Challenging and interesting adult books for a 15 year old book worm please

[itchyandscratchy]

One of my students (male) devours books and his parents have asked to me recommend a book list for him. They feel that they might be out of touch with more modern texts but they don't want set texts from exams necessarily; just books he can enjoy and be stimulated by. Any ideas?

Can you suggest books with a more "adult" content? I ask because I've noticed here and on other sites (actually, less so here ... ) that sometimes parents get in a tizzy about "morally difficult" books. Imo, really great books tend to make a bee-line for those areas, so censorship doesn't ever go well with opening the vista to great and challenging literature.

On the other hand, fifteen is a difficult age; they can be very bright but emotionally not that mature. And then, going back to the other hand, books are one of the ways one learns that emotional maturity, at a (safer) distance ... .

Just a few suggestions...

The Line of Beauty
Catch 22
The Catcher in the Rye
James Bond books? Not that challenging maybe but quite fun
Brave New World
On The Road
maybe try something by Evelyn Waugh...

Am aware that some of these are not that modern though, will try and think of more!

I think at 15, the most important thing is that he is steered in the direction of books he will enjoy.

Terry Pratchett for instance, is not great literature, but very enjoyable, has a lot to say about folk lore, perceptions of the world etc, lots and lots of oblique references that you reread to try and get - and then go off and read those books. Nothing objectionable in them either.

Garth Nix, Phillip Pullman also very suitable for that age group. In this case Phillip Pullman is beautifully written, and a lot to think about.

I've heard that the Marjory Blackman Noughts and Crosses books are very good, but don't know about appeal to 15 yr old boy.

If he fancies some very accessible history, the Forgotten Voices books are very readable first hand accounts of 1st/2nd world war events and might suit.

But tbh, at that age I just wandered round the library and chose books I thought I might like - probably by far the best thing for him rather than being presented with a reading list by his parents

CMOTdibbler, your list looks a lot more accessible than mine!

I guess it kind of depends how good a reader he is - I was well onto adult novels at that age but if he needs a bit of encouragement some of them might be enough to put him off for life!

I did read Brave New World at that age, but I'm not sure whether I would recommend it to someone elses teen iykwim. I read anything in sight, but my mum was happy for me to have free reign on her bookshelves - so Lady Chatterly, Well of Loneliness etc were all fine to her.

I also read the Grapes of Wrath at that age (supplementary to Of Mice and Men which was our set book) and enjoyed it

Iain Banks is very good, and appeals to youngish male readers. Try him on 'The Wasp Factory' or 'Complicity'. He also writes Science Fiction as Iain M Banks. 'Consider Phelebus' is the first of the culture novels and is a fantastically good read.

Fab. THanks. Keep em comin...

He's a very sophisicated reader but, socially, not very 'worldly', shall we say. He's also very sensitive. Likes books with a historical bent, apparently. His parents bring boxes of books home from car boots and he reads them over one weekend(!) but they're not always brilliant quality. Will definitely start the list with the ones you've already mentioned.

Stephen King? Not historical but generally lots of boy appeal. The Dark Tower series are partly set in a fantasy world which is rather like the age of chivalry. The Stand is a fab post-apocolypse novel.

Terry Pratchett, yes.

I can't be doing with them but Patrick O Brian and Bernard Cornwell write historical novels.

CJ Sansom's Matthew Shardlake novels are set in mediaeval Britain and are brilliant. Also his Winter In Madrid.

The Book Thief.

Sherlock Holmes stories? Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde? Treasure Island?

Malory Blackman's Noughts And Crosses series have a boy as one of the central characters. The first three are brilliant; the final one is tosh imho!

I remember my brother loving Michael Moorcock at that age, also the Mervyn Peake 'Gormenghast' books. Also, the 'I Claudius' books by Robert Graves.

Jack London - The Call Of The Wild
Albert Camus - The Plague, The Outsider
James Ellroy - American Tabloid
Dashiel Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
Robert Harris - Pompeii
George Orwell - 1984, Animal Farm
Stephen Donaldson - The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant (fantasy but pretty sophisticated and rooted in Norse mythology)

Came on to recommend Catcher in the Rye and Orwell but beaten to it! Oh to be 15 and thinking Holden Caulfield was the only character to feel like me, like, ever...

Grahame Green/John Le Carre (earlier books rather than most recent)/Alan Furst if WWII/Cold War spy thrillers might appeal....

Night Watch quarter by Sergei Lukyanenko is good (sophisticated fantasy series).

What about Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks? CHarlotte Gray too.

At that sort of age I liked moody angsty dark stuff, and these seem to strike a chord with most of the boys in the lit group as well. He will surely love Iain Banks

Oh and Douglas Coupland - very zeitgeisty stuff but quite well done.

oh yes microserfs great book

I was going to recommend Robert Harris - Pompeii is especially good but I also like Enigma and Archangel.

Dorothy Dunnett I loved, Lymond Chronicles. They are pretty accurate historically - maybe slighly geared towards women readers but nonetheless good stories.

Does he read fantasy? I would have thought if he does that he would enjoy The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, and Robin Hobb's 'Assasin' trilogy.

DH reads all those Ian Banks, they are quite dark I think, I can't get on with them but DH rates them quite highly.

The Liar by Stephen Fry

Julian Rathbone - 'Kings of Albion' and 'A Very English Agent'. I love these, funny but very grown up.

I will come back if I think of anymore!

I loved Graham Swift's Waterland at that age. Kind of coming of age themes.

Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair or The Big Over Easy

at that age i enjoyed salinger, martin amis, iain banks, margaret atwood, iris murdoch, george orwell, john irving, robertson davies, ian mcewan, and lorrie moore

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Lots of those mentioned plus Birdy by William Wharton is great, but think it's out of print
The Name of the Rose
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Any classics really, Dickens, Hardy etc - I think around 15 is a great age to read these, plenty of time to get through something meaty fairly quickly. I would aim high rather than low, sounds like he will read anything so it might as well be something good.

Papillon - I think a 15 yo boy would love that. Would be my top recommendation.

Germinal - might change his political views for life!

I was loving the classics at that age - Dickens and Hardy etc great old romps, and as a teenager you can sit up reading the way you can't as an adult. Jude the Obcsure I read in a sitting and I would never have the time now, but is much the best way of reading it.

DH Lawrence is a bit unfashionable these days, perhaps, but great reads.

All fantastic. Thanks so much