Fantasy/Magical Realism
Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris
Deerskin – Robin McKinley
The Dresden Files – Jim Butcher
Mogworld – Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (Also check out his weekly video game review, Zero Punctuation, if you’re into that kind of thing)
Moon Called – Patricia Briggs (Ignore trashy cover. These books are friggin amazing!)
Young Adult Fantasy/Magical Realism
A Great and Terrible Beauty – Libba Bray
Alanna – Tamora Pierce (Anything she’s written is amazing. You should really check it out)
The Child Thief – Brom (Only for those who are not squeamish. Wasn’t even sure this belongs in Young Adult. Could be Adult. Certainly harrowing and dark enough.)
Croak – Gina Damico
Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine (Unfortunately this is the only version Amazon sells. I’m sure you can find a less terrible cover elsewhere. Don’t see the movie. Especially if you’ve read the book. It’s just depressing.)
Eon – Alison Goodman
The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman
The Lives of Christopher Chant and Charmed Life – Diana Wynne Jones (These are the first two books in a quartet, but I like them the most, and it doesn’t really matter which order you read them in. If you read them both, you’ll figure out why.)
Raised by Wolves – Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Wicked Lovely and Graveminder – Melissa Marr (Graveminder might not be so Young Adult, but whatever)
Young Adult Fiction
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging – Louise Rennison
Crank – Ellen Hopkins
It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Be More Chill – Ned Vizzini (Be More Chill has some Science Fiction elements)
Openly Straight – Bill Konigsberg
The Outsiders – S. E. Hinton
Paper Towns – John Green
Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson
Science Fiction
Feed – M. T. Anderson
The Host – Stephenie Meyer (Yes, I know. Just do it.)
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins (Yes, I know everyone and their mother read and recommended these books, but there’s a reason for that!)
John Dies at the End – David Wong
Unwind – Neal Shusterman
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
Non-Fiction/Realistic Fiction
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier – Ishmael Beah
Bossypants – Tina Fey
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery
The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
The Hours – Michael Cunningham
The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros
I Am America (And So Can You) – Stephen Colbert
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky (No, I don’t know how to pronounce his last name. “Lobster”? No, that’s not quite right…)
Salaam Brick Lane – Tarquin Hall
Shrill – Lindy West
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand
When You Are Engulfed in Flames – David Sedaris
Middle Grade Literature (That you should still totally read!)
George – Alex Gino
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (The only book of Gaiman’s I like so far, of the three I’ve read. Coraline and Stardust were the other two.)
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles – Julie Andrews
The Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan
The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom – Louis Sachar
Potato Lady Blogs 