Books for DS nearly 17

[Apileofballyhoo]

DS wants to read more and spend less time on screens, so books are the obvious choice. We've had a bereavement this year and he's struggling a bit with concentrating so we are looking for books that are pretty easy to read but are still well written and quite literary. He found One Hundred Years of Solitude a slog but raced through Klara and the Sun. I'll read anything so I'm not much use to him, but I've suggested Life of Pi as I remember racing through that once I got past the first chapter. Also All the Pretty Horses, but he might struggle with the punctuation or lack of in McCarthy books. He doesn't feel up to reading anything particularly sad or bleak. All suggestions welcome!

Has he read any Terry Pratchett? My DH got into his books when he was 26, and followed them right through to the last volumes. Death is in it; that is Death with a capital D, a benign figure who loves cats and has a job to do. If history (and time travel) is his thing, he might like Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St Mary's and her Time Police series.

Stephen King
Tolkein
Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series
George R R Martin

I'll preface these suggestions by saying it was a long time ago that I was 17, not a boy and don't have any teens I my life. But here it goes...

I came to suggest Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, but that probably falls in to the sad/bleak category. However, it is excellent.

Other suggestions:
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
DH loves Robin Hobb's books, Lord of The Rings/Hobbit books.
Phillip Pulman's His Dark Materials.

Get him to go and have a good nosey around your local library. Ours has it's own YA section as well.

Sounds to me like he’s beyond what’s in YA, if he’s reading Ishiguro and MacCarthy - it’s always very heavily geared towards girls and is filled with of romantasy and murder these days!

"The Martian" by Andy Weir - the film has Matt Damon. An astronaut is stranded on Mars and its his story of trying to survive. Very funny too. Also "Ready Player One" by Ernst Cline. Set in a mix of real world and Virtual Reality gaming.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
The Hunger Games books or Dark Materials series.
If he likes sci fi then maybe Alistair Reynolds or Iain M Banks (Ian Banks writing sci fi). Believe it may be "hard" sci fi though.
Maybe some Jeeves and Wooster for light relief.
Or maybe some classics like Dracula or Frankenstein.
Sherlock Holmes.

Also Stephen King or James Herbert - not everything is horror if not into that. I really enjoyed Fluke by James Herbert in my late teens - a man is reincarnated as a dog.

I think he might enjoy the Stephen King one where the protagonist has a brain injury as a child, if any one knows the one I'm on about. The Dead Zone or something like that. He's read one Terry Prachet, enjoyed it ok but wasn't mad for getting more, though funnily enough hev picked up another today in one of those little library boxes on a walk we were on. TP was recommended on here last time I did a thread, a good few years ago now! He's read Hitchhikers, hasn't read The Hobbit and LoTR so I'll suggest to him to try them again now. I loved those as a teen. I might get him the Martian, I'm not sure if he's seen the film. Didn't realise it was funny! He's seen Ready Player One but he might still like to read the book. Might get Good Omens for him. He did like Dr Who and Harry Potter so he is not adverse to fantasy and sci-fi. Fluke sounds entertaining! Thanks everyone for suggestions so far!

Second the Rivers of London series mentioned above - my 16 year old is reading it and enjoying ( from a recommendation on here)

I'd go for 'light' classics.

Funny reads: Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchet, Wodehouse

Swashbuckling adventures: Dumas, RLS, Tolkien

Crime: Agatha Christie (start with Roger Aykroyd), Sherlock Holmes, Dorothy L. Sayers

Classics: Wilkie Collins, Dracula, Frankenstein, To Kill a Mockingbird, probably some Dickens but I'm not a fan so can't comment, The Picture of Dorian Gray (DD1 loved this), Oranges are not the Only Fruit.

My teens are girls so not sure what contemporary stuff he might like, they like fantasy romance crap. If he liked Klara he'd probably like Never Let me Go. Maybe try Beryl Bainbridge, her novels are generally short, gorgeous writing but very bleak. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is fantastic about the Biafran war, Normal People by Sally Rooney might appeal at that age, Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov. Tell him to just try lots of different writers so he finds what he likes.

Yes, The Dead Zone. Read it yonks ago. Not all Stephen King is horror, and the films by and large don’t reflect the books (except the short story ones, a bit).

Robert Harris
Jeffrey Archer
Ian Fleming Bond books
Edward Rutherford
Delderfield Swann Trilogy or Horseman Riding By
Lee Ryan Jack Reacher

I'm biased as have read every TP multiple times and love them.....
But they aren't all as easy a read as others, which ones did he try? Might be able to suggest some better intro ones.
If he's after fairly light then the 3 truckers books are more like children's books than some of the others, and not set in the discworld so more stand alone. As is carpet people.

