We asked Adrienne for a list of her favourite disaster novels, and she out did herself. Here’s her list of ten, plus some extra, genre-defining classics.
1 Life as we knew it, Susan Beth Pfeffer. It’s almost the end of Miranda’s sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town.Her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. The second book in the series is The Dead and the Gone.
2 Little Brother, Cory Doctorow. Not really about the end of the world, but a scary situation anyway. Seventeen-year-old techno-geek “w1n5t0n” (aka Marcus) bypasses the school’s gait-recognition system by placing pebbles in his shoes, chats secretly with friends on his IMParanoid messaging program, and routinely evades school security with his laptop, cell, WifFnder, and ingenuity. While skipping school, Marcus is caught near the site of a terrorist attack on San Francisco and held by the Department of Homeland Security for six days of intensive interrogation. After his release, he vows to use his skills to fight back against an increasingly frightening system of surveillance. Set in the near future, Doctorow’s novel blurs the lines between current and potential technologies, and readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution. You can download this book for free from the authors’ website.
3 H-Bomb Girl, Stephen Baxter. This book is set in Liverpool 1962; a place and time of danger and passion. A thrilling new music is bursting on to the grey streets of the post-war city: a music that electrifies, a music that promises to change everything. But in Cuba, on the other side of the earth, nuclear tensions are at breaking point. The end of the whole world could be just days away. At the heart of it all is fourteen-year-old Laura Mann. She’s on the run, hunted by strange forces fighting over the future of humanity. Laura is the H-Bomb Girl. And Laura is about to discover that her own life is at stake – in ways she could never have imagined. Check out Stephen Baxter’s book Flood. More apocalyptic goodness.
4 Winter of Fire, Sheryl Jordan (NZ author). Elsha is a young girl living in a bleak, cold future where worldwide cloud cover has permanently blocked out the sun. Humans have split into two classes – the Chosen and the Quelled, of which Elsha is the latter. The Quelled are doomed to spend their lives in servitude to the Chosen mining “firestones” – the only means of warmth on the planet. A rebellious girl, Elsha causes trouble for herself – even going so far as being considered for execution – until she is made the unprecedented heir to the Firelord – the leader of the Chosen.
5 Small Minded Giants, Oisin McGann. Beyond the huge domed roof of Ash Harbour, deadly storms and Arctic temperatures have stripped the Earth bare. Sinister bodies reign supreme, and undercover operations are rife. When sixteen-year-old Sol Wheat’s father goes missing and is accused of murder, Sol sets out to find out why, and in doing so uncovers the harsh reality behind the city. Searching through the under-city’s skeletal maze , Sol’s every move is watched by the menacing Clockworkers and the mysterious Dark-Day Fatalists as he tries desperately to find his father. Even more sinister secrets are exposed when it becomes clear that the Machine that keeps the fragile city alive is running out of power…
6 Tomorrow When the War Began (Series), John Marsden. The astonishing adventure begins… Ellie and her friends leave home on a quiet morning, wave goodbye to their parents, and head up into the hills to camp out for a while; seven teenagers filling in time during the school holidays. The world is about to change forever. Their lives will never be the same again. Would you fight? Would you give up everything? Would you sacrifice even life itself?
7 Genesis, Bernard Beckett (NZ Author). In a terrifying and stifling examination environment a young Academy candidate, Anaximander, is put through a gruelling exercise in interpreting the history and origins of her society. Through her answers, we learn that in 2052, New Zealand has been renamed The Republic after a reforming Governor, Plato. It has separated itself from a plague-ridden globe with a gargantuan ring-fence guarded with military outposts. All approaching boats, exploratory air craft or refugees are shot on sight. Society is strictly divided and individuals deviate from their assigned roles at their peril.
8 The City of Ember, Jeanne Du Prau. It is always night in the city of Ember. But there is no moon, no stars. The only light during the regular twelve hours of “day” comes from floodlamps that cast a yellowish glow over the streets of the city. Beyond are the pitch-black Unknown Regions, which no one has ever explored because an understanding of fire and electricity has been lost, and with it the idea of a Moveable Light. Among the many other things the people of Ember have forgotten is their past and a direction for their future. For 250 years they have lived pleasantly, because there has been plenty of everything in the vast storerooms. But now there are more and more empty shelves–and more and more times when the lights flicker and go out, leaving them in terrifying blackness for long minutes. What will happen when the generator finally fails?
