I love to read, which is a big part of why I am an English major. I read a little of everything and can make it through basically any book, even if it is hard or boring. My teenage sister, on the other hand, is not exactly as excited by the prospect of choosing a new book as I am - while she doesn't necessarily hate it, she would much rather spend her time watching YouTube or Netflix than reading. Despite her slight lack of enthusiasm, I'm always happy to take her to my personal library and give some suggestions when it's time for her to choose a new novel. For this reason, I have decided to compile a list of books that I think would interest my sister, as well as anyone else in a similar boat. The picture of each book cover links to an Amazon page where the book can be purchased, just in case one catches your interest.

1. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

In this novel, four people - a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother - find themselves together on New Year's Eve on the roof of a building in London notorious for suicide. The story is conveyed through the first person narratives of each of the four main characters, telling the individual stories of their confronting choices, mortality, connections, regrets, and second chances. It's a funny, emotional, relatable, and hopeful take on the topic of suicide.

2. Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler

In this novel, the main character, a girl named Dusty, gets a phone call late at night while home alone from a mysterious boy who says he is dying and seems to have a connection to Dusty's missing brother. Soon she has been drawn in to the mystery of this boy and in forced to deal with the other people who are looking for the boy, including a violent man and his two goony sons, as well as the police. Throughout the story, Dusty finds herself in and out of trouble while continually sensing the presence of the elusive boy who could be the key to solving the greatest mystery of her life: what happened to her missing brother. It's an easy read and is interesting and fast-paced, which makes it very hard to put down.

3. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

This novel is set in South Carolina in the 1960s and tells the story of a young girl named Lily Owens, who has a cold father and a vague memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's black nanny, Rosaleen, insults three violent racists, Lily decides they should run away to Tiburon, South Carolina, a town that she believes may holds secrets to her mother's past. The two are taken in by three eccentric black beekeeping sisters, and Lily is introduced to a world of bees, love, and the Black Madonna. Focusing on themes like the power of women, this story of a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love is one of my favorite novels.

4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This novel follows the lives of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide during the occupation of France during World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris where he works at the Museum of Natural History. At age six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch, and at age twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, causing the two to flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo to live with a reclusive great-uncle, carrying with them what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. At the same time, the orphan Werner grows up in a mining town in Germany. He becomes enchanted by a crude radio he finds and quickly becomes an expert at building and fixing them, a talent that gets him into a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, and then a special assignment to track the resistance. The lives of these two characters are interwoven skillfully and serve to illuminate the many ways people try to be good to one another, even in the most tense of circumstances like war. This is an amazing novel with an interesting story presenting both sides of World War II from unique angles and is extremely well-written.

5. I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak

This novel follows Ed Kennedy, an underage cabdriver without much of a future who accidentally stops a bank robber, turning him into somewhat of a local hero. He is in love with his best friend, is terrible at playing cards even though he does it all the time, and is incredibly close to his coffee-drinking dog. This describes his mundane routine, until an ace arrives in the mail and Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping or hurting people based on the riddles he is given to solve. Throughout all of this, Ed is also trying to find out who is behind the mission he is given. Because the ending is a little confusing, I find it to be both frustrating and incredibly interesting, causing me to really like this novel. Overall, this book is filled with laughter, fists, lessons, and a little bit of love.

6. The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

In this novel, a sarcastic sixteen year old girl named Cam Cooper has spent a large portion of her life battling cancer. Although she has no desire to do so, her mother moves them 1,500 miles away from their home in Florida to Promise, Maine - a town known for the miraculous events that occur there, such as everlasting sunsets, purple dandelions, flamingos in the cold Atlantic. With the help of an elusive boy named Asher and a mysterious envelope containing a type of bucket list, Cam checks items off the list while learning to believe in important things like love, herself, and even miracles. This book balances humor with just enough romance, inviting readers both laugh and cry. I found the main character to be highly relatable and entertaining, and even though this is "a cancer book" it is very easy to forget this while reading, making this one of my favorite young adult novels ever.

