have to read all three.
3) I’d go with Habibi.
4) This time, I’d go with Hearts Delight, but if you have the time, try Seventeenth Summer to see how much (or how little) teen & teen lit has changed.
5) While Crutcher is a “must read,” I love First Part Last so say go with that.
6) OK, what’s up with this list because these groupings have nothing in common. I’ve only read Prom. It’s a quick read.
7) I like Kissing the Witch because it’s short stories and I like how they link together and twist known fairy tales. And, I adore Sorcery and Cecelia. Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin is both a marvelous folktale relelling and the perfect college book. Fire & Hemlock is another marvelous Tam Lin retelling and DWJ is well worth reading.
9) Please read one of the following titles: WTF, how can you NOT read the first Sandman? I’d so read the first two Sandman because Gaiman is a god and the Sandman series is brilliant.
January 18th, 2007 at 8:14 am
I’m with Liz that these lists seem a little unusual, and also weighted VERY heavily towards modern, fantasy, and, well, to be perfectly frank, Neil Gaiman. They don’t even shelve Coraline in the YA section of a bookstore. I know because I bought it, started it, then left it at someone’s house once and have no idea what happened to it after that.
1) The only one I *haven’t* read on that list is Catcher in the Rye, and I’m planning to do so this year. The Hobbit is… okay. It’s not LOTR, though. I read all four in quick succession a few years back and the mythology goes all wonky between the prequel and the series. The Chocolate War is phenomenal. I guess this is supposed to be the “classics” list, but I feel like they should have separated out fantasy from coming-of-age. Maybe replace Hobbit with The Pigman or something.
2) Read the Golden Compass. It’s phenomenal.
3) Is it bad to admit I’ve not even heard of these?
4) Haven’t read any of these, but at least I’ve heard of most of them.
5) I’ve heard of the first author, but haven’t read either book.
6) I’m wildly trying to understand how Pratchett and Anderson end up on the same list. And how someone could pick her PROM over her SPEAK as definitive Anderson. Go read SPEAK now.
7) I’ve read the first title and I loved it. Also, it has one of the most gorgeous covers I’ve ever seen. Highly recommended. (this is the only list I can come up with a “theme” for, and that, I suppose, is retold Fairy tales. So, yeah, read BEAST.
9) I’ve seen the movie of Nausicaa. I guess this is the “graphic novel” list. But yeah, read Sandman.
I’m SHOCKED that there is no Lois Lowry on here. Or any SF, as far as I can tell. And, with all the fantasy, not a single Tamora Pierce. (What is with all the fantasy, btw? I think you can get away with reading solely in fantasy for the entire semester if you want. And though I love a good fantasy… is this a class in children’s fantasy or children’s lit?)
January 18th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I’m sort of surprised this list is missing Rowling…
Some people think she is a pretty good YA writer.
January 18th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Ahem, and the winner for the most uses of the word “phenomenal” in a single blog comment goes to…
Oops.
January 18th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Re-laaaaax.
January 18th, 2007 at 11:37 am
What about the number of times you used the word “I”?
January 18th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Raging egomaniac that I am, I don’t even question it anymore.
January 18th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
1) Catcher in the Rye is the safe choice because it’s a classic, but hasn’t everyone read this from high school? I would go with The Chocolate War.
2) Golden Compass, hands down. Yeah, you’ll want to read the rest of the series, but so what? It’s pure dead brilliant, it is.
3) Say huh? Don’t know ‘em.
4) Gotta go with LeGuin.
5) Crutcher’s awesome. Sarah Byrnes MIGHT be his best.
6) I like Pratchett’s humor, so I’d go with him.
7) Don’t know ANY of these, but I’d pick Yolen on the strength of her name.
9) Ooh, comics! Here’s where my expertise comes into play. But, uh, the name of that last series is actually “Ranma 1/2″ (”Ranma One-Half”), not Ranma BS. And that’s the one I would actually pick. Yes, over Gaiman.
January 18th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
1.Catcher in the Rye
2. Garth Nix
3 I have no idea-adolescent Lit ?
4 A I like Patricia McKillup
5 Have no idea
6 Prom
7 Anything by Robin McKinley but I like Patricia Wrede too
8 & 9 Don’t know.
I guess I am missing out on some authors.
January 18th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Thanks to all of you. This is really great. You guys have read far more of these than I have, so I’m glad you spoke up.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
1) Catcher in the Rye because I don’t think anyone’s died from reading the other two. Prove me wrong.
2) My friends won’t shut up about the Sabriel series, so I guess go with Garth Nix. I’ve only read one of his other books, and while it was an incredibly easy read, it was still pretty good.
Can’t help with 3 - 9, sorry.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
1) I’d probably go with The Hobbit. Oddly enough, I remember liking it much more than LOTR, but I was impatient in junior high. The Chocolate War is awesome though.
2) Coraline and Golden Compass are both supposed to be good, but haven’t read either.
3) Never heard of these…
4) Read Read Read the Ursula K McGuin! Read it over everything else on this list. Very Far Away from Everything Else was the first thing I ever read by her and I absolutely adored it.
5) Don’t know either of these
6) I’ve only read Good Omens by Pratchett, but that was fun.
7) Jane Yolan is a gorgeous writer/illustrator, so I’d vote for Briar Rose based on her other works.
9) Sandman is awesomeness (the Calliope story in Dream Country isn’t kid appropriate). Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is supposed to be an amazing movie though.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Shannon, welcome!
Lizzie, who died from reading Catcher in the Rye? What am I missing?
January 18th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Wow guys! I just got back from class and I am so happy with all of your homework help! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m going to print this out tomorrow and start hunting down the books I need! You all are fantabulous! =)
January 18th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
my head is EXPLODING!!!
January 18th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
JOHNLENNON!OHMYGODAREYOUKIDDINGME!?
January 18th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Lizzie, I can tell I’m supposed to be ashamed, but I honestly never heard that before. As usual, you have far more information in your pie than I do in mine.
January 18th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
We HE didn’t die from reading it - Mark David Chapman was obsessed with it and wanted to save John Lennon or something by killing him because he was becoming a phoney, right? Something like that. Or Lennon was coming through the rye and Chapman needed to catch him…okay, someone else give the details!!
Isn’t it supposed to be the book that gets stolen from prison libraries most frequently?
If you liked the book A Separate Peace, you’ll like Catcher in the Rye for sure.
January 19th, 2007 at 7:02 am
It was actually a running joke in the movie Conspircay Theory, which is vastly underrated, IMO, that all sleeper agents had a copy of Catcher in the Rye on them as a result of a post-hypnotic suggestion by the gov’t trainees, and the gov’t tracked all sales of the book so they could keep tabs on their sleepers. (Which I think would be so hard considering how many people read it in school, but whatever.)
But yeah,a lot of famous assassins were known to carry copies of the book. I loved how the flick used that.
I *loved* A Separate Peace in high school, but I remember I couldn’t even get through 15 pages of CitR back then, so I don’t know if I agree with Molly.
January 19th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Okay, now I’m totally going to have to go read Catcher in the Rye! My interest is sparked!
January 19th, 2007 at 11:00 am
oh snap! I totally missed that a Patricia C. Wrede book was an option (#7)! Her Dealing with Dragons series was one of my favorites as a kid!!!
January 19th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Catcher in the Rye was incredibly good, but it was NOT Salinger’s best book. Franny and Zooey was.