Books for...A Coffee Shop!

Part Three! I hope you are enjoying my recommendations, and have at least a little time to relax and read in your busy life!

BOOKS TO READ...

...IN A TECHY/TRENDY INTERNET CAFE!

Today’s list is the perfect partner for an iced vanilla latte and a comfy chair. Smart, snappy, a quietly moving, I learned both facts and truths about life from these selections. People will be impressed to see you reading them in public, and they’re not too hard to glance up from while people watching at your local heavily-air conditioned coffee-buying establishment. These are the nerds of my book list: good if you’re bored, missing school, or just want to make sure your brain-gears are still working properly. As they’d say: live long and prosper (and read)!

• THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS by E. Lockhart: The story of a girl who rebels against the system by infiltrating an all-guy secret society at her private boarding school, Frankie is the girl I like to think I would be, if I was smarter and had something real to actually be angry about. This is the antidote for all the crap YA books out there: there are cute boys, but the protagonist sees right through their crap. There are pranks, but they are important social commentary. If you like subliminal social change, girls having the same privileges as guys, or total badasses, you will love Frankie Landau-Banks.

• IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY by Ned Vizzini: This books takes places almost entirely on the psychiatric floor of a Brooklyn hostpital. It’s sort of about teen depression, but I don’t think anyone would read this book and not think, “Wow, I’ve felt that” at least once or twice. It’s about identity, artistic fulfillment, school pressure, young stress, love, and having the strength to live life. I highly recommend it – this is the book I would want to write, if I wasn’t so busy being depressed.

• EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer: Also about mental illness, this is the story of how eight-year-old Oscar deals with his father’s death on 9/11. An alternatingly (and sometimes simultaneously) heartbreaking, hilarious, and enlightening glimpse at a brilliant young mind and the way it deals with grief, this books is my favorite of the famous Foer’s works (he is also the author of EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED). The poor kid is cast as Yorick in his school’s production of Hamlet. This book is the ultimate of being smart and moving while still being funny and unpretentious.

• WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch: I guess mental illness is a theme today, as this is the story of a girl whose mother goes to jail after doing some very crazy, very harmful things involving boiled eucalyptus leaves. The language is beautiful and poetic, and the story feels so real. The narrator and protagonist Agnes has so many struggles, yet she faces them with such strength, they are far from painful for the reader. This book is really about life, everyone’s life, but it made me so grateful that I have my life and not hers.

• BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg: This one is about all kinds of crazy: it follows a family’s story as the younger daughter gets into the competitive world of spelling bees with the help (and pressure) of the father, while the older son goes through his religious awakening and the mother…does other (very entertaining and interesting) things I can’t really say without spoiling some bits. If you are getting annoyed being home with your family all the time, read this: hey, it could be worse. Kind of like a cross between the movie Smart People and Leave It To Beaver, never has such dysfunctionality been so endearing or so moving.

Read up, kids! As always, I welcome your questions, comments, and fan/hate mail. And get ready – next time:

BOOKS TO READ…

…AT A CABIN IN THE WOODS!