I'm really excited about this challenge because there are so many great books on the Newberry and Printz lists, honors and winners. I've already read a few and I'm looking forward to reading more. I've signed up to read 18 award winning books. I'm not going to list those books ahead of time because if I do, I won't read them. It's enough of a challenge to commit to reading 18 from these lists!
Some of my favorite books are contemps, but for some reason I continually shy away from the genre! No more! I'm committing to read 24 contemporary books next year! There are 2 options for participating. The first is to just read MORE contemporary. The second is to read from many different subgenres: romantic comedy, romantic drama, grief, etc. I'm going to be pretty flexible with this because, again, if I put too many constraints on myself I just plain won't do it. It's weird but true. SO! I'm going to choose from at least 4 different subgenres. I haven't QUITE decided what those will be yet, but I definitely want to push myself to read more about the "tough stuff". I'd also like to read a couple verse novels because I've heard great things.
Since I tend to shy away from this genre, I'm going to need some suggestions! Leave recommendations in the comments!
Alright, so 18 Debut Author books, 18 Award Winning books, and 24 Contemps is a grand total of 60 books! My total reading goal for next year is going to be 100 books. Oh Lord. This is the point when I ask myself, "What have you just done?"
Oh I am SO excited to see you participating!! :D (and, it might help to know that you can TOTALLY double count for my challenges! :) Contemp Newbery/Printz will totally count for both! *coughPleaseIgnoreVeraDietzcough* *ahemJellicoeRoadahem*
ReplyDelete(both also count as a bit on the tougher side :) )
Ok... Done being weird :P
I am FULL of awesome recommendations. Seriously. FULL of them. I will probably break the comments trying to leave them all :P
BUT for awesome verse novels- Lisa Schroeder and Ellen Hopkins are the best verse writers I have read BY FAR. There are a lot of amazing verse novelists out there, but these two are far and away my favorite.
Lisa's books deal largely with grief, and Ellen's are definitely tougher. She isn't afraid to tackle a lot of really hefty topics (drug addiction, teenage prostitution, etc) BUT if you are willing to read the darker books, she's amazing. A very powerful writer.
My favorite Schroeder is The Day Before. For Hopkins, my favorites are Identical or Impulse (maybe Tricks) but with hers, some of it also depends on how tough you are willing to go.
I have lots more recommendations, but in the interest of not freaking you out/overwhelming you now, just tweet me if/when you want more :)
I've got some recommendations of books of contemporary books I love. If your looking for a winner, I'd suggest:
ReplyDeleteSaving June by Hannah Harrington
The Secret Year by Jennifer R.Hubbard
Amy and Rogers Epic Detour by Matson Morgan
Ten Things We Did and Probably Shouldn't Have by Sarah Mlynowski
Anna and the French Kiss! by Stephanie Perkins
Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
The Summer I Turned Pretty and series by Jenny Han
This is more romance-y but I loved it, Perfect Chemistry and series by Simmone Elkeles!
I think I'll stop now, even though I could suggest way more. If you need more rec's pop over to my blog and shoot mme an email!
Hope I've been of help! Goodluck!
:)