Life is But a Dream by Brian James
Let’s assume that there is a dearth in the young adult market representing schizophrenic teenage girls. I can buy that. But I can absolutely say that there is no need for yet another book involving a naïve, mentally ill girl who finds happiness with a guy with anger issues.
The Family Markowitz by Allegra Goodman
Allegra Goodman was writing about dysfunctional Jewish families before it was cool. This 1996 novel opens with Rose Markowitz reflecting on her life, ultimately deciding to decree in her will that her fortune will go The Girls’ Orphanage in Israel. That’s after she sends away her second husband’s only child away while the husband lies on his deathbed.
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
If your family was killed and you had a choice of whether to wake up from a coma, what would you choose?
Three years ago, that’s the situation that cellist and high school student Mia faced. In the haunting
If I Stay
, she reflects on her life while listening to those around her, including her boyfriend Adam. Ultimately, Mia chooses to wake up.
Death Comes to Pemberley
It takes a fair amount of chutzpah to think “Gosh, Pride and Prejudice sure was great, but what it really could have used was a dash of murder.”
We the Animals
A semi-autobiographical work of fiction, We the Animals: A novel tells the history of a family and the Boy Who Left.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
While I appreciate a dystopian universe as much as the next Hunger Games aficionado, I’ve been bothered by the recent trend of violence in young adult fiction.
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine
While there are plenty of nonfiction books that explore the history of drug addiction, and many specifically on cocaine, Markel explores the addictive drug through the lives of two of its most famous victims: Sigmund Freud and William Halsted.
A Good and Happy Child
There’s a lot to be said for books that play on the fears of having a child: who hasn’t wondered if their child, instead of being “good and happy” would end up evil?
Mr. Chartwell
How one feels about depression being personified by a large black dog that plagues Winston Churchill is likely dependent on how one feels about depression, dogs and the famous Prime Minister.
Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan
Commencement Commencement (Vintage Contemporaries) is an enjoyable jaunt through life in a women’s college and the years afterwards, until it goes completely off the rails.
