Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books I'd Recommend to X Person

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Books I'd Recommend to X Person.  Who's the target of my recommendations?  I'm going to go with Boys (or YA Fans Who Want A Break From Female Protagonists).  There are so many books out there these days, but the YA and MG markets don't seem to reflect the fact that boys make up 50% of the population.  So here are some books I'd recommend that would appeal not just to the female segment of the market:

10. The Thief (The Queen's Thief #1) by Megan Whalen Turner - This is one of my all-time favourites.  Gen is a fun character and a great narrator... and just the sort of fellow you'd want to go on an adventure with.

9. Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies #1) by Isaac Marion - One of the most enjoyable zombie novels I've read, this one really lets you get inside a male character's head... even if that guy is technically dead.

8. Draw the Dark by Ilsa J. Bick - This is one of the better male-narrator YA novels I've read.  It's creepy and dark, but with an interesting storyline that's a bit different.

7. Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis - While the framing device in this story uses a girl, most of the action in this story revolves around a young man named Farhad and his adventures with a talking white tiger.

6. Peter and the Starcatchers (Peter and the Starcatchers #1) by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson - It's Peter Pan, a bunch of little boys, and some manly sailors!  You can't have much more guy appeal than that...

5. Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones - Quite a few of Diana Wynne Jones's books are suitable for boys, but I remember this story being particularly un-girly.

4. Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1) by Paolo Bacigalupi - This is a somewhat dark, near-future adventure with a strong male protagonist.

3. The Magic Thief (Magic Thief #1) by Sarah Prineas - This was a fun first novel in a series that would appeal to younger fans of Harry Potter.

2. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine #1) by Ransom Riggs - A male narrator, fascinating old photographs that tie into the story, and some really creepy goings-on make this a great choice for boys who may be reluctant readers.

1. The Giver (The Giver Quartet #1) by Lois Lowry - There doesn't seem to be a ton of recent YA or MG dystopian fiction that's suitable for boys as well as girls, so I had to include The Giver on this list.  It was one of the first dystopian books I can remember reading, and it whetted my appetite for more in that genre.

1 comment:

  1. Oh, I'm a girl who likes male protagonists more so I think I'll have to bookmark this list :) I've already read Warm Bodies (loved it), The Giver (enjoyed it) and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children+Hollow City (sadly wasn't my cup of tea...) but most of the others are new to me. I loved Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones so I'll definitely be looking up Dogsbody. And Draw the Dark sounds like something I'd enjoy too. I love me some dark/creepy stories ;)

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