Monday 2 July 2012

Top Ten Favourite Contemporary Books (from my pre-blogging days)

Whilst my main love has always been paranormal fiction, I did read a lot more contemporary YA books as a teenager than I do now. With that in mind, I decided to create a list of my 'old school' favourite contemporary books, with the aim being to compile a list at the end of the month featuring my top ten faves since I started blogging. So without further ado, here is my list....

(All titles link to Goodreads)

One of my all-time favourite books! About a girl whose mother is struggling with depression, and Francesca’s attempts to deal with this, her own life and her social/school situation.Very beautiful writing and a wonderful, colourful cast of characters.

A funny and very, very cute account of a relationship between two boys in a very unconventional town/high school where the star quarterback is also the homecoming queen.

Girl called Caitlin reinvents herself for her new school, only to have her life torn asunder by accusations that her teacher father has molested one of his students.

Very emotional story of a girl who dies tragically and ends up in Elsewhere; the afterlife where you age backwards before being sent back to Earth as a new born. She tries to come to terms with her own death to appreciate her afterlife. 

Adventures of a teen girl and her bunch of misfit friends. Lots of hilarity and bizarre word creation.I think EVERYONE has heard of/read these? Never failed to make me laugh.

6.Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty 
The second Aussie title on my list (they write such fab contemp), and the wonderful 2nd book in the Ashbury/Brookfield series, Cassie, Lydia, Emily and the rest of their class from the exclusively private Ashbury school do a penpal exchange with the 'rough' comprehensive Ashbury. Very funny, a little dark with a great mystery, the entire book is told through the letters of the students. 

7.All American Girl (and sequel) by Meg Cabot
Hilarious, very feminist, so much realistic sex discussion plus it’s pretty cute. Follows Sam, a non-conformist in a high school of stereotypes who saves the Presidentof the United States from a shooting. Perk: The Preisden's Son. Anti-Perk: Now no one will ever leave her alone.
Dude, these books are OLD. From the late 90s, and I think I read them around that time (though I was only about 10). They’re a series of letter (and later email) exchanges between two very different best friends when one moves away.  I can still remember parts of them, even though I haven’t read them for at least a decade, which shows just how memorable they were.  

9.Pretty Things by Sarra Manning
An impulse buy in Waterstones when I was about 15. Follows a group of teens over one summer theatre production of A Streetcar Named Desire. I liked how different the characters were,how complication their relationships were and the strong LGBT themes of the book, described as 'girl-loves-boy-loves-boy-loves-girl'. 

Ruby (Roo) writes a ‘boyfriend list’ on the advice of her therapist, with every boy that’s ever featured in her life, ever which totally backfires and ruins like, everything.I recently re-bought this for my kindle!







And there we have it! As you can see, none of these books were actually published past 2006, which is the year I finished high school and the time I moved almost exclusively to paranormal/urban fantasy books (with some crime fiction thrown in)

Have you read and enjoyed any of these? Will you check any of them out having seen my list? What would feature on your own list?

Be sure to head over to Liz's blog where she is posting her list of top 10 Contemporary YA today, and don't forget to visit yesterday's post to nominate your favourite Contemps and enter our giveaways!



20 comments:

  1. All-American Girl! I love that series. Sam was such an awesome character. I've never read anything by Jaclyn Moriarty though, but I remember seeing the books around a lot in my school library! And gotta love Ruby Oliver :).

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    1. You should read JM! and yeah I love Sam SO MUCH!

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  2. I loved Elsewhere. It was gorgeous and made me cry and I still love it so, so much. ALSO YAY IT'S JULY! CONTEMPORARY POSTS! :D

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    1. Yes Elsewhere is SO beautiful. I adore it.

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  3. BOY MEETS BOY!! :D I feel like not enough people know about that one, but it's sooooo cute. Also, Jaclyn Moriarty's books are some of the first I ever encountered with multiple viewpoints, which I've come to love.

    Great list!

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    1. YOU ARE SO RIGHT. More people need to read the amazingness that is Boy Meets Boy!! Yeah...I think they were for me too. I love how diverse her characters are as well, you can tell from one tiny snippet which character it is!

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  4. Some of these were my teen year favourites too I used to think that Louise Rennison was stalking me and writing books about my life, I *WAS* Georgia Nicholson!!!

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    1. Teen years contemp RULES! Haha, I LOVED Georgia Nicholson SO MUCH!

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  5. All of those sound great! I haven't read any of them. I only just got into contemporary a few months ago so most of the ones I have read are new releases. Thanks for the fabulous list. I will have to check some of those out. Boy Meets Boy sounds like one I would really enjoy!!

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    1. Oh Amy you HAVE to read BMB! I totally get what you mean, all the contemps I've read are either pre-2006 or post-2011 its SO weird. I'll never catch up!!

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  6. I really need to read the rest of the Ruby Oliver series. I read and loved the first one.

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  7. For shame...I haven't read any of these! I see some authors on your list that I definitely want to try, though!

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  8. Saving Francesca and The Boyfriend List have haunted my adventures throughout the blogosphere! Seriously, I can't NOT remember a time peeps weren't talking about it for a few months straight. You'd think that would drive me bananas enough to finally read them! And yet, I remain a loser xD

    — Asher @ Paranormal Indulgence

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  9. I've been meaning to read Saving Francesca ever since I fell in love with Jellicoe Road and Melina Marchetta's writing. And I've heard nothing but silly goodness about the Georgia Nicholson books. :)
    I love the Ruby Oliver series (I actually listed it as one of my 10 contemporary recs before I read this). I'm so excited to see what other books get recommended this month. :)

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  10. I haven't read any of these titles, well except for Elsewhere and Saving Francesca which were pretty good reads. Great post!

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  11. Such great books there! I love Melina Marchetta and E Lockhart and Meg Cabot and David Levithan. I really must read Jaclyn Moriarty, I've heard such good things about her books.

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  12. You read YA contemp before your blogging days?! You trend setter, you! Shameful me was more adult aussie/historical *shakes head in disappointment over my teenage years* I missed out on SO much.

    Seriously, I think Anna and the French Kiss really made my contemp love BLOSSOM. Anyway, gah, GOTTA read Saving Fransesca! #1 on yours and a notable mention from Liz? Plus Aussie connections? YEAH, I KNOW, I KNOW. Shamefully I haven't heard of anymore of these, save for the Ruby Oliver books which I'm becoming more and more EXCITED to read lately.

    I am definitely going to check those out soon. And Jaclyn's too! I never even HEARD of her before yesterday when the pub send out media release for her new YA. GAH. AUSSIE CONTEMP FAIL, BRODIE!

    Bless you and Liz for educating us :D

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  13. Firstly, WOW! Loving the new design, Cait - it's very pretty indeed! I thought I'd come to the wrong blog but I'm adoring it's scrapbook feel!

    Georgia Nicholson books are so so so funny - the words Louise Rennison created are just... totally hilarious! I haven't read any of the others you mentioned but will be checking them out soon!

    Thanks for the great post, Cait <3

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  14. YIKES! I've only read Saving Francesca from your list, Cait! BUT OMG I SO ADORE THIS BOOK! My first Marchetta book was actually On the Jellicoe Road and I LOVE IT TO PIECES. It took time for me to get into the book but once I got into it, I JUST LOVE IT! But my alltime favourite YA contemporary is Anna and the French Kiss! I can re-read this book a billion times and never get bored of it! :P

    Awesome post, Cait! ♥

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  15. Pretty Things and the Georgia Nicholson series were both on my list when I was a teen, as was Finding Cassie Crazy! I loved that book! Awesome list :)

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