Reading List for desperately conservative teenager.

[TaggieCampbellBlack]

DD won't dye her hair pink, get pierced and thinks all cars shoud have speed limit sensors in.

I am compiing a educational reading list.so far

1984
Brave New World
A Clockwork Orange

What else?

[BreeWannabe]

What's wrong with her being conservative? She'll relax in her own time I'm sure as she gains life experience. At least you aren't having the worries that some ladies are posting about on here about their daughters-enjoy it! I was 'conservative' and proud of it until I was 21 and went to work in the US for the summer when I relaxed a bit more... Over the years I've done my fair share of drinking etc but I still at the age of 31 regard myself as fairly 'conservative' and I'm still proud of it. Society's moral decline is hard to resist for many young people; be glad your DD knows who she is and isn't easily influenced!
Some of the book suggestions on here are fabulous though-great reading experiences regardless! :)

[Brightspark1]

Any or all of Margaret Atwood

[thewhistler]

Bog child
Jane eyre
The wide sargasso sea
The prime of miss jean brodie
Cry the beloved country
A passage to India
The female eunuch
The dud avocado
Testament of youth
The mill on the floss, middlemarch
A room of one's own
How to be a woman

[lljkk]

Pigtopia, The Highest Tide.

[overthehill]

Well, you could be describing my dd, who's 17 and has never had a boyfriend, hates parties/alcohol/make up, goes to bed at a reasonable time and is generally too sensible for words! However, she has a group of like-minded friends and I'm quite happy not to have to worry about where she is, who she's with or what she's drinking/smoking. Her brother, who's nearly 14, is a different kettle of fish entirely and it's great to have some respite with dd! I second those who say accept her for who she is and breathe a sigh of relief. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear...

[Phineyj]

How about Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique?
Or Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm - the straight character sorts all the weirdos out!

[FringeEvent]

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists

[Fairenuff]

I think she sounds lovely and knows her own mind. Remember, it's the meek that will inherit the earth

Maybe get her into some sort of ecologial/environmental protest type literature. She may go all 'Swampy' on you. Or animal rights, any kind of activist group, they are pretty non-conservative and not afraid of being arrested.

But beware of getting what you wish for...

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Slaughterhouse Five?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

yes to Plath as well.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

18 year old dd1 is having a bit of a Marakami moment lately.

She also likes Nabakov (esp Lolita and The Eye) and loved A Clockwork Orange. She likes Stephen King too.

[Thisisaeuphemism]

Catcher in the rye, surely a must read for all teens, conservative or otherwise.

Bonjour tristesse.

Bell jar?

I loved fear of flying when I was 18, but it might be spoiled if it came from my mother!

She sounds like a lovely girl.

[HoneyandRum]

So she's the Saffy to your Edwina? Maybe if you accepted her for who she is you would realise that going against the grain by being "conservative" could be a strong reaction to pressure from you. And in that case she is a rebel of the highest order.

Pink hair and piercings are so passé.

[ArbitraryUsername]

I agree with copy too. But I'm not sure a list of dystopian literature is likely to do much harm. After all, the OP's DD could take all manner of things from the books suggested.

[flow4]

I agree with cory! ^^

[TaggieCampbellBlack]

She's had moments of letting go and puking in her bed but. .........

I'll do her a list and see what happens. If I'm moaning about her rebelling in 6 months please remind me it is my own fault

[cory]

It may be that she just hasn't found her own way of being non-conservative yet. University may well prove an eye opener.

I resented all attempts to turn me into a less straight person during my teens: not because I am naturally straight or uptight, just because the choice of "interesting behaviour" among my peers seemed so totally boring to me.

I came into my own at university and travelling around Europe.

I think as adults we often have a very preconceived (and, dare I say it, conservative) notion of what "interesting people" ought to look like.

[WankbadgersBreakfast]

Anything by Robert Cormier.
Stephen King is also good for out-and-out weird. Buick 58 makes me eye my car with suspicion for days after.

[flow4]

'The Raw Shark Texts' by Steven Hall.
'Maps for Lost Lovers' by Nadeem Aslam.
Both brilliant first novels which deal with the theme of how trying to be normal messes with your head!

[ArbitraryUsername]

I was about to suggest the handmaid's tale.

Could also try Lauren Oliver's delerium.

[drwitch]

anything by margereat atwood

[megandraper]

The 'L' Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks - shows you how harsh life was when society was more conservative (in the 1960s).

[AltogetherAndrews]

Wasp Factory? Maybe not.

[Floralnomad]

Curious Incident Of the Dog in the nIght
Anything by Steinbeck
Some Russian stuff .