Will he read older books? Maybe historical or military?
I'm thinking of Sharpe, Hornblower, Ronald welch.
I think older books are often more simple stories and less inclined to base around meaningful social commentary. Or quite possibly I was young enough when I last read them that is just missed thought bits, and also find it less depressing when it's horrible things in history than when it's more real life like reading about modern problems.

Random idea, has he read The Da Vinci Code? It wasn't worth all the talk it got when it came out imo, but I enjoyed it as a fairly easy read.

Might be a bit young for him, but Gary Paulsen? I read them as a youngish teen, but I still re read all that kind of thing happily. Love YA books tbh. (I just googled him, had no idea how long ago some were written!)

I'd go for trying loads of random books tbh and see what takes his fancy. If you gave any community book swap places near you then a box of paperback books you return later could be handy.
Also you can borrow digital books from the library via the app and also audio books which are good.

Mine enjoyed Roddy Doyle at that age

I was thinking he might read a bit of Agatha Christie all right. He does like history so I've been suggesting Robert Harris to him, but I'll suggest the others above. He's reading Never Let Me Go at the moment! But he's afraid it might be sad.

He says he wouldn't mind reading more TP and he's going to reread the one he has as he did like it. It was recommended on here as a good one to start with. He thinks Agatha Christie is a good shout as he was thinking about trying them anyway. I used to read those as a child but also into me teens and I still give use them as a comfort read from time to time.

Normal People is a good shout. I could never get into Half a Yellow Sun and I have it somewhere so I must dig it out and give it another try. He said he doesn't mind trying the YA recommendations either so thanks for those.

Rivers of London sounds good and his interest was piqued by Jodi Taylor suggestion too.

Oh, I'm taking notes of all the suggestions you are getting, I haven't read Agatha Christie in forever! I also need to spend less time doom scrolling and reading more 'real' books instead of free rubbish on my kindle.

Rosemary Sutcliffe are good, well written and apparently pretty historically accurate which is nice.

Lindsey Davis falco books might be good.
I enjoyed I think the first 8 or so, haven't got around to reading the rest yet as when I read the synopsis they seemed to get a bit depressing. You should be fairly safe with the first few at least though.

More adult crime books-
Michael connelly or Ken Follett.

DS2 enjoys fiction. At 17 he read a lot of the Lee Child books. Not great literature but fun. Also John Grisham and Ken Follett.

Game of Thrones? I’ve not read them so might not be a great recommendation.

I used to love Hornblower, another good shout to try. You're bang on about historical stuff being easier to cope with. I think I might try Shogun and King Rat on him, and Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel.

The TP was Mort, recommended on here as a good first one to try, and he picked up The Long War today in the free little library box.

DH used to read Michael Connolly, I think we have a stash of them. I used to read John Grisham as a teen too, he might like them.

I have a few of the GoT but some of them are so disturbing and they started to get a bit silly in places. It's up to him though!

Roddy Doyle is another good shout, he might like some of those.

I'm thinking of more myself now that I enjoyed and weren't hard to read.

Great suggestions everyone, thanks so much!

Meh. I tried the first one. I think I'd counted like 6 named deaths and about 17 if you counted nameless characters in the first few chapters. When they killed a dog that was it, I gave up!

I do NOT do gruesome.

OK, you've found a TP I haven't read! I haven't tried any of that set.

If he liked Mort then the hogfather might be good, death features heavily. Also in reaper man.

And the first of the guards books is Guards Guards I think, that would work well as a intro without needing to read all the previous.

If he likes fantasy Magician by Feist is really easy reading & hard to put down (& there's loads more books after if he likes them)

Bernard Cornwalls Warlord Chronicles (Arthurian)

Non fiction - has he read the "what if" books?

Comic books are an easy way into reading sometimes.

One of my bookworms is a similar age but she reads massive epic fantasy books or "romantasy" stuff that makes her dad blush!

Sorry for your loss 💐

@Arglefraster thanks so much. He does indeed have the What Ifs, he likes that sort of thing. He likes the Merlin show so he might go for the Arthurian stuff too, and hard to put down is exactly what he is after so we'll try and get hold of Magician.

@Onlyvisiting thanks for the Guards Guards name, I haven't a clue where to start with TP.

Classics but might not have read:

The Once and Future King - T H White
The Moonstone -Wilkie Collins
Damon Runyon?
Steinbeck? - not the tomes, Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row

There’s a quirky crime series by Harry Bingham with oddball young female detective, Fiona Griffiths

Bernard Cornwell also wrote The Last Kingdom series, about a Viking left behind in Anglo Saxon England, they’re very good.

Forgot to mention The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Dark Academia is having a moment with the young ones, DD1 (also 17) has lots of friends who have read it.