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John Green's Reading List

The Y.A. author, whose novel "Looking for Alaska" has just been adapted for a Hulu series, says "young people are thinking about so many important questions, about love and meaning and justice."

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By the Book: John Green (2019)

NYT By the Book column (2019-10-10).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Cover of The Nickel Boys
The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead · Buy on Amazon
"Colson Whitehead's 'The Nickel Boys.'"
This Blinding Absence of Light
Tahar Ben Jelloun · Buy on Amazon
"I wish I knew more people who'd read Tahar Ben Jelloun's novel 'This Blinding Absence of Light,' which follows a group of political prisoners living in total darkness."
Cover of Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler · Buy on Amazon
"Octavia E. Butler's 'Parable of the Sower.'"
Cover of Speak
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson · Buy on Amazon
"I never thought about writing for teenagers until I was 22 and read 'Speak,' by Laurie Halse Anderson, and 'Monster,' by Walter Dean Myers. Both those novels are capital-g Great."
Cover of Monster
Monster
Walter Dean Myers · Buy on Amazon
"I never thought about writing for teenagers until I was 22 and read 'Speak,' by Laurie Halse Anderson, and 'Monster,' by Walter Dean Myers. Both those novels are capital-g Great."
Cover of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
M. T. Anderson · Buy on Amazon
"I also often recommend to adults 'The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing,' by M. T. Anderson."
Cover of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
E. Lockhart · Buy on Amazon
"I also often recommend to adults 'The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks,' by E. Lockhart."
Cover of The Human Stain
The Human Stain
Philip Roth · Buy on Amazon
"There's a line in 'The Human Stain' that we both underlined when we read it: 'The pleasure isn't owning the person. The pleasure is this. Having another contender in the room with you.'"
Cover of The Body in Pain
The Body in Pain
Elaine Scarry · Buy on Amazon
"After I had meningitis, my friend Mike Rugnetta gave me Elaine Scarry's extraordinary book 'The Body in Pain,' which I found extremely helpful."
Cover of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor · Buy on Amazon
"I loved Mildred D. Taylor's 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' and Wilson Rawls's 'Where the Red Fern Grows.' As a kid, I loved books that made me cry."
Cover of Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Red Fern Grows
Wilson Rawls · Buy on Amazon
"I loved Mildred D. Taylor's 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' and Wilson Rawls's 'Where the Red Fern Grows.' As a kid, I loved books that made me cry."
Cover of Sister Mine
Sister Mine
Nalo Hopkinson · Buy on Amazon
"My favorite novels about conjoined twins (or formerly conjoined twins) are 'Sister Mine,' by Nalo Hopkinson, and 'God's Fool,' by Mark Slouka."
Cover of God's Fool
God's Fool
Mark Slouka · Buy on Amazon
"My favorite novels about conjoined twins (or formerly conjoined twins) are 'Sister Mine,' by Nalo Hopkinson, and 'God's Fool,' by Mark Slouka."

Favorite books (2023)

Favorite books recommended by 6 Coming-of-Age Novels Recommended by John Green, as compiled by radicalreads.com. Source article: https://radicalreads.com/john-green-favorite-books/.

Source: radicalreads.com

Cover of Sula
Sula
Toni Morrison · Buy on Amazon
"Morrison won the Nobel Prize in literature the same year that I read Song of Solomon in a high school English class. I loved that novel so much I read Sula (and Beloved ) for fun that summer. The friendship between Sula and Nel transformed the way I thought about love and gender."
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
E. Lockhart · Buy on Amazon
"Frankie is a boarding-school novel, with all the pranks and romantic entanglements you’d expect. But it also features a wonderful protagonist. Her examinations of self, authority, and gender roles make this book truly brilliant."
Cover of Speak
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson · Buy on Amazon
"Anderson’s classic young-adult novel, which is also rightly popular with adults, tells the story of the mute Melinda Sordino, who has survived an unspeakable trauma that must, finally, be shared."
The Blood of the Lamb
Peter de Vries · Buy on Amazon
"There are two coming-of-age stories here: one in which Don Wanderhop endures a difficult (but often hilarious) childhood and another in which he must come into a different kind of adulthood, as a father of a child living with cancer. Funny, angry, and thoroughly human, The Blood of the Lamb is the best novel about cancer I’ve ever read."
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
M.T. Anderson · Buy on Amazon
"This two-volume novel follows a young slave who is the subject of a strange Enlightenment experiment until his life is upended by the American Revolution. A brilliant novel of war and race and the madness of slavery, Octavian has stayed with me for years."

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