Anybody know some good books?

[Colleen Kelly]

i'm all out of books to read this summer and i need some help. i've already read all of John's, Stephenie Meyer's, and Ellen Hopkin's books. i like books about stuff that could be real and most of the time the one's that grab me are about messed up kids or someone who dies (not emo books, though, just try and keep it like the one's by the authors i mentioned above). so, anybody have some recommendations?

there are also these two books i'm thinking about getting: Willow by Julie Hoban and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. are they any good?

[Colleen Kelly]

Marley & Me made me cry so hard in theatres! i'll probably cry again with the book. i actually read Flowers for Algernon in class, and it was pretty good.
i'm not exactly out, i've just got to finish these two books i'm reading (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Looking For Alaska for the second time) and then i'll be out. i'm an early planner, i guess! ^^

[Loryn (Flo) Lees]

Kevin Brooks is a good author and he has the whole troubled character going on but they're on the verge of emo.
Sarah Dessen has some really good books like Just Listen and This Lullaby.
Meg Cabot's Mediator Series is pretty good if you like ghostish stories and hot hispanic men...
Nora Roberts has some good stuff too but she's more for an older audience, and me...
Maureen Johnson, the one they always talk about is also a good author to read up on.

[Colleen Kelly]

i LOVED The Mediator! who doesn't love hot hispanic men, anyway? ;)

[TEH]

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonothan Safran Foer. Such a heartbreaking, beautiful book. It involves a crazy Ukranian town, and the Holocaust. He also wrote another book about a boy in New York City trying to cope with the death of his father in the World Trade Center Attacks called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that's quite fantastic.

[Virtue]

The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter good and there is totally a messed up kid as the protagonist. She gets into a really bad accident while riding the tractor on the farm where she lives. Her dad leaves and her mom hires a man from the mental health hospital to help out on the farm. It's a pretty straighforward read, but a good story about surviving and prejudice.

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell is about two boys who are friends and one of their father's kills the other's dad. The back says something like, "Haunted by a memory of human failure, an aging man recalls his friendship, as a boy, with a tenant farmer's son and forces himself and others to recall the causes of a bloody murder and its consequences."

Bronx Masquerade is also good, The Outsiders, Catcher in the Rye is a classic... that's all I can think of right now... good luck :)

[Ruhi]

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne was amazing, but so unbelievably sad at the ending. But i loved the book anyways.
A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson is easily one of my favorite books. Not sure if you would like it though, but i recommend it.
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith is another favorite of mine, but again, not sure if you would like it.
The Faerie Path series by Frewin Jones is excellent too. The first book is hard to get into, but the second made it easier and the third was easily the best!
Hope these help!

[Victoria]

I think EVERYBODY should read I Capture the Castle. It is amazing!

[Magical Me]

Thirteen Reasons Why................is like the best book EVER..................i totally recommend getting that book

i think you would like a book called Before I Die.............which is great............i liked it al lot

Also i love all of Sarah Dessens books................there Great...................but most of them are kinda repeative........

a random lady at Barnes and Nobles came up to me and said that a book called Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You.............................is really good............................its sounds Awesome...............but haven't read it yet..................if you read it..........tell me how it is...............

[Colleen Kelly]

lol okay then! =]
those all sound good, any more?

[Bryan R.]

harry potter...

[Lola]

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

about messed up kids: check
someone who dies: and check

it's a really good book

[Jessica]

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga, in my opinion excellent for fans of John Green, and it pretty much fits the description of messed up kids, if you don't mind many comic book references.

The Book Theif by Marcus Zusak, if no one's mentioned it already.

Hero by Perry Moore, a particularly brilliant gay novel.

Geography Club, The Order of the Poison Oak, Split Screen - Attack of the Soul-Sucking Zombies/Bride of the Soul-Sucking Zombies, Last Chance Texaco, and Grand & Humble by Brent Hartinger. Ok, these are all just the ones I read but still they're all awesome.

NEIL GAMAIN

And for a Twilighter, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. It's about werewolves who don't sparkle. And by the same author, Freaks: Alive on the Inside!