All These Things I've Done, by Gabrielle Zevin

What if we lived in a time when caffeine and anything made with caffeine was illegal contraband?  Heaven forbid-I could not live without my tea and chocolate!!!  But this is the setting for our story: a world where the crime lords smuggle caffeinated food items from place to place.  Anya Balanchine is the teenage daughter of the Russian mafia’s now-dead boss, and she is trying to live as normal a life as possible in addition to taking care of her two siblings and passing high school.  But sometimes relatives just don’t leave well enough alone, especially when she is the perceived heir to the Balanchine legacy, and she finds herself entangled in her extended family’s doings.  Throw in the interesting new boy at school whose father happens to be the new assistant District Attorney (and intent on dismantling the big caffeine criminal organizations), and you’ve got yourself a quirky, fun read!  For ages 15 and up.

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte & Jane, by April Lindner

Okay, here is the deal: read the original Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte first before you read April Lindner’s re-imagining of the story.  I first read Jane Eyre when I was 12 years old, and I LOVED it.  It was one of those days when I was done with all my library books and needed something new to read, and had to raid my mom’s and dad’s bookcase.  I did not have any problems understanding the language or the plot, and when I read it again a few years later for English class, I understood what was going on even better the second time.  I loved it!  In my mind, it's one of the greatest love stories ever told.  Jane by April Linder takes place in the 20^th century and substitutes a rock star for Mr. Rochester (appropriate, I think, since the original Mr. Rochester is a VIP in his own right) and is pretty much the same story, but for a teenage audience (15 and up).  It’s still a fun book, though, and what I would call a “beach read”.  

The Chaos Walking trilogy, by Patrick Ness

I have yet to read the final installment, but I can assure you that The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer are both incredible reads.  Patrick Ness has written a thrilling and thought-provoking science fiction trilogy that, to paraphrase his wording, raises questions about the amount of information available to us today and the ways in which it is controlled. Todd is the only boy left in his small town on a planet far away from the original Earth.  To become a man, Todd must undergo a kind of initiation ceremony, the details of which he is unaware.  What’s more, there are no women in this town, and all the men can hear each other’s thoughts 24/7.   Todd believes that the so-called “Noise” germ killed the women but only infected the men when they arrived on this planet.  He has been brought up by two men he calls his uncles, and one day, soon before he is to become a man, they tell him to take  run away to the next town and find other people, because the leader of the town has a very sinister objective in mind.  On the way, he discovers a crash-landed spaceship…and a girl, still alive.  Todd has never seen a girl before.  He knows he cannot leave her behind.  Furthermore, he cannot hear her thoughts at all…but she can hear his.  For readers 14 and up (there is violence, but it is not gratuitous).  

Bossypants, by Tina Fey

As I read Tina Fey’s memoir, I sometimes could not help wondering if I was reading a memoir about Liz Lemon as written by Tina Fey or the other way around.  It made me laugh out loud, and you can enjoy reading about the life and escapades of Tina Fey even if you are unfamiliar with the show “30 Rock” or, as I am, Saturday Night Live.  (Gasp-where have I been???  Oh, right…reading.)  Readers 16 and up will probably enjoy Bossypants most (especially if they already like Tina Fey) and be able to appreciate the humor, no matter whether you are male or female (I lent the book to my boyfriend and he really like it).  

A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin

I am not ashamed to admit that it takes me about 2 to 3 weeks to read each book in this epic fantasy series, because each tome is really heavy (literally and story-wise) and clock in at around 800 pages (on average)!  And George R. R. Martin has not even finished writing them. These books are excellent, and you do not have to like fantasy in order to enjoy reading them.  However, they are strictly for the 16-17 and up audience, and even then I would tread cautiously; just because I myself have been reading the books since I was 16 does not mean that everyone can or should.  These stories have everything in it, and by that I mean everything.  There are many themes and situations that may be disturbing to some readers.  The series is basically about a country on the edge of war; a usurper king has an unstable rule over the seven lands of Westeros, and plots and intrigues are rife throughout the kingdom and across the sea in the Eastern lands.  Triggering events pit people against each other even as new bonds are forged and old ones are renewed.  The story is told by various different characters, and the relationships among the different families and the histories of this world are vast and complex.  At a certain point, the reader just has to “go with it” and keep the books near at hand in order to refer to them about previous events.  Great storytelling and complex characters make for an engrossing, thrilling read!

Scary Godmother: Comic Book Stories, by Jill Thompson

This is a truly delightful collection of stories about Hannah Marie and her friends who live on the Fright Side of her bed.  It’s perfect for boys and girls 10 and up (and their parents and/or older siblings) who enjoy funny, spooky stories that are not too scary.  The artwork is whimsical and amazing to look at; it took me a week to read this book (almost unheard of; I am usually the one who finishes a book in a few days) because I spent a lot of time appreciating the artwork and examining the beautiful detail in all the panels.  People my age and older may be more familiar with Jill Thompson’s contributions to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman universe, so if you have not yet checked out Scary Godmother, I recommend it!  Find it at your local comic book shop!