Twelve-year-old Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet seem to be the only people who are worried. They have just been assigned their life jobs–Lina as a messenger, which leads her to knowledge of some unsettling secrets, and Doon as a Pipeworker, repairing the plumbing in the tunnels under the city where a river roars through the darkness. But when Lina finds a very old paper with enigmatic “Instructions for Egress,” they use the advantages of their jobs to begin to puzzle out the frightening and dangerous way out of their city of darkness.
9 The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness. Chased by a madman preacher and possibly the rest of his townsfolk as well, young Todd Hewitt flees his settlement on a planet where war with the natives has killed all the women and infected the men with a germ that broadcasts their thoughts aloud for all to hear. The first of many secrets is revealed when Todd discovers an unsettling hole in the Noise, and quickly realizes that he lives in a much different world than the one he thought he did. Book one in the Chaos Walking trilogy. Grab book two – The Ask and the Answer.
10 The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins. This is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where a powerful government called the Capitol has risen up after several devastating disasters. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the ruthless Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, who are then pitted against each other in a game of survival and forced to kill until only one remains.
You won’t be able to put this book down; it has been one of the most popular teen novels of 2009. Watch out for the movie coming soon…
Some classics (after the jump) Read more…
1 The Chosen One, Carol Lynch Williams. Kyra reads books from the mobile library, which might seem not exactly rebellious, but it is when you’re in a cult and reading books is forbidden.
2 Andromeda Klein, Frank Portman. Andromeda’s life is a quirky mess, but when books start going AWOL from the library she’s onto it, possibly with the help of her dead friend Daisy who may be trying to send her messages. The story of a teenage occultist who finds herself pitted against dark powers, including some “friends of the library”.
Libraries and romance
3 Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, Deb Caletti. Not only does it feature a librarian – Ruby’s mother – but also a bookclub. A book geek full house. Never fear though, it also features lots of romance (historical and current). Deb Caletti is often compared to Sarah Dessen, who’s the next suspect.
4 The Truth About Forever, Sarah Dessen. Macy chooses between a boring and safe life (involving a job at the organised library) and a more unpredictable and interesting one (involving a job in disorganised catering). The choice also involves two boys.
5 Cupid’s Arrow, Isabelle Merlin. Fleur’s mother inherits a fabulous library from a famous French author. Retrieving this library from Avallon in France brings mystery, romance and, the publisher’s website says, an “interactive web element”.
6 The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffeneger. The last word in romantic books featuring librarians. Henry works at the Newberry in Chicago, which is serious library stuff.
Libraries and fantasy
7 The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner. Not giving too much away, but one of the characters who may or may not be Gen lives in the library in Eddis, since his/her close-ish relatives have a history of being vile to him/her, and he/she is probably insufferable back.
8 Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr. The tireless and devoted Seth proves to be a useful researcher and, like a lot of useful researchers, visits the library to find out stuff (and to be harassed by faeries he can’t see).
9 Harry Potter…, J K Rowling. The library is the ultimate solution, according to Hermione. A bit like a cup of tea, but ultimately containing more information.
10 Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians, Brandon Sanderson (a children’s book). The evil librarians are trying to take over the world. Because if you’re trying to do that, librarian is the obvious career path (under the radar, see).
Let me know about any more.
Useless information: ratio of vampires to un-undead – 7:7. Making an appearance this month are some other popular vampire series, House of Night and Vampire Academy. If you’ve read the Twilight books 14 times each then here are some more ideas which you may or may not have thought of yourselves. There are over 100 people waiting for Brigands M.C. so please be patient!
It’s Banned Books Week, the ‘national celebration of the freedom to read’. It’s a US thing – for whatever reason, very few (if any) books are challenged here – but it allows us to make a pretty interesting list of some of our favourite books. A list we call Top 10 Books Banned in the USA (That We Have In Our Young Adult Collection).
1. His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Phillip Pullman
2. TTYL, TTFN, and L8R, G8R, by Lauren Myracle
3. The Scary Stories series, by Alvin Schwartz
4. The Gossip Girl series, by Cecily Von Ziegesar
5. The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
6. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
7. The Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
8. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
9. Forever, by Judy Blume
10. Baby Bebop, Francesca Lia Block
Note to potential authors: this is a good way of putting together the plot of your novel. Take a song, poem, children’s story, play, myth or legend and then tweak it cleverly. The cleverer the better, but sometimes simple works like a charm (see the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, for example).
