Alisa’s daughter Ella, and Lauren’s daughter Ana gave us a list of YA titles we hadn’t read yet.
Aileen read We Were Liars by E. Lockheart, a thriller with a blow-your-mind twist at the end. Though classified as YA, we all felt like this book was just as suitable for adults also.
Lauren read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak after years of her daughter Ana telling her to. Ana has a special connection to this book and briefly joins us to talk about how books she read and loved when she was in middle school have a particular place in her heart.
Alisa read Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney, a well-told story about two couples who swing, which had the same characteristic “Rooney” style that Alisa loved so much in Normal People.
And Josie read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and she can’t believe it took her so long to read this excellent book. Important, timely, and just a fine story in and of itself, Josie believes that it should be required reading in high schools.
I liked hearing from the daughters! Interesting to hear what they think and how they see YA. I loved The Book Thief but haven’t read any of the others. You should put up a list of the books they recommended. When I only seem to see adults browsing the YA section, I do wonder what young adults are actually reading.
Definitely. We’re also thinking of doing more episodes based on their suggestions. Super smart young ladies.
Finally got to listen to the episode and I loved it (what else is new haha).
It’s a little bit funny to have my own feelings and opinions reflected so similarly by Ana. I think the hivemind conspiracies about our generation might be a little bit true…
I read The Book Thief when I was about eleven years old – my mom gave it to me, librarian/literature-degree-having person that she is – and I loved it, especially with Death being the narrator. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I remember being totally crushed by the ending, even though I barely understood it at the time with my limited knowledge of history.
I never read The Hate U Give but I read a book with very similar themes, Dear Martin by Nic Stone. That one follows a black boy who goes to a rich (predominantly white) school. It focuses a lot on the issue of respectability politics and how different generations of the same marginalized community deal with it. The book made my cry a lot, especially because when the murder comes, you just don’t expect it. I recommended the book to several people, especially because it also makes us white people sit through some uncomfortable discussions of what more we could do. Obviously we all know shooting unarmed kids is bad, but there is a lot more less overt and even unconscious racism we need to fix in ourselves o be actual allies who don’t just stay in their comfort zone.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you in two weeks and Josie, I’m afraid there will be no way around having an episode on Starcrossed/SCIONS. I feel like they won’t let it go, so you’ll probably have to bite the bullet in the end. By the way, is there an overarching name for the entire series? Every time I call it just Starcrossed when I’m talking to my friends they get confused on which part I mean lol
I hope you ladies and the girls all have a great time, I definitely enjoyed listening to you.
Lots of love,
Emma
We’ll see. It’s just too weird. I get it about the series title. Don’t they call it the Divine series in Germany?