She's read most of them but honestly isn't impressed with "our" selection. When pressed, she responded that her top choices on that list would be A Handmaid's Tale and Zinn's A People's History. LOTR's language is "too archaic" while Huck Finn's cultural language is "offensive" and of no value. She herself mentioned that while some of the plots and ideas may be interesting in the books listed above, she found the language and style to be too tedious in most of these and thought that "newer" books had a lot of the same great creativity and interesting ideas but with more "accessible" language.
So here's a 16 yr old girl's list...please note that she's raided a fair few of my books and co-opted them for her own. I occasionally still buy tangible books but most of my library is now digital so she doesn't "see" as many books anymore that may grab her attention like they would on a bookshelf. We own most of the books on your list Pretzel Warrior so she's had a chance to read them both at home and at school. She's a voracious reader and has never been censored. She's read everything and anything including the Bible! all the way to the Kama Sutra. She's currently reading Great Expectations ("blech"
for English class, just finished 1984 (again for class - her review was that it was "okay" but Handmaid's Tale was "better"
A Child is Born by Lennart Nilsson
Harry Potter for clever wit and the perfect depiction of a completely different world
The Hunger Games for a nuanced view of a post-Armegedden world
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (she loves Lat Am lit)
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
My Sister's Keeper for emotional wallop and ethical choices, and the power of a kid, by Jodi Picoult
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (she actually really like Walls and has read both her books)
anything by Neil Gaiman but especially the Graveyard Book
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The God Delusion by Dawkins.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (loves the movie too)
The Idiot's guide to Philosophy
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler
I'll add these to your original thread Pretzel Warrior but these are her recs, I literally typed this out as she pulled books from her bookshelf. She also added that its hard to "just" choose 25! (heh). She's the original autodidact so take it for what its worth.
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