Non-fantasy fiction for DD, 13

[FeelingForced]

I'm looking for books for DD who's 13. She's not really a fan of anything set in imaginary times and places, though she's read the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series. We have other Rick Riordan books at home, also Artemis Fowl, Hunger Games, Alex Rider, Tamora Pierce etc., and she's not been keen.

Books she's really enjoyed are The Diary of Anne Frank, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and the sequels, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and the other books in the series. She's read the Anne of Green Gables books, Malory Towers and other school series as well. Has read Pride and Prejudice and Sherlock Holmes stories through school and liked them, but found Sense and Sensibility boring. Not too fond of Agatha Christie books. Tends to be squeamish about romance and would prefer books without much reference to it.

I'm trying to figure out what she might enjoy. She's studying the Cold War in school right now and would probably like books set in that time. Any other suggestions would be really helpful too!

Elinor Brent Dyer - has she read the entire Chalet School series? (A lifetime's reading.)

P. G. Wodehouse - everything.

Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast trilogy. (Oh dear, this might be a little 'imaginary' - but very different!)

Kazuo Ishiguro - everything.

John Buchan - all the Richard Hannay novels.

Georgette Heyer - all the Regency novels. These are ostensibly historical novels centring on 'romance' - but there's nothing to induce squeamishness and they're sparklingly brilliant.

Geoffrey Household - Rogue Male (brutal and absorbing adventure).

Sylvia Townsend Warner - The Corner That Held Them.

Evelyn Waugh - everything.

Rosemary Sutcliff - all her Roman novels.

David Garnett - Lady Into Fox (brief, astonishing; nothing else like it).

Petina Gappah - everything: novels and short stories, fabulous reading.

Anna Burn - Milkman (phenomenal, groundbreaking contemporary fiction).

Philip Roth - Nemesis

Emilia St. John Mandel - Station Eleven ( this and the Roth have something in common ...)

Enough for now.

(Dash it! Emily Not Emilia ...)

Slay Brittany Morris
Clap when you land Elizabeth Acevedo
The Enemy Charlie Higson (there's an entire, brilliant series. So good)
Raybearer Jordan Ifueko
Wolf by Wolf Ryan Graudin

That should start her off! All these books are crackers.

That's a good list.
I would add some James Herriott.

I'm all for 13 year olds to read adult books. I often share books with my 13 y.o. but it's a golden time for Young Adult books. I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand.

I buy loads of books here, fir me and the DDs. They've suggested masses of books I would never have thought of.
You can drop them an email and they will suggest something for your DD
mrbsemporium.com/gifts/?gclid=CjwKCAiA8Jf-BRB-EiwAWDtEGsiRiIL92llCCzS_co8ZF3cJraX4UNIJ5hcjrx5iGJ0A8bEd5xaCwxoCEL4QAvD_BwE#reading-subscriptions
Bloodt brilliant.

By her reading list I'd try Sophies World by Jostein Gaader.

Ooh, lots of suggestions! Thanks, everyone.

She's read the whole Chalet School series and loves it. She's read some Wodehouse too. Somehow didn't like Rosemary Sutcliff much. We have books by James Herriot, John Buchan and Georgette Heyer, so she can try those right away.

I'll try getting hold of the other books listed above too. Thank you to all the contributers!

Any suggestions for anything set during the Cold War?

My daughter is reading Rebecca at the moment. I bought it last year but the fact it was on Netflix got her interested!!

Hilary McKay is wonderful - Skylark Summer, or the Binnie series. The Exiles series is good, and very funny, but might be a little young for 13.

Eva Ibbotson, too. She wrote a series of YA books that are very good - Songs of Summer, The Secret Countess, The Morning Gift and A Company of Swans are all particularly good. Journey to the River Sea is also terrific, but for a slightly younger audience.

Other things - How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, The House in Nordham Gardens by Penelope Lively and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

Hope she finds something she likes!

Speak

Looking for Alaska

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Eleanor & Park

Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging

Justin Case

The Angus one may be a bit immature for her but it's fun, light reading if she ever wants a break

Oh! And Looking for JJ - if she doesn't mind there being murder.

Other things - How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, The House in Norham Gardens by Penelope Lively and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

Oh, yes 'Norham Gardens' is great. I thought the other two might lean a little too much towards romance for the OP's DD. But if she liked 'How I Live Now' then I'd also recommend 'What I Was' by the same author. One of my all time favourite books.