Plus much more.
One of the catalogues we (the library) have on our website is Easyfind (or AquaBrowser), which, as the name suggests, makes searching for material easy. It recommends similar items to whatever someone searches for. Handy for browsing! It also keeps track of the most popular searches over the last 30 days, which gives an idea of what’s popular with Wellington library users.
Here’s a list, in order of popularity.
1. twilight
2. harry potter
3. fiction
4. book
5. the wire
6. novel
7. jodi picoult
8. star wars
9. shantaram
10. true blood
11. naruto
Some other popular searches were ‘my sisters keeper‘, ‘the lovely bones‘, ‘depression‘, ‘author: stephenie meyer‘, ‘death‘, ‘lonely planet‘, ‘poop‘, and ‘road code.‘
There were also some queries that had no suggestions. These included ‘hoagland and breisch‘, ‘narto‘, ‘facts on rarotonga in a book‘, ‘55566‘, ‘stomp the yarf‘, ‘fykfout/”//;‘, ‘mtrjteogfshse‘, and ‘james belch.‘
Fairies are having a renaissance, (thankfully not just fairies of the Rainbow Magic variety) so it’s really easy to find books and whatnot that feature them. This is not so much a Top 10 as it is a selection.
Some things to note about lots of fairy books in 2009:
Civil wars are rich material for fiction (conflict, critical choices, tales of transformation and beating the odds etc) and unsurprisingly there’s a lot written about the subject. Here’s a selection.
Here are ten Top 10 lists written by other websites (and not by us, although we’ve done a lot). They’re in no particular order, and if you want to add to the list go nuts and comment.
1. Top 10 Harry Potter Moments - so far, anyway. Has clips! (See also; Top 10 Harry Potter supporting characters.)
2. Top 10 Comic Book Cities – does Metropolis beat out Megacity One? No, it does not, and rightly so.
3. Top 10 Most Ridiculous Movie Tech Moments – Nerdrage!
4. Top 10 San Diego Comic Con Exclusives – probably of limited interest but there’s some cool stuff there. I had an original Soundwave once. Wish I still had it, it might be worth a mint.
5. Top 10 Twilight Series Moments - Beware, as this list contains spoilers (for the 2.7% of the population who haven’t read Twilight).
6. Top 10 James Bond Books – as selected by Charlie Higson, author of the Young Bond series of books. He knows his Bond.
7. Top 10 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Privacy - a bit more serious that the others in this list, but very important! Very!
8. Top 20 Free PC Games - Twenty is better than ten, it must be said.
9. Top 10 Rap Songs That Sample Michael Jackson Songs – very topical.
10. Top 11 mashed Potato Recipes – a bit different, this list, but it allows me to a) mention the upcoming cooking event that’s planned (along with the competition!), b) point out that 2008 was the United Nations Year of the Potato and although it’s a bit late it’s interesting to learn, c) I can link to this, and d) mashed potatoes are yum. Don’t know why there are eleven though.
If you’re going to write a novel, consider using formats other than the usual bog-standard prose, like, for example:
Other famous epistolary novels include Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1749), The Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis (1942) and Lemony Snicket: the Unauthorized Autobiography, by Lemony Snicket (2002).
Tomorrow (the 11th of July, from 1pm at the Town Hall) is the Japanese Festival (as mentioned here) and, with that in mind, here’s our Top Ten Japanese-related material (mostly) in the YA area. In no particular order.
1. Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children (ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン) – This is based on the highly-regarded console game, and although it might be a little incomprehensible if you’re not familiar with Final Fantasy it’s still a spectacular CGI film. (Website.)
2. Kino No Tabi (or Kino’s Journey : The Beautiful World, キノの旅), by Keiichi Shigusawa – This is the first in a series of novels about Kino, who travels through many unique lands with her talking motorcycle. That might sound a little twee, but the story looks at some pretty profound themes. We’ve only the first book, for now (sadly).
