Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!

In this charming graphic memoir, twenty-two-year-old artist Lucy Knisley narrates her trip to France with her mother in photographs and drawings. Lucy is about to graduate from college, so her parents spring for the ultimate graduation present—a six week trip in the  spring of 2007 to Paris where she and her mother will stay in a rental apartment and sample all the City of Light has to offer. In many ways, this is a typical travel memoir—Lucy lists and draws her everyday experiences, including all the yummy French food she consumes (she estimates having eaten at least 60 croissants and a “metric ton of chocolate mousse” during her stay) and the rich, thick whole French milk she drinks constantly. But what makes this lil’ blue graphic novel special are the very intimate and emotional details of Lucy’s life that are tucked in and around all the sketches of museums and cafes. She unselfconsciously chronicles the fits of depression she falls into when she thinks about leaving the security of school behind, her lusty longings for her boyfriend, and all the times her mother gets on her last nerve. She confesses her doubts that she’ll ever make it as a cartoonist and shares her self-loathing about her “fat American feet” that don’t fit into the sleek European-sized shoes. Lucy is on the scary cusp of adulthood, and even the delights of Paris can’t ease those growing pains. Lucy’s antics will make you chuckle and sigh in recognition, especially if you’re living through that anxious time in your late teens or early twenties. And it was the perfect read for me, as I embark on my own first trip to Paris today! Because of the length of my stay and the jet lag I’m sure to suffer on my return, please don’t expect a new post from me until the end of the month. So au revoir mes amis until then!

Sarcastic, twenty-something amateur sleuth Madeline Dare, grown-up child of hippie parents, takes a job as a teacher at an elite, if fairly cult-ish private school for troubled teens. The head guru in charge, Santangelo, promises desperate parents results, no matter what technique he has to employ to get them, including isolation and humiliation. Madeline, who’s having nasty flashbacks about her own dad’s bizarre child-raising methods, is having serious doubts about whether she can continue to teach using Santangelo’s “unorthodox” techniques. Then, two of her fav students turn up dead and Madeline rejects the hypothesis that the kids offed themselves and instead begins to dig for evidence of corruption at the highest levels. Turns out that pseudo-suicides are the LEAST of what shady Santangelo has under his ridiculously pretentious opera cape. This bitterly funny mystery by Edgar Award-nominated author Cornelia Read has a great cast of teen characters, but the best voice is that of jaded, wickedly witty slacker sleuth Madeline Dare herself. This is one seriously dark comedic nailbiter.

Bec is a college student at loose ends. Not crazy about her advertising major, she’s successfully avoided deciding what to do with her life thus far by partying hard with her roommate and best friend Jill and carrying on a guilty affair with a married professor. Then, while looking for a new part-time job that pays more than waitressing, she answers an ad for a home health-care aide. Expecting a weak, bed-ridden old lady, Bec is surprised to find that wheelchair-confined Kate, afflicted with Lou Gehrig’s disease, is young, smart, and sophisticated, with a wicked sense of humor. Like this exchange: “‘Oh my god,’ I said embarrassed. ‘You think I’m like those TV movies where the person with the disease teaches everyone how to live.’ Kate laughed soundlessly. ‘It’s always so nice of us.’” When Bec begins working for Kate and her husband Evan, she discovers a whole new world of witty conversation, gourmet cooking, and urbane dinner parties. Soon Bec is so immersed in Kate’s life that it becomes difficult for her to distinguish where Kate’s life leaves off and her own begins. Kate is dying, but Bec’s life has just begun. Will she ever be able to establish her own identity and personality while under Kate’s charismatic shadow? This sharply observed novel, full of painful realizations, hilarious conversations and some of the best food descriptions I’ve ever read, perfectly captures that time in our early 20’s when our adult identities are beginning to form and we are so easily influenced by those around us whose personalities are set and stronger than our own.