It's a shame she didn't get on with Agatha Christie - one can use up years of blissful youth on Golden Age crime: Josephine Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Mary Stewart ... There's almost always a romance somewhere in the plot - but they're so much more than that.

I should have said more about the Sylvia Townsend Warner - but pick any adjectives: brilliant, brutal, groundbreaking, they all apply.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Cold War? Here:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/20/top-10-books-about-the-cold-war

I haven't read the E. L. Doctorow but can recommend all the other fiction discussed in the article. Loved both Graham Greene and Nevil Shute's oeuvres when I was younger.

(I was also a devoted teenage fan of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy - but I tend to get shouted down when I mention that. I suppose they do crop up rather often in school reading lists.)

If she's a sophisticated reader then I'd give her

Richard Hughes - A High Wind in Jamaica (But you do need to be mature enough to 'get' it.)

She might be intrigued by the juxtaposition of Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea - but maybe hold back until she's less wary of love as a subject.

The outsiders by SE Hinton

One of us is lying by can't remember

Midnight is a place - Joan Aitken

The Westing game by Ellen Raskin

Thank you to everyone! Some really interesting suggestions here. DD thanks all of you. This is going to keep her going for a LONG time!

"It's a shame she didn't get on with Agatha Christie - one can use up years of blissful youth on Golden Age crime: Josephine Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Mary Stewart ... "

I wouldn't give up on Golden Age crime because of not liking Agatha Christie - the only Christie I like at all is the TV Miss Marple with Joan Hickson. But Dorothy Sayers is one of my favourite authors,and I enjoy all the others! Mary Stewart is definitely mystery with romance though,50/50.

Michelle Magorian - Goodnight Mr Tom is the most well known but Back Home is excellent. It’s about a 12 year old returning home after being evacuated to the USA aged 7, and the difficulties trying to fit back into her family when she doesn’t know them and they don’t know her. She also wrote a series about a family which is great, A Spoonful of Sugar, Cuckoo in the Nest and so on. Can’t remember which is the first one though.

I was about that age when I discovered Bill Bryson. His travel books are funny. They might be a bit outdated for her now but then again, they might not be. Notes from a small island would be a good one to start with.

If she liked Anne of GG then has she read the Emily series? Emily of New Moon etc.

If she likes the Chalet School then Trebizon? It might be a bit young but 13 is that funny age where sometimes you want something easy and young. My 11 yo is devouring them and she hated Malory Towers etc!

Oh, oh, oh! Just remembered, during my long crazy Summer of thread-accompanied Chalet School re-reading (couple of years ago, utter bliss) other posters introduced me to Elinor Brent Dyer's 'La Rochelle' series. I started reading them just to be polite (not the ones set in school but those about the adult sisters) but found them mortifyingly absorbing. There's a review somewhere that describes them as 'intended for teenagers, now mostly read by nostalgic adults' ... Only half a dozen or so, set in Guernsey, preceding and intersecting with the Chalet School community. Admittedly horribly dated now, but vibrant and delightful nevertheless.

I've assumed Antonia Forest's Marlow books come under and other school stories? So she probably is already familiar with Girls Gone By. They republished one of my all time favourite books 'Elizabeth of the Garret Theatre' by Gwendoline Courtney under the somewhat forbidding title 'Stepmother'. It's completely magnificent. As is the rest of their list.

(Nearly forgot to say that you're totally correct, FiveToFour!)

Things a Bright Girl can do by Sally Nicholls - it's about three different young women joining the suffragette movement. Teen/YA book

More replies! I'm so happy 😊

I'll look for the book by Sally Nicholls; DD was very interested in the suffragettes last year. Also Back Home, I read it years ago and she'll probably like it. The Trebizon books look like they'll amuse her too.

This is giving me so many ideas and we actually have a lot of the books at home. Mary Stewart, Bill Bryson, even e-books of a few of the La Rochelle series, if I search my laptop.

DD tends to get into a reading rut and read the same books over and over again until she finds her new favourite author. I'm going to try her with all these to see what she would like next.

Thank you!

(I know I'm definitely over invested here - but I've come to realise that I was probably never ever as happy and content as in my early teens, home from school, curled up on the floor with my back against the radiator, tea, chocolate biscuits and endless reading.)

I know the feeling...I used to do the same. It was absolute bliss!