The Giver
By Lois Lowry
This is a classic that can be found on just about every high school English class reading list around the world. This story is set in a “perfect” society. Disease has been eradicated, but so have feelings – no happiness or pleasure. The only one who has memories of feelings is The Giver. Everyone has to perform their assigned tasks and stay in their assigned roles. Then it is time for The Giver to pass on his gift of memories to young Jonas. As the reader delves further into this story, he or she realizes all is not as perfect as it seems. If you haven’t explored a dystopian novel, this is the one to read first.
The Maze Runner
By James Dashner
Thomas wakes up in total darkness, with no memories beyond his first name, in the Glade. Outside the giant wall is a nightmare of a labyrinth, an ever-changing Maze. Other kids, Runners, venture into the Maze, trying to map a way out. Some make it back some get caught by the Grievers. Then She, the first girl, comes, but ends up in a vegetative state.
Gone Girl
By Gillian Flynn
When beautiful, smart and clever Amy Dunne disappears on the evening of her fifth wedding anniversary with husband Nick, questions about her whereabouts – and Nick’s role in her disappearance – quickly arise. This book delves into what happens when one person has no idea who his or her spouse really is.
Mockingjay
By Suzanne Collins
Once again, we meet up with Katniss Everdeen. While the first two books in the Hunger Games trilogy concentrated on the dreaded games that pitted the 12 districts against one another, now it is the Capitol itself against the rebel forces. With strong political themes, a fast-paced plot and well-developed characters, this book will appeal to adults as well as the young adults for whom it was intended. This book will be split into two movies, so there is time to get this novel read before the second half comes out.
Outlander
By Diana Gabaldon
The year is 1946. Claire Randall and her husband are on a post-WWII second honeymoon trying to reconnect. Rambling through the Scottish countryside, she walks through a circle of standing stones and is thrown back in time to 1743. With her life threatened by English Redcoats, whose commander is her husband’s ancestor, she is wed to James Fraser, a handsome, gallant Scots warrior. Thus begins an epic tale that spans two centuries and has become a modern classic.
By Colleen C. Bauman, Pickerington Public Library Community Services Coordinator