Graphic novels are a format, not a genre. So even though these melancholy autobiographical short stories are told in illustrated panels, they really belong on my Slacker list. Kim pens short, poignant pieces about love, loss, fear and failing in your insecure twenties. Common experiences like living off of Raman noodles and regretting that crush that you never came clean to from high school will ring almost painfully true to the Gen X and Y crowd. Full of laughter tinged with sadness, Same Difference provides a pretty accurate window into that period of your life when you’re almost a grown-up, but not quite.

It’s the late 80’s/early 90’s in the pricey Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and Emma Harris’s rites of passage include securing the right jeans, (Guess?) jelly shoes (pink) and friends (Stephanie, NOT Katrina) While I hear that at the time of this review the 80’s are hot again (just take a gander at the Rainbow-Brite colored VH1 “I Love the 80’s” docu-series) I’m not quite sure that today’s teens will be into this spot-on rendering of 80’s adolescence. But if you’re into resurrecting leg-warmers, Esther’s (aka Madonna’s) virginity, and Boone’s Farm-induced make-out sessions, you will thoroughly enjoy meeting Sarah McCandless’s Grosse Pointe Girl. There’s also some great graphic illustrations of Emma’s suppressed suburban upbringing by Christine Norrie (And if you’re 30+ and reading this list, then I can safely guarantee you’ll love it!)

Ellie is a savvy, street-smart native New Yorker, and as she starts her freshman year at a art college in New England, she’s pretty sure she will find herself at the top of her painting class. After all, she’s been creating dark, brooding canvases for years, full of blood, gore and despair. Her stuff is deep, man. Which is why it comes as a surprise to discover that just because she CAN paint doesn’t mean she does it WELL. Ellie learns some tough life lessons as she navigates her way through her first year, and not only those that come by way of brush and canvas. She finds out a serious secret about her parents, discovers that her hip, hot artist b-friend is actually a cheating asshole, and hardest of all, that painting is about craft and creating, not just emoting. NPR writer, now novelist Frank has written a brilliant send-up of the art school world with a very real, very sincere heroine at its center. IMHO, the best debut novel of 2002.

Mirabella is just standing around at the fine glove counter at Neiman’s waiting for her life to begin. Ray Porter is a wealthy, world-weary businessman who is clueless about women. How these two meet and navigate their somewhat odd relationship is the basis for funnyman Steve Martin’s first stab at fiction. Full of wicked truth about male/female relationships, Shopgirl is short enough to finish over a latte at Starbucks while you’re waiting for your blind date to show up.

I haven’t read such a GOOD first book in a long time. A short novel, every word is precisely right and ideally placed–a small, perfect gem. Myrtle is a college sophomore who adores art and junk food in equal measure. Left to her own devices, she’d probably be okay with her bigger than average body image, if it wasn’t for her Calista Flockhart-skinny roommate Jada, who reminds her of her extra poundage on a daily basis. Jada’s constant offers to give her a make-over just make Myrtle feel worse, so she keeps feeding her face with lovely smooth whole milk and muffins dripping with real butter and strawberry jam.(By the way, the food descriptions in this book are absolutely mouth-watering!) Anyhoo, after a fairly humiliating experience where Jada and her boyfriend make Myrtle the butt of a very not-funny joke, Myrt takes back the power by using her big bod to inspire her artistically, and fully embraces her chubbiness. What a pleasure to read a book about weight that doesn’t end in a diet or anorexia. Myrtle just becomes happy with who she is and how she looks, and I say two thumbs up to that!!

At nineteen, David has decided he needs to have a big, life-altering experience that will change him forever. So, after very little research, he hooks up with Liz, a hottie he hopes to have a carnal knowledge of, and takes off for a three month backpacking trip across India. There, he discovers that India is extremely hot, crowded, and smelly, not the cool green paradise he imagined. He gets sick from the food, fights constantly with Liz (did I mention that she also happens to be his best friend’s girlfriend?) and almost loses his mind on a thirteen hour bus trip. But the real test comes when Liz ditches Dave after falling for a tantric yoga teacher, and he has to make it across the sub-continent alone. Can Dave deal with the “real” India experience? This book was so funny and so dead-on right about the lofty, P.C. attitude that western culture holds toward third world countries that my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. Talk about the selfishness and pretension of the X, Y, or whatever generation–this book is SO it.

