Challenging reading for a 14yo?

[ObviouslyNotNow]

I was wondering if any school librarians or other experts might suggest some books for my dd over the summer? Her report recommended challenging literary reading (she’s academically able and loves English lessons) but beyond Jane Austen (which she loves) I’m not sure what would be suitable. She enjoys fiction, doesn’t go for dystopias much (which is what her friends tend to read) and I’m happy for her to read about adult themes, though nothing too graphic.

George Eliot would be a great choice if she likes Jane Austen. Also, The Greengage Summer is a fantastic book to read at that age over the summer holidays.

Jane austen isn't Victorian. Anyhow suggestions:

John fowles: the French lieutenant's woman

Gabriel garcia marquez 100 years of solitude

Assume she's already read catcher in the rye by JD salinger but that's a teen fave.

Great gatsby

Jane eyre

Great expectations

Brideshead revisted

Frankenstein

The bell jar, my friends 14yo dd loves sylva plath.

birthday letters poetry by Ted Hughes as a counterpoint to the above. This may be a terrible suggestion as it didn't come out until I was older I think.

I used to love reading poetry at 14. Get her a decent anthology. Or in my case I mainly read poems by Philip larkin, TS Eliott and WH Auden at that age.

Kate Atkinson behind the scenes at the museum

Hilary mantels wolf Hall is a bit of a tome but she could dip her toe in with an earlier shorter book. I loved her but only found her at 16.

Once shes read jane eyre read wide sargasso sea by jean rhys

Assume she's read the diary of a young girl by Anne Frank but if not definitely that.

I think she'd be better choosing her own books at that age. Any required reading syllabus set by her own whims. I wouldn't have read what my mum suggested at that age but I had a desire to get through all the classics and make a start on modern classics.

It'll be frowned upon by some but you can get cheap / free audio books so you can listen to things as well as read. Try sitting with the classics podcast for free on Spotify. The books are on there too but you have to search. It's got a lot of African American literature that I ignored but Jane eyre and great expectations are on there. The frankinstein is a terrible reading But you can find a better reading on Spotify for free.

I could go on and on.

How wonderful that your DD is an avid reader! Take a look at the BBC 100 greatest books of all time list. If she likes Jane Austen, it's a good bet that she'll like Dickens too, which will keep her busy for a while. Other favourites - Wuthering Heights, The Count Of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables, The Three Musketeers, Middlemarch.

Many classics are free to download if you invest in a kindle.

I had written this huge list of writers with all sorts of rich and varied prose but then I thought about what I liked about them when I was that age and it was that I found them myself.

I don’t think you should give more than a gentle nudge and a library card.

But maybe a nudge towards Marquez or Vonnegut to start if you are still asking ;)

I agree with the suggestion of The Greengage Summer, which is brilliant, but actually I love The Peacock Spring by the same author even more. As a slightly awkward teenage girl into books, it spoke to me more than any other book at that age.

Because that poster doesn't like it therefore noone should read it.

Because @Ncwinc probably doesn’t get satire or fantastic writing and fresh ideas

Kids are weird too. My boy read Stalingrad ladyvyear 🤷🏻‍♀️ Even his English teacher said she couldn’t do it🤣

Last year! Not the weird lady thing

Oh shit I just bought Stalingrad Ladyvyear on Amazon off that recommendation

I read a lot of horror at that age. Goodness alone knows why and it really, really wasn’t something my DM recommended. I have never read horror since. I think I scared myself too much over that two years.

@Festivibe 😃

i sound like a wanker

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Amazon's feature where you can read a short sample of the book is really useful in these days when you can't easily find a well-funded library to spend hours paging through books.

I think she's probably best exploring for herself but my suggestions would include
Hilary Mantel
Angela Carter
Margaret Atwood (especially Cats Eye)
Karen Russell
Alice Munro
Alice Walker
Neil Gaiman
Isaac Asimov

All of the above have short story collections and I'd suggest starting with those to see how she gets on with them.

It's not that I don't like it (although I don't!), I just feel it was much more about the shock value of the violent scenes than the satire. I could see what it was trying to do, but no way would I recommend it for a 14 year-old.

Are you @Ncwinc ? If you are, you said NO ONE should read it, not just that you wouldn't recommend it to a 14 year old.

Agree with pp that if she’s liked Austen she might also like I Capture the Castle and Edith Wharton (Age of Innocence, The Buccaneers and The House of Mirth).

Also:
AS Byatt, Possession
Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy
Zadie Smith, White Teeth
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

and books by:
Georgette Heyer
Elizabeth Gaskell
George Eliot
Daphne du Maurier

Maybe the easier Dickenses? Great Expectations, David Copperfield, etc

If she wants something more leftfield than the classics, I loved the Hitch-hiker's Guide at that age. Also Stanislaw Lem's Memoirs Found in a Bathtub and Borges' Labyrinths.

Hilary mantal perhaps? Translations of classic European literature or Greek epics?

Would she be interested in historical fiction with some strong female protagonists? E.g.

• Wild Swans
• Memoirs of a Geisha

Pullman trilogy
Terry Pratchett

Dickens, Brontë, Hardy