This week there’s lad lit, chick lit (complete with pink covers), some history lessons, thrillers, studies in complex psychology and rites of passage, spy books, serious stuff, frivolous stuff, books written in traditional prose, books that throw things like emails and lists in too.

North of Beautiful, by Justina Chen Headley (373 pages) – I was going to summarise this in my own words, but the last paragraph on the dust jacket seems to be just the ticket: a novel “about a fractured family, falling in love, travel, and the meaning of true beauty.” Fans of Sarah Dessen and Elizabeth Scott have a read and tell us what you think.

First sentence: Not to brag or anything, but if you saw me from behind, you’d probably think I was perfect.

A Certain Strain of Peculiar, by Gigi Amateau (261 pages) – Mary Harold, a 13 year old psychological mess retreats to her family home in Alabama where hard work, her Grandma Ayma, and friendship help her recover her sense of self and things like that.

First sentence: What happens in my mind sometimes is complicated.

Just Another Hero, by Sharon M Draper (280 pages) – the conclusion to the story begun in The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. The alarm goes off in school and everyone assumes it’s just a prank, but it’s not. Certainly not.

First sentence: “Grab his arms!”

Swim the Fly, by Don Calame (345 pages) – you thought right: this is a novel where swimming is involved. It’s a humorous coming-of-age novel which wonders if it’s harder to swim the 100 metres butterfly or impress a really hot girl. Doing the one well might cause the other to happen, and hopefully it’s not a case of neither.

First sentence: “Movies don’t count,” Cooper says.

Boy Minus Girl, by Richard Uhlig (246 pages) – Les seems to be the harmless, shy, geek type in whose life girls just don’t feature (see title), but then Uncle Ray arrives, who is quite the opposite and therefore either potentially a really good role model or a really bad influence.

First sentence: “Seduction Tip Number 1.”

City of Ghosts, by Bali Rai (385 pages) – a story based on events during the 1919 Amritsar massacre.

First sentence: Udham Singh watched the chairman of the meeting, Lord Zetland, gathering up his notes as another member of the panel answered a question.

If the Witness Lied, by Caroline B. Cooney (213 pages) – something terrible happened to Jack’s family three years ago and now his aunt has decided that the only way to heal and move on is to have some sort of healing and moving on fest – on camera. The press are dead keen, too (Jack’s not), and the re-hashing leads Jack and sisters to ask probing questions about what really happened.

First sentence: The good thing about Friday is – it’s not Thursday.

Killing God, by Kevin Brooks (233 pages) – from the author of Black Rabbit Summer. The blurb says: “Dawn Bundy is fifteen. She doesn’t fit in and she couldn’t care less. Dawn has other things on her mind. Her dad disappeared two years ago and it’s all God’s fault. When Dawn’s dad found God, it was the worst time ever. He thought he’d found the answer to everything. But that wasn’t the end of it.”

First sentence: This is a story about me, that’s all.

Girls to Total Goddesses, by Sue Limb (314 pages) – Zoe and Chloe have seven days to glamourise themselves. Will they do it? Will dastardly things foil their fabulous plans?

First sentence: “Right,” said Chloe.

The Agency: A Spy in the House, by Y S Lee (341 pages) – it’s Victorian London and Mary Quinn is a seventeen year old spy working for The Agency. The first book in a promised detective trilogy.

First sentence: She should have been listening to the judge.

Tales of the Madman Underground, by John Barnes (531 pages) – an epic tome. Karl Shoemaker is in his senior year at high school in 1973. Subtitled “An Historical Romance 1973”, I’m thinking this is one of those stories about completely normal boys that make for good reading and a laugh (see a bit further up too).

First sentence: I had developed this theory all summer: if I could be perfectly, ideally, totally normal for the f irst day of my senior year, which was today, then I could do it for the first week, which was only Wednesday through Friday.

Touch, by Francine Prose (262 pages) – something happened to Maisie at the back of the bus, and she becomes embroiled in the out-of-control aftermath; lies, rumours, stories that don’t match, the press… when your story is so heavily scrutinised working out what’s true and what’s not becomes increasingly difficult.

First sentence: “Are the boys who assaulted you present in the courtroom?”

It’s Yr Life, by Tempany Deckert and Tristan Bancks (280 pages) – Sim and Milla are opposites (poor/rich, male/female etc) and they have to email each other for a school assignment: the story unfolds from there. A story told in emails (like some others mentioned here).

First sentence: 10th Grade English Assignment: Communication.

The One, by Ed Decter (316 pages) – the first Chloe Gamble novel, because (the book says) there’s always more Chloe. Chloe is a big city girl in small town Texas, dreaming of becoming famous. Again a novel in manuscript excerpts, emails and not-to-do lists etc.

First sentence: When the police came to see me about the “incident” I told them a lot of things about Chloe Gamble, but I didn’t tell them about this manuscript.

Summer Sun & Stuff According to Alex, by Kathryn Lamb (172 pages) – the third pink cover this week. Alex’s boyfriend Mark is going to Italy with some other girl’s family and Alex and her friends are determined that she will get him back, but things never pan out in expected ways.

First sentence: I am HOME ALONE!!!!!

Ghostgirl: Homecoming, by Tonya Hurley (285 pages) – sequel to Ghostgirl, and also with a very cool cover and fancy silver-gilded page edges. After graduating Dead Ed Charlotte is a little dismayed to discover she now has to complete an internship at a hotline for teens.

First sentence: Dying of boredom wasn’t an option.

Plus some others:

Diary of a Snob: Poor Little Rich Girl, by Grace Dent (247 pages)

The Battle of Jericho, by Sharon R Draper (337 pages)

November Blues, by Sharon R Draper (383 pages)