Zachary Post is a bit of an a–hole. He’s a middling, middle-twenties article author at a glossy new York magazine who’s very ambitious, but not very talented. He lives in terminal paranoia of (3) things: that his famously forged resume is going to be found out and he’ll be out on his ear, that his two office girlfriends will discover he’s dating both of them, and that the new guy, Mark Larkin, will become Zack’s boss even though he’s even faker and smarmier than Zack (if that’s possible). So, Zack decides to kill him. Just kidding!–at first. Suddenly, it becomes shockingly easy to imagine ways that Mark Larkin could make his final exit. Zack quickly discovers that it’s not hard to be motivated when you’re planning the perfect crime! Quirky and mean-spirited, Slab Rat is the perfect twenty-something-office-drone-slacker novel, kind of like a really nasty Dilbert comic. Great reading for those days when your first-job boss is on the rampage and the copy machine has broken down for the gazillionth time.

Claudia’s job sucks. Instead of being a cool, edgy, famous writer, she’s an assistant to an old, fussy, famous writer (think Danielle Steel at 105) who makes her dig through trash when she loses stuff. Claudia also tends to drink too much, think too much, and mis-manage her over-drawn bank account on a regular basis. Her only solace is hanging out with her best friend William, but even that is beginning to go sour since Claudia thinks she may be in love with him. How much longer will Claudia be able to put off her landlord, lie to her boss and hide her attraction to William? This late 20’s chick is full of slacker angst and that makes gooooood readin’.

This author was suggested to me by very cool Young Adult book editor Sharyn November and I’m oh-so-glad she did because Stripping is super slacker fiction. In these short, short stories, you’ll meet Spike, a punker princess who’s obsessed with seeing Elvis’s bathroom, and Helen, a college freshman who falls hard in her philosophy class for a guy named Nietzsche. Too bad he’s too dead to appreciate it…all in all, this is an eclectic collection of strange stories, each one more weird and wonderful than the last.

Dave is yet another thirty-something guy who’s not ready to turn in his badge of boyhood for the dreaded threads of adult-dom. He’s a member of the Wishbones, a wedding band that rocks the greater New Jersey area. But Dave can’t rock and roll all night anymore since his long-time girlfriend Julie starts making noises that sound suspiciously like wedding bells. Suddenly Dave’s either got to go with the music and follow his dream of being a REAL rock star or marry Julie–neither of which sounds too appealing. So, he puts off his decision by having a steamy affair with this hip NYC poet Gretchen. Heads are gonna roll and guitar strings and hearts are gonna break before the end of this modern slacker classic. Don’t miss a rock-n-roll minute of it! Also, please note Perrotta is the man behind the steamy movie and novel Little Children, and the book/movie combo Election starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon.

Bennington Bloom isn’t your ordinary college co-ed. After all, most girls don’t pay their tuition turning tricks. But for Bennington, it’s the only way to pay her way and make the grade. A down and dirty, although not altogether unfunny portrait of a girl on the rocks in New York City. A sad, but touching novel of personal redemption.

At 31, it’s time for Mark, a poet performance artist, to grow-up, but he’s kicking and screaming all the way to adulthood. There’s always someone bigger and better and Mark’s tired of trying to stay on the top of the heap. So he takes a teaching sabbatical to a quiet Oregon college, only to realize that he hasn’t left his bad habits behind, but that they have hopped on the plane and come with him. If you liked the Gen-X reads of Douglas Coupland, you’ll love Exile.

David, Courtney, Jennifer and Mary all just want to get a life. But something always gets in the way, whether its a burned-out apartment or a car-trunk full of the best weed that can be grown north of Portland. Shuttling between Portland and New York, Bongwater examines the slacker lifestyle with a microscope and finds more than you’d expect.