Okay. So, no sooner do I post yesterday's blog (a trip through Blogger XX's YA Universe), than I start seeing all of these similar blogs with suggested teen summer reading lists.Naturally, all those lists seem to originate from the same unbalanced universe.
So, today, I am assuming the role of Blogger XY; and will offer for you a black hole, as it were: a YA Summer Reading List for Boys.
Note: This list, with only a few noted exceptions at the end, consists of titles released within the past year or two. I am not saying these are the best books ever written, although some of them are on that list. I am also not reviewing them.
I don't review books.
I write them.
But, I have read all of these books, and I think they'd be a good thing for boys to hang out with this summer, while they're out on a camping trip, hanging out by the pool or the beach, or just neglected at home while their parents work and all the other losers in the neighborhood are hanging out smoking pot and playing X Box.
One other note: Amazingly enough, some of the following books were written by women. It's an amazing thing, but in Blogger XY's universe, girls actually read AND write. I know... talk about a twisted perspective on reality.
So, here goes (in no particular order):
Dudes:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
Paper Towns, John Green
The God of War, Marisa Silver (I love books about the desert)
Ghost Medicine, Andrew Smith (Duh. Take it camping. Don't come home.)
Gone and Hunger, (in that order) by Michael Grant (Scary good)
Out of the Pocket, Bill Konigsberg (Every boy I ever rec'd this book to loved it)
Dog On It, Spencer Quinn
Younger Dudes:
Steinbeck's Ghost, Lewis Buzbee (I love Lewis, even if he does refuse to get into a car with me)
Buck Fever, Cynthia Chapman Willis (I just read it, now that I'm back in the reading mode)
Which brings me to the point... that last title isn't coming out until the fall. I read an ARC of it... so if you are a young dude (say... grades 5 thru 9), and, especially if you live where guys hunt, or if you hunt, or your dad does... drop me an email and I will send you my worn-out and previously read copy (because Smith actually does stuff like that).
Classic Dudes:
These are older titles, guaranteed to increase the size of your testicles. If you have not read a single one of the following titles, please surrender your boy card to me immediately:
The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
'Salem's Lot, Stephen King
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Maus, Art Spiegelman (Best. Graphic. Novel. Ever.)
Hatchet, Gary Paulsen
Whale Talk and Deadline, Chris Crutcher
So there you go.
Just looking out for my little brothers.
Like I said, this isn't supposed to be a "Best of All Time" list. They're just books that I have read that I think boys would like to read over the summer.
Attention Blogosphere: Boys do read.
Some of them even grow up and write.
There are dozens of boys I stay in contact with over the years who've gone off to colleges all over the country... all different kinds of kids who I can still remember having their faces in books almost every day I saw them when they were youngsters.
