Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and feature lists related to all things bookish–characters, authors, titles, and favorites. They’re an excellent way to find new interesting books on a variety of topics, and to find bloggers that love the books you do.
Check out their blog for their top ten and lists by other bloggers!
August 15: Ten book recommendations for ______________: (Skies the limit here…examples: for Hufflepuffs, for fans of Game of Thrones, for people who don’t normally read YA, for animal lovers, for video game lovers, etc.
I’m doing Top Ten Recommendations for People who don’t Normally Read YA, because a lot of people miss out on what can be a great genre, just because of the label. Read all the books! 🙂
1. The Secret Garden; Mary Frances Burnett. If you missed this childhood staple, it’s never too late to read it.
2. The Princess Bride; William Goldman. Action, adventure, romance–and a bunch of witty asides.
3. Howl’s Moving Castle; Diana Wynne Jones. Plenty of curses, a heartless wizard, and a spectacular home.
4. Flowers for Algernon; Daniel Keyes. Probably the saddest book I’ll ever recommend, but it’s so well written and thought-provoking it needs to be read.
5. Un Lun Dun; China Mieville. A sort of steampunk Alice in Wonderland, set in London.
6. Alanna; Tamora Pierce. Strong female protagonists have no age limit.
7. Wee Free Men; Terry Pratchett. Tiny angry sheep-stealing piskies. What more do you need to know?
8. Eleanor & Park; Rainbow Rowell. For the misfits.
9. Scorpio Races; Maggie Stiefvater. A well-written stand-alone, a rarity in the fantasy genre. And carnivorous sea horses.
10. The Book Thief; Markus Zusak. This is one of those sad but wonderful books, that speaks about the strength of the human spirit in the face of evil.
caitlinsternwrites 
Wow, you have hit some of my favorite books, here. And I agree. A well-written young adult book should appeal to all ages, lacking merely graphic sex, violence, or language. Strong plots and intriguing characters ought to work for everyone! Scorpio Races is one of the most moving and beautiful books I’ve read in a long time. And anything by Terry Pratchett is a must read, but of all of his many books The Wee, Free Men is my favorite! I read The Secret Garden many years ago, and remember it fondly to this day. And I read Flowers for Algernon when it came out . . . in 1959! Holy Moly, I’m old! It was, indeed, one of the saddest books I’ve ever read. Worth it, but not one I would read again, for that reason.
I’m adding Howl’s Moving Castle to my TBR list, and I need to get around to The Princess Bridge. Would you believe I haven’t read the book OR seen the movie, except in countless brief clips of various scenes. Shame on me.
Great list, as always, and I hope it will inspire more people to check out the finer examples of YA books out there today. Some great stuff!
I don’t think I’d reread Flowers for Algernon, either. It made quite an impression the first time, though!
The Princess Bride movie is fairly different from the book, but both are very good. I hope you get to whichever of them you want to!
Yes, but what about the movie/book I mentioned: The Princess BRIDGE??? Hahahaha. I didn’t see that the first time, sorry. But I do think I need to add the REAL book to my TBR list. Heading over to Amazon to do just that. 🙂
Great list! I don’t know if I’d consider some of these YA. I usually see The Princess Bride with general adult fiction (which is odd because to me fantasy seems like the best place for it!)
I love The Secret Garden, Howl’s Moving Castle, Flowers for Algernon and The Book Thief!
My TTT https://franlaniado.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/top-ten-tuesday-10-book-recommendations-for-outlander-fans/#comments
I used the Goodreads shelving system, and all of these books were shelved a bunch of times under YA–because otherwise I don’t think I could have gotten ten!
I do agree some are a stretch. 🙂
But I think a lot of the time things are classified as YA because of marketing- the publishers think it will sell to a teen audience.
I like what you did with this post. These are unique choices. I think non-YA readers would definitely enjoy them.
My TTT.
Labels should be guidelines, no exclusionary, right? 🙂
Great recommendations! I love the movie adaptation of The Princess Bride and I’ve been wanting to read the original novel.
I adore the movie, too. 🙂 The book is a bit different, but still good. Happy reading!
I agree. The label YA can limit the readership. And why The Book Thief was marketed as a YA I’ll never understand. I read somewhere that it’s not marketed as YA in other countries.
It’s probably a difficult to deal with sort of issue for booksellers. Will young adults read a book if it’s not YA? Maybe, maybe not.