7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

This novel follows a fifteen year old boy named Christopher, who is gifted with an extremely logical brain, but who struggles with everyday interactions and understanding human emotions. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. This all changes one day when a neighbor's dog is killed and Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the classic style of logical detective, Sherlock Holmes, finding that this mystery is actually much bigger than he first imagined. This book is funny, cute, thought-provoking, and, I believe, extremely worth reading.

8. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

This novel, a twist on the classic tale of Cinderella, is pretty different than the others on this list. It takes place in 16th century Holland and is told from the point of view of one of the beautiful Clara's ugly stepsisters, Iris. When Clara's father dies, she retreats to the cinders of the family hearth trying to forget her past, while Iris searches out the secrets of her new household and the treacherous truth of her earlier life. This refreshingly unique version of Cinderella goes far beyond a simple fairy tale, instead taking a realist perspective that examines themes of beauty, betrayal, illusion, and the unexpected places in which both deception and love may be discovered. This book may not seem like it is for everyone, but I believe it can be interesting an enriching for any reader.

9. Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick

In this book, a dutiful, athletic, and studious teenage girl named Nanette is given a worn copy of a mysterious, out-of-print cult classic novel, "The Bubblegum Reaper", from her favorite teacher, which causes her to become rebellious. She befriends the reclusive author of this novel, falls in love with a young and troubled poet who also loves the work, and searches for her true self and her place in the world, learning a lot about all of these things along the way. This book deals with themes like the price of rebellion, first love, the power of written word, and the beauty of the self. I like it because Nanette is easy to identify with, making her story feel like it's also a little bit yours, and the concept of a novel influencing life within a novel is really interesting, demonstrating the power of books in the real world.

10. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

This novel is a fast-paced, intricately plotted mystery. It takes place on a Nile River cruise and contains a wide cast of characters, including the rich, beautiful, smart, and newly-married Linnet Ridgeway. When Linnet Doyle is found murdered, her ex-best friend and husband's ex-fiancé, Jacqueline, is the immediate suspect, but she has a concrete alibi. Hercule Poirot, world-class detective featured in multiple Christie novels, must use his powers of deduction and observation to piece together the clues of Linnet's murder, as well as the other murders that quickly follow. All on board are suspects with many who have secrets they wish to keep hidden. Poirot takes readers through a confounding story of alibis, cover-ups, and misleading clues, that eventually makes sense. I love Agatha Christie novels and would recommend any of them, but this is definitely one of my absolute favorites. No one should be deterred by the fact that Agatha Christie's novels are older - they are truly timeless.

11. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Considered a classic, this novel follows Esther Greenwood, a beautiful, talented, and successful young woman, through the progressive deterioration of her mental and emotional state. Esther's breakdown is conveyed in such a way that her insanity becomes completely real, accessible, and even rational, making it a very emotional, honest, and poignant. Dealing with themes of metal illness, isolation, self-image, and healing, this novel is on this list because it allows many depressed or unstable individuals to strongly identify with Ester's struggle and many who love these individuals to better understand what it is like to feel the things they do.

12. Marcello in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

This novel follows a teenage boy with an unidentifiable form of autism that, among other things, causes Marcelo to hear music when no one else does. Because he attended a special school where the differences of all students are protected, Marcelo's father forces him to work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world" during the summer after his junior year. In the mailroom, Marcelo meets a beautiful coworker named Jasmine, as well as the son of another of the firm's partners named Wendell. In this new setting, Marcelo has to learn to handle feelings with which he has never before dealt, such as jealousy, anger, and desire, and through one particular case file becomes finally aware of the suffering and injustice found in the world. The innocence of the narrator is refreshing and pure, and the story he tells becomes the perfect combination of a love story, a legal drama, and a somewhat coming-of-age novel that ultimately promotes acceptance and doing what is right in the face of adversity.