Book recommendations for 17 year old ds please.

[BertrandRussell]

Ds has asked me to come up with 5 books he hasn’t read for the summer holidays. He’s a reader so all the obvious ones are gone. I’ve come up with Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog and The Kite Runner. Any ideas?

I remember enjoying Jack Kerouac at that age, especially On The Road, but you either love him or loathe him I think. The Secret History was The Book when I was 18, but he has probably already read that?

Has he read anything by David Mitchell? Slade House? Or another vote for Donna Tartt.

I was a big John Steinbeck fan when I was 17.

I’m assuming he’s already covered everything Pratchett ever produced? And things like Tolkien?

So...

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum. It’s the story of his involvement in the Battle of Britain as the youngest pilot to fly in it. He died recently so the book is on my mind.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I’d also recommend the Handmaid’s Tale.

Maybe The Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire books?

Paddy Clarke Ha, ha, ha, Doyle
Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
Night, Wiesel

Something by William Boyd, Any Human Heart maybe? The Remains of the Day. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

Keep the aspidestra flying, Orwell
Precious Bane, Webb
Jonathan Livingston seagull, Bach
Name of the Rose, Eco
I Claudius, Graves
confederates, Keneally

If you can get hold of it Modern short stories, it was on school reading lists way back in the 1980's and featured a story called The Peaches by Dylan Thomas . I absolutely loved it and still my favourite of all time.

What about Jo Nesbo, Lee Child, Stieg Larsson, Mike Gayle (I think his are pretty old, late 90s, but I remember them being good), James Paterson, Dan Brown?

The girl with all the gifts by M.R. Carey is a great book.

Your 17 year old DS reads books?

I've clearly gone wrong somewhere, mine spends his spare time playing Fifa in his pants.

The Outsider and/or the Plague by Camus.

the collected short stories of William Trevor

Good time to introduce Stephen King, he has a wide variety so there is likely yo be one as an in.

Pratchett has already been mentioned but is worth repeating. Good omens by Him and Neil Gaiman.

Neil Gaiman books - Neverwhere is excellent and American Gods amazing but quite long.

One damned thing after another by Jodi Taylor.

The atrocity exhibition by j g ballard
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Wolf hall by hilary mantel
The outsider by camus
Money by Martin amis
The plot against America by Philip roth

The Moonstone.

Lord of the flies
Stephen king
Frankenstein
Dracula

Hornblower series
Sick Puppy - Hiaasen
How Green Was My Valley
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Oh and The Catcher in the Rye

One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest - Ken Kesey

Madame Bovary -Flaubert

Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Agree re: Donna Tartt, she's a great read! The Secret History is brilliant and I loved The Goldfinch too. Both long as well so you get a good amount of reading out of them but they're never boring.

Any particular genre? Does he want 'proper' books that would be on an A - level list or 'holiday' reading? Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby are good 'bloke lit'. If crime then Tony Parsons has also written a crime series or the James Patterson ones that aren't actually by James Patterson are easy to read crime stuff.
When I was that age the books that got me to crossover from teen books to grown up books were the Tales of the City series.

Jonathan liverstone seagull - good choice

Also,
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Biographies are always good.

Some other Rainbow - written by John Mcartney about when he was a hostage

Biographies to,do,with people of hobbies DS is,interested in

Bill Bryson books are also good

The coroner's lunch

Thank you. A lot of these he’s either read or are on the school reading list, but I had forgotten about Tales from the City. He’ll love that- I’m excited about giving it to him!

I’m going to give Donna Tartt another go myself- I absolutely hated her first time round.

I wonder if he’s old enough for Jane Austen- I forbade him to read it when he was younger.

“Your 17 year old DS reads books?

I've clearly gone wrong somewhere, mine spends his spare time playing Fifa in his pants.”

He does that too. And makes hideous electronic music. But we are a very book-y family - he couldn’t really escape.