Lori Duff Writes
A Wrinkle in Time: 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet) When I was a child, before “Young Adult” was a genre that was really a thing, I loved to read. Certain books stood out for me, and I reread them until the pages got soft and started to fall out. I’d carefully…
Why We Broke Up I picked up Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler for kind of strange reasons, but then that’s why I pick up most books. I was in a used book store, and it just looked different than the other books. Thicker. Heavier. When I literally picked it up, it weighed…
Landline: A Novel Rainbow Rowell is best known for her young adult novels like “Eleanor and Park” and “Fangirl,” both of which are fabulous reads no matter what your age. Like those young adult novels, “Landline” is a romance that doesn’t insult your intelligence (or the characters) or contain any gratuitous sex, drugs, violence, or…
Scythe (Arc of a Scythe) Neal Shusterman is known, at least by me, and by the myriad of prestigious agencies that have given him impressive awards, for his incredibly thoughtful and interesting premises. Written in the guise of young adult literature, there is nothing childish about his writing at all. In “Scythe,” Shusterman demonstrates his…
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick Leonard Peacock has a plan to kill himself after he kills his former best friend Asher Beal. He will do it with his grandfather’s souvenir Nazi pistol. There’s a reason he’s chosen Asher as his victim, and not just because Asher has turned into a bully. His…
Thanks for the Trouble Thanks for the Trouble, by Tommy Wallach, is more proof of my theory that if you really want something interesting, compelling, thought provoking, and different you should look in the Young Adult section. In this book, the narrator, Parker, is a troubled kid who hasn’t spoken a word in five years.…
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is, as I type this, being made into a movie by Tim Burton, who is probably the only person who could pull it off successfully. The story is about Jacob Portman, whose grandfather, Abraham Portman, would…
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Saenz (do not ask me how to pronounce his last name – sah-ENZ maybe? SAH-enz? Senz?) is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I’ve read a lot of…
Morguefile.com None of us know exactly how we are going to die, but if I had to take a guess now it would be that I’ll get crushed to death under a pile of unread books. I have piles of unread books everywhere, though I promise you they are organized in my fashion. The books…
The Children of Darkness The Children of Darkness, by David Litwack, is a dystopian young adult novel, of the sort that seems to be very popular these days. This isn’t a Hunger Games clone, though, and has original characters and plot. I was given a copy of this book by the good folks at BookBear…