Recommendation Lists Archives - Page 13 of 32

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a pick-your-own-topic: ‘Books for Readers Who Like ______’. I wasn’t planning to take part, but then Ming suggested that ‘Books for Readers Who Like Teenagers Effing Up The Patriarchy’ as an idea. I loved it, and told her so, and after a little bit of discussion we agreed to make this a collab. I’m going to list five books below, and once you’ve read this post you can pop on over to Rare Medium Well Done for the rest of the list.

So without any further ado:

Top Five Books for Readers Who Like Teenagers Effing Up The Patriarchy

My feminist badge collection from my teenage years

1. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, by Libba Bray – Victorian girls with powers not only have to save the world, but also have to work out how to improve their own lives, which is possibly more difficult, living in the era that they do and being supposed to go straight from finishing school to marriage/drudgery.

2. Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, by Kirsten Miller – a gang of delinquent Girl Scouts, led by the mysterious mastermind Kiki Strike, explore a hidden city below New York. At the end of every chapter there are useful lists, such as ‘How To Take Advantage of Being a Girl’ and ‘How To Kick Some Butt’.

3. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart – Frankie finds out that her boyfriend is in a secret all-male society at their school. He won’t even admit that it exists. Bored by this lying and shameless sexism, she decides to infiltrate it. Fun ensues.

4. The Forestwife Trilogy, by Theresa Tomlinson – Medieval teenager Mary de Holt doesn’t fancy getting married off to some old guy, so she runs off into the forest with her wet nurse Agnes, where they help heal the sick and rescue people from the patriarchy. Along the way she changes her name to Marian, learns archery, and spends a bit of romantic time with a dude called Robert who wears a hood. Also there are AWESOME NUNS.

5. Valiant, by Holly Black – this is more incidental patriarchy-effing but Val a) learns how to fight with a really cool sword and b) has to use these skills to save her love interest. Goodbye stereotypical fairy tale!

Now, please leave a comment and recommend me some of your own favourite books about teenagers who, when confronted with tedious stereotypes and boringly gender-conventional lives, refuse to put up with it. Or people in general!

It’s been a great year for reading and me! I read way more books than I expected to, and (re)discovered some really fabulous authors. So without further preamble, I present:

My Top Ten Books Read in 2014 (in the order I read them)

1. The Worst Girlfriend in the World, by Sarra Manning

Sarra Manning is one of my favourite authors of all time so it was no surprise that I adored this. I loved it so much that when I finished reading it I wanted to start over again from the beginning! I think fans old and new will find plenty to love about this novel, which follows the (mis)adventures of would-be fashion designer Franny and her best friend Alice, from tiny seaside town to big city.

2. Adaptation, by Malinda Lo

Need the sequel, like, yesterday. Cool twist on the love triangle. And (redacted spoilery thing)!

3. Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell

I FINALLY got around to reading Fangirl, and I loved it. If you want to read a story about fanfic and university and first, incredibly awkward romantic adventures, you should definitely read Fangirl.

4. We Were Liars, by E Lockhart

This is actually my least favourite E Lockhart book. But that still makes it better than most other books. Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for YA, barely a day has gone by without someone gasping excitedly about it on Twitter.

5. Murder Most Unladylike, by Robin Stevens

Boarding school! MURDER! Friendship! Bunbreaks! MURDER!

6. The Diviners, by Libba Bray

This is so gorgeous I swooned over almost every page. I had mixed feelings about the Gemma Doyle trilogy by the end (although overall I loved it) but it looks like The Diviners will avoid all those issues. Thrilled that the sequel is coming out next year!

7. White Cat, by Holly Black

I love this series and this is one hell of an opener. The magic system is unique and the characters vivid and real. Very much recommended.

8. Through the Ever Night/Into the Still Blue, by Veronica Rossi

I loved both the second and the third books in this trilogy, which began with Under the Never Sky. Aria is one of my favourite protagonists ever.

9. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, by Sarra Manning

This book was highly hyped and with good reason. It was published in 2011 but it took me this long to read it as I was hoping to find the *good cover* in a bookshop (I don’t trust online shops to send me the right one!). Eventually I gave up and borrowed it from the library, and I’m very glad I did as I needed Neve, Max, Keith and all their family and friends in my life.

10. My True Love Gave To Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins

Finally a short story collection by novelists that isn’t mediocre! A wonderful diverse seasonal anthology that stole my heart and wrapped it in tinsel.

Honorary mentions go to two non-fiction books (I didn’t read enough non-fic for a proper non-fic list): The Bookshop Book, by Jen Campbell, though I still have a few pages to read, and Story, by Robert McKee – my god, I finally understand plotting thanks to this book!

Last year I did my top books list in a Bookish Brits video:

This year, we have done a series of videos talking about our favourite 2014 books in different categories. To watch, just press play below:

Did any of these books make it onto your top ten?

Recommendation Lists

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