3. Anything by Studio Ghibli Inc. (株式会社スタジオジブリ) – The films produced by Studio Ghibli are some of the best out there. Most people have seen Spirited Away (the first anime to win an Academy Award), but Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle are definitely worth the 50c rental fee. And Ponyo (trailer) is at this year’s Wellington Film Festival (on the 17th and 19th of July).
4. Tekkon Kinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート) – Another anime that I highly recommend; it’s stylistic and lush to look at (the backgrounds are works of art). The story – about two orphans who take on the yakuza – is multi-layered and moving. (Trailer.)
5. Usagi Yojimbo : Volumes 1- (兎用心棒), by Stan Sakai - This epic comic series is about Usagi, a samurai who happens to be a rabbit (everyone is some sort of animal). He’s modelled on the real-life samurai/swordsman/writer/philosopher, Miyamoto Musashi, whose life truly was epic. The 23rd volume is due out later this month.
6. Number9Dream, by David Mitchell – Grimm recommended this book, about 19-year-old Japanese student, Eiji, who has come to Tokyo to search for his father. There’s an excerpt to read here. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001.
7. Naruto : Volumes 1- (ナルト) – Naruto Uzumaki is a young ninja-in-training. He also has the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within him, which means that if he can control it he can be a pretty powerful ninja. There are at least 45 in the series (held at the library, anyway) so there’s a lot to keep you going. Failing that, there is …
8. all the other manga we have. Which is loads.
9. Aranzi Aronzo’s books, Cute Stuff and The Cute Book. Aranzi Aronzo is a Japanese company that specialise in ‘cute, strange, cool, silly, a little bit horrible, stupid and comfortable’ design, and these two books show you how to make some very, very cute (kawaii, or Japanese cute) felt toys. Cute! They have a website.
10. Sushi for Dummies, by Judi Strata – Knowing how to make sushi (寿司) is one of those skills that everyone should know, as it’s a) delicious and b) healthy as anything, and c) pretty easy to make. This book isn’t in the YA area but we must include it in this list anyway.
The success of the Gossip Girl series has led to a number of similarly-themed series. They tend to have several things in common: the main characters are girls, who are rich, or share the same social circles as the über-rich, and they go to an exclusive private school; the books are usually set in (or near) New York; and most of the characters favour style over substance (afterall, it’s difficult to be friendly towards someone in a denim skirt). Sometimes they’re undead, or even just dead.
So here’s a list (in no particular order):
1. The Gossip Girl - The series so popular it’s now a television series! It’s set on the Upper East Side of Manhatten, which is New York’s Oriental Parade, only vastly more wealthy and stylish. No beach, however. The books are about a group of friends/enemies, their designer clothes and parties. The Gossip Girl herself anonymously writes about them. The school is called the Constance Billard School for Girls. There’s a gazillion books in the series.
2. The It Girl - The ‘It Girl’ in the title went to the Constance Billard School for Girls but was so poorly behaved she was sent to the very exclusive Waverly Prep boarding school. She will do anything – anything! - get to be one of the Waverly elite. This series is one of the two Gossip Girl spin-offs (all were created by Cecily von Ziegesar, but most are written by other people).
3. Gossip Girl: The Carlyles - The Carlyle triplets move from Nantucket to NYC after the death of their grandmother. They go to Constance Billard (and St. Jude’s School for Boys, for one of them is a boy) and quickly prove to be even more vicous – and fabulous - than Serena, Blair, etc. (Official website for Gossip Girl.)
4. The Ashleys, by Melissa De la Cruz - At Miss Gamble’s Preparatory School for Girls the three reigning princesses of popularity are all named Ashley; hence ‘The Ashleys’. New-comer Lauren is determined to enter their group. This series is set in San Francisco, and not New York, which is a shame but there you have it. (Official website.)
5. The Clique, by Lisi Harrison - The Clique are a group of girls who are the top of the popularity food chain at their private school. The books are notable (according to the Library School Journal) for the characters’ cruelty. Awesome! It’s set in Westchester County, New York, where the X-Men hang out (incidentally). Who would win in a fight? The first book was made into a direct-to-DVD film, newly arrived at the library. (Official website.)
6. Inside Girl, by J Minter – Fourteen-year-old Flan Flood’s family are all incredibly beautiful socialites, but she decided to break with tradition and goes to a typical public school. It’s a spin-off from another series by J. Minter, The Insiders, which is more in keeping with the other series in this list. Set in and around lower Manhattan. (Official website.)
7. Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard - Three years ago the leader (Alison) of a group of girls disappears. Now someone calling themselves ‘A’ is threatening to expose the secrets of the group, who all fit the Gossip Girl mold. With a bit of mystery thrown in, the series has been called ‘Desperate Housewives for teens.’ (Official website.)
8. Blue Bloods, by Melissa de la Cruz – Set amongst Manhattan’s elite teens, Blue Bloods throws vampirism into the mix. (Official website.)
9. Vampire Academy, by Rachelle Mead – St Vladimir’s is a private academy (in Montana, not NY) for vampires and the half-vampires who protect them. The series is notable for being set in a gritty and dark world which doesn’t hold back. Perhaps not so in keeping with this list, but the academy is about as exclusive as it gets and one of the main characters is a princess. A vampire princess. (Official website.)
10. The Luxe, by Anna Godberson – Most reviewers remark that this series is essentially Gossip Girl - Manhattan, rich glamorous people, and so on – set in 1899. I’m not sure what the ‘Luxe’ in the title refers to, but funnily enough 1899 was the year that Lux soap was launched in the UK. (Official website.)
There’s a surprising amount of music-themed literature in the library; here is but a small sample.
In our (well, my) efforts to organise the world into groups of ten, I’ve collected a group of ten popular authors sourced from the books you told us were your favourites. I thought I’d add some awards as well, since there were some cool choices.
The Nostalgia Award for Making People Want to Learn to Sail
Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome
The Yay For Original Fantasy Award* [I'm allowed to be biased]
Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Zombie-Free Classic Novel Award
Emma, by Jane Austen
The Fang Award
Alex Duval, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Stephenie Meyer, Scott Westerfeld…
Here’s the 10 (in library order):
Is your favourite author not on this list? If you feel so moved then comment and defend their marvellousness.
* This was difficult. So many good books.
Usually set in the 19th century (where steam was the superpower), but containing elements of fantasy or science fiction, steampunk stuff features a lot of machinery with cogs, knobs, levers and most importantly steam. Think magnificent flying machines and infernal devices (courtesy of Philip Reeve, K W Jeter and soon, worryingly, Cassandra Clare)… Leonardo-type contraptions without the linseed oil.
And some movies:
Interested in doing some research? Start by checking the links on the Wikipedia page.
Oh hi. We would like to know your favourite books, so we can create a Top 10 list of our readers’ choices. Should you get trapped on a deserted island, which three (or more) books would you take with you? They can be any book, but ideally it should be for teens.
Fill in the form below (you don’t need to complete your details, but you probably should), and depending on the results we will sort out a list sometime after Queen’s Birthday weekend.
[Update: thanks for filling in the form if you did - it was interesting hearing what you like to read. We might well be asking you similarly tough questions in future.]
Or more accurately it’s a Top Ten Eight. Just in time for ball season which sort of starts next month, here are some choice pieces of fiction that might make you think twice about taking your school ball for granted. Here there are horror stories (actual horror and acute-embarrassment type horror), fairy tale type stories, coming of age stories, funny stories, getting one up on your nemesis stories and so much more.
Road trips are like a story waiting to be written: generally people embark on road trips in search of something (peace and quiet, enlightenment, the truth about yourself, someone), which is very classical and quest-like.
Maps usually suggest “fantasy” because of the whole alternate world thing needing explaining. I stuck the two together (road trips and maps) partly because my list of books with maps reached 5 and would go no further (for, like, two months), and partly because there is actually a natural connection (partly being quests are a big part of fantasy literature and partly in the form of the book Paper Towns).
This isn’t really a Top 10 list as such, since I know zero about sports fiction and have no idea what’s top and what’s not; this is more a selection of young adult fiction that has sporting themes of different sorts. See what you think anyway. Let me know if you’ve read a good sports book recently too (I refrained from putting my favourite book here, Life at these Speeds, but, oh no, there I go, I’ve mentioned it anyway (athletics)).
To mourn the impending passing of daylight saving, here’s a wintery list (if this is too much to bear I suggest going back to summer).
So there you are. Winter is spooky and malevolent and mournful, if this list is anything to go by. Writers are depressing creatures!
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